April message

Years ago, when I engaged in public debate with prominent atheists about the truth of Christianity, I noticed how keen they were to target the Easter story with their scepticism. They insisted that the four gospel writers each told a different story. If someone from the audience during question time suggested that if four people witnessed an accident each account could differ in detail the atheists would reply that Matthew states that when Mary approached the tomb she witnessed "a great earthquake": hardly a detail that no one else noticed!

I conceded that the four accounts were different but were incidental to the main event. We need to remember that the Gospels were written more than thirty years after the resurrection and during that time thousands of people accepted the truth of a risen Christ. How did that happen? They saw the joyful faces and transformed lives of the apostles and witnessed their willingness to die rather than deny their risen Lord whom they had seen walking, talking, eating and showing his wounds. We know that people did not read the stories of witnesses, but they did read the features and lives of Christ’s followers. I think they still do!

The apostle Paul tells us that hundreds of people saw the risen Christ. Their stories were passed down (See Luke 1:1) and the gospel writers selected some to include in their gospels. There was no collusion and, as I have already stated, they were incidental to the main supernatural event, "Jesus had returned to life!"

May we, like the apostles, show from our lives that we too have been in the presence of our living Lord, and maybe others will believe in Him.