Fact a Day: April 12th

Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection (Harvest House, 1996) p. 22-23

How do the extent and nature of the resurrection appearances prove Jesus rose from the dead?

In the Gospels, we find 12 separate appearances of the resurrected Christ between the period of Easter morning and His ascension 40 days later, although there were undoubtedly more. These include Christ being seen by over 500 people at least once, to the apostles several times, and at various times to other disciples as well. As theologian Michael Green observes: “The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity…. There can be no rational doubt that they occurred, and that the main reason why Christians became sure of the resurrection in the earliest days was just this. They could say with assurance, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ They knew it was he.”* Dr. William Lane Craig comments, “Indeed, so strong is the evidence for these appearances that Wolfhart Pannenberg, perhaps the world’s greatest living systematic theologian, has rocked modern, skeptical German theology by building his entire theology precisely on the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus as supplied in Paul’s list of appearances.”*…

There is considerable variety concerning the circumstances, time, place, and individuals to whom Christ appeared. He appeared to women, men, groups, individuals; He appeared by an open lake, on a mountain, on the road, in the upper room with locked doors, in the country, in town, and on a hillside. Jesus did not appear just once to one person or one group of persons at one time, but to individuals and groups at different times and different locations.

*For documentation, see Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection.