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Some of the strongest arguments for Jesus, the historicity of the Bible, and the resurrection....

The resurrection could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned. Paul Althus

In 56 A.D. Paul wrote that over 500 people had seen the risen Jesus and that most of them were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6). It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus. John Warwick Montgomery

Think of the absurdity of a little band of defeated cowards cowering one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence--and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. This simply wouldn't make sense. J.N.D. Anderson

There are two...vital differences between Christianity and Islam. Islam has no Cross and no resurrection, articles of the faith that are of the essence of Christianity and of ultimate importance to the plan of the God of the Bible. Mohammed made no atonement for our sins when he died. And when he died, he remained so. R.C. Sproul

If all wicked governments and their leaders fell, evil would still exist because it is nurtured in the human heart. Franklin Graham

There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan. C.S. Lewis

At a time when even uneducated slaves working at the Egyptian turquoise mines were inscribing their records on the tunnel walls, it is inconceivable that a man of Moses' background would fail to record the details of one of history's most significant epochs. Josh McDowell

We, as Christians, are asked to take a very great deal on trust; the teachings, for example, and the miracles of Jesus. If we had to take all on trust, I, for one, should be skeptical. The crux of the problem of whether Jesus was, or was not, what He proclaimed Himself to be, must surely depend upon the truth or otherwise of the resurrection. On that greatest point we are not merely asked to have faith. In its favor as living truth there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world cold faith to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true. Lord Darling, former Chief Justice of England

The disciples had nothing to gain by lying and starting a new religion. They faced hardship, ridicule, hostility, and martyr's deaths. In light of this, they could have never sustained such unwavering motivation if they knew what they were preaching was a lie. The disciples were not fools and Paul was a cool-headed intellectual of the first rank. There would have been several opportunities over three to four decades of ministry to reconsider and renounce the lie. J. P. Moreland

When therefore the disciples began to preach the resurrection in Jerusalem and people responded, and when religious authorities stood helplessly by, the tomb must have been empty. The simple fact that the Christian fellowship, founded on belief in Jesus' resurrection, came into existence and flourished in the very city where He was executed and buried is powerful evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb. Wm. Lane Craig

Are these men, who helped transform the moral structure of society, consummate liars or deluded madmen? These alternatives are harder to believe than the fact of the resurrection, and there is no shred of evidence to support them. Paul Little

...it is hard to see how the Christian church could have come into existence [without the truth of the resurrection]. That church was founded on faith in the Messiahship of Jesus. A crucified messiah [would have been] no messiah at all. H.D.A. Major

...either Jesus was the Just One, the Man of God, or among men He is the greatest of criminals. If He presented Himself as one from the dead, whereas He was not such, He is guilty of falsehood, and must be denied even the most common honesty. E. Le Camus

If Jesus Christ were not risen again (I speak the language of unbelievers), He had deceived His disciples with vain hopes of His resurrection. How came the disciples not to discover the imposter? Wilbur Smith

The simple faith of the Christian who believes in the Resurrection is nothing compared to the credulity of the skeptic who will accept the wildest and most improbable romances rather than admit the plain witness of historical certainties. The difficulties of belief may be great; the absurdities of unbelief are greater. George Hanson

Unique among criminal trials is [Jesus' trial] in which not the actions but the identity of the accused is the issue. Irwin Linton

Without the belief in the resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, His crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of His being the Messiah [the Savior as predicted in the Old Testament]. The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of His career. The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Wm. Lane Craig

But when He said that He himself would rise again from the dead, the third day after He was crucified, He said something that only a fool would dare say, if he expected [the continued] devotion of any disciples—unless He was sure He was going to rise. No founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that! Wilbur Smith

...we know more about the details of the hours immediately before and the actual death of Jesus, in and near Jerusalem, than we know about the death of any other one man in the ancient world. Wilbur Smith

[For many years, I have studied] the histories of other times, and [have examined and weighed] the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead. Thomas Arnold, Oxford University

And a favorite (wonder what beliefs we have today based on these writings of non-Christians from antiquity?)...

The Gospel account of the darkness which fell upon the land during Christ's crucifixion was well known and required a naturalistic explanation from non-Christians. [Non-Christian writing from antiquity] did not doubt that Jesus had been crucified and that an unusual event had occurred in nature that required an explanation. What occupied [non-Christian writers from antiquity] was coming up with a different interpretation. The basic facts were not called into question. F.F. Bruce

Read the Bible cover-to-cover, then we can talk. My dad

Blame not before thou hast examined the truth. Ecc. 11:7

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