Quotes on the Resurrection
“The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Chrsitianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.”
“Before we can reason the resurrection out of history we must reason Paul and Christianity out of existence. We must admit the miracle or frankly confess that we stand before an inexplicable mystery.”
“What happened as a result of the Resurrection is unprecedented in human history. In the span of a few hundred years, a small band of seemingly insignificant believers succeeded in turning an entire empire upside down. As has been well said, ‘They faced the tyrant’s brandished steel, the lion’s gory mane, and the fires of a thousand deaths,‘ because they were utterly convinced that they, like their Master, would one day rise from the grave in glorified, resurrected bodies.”
“The cradle and the cross are of little value without the resurrection. But the cradle plus the cross, plus the resurrection, equals salvation.”
“God made Adam. He was not fashioned after any model. There had never been a human organism, and so there was nothing to copy. At the first attempt God made a perfect man. He made him out of the dust of the earth. If, out of ordinary dust of the earth and without a model, God could make a perfect man, surely out of the extraordinary dust of mortal body, and with millions of models, God can make each one of us a perfect being in the resurrection. Surely the last undertaking would not be greater than the first. See the gospel algebra: Ordinary dust minus a model equals a perfect man. Extraordinary dust and plus a model equals a resurrection body. Mysteries about it? Oh, yes; that is one reason why I believe it. It would not be much of a God who could do things only as far as I can understand. Mysteries? Oh, yes; but no more about the resurrection of your body than about its present existence.”
“Immortality is the glorious discovery of Christianity”
“The tomb could hold Him no longer. Death is strong, but life is stronger. Stronger than the dark, the light. Stronger than the wrong, the right. Faith and hope, triumphant say, ‘Christ arose that Resurrection day!’”
“The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a certainty, If any fact, not merely of Christianity, but of history, stands on an impregnable foundation, this does.”
“The fact of resurrection is not extraordinary; it is in accord with what we who believe at all believe to be the uniform law of life—that death does not touch it. The witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were unprejudiced, unexpectant, incredulous, and their honesty is not doubted even by skeptical criticism.”