The day after the death of Jesus Christ was a day of heartache a dissillusionment for those who had followed Him.
They had forsaken, betrayed and denied their friend. They had left Him to suffer and die alone.
Their hopes of Him being the messiah, their king, lay in tatters.
Normal men and women, fishermen, tax collectors, carpenters, against the might of
Jewish religious leaders and the Roman Empire who were they ?
These were the origins of a faith that would become the largest that the world has known.
The reason for the rise of this faith, is that Jesus Christ is alive.
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'Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”
Despite Jesus promising He would return from the dead, no one believed He would. After all, no one ever did. Just like us,
they could not believe that He was alive.
Even when He stood in their midst they could not believe their eyes.
'As they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, “Peace be unto you.”
But they were terrified and afraid, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And He said unto them, “Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me to have.”
And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet.
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered'.
Many bore witness that Jesus Christ was alive, and that He returned to heaven. They were people like you and I, shaken and amazed by the events that they witnessed.
'After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.
He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ...
After this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed
in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven"'.
Let's ask ourselves, is it really likely that a faith in Jesus Christ would have survived for 2,000 years, if it were just a few fishermen
and carpenters
making up a new cult ?
Wouldn't people in the area have denounced them as mad men, and the Jews and the Romans who were so against them have simply killed them all ?
These events and their
accounts in the gospels remain to this day the most profoundly unexplained and supernatural events in history.
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