Alive - by Dave Smith

wrong tomb. The Gospel writers are quite clear that Mary and the
others saw where Jesus was buried. If they had got the wrong tomb,
then surely those who had buried him, Joseph and Nicodemus, could
have corrected this. Perhaps most compelling is the fact that this all
took place in Jerusalem, where the Christian Church first exploded
into life: there is no evidence of the early Christians venerating the
tomb of their now dead leader, or of their opponents proving that he
was still in the tomb. Writer William Lane Craig puts forward ten
considerations for the empty tomb, which together provide ‘evidence
that the tomb of Jesus was actually found empty on Sunday morning
by a small group of his women followers. As a plain historical fact this
seems amply attested.’ He adds: ‘we know that most alternative
explanations for the empty tomb are more incredible than the
resurrection itself’. 10
FACT 4: JESUS ‘APPEARED’ TO HIS
DISCIPLES
The New Testament documents provide compelling evidence that,
starting on Easter Sunday morning and continuing for the next 40
days, hundreds of Jesus’ followers, on at least eleven separate
occasions, claimed to have seen him alive from the dead. One
scholar, Peter Williams, has summarised how Jesus appeared:
• In Judea and in Galilee
• In town and countryside
• Indoors and outdoors
• In the morning and the evening
• By prior appointment and without prior appointment
• Close and distant
• On a hill and by a lake