by Scott Oliphint—

Of all religions, Christianity is the one that has the most historical evidence, and therefore the least to hide, in what it purports. We should never hide from, or routinely dismiss, the historical aspect of Christianity. But if all we have are historical reasons for our belief in the resurrection, then it is possible to conclude, with a certain amount of probability, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened in history. However, we also recognize that, when we are thinking about the “why” question as it pertains to the resurrection of Christ, Christians should never be content to begin and end their belief in the resurrection of Christ with only historical data. Those data can support our belief in the resurrection. They can supplement what we believe and why we believe it. But historical data cannot be the center of our response to the “why” question. If the historical data are at the center, then the best we can say is that we believe the resurrection probably occurred. But that will not do; we do not believe in the probability of the resurrection. Instead, the center of our response to the “why” question of the resurrection is that, without the resurrection of Christ, there is, in fact, no Christianity at all.

Read the whole article here: https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/what-the-resurrection-means/