First, the Church teaches on “the third day he rose again” (creed), and the Resurrection “is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 638) which is “a fact that historically took place” (JPII, Jan. 25th, 1989), but is not merely a “supernatural” claim blindly accepted that cannot be demonstrated, because human reason can acquire “full certitude” of the resurrection (Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, April 26, 1884), which the Church insists is “properly a fact of the historical order (Pope Pius X, Lamentabili sane exitu, 1907). 

Second, the New Testament authors wrote in a style consistent with other reputable ancient historians (like Josephus, Lucian, and Quintilian) who taught that good history meant relying on eyewitness testimony and the biographer’s personal close proximity to the events. For example, the Gospels were written within a few decades of Jesus’ crucifixion, far closer to the actual life of Jesus than the 372-year gap between Alexander the Great’s death (323 BC) and his first major biography (first century AD) — yet no one questions Alexander’s historicity. 

By the same logic, the Gospels’ reliability is firmly within the norms of ancient historiography. Therefore, no serious secular scholar denies that Jesus was an historical figure of the first century AD, crucified under Roman power, whose followers bore witness to his resurrection. The biblical and extra-biblical sources all confirm that Jesus was indeed crucified by the Romans — an excruciating death involving flogging, nails, severe blood loss, and a spear-thrust to ensure no survivor could simply “walk it off” three days later while calmly saying, “Peace be with you.”

Moreover, shortly after the Gospels were written, an intriguing piece of late first-century graffiti from the Palatine Hill in Rome shows a man named Alexamenos worshiping a figure on a cross with a donkey’s head, mocking Christians for worshipping a crucified God. Clearly, no one in the Ancient World disputed that the Roman authorities had crucified Jesus; the real question was why anyone would worship a man who died in such shameful fashion! While skeptics in antiquity accepted Jesus’ existence, crucifixion, and the claim to supernatural power, they scorned the notion of worshiping one so humiliated. 

Meanwhile, Jesus’ followers willingly faced persecution, torture, and martyrdom, making it highly unlikely they fabricated the resurrection for personal gain — like charlatans. Indeed, they did not expect a bodily resurrection — hence the blessed women’s confusion, “They have taken the Lord’s body” — much less a conspiracy to fake one. And yet, they insisted they had encountered him alive after his death where he is touched and eats fish, and even bodily ascends to heaven. 

The historical truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus recounted in these historically reliable texts, predicted in these same texts by Jesus, fits the claim: Jesus Christ is Risen! However, the Resurrection is not “true because I believe it” and so my faith makes it real — thus, it is my truth vs. your truth — but real and true in the same sense any verifiable ancient event is true: It happened and is tested by consistent documentation, eyewitness testimony, and the willingness of its initial witnesses to risk their lives for what they had seen.