Hope in Action/Answers
The oldest skeptical theory still has to explain Pentecost.
Did the Disciples Steal the Body?
Matthew says the guards were paid to say the disciples stole the body while they slept. Think about that sentence. Sleeping guards are not witnesses. A stolen body does not appear to five hundred people, or turn James, or flatten Paul on the Damascus road. Theft was the best rival story they had. It was not good.
Motive, means, and a missing payoff
The disciples had just scattered. They expected a kingdom, not a cross. Stealing a corpse from a sealed, guarded tomb in order to preach a resurrection they knew was false — then dying for it — is not a plan. It is a movie plot nobody in the first century would survive.
Every alternative (swoon, theft, hallucination, legend) dies on a different hill. The resurrection is still standing.
“Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, “He has risen from the dead.” So the last deception will be worse than the first.”
Matthew 27:64 (NKJV)
A 30-second check
Do you think the disciples stole the body?
No hassle. Just whether the theft theory works.
Before you come
Saturdays · 5:00 PM
Rocket Town Church · 4525 Apollo Road, Titusville
- Arrive 10–15 minutes early the first time
- Kids checked in with a matching security tag
- Come as you are — jeans or Sunday best
- 75–90 minutes. Coffee from Pier 13
Plan your visit
Saturdays · 5:00 PM
We’ll have a gift waiting for you.
Send your name ahead. We’ll meet you in the lobby and walk kids to check-in.
Rocket Town Church · 4525 Apollo Road · Titusville, FL 32780
If they had the body, they would have used it
The priests and the governor had every incentive to end the rumor. Produce the remains. They produced a story instead. That is the tell.
Come hear why an empty grave is still the loudest fact in the world — and why it has your name on the invitation.
“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.”
Acts 2:32 (NKJV)