Historic Proof of the Resurrection of Our Lord.
It is asserted that the gospels, having been written from fifty to one hundred years after the death of Christ, are not sufficiently near testimony to such an incredible thing as his resurrection. They only recorded a belief that had gradually found place in the superstitious minds of the first-century Christians. But let us measure the force of the testimony of four writings earlier than the gospels, which confirm those later assertions concerning the resurrection. These are Paul's first and second epistles to the Corinthians, and his letter to the Galatians and Romans. Those writings are indisputably genuine. Bauer admits that they were written by Paul as early as A. D. 60. Paul died during the reign of Nero, who was succeeded by Galba in 68. He was a prisoner two years at Caesarea before Festus took the place of Felix, which was A. D. 60. These letters were written while he was still at liberty, they date, therefore, before A. D. 58, or just twenty-five years after the crucifixion. Will the reader think for a moment how he regards events which transpired twenty-five years ago. If only thirty-five years old you may recollect distinctly the incidents of the Mexican War which began in 1845, and closed in 1847. You can recall, when a child of eight years, the sight of the departure and return of troops, and the excitement which the reports of victory or defeat produced. Thus awakening the historic sense, we can appreciate Paul's assertion in I Cor. 15 : 6, that of five hundred persons who saw the risen Jesus at one time twenty-five years before, two hundred and fifty were still alive and able to give testimony to the fact from personal knowledge. Having previously asserted to the Corinthians, and no one having disputed it, he here repeats that at least two hundred and fifty were living and able to testify that they had seen Jesus alive within six weeks after his acknowledged death. At the time they had testified to it, with others, and had been believed. For twenty-five years they had adhered to the same testimony. Now, would a sane man assert that two hundred and fifty of my readers could not be trusted in their assertion of having personally seen our soldiers returning from the Mexican War, or declare that they did not know what they were saying! The first letter to the Corinthians gives us then this strong proof of the resurrection. Christ's death is indisputable. His re-appearance was real to five hundred persons, who were compelled to believe what was contrary to their reason and experience, that a man who was dead and buried could be alive again, often and distinctly seen, and even handled by some of them. Two hundred and fifty living persons are ready to confirm Paul's statement of what they saw twenty-five years before. The second letter to the Corinthians gives this still stronger concurrent evidence of the resurrection. Paul speaks of himself as a Christian fourteen years before it was written. Add three years to this (Gal. 2 : 1; 1 : 18) after which he went up to Jerusalem, and we find that only seven years, or at the most ten years, after the resurrection of Christ, he himself fully believed it and the testimony concerning it. Could any one now rationally deny the truth of the assertions of five hundred living persons, as to the assassination of President Lincoln, who saw him shot in Ford's Theater, in 1865, or nine years ago? Paul would have been equally unreasonable in refusing to believe those who told him they had seen and handled the risen Jesus. After fourteen or twenty years he believed their testimony more firmly than ever. In the epistle to the Romans, the same writer assumes in his argument that the Christians at Rome had for many years believed in Christ's resurrection. In fifteen years at least after the death of Jesus, this belief was undisputed at Rome without Paul's preaching it, and at Jerusalem. The real resurrection is the most reasonable cause for this widely-spread belief; which made its way against national prejudice, worldly pride, the ambition and present comfort of those who held it in persecution. Galatians (1 : 12–15) takes us one step nearer to the fact of the resurrection. Paul's conversion occurred within five years after the event. As a fierce and stubborn enemy of Jesus, he then acknowledged the spiritual power of his death and resurrection, in its personal relations to himself. Accepting it in full view of the ruin of all his earthly hopes, twenty-five years after he can declare that he had not thrown away his life on a delusion, but found the resurrection an abiding and ever-increasing source of peace and joyful hope, and support amid all tribulations. These epistles then bring us much nearer testimony to the facts recorded than do the gospels if we regard only the times in which they were written. The historic sense can receive them as almost concurrent with the great miracle.—Christian Union.