by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
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 have been over, squashed by the self-evident facts. Peter testified that the Jews’ own scriptures testified of One who would not see corruption and whose soul would not be left in Hades (the realm of the dead). The prophetic scriptures plus the empty tomb and missing body of Jesus, plus the eyewitness testimony of seeing Jesus alive, plus the new courage of the eyewitnesses to keep telling what they had seen and heard even upon threat of death shows us the reason the Lord’s church could spring forth in the very city of Jesus’ crucifixion, converting thousands, and then marching forward into all the world. Thus, their faith and mine are not blind faith. It is not blind faith, but evidence-based conviction.<\/p>\n
The Old Testament is evidence of prophecy, prophesying of the coming Messiah. It is a powerful testimony that God is in the prophetic word. The New Testament is eyewitness testimony of Jesus being the prophesied Messiah and Savior. I would challenge all to look at the evidence fairly and carefully. There is a verdict that the evidence forces in the fair-minded (Acts 17:11).<\/p>\n
Have you examined the evidence? I would be happy to study that evidence with you!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 have been over, squashed by…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[709,664],"class_list":["post-88481","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":87962,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/just-a-body-please\/","url_meta":{"origin":88481,"position":0},"title":"Just a Body Please","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/empty-tomb-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":68348,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-living-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":88481,"position":1},"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. When Jesus returned from the grave, it brought a dead hope to life\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":96380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/explanations-for-the-empty-tomb\/","url_meta":{"origin":88481,"position":2},"title":"Explanations for the Empty Tomb","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenny Chumbley via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 3, September 1995 Paul's belief in the resurrection, shared by early Christianity, was absolute and categorical; nevertheless, the apostle's exuberant faith has not been universally shared, and a literal resurrection of Jesus' body has been denied not only by non-Christians but also\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":88481,"position":3},"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":84149,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/many-infallible-proofs\/","url_meta":{"origin":88481,"position":4},"title":"Many Infallible Proofs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God\" (Acts 1:3 NKJV). Luke was convinced that the evidence for Jesus's being the Messiah\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":65504,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-jesus-was-not-raised-from-the-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":88481,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}