So we can know that Jesus existed, and that the Bible is trustworthy. In the Scriptures we find his repeated claim to be not just a religious teacher but Lord and God (see Matthew 26:63-64; John 8:58; Acts 5:29-32). How do we know he was right?

The resurrection is the historical proof that Jesus is or is not God (see 1 Corinthians 15:13-15). We know that witnesses to the resurrected Christ were numerous (1 Corinthians 15:6), intelligent and well-educated (see Acts 22:3), men and women of integrity whose claims were easily validated by others (see Acts 26:26).

So the witnesses were credible. What of the objective evidence for their claims? It is a fact of history that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and buried, and that on the third day his tomb was found empty. Skeptics have struggled to explain his empty tomb ever since.

Perhaps his disciples stole the body (Matthew 28:11-15), as the soldiers guarding the tomb claimed. But how would sleeping guards know the identity of the thieves? Why would these disciples then die for a lie? Maybe the women stole the body. But how would they make a corpse look alive, and why would they suffer for such a fabrication? If the authorities took the body, why didn't they produce it when the first Christians began proclaiming the resurrection?

Maybe the disciples went to the wrong tomb and found it empty. But Joseph of Arimathea knew his own tomb (Matthew 27:57-61), and the authorities would have corrected the error. Perhaps Jesus didn't really die on the cross. But how did he survive burial clothes which would have suffocated him? How did he overpower the guards, appear through walls (John 20:19,26) and ascend to heaven (Acts 1:9)?

There is only one reasonable explanation for the empty tomb, the changed lives of the disciples, and the overnight explosion of the Christian movement upon the world stage: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He is therefore who he claimed to be: our Lord and God.