Does the Death of Jesus Christ qualify as a FACT?

What is a fact?

1.      Something that actually exists; a reality; a truth: This book on space travel is based on facts.

2.      Something known to exist or to have happened: Space travel is now a fact.

3.      A truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true: Scientists gather facts about weather from space stations.

4.      Something said to be true or supposed to have happened: The facts given by the witness are reliable, (or questionable). Therefore, the reliability of the witnesses is essential.

Does the Death of Jesus Christ qualify as a FACT?

…AND as an historic FACT does the death of Jesus Christ help to establish the authority of the Bible as the written word of God?

Prophecy fulfilled is the most powerful proof of the Bible as the written word of God. And... 

The life and death of Jesus Christ is the most powerful fulfillments of prophecy.

Writings in the bible about Jesus not only foretold but gave intricate details about what would happen… hundreds of years before the fact. And, then the events came to pass with a level of exactness that could never be faked, events that were witnessed by hundreds of people, and were recorded into human history by the Romans.

Isaiah 42:1-9 – read Isaiah 42-48 (esp. 48) which precedes prophesies of Suffering Servant in Isaiah 49-53

Did Jesus Really Die or was it All a Trick?

Skeptics have claimed that Jesus merely appeared to be dead, possibly drugged, but revived while in the tomb and escaped to convince His disciples that He had risen from the dead. But, based on what history tells us of Roman crucifixion, there is simply no way Jesus (or any person) could have survived the beating, and execution followed by three days and nights isolated in a dark, cold tomb. Even on the minor point of drugging Mark 15:23 shows Jesus refused the customary painkiller offered to crucifixion victims

Jesus Recorded as Crucified in Roman Historical Records

(Cornelius Tacitus ca. 56-120) wrote 16 volume history: Annals of the Roman Emperors. In it he recorded “Christ… suffered the extreme penalty [crucifixion] during the reign of Tiberius at the hand of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus”. Note: written as part of a condemnation of Christians... this guy was not a sympathizer.

If We Know Jesus Was Crucified… What Was A Roman Crucifixion like?

Crucifixion was a brutal execution method designed to make the maximum impression on those who witnessed it and a certain, sure death for the victim. What’s more… historical descriptions of the crucifixtion process match up closely with the details provided in the scriptural record of Jesus execution and death.

Step 1. Execution preceded by severe beating, lashing also called “scourging”

Matt 27:26  The leather scourge, was designed braided with pieces of bone and metal woven into the ends that tore into the flesh with each stroke ripping into the underlying muscles tearing off strips of bleeding flesh exposing muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim. Many victims would die from the scourging before they could be crucified.

From a medical point of view the extreme pain and loss of blood, would often send the victim into shock—his blood pressure would drop and cause fainting, collapse and intense thirst.

·        Mark 15:21 – so weak he could not carry the cross

·        John 19:28 – displayed the symptom of thirst

Note: Jesus “Scourging” Was a Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy

·        Isaiah 50:6 written hundreds of years before Jesus even born

·        Isaiah 52:14 so badly beaten, bloodied and maimed, that He was scarcely recognizable as a human being… Which fits the picture based on description of scourging etc. (not a black eye)

Step 2. The agony of crucifixion

From a medical standpoint, after scourging, the victim would already be in serious to critical condition even before He was taken away to be crucified (Alexander Metherell, M.D., quoted by Strobel, p. 196 Case for Christ).

To crucify, the Romans used iron nails, five to seven inches long and about three eighths of an inch square, driven into the victim's wrists and feet to fasten him to the wooden members. In Bible times the wrist was considered part of the hand. They drove these nails into the wrists, between the arm bones, because the hands themselves could not support the weight of the body. The nails pounded through the wrists would crush the median nerve, the largest nerve going to the hand, causing indescribable pain.

Hanging from the nails... the victim dies a slow agonizing death by asphyxiation. To breathe he has to push up on the nail in his ankle, eventually tearing through the foot and locking up against the tarsal bones. This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and the person wouldn't be able to push up and breathe anymore… and they suffocate.

Psalm 22:14 prophecy of Christ's suffering related to His bones and exhaustion

The Shed Blood of Jesus

Matthew 26:28—the importance of Christ’s shed blood, symbolic AND prophetic

John 19:30-34 could make it appear that Jesus died and then later was stabbed by one of the Roman soldiers, "bringing a sudden flow of blood and water" (verse 34, NIV). However, there is a problem if this were the specific order of events, because dead bodies, once the heart has stopped its pumping action, no longer bleed like that. 

I believe verse 31 begins a new thought and explains why in contrast to the two criminals crucified with him, not one of Jesus bones was broken. WHY? Because Jesus had already died when His side was pierced so that His bones did not need to be broken to speed up death.

Verse 36—fulfills the requirement that the Passover lamb’s bones were to be unbroken

Verse 37—fulfills Zechariah 12:10 that messiah’s body would be pierced.

The final, fatal thrust that ended Jesus' life

This soldier who thrust the spear into Jesus was a Roman: well trained, proficient, and would know which part of the body to pierce in order to quickly ensure that the victim was undeniably dead... thus fulfilling his duty as executioner.

Standing below Jesus as He hung on the cross, he would thrust upwards under the left ribs. The heavy, two-edged spearhead would enter the left side of the upper abdomen, open the...stomach, pierce the diaphragm, would cut, wide open, the heart and great blood vessels, arteries and veins... and lacerate the lung. The wound would be large enough to permit the open hand to be thrust into it. Blood and water from the...stomach, would gush out. The whole event as described by John is presented with medical details he couldn’t have dreamed up. John could write it that was because he saw it happen. John 20:24-27

The idea that Jesus didn't really die, that He fainted or was drugged and was later resuscitated, has no basis in fact when you consider the clear statements from various source that He died.

Jesus' burial

Mark 15:43-46 – a trained Roman soldier was familiar with death… he knew a dead man when he saw one. Jesus of Nazareth was dead and presumably recorded as such and later referenced by Cornelius Tacitus in the Annals of The Roman Emperors.

Have you ever wondered: Why would God use the Romans? Because they were brutally efficient and kept great records, proud of their history...

Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea a prominent man who’s real existence would have still been well know to the readers of the Gospels… as would be the actual location of his tomb.

Matt 27:62-66 Could a person really survive a Roman crucifixion… then hide out in a tomb for 3 days and 3 nights without any medical care… roll away a gigantic rock and slip off into the night eluding trained Roman guardsmen?

Jesus' enemies acknowledged that the tomb was empty

After 3 days and 3 nights the women came and found the tomb empty… they told the disciples and word of Jesus resurrection began to spread. What was the reaction of Jesus' enemies?

Did they respond that the disciples were lying, that Jesus' body still lay in the rock-hewn tomb? No. Did they claim that the disciples were hallucinating? No. Instead, they bribed the Roman soldiers 

responsible for guarding the sealed tomb to spread what they knew was a lie. They told them to spread a cover story, to claim that Jesus' disciples had come and stolen His body while they slept, and that they would cover for the soldiers if they got in trouble with the Roman governor -- Matthew 28:11-15.

Eyewitness Accounts of His appearances

1 Corinthians 15:5-8 most of the people Paul was talking about were still alive… they could back it up as witnesses. It's been suggested that these appearances were merely hallucinations on the part of the disciples. But this theory cannot account for the fact that the appearances were in different places, at different times and in front of different groups of people. Jesus appeared in ways that were convincing to all the apostles and large crowds of people.

Appearances in bodily form

Luke 24:36-43 All of Jesus' appearances to them were in bodily form... not a wispy dream. He invited them, "Behold [look at] My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."

The testimony and martyrdom of the disciples'

·        Acts 4:1-23 They defied threats of imprisonment if they continued to speak about this man Jesus

·        Acts 5:17-42 They faced beatings & death threats because they preached that Jesus was alive and was the Messiah

Whereas only weeks before they had denied they even knew Him, now these men gave the remaining years of their lives, and ultimately life itself, for the One they knew had conquered death. Had they all been only participants in a giant hoax, could we believe these men would give their lives for something they knew to be a lie?

That Jesus Christ died and was resurrected is the only truly reasonable conclusion.

And if, as we have seen, the death of Jesus Christ meets the reasonable standards of what we would consider a historic fact… what does that tell us about the scriptures? Prophecies of Jesus death were written hundreds of years before the fact. No one seriously contests that fact. They came to pass in ways that cannot be dismissed. And in this way the death of Jesus serves as a powerful proof that the Bible is exactly what it claims to be… the word of God. The one who knows the beginning and the end… who as Jesus says in John 14:29… tells us these things before they come to pass so that we may belive.