The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?: Did Jesus rise from the dead?

By Richard Bewes OBE

What is the evidence for Jesus' resurrection? Why are the events following his death so significant, even today? How can we be sure of his promises about eternal life? This book shows how our lives can be transformed by the events of the first Easter Day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lion Books
• Release date: Aug 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9780745957272

Book preview

Just supposing

‘I feel sorry for you Christians,’ said the London taxi driver over his shoulder, seeing my clergyman’s collar.

He looked anything but sorry. His shoulders were shaking with laughter.

‘There you all are,’ he went on. ‘You pin everything on your belief in an afterlife. You work, pray, give up everything. And then when you get to the end you’ll discover there’s nothing there after all!’

I laughed too. It seemed the right response.

‘That’s all very well,’ I said, ‘but just supposing I was wrong – that there’s no heaven, no judgment, no afterlife at all. Even so I still win!

‘Here I am,’ I said, ‘quite deluded – according to you – but making my way through life, firm in my conviction that I’m in this world for a purpose, and that a man called Jesus Christ has beaten back death on behalf of us all. I’m fired and motivated that his living presence with me puts meaning into everything. Finally at the end of my days, I go out into eternity believing that my energies have all been spent for a lasting purpose. And then – if you, my materialist friend, are right – I won’t even have the disappointment of knowing that I was deluded!’

We turned into Kensington High Street.

‘OK,’ smiled the taxi driver. ‘And so?’

‘Well, you,’ I resumed, ‘supposing you are wrong and I am right? There you are, struggling to make a living and earn enough to retire on – and not even sure why! Trying to make sense of existence, living off your own batteries and fighting off illness and decay as long as possible. And then, when you pop off at the end you are in for the most terrible shock – when you get confronted by the very person you have ignored all your life, and are made to realize that everything you were living for was