The Resurrection Witnesses: Character and Credibility

To whom also He showed Himself alive after His Passion.—Christ rose again from the dead. Consider first the fact itself: admitting the power and providence of God, resurrection involves no logical contradiction. He that first inspired the soul into the body may surely reunite them. The design was worthy of God and consistent with His holy will, serving purposes both important and reasonable.

But the resurrection rests ultimately upon testimony. The witnesses numbered many—not one or two, but persons long acquainted with Jesus through intimate conversation. They avowed themselves eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses, as fully informed as the senses could make them. Remarkably, the chief witnesses, the apostles themselves, initially rejected the claim as fiction, resisting it with difficulty before accepting it.

Upon such grounds they spoke boldly: "they spake the Word of God with boldness," and "with great power gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Examine their character. These were persons who preached earnestly all manner of goodness, sincerity, modesty, and equity—virtues they demanded of others under God's judgment. Their practice matched their doctrine; they lived exemplary lives of virtue, not as wicked impostors but as men worthy of the divinest calling. They possessed wisdom far exceeding worldly cunning, endued with discernment suitable to their sacred characters. Such men, in their right minds and senses, could neither be ignorant of nor mistaken about what they witnessed and proclaimed.