While Christmas — the birth date of the Messiah, Jesus Christ — marks the watershed of splitting calendar history into two epochs, B.C. and A.D., Easter marks the more important day for Christians and the world. Easter is the celebration of what is known as resurrection, which was living proof of God’s plan of life going beyond death for those who are redeemed, not by their works, but by their faith in the savior.
The Meaning of Easter and the Resurrection
The resurrection on the third day after Christ’s death transformed the world forever, providing proof that seeing is believing in “life after death.”
Easter is a uniquely joyful celebration among religious holidays because only Christianity has a founder who was the Messiah — a rescuer and savior.
Christ is matchless in being the only person in history who was pre-announced, starting a thousand years before he was born, with over 100 prophetic accounts from 18 different prophets, from the Old Testament between the 10th and the 4th centuries B.C., predicting the specifics of his coming birth, life, and death.
Hundreds of years later, the details of Christ’s birth, life, betrayal, and death validated those prophecies in surprisingly accurate and minute detail.
One thousand years B.C., David prophetically wrote about the crucifixion of Christ at a time when crucifixion was unknown as a means of execution.
Every other consequential person in history came into the world to live.
The death of other religious leaders — such as Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Muhammad, and Confucius — brought an anticlimactic end to their lives and their work.
But Christ came into the world as God’s son to die and pay the price for man’s sin.
His sacrifice was the ultimate climax of his life, done for the benefit of all humankind — opening the way to eternal life in heaven for all who believe.
Christ showed the highest standard of love possible through compassion for outcasts and healing the afflicted, by performing miracles, by his teachings, and by making the ultimate sacrifice of his life.
God sacrificed his only son, Jesus Christ, to save humankind, bringing him back from the dead to provide “seeing is believing” evidence — from a tomb to being alive.
Why People Can Trust that Christ was Truly Resurrected
The New Testament provides accounts from multiple sources who witnessed Jesus firsthand after the resurrection.
Jesus made at least 10 separate appearances to his disciples between the resurrection and his ascension into Heaven over 40 days.
Some of those appearances were to individual disciples, others were to several disciples, and once to some 500 at one time.
Most compelling is that there were no accounts of witnesses who came forth disputing these appearances, calling them a “hoax.” Nor do we find any historical record of any witness accounts that were contradictory.
While there are skeptics of the biblical Jesus, there’s far more reliable historical evidence for his life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection than for the life of any other historical figure of ancient times.
The reliability of all ancient history accounts depends on three things: 1) the number of eye-witness accounts; 2) the shortest time lapse between the actual events and the written record of those accounts; and 3) the number of surviving manuscripts of the written record. The evidence based on these three criteria make Jesus Christ and all the events surrounding his life, death, and resurrection far more reliable than any other figure from ancient times. Wow !
About 1,000 times more manuscripts preserve the deeds and teaching of Jesus in the New Testament (about 25,000 total) than there are preserving other classical ancient works of historic figures who lived at approximately the same time, except for Homer, whose Iliad is backed by 1,800 manuscripts.
But that is still less than one-tenth the number of ancient manuscripts that back the authenticity of the New Testament.
Because of their experience with the resurrected Jesus, the apostles were in a unique position, knowing with certainty that Jesus was truly the Son of God.
They had been present for the life, ministry, miracles, and death of Jesus. If the claims about Jesus were a lie, the apostles would have known it.
That is why the Apostles’ commitment to their testimony was so powerful and compelling. Their willingness to die for their claims has tremendous evidential value, also confirming the truth of the resurrection.
No one will die for something he invented or believes to be false.
Seeing, talking to, and touching the risen Jesus transformed the apostles, who then committed the rest of their lives to evangelizing the message of salvation through Christ. Eleven of the twelve apostles — including Matthias, who replaced Judas, the betrayer of Jesus — died as martyrs for their beliefs in Christ’s divinity. The twelfth, John, was exiled to Patmos Island. There, he recorded the Book of Revelation.
Easter has its ultimate meaning in the resurrection and is one of ancient history’s most carefully scrutinized and best-attested events.
Easter is foundational to the birth of the Constitution of the United States
If Christ had never been born, died and resurrected, all of history would have been different. For one thing, neither Columbus nor the Pilgrims would have received or have been motivated by the good news of salvation through Christ to explore or establish a new community with a higher purpose in the New World.
There would never have been a constitutional government created in the way and time that it was in America, without two necessary conditions: First, the foundation of recognizing man’s unalienable rights of freedom and equality that came out of the teachings of Christ, fully recognized in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Second, the unprecedented collection of Christian human genius that came together—amazingly at the same time—people we call the Founding Fathers, who were deeply influenced by Christianity. In the deliberations at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Bible was quoted 16 times more than any other source. The founders knew that the potential depravity that exists in everyone can lead to abuse of power and tyranny. For this reason, they structured the government with checks and balances between the three branches of government, but also through the federalist system of division of power between the states and the federal government.
The American Constitution was the first in all 5,500 years of human history that recognized that the people had inalienable rights that came not from the state, but from God, and that the primary role of government was to protect those unalienable rights of the people.
Additionally, the constitutional republic formed by the Founders provided for and protected individual rights of freedom and independence such that Americans were enabled to move closer to the divine image more than had been possible under any prior system. Another result was that Americans became blessed with material prosperity more rapidly than any other prior civilization.
Anyone with a cursory knowledge and appreciation of the main social and cultural changes in modern America recognizes that around the middle of the twentieth century, about 175 years after the nation’s founding, social and cultural life in America took a turn for the worse after God was progressively driven out of the culture.
While creating material prosperity and technological solutions for so many, our nation has become dangerously divided, dysfunctional governance has created a low-trust society, record-high divorce rates have wreaked havoc on families, and suicide rates among the young are at record highs.
History shows that so many levels of human advancement were made possible by God, who became man, born in the humble circumstances of a dirty stable in the small village of Bethlehem—a speck in the vast Roman Empire. While that empire would crumble and fall, Jesus, who had neither an army nor won any military battles, went on to become the Lord and Savior for all people, inspiring the establishment of a nation that could serve the world as a Redeemer Nation, a City Upon a Hill, a Land of Opportunity.
The United States was raised up to be that nation. Fortunately, God is fundamentally about course correction and hope. With the 250 th anniversary of America’s birthday—the Declaration of Independence—upon us, the time could not be better for spiritual revival. Let there be an awakening and rediscovery of the heart of the Lord's Prayer that reminds us that we flourish when we recognize the higher heavenly authority above our society and government, and align our lives with God's ways and purposes.
Scott S. Powell is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. His timeless book, Rediscovering America, was a #1 Amazon New Release in the history genre for eight weeks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637581599. Reach him at scottp@discovery.org