Pints With Aquinas - 53: Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, episode 53. I'm Matt Fradd. If you could sit down over a pint of beer with St. Thomas Aquinas and ask him any one question, what would it be? Today we're going to ask St. Thomas about the Resurrection. Why did Christ rise from the dead? And then I'll share a little bit about how we can show that that actually happened thanks for thanks for being back here binds with aquinas the show where you and i pull up a barstool i know it sounds like i've been in the bar for a while, doesn't it? Drinking heavily.

Starting point is 00:00:47 I promise I haven't. Where you and I pull up a barstool next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. Happy Easter. Jesus Christ has risen. He has risen indeed. Here's what I want to do in today's show. Indeed. Here's what I want to do in today's show. I want to look at something Aquinas wrote in the Summa Theologiae in the third part, question 53, regarding the resurrection of Christ. St. Thomas gives us five reasons that Christ rose from the dead. Now, Aquinas doesn't engage in much of an apologetic as to if Christ rose from

Starting point is 00:01:30 the dead and how we can show that that's true. But since I'm sure that's something you're all very interested in, especially around this time of year, I thought I would talk about it. So how does that sound? When I talk about it, I'm going to be drawing from three sources, FYI. I'll be drawing from the work of William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and my friend Trent Horn. So it's going to be a fun show, interesting show, and I think we're going to learn a lot. So here we go. Let's first take a look at the five reasons Aquinas gives Christ had to rise from the dead. This is Article 1, Question 53 in the third part of the Summa Theologiae. Whether it was necessary for Christ to rise again. Here's what Aquinas says. Now, bear with me. This will probably take about two minutes to read through this, but pay attention because it is Thomas Aquinas after all.

Starting point is 00:02:27 He says, it is written, it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead. That's from Luke 24, 46. I answer that it behooved Christ to rise again for five reasons. again for five reasons. First of all, for the commendation of divine justice, to which it belongs to exalt them who humble themselves for God's sake, according to Luke 1.52, he hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble. Consequently, because Christ humbled himself, even to the death of the cross, from love and obedience to God, it behooved him to be uplifted by God to a glorious resurrection. Hence, it is said in his person, and this is from Psalm 138 verse 2, Thou hast known, that is, approved my sitting down, that is is my humiliation and passion, and my rising up,

Starting point is 00:03:27 my glorification in the resurrection, as a gloss expounds. So that's the first reason. Here's the second reason Aquinas gives that it behooved Christ to rise again. For our instruction in the faith. Since our belief in Christ's Godhead is confirmed by his rising again. Because according to 2 Corinthians 13.4, although he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. And therefore it is written in 1 Corinthians 15.14, if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and our faith is also vain. And Psalm 29, 10, what profit is there in my blood, that is, in the shedding of my blood, while I go down, as by various degrees of evil, into corruption? As though he were to answer, None! For if I do not at once rise again, but my body be corrupted, I shall preach to no one,

Starting point is 00:04:43 I shall gain no one, as the gloss expounds. Here's the third reason Aquinas gives. He says, thirdly, for the raising of our hope, since through seeing Christ who is our head rise again, we hope that we likewise shall rise again. Hence, it is written in 1 Corinthians 15.12, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And Job chapter 19 says, I know, that is with certainty of faith, that my Redeemer, that is Christ, liveth, having risen from the dead, and therefore in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. This my hope is laid up in my bosom. Here's the fourth reason Aquinas gives for why Christ rose from the dead. He did so to set in order the lives of the faithful, according to Romans 6.4, as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father,

Starting point is 00:05:48 As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. And further on, Christ rising from the dead dieth now no more. So do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive to God? And here's the fifth and final reason Aquinas gives. In order to complete the work of salvation. Because just as for this reason did he endure evil things in dying that he might deliver us from evil, so was he glorified in rising again in order to advance us towards good things. According to Romans 4.25, he was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification. All right, we're going to take a look here at some reasons to think that Christ

Starting point is 00:06:35 actually did rise from the dead and that this just isn't a cute little story that we tell our kids on Easter. By the way, how was your Easter? My Easter was amazing. I was in Dallas, and I was in Dallas because I was attending a friend's funeral in Houston. So, not happy circumstances, although it was a beautiful death in the sense that Katie Garcia, for those of you who might know her, was a beautiful, faithful woman, and her husband is a beautiful man. So, it was a wonderful witness of their faith in Christ. But, yeah, while I was in Dallas, I went to Byzantine Catholic Church, and it's the first time I have ever been to a Byzantine Easter Sunday liturgy. Now, you may have seen me post about this on

Starting point is 00:07:26 Instagram and Twitter, but it was absolutely wild, like wild, wild. There's this beautiful line that's repeated over and over in the liturgy, you know, Christ has trampled death by death. And at this particular parish, every time we as a congregation said trampled, we stomped both of our feet. So you've got people stomping their feet. We're all holding candles. The deacon is walking around the perimeter of the church shouting, not saying, shouting, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And then we respond, indeed, he is truly risen. It was amazing. It was the most festive liturgy I've ever been to in my life. I mean, just tremendous joy.

Starting point is 00:08:12 There was a few times that I teared up as the reality of what Christ did for me on the cross and by his resurrection did, you know, for us. But again, so festive. Honestly, I said in this Instagram post, if someone brought out a tray of vodka, I'm like, all right, we're all doing shots. I'd be like, that makes sense. It was powerful. Oh, before we get into these reasons for Christ's resurrection and why we can make an argument for it, I also want to let y'all know that I'm hugely thankful for those of you who've supported me on Patreon. Patreon, for those of you who aren't aware, is a way of supporting people like myself who are trying to produce good content for your benefit. It takes a lot of time out of my day to do these sorts of things. I hope they bless you. If you want to donate as little as $2 a month, $5 a month, $20 a month, go to pintswithaquinas.com, click the Patreon banner, and you can support.

Starting point is 00:09:11 Well, I've just started this new thing, which I'm really pumped about. I've started this new podcast, but it's only available for those who support me on Patreon. And basically what it is, is it is a hundred of the most essential thinkers in the history of philosophy. And so I actually go through Western philosophy chronologically, and every podcast revolves around one of those essential thinkers. Now, as of today, I think I've only done like three. It's going to take a long time to get through them all, but you can have access to that. You can have access to a whole other lot of stuff. So, huge thanks to everyone who is supporting Pints with Aquinas on Patreon. If you haven't done that yet, please think about doing that. Go to, again, pintswithaquinas.com, click the Patreon banner today, and that's how you can support it.

Starting point is 00:10:04 Aquinas.com, click the Patreon banner today, and that's how you can support it. All right. Now, when it comes to the resurrection of Christ, you might be tempted to think that it has only to do with one's faith in the resurrection and that one can't really make an argument for it. But in the short time we have left, I'd like to begin to show you why that isn't true. So, as I mentioned a moment ago, I'll be drawing on the work of William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and a little bit from Trent Horn. If you've seen any of William Lane Craig's debates or have read anything of Gary Habermas or have heard him, some of this is going to sound very

Starting point is 00:10:43 familiar. So, you know, the analogies that I might come up with don't belong to me. So, you know, don't give me the credit. It's these guys. But basically, one way of showing that the resurrection of Christ is a reasonable thing to believe is by pointing to the events surrounding the death of our Lord that almost everyone, including skeptics, agree are historical, and then showing that, okay, the best explanation for the disciples saying that Christ rose from the dead is actually that he rose from the dead. rose from the dead is actually that he rose from the dead. So to give an example of what I mean when I say, you know, skeptics and others, you know, scholars who don't think that the Bible is the word of God, you know, they're not saying that the whole thing was made up, all right? You know, they do acknowledge that there are historical truths present in it. So, for example, scholar John Dominic Crossan, he denies that Jesus rose from the dead, but he says that the fact that he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can be.

Starting point is 00:12:04 is as sure as anything historical can be. Similarly, the atheist New Testament scholar, yes, there are atheist New Testament scholars, Jared Ludeman says that, quote, it may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus' death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ. Now, does that mean Ludeman thinks that Christ actually rose from the dead?

Starting point is 00:12:31 No, he actually thinks they were hallucinating, right? But he does think that the apostles were sincere in saying they had these experiences of Christ and so forth. They had these experiences of Christ and so forth. So by pointing to, as I say, these situations, these events that surrounded Jesus' death, we can begin to make an argument for why the resurrection of Christ is the most plausible explanation. So as we take a look at these different theories that have been put forward to explain these particular facts, we'll see that only one theory can explain these events. What do I mean by events? Well, let's just look at four of them. just look at four of them, okay? And again, these are things that virtually, you know, all New Testament scholars or the vast majority of them agree with whether they're Christian or not. Number one, that Jesus was crucified and that he died, okay? The second event is that his tomb

Starting point is 00:13:39 was found empty. Third, the fact that, as I just mentioned, the disciples believed they had experiences, right, of the risen Christ, whether they did or they didn't. Actually, but certainly these post-crucifixion appearances to the disciples is something that most people accept as historically reliable. And fourth, the fact that the disciples were now, having had this experience, willing to die for their faith. And as I say, I think what we'll see is that the theory that Jesus actually rose from the dead is the most plausible. So I'm going to take a look at some different theories here. We'll take a look at the Jesus never really died theory, the fact that he was thrown out with the garbage theory, and don't worry, I'll explain what that means, the hallucination theory, the empty tomb theory, and the fraud theory. So let's just go over these, as I say, somewhat quickly. And if you are

Starting point is 00:14:46 interested in learning more, I'll point you to some places as to where you can learn more. Okay, so the Jesus never really died theory. Now, my understanding is that this really isn't put forth by scholars today. And the reason for that is, you know, the Roman executioners knew what they were doing. And the idea that someone might, after having been crucified, live to tell the tale is a little much. In 1986, the American Medical Association published a paper that actually analyzed ancient records of the crucifixion. And it came to the conclusion that it would have been impossible for Jesus to survive not only the crucifixion, but the intense flogging that occurred shortly before the crucifixion. Shortly before the crucifixion, this scourging that tore into his skin, the asphyxiation that was brought about by crucifixion and so forth.

Starting point is 00:15:59 So that's not really plausible to think that he just didn't really die. Besides, think about what that would mean. Jesus gets crucified. You know, they think he dies. They break his legs. They go lay him in the tomb. What's the argument? You know, that Jesus is going to somehow push back the stone, right?

Starting point is 00:16:19 His body being completely mutilated. I'm not sure how he pushes back the stone with broken knees, but whatever, however he does that. And then he somehow finds his disciples and says, hey, guys, how's it going? And that either he says, I've been fervor and awe that the apostles experience. So, that doesn't work. All right, what about the theory that Jesus was just thrown out? Now, the idea here is that he was thrown into an anonymous grave and forgotten, right? And so, yeah, the disciples didn't know where he was. They would have no way of tracking him down. And then all of a sudden they imagined that they saw him alive again. Well, first thing to note is that Jesus' burial in a tomb is actually talked about in all four Gospels and is corroborated in Paul's

Starting point is 00:17:29 first letter to the Corinthians. Now, what do they say? Well, what they say is that Joseph of Arimathea used his tomb, a tomb that hadn't been used before, to hold Jesus' body. Now, the reason that's significant is that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council that actually condemned Jesus to death, right? So, if you were to come up with this story, why would you choose someone who, for all intents and purposes, you know, was an enemy or very closely associated with the enemies of Christ and make him the hero? It doesn't seem likely. It seems more likely that what you would do is, I don't know, come up with a different story of Jesus being buried in a tomb, given to his family and friends and so forth. So we've got good historical evidence that after the crucifixion, Jesus' body wasn't thrown out, okay, with the garbage, in the garbage heap.

Starting point is 00:18:37 But it was rather, it was placed in an identifiable tomb, and it so didn't just kind of, you know of get lost in some common unmarked graveyard. Okay, what about the hallucination theory? I mentioned this a moment ago that many historians, most historians, will agree that the followers of Jesus at least thought that they saw the risen Christ. So why can't this just be a hallucination? Maybe you've lost a loved one and you think to yourself, I heard them in the next room, or I'm positive that I saw them in the supermarket or something. Well, the first thing to point out is that it is actually individuals, not groups, who almost always experience hallucinations. Here's a quote from psychologist Gary Collins. He says,

Starting point is 00:19:31 By their very nature, only one person can see a given hallucination at a time. They certainly aren't something which can be seen by a group of people. So that makes sense. However, right, when we read the Gospels, the epistles, we see that it was indeed groups of Jesus' disciples that claimed to see him at the same time. Luke chapter 24, verse 36 through 49, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 5 through 6, and so forth. 49, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 5 through 6, and so forth. Secondly, the idea that Jesus' depressed disciples hallucinated the resurrection, I think we've seen why that doesn't work. But even if it did, it doesn't explain why the enemies of the church came to believe in the resurrection as well. Like, how do you explain the fact that Paul, right, who was a prominent leader in Judaism,

Starting point is 00:20:31 would come to believe that actually, after all, it seems like Christ did rise from the dead. So the hallucination theory can't explain that either. What about the empty tomb? Now, this is certainly the simplest argument against the hallucination theory. Because at any time, right, the apostles, because it could have visited the tomb to see if there was a body in it. That would make sense, right? I mean, today, of course, you and I bury our loved ones in the earth, right?

Starting point is 00:21:03 But I don't know. I mean, let's say you started seeing somebody, you know, a loved one. Maybe a group of you start seeing a loved one, right? And people are calling you crazy, you're hallucinating. You know, it would be very reasonable to at least go to the graveyard to see if it looked as if somebody had dug up the body or if the, you know, you might even go one step further and get the authorities involved. And if you had a good case, they might even confirm that the body was indeed present in the coffin. But certainly this is what could have happened, especially if it was not buried in the earth, but Jesus's body was in a tomb.

Starting point is 00:21:44 Just point to the tomb, you know, and say, I think we're hallucinating. Or people would say, look, I think you're hallucinating. Come see, here he is. He's lying in the tomb. But that didn't happen. So there's actually three reasons that we can give to show that Jesus' body was not in the tomb. And these reasons are given by, again, Gary Habermas and Mike Lacona.

Starting point is 00:22:08 And they can be summed up in an acronym, which is JET. J-E-T. And just real quickly, J would stand for Jerusalem. So you could say the apostles were preaching in Jerusalem where an empty tomb could be disproved. I mean, it's not like they traveled to the other side of the world and said, yeah, we really promise, you know, he rose from the dead.

Starting point is 00:22:34 And you could say, well, I mean, how do I, I can't just go to that tomb. Well, they were preaching in the same town. People could go to the tomb and see that for themselves. People could go to the tomb and see that for themselves. E stands for the fact that enemies of the faith agreed that the tomb was empty. And T stands for testimony. And that has to do with the testimony of the women and the fact that in first century Palestine, coming up with a story and saying that it was women who found the tomb empty would actually be rather embarrassing, and I'll explain why that is in a moment.

Starting point is 00:23:13 But the first thing to point out is, you know, the earliest enemies of the Church agreed that Jesus's tomb was empty. Notice that these critics didn't say that the disciples merely hallucinated. They had to explain why Jesus' tomb was empty. Also, the Gospels include, like I just mentioned, the testimony of women. Now, that's a problem, and here's why. A collection of ancient Jewish wisdom literature called the Talmud says this, quote, The words of the Torah should be burned rather than entrusted to women. Christ being raised from the dead, and you're trying to explain why it was that the tomb was empty, why not have the chief apostle, Peter, or maybe another apostle, John, find it? You wouldn't

Starting point is 00:24:12 have women find it and have that be the story. The fact that that is the story shows that this was an embarrassing moment, but the disciples recorded it faithfully. They didn't make anything up. All right. Finally, I guess we could talk about the fraud theory, right? Is it possible the disciples just stole the body? All right. So, yeah, okay, it's empty. All right. I'll grant you that. But Jesus, you know, these disciples, they just stole the body, and then they came up with this story. You know, after all, they were stole the body and they came up with this story. You know, after all, they were really depressed. You know, they thought that Jesus was the one and they didn't want to have to go back home and tell their friends, you know, that we were wrong.

Starting point is 00:24:54 So they came up with this whole story. Maybe they were bored or something. This is pretty ridiculous. And, you know, one of the reasons this is ridiculous, of course, is that the apostles, the disciples, were willing to place themselves in severe danger to tell this story. And people don't do that. Now, you might be thinking, well, yes, they do. What about the Muslims who flew planes into the Twin Towers on September 11? What about them? Well, okay, it's true that just because someone is willing to risk their lives for something,

Starting point is 00:25:36 that something isn't necessarily true. But it does show that they're sincere. So, as a Christian, we would say it's not true that God was commanding these radical Muslims to fly planes into the Twin Towers. It's not true that they were going to experience what they thought they were going to experience in the afterlife, okay? But it is proof that they sincerely believed these things, isn't it? Well, when it comes to the disciples, the fact that they were willing to undergo torture and murder, right, does show that they were sincere. And unlike the Muslims who were removed from the times of Muhammad's life,

Starting point is 00:26:32 the early Christians, the early disciples, they weren't. They weren't at all. They were around when it either happened or didn't happen. Here is a quote from Trent Horn. This is really cool. He says, I remember staying up one night in high school watching debates on the internet between Christians and atheists. One question kept bothering me. How did it all start? Christianity didn't begin with one person having visions of God that no one else could confirm. It began with the public proclamation that a man had been raised from the

Starting point is 00:27:06 dead. It was accompanied by historical evidence, like the empty tomb, that proved this was not a hoax or a hallucination. That night, I realized Jesus was really alive, and he was the God out there. I had vaguely thought about for so many years this idea that God is just out there, not sure who he is. And then Trent says he bowed his head, opened up his palms and prayed, Jesus, if you're real, help me believe I'm ready to be a Christian. So, you know, if one is a staunch atheist, okay, then anything is going to obviously seem more plausible than the idea that would raise Jesus from the dead to vindicate his claims about being the Messiah and so forth. So, just to sum up here, skeptics admit these different things, that Jesus was crucified, that he was buried, that his tomb was found empty, that his disciples claim to have had experiences of him after the crucifixion.

Starting point is 00:28:28 Explanations like hallucination or fraud and so forth, while they might explain some facts, they do not explain them all. And so we should conclude the most plausible explanation for all of these facts when you put them together is that Jesus really did rise from the dead. Now, if you're interested in learning more, I would suggest going online to YouTube and just typing William Lane Craig on the resurrection or Gary Habermas. And I will put a couple of links and their names into the description of this podcast to help you more easily find them. But I hope that that was the beginning of a help, and I hope that you have a beautiful Easter. I hope that your Lent was really fruitful, but even if it wasn't, I hope that you're rejoicing, that you and I have a

Starting point is 00:29:22 faith that is not vain, right, But that is true, historically true. And we should rejoice in that. So if you're someone listening to me today, okay? Maybe you're an atheist, maybe you're an agnostic. And there's something in you, there's some hunger within you that thinks maybe it is true after all. I invite you to do what Trent said he did. Bow your head, open up your palms and just say something simple like, Jesus Christ, if you're real, show me that you're real. I don't want to live an illusion. I don't

Starting point is 00:29:50 want to be deluded into thinking that you don't love me, that you don't exist when you do. Invite him into your heart like that. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of Pints with Aquinas. Would you be so kind, please review Pints with Aquinas on iTunes. We now have over 600 reviews on iTunes. Thank you very much. But if you haven't reviewed it yet, do me a favor and please do that.

Starting point is 00:30:18 Also, as I mentioned in the middle of the show, please consider supporting Pints with Aquinas so that this show can keep going. Even if you can only donate two bucks a month or five bucks a month. The way you would do that is by going to pintswithaquinas.com, clicking the Patreon banner, and you'll learn about all the thank you gifts I'll give you if you donate to support the show. Also, if you haven't joined the Facebook group, please do. There's some great conversations and discussions going on there about the angelic doctor and his teaching, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. So just go to Facebook and search Pints with Aquinas and you can apply to join the group

Starting point is 00:30:57 and I promise I'll let you in. God bless you. Talk to you next week. To carry you To carry you To carry you To carry you To carry you Too many grains of salt and sugar I took you in Too many grains of salt and juice Lest we be frauds or worse, accused Hollow me to deep and in you

Pints With Aquinas - 53: Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead?

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