Scriptures and the Resurrection

As we approach Easter and commemorate as Christians the resurrection of the Savior, I’ve been thinking about the scriptural witnesses that Christ truly was raised from the dead.  In the New Testament the resurrection has more evidence for it than any other miracle that the Savior did.  We read how Mary Magdalene, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the apostles without Thomas, the apostles with Thomas, and the apostles at the sea of Galilee all saw and heard the voice of the risen Savior after His death.  Paul also testified that the resurrected Christ “was seen of above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Corinthians 15:6).  Luke wrote that Christ “shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).  So He wasn’t just seen one day and then disappeared, but he continued to minister to them in the flesh with His resurrected body for nearly six weeks.  Surely there could be no mistaking it for the early Saints; their Lord had indeed risen from the dead and lived with a physical body.  If we accept the Bible then we must believe that Christ lives with a resurrected body.

               Despite the clear testimony of the Bible, throughout the ages the fact that the Savior lives with a resurrected body has not been universally accepted in Christianity.  One of the great messages of the Restoration is a host of numerous other witnesses that Christ indeed conquered death and lives today.  Each of the three standard works that we have through the Prophet Joseph Smith declare in perfect clarity of the reality of the resurrected, living Christ.  The Book of Mormon does so in numerous places, the most important of which is the account of the ministry of the Lord among the Nephites.  He came down among them from heaven saying, “Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I… have been slain for the sins of the world” (3 Nephi 11:14).  He stayed with them for numerous days and at least 2500 (probably many more) people were witness to His resurrection.  Many years later Moroni also witnessed of Christ’s reality: “Then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face” (Ether 12:39).  He testified that Christ truly had a body and was a living person, even though this was over 300 years after His death.  Along with the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price also testifies of the Living Christ in the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  He recorded, “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.  One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son.  Hear Him!” (JSH 1:17).  Joseph saw the Father and the Son alive with physical bodies, and he witnessed that the Son truly did speak to him face to face.

               The Doctrine and Covenants stands as yet another witness of the reality of the Savior’s resurrection.  In an early revelation the Lord testified Himself saying, “The Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.  And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on condition of repentance” (D&C 18:11-12).  In another section Joseph Smith testified in these words of a vision that he and Sidney Rigdon had of the Savior: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father” (D&C 76:22-23).  In another experience in the newly constructed Kirtland Temple, the prophet recorded, “We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit….  His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying: I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:2-4). 

These are only some of the verses that witness of the Resurrection in the scriptures of the Restoration, but these alone should be enough to help the Christian world embrace these holy texts as scripture and as new witnesses of the reality of the resurrection and the Living Christ.  We rejoice in all scripture that points us to Christ and strengthens our faith in a literal resurrection and living Savior today and add our witness with that of the apostles today: “Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God.  He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father.  He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.”