*^»sHa 
 
 I 
 
 V. 
 
 Division 
 
 3S2' 
 
 12 7 
 
 / 
 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/resurrectionofjeOOorda 
 
The % ssm 
 
 Resurrection of Jesus 
 an Historical Fact 
 
 ✓ By 
 
 REV. Z. J. ORDAL, A. B., C. T. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 Augsburg Publishing House 
 1923 
 
Copyrighted, 1923 , by 
 Augsburg Publishing House 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction. 7 
 
 Chapter One. The Veracity and Credibility of 
 
 the Apostles . 9 
 
 Chapter Two. The Significance of the Fact That 
 
 the Apostles Preached. 13 
 
 Chapter Three. Direct Testimony of the Apos¬ 
 tles as Preachers . 18 
 
 Chapter Four. The Central Position of Our 
 Lord’s Resurrection in the Teachings of the 
 Apostles. 30 
 
 Chapter Five. The Facts on Which the Assurance 
 
 of the Eleven Rested . 39 
 
 Chapter Six. Appearances of Jesus with a Spe¬ 
 cial Import: 
 
 I. The Reinstatement of Peter to Apos- 
 
 tleship. 57 
 
 II. The Eleven Receive Their Mission. ... 60 
 
 III. He Departs from Them with His Vis¬ 
 ible Presence . 63 
 
 Chapter Seven. The Fact on Which the Assur¬ 
 ance of Paul Was Based. 67 
 
 Chapter Eight. Are the Facts Considered Suffi¬ 
 cient for Us? . 75 
 
Chapter Nine. Additional Proofs for the Resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus: 
 
 I. The Report of the Guard at the Grave 91 
 
 II. The Rise of the Christian Church. ... 92 
 
 III. The Testimony of the Christian Church 99 
 
 IV. The Testimony of the Enemies. 104 
 
 V. Proofs Deducible from the Arguments 
 
 of Opponents . 108 
 
 VI. The Continued Existence of the Chris¬ 
 tian Church. 119 
 
 Conclusion . 126 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Did Jesus Christ actually arise from the 
 dead? Ever since that first Easter Sunday 
 some have answered “No,” others have an¬ 
 swered “Yes.” During the Apostolic age 
 those who answered “No” were the declared 
 enemies of Jesus. Their denial of the resur¬ 
 rection did not, therefore, have so great an 
 influence on the believers as has the denial of 
 those in our day who profess admiration and 
 love of Jesus, and who are within His visible 
 church. If those who deny the resurrection 
 of Jesus deem it a duty to spread their un¬ 
 belief, it most assuredly is a duty of the be¬ 
 liever to profess his faith and to show that it 
 rests on the everlasting rock of truth. 
 
 The question is of the most vital importance. 
 If Jesus truly arose, then this fact is not only 
 an incontestable, but an adequate proof of the 
 truth of the other fundamental doctrines of 
 Christianity. The resurrection of our Lord is 
 God’s emphatic declaration that Jesus was 
 what He professed to be, and that He actu¬ 
 ally performed what He purposed to do. If 
 
8 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Jesus did not arise, this proves equally incon¬ 
 testably that Jesus was an impostor. His 
 Word cannot be relied on; He definitely stated 
 that He should arise again and be seen by His 
 Apostles. He is not God, as He claimed to be; 
 a being kept captive by death is not God. He 
 made no redemption for sin; even if He com¬ 
 mitted no other sin than to claim to be what He 
 was not, His conviction and death were just 
 according to Jewish law. Hence He made no 
 atonement for the sins of fallen man. He is, 
 therefore, not the Messiah who should bruise 
 the head of the serpent. If Jesus remained 
 in the grave, the “Serpent” overcame Him. 
 
 If Jesus did not arise from the dead, the 
 Christian religion is in its essential purpose 
 just as vain and just as valueless as the other 
 religions of the world . 
 
CHAPTER ONE 
 
 THE VERACITY AND CREDIBILITY OF THE 
 
 APOSTLES 
 
 As our belief in the resurrection of Jesus 
 rests to a large extent on the testimony of His 
 witnesses, the Apostles, it is well to notice, 
 tho briefly, what kind of men they were, 
 and what personal advantage they might gain 
 thru preaching the resurrection of Jesus. 
 
 In the four gospels they tell us of their 
 humble origin and their simple occupation. 
 They admit that they were slow to compre¬ 
 hend their Master’s teachings; that they were 
 earthly minded; and that they hoped for per¬ 
 sonal gain. They confess to fear, to faults, 
 and even to sins. They do not in any way 
 pretend to greatness, even tho they were 
 the companions of Him whom they confessed 
 to be the Son of the living God. There is in 
 all they say about themselves, about Jesus, 
 and about others a frankness and honesty, a 
 humility and directness which only those have 
 who abhor falsehood and reverence truth. In 
 
10 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 fact we see them as humble, Godfearing men 
 in the sense of the Old Testament Scriptures. 
 For almost three years they had been the con¬ 
 stant companions of Jesus. Even those who 
 deny the resurrection of Jesus consider Him 
 an exceedingly moral man; a man who hated 
 not only lying and deceiving, but even pre¬ 
 tense and semblance. The association with 
 Jesus must have helped powerfully to imbue 
 the Apostles with a holy reverence for the 
 truth. And we know that the threat of pun¬ 
 ishment, yes, even the infliction of punishment 
 could not swerve them from the truth. No 
 greater test for truthfulness can be required. 
 
 Even the habitually truthful man may not 
 at all times be entitled to belief. For instance, 
 should great glory or enormous personal gain 
 become his, if he succeeds in getting people 
 to believe his statements, then there may be 
 valid reasons for investigating whether or not 
 the man’s desire for glory or for personal gain 
 has overcome his veracity. 
 
 What personal gain or what glory could the 
 Eleven or Paul possibly have imagined that 
 they would reap by preaching the resurrection 
 of Jesus, if they were not certain that He ac¬ 
 tually had risen? Instead of gain, they suf- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 11 
 
 fered loss; instead of honor, they reaped dis¬ 
 honor and the enmity of the men in power 
 within church and state of their own nation. 
 In fact, they staked their very lives on this 
 testimony concerning Jesus. They did this, 
 not merely for an enthusiastic day, but for 
 many long and weary years, even until death 
 silenced them. It was evident to them from 
 the beginning what their lot would be. 
 
 Is there a single fact in science, or another 
 fact in history, attested to by men, where the 
 testimony to the truth put the witnesses to so 
 severe a test for so long a time? Yet the 
 Apostles never faltered! 
 
 Did they have the mental capacity and the 
 sobriety of mind necessary to distinguish be¬ 
 tween an historical fact and an illusion? Any 
 one who reads the speeches and letters of Pe¬ 
 ter, the gospels of Matthew and John, or the 
 letters of Paul can very speedily come to a 
 conclusion regarding their mental capacity. 
 And those who suppose them emotional en¬ 
 thusiasts should notice what “infallible proofs” 
 were necessary before they were convinced of 
 the resurrection of their Master. They should 
 pay attention to the unity and consistency of 
 the Apostolic testimony, given under various 
 
12 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 circumstances, among different peoples, and 
 thruout a lifetime,—an utter impossibility 
 had they not been sane men who were con¬ 
 vinced that the resurrection of Jesus was an 
 historical fact. 
 
CHAPTER TWO 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FACT THAT THE 
 APOSTLES PREACHED 
 
 When one considers the situation in which 
 the Apostles found themselves after the death 
 of Jesus, both with respect to the outward sur¬ 
 roundings and their inner feelings, it seems 
 very strange, indeed, that they did not entirely 
 disappear from notice. They were so utterly 
 confounded by the occurrences of Good Fri¬ 
 day. Their fellow Apostle, Judas, had turned 
 traitor. Their beloved Master was com¬ 
 pletely overpowered by His enemies who 
 hated Him with a terrible hatred. Jesus Him¬ 
 self seemed unable, at least unwilling, to do 
 anything in His own defense. He was in the 
 hands of His enemies “as a lamb brought to 
 the slaughter”. (Isa. 53:7.) 
 
 While the intense hatred on the part of 
 high priests, rulers, and populace had been di¬ 
 rected against Jesus, the Apostles could not 
 but fear that it would be directed against them 
 also, for they had been His close companions 
 
14 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 and friends. Hence they trembled for their 
 own safety. They were utterly beaten. They 
 could not defend themselves, and they had no 
 one in the world to defend them. Had not 
 something of tremendous significance hap¬ 
 pened, something that turned defeat into vic¬ 
 tory, the only reasonable course for them to 
 pursue must have been to disappear from the 
 scene as quickly and as quietly as possible, 
 and to hide themselves from friend and foe 
 alike. 
 
 As to preaching, what in the world should 
 they have preached, if Jesus had not risen? 
 Dwelling fondly on the memory of past hopes 
 and aspirations, they could at most have said: 
 “But we trusted that it had been He which 
 should have redeemed Israel.” (Luke 24: 21.) 
 No one will risk his life to proclaim what he 
 once hoped! 
 
 Before His Passion, Jesus did not give His 
 Apostles any command about what they were 
 to do, when He no longer was visibly with 
 them as master and guide. The records show 
 definitely that this command was given after 
 His resurrection from the dead. To say that 
 their faith in Him as the Messiah would neces¬ 
 sarily impel them to preach, even if they were 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 15 
 
 not expressly commanded to do so, takes for 
 granted that their faith in Him would sur¬ 
 vive the tragedy of Good Friday, even tho 
 Jesus did not arise from the dead. Is it rea¬ 
 sonable to suppose that their faith would thus 
 survive? The two disciples who journeyed to 
 Emmaus Easter Sunday undoubtedly ex¬ 
 pressed the sentiments of all, when they said, 
 “But we trusted that it had been he which 
 should have redeemed Israel.” This state¬ 
 ment shows a spiritual condition far from that 
 of faith. Continued reflection would make 
 matters worse for the reason that Jesus had on 
 several occasions foretold His resurrection, 
 and promised them that they should see Him 
 and rejoice. Instead of leading them to 
 imagine His resurrection, this would show 
 them that He had been mistaken; thus prov¬ 
 ing to them that He was not the Messiah. It 
 must, moreover, be evident to all that if they 
 believed Him the Messiah, they could not pos¬ 
 sibly proclaim that He had risen from the 
 dead on the third day, when He as far as they 
 knew continued dead with the body in the 
 grave. 
 
 Furthermore. The Apostles began their 
 preaching in Jerusalem itself. It was not 
 
16 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 in some remote corner of the land, where the 
 facts could not be investigated; nor was it 
 in some ignorant community, where they 
 might have hoped for the aid of superstition 
 and the love of the marvelous, but in Jeru¬ 
 salem: where Jesus was put to death; where 
 He was buried; where He arose again. Yes, 
 they began their preaching practically at once 
 right in the temple, where the learned and 
 powerful enemies had full power! The 
 Apostles knew that the facts were on their 
 side. They did not fear an investigation, but 
 courted it in the very city where all had hap¬ 
 pened; where there was an abundance of men 
 who had the will, the intelligence, and the 
 means to make a thoro investigation. 
 
 The very fact, therefore, that the Apostles 
 preached, and that they preached in Jeru¬ 
 salem, shows most emphatically that some¬ 
 thing had happened which transformed the 
 deadening sorrow of Good Friday into exuber¬ 
 ant joy, and which turned the crushing de¬ 
 feat of that day into the most complete and 
 glorious victory! Nothing less than the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus on the third day could do this. 
 So'the fact that the Apostles preached bears 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 17 
 
 identically the same testimony which their 
 message bears; namely, Jesus is truly risen 
 from the dead. 
 
CHAPTER THREE 
 
 THE DIRECT TESTIMONY TO THE RESURRECTION 
 BY THE APOSTLES AS PREACHERS 
 
 This chapter does not deal with the testi¬ 
 mony to the resurrection of Jesus given in the 
 four Gospels and in Acts 1: 1-12. That will 
 be treated in later chapters. Here is gathered 
 the direct and definite testimony to the great 
 fact, given by the Apostles in their preaching 
 as recorded by St. Luke in the Acts, and as it 
 is found in the Apostolic letters to congrega¬ 
 tions and private persons. To help make sure 
 that the reader will study it, notice its clear¬ 
 ness, definiteness, as well as its extensity, it 
 is gathered here for the convenience of the 
 reader. It must also be borne in mind that, be¬ 
 sides this direct testimony, the books of the 
 New Testament have an abundance of pas¬ 
 sages which take for granted the acceptance of 
 the resurrection as a fact. 
 
 Acts 1:21, 22: Wherefore of these men 
 which have companied with us all the time that 
 the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, be- 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 19 
 
 ginning from the baptism of John, unto that 
 same day that he was taken up from us, must 
 one be ordained to be a witness with us of his 
 resurrection. 
 
 Acts 2 : 23, 24 : Him, being delivered by the 
 determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
 God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have 
 crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised 
 up, having loosed the pains of death: because 
 it was not possible that He should be holden 
 of it. 
 
 Acts 2:31, 32: He seeing this before spake 
 of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was 
 not left in hell, neither did His flesh see cor¬ 
 ruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, 
 whereof we all are witnesses. 
 
 Acts 3: 14, 15, 26: But ye denied the Holy 
 One and the Just, and desired a murderer to 
 be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of 
 life, whom God hath raised from the dead; 
 whereof we are witnesses. Unto you first God, 
 having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to 
 bless you, in turning away every one of you 
 from His iniquities. 
 
 Acts 4:10: Be it known unto you all, and 
 to all the people of Israel, that by the name of 
 Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom 
 
20 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 God raised from the dead, even by Him doth 
 this man stand here before you whole. 
 
 Acts 4: 33: And with great power gave the 
 apostles witness of the resurrection of the 
 Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them 
 all. 
 
 Acts 5: 30: The God of our fathers raised 
 up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 
 
 Acts 10:39-41: And we are witnesses of 
 all things which He did both in the land of the 
 Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and 
 hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the 
 third day, and shewed him openly; not to all 
 the people, but unto witnesses chosen before 
 of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with 
 Him after He rose from the dead. 
 
 Acts 13: 29-37: And when they had ful¬ 
 filled all that was written of Him, they took 
 Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a 
 sepulchre. But God raised Him from the 
 dead: and He was seen many days of them 
 which came up with Him from Galilee to Je¬ 
 rusalem, who are His witnesses unto the peo¬ 
 ple. And we declare unto you glad tidings, 
 how that the promise which was made unto 
 the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto 
 us their children, in that He hath raised up 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 21 
 
 Jesus again; as it is also written in the second 
 Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I be¬ 
 gotten Thee. And as concerning that He 
 raised Him up from the dead, now no more 
 to return to corruption, He said on this wise, 
 I will give you the sure mercies of David. 
 Wherefore He saith also in another Psalm, 
 Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see 
 corruption. For David, after he had served 
 his own generation by the will of God, fell on 
 sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw 
 corruption. But He, whom God raised up 
 again, saw no corruption. 
 
 Acts 17:2, 3: And Paul, as his manner 
 was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath 
 days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, 
 opening and alleging, that Christ must needs 
 have suffered, and risen again from the dead; 
 and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, 
 is Christ. 
 
 Acts 17: 30, 31: And the times of this ig¬ 
 norance God winked at; but now commandeth 
 all men every where to repent: Because He 
 hath appointed a day, in the which He will 
 judge the world in righteousness by that man 
 whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath 
 
22 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 given assurance unto all men, in that He hath 
 raised Him from the dead. 
 
 Acts 26: 22, 23: Having therefore obtained 
 help of God, I continue unto this day, witness¬ 
 ing both to small and great, saying none other 
 things than those which the prophets and Mo¬ 
 ses did say should come: That Christ should 
 suffer, and that He should be ihe first that 
 should rise from the dead, and should shew 
 light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. 
 
 Rom. 1:3, 4: Concerning His Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of 
 David according to the flesh; and declared to 
 be the Son of God with power, according to the 
 spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the 
 dead. 
 
 Rom. 4: 23-25: But for us also, to whom it 
 shall be imputed, if we believe in Him that 
 raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead: Who 
 was delivered for our offences, and was raised 
 again for our justification. 
 
 Rom. 6: 4, 5: Therefore we are buried with 
 Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ 
 was raised up from the dead by the glory of 
 the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 newness of life. For if we have been planted 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 23 
 
 together in the likeness of His death, we shall 
 be also in the likeness of His resurrection. 
 
 Rom. 6:9, 10: Knowing that Christ being 
 raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath 
 no more dominion over Him. For in that He 
 died; He died unto sin once: but in that He 
 liveth, He liveth unto God. 
 
 Rom. 7:4: Wherefore, my brethren, ye 
 also are become dead to the law by the body 
 of Christ; that ye should be married to an¬ 
 other, even to Him who is raised from the 
 dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto 
 God. 
 
 Rom. 8: 11, 34: But if the spirit of Him 
 that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in 
 you, He that raised up Christ from the dead 
 shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His 
 spirit that dwelleth in you. Who is He that 
 condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, 
 that is risen again, who is even at the right 
 hand of God, who also maketh intercession for 
 us. 
 
 Rom. 14:9: For to this end Christ both 
 died, and rose, and revived, that He might be 
 Lord both of the dead and living. 
 
 Rom. 10: 9: That if thou shalt confess with 
 thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe 
 
24 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 in thine heart that God hath raised Him from 
 the dead, thou shalt be saved. 
 
 I Cor. 6: 14: And God hath both raised up 
 the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own 
 power. 
 
 I Cor. 15:3-8: For I delivered unto you 
 first of all that which I also received, how that 
 Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures; And that He was buried, and that He 
 rose again the third day according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures : And that He was seen of Cephas, then 
 of the twelve: After that He was seen of 
 above five hundred brethren at once; of whom 
 the greater part remain unto this present, but 
 some are fallen asleep. After that He was 
 seen of James; then of all the apostles. And 
 last of all He was seen of me also, as of one 
 born out of due time. 
 
 I Cor. 15:12-20: Now if Christ be preached 
 that He rose from the dead, how say some 
 among you that there is no resurrection of the 
 dead? But if there be no resurrection of the 
 dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ 
 be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and 
 your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found 
 false witnesses of God; because we have testi¬ 
 fied of God that He raised up Christ: whom 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 25 
 
 He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise 
 not. For if the dead rise not, then is not 
 Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your 
 faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then 
 they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
 perished. If in this life only we have hope 
 in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 
 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and be¬ 
 come the first fruits of them that slept. 
 
 II Cor. 4:14: Knowing that He which 
 raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also 
 by Jesus, and shall present us with you. 
 
 Gal. 1:1: Paul, an apostle (not of men, 
 neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God 
 the Father, who raised Him from the dead). 
 
 Ephesians 1: 20-23: Which He wrought 
 in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, 
 and set Him at His own right hand in the 
 heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
 power, and might, and dominion, and every 
 name that is named, not only in this world, but 
 also in that which is to come: And hath put 
 all things under His feet, and gave Him to 
 be head over all things to the Church, which 
 is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all 
 in all. 
 
 Philippians 3:9-11: And be found in Him, 
 
26 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 not having mine own righteousness, which is 
 of the law, but that which is thru the faith 
 of Christ, the righteousness which is of God 
 by faith: That I may know Him, and the 
 power of His resurrection, and the fellowship 
 of His sufferings, being made conformable 
 unto His death: If by any means I might at¬ 
 tain unto the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 Colossians 1:18: And He is the head of 
 the body, the Church: who is the beginning, 
 the firstborn from the dead; that in all things 
 He might have the preeminence. 
 
 Colossians 2:12: Buried with Him in bap¬ 
 tism, wherein also ye are risen with Him thru 
 the faith of the operation of God, who hath 
 raised Him from the dead. 
 
 Colossians 3:1: If then ye be risen with 
 Christ, seek those things which are above, 
 where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 
 
 I Thessalonians 1: 10: And to wait for His 
 Son from heaven, whom He raised from the 
 dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the 
 wrath to come. 
 
 I Thessalonians 4:14: For if we believe 
 that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
 also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
 Him. 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 27 
 
 II Timothy 2:8: Remember that Jesus 
 Christ of the seed of David was raised from 
 the dead according to my Gospel: 
 
 Hebrews 13:20, 21: Now the God of 
 peace, that brought again from the dead our 
 Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, 
 thru the blood of the everlasting covenant, 
 make you perfect in every good work to do 
 His will, working in you that which is well¬ 
 pleasing in His sight, thru Jesus Christ; to 
 whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 I Peter 1:3: Blessed be the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ac¬ 
 cording to His abundant mercy hath begot¬ 
 ten us again unto a lively hope by the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
 
 I Peter 1: 18-21: Forasmuch as ye know 
 that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
 things, as silver and gold, from your vain con¬ 
 versation received by tradition from your 
 fathers; but by the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 
 Who verily was foreordained before the foun¬ 
 dation of the world, but was manifest in these 
 last times for you, who by Him do believe in 
 God, that raised Him up from the dead, and 
 
28 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 gave Him glory; that your faith and hope 
 might be in God. 
 
 I Peter 3: 18-21: For Christ also hath once 
 suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
 He might bring us to God, being put to death 
 in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: By 
 which He also went and preached unto the 
 spirits in prison; which sometime were dis¬ 
 obedient, when once the longsuffering of God 
 waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was 
 a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls 
 were saved by water. The like figure where- 
 unto even baptism doth also now save us (not 
 the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but 
 the answer of a good conscience toward God), 
 by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 
 
 Revelation 1:5, 18: And from Jesus Christ, 
 who is the faithful witness, and the firstbegot- 
 ten of the dead, and the prince of the kings 
 of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and 
 washed us from our sins in His own blood. 
 I am He that liveth, and was dead; and be¬ 
 hold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have 
 the keys of hell and of death. 
 
 The only books of the New Testament—the 
 Gospels excepted—from which I have not 
 quoted direct testimony to the resurrection of 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 29 
 
 Jesus are the following: II Thessalonians, 
 I Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, I, II, and 
 III John, and Jude. Any one who takes the 
 trouble to read these books, will find that they 
 all, excepting III John and Jude, make def¬ 
 inite statements which show that the writer 
 took for granted that the readers believed the 
 resurrection of Jesus to be a fact. 
 
 The nature of III John explains why the 
 fact of Christ’s resurrection does not appear 
 there. And as Jude so insistently warns his 
 readers against departing from the doctrines, 
 taught by the Apostles, he thereby warns them 
 against unbelief in the resurrection of Jesus. 
 
 What unanimity in the teachings of all the 
 Apostles, of whose teachings we have any 
 record! What consistency in their testimony 
 thruout their whole ministry! Such unanimity 
 and consistency in the testimony of men who 
 for years were separated from one another; 
 who labored in different countries; and who 
 preached to audiences differing widely in cul¬ 
 ture and in religious beliefs, can be understood 
 only when we accept that they testified to a 
 definite and an actual fact, when they testi¬ 
 fied to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 
 
CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 THE CENTRAL POSITION OF OUR LORD^S RESUR¬ 
 RECTION IN THE TEACHING OF 
 THE APOSTLES 
 
 The two outstanding figures in preaching 
 and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ are 
 Peter and Paul. That each was given a spe¬ 
 cial field in which to work, was recognized by 
 the other Apostles as we see from Galatians 
 2:7-9. This is also historically evident from 
 the book of Acts. Peter was Christ’s standard 
 bearer among the Jews, Paul among the Gen¬ 
 tiles. 
 
 In looking over the testimony quoted in the 
 preceding chapter with the purpose of finding 
 out the importance claimed for the fact of the 
 resurrection of Jesus, we notice how Peter 
 in his addresses lays great stress on this that 
 the Apostles were to be witnesses of Christ’s 
 resurrection. (Acts 1: 22; 2: 32; 3: 15.) 
 
 Just before ascending into heaven, Jesus 
 had said to His Apostles: “Ye shall be wit¬ 
 nesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 31 
 
 Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter¬ 
 most part of the earth.” (Acts 1: 7.) From 
 Acts 10:39 we see that Peter recognized the 
 obligation to be a witness of all the things 
 which Jesus did. And yet it is clearly evident 
 that Peter considered it especially important 
 to bear testimony to Christ’s resurrection, for 
 it is the only fact concerning Jesus which he 
 specifically mentions as something concerning 
 which they are to testify to as witnesses. 
 
 The truth of this statement is proven by 
 Peter’s words, when he states the purpose for 
 selecting a man to take the place of Judas. 
 True, only those are eligible who had been with 
 them from the baptism of John until the ascen¬ 
 sion. The candidate must have personal 
 knowledge of all Jesus said and did during 
 His whole ministry. However, the one point 
 which is emphasized, and that to a degree one 
 would not expect, is the resurrection. He 
 says: “Wherefore of these men which have 
 companied with us all the time that the Lord 
 Jesus went in and out among us, beginning 
 from the baptism of John, unto that same day 
 that He was taken up from us, must one be 
 ordained to be a witness of His resurrection.” 
 
32 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 (Acts 1: 21, 22.) Notice! To be a witness of 
 His resurrection . 
 
 They were to be witnesses, that is testify 
 as men who had personal knowledge of the 
 fact; not knowledge based on report, but 
 knowledge arrived at thru the rational use of 
 their senses. This is naturally the meaning 
 Paul ascribes to the term “witness” when in 
 his speech at Antioch in Pisidia he says: “But 
 God raised Him from the dead: and He was 
 seen many days of them which came up with 
 Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His 
 witnesses unto the people.” (Acts 13: 30-31.) 
 
 This idea John expressed as follows: “That 
 which was from the beginning, which we have 
 heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which 
 we have looked upon, and our hands have 
 handled . . . that which we have seen and 
 heard declare we unto you .... (I John 
 1: 1-3.) 
 
 It is not fanciful notions, or hearsay, or 
 speculations, they testify to as witnesses, but 
 to facts belonging to this world of sight, touch, 
 and hearing. Facts with which they them- 
 selves as rational, sentient beings are person¬ 
 ally acquainted . 
 
 Of all the great and wonderful facts which 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 33 
 
 they experienced during their three years’ 
 companionship with Jesus, Peter mentions 
 only one by name, when he speaks about their 
 duty as witnesses. This fact he mentions re¬ 
 peatedly, thus throwing it into bold relief as 
 a mountain peak before the tinted sky of sun¬ 
 set. And this fact is the resurrection of Jesus 
 from the dead. 
 
 * *• * 
 
 What importance does the Apostle Paul 
 ascribe to the resurrection of Jesus? From the 
 record of his sermon in Antioch of Pisidia on 
 his first missionary journey we see (Acts 13: 
 33-35) that, in preaching to an audience com¬ 
 posed mainly of Jews, he lays stress on the 
 fact that tho Christ’s death and resurrection 
 were at variance with their views of the Mes¬ 
 siah, it was in perfect accord with the teach¬ 
 ings of the Old Testament Scriptures con¬ 
 cerning Him. He does the same at Thessa- 
 lonica on his second missionary journey sev¬ 
 eral years later. (Acts 17:2, 3.) Again, 
 many years later he does likewise in his defense 
 before King Agrippa at Caesarea. (Acts 26: 
 22, 23.) From the third and fourth verse of 
 the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the 
 
34 > 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Corinthians we see that he had done so at 
 Corinth. His words are: “For I delivered 
 unto you first of all that which I also received, 
 how that Christ died for our sins according to 
 the Scriptures; that He was buried, and that 
 He rose again the third day according to the 
 Scriptures.” 
 
 Every one must see the great importance of 
 the fact that Jesus conforms, especially in that 
 which seems strange and unreasonable, to the 
 picture painted of the Messiah in the Old Tes¬ 
 tament Scriptures. The fact that He so con¬ 
 forms proves Him the Messiah. 
 
 One of the most remarkable as well as dis¬ 
 tinguishing features of the Christian religion 
 is its firm assurance of a life after death for 
 each person. It does not present an unreal 
 and shadowy existence, but a real life; not a 
 life of the soul only, but a life of the whole 
 human being; for on judgment day body and 
 soul shall be reunited forever. The unbeliever 
 shall, indeed, be damned, but he who accepts 
 Christ in a living faith shall live with Him 
 in the most complete bliss thru all eternity. 
 This is life and immortality. It is Christ who 
 has brought to light this life and this immor¬ 
 tality. (II Tim. 1:10.) 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 35 
 
 In several of the passages quoted from Paul 
 in the preceding chapter, he emphasizes the 
 fact that this life is absolutely dependent on 
 Christ’s resurrection. The one stands or falls 
 with the other. And as Christ’s resurrection is 
 a fact, so shall our resurrection become a fact. 
 This is pointedly brought out in I Cor. 15: 
 12-20. 
 
 This same passage states another point with 
 equal emphasis. It is this: Preaching is vain, 
 faith is vain, the Christian is among men the 
 most miserable, if Christ is not risen from the 
 dead. (Was Paul near enough to the source 
 of Christianity to know its nature? Was his 
 intellectual discernment and his spiritual ca¬ 
 pacity sufficient to grasp the truth?) Were 
 not Christ risen from the dead; we Christians 
 would be the most miserable of all men! God 
 be praised! He adds with absolute certainty: 
 “but now Christ is risen from the dead, and be¬ 
 come the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1 
 Cor. 15: 20.) 
 
 Tho the truth and the saving power of 
 Christianity is established by the resurrection 
 of Jesus Christ, Paul shows that it is neces¬ 
 sary for the individual to accept this truth, if 
 he is to become a partaker of what Christ won 
 
36 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 with His life, suffering, and death, and sealed 
 with His resurrection. “If thou shalt confess 
 with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be¬ 
 lieve in thine heart that God hath raised Him 
 from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Rom. 
 10: 9.) 
 
 Jesus was condemned to death by the Jew¬ 
 ish ecclesiastical authorities because He 
 claimed to be the Son of God in a literal sense. 
 Paul teaches (Rom. 1:4) that Jesus was 
 powerfully declared to be the Son of God by 
 His resurrection from the dead. Had not 
 Jesus been the Son of God as He under oath 
 had said that He was (Matt. 26: 63, 64), He 
 would not have risen. Death would have kept 
 Him captive, for the wages of sin is death. 
 His resurrection from the dead is an emphatic 
 declaration on the part of God,—in fact, the 
 most emphatic declaration imaginable,—to the 
 absolute truth of Christ’s claim. That the 
 resurrection from the dead was an unavoidable 
 necessity, since Jesus was the Son of God, is 
 the thought which lies in the statement of Pe¬ 
 ter on Pentecost Sunday, when he says that 
 it was impossible that death should hold Him. 
 (Acts 2: 24.) 
 
 As the Son of God, Jesus must rise from 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 37 
 
 the grave. If He did not so arise, He was not 
 only an impostor, but a perjurer; one who 
 perjured Himself on the very day of His 
 death, and thus caused His death. 
 
 How natural is it not, therefore, that the 
 enemies of Jesus should so strenuously deny 
 His resurrection? But how can one who 
 claims to be a Christian, a disciple, a follower 
 of Jesus, join in with the enemies and deny 
 His resurrection? What would we in the late 
 war have called a man who, while claiming the 
 right to be a soldier in our army at the front, 
 and who as a consequence held a position of 
 great trust, nevertheless joined in with the 
 enemy in attacking our most important 
 strategic position! What would we have 
 called him? How would we have dealt with 
 him ? What work within the Christian Church 
 is actually performed by the man who denies 
 the resurrection of Jesus, tho claiming to be 
 a Christian? Be he a pastor of a congregation, 
 an editor of a church paper, a professor in a 
 church college or theological seminary? Can 
 he have any other work to perform than the 
 work of a traitor? The church compels no one 
 to accept its faith; and there surely is room 
 among the open and avowed enemies of Jesus! 
 
38 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 When he, who has the spirit of the enemy, 
 nevertheless continues within the fold of the 
 church, eats its bread and enjoys its privileges, 
 is it not because he has the shriveled, dishonest, 
 and vicious soul of the traitor? 
 
CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 THE FACTS ON WHICH THE ASSURANCE OF THE 
 
 ELEVEN RESTED 
 
 We have in the preceding chapter seen that 
 the Apostles, when speaking of the historical 
 facts concerning Jesus, hold up His resurrec¬ 
 tion from the dead as the one most prominent. 
 Nor are they uncertain or hesitating in their 
 manner of presenting this fact. They are 
 clear, definite, absolutely certain. 
 
 The facts on which their assurance rested 
 are recorded by Matthew, chapter 28; Mark, 
 chapter 16; Luke, chapter 24; John, chapters 
 20 and 21; Acts 1:1-12. 
 
 In giving the facts pertaining to the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus, the sacred writers follow 
 their usual custom of using exceedingly great 
 brevity. As each one is independent in his 
 presentation, and as none of them tells all the 
 events, it is not surprising that one narrates 
 facts not mentioned by the others. To dovetail 
 the four presentations together into one nar¬ 
 rative, so that the different events are placed 
 
40 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 in their exact chronological order, is very diffi¬ 
 cult. It is, in fact, impossible with respect to 
 certain details. The main facts, however, 
 stand out very clearly. No one who reads the 
 Evangelists with an unprejudiced mind will 
 be led to disbelieve their statements because he 
 is unable, lacking the necessary knowledge, to 
 arrange all the details properly. 
 
 I now ask the kind reader to take his Bible 
 or New Testament and to read several times 
 with care the report of the resurrection of our 
 Lord, as given by each Evangelist (see refer¬ 
 ences above), and then continue the reading 
 of this and the following chapter. 
 
 In the morning of the third day after the 
 crucifixion of Jesus, the Apostles were aston¬ 
 ished and distressed by the report that the 
 grave of Jesus was empty. This report, first 
 brought by Mary Magdalene, was confirmed 
 immediately afterwards by the other women, 
 who had visited the grave early in the morn¬ 
 ing. Peter and John, forgetting their fear for 
 personal safety, immediately rushed to the 
 grave in order to make personal investigations 
 regarding the truth of the report. They en¬ 
 tered the grave and found the linen clothes, 
 in which the body had been wound, lying there, 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 41 
 
 and the napkin, which had been about His 
 head, wrapped together in a place by itself 
 (John 20: 1-7), but the body of the Lord was 
 not there. It was gone. The grave was empty 
 as the women had reported. This was an in¬ 
 disputable fact. They reported to the other 
 Apostles and disciples what they had found. 
 (Luke 24: 24.) 
 
 What had become of Christ’s body? Who 
 could desire to steal it? What did it mean 
 that the grave was empty? These and many 
 other questions were no doubt asked and dis¬ 
 cussed. If they were ignorant of the fact that 
 the enemies had caused the grave to be sealed 
 and a guard of Roman soldiers stationed there, 
 they no doubt, soon received a report of this 
 as well as of the story some of these soldiers 
 were spreading, saying that the disciples of 
 Jesus came and stole the body, while the guard 
 was asleep. (Matt. 28: 11-15.) This report 
 probably increased their fear, but it certainly 
 did not explain how the grave became empty, 
 nor did it tell them what had become of the 
 body. On the contrary, it made matters worse. 
 Now they knew that Christ’s enemies had 
 taken all the precautions possible to keep the 
 body in the grave. Therefore, the enemies had 
 
42 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 not stolen the body. As to the report of these 
 soldiers that the disciples had stolen it, they 
 knew that to be utterly false. (The report 
 was as a matter of fact absurd.) But the 
 grave was empty! Why? And what did it 
 mean that the Roman soldiers reported that 
 the grave was empty and, in explanation of 
 the fact, were willing to admit so grave a mili¬ 
 tary crime as to have slept, while on guard 
 duty? 
 
 In their consternation over the report that 
 the grave was empty, the Apostles—John pos¬ 
 sibly excepted—had paid slight attention to 
 the additional report of the women to the ef¬ 
 fect that they had “seen a vision of angels, 
 which said that He was alive” (Luke 24:23), 
 yes, that the women had met and spoken with 
 Jesus Himself. (Matt. 28:9, 10.) And in 
 so far as they paid attention to this part of 
 the report, they gave it no credence for “their 
 words seemed to them as idle tales, and they 
 believed them not.” (Luke 24: 11.) 
 
 What the women told them would, indeed, 
 explain the empty grave, but the explanation 
 was too unreasonable. There must be some 
 other explanation. If Jesus was alive, why 
 did He not come to them? Why should He 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 43 
 
 appear to the women instead? No, the women 
 surely were mistaken! However, the grave 
 was empty. The testimony of the women to 
 this fact was true. Peter and John had made 
 a thoro investigation. Where could the body 
 be? 
 
 The Gospel according to St. John shows 
 how this Apostle, “whom Jesus loved,” had 
 treasured in his heart the teachings of Jesus. 
 When the others in restlessness, consternation, 
 and fear, failed to remember how Jesus had 
 told them that He should arise from the dead 
 on the third day, John may have remembered 
 these words. Hence, when he beheld the 
 empty grave, where there was no indication 
 of the violence of an enemy, “he saw and be¬ 
 lieved,” tho he as well as the others did not 
 yet understand that according to the Scrip¬ 
 tures Jesus “must rise again from the dead.” 
 (John 20: 8, 9.) He does not tell us the effect 
 produced on the disciples, when Mary Mag¬ 
 dalene returned and reported that she had seen 
 and spoken with Jesus. But Mark informs 
 us (16:9-11), that they did not believe her 
 report any more than they had believed that 
 of the other women. Perchance the quiet and 
 contemplative John had at this time expressed 
 
44 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 his own belief in support of Mary’s report. 
 If so, he had been silenced by the emphatically 
 expressed unbelief of his colleagues. 
 
 However, the grave was empty. Either 
 someone had taken the body, or the women, 
 Mary Magdalene, and John were right in their 
 contention that Jesus had risen from the dead. 
 
 The fears for their own safety, the discus¬ 
 sions and uncertainty about what had become 
 of the body of their beloved Master, and above 
 all, the profound sorrow over the untimely and 
 cruel death of Jesus, stirred the little circle 
 of disciples, alone in the great city, to the utter¬ 
 most. It is not strange, therefore, that two of 
 them left the city for the country, where they 
 in peace could cherish their sorrow. “While 
 they communed together and reasoned, Jesus 
 Himself drew near and went with them. But 
 their eyes were holden that they should not 
 know Him.” (Luke 24: 15, 16.) Or as Mark 
 puts the last statement, “He appeared in an¬ 
 other form unto two of them, as they walked, 
 and went into the country.” (16: 12.) 
 
 How perfectly in accord with the character 
 of Jesus, as it is delineated in the Gospels, is 
 it not that He came to the rescue of these two 
 men, who evidently were on the point of 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 45 
 
 despair and complete unbelief! Again, is it 
 not in perfect harmony with the method of His 
 teaching during the days of His ministry that, 
 instead of revealing Himself to them at once, 
 He conceals His identity, until He has pre¬ 
 pared them by opening to them their under¬ 
 standing of the Scriptures; thus showing them 
 that when the suffering and death of Jesus 
 caused them to doubt that He was the Mes¬ 
 siah, and when the report of the women caused 
 them to be troubled, it was all because they 
 were “slow of heart to believe all that the 
 prophets have spoken.” (Luke 24:25.) 
 While He thus talked with them, they were 
 greatly comforted; for as He “expounded unto 
 them in all the Scriptures the things concern¬ 
 ing Himself” (v. 27), the truth began to dawn 
 upon them. They were yet weak in faith and 
 uncertain; so when He seemed to be passing 
 by Emmaus, where they intended to stop, they 
 constrained Him to stay with them. “And it 
 came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, 
 He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and 
 gave to them. And their eyes were opened, 
 and they knew him; and He vanished out of 
 their sight.” (Luke 24: 30, 31.) 
 
 O, wonder of wonders! It was not only 
 
46 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 true what the women had reported and what 
 this kind companion had proven from the 
 Scriptures, but the risen Savior had revealed 
 Himself to them! Filled with inexpressible 
 joy, they hastened back to Jerusalem to bring 
 the joyous tidings to those whom they had 
 left in sorrow and despair. They found the 
 Apostles and the other disciples gathered to¬ 
 gether. But before they could utter their mes¬ 
 sage of joy and hope, they are met with the an¬ 
 nouncement, “The Lord is risen, indeed, and 
 hath appeared unto Simon.” (Luke 24: 34.) 
 
 We do not know who it was that spoke these 
 words of cheer. But it is reasonable to sup¬ 
 pose that they were spoken by John. The ap¬ 
 pearance of Jesus to Peter had made John’s 
 faith firm. His heart exulted in the convic¬ 
 tion of his beloved Master’s resurrection, and 
 his loving disposition urged him to do his ut¬ 
 most to bring to others his own joy. 
 
 Knowing how heart-broken and miserable 
 these two men had been when they left Jeru¬ 
 salem, he hastens to inform them of the resur¬ 
 rection, not knowing what had happened to 
 them in the meantime. How joyfully must 
 not the two have related their own blessed ex¬ 
 perience, both on the way and in Emmaus! 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 47 
 
 It seems very strange, but their report fared 
 no better than the report of the women, that 
 of Mary Magdalene, and that of Peter had 
 fared. “Neither believed they them.” (Mark 
 12: 13.) 
 
 However, the gloom of that eventful day’s 
 morning was beginning to disappear. A few 
 were extremely happy in the firm belief that 
 Jesus had truly risen, even if the great major¬ 
 ity were unable to share this joy, fearing some 
 grievous mistake on the part of those, who 
 claimed to have seen the Lord. But they all 
 surely paid close attention as the two, who 
 had just returned from Emmaus, told of their 
 meeting with Jesus on the way, how He had 
 expounded the Scriptures to them, and how 
 they finally recognized Him when He was 
 breaking the bread. “And as they thus spake, 
 Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, 
 and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” 
 (Luke 24: 36.) 
 
 This sudden appearance of a being among 
 them, “when the doors were shut” (John 20: 
 19), to prevent an unexpected entrance by 
 anyone, caused them to be “terrified and af¬ 
 frighted,” thinking that they saw a spirit. 
 (Luke 24: 37.) It is very possible that even 
 
48 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRI8T 
 
 those, who had seen Jesus before that day, 
 were for a moment frightened because of the 
 suddenness as well as unexpectedness of His 
 appearance among them. It is evident that 
 they all had been so engrossed by the narra¬ 
 tive of the two disciples, that they had not 
 noticed a stranger present, until they heard 
 His greetings. Those who did not believe 
 that Jesus had arisen from the dead must, in¬ 
 deed, have become thoroly frightened. 
 
 “And He said unto them, Why are ye 
 troubled ? And why do thoughts arise in your 
 hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that 
 it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit 
 hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 
 And when He had thus spoken, He shewed 
 them His hands and His feet. And while they 
 yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He 
 said unto them, Have ye here any meat? and 
 they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and 
 of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did 
 eat before them. And He said unto them, 
 These are the words which I spake unto you, 
 while I was yet with you, that all things must 
 be fulfilled, which are written in the law of 
 Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, 
 concerning me. Then opened He their under- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 49 
 
 standing, that they might understand the 
 Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is 
 written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, 
 and to rise from the dead on the third day.” 
 (Luke 24: 28-46.)* 
 
 From Mark we learn that Jesus at this time 
 “upbraided them for their unbelief and hard¬ 
 ness of heart, because they believed not them 
 which had seen Him after He was risen.” (16: 
 14.) That they did not accept as true the tes¬ 
 timony given them by trustworthy fellow dis¬ 
 ciples, was not to their credit. Their unbelief 
 did not spring from any virtue in them, but 
 from their “hardness of heart”. What must 
 have been the condition of their heart if they 
 had not believed now, when they had seen Him 
 with their own eyes and heard Him with their 
 own ears, yes, felt of Him with their own 
 hands! 
 
 Not only were the Eleven, Thomas excepted 
 (John 29: 24), present, but the other disciples 
 also were gathered here. (Luke 24: 33.) How 
 large the number was, we do not know. That 
 
 * In his brevity Luke (also Mark) omits to tell of the 
 appearances of Jesus from now on until His ascension. As 
 a consequence he gives in this connection the Lord’s commis¬ 
 sion to the Apostles. This commission was given, as we 
 shall see, at a later date. 
 
50 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 the number was considerable we have a right 
 to believe, for Luke tells us (Acts 1: 15) that 
 immediately after the ascension of Jesus the 
 Apostles and the disciples numbered about one 
 hundred and twenty. As there had been no 
 public preaching in the meantime, it is reason¬ 
 able to suppose that these were the ones who 
 in Jerusalem had continued true to Jesus. 
 
 It was, at least, not only two or three, or 
 even only a dozen persons, who saw, heard, and 
 spoke with the risen Savior. And they did not 
 merely see Him in a general way. He showed 
 them His hands and His feet, unmistakably 
 marked by the crucifixion. He asks them to 
 handle Him so as to ascertain that He has 
 flesh and blood, and that He is not a disem¬ 
 bodied spirit. When this had been done, it 
 seems that their unbelief, which died so tre¬ 
 mendously hard, finally had been overcome. 
 But the joy of seeing Him alive was so su¬ 
 premely sweet that it seemed too good to be 
 true. There was yet an element of doubt. 
 They were not absolutely certain that He who 
 was dead now actually stood there among 
 them, truly alive and in His own body. So 
 He asks them for something to eat (they were 
 at supper when He appeared), and they gave 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 51 
 
 Him remnants of their supper, which He ate 
 in their presence. 
 
 They had “■wondered.” No doubt about 
 how Jesus could be alive again and how He 
 could appear among them. Jesus takes this 
 into consideration also. He had assured them 
 before His death that His word was abso¬ 
 lutely reliable. He now reminds them of the 
 fact that He had told them that He should 
 suffer; that He should die; and that He should 
 arise again on the third day. He shows them, 
 what He had showed to the two disciples on 
 the journey to Emmaus, that, instead of being 
 something unexpected, this was fulfilling 
 “what was written of Him by Moses, in the 
 prophets, and in the psalms.” 
 
 How could they doubt any longer? They 
 saw Him with their own eyes, felt of Him 
 with their own hands, heard Him speak with 
 their own ears. He had the marks of the cross 
 on His body. He could tell them their 
 thoughts as well as what He had told them 
 before His death. He showed them that all 
 had been foretold in the Scriptures. It is 
 strange that these men from now on are cer¬ 
 tain, absolutely certain, that the resurrection 
 
52 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 of Jesus on the third day is an actual, an his¬ 
 torical fact? 
 
 Thus closed the third day after the cruci¬ 
 fixion, that glorious Easter Sunday. In the 
 morning of that day the tragedy of Good Fri- 
 day filled their hearts with the gloom of sor¬ 
 row and despair. Then came the distressing 
 report of the empty grave. This fact, so in¬ 
 explicable to them, is verified. This added 
 vexation, anxiety, and restlessness to the bur¬ 
 den already too heavy to bear. Then beams 
 of light began to appear. To begin with these 
 beams of light did not scatter the darkness, but 
 made it seem the deeper. Finally the glorious 
 day, thus heralded, bursts upon the sorrow¬ 
 ing group in its noonday splendor, filling them 
 with joy supreme. Surely He had kept the 
 promise given them the last night He was with 
 them: “I will not leave you comfortless; I 
 will come to you.” (John 14: 18.) Verily, 
 He turned their sorrow into joy. (John 
 16: 20.) 
 
 Thomas was not present in the assembly of 
 his fellow disciples that day. Why? We do 
 not know. Possibly for no better reason than 
 many in our day have, who stay away from the 
 Sunday gathering of the disciples of Jesus. 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 53 
 
 What a terrible week did he not have to live 
 thru! Terrible, for the reason that he had 
 not been present and because he would not be¬ 
 lieve the testimony of his fellow Apostles. 
 When they joyfully told him their experience, 
 he answered: “Except I shall see in His 
 hands the print of the nails, and put my finger 
 into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
 into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20: 
 25.) 
 
 What an awful mental, or rather moral, 
 condition to get into! Flatly to refuse to ac¬ 
 cept as true what his trustworthy fellow Apos¬ 
 tles told him had been demonstrated before 
 their very eyes! No, he would not believe 
 them. In this case he would trust no evidence 
 but that of his own senses. To him the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus evidently seemed to be an ut¬ 
 ter impossibility. He did not stop to consider 
 that what would be an utter impossibility for 
 man, would be the necessary sequence of 
 events, if Jesus truly were what He had 
 claimed to be, and what Thomas had believed 
 Him to be. By God’s grace even the rational¬ 
 istic Thomas was destined to learn this to his 
 peace and joy in time and eternity. 
 
 On the first Sunday after Easter, the dis- 
 
54 . 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 ciples were again gathered together. This 
 time Thomas was present. “Then came Je¬ 
 sus, the doors being shut, and stood in the 
 midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then 
 saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, 
 and behold my hands, and reach hither thy 
 hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not 
 faithless, but believing. And Thomas an¬ 
 swered and said unto Him, My Lord and my 
 God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because 
 thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed 
 are they that have not seen, and yet have be¬ 
 lieved.” (John 20: 26-30.) 
 
 He certainly did not now have any greater 
 comprehension of how it could be possible for 
 Jesus to have risen from the dead than he had 
 before; yet now he knew it to be a fact. Pos¬ 
 sibly he was beginning to realize more fully 
 than before what lay in the term “Son of God”, 
 and that he gives expression to this by con¬ 
 fessing Jesus to be his Lord and his God. 
 
 We have now seen the facts, as given in the 
 records, on which the Eleven—and the dis¬ 
 ciples with them—based the certainty of the 
 truth of their testimony regarding the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus. He appeared at various 
 times to the Eleven and others after this, but 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 55 
 
 as far as the Eleven were concerned, the pur¬ 
 pose of those later appearances was not to con¬ 
 vince them of the reality and certainty of His 
 resurrection. There were other purposes. The 
 records examined clearly show that so far Je- 
 sus had appeared to His disciples and Apostles 
 for the purpose of bringing to them the knowl¬ 
 edge of and to convince them of the reality of 
 His resurrection from the dead . To do this 
 He not only appeared to them in an unmis¬ 
 takable manner, but He gave them “infallible 
 proofs” (Acts 1:3) of His resurrection; and 
 He taught them that as He truly was the Mes¬ 
 siah, it could not be otherwise: He had to die; 
 He likewise had to rise again from the dead. 
 
 Whether His appearance to James (I Cor. 
 15: 7) belongs in this division or in the follow¬ 
 ing one, cannot be determined, as we do not 
 possess the necessary information regarding it. 
 
 The Apostles had now reached that plane of 
 faith where they should have been on Good 
 Friday, and where they would have been, had 
 they accepted the words of Jesus concerning 
 Himself in their simple, literary sense. To 
 this plane the message which the angel sent 
 from the grave with the women sought to bring 
 them. These appearances of Jesus to His 
 
56 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Apostles and disciples were extra gifts of 
 grace, made necessary by their deplorable lack 
 of faith. 
 
CHAPTER SIX 
 
 APPEARANCES OF JESUS WITH A SPECIAL IMPORT 
 
 I. The Reinstatement of Peter to Apostleship 
 The twenty-first chapter of the Gospel ac¬ 
 cording to St. John tells us of this appearance. 
 The Apostles had gone north to Galilee, un¬ 
 doubtedly in preparation for the meeting Je¬ 
 sus had told them of before His Passion. 
 (Matt. 26: 32; 28: 7 ,16; Mark 14: 28; 16: 7.) 
 The time for the meeting had not yet come, 
 so Peter says to six of the other Apostles one 
 evening, “I go a fishing.” We can easily un¬ 
 derstand why. This little company of men 
 had been poor, even while Jesus was with them. 
 And surely their finances had not improved 
 since His death and resurrection. As fishing 
 had been Peter’s trade before he became an 
 Apostle, it is natural for him to plan to earn 
 something at his old trade now, when he had 
 returned to the place where he had been ac¬ 
 customed to follow that vocation. The others 
 join him gladly. But in spite of the whole 
 night’s work, no fish is caught. “But when the 
 
58 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 morning was now come, Jesus stood on the 
 shore: but the disciples knew not that it was 
 Jesus, Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, 
 have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 
 And He said unto them, Cast the net on the 
 right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They 
 cast therefore, and now they were not able 
 to draw it for the multitude of the fishes.” 
 (John 21: 4-6.) Then John realized that the 
 person on the shore must be Jesus. Had He 
 not, several years before, when they had 
 worked the whole night without results, asked 
 them to do something just as unreasonable as 
 what they were asked to do now, and with the 
 same wonderful results? So he said to Peter, 
 “It is the Lord.” On hearing this, Peter 
 throws his coat off, jumps into the sea, and 
 swims to shore to meet his beloved Lord. The 
 others came in the boat, dragging the net, for 
 it was so heavy that they could not draw it into 
 the boat. When they came to land, “they saw 
 a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and 
 bread.” Thus Jesus again helped and com¬ 
 forted them. 
 
 The real purpose of this appearance is 
 shown by what followed when they had had 
 their breakfast with the Lord. The Apostles 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 59 
 
 were to be the Lord’s witnesses, as we saw in 
 chapters three and four. But on Friday morn¬ 
 ing of Passion week, when Jesus was on trial 
 before the high priest, Peter had thrice em¬ 
 phatically denied Him. Thus he had fallen 
 both from the grace of apostleship and dis- 
 cipleship. The appearance of Jesus to re¬ 
 pentant Peter on Easter Sunday must have 
 indicated that this mortal sin had been for¬ 
 given, so that Peter again enjoyed the grace 
 of discipleship. But Peter had by his public 
 denial forfeited his exalted position as one of 
 the Eleven. Nothing but a reinstatement by 
 the Lord Himself could give Peter the stand¬ 
 ing which he had enjoyed during the ministry 
 of Jesus. 
 
 The first call to apostleship had come to Pe¬ 
 ter on the shore of this very lake (Matt. 4, 
 18ff.), possibly on the very spot where they 
 now were gathered. Surely a fitting place for 
 the reinstatement. As Peter had thrice denied 
 his Lord, the Lord now asks him thrice, “Si¬ 
 mon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? ” On the 
 humble, but firm and thrice repeated reply of 
 Peter, that he did love Him, he was again 
 numbered among the Eleven, by being com¬ 
 manded to feed the lambs and sheep of Jesus. 
 
60 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 The Lord tells him in addition that, while his 
 fear of possible death on Good Friday morn¬ 
 ing led him to deny Jesus, his steadfast con¬ 
 fession of Him should in his old age be 
 crowned with death on a cross. 
 
 To the worldly minded and even to disci¬ 
 ples, who have little spiritual insight, the mar¬ 
 tyr’s death, here foretold Peter, might seem to 
 be a punishment, merited by his fall. It is in¬ 
 stead a glorious crown as a reward for faith¬ 
 ful and courageous service. 
 
 II. The Eleven Receive Their Mission 
 
 As the Eleven had been thoroly convinced 
 of the resurrection of Jesus as a real, an his¬ 
 torical fact, and as Peter had been reinstated 
 to the high position which he had been privi¬ 
 leged to enjoy until his shameful denial of 
 Jesus, everything was ready for the meeting 
 in Galilee which Jesus had appointed for His 
 Apostles before His Passion. 
 
 This meeting of the Apostles with the risen 
 Lord had, as we have seen, been announced 
 for a long time. It is reasonable to suppose, 
 therefore, that it was known by all the dis¬ 
 ciples of Jesus. That all who possibly could 
 come there would be present, must be evident 
 to all. Hence it is very probable that Paul 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 61 
 
 refers to this meeting when he in I Cor. 15: 6 
 says: “After that He was seen of above five 
 hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater 
 part remain unto the present, but some are 
 fallen asleep.” 
 
 Matthew tells of this meeting in chapter 28, 
 verses 16-20: “Then the eleven disciples went 
 away into Galilee, into a mountain where Je¬ 
 sus had appointed them. And when they saw 
 Him, they worshipped Him: but some 
 doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto 
 them saying, All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and 
 teach all nations [The Revised Version ren¬ 
 ders this correctly: make disciples of all na¬ 
 tions], baptising them in the name of the Fa¬ 
 ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
 Teaching them to observe all things whatso¬ 
 ever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world. 
 Amen.” 
 
 When Matthew says, “some doubted” this 
 might at first glance give the impression that 
 some of the Eleven doubted. But he does 
 not say, some of them doubted. He does not 
 indicate who the “some” who doubted were. 
 Having come to this place for the definite pur- 
 
62 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 pose of meeting the Lord, whom they now 
 knew to be risen from the dead, it would 
 be remarkable if some of the Eleven doubted. 
 But when we remember that the angel had 
 told the women at the grave of this meeting, 
 that it thus was general knowledge among the 
 disciples, even among those who had not yet 
 seen Him after the resurrection, it is, as was 
 stated, reasonable to suppose that as many as 
 possibly could come, would come to this meet¬ 
 ing. That some of these should have doubted, 
 when they first saw Jesus, would not be 
 strange. 
 
 Would it not be surprising if Jesus, who 
 had such patience and who did everything so 
 thoroly and well, should have hastened to give 
 His kingly command to such an extent, that 
 He gave it before those who should carry it 
 out were convinced of the reality of the exist¬ 
 ence of the being, who commanded them to go 
 forth to do His work? 
 
 No, the Eleven did not doubt. They had 
 been fully convinced. They had gathered here 
 at His definite appointment. And the pur¬ 
 pose of the appointment is as clear as the noon¬ 
 day sun on a cloudless day. They were to 
 receive their commission. They were to learn 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 63 
 
 by what means they should perform it. Since 
 He promises to be with them to the end of 
 the world, we understand that His orders were 
 given once and for all time to those who were 
 to be His messengers. 
 
 It was said of Jesus in the time of His flesh 
 that He did not speak as the scribes, but as 
 one who had authority. Surely He speaks 
 with authority here. As the omnipotent Lord 
 of all He commands His messengers to go 
 forth. He is not satisfied with a little work, 
 all nations are to be reached: not in a super¬ 
 ficial, impersonal way; they are to be made 
 His disciples, that is, followers, who recognize 
 Him as Lord and as Redeemer . This astound¬ 
 ing work shall be accomplished by His mes¬ 
 sengers thru the seemingly insignificant 
 means: the Sacrament of Baptism and the 
 C( foolishness of preaching"! (I Cor. 1: 21.) 
 
 III. He Departs from Them with His 
 Visible Presence 
 
 Mark mentions the ascension of Jesus (16: 
 19) , but he is so brief that he does not specific¬ 
 ally mention that the ascension took place in 
 the sight of the Apostles. Luke tells us this. 
 In the Gospel he also is very brief, but it is 
 
64 , 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 evident that Jesus was with His Apostles and 
 parted from them by His ascension, for he 
 says: “And it came to pass, while He blessed 
 them, He was parted from them, and carried 
 up into heaven.” (16: 51.) In the Acts (1: 
 4-12) Luke describes more in detail this oc¬ 
 currence on the fortieth day after the resur¬ 
 rection. Here we learn that they beheld Him 
 rise heavenward, until a cloud received Him 
 out of their sight, (v. 9.) 
 
 Thus it became evident to them that they 
 no longer should see Him among them. He 
 had now gone to the Father with His visible 
 presence. They had received all the instruc¬ 
 tions which they were to receive orally from 
 Him. In addition to this lesson, Christ taught 
 them this last time He was with them that 
 they were not yet ready for their work. They 
 must receive power from on high. This they 
 would receive when the Holy Ghost came 
 upon them. In the meantime, and He assures 
 them that it will not be many days hence, they 
 must abide in Jerusalem. Even if they were 
 full of joy because of Christ’s victory over 
 death; even tho they might burn with desire 
 to proclaim publicly that Jesus had not been 
 overcome by His enemies, but was dem- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 65 
 
 onstrated to be what He claimed to be, they 
 must patiently wait. They are to be His wit¬ 
 nesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, 
 and unto the uttermost part of the earth; but 
 this they can be in a full sense only, when they 
 have received the Holy Ghost. He shall re¬ 
 mind them of all Jesus had told them; He 
 shall guide them into all truth (John 14: 26) ; 
 He should never leave them, but abide with 
 them for ever. (John 14: 16.) They may not 
 have realized what a superhuman task Jesus 
 laid upon them, when He gave them His royal 
 command on the mount. Mere human power, 
 however great, even tho supported by the most 
 complete certainty and intensified by the most 
 exalted enthusiasm, would be unable to per¬ 
 form the work. They needed the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost for their own sake. Should their 
 courage not fail them in times of great peril 
 or tremendous obstacles, they must have the 
 firm assurance that He was ever present to 
 grant them the necessary wisdom and strength. 
 The Holy Ghost was needed by those whom 
 they should win for Christ. He who should 
 accept their testimony so as to become a real 
 disciple of Jesus, he must be born anew. This 
 new birth is not of man, but of the Spirit. 
 
66 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 This regeneration is effected, indeed, by the 
 means Jesus had commanded them to use, but 
 it is not effected by virtue of their baptizing 
 and preaching. It is effected by virtue of 
 the Holy Ghost’s operation thru these means 
 of grace. It was, therefore, absolutely essen¬ 
 tial that the Holy Ghost should join them to 
 fructify their work. 
 
CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 THE FACT ON WHICH THE ASSURANCE OF 
 PAUL WAS BASED 
 
 Paul was, from the death of Stephen un¬ 
 til his conversion, an exceedingly bitter enemy 
 of the disciples of Jesus. His purpose seemed 
 to be to destroy them from off the face of the 
 earth. This intense hatred was not caused by 
 personal enmity towards certain persons 
 among the disciples, but by the fact that he 
 abhorred their religious views. They preached 
 that Jesus was the Christ; for this reason he 
 regarded them as apostates and traitors to the 
 religion of the fathers, and as such, worthy of 
 death. He considered it an act of devotion to 
 his God to persecute the followers of the 
 despised and crucified Jesus. 
 
 From being the most zealous enemy, he sud- ' 
 denly became the most devoted and energetic 
 follower of Jesus and His religion. To make 
 this change possible, Paul must have experi¬ 
 enced a definite, clear, and unmistakeable 
 revelation which could stand the test of reflec- 
 
68 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 tion; which could retain its clearness of out¬ 
 line and its importance thruout a long life of 
 unceasing labor amid overwhelming hazards. 
 In II Cor. 11:23-28, he tells of sufferings he 
 had endured for the sake of Jesus: “Are 
 they”—referring to the false teachers—-“min¬ 
 isters of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am 
 more; in labors more abundant, in stripes 
 above measure, in prisons more frequent, in 
 deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I 
 forty stripes save one. Thrice I was beaten 
 with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered 
 shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in 
 the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of 
 waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine 
 own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
 perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
 in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
 brethren; in weariness and painfulness, 
 in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
 fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside 
 those things that are without, that which com- 
 eth upon me daily, the care of all the 
 churches.” 
 
 When Paul set his face to walk the path 
 he describes in the passage quoted above, he 
 was a young man with the brightest hopes of 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 69 
 
 reaching an eminent position among his own 
 people. He had advantages possessed by few. 
 By birth a Roman citizen, tho of pure Jewish 
 blood; highly endowed by nature; thoroly 
 educated both in Jewish and Greek learning; 
 of unblamable habits and character; of zealous 
 and aggressive disposition; a passionate ad¬ 
 herent of Jewish theology. At the time of his 
 conversion to discipleship, he was the power¬ 
 ful agent of the ecclesiastical organization 
 which purposed to accomplish what the cruci¬ 
 fixion of Jesus had not accomplished. He had 
 thus already risen to a position of great power; 
 a position which at the time must have been 
 regarded to be of the greatest importance. 
 
 What a contrast! The mighty persecutor 
 voluntarily surrenders his position of power; 
 he throws away the favor of the mighty and 
 the good will and respect of his people; he 
 sacrifices all the hopes and aspirations which 
 he formerly cherished. He does this to join 
 in with those whom he formerly persecuted, 
 and to adore the name of Jesus, which previ¬ 
 ously had been so abhorrent to him. 
 
 Who caused this remarkable change? The 
 risen Lord Jesus . 
 
 The conversion of Paul is related three times 
 
70 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 in the Acts. In 9: 1-20 Luke tells it as an his¬ 
 torian. In 22:3-16 Luke records how Paul 
 told it in the Hebrew tongue in Jerusalem to 
 the Jews who wanted to stone him. In 26: 4- 
 18 Luke narrates how Paul told it to the Ro¬ 
 man governor Festus and to king Agrippa. 
 Each time the emphasis is definitely laid on 
 the fact that Jesus appeared to Paul on the 
 way to Damascus, where Paul intended to ar¬ 
 rest the disciples of Jesus and to bring them 
 to Jerusalem for trial. 
 
 The revelation on the road to Damascus 
 was so glorious that Paul at once understood 
 that it came from the Lord. That this Lord 
 was Jesus, he did not know until, having asked, 
 “Who art Thou, Lord?” he received the def¬ 
 inite reply, “I am Jesus whom thou perse- 
 cutest.” “And he trembling and astonished 
 said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? 
 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go 
 into the city, and it shall be told thee what 
 thou must do.” (Acts 9: 5, 6.) 
 
 When he arose from the ground, to which 
 he in fear and terror had fallen, and opened 
 his eyes, he found that he had become blind. 
 His companions had to lead him into the city. 
 When a disciple of Jesus, Ananias by name, 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 71 
 
 had come to him, at the express command 
 of Jesus, and had placed his hands on Saul, 
 he received his sight again. “And immediately 
 there fell from his eyes as it had been scales.” 
 When Ananias came, three days had passed 
 by since Paul lost his sight thru the revela¬ 
 tion on the road. Three days are under ordi¬ 
 nary circumstances a very short period of time. 
 For Paul these days must have been long, and 
 very terrible. The image of Him who so 
 gloriously had revealed Himself to him in the 
 way, and who had left His imprint upon him 
 thru physical blindness, must unceasingly have 
 stood before his mental vision all this time. 
 How the words, “I am Jesus whom thou perse- 
 cutest,” must have burned in his soul! The 
 realization of what he had been doing during 
 these years of persecution must have tor¬ 
 mented him, filling him with fear and shame. 
 So profoundly was his soul agonized that dur¬ 
 ing the three days he did not eat, nor did he 
 drink. 
 
 When the glorious person in the appearance 
 informed him that in persecuting the disciples, 
 Paul was persecuting Him, Jesus, it is stated 
 that he trembled and was astonished. He had 
 been so sure that Jesus was an impostor. 
 
72 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 During the three days the question must again 
 and again have come up in his mind: Could 
 it really be Jesus whom he met face to face 
 on the road? Try as he would to satisfy his 
 conscience and to follow his desires, he could 
 not escape the conviction that it actually was 
 Jesus, for the words were plain, “I am Jesus 
 whom thou persecutest.” What had he done? 
 Persecuted the Lord, the God of his fathers, 
 instead of serving Him! How terrible! What 
 a sinner had he not been! And yet, he had 
 thought himself unblamable. How perfectly 
 blind had he not been in spiritual matters. 
 But could it be Jesus! Could this Lord be 
 the Jesus who had been crucified, who died, 
 who had been buried? This question was for¬ 
 ever put away, when Ananias, this stranger to 
 him, unexpectedly came to him in his misery 
 and said: “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Je¬ 
 sus, that appeared unto thee in the way as 
 thou earnest hath sent me, that thou mayest 
 receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy 
 Ghost.” (Acts 9: 17.) And then he delivered 
 in the name of “The God of our fathers” the 
 same wonderful message regarding Paul’s 
 work in the future (Acts 22:12-15), which 
 Jesus gave him, when He appeared to him in 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 73 
 
 the way. (Acts 26:15-18.) Ananias sealed 
 the truth of his message by knowing what had 
 happened on the way and by restoring his 
 sight. There could be no mistake. Jesus was 
 the Lord. He was the Messiah. Not the dis¬ 
 ciples, but he, Paul, and those with him were 
 mistaken. Having received the remission of 
 sin and the Holy Ghost in baptism, the contest 
 was over. He knew what it would mean. He 
 would be an outcast among those who formerly 
 honored him. It could not be helped. Better 
 to be cast out by men, than to be cast out by 
 God, who had granted grace, where He had 
 every right to condemn. He was, therefore, 
 “not disobedient to the heavenly vision: but 
 shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at 
 Jerusalem, and thruout all the coasts of Judea, 
 and then to the Gentiles, that they should re¬ 
 pent and turn to God, and do works meet for 
 repentance.” (Acts 26: 19, 20.) Thus he 
 began a ministry whose hardships and whose 
 results never have been equalled by that of 
 any man. Never was his conviction of the 
 reality of the resurrection of Jesus shaken. 
 He kept his faith until he had finished his 
 course. He must seal his testimony with his 
 blood. Nevertheless, he does not falter, but 
 
74 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 looks forward to the martyr’s death, so near 
 at hand, with noble fortitude and exalted joy. 
 He says: “For I am now ready to be offered, 
 and the time of my departure is at hand. I 
 have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there 
 is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 
 which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give 
 me at that day; and not to me only, but unto 
 all them also that love His appearing.” (II 
 Tim. 4: 6-8.) 
 
CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 ARE THE FACTS CONSIDERED SUFFICIENT FOR US ? 
 
 We have now seen how the Eleven and Paul 
 became absolutely certain that Jesus arose 
 from the dead. We have also seen how un¬ 
 reasonable and impossible the resurrection at 
 first seemed to them,—because of their “hard¬ 
 ness of heart,”—and how slowly their unbelief 
 was overcome, even when “infallible proofs” 
 were placed before them. The records show 
 that John alone believed before he had been 
 convinced by the use of his senses. No one can, 
 therefore, justly say that the Apostles were 
 predisposed for accepting the resurrection as 
 a fact. Neither can it be denied that they were 
 sane and matter of fact men, who demanded 
 adequate proofs, before they accepted a fact 
 so remarkable. 
 
 Now the nature of a historical fact is such 
 that only those who live at the time it happens 
 and are present at the time it happens can 
 ascertain its reality by the use of their senses. 
 Those not present at the time, as well as sue- 
 
76 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 ceeding generations, must depend for their in¬ 
 formation on the testimony of those present. 
 This is true of the resurrection of Jesus as an 
 historical fact. In chapter three we read the 
 clear and definite testimony of those who had 
 ascertained the fact by use of their senses. In 
 the succeeding chapters we have the evidence 
 presented on which their certainty was based. 
 
 Why should not we admit that their testi¬ 
 mony is true and, therefore, accept the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus on the third day as a real, an 
 historical fact? We accept their testimony as 
 true in other matters. When we believe that 
 Jesus lived and died, our faith rests upon the 
 testimony of these same men. Theirs is the 
 only testimony of eyewitnesses, or even of co¬ 
 temporaries, which is extant. What references 
 we have to Jesus from other sources are oc¬ 
 casioned by the results of the preaching of 
 these Apostles. 
 
 No one seems to doubt the truth of their 
 statement that Jesus was crucified. When we 
 examine their testimony, do we find that they 
 used greater care in finding out that it truly 
 was Jesus who was crucified than they did in 
 ascertaining that He actually had risen from 
 the dead? But why accept as true the less 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 77 
 
 carefully investigated fact and reject the one 
 so carefully investigated into? They would 
 have risked nothing in preaching that Jesus 
 was put to death, but they risked their lives 
 in preaching that He arose again on the third 
 day! 
 
 Why not accept their testimony as true? 
 
 The witnesses are trustworthy and credible. 
 There is a large number of them. They are 
 perfectly agreed. They do not testify to a 
 dream, which the one or the other of them had; 
 nor to an opinion, arrived at by means of 
 speculation and discussion, but to a fact, 
 which was repeatedly found to be true by the 
 use of their senses. This fact was ascertained 
 to be true, not only by one or two, but by large 
 numbers of men, even by hundreds at the same 
 time. They were so certain of the fact that 
 they gave their time and strength, amidst the 
 greatest of dangers, thruout years of strenuous 
 and unceasing labor to make known this fact 
 so important, so absolutely necessary for the 
 salvation of mankind; and this they did with¬ 
 out any possible hope of worldly gain, worldly 
 pleasure, or honor. Why should we not accept 
 their testimony as true? Even the most bit¬ 
 ter opponents are constrained to admit that 
 
78 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 the Apostles firmly believed that Jesus ac¬ 
 tually arose from the dead. Why deny that 
 they knew that He arose? They do not testify 
 merely to a belief in His resurrection, but to 
 the knowledge of His resurrection. 
 
 Some base their refusal to believe the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus as a fact on what they call 
 discrepancies in the Apostolic testimony. 
 Even these men must admit, however, that 
 there is absolute unanimity in the testimony 
 respecting the resurrection itself. But they 
 say that there are “discrepancies” regarding 
 certain details, such as the number of women 
 who visited the grave Easter morning, the time 
 of the visit, the number of the angels they saw 
 there, the place where they saw them, the num¬ 
 ber and the order of the appearances of Jesus. 
 That these discrepancies, so called, do not con¬ 
 stitute the real reason for the denial is evi¬ 
 denced by the fact that these same men do 
 not deny that Jesus was crucified, tho there are 
 “discrepancies” of a similar nature, due to the 
 same causes in their report of the crucifixion. 
 
 These socalled discrepancies are due to the 
 fact that all the Evangelists are so very brief 
 in all they say about the person of Jesus, His 
 words, and His work. This is true respecting 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 79 
 
 His resurrection as well as respecting other 
 phases of His life. Whatever one of them 
 states is true, even in detail, but so many things 
 are left unsaid (John 21: 25) that we have not 
 the knowledge necessary to arrange these de¬ 
 tails in their exact chronological order. And 
 surely no one can justly say that when several 
 independent writers or witnesses mention only 
 some of the many facts in a case, then they 
 must mention the same facts, otherwise their 
 testimony is untrue. If this principle should 
 prevail in our courts of justice, every case, in 
 which more than one witness was called, would 
 have to be dismissed. 
 
 The fact that an Evangelist does not men¬ 
 tion a certain fact or a certain appearance of 
 Jesus, is not due to a lack of knowledge, but 
 to his choice of material. As an illustration 
 compare Luke 24:49-53 with Acts 1:1-14. 
 That these two books are written by the same 
 writer is clear from Luke 1:1-4 compared 
 with Acts 1:1,2. 
 
 Neither the method nor the aim of the 
 Evangelists were those of modern scholars. 
 Should modern scientific divines have had the 
 opportunities of the sacred writers, the New 
 Testament would have become a whole library 
 
80 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 instead of a book which can easily be used by 
 all who can read. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Those, who have read with care in their 
 English New Testament Luke’s narration of 
 Paul’s conversion in chapter nine of the Acts 
 and then compared this with the record in 
 chapter twenty-two, where it is stated how 
 Paul told it to the Jews in Jerusalem, may 
 honestly contend that there is not only a dis¬ 
 crepancy, but a real contradiction. In Acts 
 9: 7 we read: “And the men which journeyed 
 with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but 
 seeing no man.” In Acts 22:9 we read: 
 “And they that were with me saw indeed the 
 light, and were afraid; but they heard not the 
 voice of Him that spake to me.” That the first 
 passage omits to mention what the second pas¬ 
 sage relates relative to the fact that the men 
 with Paul saw the light is no contradiction, 
 neither is it a discrepancy. But in the first 
 passage it is definitely stated that the men 
 heard the voice, while in the second passage it 
 is definitely stated that they heard not the voice 
 of Him who spoke to Paul. One passage af¬ 
 firms what the other passage denies. Hence 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 81 
 
 a direct contradiction. Any one who takes 
 the trouble to refer to the Greek original will 
 at once notice that the construction in the two 
 passages is entirely different. In the first 
 passage the word translated “hear” is con¬ 
 strued with the Accusative case; in the second 
 passage it is construed with the Genitive case. 
 The difference in construction designates an 
 important difference in meaning. In the pas¬ 
 sage where the word meaning “hear” is con¬ 
 strued with the Genitive case, it is not the 
 hearing which is emphasized, but the attention 
 paid to that which is heard. A more correct 
 translation of the second passage is the follow¬ 
 ing: And they that were with me saw indeed 
 the light, and were afraid, but they did not pay 
 attention to the voice of Him that spake with 
 me. What they saw filled them with fear to 
 such an extent that, altho they heard a voice, 
 they paid no attention to it or to what it said. 
 
 There is, therefore, no foundation for claim¬ 
 ing a contradiction on the part of the sacred 
 writer. It is the translator who is guilty of 
 inexactness. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Others reject the resurrection of Jesus be¬ 
 cause they find that learned men, that even 
 
82 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 theological professors and clergymen, refuse 
 to accept it as a fact. There are many matters 
 whose nature are such that the unlearned can¬ 
 not well make personal investigations but 
 must accept the verdict of the learned. The 
 question before us is not a matter of that kind. 
 The New Testament is the original source of 
 information regarding Jesus. It is written in 
 so clear a style and in so simple a language 
 that those who know how to read are able to 
 read it and to understand what it teaches. It 
 is not much learning which is necessary for 
 the apprehension and acceptance of its great 
 doctrines. It is the enlightenment of the Holy 
 Spirit which is necessary. The gift of the 
 Holy Spirit is not conditioned by much learn¬ 
 ing, but by earnest and believing prayer. 
 (Luke 11:13.) 
 
 Learning is indeed a very useful instrument, 
 which is worthy of great respect. But it is 
 utterly wrong to make a god of it or to make 
 gods of learned men. And he, who rejects the 
 clearly stated truths of Scripture for the 
 reason that some learned man or men reject 
 them, becomes guilty of idolatry. On him the 
 curse of the law rests. “Thus saith the Lord, 
 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 83 
 
 maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart de- 
 parteth from the Lord.” (Jer. 17: 5.) 
 
 The learned who reject the resurrection of 
 Jesus, reject also His miracles, His divinity, 
 His atonement. In short, they reject Jesus. 
 They simply follow in the footsteps of the 
 Sadducees, scribes, and high priests—the 
 learned laymen, teachers, and divines—of the 
 time of Jesus. Let us remember that all learn¬ 
 ing does not lead to spirituality any more than 
 all physical labor develops the athlete. There 
 is much manual labor which, if persisted in, 
 will destroy the athlete, so there is much 
 learning which destroys spirituality. 
 
 * * 
 
 Others reject the resurrection of Jesus for 
 the reason that they consider it an impossi¬ 
 bility that He should have risen from the dead. 
 Thus a learned man can state in considering 
 the resurrection of Jesus as an explanation of 
 the empty grave, that tho the evidence (for 
 the resurrection) were fifty times stronger 
 than it is, any other explanation would be 
 preferable. And it is not only the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus which is considered an impossi¬ 
 bility. Every miracle is declared to be an im¬ 
 possibility. 
 
84 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Impossibility is a relative term. What may 
 be impossible for one person, may not be im¬ 
 possible for another person. It is an impos¬ 
 sibility for an infant a week old to carry a 49 
 lb. bag of flour, but it is a small matter for an 
 ordinary man. Again, what is impossible for 
 one kind of being, need not be impossible for 
 a being of a higher order. The fact that it is 
 an impossibility for one man to raise another 
 man from the dead, yes, even tho it is impos¬ 
 sible for him to see how it can be done, that 
 does not make it an impossibility for a per¬ 
 sonal and omnipotent God. 
 
 When a matter is declared to be a fact by 
 a number of trustworthy men who repeatedly 
 have personally experienced the truth of the 
 fact by the legitimate use of their senses, this 
 fact cannot be proven false by stating that it 
 is impossible that the fact could have hap¬ 
 pened. Those who employ this method of ar¬ 
 gumentation copy the ignoramus who under¬ 
 stands neither evidence nor argument, and 
 who, therefore, relies on his own knowledge 
 and experience as the sole criterion of what is 
 true. 
 
 Suppose some one fifty years ago should 
 have maintained that some day men would be 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 85 
 
 able to speak with one another, tho thousands 
 of miles apart. How many would not have 
 declared this impossible? The more scientific 
 objectors would have called attention to the 
 fact that the experience of ages as well as the 
 laws governing the transmission of sound thru 
 space conclusively showed that it could not 
 be done. When the telephone was invented 
 and perfected it became very possible. Today 
 we can do what would have been declared im¬ 
 possible a dozen years ago. With the inven¬ 
 tion of the wireless, distance here on earth is 
 practically eliminated as far as sound is con¬ 
 cerned. Why? Because God has laid down 
 in nature remarkable forces and laws. These 
 forces and laws have existed from creation, 
 but only recently has man learned to use them. 
 Why should it be impossible for the Author 
 of life to raise the dead? 
 
 “Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
 with you, that God should raise the dead?” 
 (Acts 26: 8.) Paul puts this question to king 
 Agrippa, who knew the Old Testament Scrip¬ 
 tures and, therefore, also knew what kind of 
 a God they portray. To say that the resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus from the dead would be an 
 impossibility for God, as He is revealed in the 
 
86 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Scriptures, shows a woeful ignorance of facts 
 or a fearfully perverted disposition. 
 
 How then can honorable men, men who do 
 not get their opinions ready-made from others, 
 claim the resurrection of Jesus to be an im¬ 
 possibility? For this reason: They do not 
 merely reject Jesus as the Jews rejected Him, 
 but they also reject God, as He is revealed to 
 us in the Scriptures. In His place they set 
 up a god, fashioned by their own intellect ac¬ 
 cording to their own understanding and desire. 
 Even tho man uses his intelligence to the ut¬ 
 most to make his god exalted and perfect, yet 
 this god is man-made; hence it is not strange 
 that many things are impossible for him. 
 
 The modern man, who claims to be at the 
 apex of the evolution of the human race, will 
 accept nothing as true, which does not coincide 
 with his idea of how a thing should be. Be¬ 
 cause it does not fit in with his idea of God 
 that He should have revealed Himself, as the 
 Scriptures say He has revealed Himself, there¬ 
 fore, the Bible is discarded as the Word of 
 God. No, God cannot be a being of that kind. 
 In the Bible, God tells us what a glorious be¬ 
 ginning our race had and to what a glorious 
 goal He desires to raise it thru Christ. Mod- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 87 
 
 ern man, clinging to his man-made doctrines 
 says, “No, that is all wrong! It cannot be that 
 way. If what the Bible teaches is true, then 
 our doctrines are wrong, and they must be 
 right.” Yes, so stupendous has man’s knowl¬ 
 edge of God become, since he discarded a 
 divine revelation and depends for his knowl¬ 
 edge of God on his own speculations, that he 
 has discovered that God is too moral a being 
 to perform miracles. Jesus could not arise 
 from the dead, if He were divine. It would 
 have been wrong of Him to do so. God could 
 not raise Him from the dead, even tho He had 
 paid in full the penalty of the world’s sin. It 
 would be a miracle to raise Him from the dead. 
 God is too moral to perform miracles; hence, 
 Jesus must abide in the grave. 
 
 There is a wisdom of God and there is a 
 wisdom of man, or as it is called, the wisdom 
 of this world. They are very different. The 
 one is the wisdom of a being with infinite 
 knowledge, infinite power to act, and with the 
 will to act according to purposes wholly noble 
 and good. The other is the wisdom of a being 
 with very limited knowledge of the real nature 
 of things, with small power to act; a being of 
 selfish aims and purposes. The wisdom of 
 
88 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 God must, therefore, be wholly different from 
 the wisdom of man. When man rejects the 
 wisdom of God and relies on man’s wisdom, 
 he necessarily must go wrong, for he starts 
 out on the wrong road. In other words, as he 
 starts his thinking from a false premise, his 
 conclusion must be wrong. Therefore Paul 
 says: “The world by wisdom knew not God.” 
 (I Cor. 1: 21.) 
 
 The person who holds the principle that 
 man’s wisdom is sufficient or supreme is, in 
 the terminology of the Scriptures, carnal. 
 “But the carnal man receiveth not the things 
 of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness 
 unto him: neither can he know them, because 
 they are spiritually discerned.” (I Cor. 2: 14.) 
 Such a person may be in great need of many 
 things, but what he needs above all else is what 
 Nicodemus needed, namely a new birth, a birth 
 from above, a spiritual birth in order to become 
 a partaker of the wisdom of God. 
 
 It is nothing less than Sanatic haughtiness 
 on the part of man to reject the wisdom of 
 God, revealed to us in the Scriptures. Pride 
 goeth before a fall. And a terrible fall fol¬ 
 lows: God is either denied, or He is elimi¬ 
 nated from the world and the affairs and des- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 89 
 
 tiny of man, or He is inseparably mingled with 
 the universe in such a way as to limit His in¬ 
 telligence to the sum total of man’s intelligence 
 and to make His knowledge grow only as 
 much and as fast as man’s knowledge grows. 
 Thus proving the statement of Paul: “Pro¬ 
 fessing themselves wise, they became fools.” 
 (Rom. 1: 22.) 
 
 To live contrary to the laws of health weak¬ 
 ens our physical powers. To live contrary to 
 the laws which govern our life as intelligent, 
 moral beings weakens this life. A very fun¬ 
 damental law in this life is that it is right to 
 accept the reality of a fact, which has been 
 carefully investigated into, and which is testi¬ 
 fied to by several trustworthy witnesses . The 
 resurrection of Jesus from the dead is such 
 a fact. The real reason for rejecting it is 
 manifestly not the lack of testimony of the 
 highest order. The real reason is that a 
 miracle is not comprehensible to our natural 
 reason. 
 
 From the open grave of Jesus Christ the 
 rays of God’s power, wisdom, and love shine 
 forth in resplendent glory, illuminating not 
 only life on this side the grave, but eternity it¬ 
 self. Shall we walk in this full light, or shall 
 
90 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 we forsake it to follow those who grope about 
 in darkness, guided only by the flickering 
 candlelight of natural reason? 
 
 Man is strangely inconsistent! Thus it 
 seems to be becoming fashionable in our day 
 for men, who reject the splendidly established 
 fact of the resurrection of Jesus, saying it is 
 too unreasonable to be true, to turn to those 
 “that peep and that mutter” (Is. 8: 19) for 
 clear speech concerning the hereafter, and to 
 seek in the darkened seance chamber for light 
 on immortality. They turn from a church 
 which is built on historical facts, a church 
 which stands for truth, come what may, to 
 embrace a superstitious cult which is de¬ 
 nounced and forbidden in the Word of God; 
 a cult which is notorious for trickery and de¬ 
 ceit. Truly a somersault with a vengeance! 
 First discard the Word of God because all its 
 teachings are not conformable to human rea¬ 
 son, then discard reason in order to embrace 
 superstition. 
 
CHAPTER NINE 
 
 ADDITIONAL PROOFS FOR THE RESURRECTION 
 
 OF JESUS 
 
 I. The Report of the Guard at the Grave 
 
 “Now when they [the women] were going, 
 behold, some of the watch came into the city, 
 and shewed unto the chief priests all the things 
 that were done. And when they were assem¬ 
 bled with the elders, and had taken council, 
 they gave large money unto the soldiers, say¬ 
 ing, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and 
 stole Him away while we slept. And if this 
 comes to the governor’s ears, we will persuade 
 him, and secure you. So they took the money, 
 and did as they were taught: and this saying is 
 commonly reported among the Jews until this 
 day.” (Matt. 28: 11-15.) 
 
 This explains why the leaders of the coun¬ 
 cil did not, when the Apostles were brought be¬ 
 fore that august body, meet the bold confes¬ 
 sion of the Apostles by an equally bold denial. 
 They were convinced that the Roman soldiers 
 had told the truth. Had they not been cer- 
 
92 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 tain that the Roman soldiers were telling them 
 the truth, they would have held them in deri¬ 
 sion and laughed at their report. They would 
 have demanded of Pilate that he punish the 
 guard for leaving their post before they were 
 relieved from duty. Instead of persecuting 
 the soldiers, they gave them “large money.” 
 Why, if not to bribe them to tell a lie? 
 
 But how could this transaction become 
 known? That the leaders among the Jews 
 did not spread the news of it, we can well 
 understand. But it must have been a very 
 difficult thing for these soldiers to keep silent 
 about the remarkable occurrence at the grave. 
 And we must notice, it was only “some of the 
 watch” who went to the high priest and were 
 bribed. The others would spread the true re¬ 
 port. The bribed ones would soon admit why 
 they spread a false report. The money was 
 already in their possession. 
 
 II. The Rise of the Christian Church 
 
 Jesus was crucified in the city of Jerusalem. 
 Fifty days after the crucifixion, the Apostles 
 began publicly to preach, in this same city, 
 that Jesus arose from the dead on the third 
 day. This shows, as was said, not merely 
 courage on the part of the Apostles, it shows 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 93 
 
 an unshakable conviction of the truth of their 
 message. 
 
 This preaching bore remarkable fruit. 
 Thousands were convinced of the resurrection 
 and Messiahship of Jesus. Scarcely had the 
 bold preachers begun their work, however, be¬ 
 fore the Sadducees, the rationalists of that age, 
 “being grieved that they taught the people and 
 preached thru Jesus the resurrection of the 
 dead” (Acts 4:2), laid hands on Peter and 
 John, who at the time were preaching in the 
 temple, and put them in jail. 
 
 The next day the two Apostles were brought 
 before the “rulers, and elders, and scribes, and 
 Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, and John, 
 and Alexander, and as many as were of the 
 kindred of the high priest.” (Acts 4:5, 6.) 
 Since so august a body assembled to sit in 
 judgment on these two fishermen, we can un¬ 
 derstand what a tremendous shakeup the 
 preaching of the resurrection of Jesus gave 
 these men, who had convicted Jesus and had 
 caused Him to be put to death. Nor did it 
 put them more at ease, when Peter and John 
 boldly accused them of the murder of Jesus 
 and exultingly proclaimed Him the Messiah, 
 raised by God from the dead. 
 
94 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Why did not the men, here present, who 
 had caused the guard of Roman soldiers to 
 be placed at the grave, and who had received 
 from this guard a report of “all the things that 
 were done” there,—why did they not flatly 
 deny the resurrection of Jesus? Why did they 
 not prove that He did not arise from the dead ? 
 Were they so ignorant as not to know that the 
 best way of stopping the mouth of these 
 preachers and of making their preaching 
 harmless was to show that the content of the 
 preaching was false? They did not deny that 
 Jesus arose from the dead. They knew it to 
 be true. They knew that Peter and John 
 knew that Jesus actually had risen from the 
 dead. So they had to be content with com¬ 
 manding the Apostles strictly “not to speak 
 at all nor teach in the name of Jesus”. (Acts 
 4: 18.) With wonderful wisdom Peter and 
 John answered: “Whether it be right in the 
 sight of God to hearken unto you more than 
 unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak 
 the things which we have seen and heard.” 
 (Acts 4: 19, 20.) 
 
 From this answer the judges knew that the 
 preaching would continue. From their oppo¬ 
 sition to this preaching, we can understand 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 95 
 
 that these mighty men would use every means 
 in their power to bring to naught the preach¬ 
 ing of these “unlearned and ignorant men”. 
 (Acts 4:13.) They would, therefore, gather 
 and publish broadcast every evidence obtain¬ 
 able to prove that Jesus remained dead. Liv¬ 
 ing in the city where it all happened, having 
 at their disposal the necessary means and 
 power, it should have been an easy matter for 
 them to prove this, if the Apostles were pro¬ 
 claiming a falsehood. In spite of their efforts, 
 the preaching of the Apostles gained ground, 
 for “God hath chosen the weak things of this 
 world to confound the things which are 
 mighty.” (I Cor. 1: 27.) 
 
 The members of the council did not take 
 this lightly. They were “filled with indigna¬ 
 tion” (Acts 5:17) and resorted to the means 
 always employed by unscrupulous men, who 
 have the power; they used force. The Apos¬ 
 tles, this time seemingly all of them, were 
 again arrested and thrown into prison. 
 
 The angel of the Lord delivered them from 
 the prison this time; and he urged them to con¬ 
 tinue to preach in the temple to the people. 
 When the officers came to fetch them from the 
 prison, they found the prison shut and the 
 
96 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 keepers before the doors, but the prison was 
 empty. “Now when the high priest and the 
 captain of the temple and the chief priests 
 heard these things, they doubted of them 
 whereunto this would lead.” (Acts 5:24.) 
 Receiving word that the men, whom they 
 thought were in prison, were as a matter of 
 fact preaching in the temple, the captain of 
 the temple went with the officers to bring them 
 to trial. However, they dared not use violence 
 for fear of being stoned by the people. 
 
 This time the Apostles were brought before 
 the council and “all the senate of the children 
 of Israel.” (Acts 5: 21.) The high priest ad¬ 
 dressed them. e He is indignant, but is never¬ 
 theless unable to conceal his fear. He says: 
 “Did not we straitly command you that ye 
 should not teach in this name? And, behold, 
 ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, 
 and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 
 (Acts 5:28.) A most influential doctor of 
 law in this assembly, who probably was ig¬ 
 norant of the report brought by the guard at 
 the grave, and who manifestly had been pow¬ 
 erfully impressed by the testimony of the 
 Apostles, succeeded in preventing a death 
 sentence from being passed by reminding his 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 97 
 
 colleagues that if the Apostolic message was 
 of men, it would of itself come to naught, 
 while if it was of God, they could not stop it. 
 The Apostles were beaten, however, and again 
 commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus. 
 
 How can anyone escape the conviction that 
 the powerful and resourceful council, which 
 forced the mighty Roman governor to pass 
 against his will the death sentence on Jesus, 
 must have used every means within its im¬ 
 mense power to prove that Jesus did not rise 
 from the dead? And how can anyone avoid 
 the conviction that if Jesus remained dead, 
 the council must have been able to prove this 
 so convincingly that the Apostles would have 
 been laughed out of town without a single 
 follower? Instead of this happening, a mighty 
 congregation was established there; a congre¬ 
 gation consisting, not only of the common peo¬ 
 ple, but of “a great company of the priests 
 [who] were obedient to the faith”. (Acts 6:7.) 
 
 Deny the miracle of our Lord’s resurrec- . 
 tion from the dead, and the rise of the Chris¬ 
 tian church becomes a miracle absolutely in 
 a class by itself. The miracles of the Bible, the 
 resurrection included, are readily explained as 
 acts performed for a gracious purpose by a 
 
98 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 personal and omnipotent God. If the Chris¬ 
 tian church is built on a falsehood and for the 
 purpose of propagating that falsehood, the 
 miracle of its origin cannot be assigned to 
 divine aid. Moreover, it must be evident that 
 these eleven fishermen and Paul, even if they 
 were supermen, could not have built a church 
 of the character of the Christian church on a 
 falsehood. 
 
 The struggles we have mentioned in this 
 chapter were not the only ones the Apostles 
 had in founding the church in Jerusalem. It 
 was only the beginning. The sane and humane 
 counsel of Gamaliel was ignored just as soon 
 as the leaders discovered, thru the stoning of 
 Stephen, that they could rely on the fury of 
 the mob. Tho Stephen died, as did Jesus, 
 praying for his murderers, his death became 
 the signal for a bloody persecution against the 
 disciples of Jesus. The leaders of this perse¬ 
 cution were, to begin with, the ecclesiastical 
 authorities. Soon they were joined by the civil 
 authorities with king Herod in active par¬ 
 ticipation. (Acts 12: 1-6.) The purpose for 
 which Jewish church and state united was to 
 destroy Christianity completely. They failed, 
 for they fought against God, who has means 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 99 
 
 whereby the weak can confound the mighty. 
 (I Cor. 1:27.) True, the disciples were scat¬ 
 tered abroad, but as they “went everywhere 
 preaching the Word” (Acts 8:4), the perse¬ 
 cution helped to spread far and wide (Acts 
 11: 19) the message and the church it sought 
 to destroy; for the risen Lord Jesus was with 
 His feeble instruments. 
 
 III. The Testimony of the Christian Church 
 
 ( 1 ) In its Confessions 
 
 The Christian church was founded in Jeru¬ 
 salem thru preaching the crucified and resur¬ 
 rected Jesus Christ. In a comparatively short 
 time it was established also in the more impor¬ 
 tant centers, not only of Palestine, but of 
 Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, 
 Babylonia, and other countries. In fact thru- 
 out the whole civilized world of that period. 
 And everywhere it was founded by preaching 
 the same message. Jesus commanded that all 
 nations should be made His disciples, and this 
 work has been carried on down thru the cen¬ 
 turies, until the church is spread practically 
 over the face of the whole earth. Wherever it 
 has come, it has come by preaching the same 
 
100 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 fundamental truths, proclaimed by the Apos¬ 
 tles in Jerusalem. There is no break in this 
 testimony as there is no break in the existence 
 of the church. Each succeeding generation of 
 Christians has sprung from its preceding gen¬ 
 eration, from the time of Peter and Paul to our 
 own day. In every age and in every clime the 
 church has steadfastly confessed the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus. To be sure, there have been 
 within its portals in every age traitors, who 
 have denied and sought to pervert its faith. 
 But even in the ages when they were most nu¬ 
 merous and powerful, the church steadfastly 
 proclaimed in its confession the resurrection of 
 Jesus to be a fact. 
 
 It is, indeed, sad to know that the Chris¬ 
 tian church is divided into so many denomina¬ 
 tions because of doctrinal differences. An¬ 
 other proof, if it were necessary, that sin 
 abounds so that man needs a divine Redeemer, 
 whose grace abounds much more. (Rom. 5: 
 20.) But notice! Divided tho the church 
 may be because of disagreements in many mat¬ 
 ters, there is perfect agreement regarding the 
 resurrection of Jesus. Every Christian de¬ 
 nomination, every Christian sect has con¬ 
 fessed and does now with one mouth confess in 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 101 
 
 the Creed: He “arose again on the third day.” 
 This perfect agreement prevails not only when 
 the ancient and brief confession, which we call 
 the Creed, is used; the agreement prevails just 
 as fully in elaborate confessions prepared by 
 the different Christian denominations in dif¬ 
 ferent ages. 
 
 Nearly twenty centuries of consistent testi¬ 
 mony! Contrast this with the changing phil¬ 
 osophical systems, which are the evershifting 
 grounds of all unbelief, excepting the most 
 vulgar! Truth stands forth firm and un¬ 
 changing as the “everlasting hills”. Error is 
 unstable and fickle as the quagmire. 
 
 ( 2 ) In its Festivals 
 
 The whole Christian church celebrates two 
 festive days which, from the very beginning to 
 our own day, have constituted a definite testi¬ 
 mony to the resurrection of Jesus. These fes¬ 
 tive days are Sunday and Easter Sunday. 
 Sunday is the weekly and Easter Sunday the 
 yearly return of that glorious first Easter Sun¬ 
 day, glorious for the only reason that Jesus 
 arose from the dead on that day. 
 
 The Christian church had its origin in Pal¬ 
 estine, the land of the Jews. The first mem- 
 
102 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 bership was Jewish. Furthermore, Chris¬ 
 tianity is the Jewish religion in its fruitage. 
 But the Jews had for ages, ever since their 
 origin as an independent people, celebrated 
 Saturday as their weekly holiday. The Mosaic 
 law commanded them most emphatically to do 
 this. The Apostles were Jews, who continued 
 to observe the Jewish Sabbath as well as the 
 other Jewish festivals. From earliest child¬ 
 hood they had been accustomed to meet for 
 public worship on the seventh day of the week. 
 Yet we find that they honor the first day of 
 the week with the name “The Lord’s day”, 
 and that they use this day for public worship. 
 Why this honoring of the first day of the week ? 
 Why should it be called the Lord’s day in 
 preference to other days? Why should this 
 day especially be a day of praise and thanks¬ 
 giving? There is one adequate reason and 
 only one. It is this: Jesus arose from the 
 dead on that day, thus triumphing over His 
 and our enemies. It is indeed the Lord’s day. 
 
 The origin of Sunday as the day for public 
 worship and its name “The Lord’s day” are 
 inexplicable without the resurrection of Jesus. 
 The resurrection accepted, every one sees how 
 fitting and perfectly natural it is that the first 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 103 
 
 day of the week should be called “The Lord’s 
 day” and become the day for rejoicing and 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Jesus was crucified the day before the Jew¬ 
 ish festival of the Passover, and He arose 
 again from the dead the day after this festive 
 day. The yearly return of this festival would 
 then bring the anniversary of Christ’s resur¬ 
 rection. As the Jews commemorated one 
 event and the Christians commemorated an¬ 
 other, the early Christian church determined 
 the time for Easter in such a manner that it 
 would not coincide with the Passover. Easter 
 is the yearly commemoration of the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus; and the Christians did not want 
 it to appear as if they joined with the Jews 
 in celebrating the deliverance from Egypt. 
 That event was, indeed, a great and gracious 
 act of God; but Easter commemorates a far 
 greater one. Christ proclaimed by His resur¬ 
 rection that He had truly delivered, not one 
 people merely, but mankind, not from the 
 bodily bondage under a prince of this world, 
 but from the bondage of sin under the sceptre 
 of the Prince of Darkness. 
 
104 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 More than three hundred years passed by 
 before the Christian church began to celebrate 
 the Christmas festival. Easter, on the other 
 hand, has been celebrated every year since that 
 first Easter Sunday. Every year it has been 
 celebrated in commemoration of Christ’s resur¬ 
 rection from the dead. Few indeed are the 
 events of history authenticated in so forceful 
 a way! 
 
 IV. The Testimony of the Enemies 
 
 When the terrified Roman guard had re¬ 
 ported to the chief priests what had occurred 
 at the grave of Jesus early Easter morning, 
 the chief priests called in the elders of the peo¬ 
 ple and, after consulting together, bribed the 
 guard to spread the report that disciples of Je¬ 
 sus came during the night and stole the body, 
 while they slept. This explanation of the 
 empty grave was commonly reported among 
 the Jews up to the time that Matthew wrote 
 his gospel. (Matt. 28:15.) It may be of in¬ 
 terest to note what the learned Jew, Alfred 
 Edersheim, says concerning this explanation. 
 “Whatever else may be said, we know that 
 from the time of Justin Martyr this has been 
 the Jewish explanation. Of late, however, it 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 105 
 
 has, among thoughtful Jewish writers, given 
 place to the socalled ‘Vision-hypothesis’.” 
 (Life and Times of the Messiah; vol. II, page 
 637, 5th ed.) 
 
 This denial of the resurrection is, in fact, 
 a most excellent testimony to the truth of it. 
 In the first place it is admitted, by these first' 
 opponents*That the grave was empty in the 
 morning of the third day after the burial of 
 Jesus. Friend and foe admit that the grave 
 was empty at the time stated. This is of the 
 greatest importance. Can a fact be more fully 
 attested to than the empty grave is attested to? 
 In the second place it is admitted that the 
 enemies of Jesus had not taken the body away. 
 In the third place, the charge that the disciples 
 of Jesus came during the night and stole the 
 body, while the guard slept, is not made in 
 good faith. For the leaders among the Jews 
 were, as we have seen, very anxious to prove 
 that Jesus did not arise from the dead. Hence, 
 if they had believed that the Roman guard 
 had been remiss in their duty, they would have 
 spared no effort to prove this and to have had 
 the soldiers punished for their neglect accord¬ 
 ing to Roman law. To do this, they would 
 at once have brought to the Roman governor 
 
106 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 a formal charge against his soldiers. He could 
 not have passed by in silence so grave an ac¬ 
 cusation as that a Roman soldier had slept, 
 while on guard duty. An investigation would 
 have followed. The facts in the case would 
 have become public. Why did not the Jewish 
 leaders bring this charge against the soldiers? 
 Can there be any other reason than this that 
 they were convinced of the fact that the sol¬ 
 diers had not been remiss in their duty? For 
 fear of an investigation, these leaders did not 
 even dare to assert publicly that the guard 
 had slept at their post. They bribed the sol¬ 
 diers to make this statement. In addition to 
 the money given the soldiers, they promised 
 to make the necessary explanation to the gov¬ 
 ernor, should the matter come to his attention. 
 
 The report these bribed soldiers spread bore 
 the seal of falsehood. How could they know 
 that it was disciples of Jesus who stole the 
 body, if they were asleep? Would a guard on 
 duty, even if they did slumber, sleep so soundly 
 that they would not have heard the noise of 
 those, who had to remove the great stone, 
 rolled before the opening of the grave? If 
 they awoke, when the stone was rolled away, 
 and saw that the disciples were stealing the 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 107 
 
 body, why did they not pursue and capture 
 the men, who were burdened with the body of 
 a dead man? 
 
 It is a common thing for those who deny 
 the resurrection of our Lord to make much 
 noise about the fact that one Evangelist does 
 not mention matters which another Evangelist 
 relates. They even claim that silence on the 
 
 part of an Evangelist, concerning matters re¬ 
 lated by other Evangelists, is proof that the 
 first Evangelist is ignorant of the matters re¬ 
 lated by the others; as if the sacred writers 
 were in duty bound to relate everything about 
 Jesus of which they had any knowledge. But 
 the silence on the part of the leaders of the 
 Jews respecting a reasonable explanation of 
 the empty grave; their silence in presenting 
 proofs against the resurrection of Jesus; their 
 silence in preferring charges against the sol¬ 
 diers,—all speak in a clear and emphatic lan¬ 
 guage. There was a multitude of things to 
 relate about Jesus. The Evangelists had to 
 make a choice. Each chose what he, under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, considered most 
 important. The leaders of the Jews desired 
 to disprove the resurrection of Jesus. When 
 they bring no proofs, it must be because they 
 
108 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 had none. They have to admit that the grave 
 is empty, as it would be if Jesus arose. When 
 they who had had the grave sealed and a guard 
 placed there could not give a better explana¬ 
 tion of the empty grave than they did give, it 
 must be because the only good, the only true 
 explanation was that given by the Apostles: 
 “The Lord is risen indeed.” 
 
 V. Proofs Deducible from the Arguments of 
 
 Those Who, from the Apostolic Age to 
 Our Own Day, Deny the Resur¬ 
 rection of Jesus . 
 
 That the grave of Jesus was empty in the 
 morning of the third day after the burial, is 
 definitely stated by the sacred writers. We 
 saw how the women, how Peter and John had 
 carefully investigated the matter. This im¬ 
 portant fact was conceded by the enemies of 
 Jesus. When they who had caused the grave 
 to be sealed and a guard of soldiers placed 
 there, admit that the grave was empty, it be¬ 
 comes a fact incontestably certain. It is ad¬ 
 mitted at the time by all. Yet men who lived 
 1800 years after the events expect us to take 
 their word for it that the grave was not empty. 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 109 
 
 That the enemies admitted the grave to be 
 empty, we know from the fact that they ac¬ 
 cused the disciples of stealing the body. We 
 know it also from the fact that the Apostolic 
 message gained such ground in Jerusalem. 
 
 Jesus had at various times foretold His res¬ 
 urrection on the third day. The enemies, who 
 always were on the lookout for some word or 
 act of Jesus which they might be able to use 
 against Him, had carefully treasured this 
 prediction. Convinced in their own mind that 
 He was an impostor, they felt certain that they 
 had at least one saying of His which would be 
 proven false. He would, most assuredly, not 
 arise again on the third day. But care must 
 be exercised, lest He deceive them. He might 
 instruct His disciples to steal the body out of 
 the grave, and then to proclaim that He had 
 arisen as He had foretold. Hence the need of 
 sealing the grave. To make assurance doubly 
 sure, they placed a guard of Roman soldiers 
 there to keep close watch. 
 
 Suppose the watch continued at their post, 
 until relieved by those who placed them there. 
 When the third day was over, the Jewish lead¬ 
 ers would come and inspect the seal on the 
 stone to see if it had been broken. In the 
 
110 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 presence of the guard, they would open the 
 grave to see and to show that the body was still 
 there. They could then testify, as could the 
 guard, that the body was still in the grave when 
 they examined it. He had not arisen, as He 
 claimed He would. He was an impostor, as 
 they had claimed all the time.-—What chance 
 would there have been for the eleven fishermen 
 from Galilee to fill Jerusalem with their doc¬ 
 trine and to drive fear into the heart of the 
 high priest that the blood of Jesus would be 
 brought upon him and his colleagues! If the 
 grave had not been empty and that on the third 
 day, the evidence would so overwhelmingly 
 have been against the Apostles that if they had 
 persisted in preaching their unreasonable doc¬ 
 trine, they would have filled Jerusalem with 
 laughter. 
 
 The grave was empty. This fact conceded 
 by all at the time investigation was possible, 
 must, therefore, be taken into consideration by 
 all who deny the resurrection; otherwise the 
 arguments for their denial are of no value 
 whatever. To argue against the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus without explaining how the grave 
 became empty, shows either the inability to 
 recognize essential facts in a case; or it shows 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 111 
 
 a determined refusal to stick to and abide by 
 facts. 
 
 The explanation of the Jewish leaders was, 
 as we have seen, unreasonable and absurd. 
 Yet it took into consideration the empty grave. 
 They realized that no denial of the resurrec¬ 
 tion would be worth the breath expended on 
 it, unless it at the same time explained the 
 empty grave. Nevertheless, those who deny 
 our Lord’s resurrection can be divided into 
 two classes. The one class takes the empty 
 grave into consideration and tries to explain 
 it. The other class offers arguments to sustain 
 their denial, arguments which leave the fact of 
 the empty grave without any explanation. 
 
 All obtainable evidence on the empty grave 
 shows that the grave was empty for the reason 
 that Jesus arose from the dead. As those who 
 deny the resurrection and still try to explain 
 how the grave became empty, cannot discover 
 an explanation which can be supported by any 
 evidence whatsoever, they are forced to resort 
 to guesses. As the years have passed by, it 
 has become more and more evident to the ob¬ 
 jectors that the accusation against the disci¬ 
 ples for stealing the body is utterly groundless. 
 Denying the resurrection, they must, however, 
 
112 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 maintain that the body was stolen. Who stole 
 the body? Pilate has been accused; Joseph of 
 Arimathea has been accused; Mary of Beth¬ 
 any has been accused; yes, even the council of 
 the Jews has been accused of stealing the body 
 of Jesus. A man must be endowed with a 
 marvelous amount of faith in his ability to 
 guess or with an unbounded contempt for 
 other people’s ability to reason, when he dares 
 to offer seriously such a guess as an explana¬ 
 tion of why the grave of Jesus was empty in 
 the morning of the third day! 
 
 There is an explanation of the empty grave 
 which is of a different character than those 
 mentioned above. It is, however, just as un¬ 
 reasonable and just as devoid of any support¬ 
 ing evidence. It is this: Jesus did not die 
 on the cross. He seemed dead, but He was 
 not dead. It is told us that the mixture of 
 myrrh and aloes, placed in the linen wound 
 around the body, together with the balmy 
 spring air, enclosed in the grave, revived Him. 
 Having come to life again in this natural man¬ 
 ner, He forced the stone from the opening 
 of the sepulchre and walked away. 
 
 What a perfectly easy and natural explana¬ 
 tion! But is it not strange that the guard did 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 113 
 
 not understand this and that the Jewish lead¬ 
 ers were unable to see into the real state of 
 affairs? i - j 
 
 Let us notice what this explanation of the 
 empty grave implies. Crucifixion was a Ro¬ 
 man method of inflicting the death penalty on 
 criminals. Yet we are here told that Roman 
 soldiers were not able to ascertain when a man 
 was dead. Tho the soldiers considered Jesus 
 dead, they pierced His side with a spear, thus 
 inflicting a wound deadly enough to kill any 
 man, even if he were in perfect condition and 
 in the best of health. Jesus had passed a night 
 of the most intense spiritual anguish in the 
 garden of Gethsemane. This hour of sorrow 
 had scarcely passed when He was arrested and 
 brought to trial, first before Annas, then be¬ 
 fore the Council, later before Pilate, then be¬ 
 fore king Herod, and again before Pilate. He 
 had been scourged, beaten with fists, crowned 
 with a crown of thorns. He had carried His 
 cross until He became so exhausted that He 
 sank under its load. At nine o’clock in the 
 forenoon He was crucified; from then on un¬ 
 til shortly before sundown He hung on the 
 cross, suspended by the nails driven thru His 
 hands and His feet. Finally His side was 
 
114 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 pierced by the spear-thrust of a soldier. 
 Water and blood flowed from this wound, thus 
 showing that He was dead. Yet we are told 
 in the explanation under consideration, that 
 He was not dead and that in the morning of 
 the third day after, His strength had recovered 
 to such an extent that He could roll the great 
 stone away and walk out. On His pierced feet 
 He walks that same day to Emmaus, is back 
 in Jerusalem by evening. He comes again the 
 next Sunday evening. No one knows where 
 He is in the meantime. No one gives Him 
 medical aid. This continues for forty days. 
 The bitter enemies do not find Him. No one 
 but disciples see Him. If anyone is so deter¬ 
 mined in his refusal to accept the testimony 
 of the trustworthy Apostles, testimony sup¬ 
 ported by evidence of the highest order, that 
 he prefers this explanation, I suppose nothing 
 can be done to hinder it. Eut, surely, his heart 
 is hardened. 
 
 Another explanation seemingly takes the 
 empty grave into consideration, but only seem¬ 
 ingly. It is told us that, when the women 
 early Easter morning came for the purpose 
 of anointing the body of Jesus, they did not 
 come to the right grave. They had not taken 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 115 
 
 sufficient care in noticing the exact grave in 
 which the body of Jesus was laid. We are 
 informed, furthermore, of another mistake by 
 the women that morning. They thought that 
 they saw an angel at the grave of Jesus. This 
 was not an angel, it was merely a young man 
 who, noticing that the women had come to 
 the wrong grave, an empty one, tried to tell 
 them of their mistake, in order to direct them 
 to the right one. 
 
 This is not an attempt to explain why the 
 grave of Jesus was empty. This is a denial 
 of the fact that His grave was empty. How 
 this man learned that Joseph of Arimathea 
 had more than one sepulchre in his garden, I 
 do not know. That the women who were “sit¬ 
 ting over against the sepulchre” (Matt. 27: 
 61), while Jesus was buried, should fail to find 
 the right one Sunday morning, even if there 
 were more than one sepulchre there, seems a 
 little too strange. Peter and John must have 
 made the same mistake. This is not all. The 
 Jewish leaders must have forgotten which 
 sepulchre Jesus had been laid in and stationed 
 the guard at the wrong one. Truly strange 
 that an empty grave should have given the 
 soldiers so great a scare! 
 
116 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Why cannot those who deny the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus find proofs against it? They try 
 hard enough; yet the very arguments which 
 they adduce to sustain their denial, must con¬ 
 vince the unprejudiced and thinking person 
 that the truth must be against them, for there 
 is no evidence on their side. The evidence is 
 all on the other side. This shows conclusively 
 that Jesus truly rose from the dead on the third 
 day after His crucifixion and death. 
 
 The objectors examined so far, have recog¬ 
 nized the necessity of giving some kind of an 
 explanation of why the grave of Jesus was 
 empty Easter morning. The other class of 
 those who deny the resurrection of Jesus do 
 not trouble themselves about this. They deny 
 the resurrection purely from speculative rea¬ 
 sons. Now speculation or philosophy has a 
 large and valid work to perform as long as 
 it clings to facts. When it ignores facts, 
 which unmistakably show the speculations to 
 be false, then philosophy becomes worthless as 
 a guide to truth. It may show considerable 
 ingenuity and a very fertile imagination; it 
 may be interesting, even amusing; but as a 
 guide to truth it becomes worthless. 
 
 Some have denied the Resurrection of Je- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 117 
 
 sus for the reason that He did not have a hu¬ 
 man body, others for the reason that there was 
 nothing divine about Him; He was all human. 
 Altho the records show that the report of 
 Mary Magdalene was not believed by the 
 Apostles and disciples, yet for ages some have 
 affirmed that the belief in the resurrection of 
 Jesus is due to her. It is said that she either 
 imagined that she saw Jesus, risen from the 
 dead, or that she wilfully fabricated the story 
 that she saw Him. Some say the Apostles 
 and disciples believed the resurrection for the 
 reason that they imagined that they saw Him 
 alive after death. It was all an illusion or a 
 hallucination. There was nothing real about 
 it. To accomplish their ends these objectors 
 are compelled to declare the sacred records 
 wrong in nearly every respect; yet such un¬ 
 bounded confidence have they in their own 
 speculation that they even pretend to show 
 that they know more about what really hap¬ 
 pened than did friends and foes of Jesus who 
 were on the ground when the events occurred! 
 The sacred records tell us what the Apostles 
 preached and what the Church accepted as* 
 
 * Unbelieving critics have tried to discredit the greater 
 part of the books of the New Testament by claiming that 
 these books were not Written by the men whose names they 
 
118 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 true at the time when active opposition was 
 strenuously made by those who were in a po¬ 
 sition to disprove the Apostolic teaching 3 if 
 it had been possible to disprove the resurrec¬ 
 tion of Jesus. The opponents of the resurrec¬ 
 tion have the facts against them, but they dis¬ 
 regard the facts* Yes, so incredibly reckless 
 with regards to facts have some of them be¬ 
 come, that they claim the idea of Christ’s rising 
 from the dead has sprung from observing that 
 Spring overcomes Winter. 
 
 Those who teach that there is nothing more 
 in the resurrection of Jesus than that His soul 
 or that His personality continued to exist 
 
 bear, but by other men and at a later date. As their argu¬ 
 ments rest on prejudice and not on facts, they have failed 
 to establish their claims. What I desire to call attention to 
 in this connection, however, is that even if they had succeeded 
 in proving that the books in question were written in the 
 second century, it would not materially change the evidence 
 for the resurrection of Jesus for the following reasons: 
 
 1. The books of the New Testament which radical critics 
 are constrained to admit genuine, definitely state that Jesus 
 arose from the dead on the third day. 
 
 2. The Christian Church was founded thru the oral 'preach¬ 
 ing of the apostles. This is true not only of the congrega¬ 
 tions in the Holy Land, but of all the churches founded by 
 the Apostles, and they founded churches in practically all the 
 countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Now it must 
 be a fact, self-evident to all, that since the Christian churches 
 everywhere at once accepted the books of the New Testament 
 as authoritative, these books presented the Christian truths, 
 historically and dogmatically, just as the Apostles had pre¬ 
 sented them in their oral preaching, when they founded these 
 churches. 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 119 
 
 apart from the body after His death, tho they 
 may maintain that He sent messages or tele¬ 
 grams from heaven to His Apostles, yes, even 
 tho they admit that He appeared to His 
 Apostles as a spirit or ghost, deny His resur¬ 
 rection and have every shred of evidence and 
 all the testimony of the Apostles against them. 
 
 VI. The Continued Ernstence of the Christian 
 Church Shows that Christ Must have 
 Risen from the Dead 
 
 Christ declared that the gates of hell should 
 not be able to prevail over the church which 
 He would found. This church was founded 
 amid seemingly insurmountable difficulties. 
 But the difficulties continued, we could say, 
 increased. The different local churches or 
 congregations had, to begin with, no organiza¬ 
 tion thru which the one could help the other. 
 They were without any visible head. The only 
 head they recognized was the risen Jesus, en¬ 
 throned on the right hand of the Father. That 
 He actually had risen, that He actually guided 
 and protected His weak and scattered flocks 
 must be evident to anyone who has studied 
 even cursorily the history of the Christian 
 
120 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 Church. It may help to show how truly won¬ 
 derful it is that the church has continued to 
 exist, yes constantly spread, to notice the fol¬ 
 lowing experiment of establishing a religion, 
 tried in Franee during the French Revolution: 
 
 “After some trial had been made of atheism 
 and irreligion, and when the want of public 
 worship was felt by many reflecting persons, 
 a society was formed for the worship of God, 
 upon the pure principles of Natural Religion. 
 Among the patrons of this society were men 
 beloved for their philanthropy, and distin¬ 
 guished for their learning, and some high in 
 power. 
 
 “La Revelliere Lepaux, one of the directory 
 of France, was a zealous patron of the new 
 religion. By his influence, permission was 
 obtained to make use of the churches for their 
 worship. In the city of Paris alone, eighteen 
 or twenty were assigned to them, among which 
 was the cathedral church of Notre Dame. 
 
 “Their creed was simple, consisting of two 
 great articles, the existence of God, and the 
 immortality of the soul . Their moral system 
 also embraced two great principles, the love of 
 God , and the love of man; which were indi¬ 
 cated by the name Theophilanthropists. Their 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 121 
 
 worship consisted of prayers and hymns of 
 praise, which were comprehended in a manual 
 prepared for a directory in worship. Lectures 
 were delivered by the members, which, how¬ 
 ever, underwent the inspection of the society, 
 before they were pronounced in public. To 
 these were added some simple ceremonies, such 
 as placing a basket of fruit and flowers on the 
 altar. Music, vocal and instrumental, was 
 used; for the latter, they availed themselves 
 of the organs in the churches. Great efforts 
 were made to have this worship generally in¬ 
 troduced in all the principal towns in France; 
 and the views of the society were even ex¬ 
 tended to foreign countries. Their manual 
 was sent into all parts of the republic by the 
 minister of the interior free of expense. 
 
 “Never did a society enjoy greater advan¬ 
 tages at its commencement. Christianity had 
 been rejected with scorn; atheism had for a 
 short time been tried, but was found to be 
 intolerable; the government was favorable to 
 the project; men of learning and influence 
 patronized it, and churches ready built were 
 at the service of the new denomination. The 
 system of Natural Religion which was adopt¬ 
 ed, was the best that could have been selected, 
 
122 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 and considerable wisdom was discovered in the 
 construction of their liturgy. But with all 
 these circumstances in their favor, the society 
 could not subsist. At first, indeed, while the 
 scene was novel, large audiences attended, 
 most of whom, however, were merely specta¬ 
 tors; but in a short time, they dwindled away 
 to such a degree, that instead of occupying 
 twenty churches in Paris, they needed only 
 four; and in some of the provincial towns, 
 where they began under the most favorable 
 auspices, they soon came to nothing. Thus 
 they went on declining until, under the con¬ 
 sular government, they were prohibited the 
 use of the churches any longer; upon which 
 they immediately expired without a struggle, 
 and it is believed that not a vestige of the so¬ 
 ciety now remains. . . . They found it impos¬ 
 sible to raise, in some of their societies, a sum 
 which every Christian congregation, even the 
 poorest of any sect, would have collected in 
 one day. It is a fact, that one of these socie¬ 
 ties petitioned the government to grant them 
 relief from a debt which they had contracted 
 in providing the apparatus of their worship, 
 not amounting to more than fifty dollars, 
 stating, that their annual income did not ex- 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 123 
 
 ceed twenty dollars. In other towns their mu¬ 
 sicians deserted them, because they were not 
 paid, and frequently no person could be found 
 to deliver lectures.” (Evidences of the authen¬ 
 ticity, etc., of Holy Scriptures by Rev. Archi¬ 
 bald Alexander, D. D., page 29-31., Ed. of 
 1836.) 
 
 Contrast the favorable circumstances this 
 society had with the persecutions against the 
 Christians, begun by Nero and continued more 
 or less by Roman emperors for two hundred 
 and fifty years. Christianity was outlawed as 
 a crime against the Roman state, and the re¬ 
 sources of the mighty empire were marshalled 
 against the Christians, who were put to death 
 under the most diabolical torments the brain 
 of man could invent. 
 
 Contrast the teachings of the society men¬ 
 tioned above with the doctrines of the Chris¬ 
 tian church. Surely it ought not seem strange 
 to any one that God exists; that He should be 
 loved, and that men should love one another! 
 To express the hope of immortality should 
 not have destroyed the society, for the Chris¬ 
 tian religion expresses that hope in no doubt¬ 
 ful terms. But Christianity teaches truths 
 which man does not like. It postulates that 
 
124 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 the carnal mind is enmity against God; that 
 man must be born anew; that every man is by 
 nature depraved; that the crucified Jesus is 
 God; that faith in Him, and not works, saves; 
 that even the most wicked man’s soul is dear 
 to the heart of God, and that he can be saved 
 in the same way and by the same means as 
 are needed for the most righteous man to be 
 saved. Yet Christianity has continued to 
 exist; it has spread; it is today spreading fur¬ 
 ther than ever before! Why? Jesus is risen 
 from the dead. He has all power in heaven 
 and on earth. He is the head of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 Not only has Christ as head guarded the 
 church against those who have attacked it from 
 without. In all ages there have been much 
 more dangerous enemies, the false teachers 
 and the traitors within the church. Yet the 
 fundamental truths, as we find them preached 
 by the Apostles, are yet preached; and the 
 sacred writings, which the Roman State tried 
 to destroy, are today circulated by the millions 
 annually, in hundreds of different languages 
 and dialects.* Is this done because the church 
 
 * “We have the statistics of the three Bible Societies which 
 are the largest producers and distributors—-the British and 
 
AN HISTORICAL FACT 
 
 125 
 
 is so splendidly organized and so efficiently 
 managed by any visible head? Is it because 
 it presents so unified a front against the enemy 
 and keeps its ranks so free from hangers-on 
 and Judases? There must be some adequate 
 explanation of this truly remarkable phenom¬ 
 enon. There is, indeed. It is this: Christ 
 is risen. He is the head of His church. He 
 has the power to make good His claim: The 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against His 
 church . 
 
 Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and the 
 National Bible Society of Scotland. Their figures for 1920 
 we tabulate: 
 
 Year Bibles 
 
 A. B. S. 1920 331,757 
 
 B. F. B. S. 1919-20 770,679 
 
 N. B. S. S. 1920 37,087 
 
 1,139,523 
 
 Test’s Portions Total Issues 
 717,319 2,776,325 3,825,401 
 
 700,223 7,045,028 8,515,930 
 
 64,612 2,028,018 2,129,717 
 
 1,482,154 11,849,371 14,471,048 
 
 This was a lean year. These three Societies have issued 
 as many as 22,400,000 volumes in a year. It is a fair esti¬ 
 mate to say that the total issues, in 1920, from all Bible So¬ 
 cieties and publishing houses, were 25,000,000 volumes of 
 Scriptures.” (Some Surprises from the Old Red Brick Bible 
 House, page 9. American Bible Society, Bible House, New 
 York City.) 
 
 “In how many languages have the Scriptures been pub¬ 
 lished thruout the world? In 725 languages and dialects, up 
 to the end of 1920. During the past decade some complete 
 book of the Bible has appeared in a new language at the rate 
 of one every six weeks.” (Ibid, page 4.) 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus on the third day 
 is an historical fact. The following summary 
 of evidence, direct and indirect, for and against 
 the resurrection shows this conclusively. This 
 evidence is obtained from the testimony of 
 friends and foes of Jesus, given at the time 
 when evidence for and against was available. 
 
 I. Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus 
 
 A. Indirect: 
 
 1 The empty grave. 
 
 ~ 2 The transformation of the Apostles: 
 
 a) From abject fear to heroic courage. 
 
 b) From silence and despair to preaching publicly with 
 great joy and absolute assurance. 
 
 3 The Roman guard fled from their post of duty. 
 
 4 The Jewish leaders do not charge the soldiers with neglect 
 of duty. 
 
 5 These leaders bribe the soldiers to spread a certain report. 
 
 6 The absurdity of the report these leaders caused to be 
 circulated in explanation of the empty grave. 
 
 7 The Jewish leaders do not demand an investigation. 
 
 8 Tho extremely anxious to stop the Apostolic preaching of 
 the resurrection of Jesus, these leaders offer no proof 
 against it, but try to stop the preaching by using force. 
 
 9 These leaders do not definitely deny that Jesus arose from 
 the dead on the third day. 
 
 10 The Apostolic message won converts by the thousands in 
 Jerusalem in spite of the persistent and violent opposition 
 of those who had influence and power enough to put Jesus 
 to death. 
 
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 127 
 
 B. Direct evidence for the resurrection of 
 Jesus: 
 
 1 The report of the Roman guard. (Matt. 28:11.) 
 
 2 Jesus appeared to and spoke with Mary Magdalene in the 
 morning of Easter Sunday. (Mark 16:9; John 20:14.) 
 
 3 Jesus appeared to and spoke to the other women who 
 came to the grave Easter Sunday. (Matt. 28: 9.) 
 
 4 Jesus appeared to Simon Peter on Easter Sunday. (Luke 
 24:34; I Cor. 15:6.) 
 
 5 Jesus joined the two disciples who went to Emmaus Easter 
 Sunday. (Luke 24:13-35.) 
 
 6 Jesus appeared to the ten Apostles and many disciples in 
 Jerusalem Easter Sunday in the evening. He spoke to 
 them, showed them His hands and His feet, and partook 
 of food in their presence. (Luke 24:36-43.) 
 
 7 Jesus appeared to the eleven Apostles in Jerusalem on the 
 first Sunday after Easter. He convinced the unbelieving 
 Thomas of the reality of His resurrection. (John 20:24-29.) 
 
 8 Jesus appeared to the seven Apostles by the Sea of Galilee 
 and reinstated Peter to apostleship. (John 21:1-23.) 
 
 9 Jesus appeared to the eleven Apostles on a mount in Galilee 
 and gave them their mission. (Matt. 28:16-20.) 
 
 He appeared also to more than 500 disciples. (I Cor. 15:17.) 
 
 10 Jesus appeared to Jacob. (I Cor. 15:8.) 
 
 11 Jesus appeared to the eleven Apostles at His ascension. 
 (Acts 1:1-11.) 
 
 12 Jesus appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus. (I Cor. 
 15:9; Acts 9; 22; 26.) 
 
 II. Evidence Against the Resurrection 
 
 of Jesus 
 
 A. Indirect: None. 
 
 B. Direct: None. 
 
 The report that the disciples of Jesus stole the body of 
 their Lord, while the guard was asleep, is not supported by 
 any evidence whatsoever. 
 
 “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as 
 dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, 
 
128 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 
 
 saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and 
 the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; 
 and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; 
 and have the keys of hell and of death.” (Rev. 
 1: 17, 18.) 
 
 “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that 
 is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the 
 Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his bene¬ 
 fits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who 
 healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy 
 life from destruction; who crowneth thee with 
 lovingkindness and tender mercies.” Amen. 
 
■ 
 
 
 
 
Date Due 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4