 Contents
Introduction
Imagine living as a Christian only to discover that there is no such
person and there is no such thing as eternal life. Very little will have
been lost and quite a few advantages gained in this life. On the other
hand, if a disbeliever dies and discovers that Jesus exists, then they
will have lost their only hope for eternal life. This line of thought
has been used as a justification for belief, but the Apostle Paul frames
the issue in a much more definite manner:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 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 to be pitied more than all men.1 Corinthians 15:13-19, NIV
Paul's words make it plain that the Christian faith must be based on a
strong belief that Jesus existed and that he rose from death after
crucifixion.
The objective of this article is to provide you with a
reason to believe that this is actually the case, and if this can be
done, to encourage you to accept Jesus' offer of eternal life. It covers
such aspects as the existence of Jesus as a person,
considering references to him from sources other than the Bible. Old
Testament prophecies relating to Jesus are drawn upon to show that the
life of Jesus was accurately predicted many hundreds of years before he
existed. Arguments are presented to demonstrate that it would be
impossible to add these prophecies to the Old Testament after the
event. Separate accounts from various New Testament authors that
coincidentally support each other are highlighted. The life of Joseph
(of coloured coat fame) is parallelled to Jesus to show the close
alignment between the events in their lives. Finally, the accounts of
those who claim to have seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion are
quoted, and their motives for making such a claim are considered.
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This article was written by Peter Hall. He can be contacted at
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