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Likewise the change in behavior of the apostles from a cowardly set of deserters who fled and went into hiding after the crucifixion really does require something akin to the resurrection appearances for its explanation. Take away those appearances and we are at a loss to explain how Christianity could ever have became established as a major religion.
The incredible, almost logarithmic rate of spread of the Christian religion from Palestine via Syria and its neighbors, to Greece thence Rome and finally throughout the Roman Empire as far as Spain, Britain, and Ireland, demands explanation. What did this religion have that allowed it to displace virtually all others?
It could scarcely have been the ideas brought to our notice in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 & 6) for, though they attracted lip service, they had little popular appeal as an actual way of living. So what gave Christianity its enormous drawing power that allowed its proselytes to defy persecution, or even being fed to the lions in Roman amphitheatres?
Irrational fear of punishment by an offended deity for committed sin dates back a long way--at least 2,500 years to Zoroaster in Persia and to the 'mystery' religions. This fear had been brought back from the east by Roman soldiers and sailors and had become widespread by the time of Jesus' crucifixion.
Jesus' death and resurrection provided a ready-made means of allaying such fear if it was looked upon as having been a sacrificial offering to God in payment for the sins of mankind. Once this concept was put forward, the early Christians must have found it was tremendously successful in attracting new adherents--and this despite the built-in anomaly of promoting a God who is perfect love yet is also one who demands the sacrifice of death on the cross of his Son as an offering in payment for our sins!
The fact that this strange anomaly has remained firmly entrenched in all mainline Christian churches--yet unrecognised as even being an anomaly--is indicative of how firmly entrenched in the human psyche is the fear of divine punishment for unforgiven sin.
Summarizing this evidence we conclude that the veracity of Jesus' resurrection appearances was critical for the establishment of the early "Jesus movement"--but that the belief that Jesus' death on the cross as payment for our sins was of overriding importance for the establishment and continuing existence of Christianity.
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