THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee.

-Luke 24:5,6

Did Jesus Christ really rise from the dead? This issue pitted two scholars against each other in a historic debate. The protagonist was Dr.Gaby Habermas, a renowned Christian Scholar whose special area of study has been the resurrection. The antagonist was Dr.Anthony Flew, one of the most influential philosophical atheists of our day.

Antony Flew began with a negative statement, saying that a resurrection couldn’t have happened, because it violates natural laws. His second presumption was that “the possibilities of error are enormous especially when the depositions are first recorded long after the alleged events.”

Habermas based his position upon twelve known facts, eleven of which are accepted by all critical scholars today regardless of their faith.

In refuting Antony Flew’s allegation that a considerable distance separated the written account from the alleged event, Habermas demonstrated that the account in 1 Corinthias 15 was an eyewitness account which became the first creed of the early Church.

In reading the transcript of the debate, I was surprised at the lack of precise information which flew demonstrated, saying things as “well it says somewhere that” or “I can’t remember where this is but somewhere the Bible says, “Gary Habermas won the debate.