By the first century, Rome had conquered a vast region of the known world, from modern-day Portugal on the west, to what we now call Iran and Iraq on the east. Rome controlled the largest portion of what would become Great Britain at the northern tip of the empire and portions of modern Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt on the southern edge. At its peak, 60 to 70 million people lived under Roman rule, and they worshiped a vast array of mythical gods.
Rome’s early governing strategy was simple: allow each conquered people group to retain their gods so long as these deities were assimilated into the pantheon of Roman gods. Mythical deities were popular at this point in history, including Mithras, Osiris, Attis, Adonis, Heracles, Dionysus and Serapis. You might have read about some of these gods in an ancient history class, but none of these relics are worshiped today.
Yet, duly noted on the timeline of world history, first-century Rome also ushered in an unlikely candidate for global transformation. To paraphrase the famous poem “One Solitary Life,” He was born in a tiny, irrelevant town and raised in an insignificant village. Jesus walked from one place to the next, and as an adult, never traveled more than 200 miles from the town where He was born. The locals suspected He was an illegitimate son, and His mother and father were poor peasants. He didn’t receive an expensive education, never married, never had children and never owned a home of His own. He only appeared for a short time before public opinion turned against Him and most of His followers abandoned, betrayed or denied Him. He was rejected by the religious, hunted by the powerful, mocked and unjustly persecuted by His enemies. He suffered an unfair trial, was publicly humiliated, brutally beaten and unduly executed in the most horrific way. Even then, the few followers who remained had to borrow a grave to bury Him.
Yet this man—Jesus of Nazareth—changed history, introduced a whole new calendaring system, and forever transformed the most important and revered aspects of human culture. He is still worshiped today, while the vast majority of first-century gods are long forgotten. How is this possible? What differentiated Jesus from all the other gods worshiped in the Roman Empire? It’s simple: Jesus rose from the grave and was observed by eyewitnesses following His resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus is true. It can be confirmed by direct evidence: the testimony of eyewitnesses. The worshipers of Mithras, Osiris, Attis and others placed their trust in ancient mythologies based on folklores rather than verifiable, recorded history. Those who observed the resurrection of Jesus, on the other hand, testified about Jesus based on their own firsthand observations. More than 100 of His followers gathered following His ascension. On another occasion, He appeared to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still available to the readers of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:6).
The evidential nature of Christianity provided it with a unique advantage. The resurrection, locked in the timeline of history and documented by eyewitnesses, distinguished Christianity from every first-century religious claim in the Roman Empire, and continues to do so today.
Fast forward to 1996. Jesus was still being worshiped across the region of the now fallen ancient Roman Empire, and He was also being celebrated as far away as Southern California. That’s where I learned about Him. I was 35 at the time, a committed atheist and a homicide detective. I found myself in a church service, sitting dutifully with my wife. The pastor that day described Jesus as “the smartest man who ever lived.” I was provoked enough to buy a Bible to see what was so smart about this ancient sage. That led me to the Gospels. As I read them, I began to recognize characteristics of eyewitness testimony, given that I had interviewed hundreds of witnesses by that time in my law enforcement career.
Was the story about Jesus true? I decided to test the Gospel authors by asking the same four qu