Modern scholarship in recent times has begun to realize that the events in the Gospels are highly symbolic even in a lot of the seemingly minor details in the life of Christ and his miracles. This symbolism in the Gospels and throughout the rest of the Bible suggests that Biblical history may be more history allegorized than history embellished over time with successive retellings. Similarly, when we look at the Book of Revelation, we see that the various events in this prophecy suspiciously point to various events in and around Israel’s First-Century war with Rome told in extravagant symbolism like a plague of hundred-pound hale or water turned to blood (see the commentary in revelationrevolution.org and Why a Fully Consistent Approach to Biblical Exegesis Implies the Creation of Genesis 1 Is Not About the Physical Creation of the Cosmos and Why Noah’s Flood Also Appears to Have Been an Historical Parable about a War).
Jesus’ miracles seem to very often symbolize the resurrection or events surrounding the resurrection like events in the tribulation leading up to this final climatic event. If the Bible is history allegorized and the events of the Bible especially in the New Testament often symbolize the resurrection or events surrounding the resurrection, what about Jesus’ resurrection? If the Bible is history allegorized, did Jesus truly and literally rise from the grave?
If Jesus’ miracles like the healing of the sick, restoring sight to the blind, and curing the lame seem to represent the resurrection of the dead, what does Jesus’ own resurrection symbolize? How could Jesus’ resurrection be nonliteral if everything symbolic ultimately points to it? If Jesus’ resurrection symbolizes something other than the resurrection itself, this means that all of Jesus’ miracles as well as all the other events in the Bible that symbolize the resurrection also symbolize this one thing. What could that be? In the Bible what event is more significant or important than the resurrection? If no answer immediately comes to mind that thing probably does not exist. In other words, if the resurrection is the climax or the grand finale of Biblical history and if everything in some way points to the resurrection, then Jesus’ resurrection cannot itself symbolize anything else. The buck stops at the resurrection, there is no event in the Bible that is bigger, more important, or more significant than this single event. In other words, if Jesus’ miracles represent something to do with the resurrection, then Jesus’ resurrection miracle is itself the fulfillment of these other events and would not and could not represent or concern any other event. Jesus’ must have literally resurrected from the dead as this miracle cannot signify anything else (see How Can Papias’ View of the Resurrection be Reconciled with Preterism?).
If Jesus did not truly rise from the dead because the miracle of the resurrection was a symbol of something else it is hard to explain the words and deeds of the disciples who seem to have taught a literal resurrection and many died as martyrs for this fact and with this hope. Most historians deny a literal resurrection as such an event seems naturalistically impossible. But is rising from the dead impossible? Although I do believe Jesus’ resurrection was a miracle, there is something called the Lazarus effect. The Lazarus effect is when the heart starts beating again moments or even hours after failed recusation. First described in medical journals in 1982 there have been 38 cases of the Lazarus effect to date. Could Jesus’ death and resurrection have been another example of the Lazarus effect? Is it harder to believe that Jesus rose from the dead due to the Lazarus effect or that a transcendent God exists that raised Jesus from the dead or that something as complex as the universe spontaneously emerged from nothing? These are important questions to ponder.