No religion stands or falls with a claim about the resurrection of its founder in the way Christianity does.
Taken from The Historical Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Blomberg. Copyright (c) 1987, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Used with permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515. www.ivpress.com, p. 77.
There is one single fact that one may oppose to all the wit and argument of infidelity; namely, that no man ever repented of being a Christian on his deathbed.
The [Christian] message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity – hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory – because at the Father’s will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.
The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, ed. Mark Water, 2000, Baker, p. 159.
Always, always, always, when providing Christian counseling or sharing the Gospel – give hope! There is absolutely no sin that a believer cannot overcome in Christ. And there is no degree of sin that God cannot forgive if someone embraces Christ for salvation.
When the emperor Valens threatened Eusebuis with confiscation of all his goods, torture, banishment, or even death, the courageous Christian replied, “He needs not fear confiscation, who has nothing to lose; nor banishment, to whom heaven is his country; nor torments, when his body can be destroyed at one blow; nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty from sin and sorrow.”
