FAKE NEWS

FAKE NEWS?

“them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," 1 Thess. 4:14

It has been stated that the early disciples were guilty of fraud, that they invented a account. Will this stand the test of one moment's consideration of the fact that for this particular account they endured almost untold suffering, being excommunicated, ostracized, and in thousands of cases put to death? It may be that in the history of the race, individual men have been found who, swept by some fanaticism, have been willing to die for fraud. Cases have not been wanting in which men have suffered and perished, in order that evil may reach the goal, and something dastardly be accomplished. But this is not a case of isolated individuals, but a whole company and society of men and women and children, ever increasing in number, all of them more or less having to suffer in those early centuries; and the central fact, for the declaration of which they endured all things, was this account of the resurrection, which, truthfully, it is announced they invented. Let the apostles be the first and most conspicuous illustration. All of them except one died violent deaths, and he was exiled to a lonely island.

The breaking out of persecution as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was based upon the fact that these men declared that the Man Who had been crucified to put an end to His teaching and influence, had been raised, and was alive. It is not within the compass of rational considera­tion to believe that men who so suffered, suffered for a account themselves had invented.

Again it has been said that Jesus never really died, but that He lost consciousness upon the Cross, and that being placed in a grave He recovered. How then it may be asked, did He escape from the tomb so carefully guarded by Roman soldiers, and from grave-clothes so marvelously wrapped, as those of Eastern burials were? Of course such a state­ment is to take away not only resurrection, but the death of the Cross, and all the value connected with it.

And yet His death is proven by the fact that it was carried out by Roman authority, and Roman soldiers, and is a matter of the world's history, as apart from the account of the Gospels. In the crucifixion of criminals the Romans were ever careful to be certain of death, and for ­this purpose broke the bones after a lapse of certain time. His bones were not broken for the simple reason that He was dead already. Before His body was granted to Joseph or Arimathea, the Roman governor made careful investigation concerning the actuality of death.

And yet one other argument may be referred to. It is asserted that the disciples saw certain visionary appear­ances after the crucifixion, and that they thought they saw Him. Under stress and strain of terrible excitement they imagined they had a vision of their lost Leader again alive. The statement has been made in this connection that they saw what they wanted to see, as people distraught often seem to do. The answer to such a statement is of the simplest. There need be no argument. They had no expectation of seeing Him again. No thought was further from their minds than that of His resurrection. As to the hypothesis of visionary appearances, it might have been considered if but one or two had testified. No less than ten distinct appearances are recorded and these not only to individuals, but to companies and crowds, first to the women, then to Peter, then to two men walking to Emmaus, then to ten apostles, and subsequently to eleven, yet later to seven men approaching the seashore. Yet again to the whole number of the apostles, and after­wards to five hundred brethren at once. Then to James, and finally to the little group gathered round Him when He ascended.

Is it conceivable that all these were deceived by vision­ary appearances, and were so deceived that whatever else their faults and failure in the coming years, there is abso­lutely no record of any one of them questioning the his­toric fact of the resurrection? Of course it may now be said that this is all upon the authority of the New Testa­ment and that is at once admitted. The authenticity of the Gospel narratives is not now under discussion, but is taken for granted. And therefore there may be added to the proofs already cited, the wonderful history of Saul of Tarsus, who declared through over thirty years of con­sistent Christian life and testimony, that the miraculous change wrought in his attitude towards Christ, and in the whole fiber of his character, was brought about by an actual vision of Jesus of Nazareth, risen and glorified. It has been said that the true account of what happened to Saul of Tarsus was that he had an epileptic seizure in a thunder-storm. So childish is such a statement, that the only answer possible to it, is a suggestion that if it be in­deed true, then men ought always to pray for a multiplica­tion of thunder-storms, and an epidemic of epilepsy.

And yet finally these outside proofs are not the highest to me. The ultimate proof is the Church of Jesus Christ. As has incidentally been seen, at the Cross the disciples were frightened, and scattered. By the way of resurrection these were gathered, and held in patient waiting, until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Whose coming created the new society, which consisted not merely in the gathering together of individuals, but their fusing into one mystic unity, and then followed the growth and influence of that Church in every successive century. Within its border today there is the deposit of the only regenerative Gospel that man has ever heard. The resurrection of Christ is proven today by the Church on earth, with its ordinances, its living ministry, its Gospel of grace, and the marvelous victories won in every age, and in every land by its toil in spite of its weakness and its worldliness. The Church of Christ is the highest CREDENTIAL OF CHRIST.

Turning from this subject of resurrection with the great glad exultant cry that Christ is risen there is in the cry the affirmation of His perfect victory, the declaration of the Divine seal set upon that victory, and the proclamation of a sure anchorage for the faith of men. The living risen Christ is the center of the Church's creed, the Creator of her character, and the inspiration of her conduct. His resurrection is the clearest note in her battle-song. It is the sweetest, strongest music amid all her sorrows. It speaks of personal salvation. It promises the life that has no ending, it declares to all bereaved souls that “them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," (1 Thess. 4:14) and therefore the light of His resurrection falls in radiant beauty upon the graves where rest the dust of the holy dead.