Rediscovering The Truth About Creation

The first of the four anti-Resurrection theories is called the Swoon theory. This theory simply suggests that Jesus faked His own death. Recall the earlier discussion from the essay, "Of Miracles", by Mr. Hume! Remember that this philosopher, in opposing all miracles as phony, believed that most so-called works of God were not really miracles at all but merely events which could be explained by natural phenomenon. In the same sense, the Swoon theory is philosophy's attempt to explain away Christ's Resurrection as something natural, by merely implying that He never died! The theory presents the view that He either pretended to die or that He simply passed out from exhaustion, that He was placed in an empty tomb, and then a few days later, that He rolled away the stone in front of the tomb and came out for all to see.

The second anti-Resurrection theory is the Hallucination theory. This idea, too, has been driven by one of Mr. Hume's beliefs about miracles. Recall that, in addition to the comments stated above, that this philosopher also thought that miracles happened to and were generally reported by people of lesser intelligence! Those individuals, in his opinion, would not have been able to accurately and scientifically relate to others what had really happened. In conforming to this mode of thinking, the Hallucination theory holds the view that people who reported seeing Christ after His Resurrection only thought that they saw Him! Since those people, according to this theory, would not have been as smart and as advanced as modern-day people, they would not have been able to report what they were really seeing. Instead, because they were actually hallucinating about His return, they would have only thought that they were witnessing the risen Lord!

The third refutation theory is called the Legend theory. Legends about key people or events sometime develop over time. The stories are regarded as historical in nature but not necessarily provable. Legend has it, for example, that Adam and Eve had as many as fifty children, thirty-three sons and seventeen daughters. Whether this story is true or false is probably not determinable because there is not any additional information to corroborate the report. Sometimes legends are not even considered to be true. They often fall into the category of folklore. For instance, in Roman mythology, legend has it that a mythical character named Romulus was raised by wolves. Whether this is true or false also is probably not determinable, though it is probably false.

Concerning Christ and the Legend theory, some critics maintain that His Resurrection, for whatever reason, was actually fabricated sometime long after His death. Their conclusion is that He did not really rise from His ordeal of death by crucifixion. Instead, as the Legend theory proclaims, His miracle Resurrection is only a legend or myth which has been developed over time.

The final theory which opposes the literal, bodily Resurrection is the Stolen Body theory. This belief, which is actually described in Matthew 28:11-15, presents the idea that the disciples stole Jesus' dead body from His tomb so that His pre-death prophesies about His own Resurrection would appear to be true. The thinking behind this idea is that the disciples did such a thing because they wanted to advance their own cause. They knew that people would not follow a dead leader, but they felt more confident that "fooled" individuals might follow one whom they believed had come back to life.

Thus, the Stolen Body theory tells us that the disciples stole Jesus body to try to deceive the public and also to create their own brand of truth. Obviously, if this theory is correct, then the disciples would have been a very clever, manipulative bunch, as well as big-time, ungodly liars and schemers! In the next chapter, a response will be given for this and each of the other three anti-Resurrection theories.