Ploughboy

For me the most convincing proof is changed lives. The transformed lives of the disciples, and the millions of transformed lives since, including my own. We can only be truly convinced of the resurrection power of Jesus by experiencing the fact that he lives today in our own lives transforming dead lives into living realities.

The disciples were totally demoralised hiding for fear of the Jews, the only people who showed any courage were a bunch of women, who were the first witnesses; not the people you would have chosen as witnesses if you were making the story up as women were not allowed as witnesses in Jewish law courts. However for some reason this group of people suddenly became enboldened preaching the gospel fearless and incredibly effective. The only reason I can think of for this is Jesus ressurection and the subsequent giving of the Spirit as in the bible.

The only motive anyone would have would be to 'stage' a ressurection, this could have only been the disciples including Joseph, however could they have lived such tansformed lives many of them going to a martyr's death if they had had to live their lives based on a total lie I find this totally unbelievable.

I think neither the disciples nor the enemies expected him to rise but they did expect that someone might steal the body hence the guard. The disciples were totally dispirited and scared and certainly did not behave as though they expected the resurrection even though Jesus had spoken fairly plainly to them about it before his death. In fact for me the total change in the disciples after pentecost is the surest proof I know that the resurrection did actually happen.