The Verity of Christ’s Resurrection E-Book

Thomas Cooper

• Herausgeber: CrossReach Publications
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

In pursuance of the purpose expressed in the Prefaces to my “Bridge of History” and to “God, the Soul, and a Future State”—I herewith publish the substance of four lectures on the Resurrection of Christ, which I have delivered, wholly or in part, in almost every important town of England and Scotland, during a period extending over the last eighteen years. I have again thought it better to put what I have spoken into a bookish form, for general readers. But, I have, as before, preserved the familiar and conversational tone—the interrogative and repetition—with the occasional light step-aside into other themes by way of relief—in short, the policy of speech that must be employed by all who wish to secure the earnest and prolonged attention of the working-classes to lectures on serious subjects. Besides, I humbly think it desireable that the soldiers who come after me should know how I strove to conduct the fight. The battle with Scepticism will not be ended for many a long year after I quit the field. I pray that Victory may sit on the helm of the Christian combatants who have to follow me! Thomas Cooper 2, Portland Place, St. Mary’s Street, Lincoln. April, 1875. CrossReach Publications

Leseprobe

The Verity of

Christ’s Resurrection

From the Dead

An appeal to the common-sense of the people

By

Thomas Cooper,

Lecturer on Christianity

London:

Hodder and Stoughton,

27, Paternoster Row

MDCCCLXXV.

This edition © 2018 CrossReach Publications, Waterford, Ireland

Hope. Inspiration. Trust.

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CONTENTS

The Verity of Christ’s Resurrection from the Dead

I. Five Most Important & Disastrous Consequences Follow, if Jesus Rose not from the Dead

II. Five Theories have been Devised to Account for the Existence of Christianity, & for the Story of the Resurrection of Jesus, without Granting either to be True

III. Later Hypotheses & Sceptical Reasonings of Strauss

IV. Alleged Confusion in the Gospel Narratives of Christ’s Resurrection

V. Remarkable Accordance of the Evangelists in their Relation of the Chief Events Preliminary to the Resurrection

VI. Why Matthew only Tells us of the Watch at the Sepulchre.—Cowardly Conduct of the Sanhedrim

VII. Two Remarkable Facts Considered: that no Man Saw Jesus Rise from the Dead; &, that He Appeared only to ‘Chosen Witnesses’

VIII. Some Minor Considerations Preparatory to a Survey of the Record which Contains the Most Vital Part of the Evidence

IX. The New Testament Record Concerning the Witnesses who Saw Jesus after He Rose Again from the Dead

X. Consideration of Theories Respecting the Resurrection-Body of Christ

XI. The Duty of Enquiry into the Christian Evidences: an Earnest Appeal to Skeptical Workingmen

XII. Consideration of Objections to the Doctrine of a Future State: Our Own Existence in the Eternal Future Made Certain by the Resurrection of Christ

XIII. The Way to Reach the Truth Respecting the Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ, & for the Truth of Christianity

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TO

JOHN HOUGHTON, Esq.,

of

Sandfield park,

WEST DERBY,

LIVERPOOL,

this volume is

most respectfully and gratefully

inscribed by

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

In pursuance of the purpose expressed in the Prefaces to my “Bridge of History” and to “God, the Soul, and a Future State”—I herewith publish the substance of four lectures on the Resurrection of Christ, which I have delivered, wholly or in part, in almost every important town of England and Scotland, during a period extending over the last eighteen years.

I have again thought it better to put what I have spoken into a bookish form, for general readers. But, I have, as before, preserved the familiar and conversational tone—the interrogative and repetition—with the occasional light step-aside into other themes by way of relief—in short, the policy of speech that must be employed by all who wish to secure the earnest and prolonged attention of the working-classes to lectures on serious subjects.

Besides, I humbly think it desireable that the soldiers who come after me should know how I strove to conduct the fight. The battle with Scepticism will not be ended for many a long year after I quit the field. I pray that Victory may sit on the helm of the Christian combatants who have to follow me!

THOMAS COOPER.

2, Portland Place,

St. Mary’s Street, Lincoln.

April, 1875.

The Verity of Christ’s Resurrection from the Dead

If the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead be a veritable historical fact, it is the most commanding fact in the chronology of the world. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead be a true substantial historical fact, it is of more importance to you and me and every child of man, than any event that ever occurred since the world began. The coronations of kings and emperors—the glittering pageants of princes—the grand pontifical high masses performed by mitred prelates, in lofty cathedrals, amid the pealing of Te Deums, to celebrate the victories of conquerors—the long processional pomps, in gold and jewels, of royal and imperial and ecclesiastical dignitaries—all the spectacles of magnificence and gorgeousness and grandeur which could possibly be displayed before our eyes would be worth no more than the gewgaws of children compared with the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead. No historical fact can equal this, in value, for us: no revelation of discovery, ancient or modern, can compare with it in real importance.

If the founders of the pyramids could burst their mummy-cases, and be clothed again with flesh and blood, and could stand before us, and tell us how those mighty piles were raised, how long it is ago, and for what purpose they were used;—if all the proud kings who reigned in Babylon and Nineveh could pass, in stately file, before us, and pronounce their own names, and tell us of the battles they fought and of the peoples they conquered;—if the builders of our own Stonehenge could rise from the dead and present themselves to our amazed sight, and tell us why those mystic stones were erected on Salisbury plain—who reared them—how long it is ago—and for what purpose the wondrous circles were used;—the sum of the stories of curiosity and interest thus rehearsed to us would not equal, for us, in value, the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead.

If an angel could descend from heaven and shew us the meaning of every prophecy contained in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, and the twelve minor prophets;—who should unfold to us the exact and complete meaning of every chapter and verse and line and word of the Book of Revelation;—who, turning to the beginning of the Bible, should tell us all that we desire to know about the primeval creation and Man’s fall;—who could tell us where was the Garden of Eden, and whether all the living races of men are descended from one Adam, or whether there have been several Adams, as some contend;—and who could assure us whether Noah’s flood extended over the whole earth, or only over a part of it, and could describe to us every circumstance of the Deluge, so as to clear up every difficulty that any of us now feel in the reading of the Bible account of it;—the sum of all the interpretations and revelations made to us by the angel, would not equal for us, in value, the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead.

If some mighty man of science could arise, transcending in powers of analysis and proof, of induction and discovery, all the men of science who have gone before him,—who excelled Liebig, and Faraday, and Davy, and even Herschel, and Newton,—some marvellous discerner of the secrets of Nature, who could tell us what Electricity is, and Light, and Chemical Affinity—who could reveal to us why the loadstone attracts iron, and why the needle points to the pole—and why, when we join thin plates of copper and zinc, or silver and zinc, and surround them with a liquid acid, we create a force whereby we can transmit messages across the Atlantic, at the rate of one hundred and ninety thousand miles in a second;—all the combined story of astonishment the mighty man of science could display in our hearing would not equal for us, in value, the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead.

If some gifted seer could arise, filled with clear and certain visions of the future, who could tell us what will be the condition of our beloved England five hundred years hence;—what will be the changes on the continents of Europe and Asia in all those years;—whether more and more wars of devastation will be waged by France and Germany, and whether Russia will seize India from us, and thus reduce England to an inferior power;—whether America will dominate the world;—what will be the condition of China and Japan and Australia and New Zealand, and what the destiny of Africa;—and if the gifted seer could multiply the interest of all he revealed to us, tenfold, by informing us with what speed men will travel a thousand years hence;—whether the use of steam will be superseded by some new motive power, and, if so, what that power will be;—whether such increase of magnifying power shall be won for the telescope as to enable men to discern the real nature of the sun, and to ascertain that the nearer planets are inhabited;—above all, what will be the forms of human society a thousand years hence—whether they will still be competitive, the many being subordinates and the few the privileged, or co-operation will become the rule;—the whole sum of the varied and exciting relations made to us by the seer could not equal, for us, in true and substantial value, the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead.

Nay, if all the darling children of Genius could awake from the dead, and tell us in rapt and ecstatic syllables of all the thrilling joy they experienced in their wondrous creations;—if Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, and Titian, and Corregio, could stand before us, and tell us of all the rapture they experienced in the creation of their marvellous pictures;—and Handel could shout aloud the joys he felt in the creation of his grand Hallelujah Chorus, and ‘For unto us a child is born,’ and ‘Worthy is the Lamb,’ and the Hailstone Chorus, and ‘The horse and his rider’;—and Mozart could tell us what he felt, when dying at thirty-seven, he said ‘Now I begin to see what could be done in music’;—and the grand, old, bald, blind Homer could rise and tell us of the ecstasy he felt in forming his war-ballads of the ‘Iliad;’ and Milton could stand beside him and reveal the rapture he felt in the composition of the ‘Paradise Lost’;—and the unequalled, the unparalleled Shakspere—the sweet English face we could, above all, delight to see—could delight our ears with the tale of all the thrilling emotion he experienced in the creation of his ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’, his ‘Lear’ and ‘Macbeth’;—not the entire combined story of the rapture and ecstasy, of the joy and delight, experienced by the children of Genius in the creation of their marvellous works would equal, for us, in real and substantial value, the verification of the historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth rose again from the dead.

For,—we all have to die.

Shall we live again?

The Progressive nature of Man,—as we endeavoured to shew, the other night,—is strong presumptive evidence for a Future Life. The Almighty’s creation of Man with intellectual powers so expansive, with yearnings for knowledge so sateless—merely to live here and live no more—looks like an abortive work. It seems so unworthy of Himself, that we reject it.

But the Moral nature of Man—the existence of Conscience, in him—the dictate of the Moral Sense, that Virtue deserves praise and reward, and Vice blame and punishment, and yet Virtue so often suffers and Vice so often triumphs, in this life—seem to unfold the awful truth, beyond question or denial, that there must be a future life where Virtue is triumphant and Vice suffers,—or the Equity of God, the Moral Governor, would be left in question. Conscience proclaims to Man that, for him, there must be a retributive ‘hereafter’!

“Ay,” says the sceptic, “I have heard all your reasonings from the Progressive nature of Man, and I have listened to your preachments about Conscience and the Moral Nature:—I have heard all you can say, and the assertion of your own belief that there is a retributive ‘hereafter.’

“But when I first entered the chamber of death, and gazed on the form of her whom I loved, and saw her lie breathless, speechless, lifeless—when I called, but there was no answer—when I wailed, in my bitter agony, but there was no response—oh, how vain seemed to me, all your preachments about conscience and the moral nature and all your dreams of a ‘hereafter’!