Resurrection Is A Fact

"Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you, and which you received, and on which, you stand firm.  By that gospel, you are saved, provided that you hold to it, as I preached it.  Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

In the first place, I have passed on to you what, I, myself, received: that CHRIST died for our sins, as Scripture says; that HE was buried; that HE was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures; that HE appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.  Afterward, HE appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.  Then HE appeared to James, and after that, to all the apostles.  And last of all, HE appeared to the most despicable of them, this is, to me.  For I am the last of the apostles, and I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of GOD.  Nevertheless, by the grace of GOD, I am what I am, and HIS grace toward me has not been without fruit.  Far from it, I have toiled more than all of them, although, not I, rather the grace of GOD, in me.

Now, whether it was I or they, this, we preach, and this, you have believed." - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 

(Have we here the response to a last question of the Corinthians?  Many Greeks thought that at death the immortal soul leaves the body and remains alone.  Was it admitted to the paradise of souls?  Did it come to the great reservoir of souls already gone or who were to return, forgetting all the past lived on earth?  Others held [as do a good number of Christians today], that all ends with death: see 1 Thessalonians 5:13.  Paul will therefore remind the Corinthians that faith in the Resurrection is at the heart of the Christian message.

I remind you of the Gospel.  Here certainly we may speak of Good News, for death as something unknown is and always has been the great burden of human life [Sirach 40:1].

I have passed on to you.  Paul will not recall a tale, or a "myth," these stories full of wisdom that abounded with the Greeks.  They bared an order in the world, a meaning of life, but were only stories.  Today certain people speak of the Resurrection in the same way.  They say: "It matters little what took place, the Gospels are not directly interested in what happened to JESUS, for them it was important that strange events would give courage to the disciples and the hope of another life."  Paul says precisely the contrary: the Resurrection of JESUS is a fact.)

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