Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Hear factual reasons why we can have confidence in the resurrection.

<p>Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Hear factual reasons why we can have confidence in the resurrection.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

Why I Believe in the Resurrection

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

It's been many years, but it still feels like yesterday.

Living in a cave high above Palm Springs, No money, no prospects, just drifting through life deeply confused about who I was and wondering if life held any purpose.

Coming from a wealthy family, I could have had it all.

Money, power, fame, but this all struck me as plastic and empty.

It wasn't until I was at the lowest point in my life when I found true meaning.

Somebody had left a Bible in my cave, and I quickly discovered why this is the number 1 bestseller in the world.

Friends, I can't even begin to tell you what the Bible has done for me.

It's the awe-inspiring living Word that has the power to transform human hearts.

Jesus said, if you abide in my Word, you are my disciples indeed, And you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

And it's the reason that I'm standing here today, thankful to be able to proclaim His word, and eager to bring hope to those in need.

I truly believe that today's program is gonna fulfill that desire and leave you with a rich blessing.

And don't forget, stay tuned for our very important free offer at the end of this presentation.

♪♪ Really, it's the time of year about 1992 years ago during the Passover Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

He rested in the tomb even on the Sabbath day from redeeming mankind and then he rose from the dead.

And our subject this morning is going to revolve around the subject of the resurrection And I'll be giving you a little bit of personal information on why I believe in the resurrection.

And keep in mind, I'm coming from a background where I was raised agnostic.

But I'd like to begin with something that may surprise you a little bit.

Now, I don't go to movies, but I bet most of you have seen Ben-Hur.

It had the largest budget, over 15 million of any movie made up to that time, be about 150 million today, that probably be closer to 500 million today.

I think Titanic was like 500 million dollar budget.

It had the largest sets built of any film production at the time, 100 costume wardrobe fabricators, 200 artisan workmen provided the hundreds of friezes and statutes needed for the film.

Over 200 camels and 2, 500 horses were used in making the film.

Now, you know, Amazing Facts is involved in completing a film right now called Armageddon, the Final Events of Bible Prophecy, and ours is a low budget film.

But it's gonna be really, it's a big budget for us.

But I can't imagine working with 2, 500 horses.

I mean, the crew that you'd need just to handle them.

The 9 minute chariot race has become 1 of cinema's most famous action sequences, and contrary to urban myths, you heard nobody died during that filming.

It's the longest ever musical score composed and conducted by Mikolos Rosa.

It had a 14.7 million dollar marketing budget.

It was the fastest growing as well as the highest grossing film of 1959, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time, only after Gone With the Wind.

Some pictures have tied for 11 Academy Awards.

Now, the reason I shared all that with you is because there's a backstory.

Back in the 1870s, 2 men got on a train in North America.

1 of them was General Lou Wallace and he encountered another friend who had also fought in the Civil War with him on the side of the North.

Now I don't know if you recognize the name Robert Ingersoll, but he was probably the most famous American agnostic who he would go around and do seminars and talk about how the Bible cannot be trusted and religion is a sham, and he talked to packed houses, he was very eloquent, went into politics and became a successful politician.

They knew each other from the war and Ingersoll asked General Wallace if he would like to sit with him in his coach.

So they sat in their private coach and they had a long ride going to this convention.

They were both going to the same convention.

And Ingersoll took in talking to Wallace about there is no God, the Bible cannot be trusted.

And he waxed eloquent, it flowed like a river for hours.

And Wallace was not especially religious.

But he was so rattled by what Ingersoll said that he resolved, you know, I need to study into this for myself because if what he's saying is true, nothing really matters.

So he did a personal study on is there a God?

And by the way Wallace while he was once a general afterward he was an attorney so he looked at it from a logical defensible position as a lawyer.

Here's what he says, to write all of my reflections would require many pages.

I passed them to say simply that I resolved to study the subject.

It only remains to say that I did as resolved with results.

The first result is I wrote the book Ben-Hur.

The second is a conviction amounting to absolute belief in God and the divinity of Christ?

So that whole movie that became an epic film about the resurrection, it's what you would call historical fiction, it grew out of someone being challenged on the subject of is the Bible true?

Now when I first heard this, I was a little shook you know I went to, I'm not Catholic but I went to 2 different Catholic schools And I remember hearing 1 time them talk about 1 of the prayers, they were teaching me the Beatitudes in 1 of our Bible classes, and they said, you know, Jesus, you know, He taught and then He died on the cross, and then He rose from the dead the third day, and then he told his disciples to go out and see.

But I said, well, that doesn't happen every day.

And I kind of struggled with it even back then.

And so I was pretty much an agnostic until I began to search for, is there a God when I was about 16, 17.

How did I come to the point where I could believe in the resurrection?

I may take a few rabbit trails along the way.

First of all, 2 thirds of American adults there was a survey that was done by the Life Study and 2 thirds of Americans, 66% say they do believe in the biblical account of the physical resurrection of Jesus.

But it's troubling when you realize that those that are between 18 and 30 18 and 34, 59% do not believe.

Meaning that the generation that is coming along as you probably already heard from numerous studies is becoming more and more agnostic and less and less believing in Christianity believing in God things are changing in our culture And I'd like to especially appeal to that group in my comments this morning.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians, said that Jesus rose the third day as the scriptures say, according to the scriptures.

You can look in the Old and the New Testament, Old Testament, Psalm 16 verse 10, You will not leave my soul in the grave.

It didn't say, I want to go to the grave.

It said, you wouldn't leave it there, nor will your Holy 1, the Messiah, see corruption, wouldn't be there long enough to decompose, which happens after the third day.

Jesus, walking around when he was alive, he told them over and over, from that time, Matthew 16, 21, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests, be killed and rise the third day.

He said it so frequently that even his enemies remembered this after he was crucified.

You find this in Matthew 27.63 They say, Sir, we remember while he was still alive how that deceiver said, after 3 days I will rise.

That's why they requested a guard at the tomb, which of course does further prove that it did happen, increase the number of witnesses.

I mean, Jesus said, no sign will be given to this generation but the sign of Jonah.

And the big sign of Jonah is, you know, it's not very likely that a person's gonna come out of a fish alive after 3 days.

Jonah's experience is a type of a resurrection.

Indeed, Daniel coming out of the lion's den is a type of the resurrection.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace is a type of the resurrection.

Why I Believe in the Resurrection

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