“If, indeed, there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised up.

1 Corinthians 15:13-18.

“He appeared to upward of five hundred brothers at one time . . . After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; but last of all he appeared also to me.”​—1 Corinthians 15:6-8

Paul opened with a statement that can hardly be disputed: If the dead are not to be raised, then Christ, who died, could not have been raised to life.