The Evidence For The Resurrection
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:14 If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
Paul is talking 15 years after the fact, and he is saying to Agrippa in Acts 25 & 26, “Produce the body -- go ahead and try.” You have to remember that all the Roman officials and religious leaders of Judea desperately would have liked to stop the spread of Christianity. Nobody had more motivation than the leaders of the religion and the government of Judea to stop this thing, and they couldn’t stop it! You have the female disciples who claimed to see Jesus raised from the dead on Easter morning. Then you have the disciples who claimed to have seen Jesus a number of times over the next 40 days. You also have the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Paul also talks in I Corinthians 15 about 500 people who saw Jesus Christ risen speaking to them all at once. This is the way he preached the Gospel saying, “Most of the people who saw Him are still alive. Go talk to them and check them out!”
Back then the evidence for the resurrection was much stronger. It was easier for the individual to go check out the evidence. You could talk to eyewitnesses. You could look at the tomb. The message was spreading all over the world, and there was nothing the people could do about it. Paul had that kind of confidence! What does Agrippa say? He doesn’t say anything. He can’t say anything.
The first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women! Women were of such low estate in society and culture in those days that their testimony was not admissible in court? Therefore, if you’re going to make up a story to try to show that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, you would never have had women as the first eyewitnesses. So why do all the documents say that women were the first people whom Jesus appeared to? Because it’s true! There is nothing about the gospels that looks like fabrication. Not only that, but it’s also hard to believe that if there were ringleaders for this hoax that they all would have died for the hoax. The evidence is mighty overwhelming!
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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