Easter is upon us again! part 3

By Stephen Mitchell

From Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona’s book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, in the first post, I listed the four facts about the resurrection of Jesus that all reputable scholars accept plus one fact that most accept. In this post I will discuss the third and fourth facts. These are:

3. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed.

4. The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.

Saul of Tarsus, later known as the Apostle Paul, was a well-known persecutor of the followers of Jesus. Luke wrote of his persecution in Acts chapters 7, 8, & 9. Paul himself wrote of his former opposition in his letters. To the church in Corinth he wrote: “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (15:9). To the church at Philippi he wrote that he was “a persecutor of the church” (3:6). To the churches in the region of Galatia he wrote: “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (1:13-14).

So we have to ask, ‘What changed him?’ The event that changed his life was recorded by Luke in Acts 9. Then Paul described it in his defense before the Jews and his trials before the Roman governor and the Jewish king Agrippa, these in Acts 22 and 26.

What makes Paul different than most other conversions is that Paul knew what the Christians were teaching and still vehemently opposed them. According to Paul’s own testimony, it took a visible, personal encounter with the risen Jesus for him to completely change his attitude towards the Christian claim of a risen Jesus. Paul affirmed he had seen the actual risen Lord himself.

He wrote about this in his first letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 15, verses 3-8:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” (italics added)

Paul was so convinced of what he had seen that he was willing to suffer greatly and even to die for this person he claimed to have seen alive. He detailed much of what he suffered in his second letter to the church at Corinth in the eleventh chapter.

What is significant about the change in Jesus’ brother, the skeptic James? It is recorded that Jesus had four brothers, more than one sister, and that James was one of his brothers. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote of James, “Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned” (Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 9).

The Gospel writers record that none of Jesus’ brothers believed in him. Mark actually recorded that his family thought Jesus had gone insane. Read what Mark wrote in chapter 3:

“And He came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses.’ … Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.”

John also wrote, in chapter 7, that “not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

Yet James, in spite of his early skepticism about his brother, became the leader of the Jerusalem church and had an excellent reputation among the Jews. He was even popularly called James the Just. What changed him.

Paul recorded that for us in the first letter he wrote to the church at Corinth, chapter 15. Go back and reread the quote above of what Paul wrote, “then He appeared to James.” Again, as for Paul so as for James. For both it is recorded that they were transformed from doubters to believers and followers by seeing the risen Jesus. Not from others’ testimony, but from a personal experience of the risen Jesus.

I will look at the fifth and final fact in the next post and then put it all together.

Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (electronic edition)