Dr. Ron Charles
24th April 2011

Dr. Ron Charles, the noted Christian historian, spoke about many convincing proofs about the true nature of our Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection. These facts were sourced from many different writings, many of which were non-biblical. Praise God for His love for us is immense and beyond anything we can fathom. Below are some of Dr. Ron Charles’ key findings.

• There are 129 recorded events about our Lord Jesus’ life. 111 of those are also recorded by non-biblical writers such as the Roman court historians. Roman historians were required to truthfully record an event – they were severely punished if they didn’t.
• There were atleast 2 roman historians who recorded the trial and death of our Lord. One was the court historian in Pontius Pilot’s court and the other was the Roman historian appointed to record events in the Sanhedrin, which was the highest ranking Jewish authority.
• The Romans were very organized. They had specific days in the year when they meted out capital punishment . It is believed that those days were January 2nd, April 2nd and September 2nd. It is likely that Christ was crucified on April 2nd. Jerusalem was the seat of judgment for capital punishment for the East Empire.
• It is not known how many days our Lord Jesus spent at Caiaphas house. He was physically abused there.
• Pilot did not find anything criminal in our Lord and he wrote a 15-page report documenting this.
• Herod was in town for the Passover feast. He met our Lord Jesus. Herod’s guard also physically abused our Lord. Herod questioned our Lord and sent Him back to Pilot with a document that is currently on display in Rome. Herod also could not find bases to convict our King.
• When our Lord was flogged, it is likely that He was flogged according to the Roman law (100 lashes) as against the Jewish law (39 lashes). The whip was made of about 12 leather straps braided with chips of pottery, glass, iron and steel.
• Crucifying someone was expensive and Romans used flogging as a means of escaping the cost incurred from crucifixion. There were 3 ‘whippers’ and the purpose of whipping was to kill the person being flogged so that the state needn’t bear the burden of crucifying them. There was a law that rewarded the whippers with one talent of gold or the prisoners weight in silver if the prisoner died during their session. So the whippers flogged our Lord with the intention of killing Him. Roman historians who recorded this event say that our Lord didn’t scream, beg for mercy or proclaim His innocence as normal people did.
• Romans believed that if a man didn’t die during flogging, then He was reserved for crucifixion and therefore must not bleed to death. So, as per their practice, they immersed our Lord’s bleeding body in a vat of salt water. He was then taken away for a grueling 18 hours of ridicule and torture. This is when He received the crown of thorns and was spat upon by atleast 300 roman soldiers.
• By this time our Lord was severely disfigured and unrecognizable.
• They were nearly 50 people who were crucified that same day with our Lord. There was a hillock with holes and spikes already in place. The condemned men had to carry their own horizontal piece of the cross. It is recorded that it took our Lord atleast two and a half hours to travel to the hill.
• Robbers were tied to the cross and those accused of treason were nailed to the cross. Our Lord Jesus was accused of treason. He was the only One crucified for treason that day.
• Medical science tells us that our nerve endings terminate in our feet. As we walk they are messaged and that keeps us healthy. As the roman soldiers drove the nails into our Lord’s feet, the nerve endings exploded and in that moment, our Lord experienced the pain and symptom of every major illness that has ever attacked our body, all together simultaneously. And yet He was able to say “Father forgive them…” What a wonderful God we have.
• Our Lord did die – He wasn’t in a coma nor was He drugged and lay in comatose state for three days. And He did rise again from the dead.
• There was a watch of soldiers who guarded the entrance of His tomb. A watch was meant to be atleast 60 roman soldiers. 16 of this group were from the roman auxiliary camp which were made of Jewish soldiers.  This retinue of guards would have been enough to dissuade anyone from trying to steal His body. Yet, the grave was found empty.
• The Romans were very meticulous – they accounted for everyone who belonged to the kingdom, even those who were dead. Grave robbers were killed, if they were caught.
• Pilot feared repercussions, so he sent 60 soldiers to guard the tomb.
• After the resurrection, it is said that Pilot sent an envoy of over 1700 – 2000  soldiers to interview all those who knew Jesus and to find Him or to atleast find out what happened. Records of these events show that there were no testimonies about anyone stealing Jesus’ body. Instead they are filled with testimonies about how our Lord healed and helped people. The Roman historian recorded that the tomb was empty because he himself went to the tomb to verify the facts.
• 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 is the only Biblical recording of an important meeting that took place in the days following our Lord’s resurrection. It was probably a month after the resurrection. The event was also recorded by a member of the Theophilus Commission, a commission established by Caesar to report on revolutionaries or leaders that showed potential to cause an uprising. A member of this Commission attended this meeting of atleast 500 people, including the disciples and other leaders. They met to discuss the investigation that the Romans were conducting. The disciples probably stood up and said that they had indeed seen our Lord Jesus alive and that He had appeared to them. As they discussed this, Lord Jesus appeared to all those present as well. He spoke to them for about 15 – 30 mins. The report of the member of the Commission concludes with the following words ‘I don’t know who He was, I don’t know who He is, but I know that He is more than a man.’

Praise God that He loves us so much that He gave of His own life to make a way for us to be with Him forever. Let us never doubt His love for us.