From: ata@hfsi.hfsi.com ( John Ata)
Subject: Re: DID HE REALLY RISE???
Reply-To: <news@opl.com>
Organization: HFSI
Lines: 49

In article <Apr.12.03.44.39.1993.18842@athos.rutgers.edu> reedr@cgsvax.claremont.edu writes:
>In article <Apr.10.05.31.46.1993.14368@athos.rutgers.edu>, luomat@alleg.edu (Timothy J. Luoma) writes:
>> In article <Apr.9.01.11.16.1993.16937@athos.rutgers.edu>  
>> 
>> "Suppose you were part of the `Christian consipracy' which was going to  
>> tell people that Christ had risen.  Never mind the stoning, the being  
>> burned alive, the possible crucifixion ... let's just talk about a  
>> scourging.  The whip that would be used would have broken pottery, metal,  

>No one was ever flogged, beaten, burned, fed to the lions, or killed in any
>other way because of a belief in the resurrection - sorry to disappoint you.

I think you are vastly oversimplifying things. We know that early Christians
suffered totures because of their witness to Christ.  For example:

ACT 5:40    His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had
            them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of
            Jesus, and let them go.

ACT 5:41    The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been
            counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

It appears that the Jewish rulers of that time had a particular aversion
to even hearing Jesus's name.
ACT 5:28    "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said.
            "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are
            determined to make us guilty of this man's blood."

Finally, the first apostle's death, James of Zebedee was certainly
not by Rome's hand any more than the first martyr Stephen. 


>The idea of resurrection is one which can be found in a host of different
>forms in the religions of antiquity.  The problem was not the resurrection
>which was a mediorce issue for a tiny fragment of the Jewish population 

The problem was that if one believed in the Resurrection, then one
must believe in Jesus as truly being the Son of God and what He
stood for and preached during His ministry on Earth.  That would
have been extremely difficult for some people, especially those
that had plotted to kill Him. 

>randy

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