Have you ever watched a loved one die and wondered, “Is this the end of life? Will my mother, or dear grandparent, or close friend live again?” I have paid my respects to many people lying in a coffin and have experienced different emotions. Death seems so final. Or is it?

The Holy Bible, God’s Word, has something to say about life after death. Skeptics may say that the Bible can’t be trusted. But as scholars test the historical reliability of the Bible by the same rigorous criteria that we apply to all historical documents, we learn that the Bible indeed is factual, accurate, and trustworthy. Jesus Christ was born of virgin Mary; He preached the Gospel to the poor and heal the sick; He was crucified on a cross and buried in a tomb; He rose from the dead the third day and appeared to many of his followers.

The jealous Jewish rulers hated Jesus and pushed for him to be crucified. Eventually, after an unfair and biased trial, the Romans crucified him. Two Jewish men who secretly loved and believed in Jesus took his body and buried it in a tomb. Remembering that he prophesied his resurrection after three days, the Jews asked the Romans to provide soldiers to guard the tomb and keep it secure.

A few times during his ministry Jesus Himself spoke of his own death and resurrection. In Mark 8:31 it says, “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Even those who opposed Jesus recounted what Jesus had predicted. In Matthew 27:62-64, Matthew says, “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.” So not only do we have Jesus predicting his own death and resurrection, we have his opponents recalling what he said and trying to keep it from happening.

It is interesting that these strong Roman soldiers left their post. It is recorded that an angel of God descended from heaven and these soldiers became as dead men before eventually recovering from their shock and running back to the Jewish leaders to tell them what happened. After all, Pilate had placed the Roman guards at the disposal of the Jewish authorities. The Jewish leaders fabricated a lie that the disciples came and stole Jesus’ body away. Somehow the idea of these young disciples of Jesus barely out of their teens overpowering these hardened Roman soldiers and carrying away the body of Jesus doesn’t logically ring true. Also why would the Roman soldiers risk their lives to say they had been negligent, if falling asleep on guard duty held the harshest of punishments? The truth is that an angel came down and rolled the stone back from the tomb to allow witnesses to see that Jesus was not in the grave but had risen just as he said he would.

John, a disciple and an apostle, tells us that on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. After that, she ran and found Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” The Bible then tells us that these two disciples headed for the tomb to check things out themselves in John 20:4-9. “So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”

The resurrection of Jesus was prophesied by King David who penned these words, “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” 

Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. He also appeared to his disciples and other believers in various places and occasions, showing them his wounds and eating with them. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthian church wrote… “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present… After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”

After spending a few weeks with his disciples and proving that he had indeed risen from the dead Jesus gave them last minute instructions. “He commanded them that they should not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”   And in that baptism of the Holy Spirit, Jesus told them that they will receive power to be witnesses of Him in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and ultimately all over the world.

Then, after he had spoken to his disciples one last time, God took Jesus back to himself in heaven. “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”

In the book of Revelation, the writer says that he saw a vision of a living Jesus and his response was one of awe and worship. “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.”

Praise God. Jesus is indeed alive forever more.