Fact a Day: April 3rd

Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection (Harvest House, 1996) p. 6

Did Jesus clearly claim He would rise from the dead?

The first fact to establish is that Jesus Christ truly claimed He would rise from the dead. There must be no mistaking His claim, because it is unique in all history. No one else ever made such claims because no sane or rational person would dare do so. Only a small handful of self-deceived men have ever even suggested they might actually rise physically from the dead—and their claims were eventually proven false. So no one in human history did what Jesus did. He repeatedly and publicly predicted His death and resurrection, not only giving the specific manner of His death, but also the specific day of His resurrection. Think about this.

Who else in all human history ever repeatedly announced He would come back from the dead? Who else predicted He would do so on a very specific day—the third day after His death? In the field of comparative religion, this immediately places Christianity in the position of uniqueness.