1 Corinthians 15:20

But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.

The only historical fact that could have produced the phenomenon known as Christianity was that cited here, the resurrection of Christ. There are no intelligent explanations aside from this. The very existence of Christianity is proof enough that Christ actually arose from the dead. Only the spiritually blind or willfully evil mind may deny it.

The firstfruits of them that are asleep ... It is this connection of Christ's resurrection with all that is implied and prophesied by it that should be noted. See under 1 Corinthians 15:16, above. One of the great Jewish festivals was just approaching, in which the firstfruits of the harvest were waved before the Lord; and, as surely as the first sheaves of the harvest carried a pledge of that harvest, so the resurrection of Christ carried a pledge of the resurrection of all people.