THE KING’S BUSINESS
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had risen or else Paul was a most con scienceless liar. Of course it is impossible to believe that Paul deliberately lied about this matter; for Paul laid down his life for his testimony to the truth of the resur rection of Jesus Christ and men do not give up every earthly ambition and pros pect as Paul did, for a lie that they know to be a lie and endure thirty-five years of hardships and untiring toil and finally die for a lie. Moreover, if this were a lie it was a lie that could easily have been proven to be a lie at that time, so then, it is sim ply impossible for it to be a lie. If, then, anything can be proven by testimony it is proven that Jesus rose from the dead. If that is proven the whole system of Chris tian Doctrines and all the miracles go with it. Scholarly rationalists, like' Baur and Strauss and Schenkel, have been driven to admit that “the apostles firmly believed that Jesus had arisen.” (Quotations from David Strauss, Leben Jesu). They admit that “it is an indisputable fact that in the ear(y morning of the first day of the week, fol lowing the crucifixion the grave of Jesus was found empty. It is a second indisput able fact that the disciples and other mem- pel, and all faith in the bospel is empty bers of the apostolic communion were con vinced that Jesus was seen after the cruci fixion.” (Quotation from Schenkel.) But what had they seen that convinced them of this? David Strauss suggests that they had seen visions. Does any honest minded stu dent think for a moment that five hundred men have the same vision at the same time? Suppose a lawyer in court today, when only a dozen persons had testified to having seen the same thing should argue that they had not really seen what they testified to, but had seen a vision. He would be laughed out of court. And these ingenious deniers of the actual resurrection of Jesus should be laughed out of court. If there is an historic fact absolutely proven it is that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is wonderful how God through all these centuries has guarded, at every point, the evidence of this supreme fact
by Cephas (Peter) is unimpeachable. After His appearance to Cephas (Peter) the Lord Jesus appeared to the entire apostolic company together. This appear ance was the same night that He appeared to Peter alone, i.e., the day of His resur rection (Luke 24:33-36). Paul here speaks of the apostolic company as “the twelve,” though one of them, Judas, was lacking and Thomas was not present at the first appear ance-to the .twelve (John 20:24). Though the whole twelve were not present Paul speaks of them as “the twelve” because that was the collective name for the body of the apostles, however, Matthias who afterward made the number up to twelve again, he taking the place of Judas (Acts 1:21-26), may have been present. If we take the reference to be to the appearing to the apostles on the second occasion, Thomas was with them (John 20:24-29). Sometime after this appearance to the twelve, the risen Christ “appeared to above five hundred brethren at once,” that is to say, he was seen visibly by them. That ought to settle the questions that he actu ally rose from the dead and was bodily visible to men after His crucifixion. The greater part of those five hundred men were living when Paul spoke and could therefore be appealed to. Here we see the great importance of the admission of all scholarly rationalists that Paul wrote this epistle. Of course, Paul could not make a statement like this, that nearly five hun dred were still living who saw Jesús after His resurrection, unless it were substan tially correct. We speak of “scholarly rationalists” in order to distinguish them from the obstinate unintelligent skeptics who simply say, “I don’t bfelieve,” and make no pretense of ever having investigated the evidence. The whole foundation for doubt with this class of skeptics ,is their igno rance. And ignorance on a subject so vital as this is unpardonable. It is admitted that Paul wrote this epistle and Paul clearly asserts that there were nearly five hun dred living in his day that had seen Jesus after His resurrection. Either then Jesus
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