December 1, 2002 From: R. M. Pratt (posted to the blog December 3, 2014)
To: My Loved Ones
Re: The Historicity of Jesus
This will be the third Christmas message since Grandma died. And as I think of the possibilities of soon joining her it dawns on me with an irresistible force that if this happens it will only be because of a man named Jesus Christ.Did he really live? Was he really the Son of God and not the son of man as he said? Did he really die on a cross and was he buried and three days later appeared in his body of flesh and bones? And most important of all questions: Is he soon to return to earth to clean up the filthy mess inflicted upon it by man and to redeem those who have fought against this vile corruption?
The answer to the four questions is a thundering YES!
No fact of the past has been so completely documented. Why even our calendar testifies to the yes of his actuality. And of course there is no way in these two brief pages that I can cover the thousands of pages written by thousands of authors attesting to the fact that he, Jesus, is everything the scriptures certify him to be. In fact without him we would not be neither the earth nor all the heavenly bodies. So I will devote this little space to his resurrection, for if this really happened then all the rest of his story is true.
Everything stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead three days after he was crucified. He has to be the Son of God, for no one less than God had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up again.
Our Eternal destiny depends upon Jesus being the Son of God and the Savior of men.
When carefully weighed, the evidence for Christ’s resurrection is so compelling that it is hard to understand how anyone can question it. What is harder to understand is WHY mankind fights against it, for without it we are doomed to total oblivion.
Many Lawyers going back for hundreds of years have attempted to prove Jesus a fake and without exception they have ended up converting themselves.
I’ll mention just a few: Lord Darling, Chief Justice of England said: “No intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection is true.”
Professor E. M. Blaiklock said: “I claim to be a historian, and I tell you that the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most historical facts.”
John S. Copley, one of the greatest legal minds in British history has the following to say:
“I know pretty well what evidence is, and I tell you such evidence as that for the resurrection HAS NEVER broken down yet.”
Josh McDowell decided that he would silence Christians once and for all by writing a thesis that would disprove Christ’s resurrection once and for all. Because of the discoveries that he made during his research, he ended up doing just the opposite of what he set out to do. He wrote a book entitled: “Evidence that Demands a Verdict.” in it he presents evidence for the resurrection so forcefully that a person would have to be WILLFULLY BLIND not to see it.
(The above excerpts from an article by Ralph Woerner)
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not a myth as skeptics would like us to believe. It’s one of the best attested facts of history. Supported by the strongest kind of evidence. But the best evidence of all is personal revelation, which is freely offered to every person, male and female, old
and young.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they WHICH TESTIFY OF ME.” John 5:39
Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. John 7:16-17
And the great promise made by Moroni to sincere readers of the Book of Mormon. ... “Ponder it in your hearts...I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the Power o the Holy ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
Moroni 10:3-5
And by the power of the Holy Ghost I know what I am writing here is true. I have received and continue to receive my own personal revelation as to the divinity of my Savior
Jesus Christ. And if you (I’m speaking of each one of you as an individual) have doubts then believe on my word and keep the commandments that we might have ETERNAL LIFE TOGETHER!
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, AND DENY YOURSELVES of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you. That by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ.” Moroni 10:32
I love this closing statement of Moroni: verse 34, “And now I bid unto all, farewell. I SOON GO TO REST IN THE PARADISE OF GOD. Until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the Great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and Dead Amen.”
And the closing words of Ether also verse 34, “Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the Kingdom of God.” (With you) Amen.
So this Christmas season we will have the opportunity to mindlessly play or to offer our Thanksgiving to him who created us, gave us this beautiful life on this lovely earth and furnishes us the very breath that sustains our life from one moment to the next and all he asks in return is for us to LIVE the laws of happiness.
He has a plan for this earth and for us. Where we fit into that plan is our choice. But a fulness of joy eternally is to do all we can as an individual to bring his great plan to fruition.
Forty days after his resurrection and at least 10 personal appearances recorded in the Bible, “He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (11 apostles). And while they looked up steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-11
This great event is imminent. The baby Jesus born in a manger, a carpenter by trade, abused and vilified, scourged and crucified is about to return to earth as King of Kings and rescue all who will, from the evil one.
So this Christmas season joyfully commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s.
Merry Christmas Love,
Dad, Grandpa, Uncle, friend etc.
