DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD - PART 7

                                               DID JESUS RISE             FROM THE DEAD?
                                                 PART 7

  (copied from
   Y-Jesus.com)


Consistent to the End

As if the eyewitness reports were not enough to challenge Morison's skepticism, he was also baffled by the disciples' behavior. A fact of history that has stumped historians, psychologists, and skeptics alike is that these eleven former cowards were willing to suffer humiliation, torture, and death. All but one of Jesus disciples were slain as martyrs. Would they have done so much for a lie?  

The terrorists on September 11th proved that some will die for a false cause they believe in. Yet to be a willing martyr for a known lie is insanity. 

As Paul Little wrote :  "Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not however die for what they know is a lie. "

Jesus' disciples behaved  in a manner consistent with a genuine belief that their leader was alive. No one has adequately explained why the disciples would be willing to die for a known lie. But even if they all conspired to lie about Jesus' resurrection, how could they have kept the conspiracy going for decades without at least one of them selling out for money or position? 

 Moreland wrote : "Those who lie for personal gain do not stick together for very long, especially when hardship decreases the benefits."

Chuck Colson, implicated in the Watergate scandal during President Nixon's administration, pointed out the difficulty of several people maintaining a lie for an extended period of time.

"I know that the
 resurrection is a fact and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 
12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised
 from the dead, and they then proclaimed the truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured it if it weren't true. 

Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world - and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks.  You're telling me 12 apostles could keep  a lie for 40 years?  Absolutely impossible!"

Something happened that changed everything for these men and women, Morison acknowledged : "Whoever comes to this problem has sooner or later to confront a fact that cannot be explained away - This fact is that ..... a profound conviction came to this little group of people - a change that attests to the fact that Jesus had risen from the grave." 

next post  16th August