Topics:<\/b> Apologetics; Martyrdom; Resurrection; Testimony; Truth; Witnessing<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Matthew 28:1\u201310; Luke 24:1\u201312; John 20:1\u201318<\/p>\n
Whenever Charles Colson, onetime Watergate-criminal-turned-founder of Prison Fellowship, is challenged about the truth of Christ\u2019s resurrection, he responds, \u201cMy answer is always that the disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then I\u2019m asked, \u2018How do you know they were telling the truth? Maybe they were perpetuating a hoax.\u2019 \u201d Colson says, \u201cMy answer to that comes from an unlikely source: Watergate.\u201d He writes:<\/p>\n
Watergate involved a conspiracy perpetuated by the closest aides to the president of the United States\u2014the most powerful men in America, who were intensely loyal to their president. But one of them, John Dean, turned state\u2019s evidence, that is, testified against Nixon, as he put it, \u201cto save his own skin\u201d\u2014and he did so only two weeks after informing the president about what was really going on! The cover-up, the lie, could only be held together for two weeks, and then everybody else jumped ship to save themselves. Now, the fact is that all that those around the president were facing was embarrassment, maybe prison. Nobody\u2019s life was at stake.<\/p>\n
But what about the disciples? Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stoning, execution. Every one of the disciples insisted, to their dying breaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead. Don\u2019t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did. Men will give their lives for something they believe to be true; they will never give their lives for something they know to be false.<\/p>\n
The Watergate cover-up reveals the true nature of humanity. Even political zealots at the pinnacle of power will, in the crunch, save their own necks, even at the expense of the ones they profess to serve so loyally. But the apostles could not deny Jesus, because they had seen him face to face, and they knew he had risen from the dead.<\/p>\n
No, you can take it from an expert in cover-ups\u2014I\u2019ve lived through Watergate\u2014that nothing less than a resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive and is Lord. Two thousand years later, nothing less than the power of the risen Christ could inspire Christians around the world to remain faithful\u2014despite prison, torture, and death. Jesus is Lord: That\u2019s the thrilling message of Easter. It\u2019s a historic fact, one convincingly established by the evidence\u2014and one you can bet your life upon.<\/p>\n
\u2014Charles Colson, BreakPoint Online Commentaries (April 29, 2002)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Apologetics; Martyrdom; Resurrection; Testimony; Truth; Witnessing References: Matthew 28:1\u201310; Luke 24:1\u201312; John 20:1\u201318 Whenever Charles Colson, onetime Watergate-criminal-turned-founder of Prison Fellowship, is challenged about the truth of Christ\u2019s resurrection, he responds, \u201cMy answer is always that the disciples and 500 others gave eyewitness accounts of seeing Jesus risen from the tomb. But then I\u2019m … Continue reading “TRIUMPHING
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