The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-03
bR.LYMAN ABBOTT EXPLAINS HIS BE[|EF
Gives His Reasons for Believing the Resurrection to Be
the Best Attested Fact in All Ancient History.

the soul and body" The Christian who
holds this view of death and resurrec-
ton believes that that occurred to Jesus
Christ which occurs Il all Gods chill
dren at death; the spirit was separated
from the body to exist in itself. In
this general belief in a phenomenon
transcending experience there is moth
ing more Inconsistent with evolution
than i'm belief in the separation of the
child from the mother at birth. or in the
belief that the grub issues at a certain
stage Of its existence from its suba-
Queous existence n enters upon a new
experiences as a dragon fly. In brief.
evolution is not inconsistent with the
idea that a living creature in one stage
of existence Is being prepared for a
future stage of existence which will
entirely transcend the present expert
ence; On the contrary, that is precisely
what II teaches us to expect. The only
real question in respect to the resurrec-
ton Of Jesus Christ is not, is II incredi-
BILE hat the resurrection took place?
but, is 1t incredible that it was followed
by such appearances to the disciples as
to bring it within the range of their
observation. and afford them tangible
evidence that ii had taken place? Such
an appearance Is certainly ~extraordi-
nary; but 1t appears to me not at all
incredible that either the spirit should
have returned to reanimate the body or
that II should have given visible evil
dence OF itself as disembodied. for the
very purpose of converting what was in
Socrates and Cicero a mere vague ex-
p%ectation into what has become in the
Christian church throughout the ages
an assured and certain faith.
Assuming that the appearance OF
Jesus Christ to His disciples after His
death are not inherently incredible. are
thav Gu affaSfad that We have req son
to credit them? An adequate answer
to this question cannot be expected to
be crowded into a paragraph, when
volumes have been written in answering
it. l can only say i'm the briefest terms
why L regard those appearances as
cient history.
Literary study has demonstrated
that three of the fou Gospels were
written in less than half a century
after Christ's death, that the Fourth
Gospel was written within three
quarters of a century after hat death,
and that in all four we have substan-
TALLY the testimony of the eyewitness
es themselves, not the product of a lat
er tradition. That these eye-witnesses
were not intentional d%eceivers is now
universally admitted: that they were
deceived by Jesus Christ, as they would
have been on the supposition that he
did not really die. but only swOoned. no
one will now pretend to affirm: that
their belief was the product of their
enthusiastic expectations of a resur-
rection, as Renan suggests. is absolute
ly Inconsistent with all that we know
of these singularly prosaic, unemotion-
al. unimaginative characters, and with
all that the accounts tell of their dis
belief i'm the first reports n of the
frequent appearances necessary to con-
vince them of the fact of the resur-
rection.
If their testimony stood alone, IL
woul probably be disregarded by the
great majority of mankind as unimpor-
tant. If not incredible. But il does not
stand alone. 1t is closely related to the
most ~stupendous changes which have
taken place in the world. The most
visible of these is the institution of the
First Day of the week as one recog-
nized by Roman Catholic, Greek, Ang-
lican n Puritan, and is coming to be
recognized by Jews, and demanded as a
privilege by unbelievers This day eel
ebrates nothing and is "unmeaning If
there was no resurrection of Jesus
Christ. On faith in that resurrection
the church is itself historically built.
Within less than 30 years after il was
supposed to have taken place, Paul. in
his epistle to the Corinthians. written.
according to the testimony of all crit
les, before A. D.. SO. declared to the
Christians in pagan Corinth that their
Christian faith was built upon this