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Friday, 01 May 2009
Everyone in Jerusalem KNEW
Some people think the Bible is just a religious book designed to get people to embrace a certain religion, and as such, it is just full of made-up stories that some choose to believe even though the stories couldn't be true.  For example, they would say that the story about Jesus' resurrection was included to make people believe that Jesus arose from the dead, even though such a thing would be impossible.

But the Bible is not a book of stories someone is trying to get you to believe.  It is, in fact, an ancient historical document, a record of events written by witnesses of those events.  It is more credible (because of the many ancient copies available for comparison purposes) than any other ancient document upon which we base our historical record.  In other words, there is more documentary evidence that Jesus Christ arose from the dead than that Julius Caesar ever existed.  And yet, many assume that Caesar really lived, but Jesus could not have risen from the dead.

The resurrection is not included in the Bible because somebody made it up and thought it would be neat to get people to think Jesus had risen from the dead.  The gospels were written several years after the spontaneous development of the church, a movement of people who had become followers of Christ because they knew (not thought, but knew) He had risen from the dead.

If you put aside, for a moment, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and look at it as only a historical record, then you would have to acknowledge that by Easter Sunday evening, everyone in Jerusalem had heard the rumor that Jesus had risen from the dead.  By the next Sunday everyone in Jerusalem knew that Jesus had risen from the dead.  And in little more than a month, more than 500 people had actually seen the resurrected Jesus in person, and there  was no doubt at all that the resurrection had occurred.  More than 100 actually saw Him ascend into heaven before their very eyes.

When Peter preached to the huge crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, he referred to the resurrection of Jesus as a known fact.  No one stood up and said, "You're lying, Peter.  He didn't rise from the dead.  You're making that up!"  Not one person in the crowd--not a Jewish official, not a Roman soldier, not anyone--spoke against Peter's claim that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Instead, when Peter finished, the crowd cried out, "What must we do to be saved?" and 3,000 of them trusted the resurrected Jesus as their Savior.

Why?  Because they, like everyone else in Jerusalem, KNEW Jesus had risen from the dead.
POSTED BY: David Williams AT 09:47 pm   |  Permalink   |  E-mail this
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