Raising Jesus
The Skeptic's Guide to Faith in the Resurrection
by
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Life is hard…then you die.
In Monty Python’s classic movie The Meaning of Life, there is a scene where two unsuspecting couples are enjoying a dinner party. Suddenly, the Grim Reaper knocks at the door. Oblivious to the fact they are literally at death’s door, the couples gleefully invite him in to join the party.
As Grim points his bony little finger at the one he came to take, they laugh at him, as if he’s merely an entertaining guest playing some kind of joke or party game. Caught off guard, Grim tries to convince them that he’s serious. That he, death, is no joke. But the more he insists on the dreadful reality of his mission, the more the partiers mock him. And the more infuriated he becomes.
He gets so mad that he decides to take them all instead of just the one he originally came for. Even as he leads the partiers out of the house to their deaths, they continue to laugh and joke with him. They’re literally staring death in the face and go right along, acting as if it doesn’t exist.
Like the partiers in the movie, we’re a culture in denial. We worship youth. We act as if death will never come, and when it does come, we don’t like to talk about it. Instead, we spend all our time hoping for some drug, some fountain of youth, some scientific discovery that will prolong life, even prevent the onslaught of death altogether: modern medicine, the latest diet or fitness craze, cryogenics, DNA extraction, cloning.
And when we can’t get it, we search compulsively for some lasting testimony to our presence on this planet: wealth, fame, success, even something as simple as photographs. Anything to mark our tiny little stay on this planet, to leave some lasting and indelible sign that we were here and that our lives mattered. That they weren’t lived in vain.
We long for immortality.
But the only guarantee in life is that we will die.
It is supremely painful to admit that no matter how big a mark we make, within a generation or two very few will know. And fewer still will care. No matter how much we try to deny, avoid, or make an end run around it, we are all mortal after all.
Life is hard…then you die…
Although death is the most certain thing in life, it feels so unnatural.
It ruins everything. It is the great intruder…
Why can’t we get used to death? Why does it feel so wrong, like an intruder?
Why do we resist it so?
It’s such a natural part of life you’d think we’d just accept it and get on with our business. But we don’t. This mortal life begs for more. Even though everyone who’s ever walked this planet will die, we can’t help thinking it’s not supposed to be like this. It’s not supposed to end. In one form or another it’s supposed to go on forever.
People talk about a “god gene.”
But really, the “immortality gene” is far more pervasive.
We have an insatiable thirst for immortality.
And right alongside this insatiable thirst for immortality is a relentless longing for infinitely more than this life can provide. Even in our best moments, we all have this aching sense that there has to be more than this. Even the best parties get old after a while! Nothing in this finite world can ever fully satisfy us. Our hearts are endlessly restless, looking for that missing piece that will complete us, that relationship that will make us happy and whole.
Life is hard. But against all our combined experience on this planet, against all the evidence to the contrary—the only evidence we have!—we think it should be different. We think it is somehow incomplete, not what it ought to be.
Where did we ever get such an idea?
Why can’t we just be satisfied with this life? With all that it provides?
Why this aching sense that we aren’t home here. That we aren’t home yet?
What we really long for is not just endless life, but transcendence: infinite joy; perfect love. Somehow we are acutely and profoundly aware of an infinite horizon of possibility that exists beyond our reach. We can’t simply accept our mortality and the imperfections of our existence and move on.
We are wired for transcendence.
And lo and behold, along comes this historical event [the resurrection] which just so happens to fulfill this longing perfectly.
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About the Book
Life is hard…then you die. It’s as simple as that. Dead bodies stay dead.
So, in this modern, scientific age, how can any reasonable person possibly believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy turned out to be myths. How is Jesus’ Resurrection any different?
How can there possibly be any credible evidence for an event that happened two thousand years ago?
The Resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in the history of the world—IF it’s true. If Jesus did rise, then he is God, Ultimate Reality itself. In him you can find the meaning of life, the secret of happiness, the way to eternal life.
Raising Jesus provides the evidence to show that it really is true.
In this era of “alternative facts,” Raising Jesus relies on the most balanced and up-to-date scholarship to shed trustworthy new insights into the evidence. It does this in an easy-to-follow, systematic way, using engaging illustrations to reveal the logic of complex arguments. Most importantly, it deals head on with the biggest problem most people in our modern, scientific age have with the resurrection: the philosophical objection that dead people simply don’t come back from the dead. Raising Jesus ultimately shows how believing Jesus rose from the dead is, in fact, the most reasonable conclusion you can make.
About the Author
E.J. Sweeney is a true skeptic. He needs to see to believe. Hard evidence. Compelling proof. Solid logic. This is what he believes in. And when it comes to the Resurrection, he has. As a result of seeing how compelling the evidence is, he is a now an ordained Lutheran pastor. E.J. received his BA from Trinity College and his MDiv from Yale University, summa cum laude. He taught theology and scripture in two high schools—the crucible for fielding questions of faith!—and has served as a pastor in two churches. Presently he lives in Connecticut with his wife Cherie, where he is a volunteer firefighter and is reaching out to skeptics like himself with the good news that, when it comes to the God of Jesus Christ, you can see and believe too—the evidence is overwhelming. For more information about E.J. or to address your own questions and doubts, visit his website, RaisingJesus.com. He’d love to hear from you!