Tim Keller, on the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
It is not enough for the skeptic, then, to simply dismiss the Christian teaching about the resurrection of Jesus by saying, “It just couldn’t have happened.” He or she must face and answer all these historical questions:
- Why did Christianity emerge so rapidly, with such power?
- No other band of messianic followers in that era concluded their leader was raised from the dead—why did this group do so?
- No group of Jews ever worshipped a human being as God. What led them to do it?
- Jews did not believe in divine men or individual resurrections. What changed their worldview virtually overnight?
- How do you account for the hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection who lived on for decades and publicly maintained their testimony, eventually giving their lives for their belief?
– The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, 218-219