A nonmaterial resurrection has no evidential value. If Christ did not rise in the same material body placed in the tomb, then the Resurrection loses its value as an evidence for His claim to be God. However, Jesus often offered His resurrection as a proof of His claims (John 2:19-22; 10:18).

On one occasion He offered it as the unique sign of who He is, declaring that no other sign would be given to that unbelieving generation (Matt. 12:40).

The apostles also offered Jesus' resurrection appearances as "many convincing proofs" (Acts 1:3). They used the Resurrection as the basis of their fearless preaching of Christ over and over again (Acts. 2:22-36; 4:2,10; 13:32-41; 17:1-4,22-31). Paul told the philosophers of his day that God "has given proof...to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

There is a very good reason for this repeated connection between the fact of the physical resurrection and the truth of Christianity: there is no real evidential difference between an immaterial resurrection and no resurrection at all. An immaterial body has no verifiable connection with a material body. The only objective way the world could know that Christ rose was if He rose in the same material body in which He died. As the poet John Updike powerfully stated,

Make no mistake; if He rose at all

it was as His body,

if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the

molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,

the Church will fail.