Here is the Amazing Thing!!!!
As Christians, we are expected to accept a lot of things by faith alone. I am really glad that the Resurrection isn't one of them! Let's look at the mountain of evidence that proves Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose on the third day1
The four Gospels were written and circulated while eyewitnesses were still alive. No one disputed the accounts of Jesus' resurrection.
Biblical and Pagan writers wrote about the risen Lord.
No one claimed to have taken the body of Jesus.
The body of Jesus was never found.
The tomb of Jesus was guarded by Roman soldiers. If someone had taken the body of Jesus the soldiers would have to forfeit their lives for failing to keep the body secure.
Most of the eyewitnesses died because of their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. They died because the Resurrection was true!
The resurrected Jesus was seen by people who knew Him in life. He had a real body that could be touched. He spoke with an audible voice. He ate real food. He appeared to men and women, at different places and at different times of the day. He even appeared to a crowd!
The grave clothes were left behind. They were still wrapped! The napkin laid over His face was folded and placed to the side. It's impossible to get a body out of the grave clothes without unwrapping the body!
Jesus' death and resurrection was not a random event. It was prophesied centuries before it happened and it fulfilled every prophecy to the letter!
None of the eyewitnesses ever recanted their claim that Jesus rose from the dead!
The 12 Disciples died horrible deaths and never once did they change their claim that Jesus rose from the dead!
It was over a generation before someone claimed the resurrection didn't happen.
Here is what Lord Darling, a former Lord Chief Justice of England, had to say about the Resurrection:
“We, as Christians, are asked to take a very great deal on trust: the teachings, for example, and the miracles of Jesus. If we had to take all on trust, I, for one, should be skeptical. The crux of the problem of whether Jesus was or was not what he proclaimed himself to be, must surely depend on the truth or otherwise of the resurrection. On that greatest point we are not merely asked to have faith. In its favor as a living truth there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in the verdict that the resurrection story is true”.
Why is the Resurrection so Important?
If the Resurrection isn't true then nothing else is either! I believe that's why God in His wisdom made sure the Resurrection could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt!
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