The Resurection of Jesus Christ.

Hey buddy, thank you for having this debate with me. As you already know from my opening statement that I do believe the Bible to be the Word of God. You mentioned the city of Tyre, frankly, I don't know much about the book of Ezekiel so for me to try and convince you with my ignorance would be laughable. The crucifixion: The actual crucifixion of Jesus began about 9;00 that morning (Friday, April 7th). The entire trial process under the Roman authorities and the preparations for the crucifixion took about four hours. About noon on the day Jesus was crucified, the sky became dark for three hours. Toward the end of the darkness, Jesus died. "Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Mark 15:38). Most Bible teachers believe this veil was torn by God to symbolize that because of Jesus' death, people now could have direct access to God without the meditation of a human priest. When the Roman centurion present at the cross saw the way Jesus died, he could come to only one conclusion. "Truly, this Man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39). (Saturday, April 8th), A day of Opposition: Because Israel was about to begin observing the Feat of Unleavened Bread, the Jewish leaders felt it was important the the bodies of the crucified not remain on the crosses overnight. When they were certified to be dead, the Roman soldiers took the bodies off the crosses and gave them to anyone who would claim them. Jesus' body was claimed by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin who was a follower of Jesus. Along with another member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, he took Jesus' body and buried it in a tomb which had recently been carved out of rock. By sundown, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, Jesus had been buried and the tomb had been sealed by rolling a large stone before the mouth of the cave. Even though the Jewish Leaders were successful in their attempt to execute Jesus, they were still not satisfied. They remembered Jesus had predicted His own resurrection and were afraid his disciples might still his body to perpetrate the movement. (Sunday, April 9th) When Matthew began his account of the events of Sunday morning, April 9, he wrote, "Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn" (Matt. 28:1). Similarly, Mark begins his account of the events of that day noting, "Now when the Sabbath was past" (Mark 16:1). Some Bible teachers believe these statements refer to more than the identification of the day of the week, Sunday. In a very real sense, the events of that Sunday marked the end of the observance of the Sabbaths as a Jewish day of rest. Within months, Sunday would be a new day of the week to take special significance in the hearts of many of Jesus' followers. Also, back in that day of time.... It would be really uncommon for women to stand trial over a crime that was committed. Why, would the authors of the Bible choose women to have seen the risen Lord first? It would've been ridiculous for them to have made up a story to make them look bad! Also, where did the first Christians begin to preach the Gospel? It was in Jerusalem. Again, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, The first disciples would have chosen to get as far away from Jerusalem as they could to preach the message. The pieces just fall into place for me as for me to believe the Gospel. Josh McDowell points out; "If the Resurrection had not happened, obviously the disciples would have known it. I can find no way that these particular men could have been deceived. Therefore they not only would have died for a lie "" here"s the catch "" they would have known it was a lie. It would be hard to find a group of men anywhere in history who would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie." And as for the authors of the Gospel: The writers of the gospels were either eyewitnesses (Matthew and John) or people like Luke who received the story from eyewitnesses. These writers were very close to the action! 2 Peter 1:16 says, "For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." I could get other verses that sound similar. Other Historical documents" "The persons commonly called Christians ... Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea for the reign of Tiberius..." Cornelius Tacitus, Roman historian, 112 A.D.) "They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as a god and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word..." (Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor in A.D.112 writing to emperor Trajan seeking counsel as to how to treat the Christians.) "At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders." -Josephus The Flood: Whether or not the flood was local or global, there are numerous stories told from all walks of life