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Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
—1 Corinthians 15:12-17

In a move almost certainly designed to garner attention, director James Cameron, who directed box office hits like Titanic, made a public announcement that archaeologists had discovered the actual body of Jesus. And they claimed they could back it up with DNA evidence.

Now here’s how it all played out. According to TIME magazine, back in 1980, a construction crew accidentally uncovered a tomb in suburban Jerusalem that had a bunch of bone boxes—or ossuaries—inside. And inscribed in the sides of those boxes were names like Jesus and Mary and Joseph and Judas and Jose—which of course, are some of the names associated with Jesus’ family in the New Testament. And the point they’re trying to make, of course, is that Jesus must still be dead because in essence, they found His coffin.

Now, before anybody gets their tail in a knot one way or the other, this isn’t the first time somebody has claimed to prove that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. From the Passover Plot to The Da Vinci Code, people have been trying for years to prove that Jesus never rose from the grave. And right away, there are a number of questions I must ask about this:

First of all, there have been some claims that they used DNA evidence to prove that it is Jesus. And what I want to know is how in the world you check a body’s DNA to prove it’s Jesus. For that to happen, you must have a DNA sample you know is Jesus’ to compare it with—so just about the only thing they can prove is whether or not the bodies in that grave were related to each other. And given they were buried together, a common practice for families even today, that’s a no-brainer. The DNA tests also proved the “Jesus” in the tomb wasn’t related to a second “Mary” who was also in the tomb, which they claim is evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. But of course, her name on the tomb wasn’t Magdalene it was Mariamene. And that makes it all a bit of a wishful stretch.

Then consider what New Testament expert Richard Bauckham from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland says: These names are so common that the odds of it actually being the family of the Jesus of the Bible are actually really, really low. In essence, they just haven’t proved anything.

Now here’s the question I really want to ask. Why is it that so many people actually want Jesus dead? I mean, if you take God out of the picture, what do you have left? When the philosopher Nietzsche tried to figure that out, he lost his mind. So why would people be eager to put Jesus back in a grave? Maybe for the same reason they wanted Him dead almost 2,000 years ago—they’re afraid He might have something to say that actually will require them to face the sinful issues in their own hearts head on.

You know, frankly, it’s going to take a lot more than a publicity stunt to pull down the Christian faith. Far too many people saw Jesus to explain this away as a conspiracy or a stunt pulled by the disciples. Frankly, you must ask why His followers would secretly bury His body and then publicly preach that He had risen from the dead. Don’t forget, with the exception of John, they all lost their lives for it. And if Jesus of Nazareth was actually buried in a family tomb in the city of Jerusalem, then why didn’t the enemies of the early Christian church just go and pull His body out to be done with it?

The answer is simple: Jesus isn’t dead. Because of that, you have hope. And judging by the despair of those who think that life really ends at the grave, knowing better is just a better way to live.