DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 134, 13 July 1914, Page 8

DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?

Preaching at Moorhonse Avenue Church of Christ on Sunday evening, Mr Kalph Gebbie said that Strauss, an eminent theologian, had declared that the resurrection was the touchstone of Christianity. All Christendom was astray, continued the speaker, if Christ had not risen from the dead. One of the most plausible books written in modern times against Christianity devoted only nine and a half pages out of 408 to the resurrection, although everything rested upon this vital question. Some opponents of Christianity sought to prove that Christ was a myth, but there wras no historian to-day who would stake his reputation by asserting that Jesus never lived. It was a matter of history that He was delivered by Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judaea, to be crucified.

It had been said that theologians, when dealing with the resurrection, no longer argued from the empty tomb, but that statement wa's not correct. The empty tomb had to be reckoned with. If Jesus did not rise from the dead what became of His body? Kenan's hypothesis was that the body was taken away by some of the Disciples and carried" by them into Galilee, that those Disciples who remained in Jerusalem did not know it, and that consequently they circulated the story that Christ had risen. But it was impossible to carry the body some miles without any of those through whose country it passed being aware of it. Besides, if the body had been stplen the Disciples at Galilee would have told the other Disciples at Jerusalem. Then again, Renan supposed that the Jews might have stolen the body, but had that been so they would have admitted it on the day of Pentecost. All that they had to do was to exhibit the body to prove that Christ had not risen. It required more credulity to believe Renan's story than to believe that Christ rose from the dead. After disposing of the rest of Renan 's surmises Mr Gebbie argued that the Disciples could not possibly have had any motive for deception. Much had been said about these men not possessing scientific minds, but this qualification was not required to enable them to know what they saw. Another theory which had been advanced was that Christ was taken down from the cross in a swoon, that he recovered while in hiding, and then made such an impression upon His Disciples as to make them believe He had risen from the dead. As against this, however, Strauss emphatically declared that it would be absolutely- impossible for Jesus, weak as He was, to have made that impression on His Disciples. They believed in His resurrection, continued Mr Gebbie, to such an extent that they were ready to die for their belief, which was shared by thousands of others in Jerusalem. The Apostles were cowardly men before the resurrection, but afterwards they were strong, stalwart defenders of Christ. How was that to be explained! The only explanation was that Jesus had risen from the dead, a fact which they preached with all the power of their being.