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Dear Friends,

We are continuing our journey through Part 4 of The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona. Part 4 addresses additional objections to the Christian resurrection story.

Last time, I concluded my response to the claim that the evidence bases for Mormon and Christian beliefs are similar. Today, so help me God, I will begin to address a similar claim: That Resurrection sightings are no more believable than Elvis or alien sightings. Today, we’ll just look at the Elvis half of this two-part claim.

More naturalistic arguments against the Resurrection

• “If atheism is true, then Jesus did not rise”
• “The Resurrection doesn’t prove God’s existence”
• “Jesus never died, so there was no resurrection”
• “Reports of Jesus’ appearances differ little from the reports of the angel’s appearance to Joseph Smith”
• “Reports of the Resurrection are no more believable than today’s reports of Elvis and alien sightings”
• “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”

“Reports of the Resurrection are no more believable than today’s reports of Elvis sightings”

We’ll simply treat the “Elvis is alive” theory like we treated the Christ-Resurrection theory. Namely, we will look at the Minimal Facts that we cited in defense of the Christ-Resurrection theory, and ask if any similar facts can be marshaled in defense of the Elvis is alive theory.

In the below analysis, I’ll make numerous references to previous posts in this series of mine on the Resurrection. For example, if I say “see post #10 in linked outline above”, and you want to see said post, just scroll up, click to expand the outline of links at the top of this page, and click on the link for post #10. I do this instead of sprinkling the post with too many hyperlinks because I think it’s less stressful for the reader. If you disagree, let me know!

Dead or alive

One of the bedrock points in Christian Resurrection belief is the execution via crucifixion of Jesus Christ. How well supported is this belief? I covered this topic previously (see post #10 in linked outline above), but suffice it to say that even wikipedia locates this point within the realm of mainstream scholarly consensus. It shouldn’t be controversial.

By contrast, one of the bedrock points in Elvis mythology is that he faked his death (1), and this idea runs counter to the mainstream consensus, per the LA Times (2):

“The King was dead–on that, at least, the scholars seemed to agree.”

See what I’m saying? We have scholars agreeing on a key premise of Christian Resurrection beliefs, but rejecting a key premise of Elvis-is-alive beliefs.

The King of kings did in fact rise again; the king of rock’n’roll did not, in fact, fake his death.

The Inner Circle

Another “minimal fact” in Christian Resurrection belief is that the early disciples made sincere claims of seeing the risen Jesus. I covered this in 9 previous posts (see links for posts 11-19 in series outline above), so for now I will just say that, again, this is a claim that has very broad scholarly support. In other words, the scholarly consensus is that the disciples actually believed they’d seen the risen Jesus. To me, and many others who have looked at this issue, the best evidence of this sincerity has always been the martyrdoms.

By contrast, Elvis’s inner circle has never, in the 46 years after his supposedly faked death, affirmed the faked-death theory (please correct me if I’m wrong). By contrast, they affirm his actual death. Here’s a video where his ex-wife affirms it (3), and here’s a direct quote from his road manager (4) affirming it:

LARRY KING: What did you make of all the Elvis’ and dead stories? That’s still going on.

ESPOSITO: You mean about still being alive? I mean, that just drives me crazy. I mean, it’s so stupid. The man’s gone. He would never, ever give up his life because he had to sing on stage.

But I can at least try to put myself in the shoes of a conspiracy theorist. Maybe something like, “Of course the inner circle affirms his death. That’s what they have to do to protect him.” My threefold response is:

1. He would most likely be dead by now (his poor health was well documented), so why would they need to still keep the secret? And even if he was alive, whatever mobsters may have been after him would most likely either be dead by now or in a nursing home somewhere.
2.  I don’t present those quotes from his inner circle as a slam dunk argument. I merely present them because they weigh on the side of the mainstream consensus that Elvis is dead.
3. If you still maintain that the inner circle is lying, I would ask this: What kind of stuff would his inner circle be saying if he had really died in 1977? Wouldn’t it be awfully similar to what they have in fact been saying? Interesting…

Once again, the Jesus-rose-again theory is better supported than the Elvis-faked-his-death theory.

Killer 180s

The next two minimal facts are the conversion of the skeptics Saul (AKA Paul) and James (the half-brother of Jesus); I covered these in posts 19 and 20. In short, the idea is that a real appearance of the risen Jesus is the best explanation for the conversion of these two prominent skeptics. From a natural perspective, Paul had everything to lose by converting to Christianity. James, meanwhile, if not convinced of Jesus’s deity while Jesus was alive, would have less reason than ever to convert after Jesus was killed–unless He actually rose again. And yes, the evidence points to James and Paul both paying for their conversions with their own blood.

So, do we have any prominent skeptics of the Elvis-faked-his-death theory who later recanted? Who ended up being killed as the punishment for converting? Or at least lost their jobs or something? When it comes to Elvis-lives theory, I don’t know of any cases even remotely similar to the cases of Paul and James.

The Jesus-lives theory boasts at least two killer 180s. The Elvis-lives theory boasts zero. Are you seeing a pattern here?

The Garden Tomb vs. Graceland

In a survey by Habermas (covered in post 21), 75% of scholars accepted at least one argument in favor of the empty tomb. The empty tomb, of course, is another crucial facet of Jesus-lives theory.

So, are there any scholars (someone with a degree in forensics, or history, or some other relevant field, who has studied Elvis-lives theory) who accept the claim that Elvis is not buried in the grave below?

By Lindsey Turner – Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37834863

As far as I can tell, there aren’t. But, I did find a reputable source, National Geographic, pointing to Graceland (where the photo above was taken) as the location of Elvis’s grave (5)(6).

Yet again, we find broad scholarly support for a key premise of Jesus-lives theory, and zero scholarly support for the equivalent premise of Elvis-lives theory.

Jesus-lives theory: 4      Elvis-lives theory: 0

Jesus died by crucifixion, His earliest followers believed they saw him, Paul and James both converted after Jesus’s death, and the tomb was empty. These four essential premises of Christian Resurrection beliefs have broad scholarly support, and the equivalent claims of Elvis-lives theory do not.

Therefore, I do think that reports of the resurrection are more believable than today’s reports of Elvis sightings.

But where does that leave Elvis?

Listen to these recent comments from his ex-wife about Elvis’s spiritual struggle (7). Along the same lines, I’ve heard multiple people (including a Christian I know and highly respect) comment positively on Elvis’s rendition of How Great Thou Art (I haven’t listened to it). Basically, singing that song that way seems to have left the distinct impression that an actual child of God was singing about his Father. Which, if true, would mean that…wait for it…

Elvis lives!

God bless, and thank you very much…

Links:

(1) Elvis theories on wikipedia

(2) LA Times on Elvis

(3) Priscilla Presley on Elvis

(4) Elvis’s road manager on Elvis

(5) Nat Geo covers 40th anniversary of Elvis’s death

(6) Nat Geo Graceland visitor’s guide

(7) Piers Morgan interviews Priscilla Presley…link will start around 8:10, and listen for about a minute