RESURRECTION
by A l Sanders
r RHAPS THE OLDEST QUESTION ever asked by man was that framed by Job in the long ago. His heart searching query penetrates all the barriers of time and space, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14.) Thank God the matter was one of settled confidence as he could return with the positive assurance, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the lat ter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, 26). We are well familiar with the strange circumstances and desperate trials of life through which Job was passing. With the exception of his wife, all of his family were dead, to say nothing of his cattle and valu able possessions. With the pressures of so many dismal failures, Job’s wife posed what no doubt would have been a question many of us would have asked in similar circum stances, “If you want to retain your integrity, why don’t you just curse God and die?” Instead of sharing in this note of commiseration, he tes tified, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Some years ago there were two British scholars, Lord Littleton and Gilbert West, who met with a deter mined eifort to prove the fallacy of the Bible. Littleton was prepared to dedicate two years of his life in proving the resurrection was merely a myth. West planned to take the same amount of time to reveal how that the Apostle Paul was nothing more than a deluded old man. Their “conclusive” findings would of course be published so that all the world could see that the Bible was no more than a book of collected literature. Their paths separated for the pe
riod allotted. At the end of the two years each faced the other with the stark realization that what he had set out to accomplish a c tu a lly worked in reverse. Gilbert West, who expected to explain away the Apos tle Paul, had to admit that he could only have been indwelt by none oth er than God’s own Holy Spirit. As no other individual Paul had a vital and true grasp on what life really is. He confessed, “I have given my heart to the One in whom he be lieved, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Lord Littleton smiled broadly as he ex plained, “I, too, have uncovered some interesting information. The resurrection is actually the most at tested to fact in all of history. Fur thermore, it was because of my sin that Christ died, was buriéd, and rose again.” Such has always been the case with any who will take the time to make an honest and thorough study of the truth. The veracity of God’s Word is found in the multi tudes of lives who have been miracu lously transformed by the grace of the Lord. Who of us hasn’t been left with the scar of death? For some it has hit more closely than others. Yet, like the inexorable movement of a foreboding avalanche, dea th con tinues to move closer. Statistics tell us that every second five people en ter into eternity. Death, as a sniper, has us carefully marked. The wonderful thing about it is that God has made a provision for the understanding of this question instinctively, morally, and spiritu ally. In the light of this, how fool ish it is for man to reject the truth of the resurrection. Yet he does. A number of years ago a man in Indiana made extremely elaborate preparations for his death. He was 10
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