The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Matthew 28:5-7, 11-15, “And the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid;

for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 He is not here, for He has risen,

just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that

He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him;

behold, I have told you….”

11 Now while they were on their way, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to

the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and counseled

together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 and said, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came

by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.” 14 And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we

will win him over and keep you out of trouble.’ 15 And they took the money and did as they had been

instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”

The most incontrovertible fact of human history is that Jesus Christ arose from the dead! The maxim

is also true that “None is so blind as him who will not see.” The women who went early to the tomb

heard the angel say, “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” But the guards reported to the

chief priests all that had happened. They were the first eye-witnesses. Fear must have struck the priests

just as it had the guards; nevertheless, to protect their position against their Messiah, they concocted a

lie –a lie that continues to this very day.

What proofs do Christians (and others) have that Jesus actually arose from the dead? I offer you 10 indisputable proofs. Read them carefully, then archive them on your computer for future reference.

PROOFS OF

THE RESURRECTION

OF JESUS CHRIST

Once again Resurrection Sunday is upon us. Of all the precious doctrines encompassed by the Holy Scripture, none is more vital than the Resurrection of our LORD Jesus Christ.

When it became necessary for our LORD Jesus to state in unequivocal terms precisely why He had come to Earth, He said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

The Apostle Paul explained yet more precisely how the LORD’s salvation was to work, he wrote, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Romans 10:9). The apostle further supports his thesis with evidence cited in First Corinthians 15, the “resurrection chapter.”

Someone in more modern times stated that “the most incontrovertible fact in human history is the resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ from the dead.” Quite evidently, it is so because with the passing of some 2,000 years, the fact of Jesus’ Resurrection has suffered no refutation.

Considering everything, we can offer the following spiritually logical truths in support of Jesus’ literal, physical, bodily resurrection from the grave:

I. First, Jesus’ body was not stolen!

1. Jesus’ enemies would not have stolen His body because that would have propagated the very prediction that He would rise from the dead.

2. Jesus’ disciples could not have stolen His body because Pilate established Roman guards to stand watch over the tomb lest His body be stolen.

(1) Ironically, many of Jesus’ disciples were not fully convinced of His Resurrection itself until His post-resurrection appearances.

(2) The very character and the later history of the disciples compels us to believe that they neither stole nor secretly carried away the body of Jesus.

II. In nearly 20 centuries, no body –except the Resurrected body of Jesus Christ– was ever found. Thus, the evidence needed to disprove Christ’s prophecy is missing.

III. The mathematical probability of anyone being able to perpetrate any hoax –especially concerning Christ’s Resurrection– over 20 centuries is astronomically negative!

IV. The prophecy prediction record of the Old Testament is 100 percent accurate!

V. Notice that the chief priests and the elders never questioned whether the tomb was empty. There is no record anywhere that they even questioned whether the guards’ report were true. They knew it was true!

VI. Notice that the soldiers were told to say that Jesus’ disciples came and stole the body away while they (the soldiers) were asleep! How could they have known what was going on if they were asleep?

VII. The leaders of Judaism in Jerusalem, who had put the LORD Jesus to death, had nothing to offer to contradict these disciples as they continued to preach Jesus and His Resurrection– because all Jerusalem knew the tomb was empty. If there had been trickery involved, sooner or later it would have been suspected, then proven.

VIII. Had fraud occurred, surely one of the disciples, even most of them, would have confessed it under the horrendous persecution they underwent. It may be possible to live a lie, but men seldom die for a lie –and most of these men died for what they believed.

IX. The result ultimately would have been that the message that Christ had risen would have suffered the fate of all such unfounded stories– it would have lost its power. Instead, this truth has swept the world, closed pagan temples, won millions of disciples, brought hope to a despairing humanity, was the very foundation truth of the early Church, and is as freshly glorious as ever!

X. But not only did Jesus come alive again, He did not disappear to leave the disciples speculating through all the subsequent days as to what had happened to Him. Instead, He appeared to them literally, visibly, frequently and in bodily form –to more than 500 believers following His Resurrection from the dead.

After more than 60 years in the Christian ministry, it has been my observation that those who persist in denying the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, are in the grip of some personal sin which they are unwilling to surrender in order to lay hold of Christ. As with physical survival, it is in the nature of man to embrace hope, not to disparage or deny it. Thus, when men engage in unmitigated attacks upon the only One who offers true hope to all mankind, it is undeniable proof both of man’s own decadence and of his love of sin. (– Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.).

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”