Lee Strobel

How do we know?

Well, it turns out it's one source, maybe two sources.

And yet for the death of Jesus, we not only have multiple sources in the documents of the New Testament, we've got five ancient sources outside the Bible confirming his execution.

This is so well established of a historical fact, you could get laughed out of a major academic institution if you go in and claim he somehow survived the crucifixion.

In fact, get this.

No less of a source in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a secular, peer-reviewed medical scientific journal carried an investigation into the death of Jesus.

And this was their conclusion, quote, clearly the weight of the historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead even before the wound to his side was inflicted.

Even the atheist historian Gerd Ludemann says it's indisputable that Jesus was dead.

First E, execution, he's dead.

Second E, early accounts.

In other words, we have early reports that come very quickly after the crucifixion that he rose from the dead.

Why is that important?

Because I used to think, like a lot of skeptics, that the resurrection was a legend.

And I knew it took time for legend to develop in the ancient world.

So I figured 100, 150, 200 years after the life of Jesus, legends were invented, and that's where the idea came from.

Guess what?

We have preserved for us a creed of the earliest church.

The first Christians had a creedal statement based on facts that they knew to be true, based on eyewitness accounts that summarized their convictions.

And it said Jesus died.

Why?