{"id":38857,"date":"2019-02-25T09:22:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T09:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/"},"modified":"2019-02-25T09:22:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T09:22:00","slug":"can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can a classical scholar believe in Jesus? Lindsay Whaley, professor of mathematics and linguistics at Dartmouth University, certainly thinks so. Whaley writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Billions of people around the world&hellip;celebrate Jesus&rsquo; resurrection. But can we really take it seriously? Or is Christianity&mdash;as cosmologist, Stephen Hawking once put it&mdash;&ldquo;A fairy story for people afraid of the dark?&rdquo; Resurrection? Is the concept even intellectually responsible in the 21st century? After all, we know that &hellip; Death = decomposition = dirt. Again, Stephen Hawking [wrote]: &ldquo;I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Is the resurrection of Jesus historically <em>plausible<\/em>? Dr. Whaley weighs the evidence Jesus&rsquo; resurrection and states:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Most people agree that the historical record is quite strong on the following eight points [simplified from her original list]:<\/p>\n<p>\n\nJesus was born in ancient Palestine. He became known for his healing and teaching activities. He clashed with the religious establishment and was crucified by the Romans. He was given a dignified burial. His tomb was found empty. Many people experienced visions of him after his death including his closest disciples and a large number of his other followers. He was worshipped as God soon after his death Belief about him as a divine savior who had been resurrected spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Whaley concludes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For me, the resurrection &hellip; requires one external hypothesis: that there is a God who can perform miracles. In a western university setting, belief in God can seem terribly far-fetched, let alone belief in the resurrection. &hellip; Perhaps the story of Jesus &hellip; is a comforting story for people afraid of the dark. But Oxford professor, C. S. Lewis, put my own view best: &ldquo;the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us the same way as others, but with this tremendous difference that <em> it really happened<\/em>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3398,3424,3839,3901,3934,4134,4167,4471,4472,4725,4828,4830,4992,5199,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[386],"class_list":["post-38857","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-afterlife","tax_ctp_tags-apologetics","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-evidence","tax_ctp_tags-faith-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-heaven","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-ministry-of-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-miracles","tax_ctp_tags-proof","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-truth","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection? - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection? - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Can a classical scholar believe in Jesus? Lindsay Whaley, professor of mathematics and linguistics at Dartmouth University, certainly thinks so. Whaley writes: Billions of people around the world&hellip;celebrate Jesus&rsquo; resurrection. But can we really take it seriously? Or is Christianity&mdash;as cosmologist, Stephen Hawking once put it&mdash;&ldquo;A fairy story for people afraid of the dark?&rdquo; Resurrection? Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/\",\"name\":\"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection? - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-25T09:22:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-25T09:22:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection? - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/can-scholar-believe-in-resurrection\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can a Scholar Believe in the Resurrection? - CT Pastors","og_description":"Can a classical scholar believe in Jesus? 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