Resource Highlight: Jesus’s Death and Resurrection

The events of Holy Week (Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday) form the backbone of Christian doctrine. In 1 Corinthians 15:14–19, the Apostle Paul points out the Resurrection’s vital importance to Christianity:

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

With so much riding on the truth of Jesus’s return from the dead, how can we know that this extraordinary event actually happened? Reasons To Believe theologian Kenneth Samples addresses questions concerning Christ’s death and resurrection in these resources:

Articles

• “Addressing Resurrection Alternatives” (article series)
  o Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
• “If Christ Has Not Been Raised: Reasoning through the Resurrection”
• “Christianity’s Dangerous Ideas”

Podcasts

• “Resurrection” (podcast series) from Straight Thinking
  o “What’s the Story?”
  o “Defining the Term”
  o “What’s the Historical Evidence?”
  o “Criteria for Judging Good Explanatory Hypotheses”
  o “Critical Evaluation of Naturalistic Explanations, Part 1”
  o “Critical Evaluation of Naturalistic Explanations, Part 2”
  o “Critical Evaluation of Naturalistic Explanations, Part 3”
  o “Humanity’s Greatest Hope”
• “Death and Resurrection” from Straight Thinking (episode #23)—addressing listener responses to the “Resurrection” podcast series

Books

• Without a Doubt (book)
• 7 Truths that Changed the World (book)