Happy and joyous Easter! This day is the most important Christian holiday of the Christian year.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the focal point. It is the center point for the Christian faith. Why?
If true, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the single most important event in the history of mankind, and therefore the one most crucial to establish as an authentic historical event.
Because in His death and resurrection came the final reconciliation of God through the shed blood of Christ. In this event, God imputed the sin of mankind on Christ as He paid the price for us with his shed blood so that we would be separated from God no longer. When Christ uttered, “It is finished,” it was finished.
The very act of His being resurrected opens the same door of relationship and life eternal with Christ for any of us who choose to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
But why is this event historically sound? How do we know this really happened?
Here are some facts, but there are many more than I list here. (And I quote some sources) http://www.truthortradition.com/articles/beyond-a-reasonable-doubt-23-arguments-for-the-historical-validity-of-the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ
1. The resurrection narratives bear unmistakable signs of being historically accurate. Not only did many have the same experiences after Christ’s death, but they didn’t stop telling what they saw. They had no fear even though their lives were in danger since such hostility at the time would have made their claims unlikely and dangerous. All these varied accounts, clearly independent of each other, were non-contradictory.
2. The Apostle Paul. At the time he met the resurrected Christ, he was an ardent, vicious enemy of the Christian faith. A highly educated man, he would have been the last person to accept this idea of a resurrected Messiah. But the fact that he was persuaded and dedicated his life to the risen Lord is extremely important.
3. The empty tomb. There are only three explanations for it. His enemies stole the body, his friends took the body, or Jesus was raised from the dead.
The first is extremely unlikely. His enemies and skeptics would have loved to have his body to show to the believers to quell the rumors and humiliate the believers. But it didn’t happen. Next, His friends were extremely disappointed and discouraged. They didn’t believe that he would be resurrected. To take his body to prove that he was resurrected when they didn’t believe it themselves is not plausible. So, the third explanation is the valid one. The tomb was empty. And a gigantic, heavy stone was rolled away. And there were witnesses.
The Jewish Temple authorities paid those who had seen the tomb empty to lie and say that the disciples had stolen the body, and they even murdered many of those who preached about his resurrection. They would have stopped at nothing to produce Jesus’ dead body if they could have. The fact that they did not means they could not because he was risen.
4. A Non-Christian, Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, wrote about Jesus Christ and the growth of Christianity as follows:
“And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
Though some have tried to dismiss this corroborating secular testimony as fraudulent, this is unlikely because Josephus’ writings were well received at the time of their writing by both Jews and Romans. He was even made an honorary Roman citizen.
Many modern scholars and historians have written reams of details on why this event did happen. Such men as J.P. Moreland, Thomas Arnold, Simon Greenleaf, are only a few who are noted for their accuracy and historic veracity. Because of lack of space, I cannot list the many more reasons that point to the truth of the resurrection. It is truly the most astounding, reliable, profound, and deeply meaningful event in the history of mankind.
And it is our hope and our anchor; our faith and our standard.
Happy Easter.

Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at bluegrasses@gmail.com. Visit her website juditabler.com.