“To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

Jesus Christ is both Creator and Savior and, just as the miracle of special creation is the most certain testimony of true science, so the miracle of His bodily resurrection is the most certain testimony of true history.

There is, first of all, the witness of the empty tomb. When John first entered the tomb and observed the linen clothes and the napkin for His head collapsed inward on themselves, with the body gone, “he saw, and believed” (John 20:6–8). Though they surely would have if they could have, neither the Jews nor the Romans could stop the spreading flame of Christianity by producing His dead body, for that body was alive again and soon ascended to Heaven, far beyond their reach.

Then there were at least ten appearances of the resurrected Savior to one or more of the disciples. Paul recounts some: “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present. . . . After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also” (I Corinthians 15:5–8). These appearances were neither of a ghost nor hallucinatory, for He had “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39); they touched Him, and talked with Him, and ate with Him.

These, and many other “infallible proofs,” so convinced them and multitudes of others, that their lives were transformed, and they became willing to live and even to die for Him. They suffered severely for their faith and had every incentive to assess the evidence critically, yet not one recanted. “The Lord is risen indeed” (Luke 24:34), and we certainly “have not followed cunningly devised fables” (II Peter 1:16). HMM