The Resurrection of Jesus Christ 85 are too marked and too many. I t is absolutely incredible that four persons sitting down to write an account of what never occurred independently of one another should have made their stories agree to the extent that these do. On the other hand, they cannot have been made up, as we have already seen, in collusion with one another; the apparent discrepancies are too numerous and too noticeable. It is proven they were pot made up independently of one another; it is proven they were not made up in collusion with one another, so we are driven to the conclusion that they were not made up at all, that they are a true relation of facts as they actually occurred. We might rest the argument here and reasonably call the case settled, but we will go on still further: 2. The next thing we notice is that each of these ac- counts bears striking indications of having been derived from eye witnesses. The account of an eye witness is readily distinguishable from the account of one who is merely retailing what others have told him. Any one who is accustomed to weigh evidence in court or in historical study soon learns how to distinguish the report of an eye witness from mere heresay evidence. Any careful student of the Gospel records of the resurrection will readily detect many marks of the eye witness. Some years ago when lecturing at an American university, a gen- tleman was introduced to me as being a skeptic. I asked him, “What line of study are you pursuing?” He replied that he was pursuing a post graduate course in history with a view to a professorship in history. I said, “Then you know that the account of an eye witness differs in marked respects from the account of one who is simply telling what he has heard from others?” “Yes,” ~h e replied. I next asked, “Have you carefully read the four Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Christ?” He replied, I have. Tell me, have you not noticed clear indications that they were derived from eye witnesses?” Yes, he replied, I have
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker