He is Risen: Evidence beyond Reasonable Doubt...Continued from page 1

But even if such a conspiracy scheme was possible, it collapses under the weight of historical evidence, as acknowledged by some not-so-sympathetic authorities. For instance, historian Michael Grant admits, “Their testimonies cannot prove them to have been right in supposing that Jesus had risen from the dead. However, these accounts do prove that certain people were utterly convinced that that is what he had done.”
And then there is Duke professor E. P. Sanders, who says, “That Jesus’ followers (and later Paul) had resurrection experiences is, in my judgment, a fact. What the reality was that gave rise to the experiences, I do not know.”
Even for the impartial critic, nothing short of steadfast belief could explain how a band of cowards could be transformed into men of valor overnight. Despite the constant threat of torture, alienation, imprisonment, and death, the disciples held firm to their account of a resurrected Messiah. They surely had ample opportunity and motive for coming clean about the “cover-up,” or at least, for reconsidering their testimony. Yet, although ten of the eleven apostles were martyred for their faith, there is no evidence that any one of them ever recanted.
The behavior of the disciples only makes sense once we accept that they actually believed that the incredible story they were telling was true.
Some have attempted to associate the apostles’ actions with the ever-ready martyr wish of religious fanaticism. But that only further invalidates the charge of conspiracy. Yes, men may suffer and die for what they believe to be true, but it goes against human nature to suffer and die for what they know to be false. Nobody knows that better than the former special counsel to President Nixon, Charles W. Colson.
All the President's MenIn his book Loving God, Chuck Colson writes about his involvement in the Watergate conspiracy. Colson describes “hand-picked loyalists” who believed passionately in their leader, and who had sacrificed everything — lucrative personal careers, privacy, and family — for the sake of their leader and their noble cause.
These were men who had the power and prestige of the highest office in the land. Men whose leader was victorious, having just won a landslide election. Men who, with a word, could mobilize the military, fire personnel, or order a private jet or limo. Men who had everything to lose from a failed cover-up. Yet with all that was at stake, Colson writes that this small inner circle “could not hold a conspiracy together for more than two weeks.”
Unlike Christ’s disciples, who faced beatings and execution, the Watergate conspirators faced at most, a prison term, embarrassment, and an end to the perks and clout of the White House. But within weeks after hints of the cover-up reached Judge Sirica, “the natural instinct for self-preservation was so overwhelming that the conspirators, one by one, deserted their leader, walked away from their cause, [and] turned their backs on the power, prestige, and privileges,” writes Colson.
In contrast, the disciples were powerless men whose unpopular leader had been defeated, and who quickly found themselves guilty by association. Yet these “marked men” boldly entered Jerusalem, the most hostile place on earth to deliver their thoroughly unwelcome message — a message that would have been readily contested by any number of persons, had the counter evidence existed.