Did Jesus Die in Pakistan? Examining the Evidence

Christian belief about Jesus’ death on the cross is rooted in history

Christianity is rooted in God’s work in history. There is a connection between what Christians believe and what God has done in the world He created. The Christian J. Gresham Machen wrote:

The primitive Church was concerned not merely with what Jesus had said, but also, and primarily, with what Jesus had done. The world was to be redeemed through the proclamation of an event. And with the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history; the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried”–that is history. “He loved me and gave Himself for me”–that is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive Church. Christianity and Liberalism, 25,26

The relationship between Christian belief and history is important because hundreds of millions of Muslims deny the historical event of Jesus’ death on the cross. Faith (including secular assumptions about the impossibility of miracles!) does not establish the truth or falsehood of historical events. Rather, the Hebrew-Christian faith “arose out of the historical experiences of Israel, old and new, in which God made Himself known. This fact imparts to the Christian faith a specific content and objectivity which set it apart from others” (George Eldon Ladd). One of Islam’s major deviations from the Abrahamic religions of Judaism and Christianity is that Islam is unhitched from God’s work in history. By this I mean that Islam rests entirely on the recitation and life of a single man and Muhammad’s claims to what happened centuries before him. The significance of this fatal aberration cannot be overemphasized. Some Muslims have tried–unsuccessfully–to resurrect Islam from this fatal flaw by claiming the corruption of previous revelation. The reality is that Islam’s dependence on the recitation of a single man is novel and a corruption of Abrahamic religion.

Hundreds of millions of Muslims deny Jesus’ death on the cross

The Quran claims about the crucifixion:

¹⁵⁷And because of their saying (in boast), “We killed Messiah ‘Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), the Messenger of Allah,” — but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of ‘Iesa (Jesus) was put over another man (and they killed that man), and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not [i.e. ‘Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary)]: ¹⁵⁸But Allah raised him [‘Iesa (Jesus)] up (with his body and soul) unto Himself (and he is in the heavens). And Allah is Ever All-Powerful, All-Wise. (An-Nisa 4:157-158, Muhsin Khan) The Muhsin Khan translation of the Quran’s meaning is often distributed to Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. It is not just an interpretation of the Quran’s meaning but also a commentary on the Quranic text.)

Quran 4:157 is the only verse in the Quran that refers to the crucifixion of Jesus and is the text Muslims have interpreted to mean that Jesus did not die on the cross.

Picture of a man in a bowing posture of worship but his head is buried in the sand. — Can a person see, hear and learn about what God has done in the world He created when they won’t consider the facts?

The Historical Facts of Jesus’ Death on the Cross

The Old Testament prophets testified to Jesus’ death and burial.

Isaiah wrote almost 700 years before Jesus:

Isaiah 53:7-9 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Jesus testified to His death on multiple occasions. It has been my experience that Muslims mistakenly think that the Christian gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are related to the Quranic Injeel (cf. Qur’an 5:46-47; 57:27). If Injeel refers to a holy book sent from heaven to Jesus which Jesus gave His followers, then the Christian gospels are not related to the Quranic Injeel. No such book (Injeel) was ever given to Jesus or His followers. The New Testament was revealed and written after Jesus ascended to heaven. To learn more see, “What every Muslim should know about the Bible.”

Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Matthew 26:1-2 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

Eyewitnesses to the death of Jesus on the cross:

Mary Magdalene
Mary the mother of James and Joseph
Mary the mother of Jesus
The disciple whom Jesus loved (John 19:26)

People who participated in the burial of Jesus’ dead body:

Joseph of Arimathea
Nicodemus
Mary Magdalene
Mary the mother of James and Joseph

Non-Christian sources wrote of Jesus’ death:

Josephus (Jewish historian born around AD 37 and died AD 100) refers to Jesus’ death (Antiquities 18.3.3) The text reads, “When Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross…” This passage, called the Testimonium Flavianum, is disputed, and its entirety should not be accepted as original to Josephus. However, the renowned scholars John P. Meier and Joseph Klausner accept the reference to Jesus’ crucifixion as authentic.
Tacitus (AD 55-120), a renowned historian of ancient Rome wrote around AD 115 that Christ was “executed” by Pilate (Annals 15.44). Muslims sometimes reject the authenticity or relevance of Josephus and Tacitus. But are they able to give the historic evidence for their version of what happened?

Multiple eyewitnesses saw Jesus resurrected: ‘Resurrection’—the word used in the Bible for what happened to Jesus after He was crucified, died, and was buried—refers to the supernatural event of death being undone. It refers to the continuation of Jesus’ same physical body and soul in the process of life, death, and a new glorified life after death. What happened to Jesus after He died on the cross and was buried—‘resurrection’—was a miraculous work of God. ‘Resurrection’ will happen to all people on the Final Day of Judgment, but only those who have been saved from their sin through the blood of Jesus will be glorified and live in the New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 20:11-22:21).

Jesus chose disciples (Apostles) to witness and testify to what He did and taught. One of Jesus’ foremost disciples was Peter. Peter was an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and His ascension into heaven. Peter preached,

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:32–36)

The Apostle Peter saw Jesus after He was crucified. Non-Christians–scholars who do not believe in Jesus’ miracles or His virgin birth–who specialize in biblical studies are increasingly coming to the conclusion,

“It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ”(Gerd Lüdemann, “What Really Happened to Jesus”, p.80.)

Bart Ehrman, an agnostic professor wrote,

“Why, then, did some of the disciples claim to see Jesus alive after his crucifixion? I don’t doubt at all that some of the disciples claimed this…Paul, writing about twenty-five years later, indicates that this is what they claimed, and I don’t think he is making it up. And he knew at least a couple of them, whom he met just three years after the event.”

According to Gary Habermas, there has been an increasing trend of scholarly research that is coming to similar conclusions as Gerd Lüdemann and Bart Ehrman. To learn more, see Gary Habermas’ survey of scholarly publications, Resurrection Research from 1975 to the Present: What are the Critical Scholars Saying?

John was another disciple Jesus chose to witness and testify to what Jesus did and taught. John testified to Jesus’ death and resurrection,

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)

It is a legal requirement of the Mosaic law to believe the testimony about Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

The law/Torah requires that a matter be established by two or three witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:6-7). There were hundreds of witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). Therefore, the testimony of Jesus, Old Testament prophets, Jesus’ followers, non-Christian historians, etc. is true, legal and is to be believed.

Three pictures of a Bible, Quran, and a Judges gavel. — The evidence and facts for Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection are before you. You need to make a judgment based on the facts.

It is irrational to reject God’s works.

Serious problems arise when a person’s beliefs about the world don’t correspond to the real world.

The story is told of a certain psychiatric patient who kept insisting that he was dead. Doctors tried and tried to persuade him that he was alive and not dead with little success. Finally, the decided to prove this by explaining to him scientifically that dead people don’t bleed, only living people.

After observing autopsies, hearing explanations of how the circulatory system works, and reading medical textbooks, the psychiatric patient finally confessed, “All right, I guess only living people bleed.”

As soon as the patient admitted this truth, one of the doctors whipped out a pin and plunged it into the psychiatric patient’s veins. The doctors started shouting, “You’re bleeding. You’re bleeding! What does that mean?”

The psychiatric patient looked at his bleeding arm and exclaimed, “DEAD PEOPLE REALLY DO BLEED!”

In the psychiatric patient’s mind: he was DEAD. But what was in his mind didn’t at all correspond to reality. This story is adapted from John Warwick Montgomery, “Death of the ‘Death of God,’” in Suicide of Christian Theology, 122. Dr. Montgomery’s point is that “if you hold unsound presuppositions with sufficient tenacity, facts will make no difference to you at all.” Islam has a similar problem. Its claim that Jesus did not die on the cross does not correspond to reality. It doesn’t correspond to history. History matters because events that happen in history are true for everyone.

Jesus’ death and resurrection is good news The Qur’an speaks about “good news” (Arabic bushrā), but the Qur’an’s “good news” denies the good news proclaimed in the Christian gospels—and the Christian gospels should never be confused with the Quranic Injeel (see “What Every Christian Should Know About the Qur’an”).

The good news Jesus preached (Greek: euangelizō) and His disciples wrote in the New Testament is about Who Jesus is and what He has accomplished. Christian theologians refer to this as the person and work of Jesus Christ. The person and work of Jesus Christ is the “good news.”

Jesus is both Messenger and Message. The good news is about Jesus because He is the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus fulfilled God’s Law and prophecy, died on the cross for sin, was buried, rose again from the dead, now reigns as King from God’s right hand, and will return to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus not only announced the resurrection. He raised the dead and He is the resurrection and the life,

John 11:25–26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

for all people, because we all will die. Jesus rose again from the dead and you can live forever through faith in Him,

Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Please contact me if you have questions or if you would like to talk further. — Click here, if you have questions, or if you would like to talk further.

I invite you to embrace Christianity as the truth and only way of salvation. Jesus said, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24). Believe in Jesus, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you can have certainty that you will inherit eternal life. This certainty is rooted in what God has done in the real world with respect to the death of Jesus on the cross, His burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.

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