Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

Christianity is unusual among beliefs in that it stakes everything on a historical event: that Jesus of Nazareth was executed, buried, and then rose bodily three days later. If it didn't happen, the faith is empty — its own writers said as much. So it's fair to ask: what's the evidence?

First, the tomb was empty — a fact even Jesus' opponents conceded, since they accused the disciples of stealing the body rather than producing it. Second, hundreds of people claimed to have seen Jesus alive afterward, individually and in groups, over many days. Hallucinations don't work that way. Third, the disciples were transformed from terrified deserters into bold witnesses who endured persecution and death rather than recant — people will die for what they sincerely believe, but rarely for what they know to be a lie.

Add that the movement exploded in the very city where Jesus was buried, within weeks, with the resurrection as its central message — and that one of its fiercest persecutors (Paul) became its boldest preacher after claiming to meet the risen Jesus. Skeptics have proposed alternatives for two thousand years, and many honest investigators set out to debunk it and ended up convinced.

You don't have to take it on blind faith. Weigh the evidence yourself, and read one of the eyewitness accounts — the Gospel of John is a good place to start. If Jesus truly rose, then everything he said carries the weight of God behind it.