UNBELIEVABLE!

It has been claimed, even by serious Bible academics, that the resurrection of Jesus was a sort of wish projection/ hallucination on the part of the early Christians. In other words, they so badly wanted it to be true that their imaginations ran away with them until they actually believed it.

And, despite all the evidence, some Bible “scholars” like to think that the “truth” about Jesus was gradually added to and distorted by faithful believers, until the “legend” of the resurrection finally became established as fact, maybe in the second or third century AD. (By the way, 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 completely refutes this theory.)

Lots of theories have been suggested to explain away the resurrection of Jesus, all of them starting with the assumption that the Gospel version of what happened is UNBELIEVABLE.

I love the fact that the Gospel writers were so honest about their own initial reluctance to believe. Consider Mark 16:9-14.

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.”

Clearly, this was no wish projection. The first disciples found it extremely hard to believe, as do many skeptics even today.

The testimony of those who have met Jesus doesn’t make other people automatically believe.  When the evidence mounts up sufficiently, some people will flick the switch inside from unbelief to belief, but others, like Thomas, will not believe until they experience the risen Jesus for themselves.

God Himself has purposed that believing is always a choice.  He could easily force men, women and children to admit that He is real, and therefore that Jesus is the only way to eternal life, but that’s not His way.  He gives us the choice to believe but the choice will not last forever.  The Bible clearly warns that Jesus will return to reward those who believe and rebuke those who have, right to the end, refused.