A guy who once wrote a book about destiny made the statement, "As a scientist, I've got two questions: Has anybody ever defeated death and, if so, did he fix it so I could too?"

The obvious answer is there is someone who faced death, defeated it and made a way for everyone else to do the same. It's Jesus Christ.

The historically proven reality of the resurrection is the foundation Christianity is built on.

As my pastor, Richard Jordan (Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.), points out, Christianity expects a person to believe certain indisputable facts:

*Jesus Christ lived

*He was a real person

*He was charged by Jewish leaders and crucified at the hands of Roman authorities

*He died

*He was buried in a known, accessible tomb

*He was then preached as risen

*The leaders of His nation were concerned with disposing of the message that He was resurrected, so they persecuted the people who preached it

*The empty tomb, though, belied all their efforts

"That simple fact of the empty tomb is the central fact of the Christian faith," says Jordan in a study I have on tape. "It's a fact that can be demonstrated to a historical certainty."

People, as Jordan says, will tell you you can't prove the resurrection scientifically, but there's a lot of things in life you can't prove scientifically.

"The scientific method is a method of replicable events," he explains. "It's science if you have something you observe, and you make a statement of it, and then others can come along and replicate the event. But there are a lot of things where you don't do that."

Felons convicted in courts of law for murder, for example, are not convicted on science. They're convicted on historical evidences—the evidences which demonstrate something happened historically, in time, and jurors are pressed to a decision, or a conclusion.

Individuals are forced to a conclusion based on the evidence. Whether you want to make a conclusion or not, the evidence demands that you come to a verdict.

"People who reject the resurrection do what's called 'circular reasoning,' " says Jordan. "They start off with, 'The resurrection can't happen. It's impossible because I know it is.' You just begin with an assumption. And when you begin with an assumption, that assumption says everything else you're going to say."

The reasoning goes on, "It's impossible for someone to be resurrected, therefore the resurrection didn't happen. How do I know that? because it's impossible for somebody to be raised. Therefore, since it didn't happen, because it's impossible, it can't happen.

Therefore, anybody who says it did happen is a liar, or a nut, and it's just a myth. How do I know it's a myth? Well, because the resurrection can't happen. Therefore, the resurrection didn't happen. Therefore, it's just a myth. You say why didn't it happen? Because it's a myth. We know it's a myth because the resurrection can't happen. It can't happen, therefore it didn't happen, therefore any book that says it did is just to be dismissed out of hand and not even considered as being anything factual. Why? Because the resurrection can't happen. . . ."

"You see how you just go 'cuckoo-cuckoo, cuckoo,' 'round and 'round?" says Jordan. "That's circular reasoning. The problem is the first statement you make is wrong and if you can demonstrate that statement is invalid, what do you do with the rest of it? It invalidates the whole circular reasoning."

In a article appearing in Christianity Today magazine last year, one of the world's leading philosophical atheists of 50 years revealed that in the last four years he's become a Deist. While he says he doesn't know if the Christian God is God, the only God worth really believing in would be the God of the Christians based on the resurrection.

This atheist, by the way, said he decided there is a God based on the scientific evidence about design. If there's a design, there's a designer. And the intricacy of design furnishes objective historic empirical evidence of a designer because chance, scientifically, simply does not allow for design.

In Jordan's study, he detailed several bogus theories that have circulated through the years to try and dismiss the resurrection of Christ.

One of them, revisited in a Time magazine article from a year or so ago, is called the "swoon theory," and was developed by an Italian guy in the 1600s.

In essence, it says Jesus didn't really die on the Cross, but that He just went into a coma.

"He passed out and went into an almost death-like coma, and when they put him into the cool tomb, the cool rock—after a night or two in that cool tomb—He revived and walked over and kicked the rock down and got out," explains Jordan. "That is so absurd. You'd have to be some nut to believe that He's not dead. The women who brought the spices and Joseph of Arimathaea and all—they say they brought about 50 pounds of spices to embalm His body. They thought He was dead. Besides that, the Roman soldier thought He was dead."

Mark 15 makes clear the Roman soldier who saw Christ die thought He was dead. The passage reads,

"And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
"And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
"And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
"And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid."

"Who do you know who would know more about killing somebody than a Roman soldier?" says Jordan. "You reckon a Roman soldier would be a good person to identify a dead man? If you go back to verse 39, you read, 'And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.' There's the centurion who watched him die."

By the way, it says in John 19:32-33 that while the men crucified with Christ had their legs broken by the soldiers to complete their death, Christ's legs were not broken because they "saw that he was dead already."

"To believe the 'swoon theory,' you've got to believe that the official in charge of the execution went in and reported to his boss—his ruler, Pilate—that Christ was dead without making dead-sure He was dead," says Jordan. "That's absurd. Besides, he stuck him in the side with a spear. I mean, here's Christ laying in the tomb. He isn't really dead. He's been beaten to a pulp. He was so weak He couldn't even carry His own cross. He's got the wounds now of Calvary. He's got the stab in the side. He's got all these spices on Him. They've got Him rolled up in the shroud, and He gets himself out of the clothes, unwraps Himself somehow, then wraps them all back up. He get ups, goes over, pushes the stone out of the way, goes outside, overpowers the guards, and then walks to Emmaus. Emmaus was seven miles away. He took a seven-mile hike. None of that makes any sense when you think about it."

For those who like to argue, "Well, they didn't really bury Him; if the tomb was empty, maybe they didn't really put Him in the tomb," Jordan responds, "Then why did they seal it, and why did they post the guards there? You reckon those guards, when they rolled that stone against the tomb, didn't look in to see if anybody was in there? That makes absolutely no sense. And besides, why didn't they go find His body and produce it? That's the real problem."

Other people will say, "Well, it's really just a hallucination. People wanted to see Him—they wanted Him to be resurrected so badly—they just hallucinated and there He was in their presence."

An equally ludicrous theory says Christ had a twin brother who didn't arrive on the scene until after the crucifixion, and everyone was so excited they believed it was Jesus.

"But how do you explain that this new guy can walk through a wall?" says Jordan. "Or go out and command fishes to come in and get in the net? Or appear and disappear at will. How do you explain all that? That's kind of hard to do when you're an imitation. The real problem in the resurrection for those who don't want to believe in it is, where's the body? What happened to the body? Why's the tomb empty?"

One idea is that the men went to the wrong tomb. For this one, Jordan reasons, "Well, if they went to the wrong one, why didn't the Jewish authorities just go to the right one?! When you begin to cross-examine and of this stuff, it falls apart."

A more logical explanation would be that Christ's followers stole the body and this is precisely why Matthew includes this account from Matt. 27:62-66:

"Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
"Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
"Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.
"Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
"So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch."

Jordan reasons, "Frankly, the stealing of the body is the first thing you would think of, and they were already afraid of that happening, so they took the guards and set them on the tomb. That's why they put the stone over the thing, sealed the thing, and got the guards there so no one could steal his body."

The Book of Matthew was written some 10 years or so after Christ's resurrection and so, in Chapter 28, it even makes reference to the fact that the stealing of the body "is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." The chapter gives the account of how the "stolen body" story got started and was propagated.

"In 160 A.D., Justin Martyr, one of the early church fathers, gives account that the Jews even in the 2^nd Century were still saying that what happened to Jesus Christ is His disciples stole the body, so this story got legs and took root among the Jewish community as the explanation," says Jordan. "But when you read it, it itself—which is the most logical explanation you could find, I suppose, for the absence of the body—is so absurd that the very lie of the enemy of the resurrection really proves the historical nature of the resurrection. There are things that are incontrovertible."

Acts 1:3 says Christ "shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs." The proofs include eyewitness accounts from people who talked to Him and even held Him. He had 500 brethren at once who saw Him. Evidences abound that He was alive for more than a 40-day period. There are people who even watched Him ascend back into heaven.

At the beginning of Matthew 28, it reports Mary Magdalene "and the other Mary" went to the sepulchre and beheld "there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men."

Of this passage, Jordan explains, "These soldiers that are around the tomb there, that are keeping it, they see the angel show up. They experience the earthquake, they watch him roll away the stone, they see his dazzling countenance, and when they saw and knew what happened, it put them out. They fainted."

In verse 11, the two Marys are in the process of returning to tell the disciples, when it says "some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done." In other words, the soldiers knew what transpired, and so while some of them stayed behind to mind the crime scene, others went into the city to report the events to their commanders.

"They go in and tell them, 'Hey, something supernatural just happened out there in the graveyard. This angel showed up, rolled the stone away, and when he did, there was this big earthquake, and the body's gone,' " says Jordan.

Verse 12-15 goes on to report, "And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
"Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
"And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
"So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."

When the elders of Israel, or the religious leaders, heard the news of Christ's miraculous disappearance they called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

"They took this thing seriously and it says they took counsel; that is, they passed a resolution," Jordan explains. "Think about how you get a meeting like that called on such short order? These guys were watching, they were fearful of what was going to happen, and they called a meeting together. They're going to take official action to cover this thing up. It says they gave big amounts of money to the soldiers. What do you call that when you give someone money to get them to say what you want them to say? Bribery. Do you bribe people to tell the truth? They didn't have to give Judas but 30 pieces of silver to get him to betray Christ. They've got to give these soldiers a lot more than that."

The leaders of Israel knew something supernatural had happened, but they weren't interested in investigating it because they had already made up their minds to reject Christ. They stood at the Cross, for example, and said, "Let him come down from the cross and we'll believe on him."

"They were a bunch of liars," says Jordan. "He could have come down from the cross and they wouldn't have believed on him. He came out of the grave and they didn't believe in him. You remember that rich man in hell, he told Abraham, 'Send Lazarus that he might talk to my brothers and tell them about this place so they won't come here' and Abraham replied, 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' The religious leaders of Israel had long before rejected the truth of God's Word. Consequently, when one rose from the dead, they weren't interested in believing it."

So they bribed the soldiers with money, telling them, "Here's what you say, guys: 'His disciples came by and stole him away while we slept.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him."

Jordan explains, "The first thing these soldiers are saying is, 'Hey, when the general hears about this, we're going to be in trouble.' Why? Well they shouldn't have been asleep, should they?

"Isn't it a little teeny bit embarrassing? Do you think they would get into trouble, as soldiers, if they lose their prisoner? Especially if he's dead? I mean, how much trouble is it to keep up with a dead guy? And all of his friends out there, they're not a bunch of real high-powered, 'go-get-'em' guys. They're a bunch of depressed, demoralized, fear-stricken fishermen holed up in an upper room somewhere. They're not really on the march and besides, it says they did it while they were asleep.

"When you have a contingency of soldiers, the night is divided into four watches. And all of the soldiers wouldn't sleep at the same time. They probably wouldn't sleep at all because they were on alert. They were told, 'You be on the ball because his disciples might come and steal the body,' but even if they were sleeping, they would sleep in a rotation."

As Jordan points out, if you go into your boss and say, "We lost the body because we were asleep," that's not going to do well for you. So the bribing leaders of Israel said, "Look, if you get into trouble with the governor because this story just won't fly, we'll take care of you. We got an 'in' with him and we'll make sure he doesn't bother you—we'll secure you."

The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told, but the absurdity of their fake account explaining the fact of the empty tomb could not be dismissed.

"Think about what you're talking about," says Jordan. "You're talking about a bunch of disciples who are depressed, they've deserted Christ, and they're supposed to come over and whip up on some Roman soldiers. I don't think so. That doesn't make good sense."

For those who want to argue, "Well, but they were sneaky; they just sneaked in and stole the body away," Jordan responds, "You remember in John how it says those linen clothes were unwrapped? They're literally in the convolutions of His body; they're not like He just stepped out of them.

"If you were being sneaky, not letting the Roman soldiers catch you, why would you spend time in such a ticklish moment to unwrap the body? I mean why would you unwrap the body anyway? The grave clothes would be worth more than a dead body. You unwrap the body and throw a naked man's body over your shoulder and sneak out? That's absurd."

Another huge hole to the fabricated story is in having the soldiers say they were asleep when the disciples stole the body. How would you know this was the case if you were asleep? You wouldn't know anything that went on.

Just as big of a problem with the story is that on the morning of the resurrection, the disciples didn't know Christ was going to rise from the dead. They didn't have Scripture yet to tell them this. So, if they didn't expect Him to rise from the dead, why in the world would they have gone and stole His body and falsified a resurrection they didn't know was supposed to happen?

In Luke 24:11, it even says that the word the apostles initially received from the two Marys about Christ's resurrection "seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not." So if the apostles didn't believe the report when they heard it, it doesn't make sense that before that they would have gone and stole His body and falsified the resurrection.

"When you cross-examine the story, it helps you to see that the absence of the body was such a problem that they were willing to make up such an absurd account and peddle it off because they couldn't afford for it to be true," says Jordan. "Therefore, 'It isn't true and anybody who says it is, is a liar, because we can't afford it to be true.' "

Bottom line, the facts force you to a conclusion based on the evidence that the resurrection is a fact. It's an historical certainty.

"If you were to go into a court of law, it would be using the laws of authenticity," says Jordan. "For example, say you got up tomorrow morning and your car was stolen out of your driveway. Well, you can't scientifically prove that that event took place. That isn't how you prove it. You prove it with the laws of authenticity. The way you demonstrate you own the car is you have an historical record—a bill of sale. You have historical evidences that demonstrate you own the car, that the car was in the driveway, and that now the car isn't in the driveway, and so forth. You authenticate the event as taking place."

Once you know the event of the resurrection took place, the question then becomes what meaning is to be attributed to it? For this, the one who was resurrected gives us ample answers.

Christ tells us through the Apostle Paul that He died as a payment for all our sins—past, present and future. Paul says Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

"When He says He's "delivered for our offences,' that means He put away our sin debt completely and totally," says Jordan. "It had to be completely put away by His death or He could not have been resurrected. Death would have held him because that's the wages of sin."

When Jesus Christ said on the Cross, "It is finished," He was referring to this complete payment of sin and His resurrection is sort of the like the receipt that says, "Paid In Full."

Because of Christ's resurrection, He is not only able to forgive us of our sins, He's able to live His life in us and through us day-by-day as we walk by faith in His Word.

The resurrection is also the means by which Christ won the capacity to judge men in righteousness. Since He's the only person who ever dealt with sin and death completely, He's won the right to be the possessor of life. He can not only save and sustain the Believer, He can judge those who reject Him.

As Acts 17:31 states, "Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead."

This is why there are people who want to say the resurrection can't be true. They don't want God holding them accountable. They don't want Him to be the one they have to answer to.