BODY COUNT Explaining the Disappearance and Reappearance of Jesus Atheist Bertrand Russell, who doubted Jesus' very existence, assumed that the resurrection of the body was impossible. In 1926, Russell wrote, "I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my own ego will survive."1 Well, that's cheerful. Russell clearly bordered on the morose, but we've all wondered, with perhaps more optimism, what will happen to us when we die. Death has been called "the great equalizer." Thousands of stone markers surrounded by spacious green lawns tell the stories. Nobel Prize winners. Beauty queens. Billionaires. Presidents. All die. Someday it will be our turn. Are we to despair with Russell, or is there hope? According to the New Testament, Jesus' resurrection has given us hope for eternal life beyond the grave. All of Christianity hinges on that one promise. Theologian R. C. Sproul has stated, “The claim of resurrection is vital to Christianity. If Christ has been raised from the dead by God, then He has the credentials and certification that no other religious leader possesses. Buddha is dead. Mohammad is dead. Moses is dead. Confucius is dead. But, according to … Christianity, Christ is alive.”2 So different and so abnormal is all this that a part of us would like to dismiss it as myth. But is the resurrection to be relegated to a Sunday school story—or is there evidence? (Next)