Welcome to St. Paul’s Anglican Church!
We are delighted to be able to communicate with you through the medium of this website. It is just one way of the many ways in which parishioners and others can find their way into our community and through this into a deeper life of faith.
Jesus said, "Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28) It is our hope and prayer that through the ministry of all the members of our church family you will come to know Jesus Christ, the Good Shepard, in our midst and that you will truly find rest for your soul.
Rev. Andrew S. Faust+
Welcome to St. Paul’s Anglican Church!
We are delighted to be able to communicate with you through the medium of this website. It is just one way of the many ways in which parishioners and others can find their way into our community and through this into a deeper life of faith.
Jesus said, "Come unto me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest." (Matt 11:28) It is our hope and prayer that through the ministry of all the members of our church family you will come to know Jesus Christ, the Good Shepard, in our midst and that you will truly find rest for your soul.
Rev. Andrew S. Faust+
The Truth of the Resurrection
Acts 5:27-32
When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
The resurrection of Jesus was a fact on which the Apostles and leaders of the early church hung their faith.
Acts 2:24, 32 (Peter on the day of Pentecost)
And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. … God has raised Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Acts 13:29-37 (Paul in Antioch of Pisidia)
When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, * * * “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: * * * ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’
Acts 3:12-16 (after Peter healed the lame beggar at the temple)
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “
1 Corinthians 15:3-19
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. * * *
Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Defense Of The Resurrection Of Jesus
This is the pivotal fact. Unless Christ was raised from the dead, our hope is vain, as Paul told us. The preaching of the Apostles always included the affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they saw him.
Standard proofs of the truth of the resurrection often go something like this:
1. Jesus died on the cross.
2. Jesus was entombed in a known place belonging to a known person.
3. On the morning of the third day a group of women discovered his tomb was empty and that the body of Jesus was not there.
4. Various people reportedly saw and interacted with the resurrected Jesus.
5. The followers of Jesus were completely transformed by their experience of the resurrected Jesus and asserted at all times that he had risen from the dead and they had witnessed him alive again. They did not falter in this assertion despite persecution.
These are compelling facts that are generally not disputed and demand an explanation. Many scholars who are skeptics largely concede these essential facts, and the Christian apologists who defend the veracity of the Resurrection rely on them.
From the perspective of a trained lawyer and how the legal systems considers facts proved, there is no question that in a trial in court the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus would be considered proved by clear and convincing evidence.
In addition to the foregoing, a trial lawyer could present the following:
1. The best evidence to prove a fact is eyewitness testimony. The trial lawyer could have put Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Doubting Thomas (a great witness because he was a skeptic), the Emmaus Road disciples, all the women at the tomb, and multiple other eyewitnesses on the stand who could testify under oath that they saw the risen Jesus. Just a few years after the events most of the 500 witnesses Paul mentions were still alive and could have been interviewed and called to a trial.
2. Though the eyewitnesses could be cross examined, it is safe to assume they would have stuck to their stories, as they did so under pains of torture and death.
3. It is also safe to assume no eyewitness could have been called to contradict their testimony. Why is that a safe assumption? Because if there had been eyewitnesses to the contrary, the Bible might not have recorded that (though it does not shy from inconvenient or embarrassing facts), but certainly those eyewitnesses could and would have contradicted Peter and others when they proclaimed the resurrection publicly repeatedly in Jerusalem. They easily could have pointed to the body remaining in the tomb. If they were lying the witnesses never would have gotten away with it.
4. The next best evidence is contemporaneous written records. In 1 Cor 15:3-8 Paul relates what he was told by the eyewitnesses, as well as his own eyewitness experience of the risen Lord. This document was written probably within 5 years after the Resurrection itself. According to most scholars, Luke, who apparently interviewed the Apostles, Mary, and other witnesses wrote his accounts around 80-90 A. D. That is within 60 years or so, within the memories of the witnesses and reasonably close in time to the events themselves. Scholars think Mark’s account of the empty tomb to be based on accounts as early as the time of Jesus’ death. The written evidence coheres and is not refuted, as far as we know, by any other written evidence.
5. Even unrefuted evidence need not be accepted by a fact finder in a court of law, though to reject it the fact finder would have to articulate reasons.
One reason would be inherent improbability of the evidence, and arguably this would apply to evidence proving a man killed on the cross could return bodily to life. When you come down to it, this is why skeptics reject the truth of the Resurrection.
However, the witnesses would be extremely credible. Their stories are consistent on the crucial facts even though they vary to some degree on secondary facts, as you would expect from any group of witnesses. If every detail were exactly the same, it would start to sound like the contrived story the skeptics claim it was.
The witnesses do not hide embarrassing facts (e.g., that only women had the nerve to go to the tomb and thus were the first to report that Jesus had risen).
They knew that by affirming the Resurrection they would antagonize the authorities who had the power of life and death over them, as in fact took place. People may cling to something they believe though it is false even to the point of death. But would people cling so tenaciously to something they knew was a lie? They would gain nothing by affirming this lie, unless perhaps to vindicate their following Jesus in the first place. But who cared about that? Could Peter not have gone back to his fishing boat and lived out a prosperous life? Couldn’t they all have gone back to their old lives?
Would all the eyewitnesses, with their diverse backgrounds and skills, have banded together to affirm a lie about the resurrection in order to be somehow vindicated? Wouldn’t that just invite further humiliation? Could not a skeptic easily have demanded to speak to the living witnesses from the 500 said to have seen the risen Lord?
If the witnesses were lying could they have stuck to it? Remember how Chuck Colson told us how quickly 12 tough, high powered, cynical political operatives caved in totally when the Watergate scandal erupted.
6. On balance, we can conclude that in a trial before a court of law one could have marshaled an overwhelming case to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. It is proof by more than a mere preponderance.
Case closed.
Sir Edward Clark, British High Court Justice, who conducted a thorough evaluation of the evidence for the Resurrection, said,
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over gain in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.”
Lord we believe, increase our faith. Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief. Help us Lord to be encouraged and strengthened by the confident knowledge that you raised your son from the dead, and that we can trust you to raise us along with him on the last day!
Additional Resources
Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann, Paul Copan & Ronald K. Tacelli, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. (New Testament accounts thoroughly examined and judged reliable).
Greenleaf, Simon. The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1995.
Reliability
Luke describes in Acts and his Gospel his own investigative methods, which was very unusual. The famous historian and skeptic turned believer William Ramsey notes in Acts Luke described 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands, with zero errors. When Ramsey first went to Asia Minor, many of the cities mentioned in Acts had no known location and almost nothing was known of their detailed history or politics. The Acts of the Apostles was the only record and Ramsay, skeptical, fully expected his own research to prove the author of Acts hopelessly inaccurate since no man could possibly know the details of Asia Minor more than a hundred years after the event— when Acts was then supposed to have been written.
He therefore set out to put the writer of Acts on trial. He devoted his life to unearthing the ancient cities and documents of Asia Minor. After a lifetime of study, however, he concluded, "Further study . . . showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement. "(The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85). On page 89 of the same book, Ramsay wrote, "I set out to look for truth on the borderland where Greece and Asia meet, and found it there [in Acts]. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment..."
Acts 5:27-32
When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
The resurrection of Jesus was a fact on which the Apostles and leaders of the early church hung their faith.
Acts 2:24, 32 (Peter on the day of Pentecost)
And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. … God has raised Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
Acts 13:29-37 (Paul in Antioch of Pisidia)
When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, * * * “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: * * * ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’
Acts 3:12-16 (after Peter healed the lame beggar at the temple)
But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. “But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. “
1 Corinthians 15:3-19
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. * * *
Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Defense Of The Resurrection Of Jesus
This is the pivotal fact. Unless Christ was raised from the dead, our hope is vain, as Paul told us. The preaching of the Apostles always included the affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they saw him.
Standard proofs of the truth of the resurrection often go something like this:
1. Jesus died on the cross.
2. Jesus was entombed in a known place belonging to a known person.
3. On the morning of the third day a group of women discovered his tomb was empty and that the body of Jesus was not there.
4. Various people reportedly saw and interacted with the resurrected Jesus.
5. The followers of Jesus were completely transformed by their experience of the resurrected Jesus and asserted at all times that he had risen from the dead and they had witnessed him alive again. They did not falter in this assertion despite persecution.
These are compelling facts that are generally not disputed and demand an explanation. Many scholars who are skeptics largely concede these essential facts, and the Christian apologists who defend the veracity of the Resurrection rely on them.
From the perspective of a trained lawyer and how the legal systems considers facts proved, there is no question that in a trial in court the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus would be considered proved by clear and convincing evidence.
In addition to the foregoing, a trial lawyer could present the following:
1. The best evidence to prove a fact is eyewitness testimony. The trial lawyer could have put Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Doubting Thomas (a great witness because he was a skeptic), the Emmaus Road disciples, all the women at the tomb, and multiple other eyewitnesses on the stand who could testify under oath that they saw the risen Jesus. Just a few years after the events most of the 500 witnesses Paul mentions were still alive and could have been interviewed and called to a trial.
2. Though the eyewitnesses could be cross examined, it is safe to assume they would have stuck to their stories, as they did so under pains of torture and death.
3. It is also safe to assume no eyewitness could have been called to contradict their testimony. Why is that a safe assumption? Because if there had been eyewitnesses to the contrary, the Bible might not have recorded that (though it does not shy from inconvenient or embarrassing facts), but certainly those eyewitnesses could and would have contradicted Peter and others when they proclaimed the resurrection publicly repeatedly in Jerusalem. They easily could have pointed to the body remaining in the tomb. If they were lying the witnesses never would have gotten away with it.
4. The next best evidence is contemporaneous written records. In 1 Cor 15:3-8 Paul relates what he was told by the eyewitnesses, as well as his own eyewitness experience of the risen Lord. This document was written probably within 5 years after the Resurrection itself. According to most scholars, Luke, who apparently interviewed the Apostles, Mary, and other witnesses wrote his accounts around 80-90 A. D. That is within 60 years or so, within the memories of the witnesses and reasonably close in time to the events themselves. Scholars think Mark’s account of the empty tomb to be based on accounts as early as the time of Jesus’ death. The written evidence coheres and is not refuted, as far as we know, by any other written evidence.
5. Even unrefuted evidence need not be accepted by a fact finder in a court of law, though to reject it the fact finder would have to articulate reasons.
One reason would be inherent improbability of the evidence, and arguably this would apply to evidence proving a man killed on the cross could return bodily to life. When you come down to it, this is why skeptics reject the truth of the Resurrection.
However, the witnesses would be extremely credible. Their stories are consistent on the crucial facts even though they vary to some degree on secondary facts, as you would expect from any group of witnesses. If every detail were exactly the same, it would start to sound like the contrived story the skeptics claim it was.
The witnesses do not hide embarrassing facts (e.g., that only women had the nerve to go to the tomb and thus were the first to report that Jesus had risen).
They knew that by affirming the Resurrection they would antagonize the authorities who had the power of life and death over them, as in fact took place. People may cling to something they believe though it is false even to the point of death. But would people cling so tenaciously to something they knew was a lie? They would gain nothing by affirming this lie, unless perhaps to vindicate their following Jesus in the first place. But who cared about that? Could Peter not have gone back to his fishing boat and lived out a prosperous life? Couldn’t they all have gone back to their old lives?
Would all the eyewitnesses, with their diverse backgrounds and skills, have banded together to affirm a lie about the resurrection in order to be somehow vindicated? Wouldn’t that just invite further humiliation? Could not a skeptic easily have demanded to speak to the living witnesses from the 500 said to have seen the risen Lord?
If the witnesses were lying could they have stuck to it? Remember how Chuck Colson told us how quickly 12 tough, high powered, cynical political operatives caved in totally when the Watergate scandal erupted.
6. On balance, we can conclude that in a trial before a court of law one could have marshaled an overwhelming case to prove that Jesus rose from the dead. It is proof by more than a mere preponderance.
Case closed.
Sir Edward Clark, British High Court Justice, who conducted a thorough evaluation of the evidence for the Resurrection, said,
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over gain in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.”
Lord we believe, increase our faith. Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief. Help us Lord to be encouraged and strengthened by the confident knowledge that you raised your son from the dead, and that we can trust you to raise us along with him on the last day!
Additional Resources
Jesus Resurrection: Fact or Figment? A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann, Paul Copan & Ronald K. Tacelli, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. (New Testament accounts thoroughly examined and judged reliable).
Greenleaf, Simon. The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1995.
Reliability
Luke describes in Acts and his Gospel his own investigative methods, which was very unusual. The famous historian and skeptic turned believer William Ramsey notes in Acts Luke described 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 islands, with zero errors. When Ramsey first went to Asia Minor, many of the cities mentioned in Acts had no known location and almost nothing was known of their detailed history or politics. The Acts of the Apostles was the only record and Ramsay, skeptical, fully expected his own research to prove the author of Acts hopelessly inaccurate since no man could possibly know the details of Asia Minor more than a hundred years after the event— when Acts was then supposed to have been written.
He therefore set out to put the writer of Acts on trial. He devoted his life to unearthing the ancient cities and documents of Asia Minor. After a lifetime of study, however, he concluded, "Further study . . . showed that the book could bear the most minute scrutiny as an authority for the facts of the Aegean world, and that it was written with such judgment, skill, art and perception of truth as to be a model of historical statement. "(The Bearing of Recent Discovery, p. 85). On page 89 of the same book, Ramsay wrote, "I set out to look for truth on the borderland where Greece and Asia meet, and found it there [in Acts]. You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian's and they stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment..."