{"id":87962,"date":"2025-06-20T16:21:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T21:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=87962"},"modified":"2025-06-20T16:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T21:21:26","slug":"just-a-body-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/just-a-body-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Just a Body Please"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n

The prophecies of the Jewish book had spoken of someone who would not see corruption (Psalm 16), someone who would be executed for others’ transgressions, yet whose days would then be prolonged<\/em> (Isaiah 53). Then, later, Jesus was executed, but the Jewish leaders were determined to prevent a story of resurrection from getting started, so a guard was set in place. Despite precautions, the story got out anyway that Jesus had been raised from the dead.<\/p>\n

\"\"Many people were claiming to have seen Him alive again (I Corinthians 15:3-12). The cowardly disciples were no longer afraid to confess Jesus, believing that He was indeed divine and risen from the dead. 3,000 Jews were convinced by the evidence presented by Peter and the apostles on the day of Pentecost, following Jesus’ death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

Christianity stood the test of scripture, the predictions of Jesus Himself, the empty tomb, as well as the strength of eyewitness testimony. If the Jews had protected the body along with the Roman guard, all that would have been necessary to stop Christianity in its tracks would have been merely to produce the body. If Jesus were merely a man like Muhammad, Moses, or Confucius, then his body should have been in the tomb after three days. It wasn’t.<\/p>\n

Just a body, please! If you want to think that Jesus’ church is just like the other religions, there should have been a body. The Jews would have loved to have produced such a body, but they couldn’t. The Romans also had a vested interest in this matter. If Jesus could overcome death, he could do something none of the Roman Caesars could do. Thus, His claim to deity would be greater than theirs, and only He could rightly be “king of kings” (greater than all kings among men).<\/p>\n

Christians flourished because they had all the evidence on their side. They knew the scriptures backed up their claim, the witnesses were powerfully equipped to testify of what they saw and heard, and they all suffered to tell what they could never deny as the truth. To unbelievers, they could say, “Just a body, please. We know what we saw.”<\/p>\n

The evidence remains standing the test of time and criticism. Do you believe the evidence?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Terry Wane Benton The prophecies of the Jewish book had spoken of someone who would not see corruption (Psalm 16), someone who would be executed for others’ transgressions, yet whose days would then be prolonged (Isaiah 53). Then, later, Jesus was executed, but the Jewish leaders were determined to prevent a story of resurrection…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[709,664],"class_list":["post-87962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-evidence","tag-resurrection"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65504,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-jesus-was-not-raised-from-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":87962,"position":0},"title":"If Jesus Was Not Raised from the Dead","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Text: I Corinthians 15 Paul argues that there are logical consequences that follow if Jesus was not really raised from the dead: We are still in our sins. Animal sacrifices should have continued until we got the One who was coming to take away our sins.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88481,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-resurrection-of-jesus-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":87962,"position":1},"title":"The Resurrection of Jesus (Benton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton It was evidence-based faith that drove the apostles to testify of Jesus' resurrection openly. If Jesus were only a man, then the body should have remained in the tomb guarded by Roman soldiers. If it were still there after three days, the religion of Christ would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68348,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-living-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":87962,"position":2},"title":"A Living Hope","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton What is a \"living hope?\" Peter says we have this living hope \"through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead\" (I Peter 1:3). Thus, the resurrection of Jesus forms the basis of hope. 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The resurrection of Jesus was either the greatest hoax of history or the greatest event ever.\u00a0 How can we, living nearly two thousand years later, ever really know whether such an event took place?\u00a0 The importance of finding the answer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17189,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-resurrection-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":87962,"position":4},"title":"The Resurrection of Jesus (Hamilton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 13:16-41 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Central to every Christian\u2019s belief in his salvation is the resurrection of Jesus - I Corinthians 15:12-19 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If Jesus was not raised, . . . \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then every preacher has been teaching falsehoods \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our faith in the Bible would be useless \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our hope\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90670,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-firstborn-from-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":87962,"position":5},"title":"The Firstborn from the Dead","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton John's readers were facing trials, persecutions, and possibly death. 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