And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17 (ESV)

Many people have attempted to disprove, or at least dismiss, Christianity based on its exclusive claim that faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation, its teaching on gender and sexual ethics, as well as its teaching on hell and divine judgment. The task, however, is far simpler than that.

Christianity primarily consists of historical claims regarding the life of Jesus. These would include his virgin birth, his perfect life of obedience, and the miracles recorded in the gospels such as healing the sick, raising Lazarus from the dead, or feeding thousands with a few loaves of bread and a handful of fish. However, the most outlandish and weighty claim is that Jesus was literally and physically raised from the dead and that his resurrected body was publicly witnessed by a number of people. The Bible itself admits that if Jesus was not raised and is still dead, then Christianity, regardless of how inspiring or helpful one might find it, doesn’t matter. However, if he was raised, then we should pay close attention to everything he said, regardless of how backwards it may sound to our modern sensibilities.

If you want to disprove Christianity, all you need is Jesus’ dead body. This would discredit the Christian message today as quickly as it would have 2,000 years ago. But if you can not produce a body, then perhaps you should reconsider Christianity.