The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Luke 24:6-9, “’He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,

7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’

8 And they remembered His words,

9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.”

It’s somewhat easy to state something, being able to prove it is something else. Our LORD Jesus was crucified and buried; but on the third day He arose from the grave never to die again. What proofs do we have? Check out the following:

PROOFS OF

THE RESURRECTION

OF JESUS CHRIST

I. Jesus’ body was not stolen!

1. Jesus’ enemies would not have stolen His body because that 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.

(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 is 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.

Approaching now nearly 65 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.

We love you and continue to pray for you,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

P. S. Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ enables me to say my dear, sweet, loving wife

of just shy of 64 years, has suffered irreparable health problems that is taking her from

me and from this earthly life. Totally unforseen, she had just been discharged from

hospital with pneumonia, when it became necessary to rush her to the Emergency Room

the following day. Her problems are too numerous to list here. I can only say that I need

your prayers as she enters Circle of Life Hospice tomorrow. This was her decision, as she

said, “We’re coming close to the end.” Her witness to doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists

cleaning ladies and all was endless. “I know the LORD Jesus Christ as my Savior; I know

where I’m going,” she said, as she pointed upward. May her tribe increase!

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”