Proving The Resurrection By the Minimal Facts Approach

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When I mentioned Paul, I had in mind his report of his own experience of the risen Christ, which is clearly not physical in nature. As for his memorized formula, at the risk of nit-picking, there is nothing there that necessitates an interpretation that he is speaking of a bodily resurrection -- of a person literally walking out of a tomb. It merely states that Jesus was buried and raised on the third day before appearing before a number of witnesses. For all we know, these 'appearances' could have been 'spiritual' in nature as Paul's alleged experience seems to have been. He doesn't really say there was an empty tomb. The empty tomb stories we have are from the Gospels, which come later.