Essays
Points To Ponder
POINTS TO PONDER
(Noteworthy Quotations For An Easter Sunday)
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...” / Apostle Paul (1Cor.15:3-4)
"The resurrection rock rises up out of history more impregnable than any Gibraltar up out of the sea." / George Buttrick
The empty tomb of Christ has been the cradle of the church.” / E. de Pressense
“Our Savior's resurrection...is truly of great importance in Christianity; so great that His being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it…” / John Locke
“When therefore the disciples began to preach the resurrection in Jerusalem and people responded, and when religious authorities stood helplessly by, the tomb must have been empty. The simple fact that the Christian fellowship, founded on belief in Jesus' resurrection, came into existence and flourished in the very city where He was executed and buried is powerful evidence for the historicity of the empty the empty tomb.” / William Lane Craig
“Indeed, taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.” / Brooke Foss Westcott, Cambridge University
“I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath give us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” / Thomas Arnold, Oxford University
“The meaning of the resurrection is a theological matter, but the fact of the resurrection is a historical matter; the nature of the resurrection body of Jesus may be a mystery, but the fact that the body disappeared from the tomb is a matter to be decided upon by historical evidence.” / Wilbur Smith
During the night the 'captain of the Temple' made his rounds. On his approach the guards had to rise and salute him in a particular manner. Any guard found asleep when on duty was beaten, or his garments were set on fire - - a punishment, as we know, actually awarded (Rev.16:15).” / Alfred Edersheim
“The disciples had nothing to gain by lying and starting a new religion. They faced hardship, ridicule, hostility and martyr's deaths. In light of this, they could have never sustained such unwavering motivation if they knew what they were preaching was a lie. The disciples were not fools and Paul was a cool-headed intellectual of first rank. There would have been several opportunities over three to four decades of ministry to reconsider and renounce the lie.” / J. P. Moreland
I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world -- and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” / Chuck Colson
“Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is all about." / N.T. Wright
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead...” / Apostle Peter (1Pet.1:3)
Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ
