Sunday, August 23, 2009 

On August 22nd, 2009, 2:45 pm Thailand time, Faa's Dad went home to be with Jesus. Dad's funeral will be on Wednesday Thailand time. If you are interested in more details, just let us know.

Dad has no more pain and can now enjoy all the riches God has in store for him in Heaven. We will miss him so much, but we know that Dad is free of all the pain he was going through here on earth. We are so thankful that we had the chance to see him earlier this year, and that during that time, Dad came to know Jesus as his personal Savior. There was so many of you that were a huge part in that taking place and we thank you all.
We also want to thank you all for your prayers over the years for Dad. They have meant so much to us and God has been so very faithful to each one of those prayers.




We love you, Dad.
Nares Paoseng 1953-2009

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 

The Angels are rejoicing




That’s right! God lead us back to Thailand to see our dad come to know him personally. We were only planning to stay in Thailand for a month and a half. While visiting Dad, he was getting tired very quickly, but was still able to get around. We were able to spend some time with Dad in the first month and a half, but felt like it just was not enough time. At that time Dad was still living in Chiangmai.

The day before we were going to fly back to Canada, we were told that Dad needed to admit into the Hospital as soon as possible. We felt a really strong prompting of the Holy Spirit to stay longer. That very same day we were able to switch our flights to April 23, a month and a half longer. In that time we spent lots of time in the Hospital. At first, Dad was in a room with many other people. Two beds over there was a monk. All together there were six men staying in the room. During Dad’s time there, Faa was able to read the Bible to him. One day, some ladies came to visit the man beside Dad. They heard Faa reading the Bible and were not too happy about this. Reg even saw them doing their Buddhist prayers towards their father to block what was being heard. As we know, during those days the whole room heard of God’s love, (even the monk) and the free gift that Jesus had to offer them.

During Dad’s stay in the hospital, we also got to spend some time with the other side of the family. Faa’s parents got divorced about 10 years ago, but there is still a lot of hurt still there.

Mom was not too happy with us visiting Dad all the time. She was worried for our health, as moms do, but was not at all believing that God could keep us safe. We love Mom and so much want her to have Jesus transform her life. Please continue to pray for her Salvation.

We got to spend some time with Faa’s brother, sister and nephew too! Faa’s sister is going through a divorce and is really having a hard time raising her son on her own. She is very close to becoming a Christian so please pray for her as well. Her brother is still not interested, but has opened up to sharing with Faa about the problems in his life and struggles he is going through.





Back to Dad. After being in the room where he was for two weeks, Dad was moved into his own private room.

Dad’s family expected us to stay overnight all the time. It was at that point that we were getting pretty tired, worn out and feeling like giving up. We felt like it was too much! We were already feeling very drained because of all the things happening with the family, and then staying overnight, just made it even more tiring. If it was not for God’s promises, and all the prayers, that may have been the end for us. Praise God, it wasn’t! We were able to spend lots of quality time sharing with Dad about Jesus. Faa was able to read, “The Case for Christ.” by Lee Strobel to Dad. This was really encouraging for Dad, because he really wanted proof for the Resurrection!

So with all the family struggles and many spiritual attacks, you can see why we were worn out. Even thought there was some very good things taking place, we still had a very hard time seeing the blue sky behind all the dark clouds.

We will share more later in this blog about Dad, because we want to also fill you in with some of the other things that happened that lead up to that great amazing day Dad became a Christian!



After being in Thailand for three weeks, we got a phone call from Singapore saying that we had won two Lenovo net books!. Faa had entered one of our wedding photos into a photo contest when we got to Thailand and actually forgot about it.. The contest was in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The Grand prize was a 7 day cruise to Alaska. The runners up from each country won a pair of Lenovo net books.

We also spent a couple days in Chonburi. On one of the evenings, we went with a bunch of the youth and Trekkers, from The Life Center, to a coffee shop to play Dutch Blitz. The night ended up with us being told that we had to stop because what we were doing was illegal and the police were already on their way. Immediately we wrapped it up and left. Can you believe it? Dutch Blitz, Illegal? I am the one taking the picture, lol.

We also got to spend a bit of time with Bob, Chris, Jason (Missionaries in Thailand with MBMSI, I was on the same team with them before I came back to Canada) and there daughter Lydia. It was great to hear of all the amazing things that are happening in Chachoensao (the place they are working). Many people are coming to Christ and God’s work is being done. Please keep this family in your prayers!


After we switched our flights, we remembered that there was a contest where the winners would receive 1,000,000.00 Baht. One of us had to catch a bean in our mouth dropped from 15 meters by our partner. The contest started with 5000 couples which dropped to 350, 83 and then we were out. Even though we lost, we did make it to the last 83 couples, and had a great time of refreshment.We were also able to spend some time with Rob, Judy, Amber and Amanda after the game was done for us.


About a week before Songkran (Thai New Year), we had a political issue here in Thailand. There was a mob that started to form wearing red shirts. They were called the “Red Shirt” mob. These people wanted former ousted Prime Minister, Thaksin, to return to Thailand and bring True democracy (Whatever they meant with that, I don't think anyone knew). The sad part is that these people were being used by Thaksin to allow him to come back to Thailand without facing the many criminal charges that were against him. This hit very close to home because the hospital that Dad was staying in was just a few blocks away from where the rioting had started to take place.

Notice the Non-Violence sign


In the end, there were a few dead and over 100 people injured, 15 buses burnt, one bank window broken, the Asia summit cancelled, the secretary to the Prime Minister having his head smashed and ribs broken and many fires and many other things we will never know about.


The BEST Part!

Even through all of these different events happened while we were in Thailand, nothing could come close to bringing the kind of joy we received when we were able to share in seeing Dad come to know Jesus personally. The last Sunday before Dad went to the Hospital, we were able to bring Dad to church. After the service the Pastor was able to pray for him. One week before we left, Faa’s Pastor from the same church we took Dad to weeks before, came to share with Dad in the Hospital. We were able to answer a lot of Dad’s questions, but Pastor Noke, through the work of the Holy Spirit too, was able to bring all that was said over the last three months, and make it into a very simple illustration. Pastor Noke shared how there was a man who was walking past a restaurant one day and saw amazing looking food. He was very hungry, but if wanted to taste that amazing food, he would have to do more than just look at it through the glass, he would have to step through the door of the Restaurant, and take a seat. It was after this illustration that Dad said he understood. Pastor Noke was able to lead Dad in a prayer for Salvation. Dad asked for Faa to hold his hand and we both listed as Dad gave his life to Christ. It’s amazing how God works! Five minutes after Pastor Noke shared with Dad some more and prayed for him and closed, four family members showed up. At this time we went to get our supper and let the family visit with Dad. When we came back, they left and Reg asked Dad what he would say if someone asked what he was? Dad responded with, “ I would say I am a Christian!!!!!!!!”. Just after Reg shared this, three more family members came to visit. Half way through the visit, Dad’s twin brother came to visit too!. After the family left, Dad shared with us that he told his twin that he had become a Christian! Wow, within the first day, Dad was sharing about his new faith in Jesus Christ! After he told us about his brother, he asked Faa for a knife. He really made us rejoice because he asked Faa to cut off the Buddhist bracelets that were tied around his wrists. This was amazing because for many years he trusted in these bracelets to protect him and keep him alive. In summary, God's timing is BEST! God protected that very important time with Dad. If the family had come earlier, Dad may have not had that opportunity.

God answered our prayers and all of yours!!!!!!! We are so thankful that we obeyed and went, even though it was probably one of the hardest things we have experienced as a married couple ever!. We know through all this that God was in control. His timing was perfect and his way was the BEST!

We love Dad and we are so happy that we WILL see him again, even though it may not be here on earth.


The day before we left Thailand, Dad was able to leave the hospital and come to the Airport to see us off. He then went to stay with his sister in Lopburi and started to build a house for himself. God is amazing! Dad had also started to read his Bible over an hour a day on top of all the other books we gave him. He has also been in contact with a friend of Reg's who lives in Lopburi. Peter has been able to disciple Dad and really give him some guidance since we came back to Canada.


The most recent news is that Dad is presently going in for a really heavy dose of chemo this week. Please pray for wisdom of the doctors and that above all, Jesus will be glorified!


Thanks again for all your prayers,


Reg and Faa



WE LOVE YOU DAD!

Monday, April 06, 2009 

If someone tells you there is no proof for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ...


Then have them read this. I just read through this because my father-in-law wanted proof for the Resurrection. He says it's my belief, and that it is and it's by faith, but there is so much proof to go a long with that!!!!!!!!!!

It's long, but it is really worth the read. If you need a lift, this will sure help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Part I— Can It Persuade Skeptics?


By Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon

Among the religions of the world, Christianity is unique in many ways. One area of uniqueness
concerns the evidence supporting its basic claims. As lawyer, theologian, and philosopher Dr. John
Warwick Montgomery points out, “The historic Christian claim differs qualitatively from the claims of all
other world religions at the epistemological point: on the issue of testability.”1 In other words, only
Christianity stakes its claim to truthfulness on historical events open to critical investigation. And only
this explains the number of conversions by skeptics throughout history.

Indeed, other religions in the world are believed in despite the lack of genuine evidence for their
truth claims; only Christianity can claim credibility because of such evidence. Regrettably, what is
often overlooked in the field of comparative religion today is that no genuinely historical/objective
evidence exists for the foundational religious claims of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, or any religion
other than Christianity.2 As scientist, Christian apologist and biblical commentator Dr. Henry Morris
observes, “As a matter of fact, the entire subject of evidences is almost exclusively the domain of
Christian evidences. Other religions depend on subjective experience and blind faith, tradition and
opinion. Christianity stands or falls upon the objective reality of gigantic supernatural events in history
and the evidences therefore. This fact in itself is an evidence of its truth.”3

Evidence is defined in the OxfordAmericanDictionary as, “1) anything that establishes a fact or
gives reason for believing something, 2) statements made or objects produced in a law court as
proof or to support a case.” One of the most interesting evidences for the truth of Christianity and, in
particular, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the testimony of former skeptics, many of whom
attempted to disprove Christian faith. In this article we will supply several examples. We hope this will
not only be an encouragement for Christians to take their faith seriously, but that it will also spur
non-Christians to earnestly examine the claims of Christ on their own lives.

In the mid-eighteenth century, Lord George Lyttelton (a member of Parliament and Commissioner
of the Treasury) and Gilbert West, Esq., went to Oxford. There, they were determined to attack the
very basis of Christianity. Lyttelton set out to prove that Saul of Tarsus was never really converted to
Christianity, and West intended to demonstrate that Jesus never really rose from the dead. Each had
planned to do a painstaking job, taking a year to establish his case. But as they proceeded, they
eventually concluded that Christianity was true. Both became Christians.

West eventually wrote Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
(1 747). George Lyttelton wrote a lengthy text titled The Conversion of St. Paul (rpt. 1929). Their
correspondence back and forth, showing their surprise at the quality of the evidence, can be found
in any university microfilm library. West became totally convinced of the truth of the Resurrection,
and Lyttelton of the genuine conversion of Saint Paul on the basis of it. For example, Lyttelton wrote
to West in 1761, “Sir, in a late conversation we had together upon the subject of the Christian religion,
I told you that besides all the proofs of it which may be drawn from the prophecies of the Old
Testament, from the necessary connection it has with the whole system of the Jewish religion, from
the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence given of his reflection by all the other apostles, I
thought the conversion and apostleship of Saint Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration
sufficient to prove Christianity a divine revelation.”4

In the 1930s a rationalistic English journalist named Frank Morison attempted to discover the
“real” Jesus Christ. He was convinced that Christ’s “history rested upon very insecure

1



foundations”—largely because of the influence of the rationalistic higher criticism so prevalent in his
day.5 Further, he was dogmatically opposed to the miraculous elements in the Gospels. But he was
nevertheless fascinated by the person of Jesus, who was to him “an almost legendary figure of
purity and noble manhood.”6

Morison decided to take the crucial “last phase” in the life of Christ and “to strip it of its overgrowth of
primitive beliefs and dogmatic suppositions, and to see this supremely great Person as he really
was.... It seemed to me that if I could come at the truth why this man died a cruel death at the hands
of the Roman Power, how he himself regarded the matter, and especially how he behaved under the
test, I should be very near to the true solution of the problem.”7

But the book that Morison ended up writing was not the one he intended. He proceeded to write
one of the most able defenses of the Resurrection of Christ in our time, Who Moved the Stone?

Giovanni Papini was one of the foremost Italian intellects of his period, an atheist and vocal
enemy of the Church and self-appointed debunker of religion. But he became converted to faith in
Christ and in 1921 penned his LifeofChrist, stunning most of his friends and admirers.8

The Cambridge scholar C. S. Lewis, a former atheist, was converted to Christianity on the basis
of the evidence, according to his text Surprised by Joy. He recalls, “I thought I had the Christians
‘placed’ and disposed of forever.” But, “A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot
be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere— ‘Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,’ as
Herbert says, ‘Fine nets and stratagems.’ God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”9

But C. S. Lewis became a Christian because the evidence was compelling and he could not
escape it. Even against his will he was “brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting [my] eyes
in every direction for a chance of escape.” The God “whom I so earnestly desired not to meet” became
His Lord and Savior.10 His book on Christian evidences, MereChristianity, is considered a classic and has
been responsible for converting thousands to the faith, among them the keen legal mind of former
skeptic and Watergate figure Charles Colson, author of Born Again.

As a pre-law student, Josh McDowell was also a skeptic of Christianity and believed that every
Christian had two minds: one was lost while the other was out looking for it. Eventually challenged to
intellectually investigate the Christian truth claims, and thinking this a farce, he accepted the
challenge and “as a result, I found historical facts and evidence about Jesus Christ that I never
knew existed.”11 He eventually wrote a number of important texts in defense of Christianity,
among them Evidence That Demands a Verdict, More Evidence That Demands a Verdict, More Than a
Carpenter and Daniel in the Lion’s Den.

Dr. Gary Habermas was raised a Christian. But he soon questioned his faith. He concluded that
while the Resurrection might be believed, he personally doubted it and was skeptical that any
evidence for it was really convincing. But after critical examination, it was the evidence that brought
him around and he concluded the Resurrection was an established fact of history.12 He proceeded to
write four important books in defense of the Resurrection: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus; The
Resurrection of Jesus: A Rational Inquiry; The Resurrection of Jesus: An Apologetic; and Did Jesus
Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate.

As a brilliant philosophy student at Cornell University, John Warwick Montgomery was a convinced
skeptic when it came to Christianity. But he, too, was challenged to investigate the evidence for
Christianity. As a result, he became converted. He recalls, “I went to the university as a ‘gardenvariety’
20th century pagan. And as a result of being forced, for intellectual integrity’s sake, to check
out this evidence, I finally came around.”13 He confessed that had it not been for a committed
undergraduate student who continued to challenge him to reallyexamine the evidence, he would
never have believed: “I thank God that he cared enough to do the reading to become a good
apologist because if I hadn’t had someone like that I don’t know if I would have become a

2



Christian.”14

Montgomery went on to graduate from Cornell University with distinction in philosophy, Phi Beta
Kappa. Then he went on to earn the Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, a second doctorate in
theology from the University of Strasbourg, France, plus seven additional graduate degrees in
theology, law, library science and other fields. He has written over 125 scholarly journal articles,
plus 40 books, many of them defending Christian faith against skeptical views. He has held numerous
prestigious appointments, is a founding member of the World Association of Law Professors, a
member of the American Society of International Law and is honored in Who’s Who in America,
Who’s Who in American Law, The Directory of American Scholars, International Scholars’ Directory,
Who’s Who in France, Who’s Who in Europe, and Who’s Who in the World. There are many
individuals with the kind of background and philosophical premises as Dr. Montgomery. They
simply do not believe in Christianity apart from sufficient evidence.

Among great literary writers, few can match the brilliance of famous author Malcolm Muggeridge.
He, too, was once a skeptic of Christianity. But near the end of his life he became fully convinced of
the truth of the Resurrection of Christ, writing a book acclaimed by critics, Jesus: The Man Who Lives
(1975). He wrote, “The coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human
history....” and “What is unique about Jesus is that, on the testimony and in the experience of
innumerable people, of all sorts and conditions, of all races and nationalities from the simplest and
most primitive to the most sophisticated and cultivated, he remains alive.” Muggeridge concludes,
“That the Resurrection happened... seems to be indubitably true” and “Either Jesus never was or he
still is.... with the utmost certainty, I assert hestillis.”15

The famous scholar and archaeologist, Sir William Ramsay, was educated at Oxford and a
Professor at both Oxford and Cambridge. He received gold medals from Pope Leo XII, the
University of Pennsylvania, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society,
and was knighted in 1906. He was once a skeptic of Christianity, convinced that the Bible was
fraudulent.

“He had spent years deliberately preparing himself for the announced task of heading an
exploration expedition into Asia Minor and Palestine, the home of the Bible, where he would
‘dig up the evidence’ that the Book was the product of ambitious monks, and not the Book
from heaven it claimed to be. He regarded the weakest spot in the whole New Testament to
be the story of Paul’s travels. These had never been thoroughly investigated by one on the
spot. Equipped as no other man had been, he went to the home of the Bible. Here he
spent fifteen years literally ‘digging for the evidence.’ Then in 1896 he published a large
volume, SaintPaulthe Travelerand theRomanCitizen.


“The book caused a furor of dismay among the skeptics of the world. Its attitude was
utterly unexpected because it was contrary to the announced intention of the author years
before.... for twenty years more, book after book from the same author came from the press,
each filled with additional evidence of the exact, minute truthfulness of the whole New
Testament as tested by the spade on the spot. The evidence was so overwhelming that many
infidels announced their repudiation of their former unbelief and accepted Christianity. And
these books have stood the test of time, not one having been refuted, nor have I found ev en
any attempt to refute them.”16

Ramsay’s own archaeological findings convinced him of the reliability of the Bible and
the truth of what it taught. In his The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New
Testament and other books, he shows why he came to conclude that, e.g., “Luke’s history is
unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness” and that “Luke is a historian of the first rank.... In short,
this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.”17

One of the greatest classical scholars of our century, the outstanding authority on Homer, Dr.
John A. Scott, Professor of Greek at Northwestern University for some 40 years, at one time

3



president of the American Philosophical Association as well as president of the Classical Association
of the Midwest and South, wrote a book at the age of seventy, concluding a lifetime of ripened
convictions, WeWouldSeeJesus. He, too, was convinced that Luke was an accurate historian: “Luke
was not only a doctor and historian, but he was one of the world’s greatest men of letters. He wrote
the clearest and the best Greek written in that century. ”18

Here we have two of the greatest intellects of recent time (Ramsay and Scott), among many that
could be cited, vouching for the historical accuracy and integrity of the Apostle Luke, who wrote not
only the Gospel of Luke, but the Book of Acts as well. In the latter book he claimed that the
Resurrection of Christ had been established “by many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:3). It is only by means
of such convincing proofs that skeptics such as the above individuals could have ever been
converted in the first place. Indeed, the entire history of Christianity involves the conversion of
skeptics to Christian faith.

Unfortunately, however, there are also plenty of scholars who have the evidence laid out clearly
before them and still do not believe. For example, Michael Grant, a Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, Professor of Humanity at Edinburgh University, and President and Vice Chancellor of
the Queens University, Belfast, holds doctorates from Cambridge, Dublin and Belfast and is the
author of numerous books, among them The Twelve Caesars, and The Army of the Caesars. In his
book Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels, he fully admits, “But if we apply the same sort of
criteria that we would apply to any other ancient literary sources, then the evidence is firm and
plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was indeed found empty.”19

But he does not believe in the Resurrection: “Who had taken the body? There is no way of
knowing.... at all events, it was gone.”20 Yet he proceeds to show how the subsequent events of
Christian history astonish the historian, “For by conquering the Roman Empire in the fourth century
A.D., Christianity had conquered the entire Western World, for century after century that lay ahead.
In a triumph that has been hailed by its advocates as miraculous, and must be regarded by
historians, too, as one of the most astonishing phenomena in the history of the world, the
despised, reviled Galilean became the Lord of countless millions of people over the course of the
1900 years and more between his age and ours.”21 As we documented in our book on the
Resurrection,only the Resurrection of Christ can explain this.22

Still, perhaps if Dr. Grant had been both a historian and a lawyer, he might have better understood
the reason for, in his words, “the most astonishing phenomena in the history of the world.” (In part
two, we will examine what some of the finest legal minds in history and today have concluded
concerning the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus and the truth of Christianity.)

Obviously, if Christianity is true, it makes all the difference in the world whether we personally
accept it or not. Indeed, for each of us, it makes all the difference between heaven and hell. As
Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16) and “For what will a man be profited, if he
gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
(Matt. 16:26).

The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ—
Part 2: Could the Evidence Stand Cross-Examination in a
Modern Court of Law?

by Dr. John Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon

In Part 1, we indicated that the historical evidence for the Resurrection of Christ was sufficient to
convert even skeptics. In Part 2, we will examine what leading lawyers have concluded about the

4



evidence for Christ’s Resurrection.

In Acts 1:3, the historian Luke tells us that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead by “many
infallible proofs.” The Greek en pollois tekmariois is an expression which is defined in the lexicons
as “decisive proof” and indicates the strongest type of legal evidence.1

Lawyers, of course, are expertly trained to deal in the matter of evidence. Skeptics can, if they
wish, maintain that only the weak-minded would believe in the literal, physical Resurrection of
Christ, but perhaps this only reveals their own weak-mindedness when it comes to taking the
evidence at face value.

Lawyers are not weak-minded. Hundreds of lawyers are represented by The National Christian
Legal Society, The Rutherford Institute, Lawyers Christian Fellowship, Simon Greenleaf University,
and other Christian law organizations, schools and societies. Among their number are some of the
most respected lawyers in the country, men who have graduated from our leading law schools and
gone on to prominence in the world of law. The law schools of Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Boston, New
York University, University of Southern California, Georgetown, University of Michigan,
Northwestern, Hastings College of Law at U. C. Berkeley, Loyola, and many others are all
represented.2

Among the Board of Reference or distinguished lectureships given at Dr. Weldon’s alma mater,
Simon Greenleaf University, we could cite Samuel Ericsson, J.D., Harvard Law School, Renatus J.
Chytil, formerly a lecturer at Cornell and an expert on Czechoslovakian law, Dr. John W. Brabner-
Smith, Dean Emeritus of the International School of Law, Washington, D.C., and Richard Colby,
J.D., Yale Law School, with Twentieth Century Fox.3 All are Christians who accept the Resurrection
of Christ as a historical fact. In actuality, the truth of the Resurrection can be determined by the very
reasoning used in law to determine questions of fact. (This procedure is also true for establishing
the historical reliability and accuracy of the New Testament documents.)

So let us proceed with specific examples of noted legal testimony concerning the Resurrection.

Lord Darling, a former Lord Chief Justice in England, asserts: “In its favor as a living truth there
exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no
intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.”4

John Singleton Copley (Lord Lyndhurst, 1772–1863) is recognized as one of the greatest legal
minds in British history. He was Solicitor General of the British government, Attorney General of
Great Britain, three times the High Chancellor of England and elected High Steward of the
University of Cambridge. He challenges, “I know pretty well what evidence is; and I tell you, such
evidence as that for the Resurrection has never broken down yet.”5

Hugo Grotius was a noted “jurist and scholar whose works are of fundamental importance in
international law,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He wrote Latin elegies at the age of
eight and entered Leiden University at eleven.6 Considered “the father of international law,” he
wrote The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627) in which he legally defended the historical fact of
the Resurrection.

J. N. D. Anderson, in the words of Armand Nicholi of the Harvard Medical School (Christianity
Today, March 29, 1968), is a scholar of international repute, eminently qualified to deal with the
subject of evidence. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on Muslim law, Dean of the Faculty
of Law at the University of London, Chairman of the Department of Oriental Law at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, and Director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the
University of London.7 In Anderson’s text, Christianity: The Witness of History, he supplies the
standard evidences for the Resurrection and asks, “How, then, can the fact of the resurrection be
denied?”8 Anderson further emphasizes, “Lastly, it can be asserted with confidence that men and
women disbelieve the Easter story not because of the evidence but in spite of it.”9
5



Sir Edward Clark, K. C., observes:

As a lawyer, I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first
Easter day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I
have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on
evidence, and a truthful witness is always artless and disdains effect. The gospel evidence
for the resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as a testimony of
truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate.10

Irwin H. Linton was a Washington, D.C. lawyer who argued cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court. In A Lawyer Examines the Bible, he challenges his fellow lawyers “by every acid test known
to the law...to examine the case for the Bible just as they would any important matter submitted to
their professional attention by a client... .”11 He believes that the evidence for Christianity is
“overwhelming” and that at least “three independent and converging lines of proof,” each of which
“is conclusive in itself,” establish the truth of the Christian faith.12 Linton observed that “the logical,
historical... proofs of... Christianity are so indisputable that I have found them to arrest the surprised
attention of just about every man to whom I have presented them....”13 He further argues the
Resurrection “is not only so established that the greatest lawyers have declared it to be the best
proved fact of all history, but it is so supported that it is difficult to conceive of any method or line of
proof that it lacks which would make [it] more certain.”14 And that, even among lawyers, “he who
does not accept wholeheartedly the evangelical, conservative belief in Christ and the Scriptures has
never read, has forgotten, or never been able to weigh—and certainly is utterly unable to refute—
the irresistible force of the cumulative evidence upon which such faith rests....”15

He concluded the claims of Christian faith are so well established by such a variety of
independent and converging proofs that “it has been said again and again by great lawyers that
they cannot but be regarded as proved under the strictest rules of evidence used in the highest
American and English courts.”16

Simon Greenleaf was the author of the classic three-volume text, A Treatise on the Law of
Evidence (1842), which, according to Dr. Wilbur Smith “is still considered the greatest single
authority on evidence in the entire literature on legal procedure.”17 Greenleaf himself is considered
one of the greatest authorities on common-law evidence in Western history. The London Law
Journal wrote of him in 1874,

It is no mean honor to America that her schools of jurisprudence have produced two
of the finest writers and best esteemed legal authorities in this century—the great and good
man, Judge Story, and his eminent and worthy associate Professor Greenleaf. Upon the
existing law of evidence (by Greenleaf) more light has shown from the New World than from
all the lawyers who adorn the courts of Europe.18

Further,

Dr. Simon Greenleaf was one of the greatest legal minds we have had in this country.
He was the famous Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, and succeeded Justice
Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university. H. W. H. Knotts in the
Dictionary of American Biography says of him: “To the efforts of Story and Greenleaf is
ascribed the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools
of the United States.”... Greenleaf concluded that the Resurrection of Christ was one of the
best supported events in history, according to the laws of legal evidence administered in
courts of justice.19

In his book Testimony of the Evangelists Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in
Courts of Justice, Greenleaf writes:

All that Christianity asks of men... is, that they would be consistent with themselves;

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that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things; and that they
would try and judge its actors and witnesses, as they deal with their fellow men, when
testifying to human affairs and actions, in human tribunals. Let the witnesses [to the
Resurrection] be compared with themselves, with each other, and with surrounding facts and
circumstances; and let their testimony be sifted, as if it were given in a court of justice, on the
side of the adverse party, the witness being subjected to a rigorous cross-examination. The
result, it is confidently believed, will be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and
truth.20

Lord Caldecote, Lord Chief Justice of England, observed that an “overwhelming case for the
Resurrection could be made merely as a matter of strict evidence”21 and that “His Resurrection has
led me as often as I have tried to examine the evidence to believe it as a fact beyond dispute....”22
(cf., Thomas Sherlock’s Trial of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which places the
Resurrection in a legally argued forum and in the words of lawyer Irwin Linton, “will give anyone so
reading it the comfortable assurance that he knows the utmost that can be said against the proof of
the central fact of our faith and also how utterly every such attack can be met and answered.”23 At
the end of the legal battle one understands why, “The jury returned a verdict in favor of the
testimony establishing the fact of Christ’s resurrection.”24)

But lawyers familiar with the evidence could do the same today either for themselves or an
impartial jury. Although admissibility rules vary by state and no lawyer can guarantee the decision
of any jury (no matter how persuasive the evidence), an abundance of lawyers will testify today that
the Resurrection would stand in the vast majority of law courts.

In conclusion, in these two installments, we have shown that both those who were committed
skeptics and those who are expertly trained to sift evidence have declared, on the basis of the
evidence, that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. Those who ignore the evidence
do so at their own risk.

Evidence (2) Could it Stand in a Court of Law 1203

FOOTNOTES – Part One

1. John Warwick Montgomery, “The Jury Returns: A Juridical Defense of Christianity” in John
Warwick Montgomery (ed.), Evidence For Faith: Deciding the God Question (Dallas: Probe/Word,
1991), p. 319.
2. e.g., cf., John Warwick Montgomery, “How Muslims Do Apologetics” in Faith Founded on Fact
(New York: Nelson, 1978); David Johnson, A Reasoned Look at Asian Religions (Minneapolis, MN:
Bethany, 1985); Stuart C. Hackett, OrientalPhilosophy(Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press,
1979); John Weldon, Buddhism, (MA Thesis) on file at Simon Greenleaf University, Anaheim, CA,
and John Ankerberg and John Weldon, TheFacts On Hinduism in America and The Facts on
Islam.
3. Henry Morris, Many Infallible Proofs (San Diego, CA: Master Books, 1982), p. 1.
4. American Antiquarian Society, EarlyAmericanImprints, No. 8909 (1639-1 800 A.D.), p. 3.
5. Frank Morison, WhoMovedtheStone? (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), pp., 9–10.
6. Ibid., p. 10.
7. Ibid., p. 11.
8. In Josh McDowell, EvidencethatDemandsaVerdict, (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers,
rev. ed. 1979), p. 359.
9. C. S. Lewis, SurprisedbyJoy(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1955), pp. 175, 191.
10. Ibid., pp. 228–229.
11. McDowell, Evidence, p. 373.
12. Personal conversations, March 26–28, 1990.
13. The John Ankerberg Show, transcript of a debate between Dr. John Warwick Montgomery and
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John K. Naland, televised April 1990, p. 39.

14. John Warwick Montgomery, “Introduction to Apologetics” class notes, Simon Greenleaf
School of Law, Anaheim, CA, January 1986.
15. Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus:TheManWhoLives (NY: Harper & Row, 1978), pp. 7, 184, 191,
emphasis added.
16. In McDowell, Evidence, p. 366.
17. William M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New
Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Bookhouse, 1959), p. 81, cf. his Lukethe Physician, pp.
177–179, 222.
18. In W. J. Sparrow-Simpson, The Resurrection in Modern Thought, London, 1911, p. 405, from
Wilbur M. Smith, ThereforeStand: ChristianEvidences (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1972), p. 365.
19. Michael Grant, Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1977), p. 176.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., pp. 190–191, emphasis added.
John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Do the Resurrection Accounts Conflict? and What Proof Is There
that Jesus rose from the Dead? (Chattanooga, TN: Ankerberg Theological Research Institute, 1990).

Notes – Part 2:

1 Joseph Thayer, Thayer’s Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI:

Baker,
1982), p. 617; James Hope Moulton, George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament
Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980),

p. 628; Spiros Zodhiates, The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1985), p.
71; Kurt Aland, et. al., The Greek New Testament (New York: American Bible Society, 1968), p.
179.
2 See the Simon Greenleaf University 1989-1990 and later catalogs.
3 Ibid.
4 In Michael Green, Man Alive! (Chicago, IL: InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, 1969), p. 54.
5 In Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1972), p.
425, cf., p. 584.
6 q.v., “Hugo Grotius,” Encyclopedia Britannica Micropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 753 and references.
7 In Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life
Publishers,
rev. ed. 1979), pp. 201-202.
8 J. N. D. Anderson, Christianity: The Witness of History (London: Tyndale Press, 1970), p. 90.
9 Ibid., p. 105.
10 In John Stott, Basic Christianity (London: InterVarsity Fellowship, 1969), p. 47.
11 Irwin H. Linton, A Lawyer Examines the Bible: A Defense of the Christian Faith (San Diego:
Creation Life Publishers, 1977), pp. 13, 196.
12 Ibid., p. 192.
13 Ibid., p. 120.
14 Ibid., p. 50.
15 Ibid., p. 45, cf., pp. 16-17.
16 Ibid., p. 16.
17 Smith, Therefore Stand, p. 423.
18 Linton, p. 36.
19 In Josh McDowell, More Than a Carpenter (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale/Living Books, 1983), p. 97.
20 In John Warwick Montgomery, The Law Above the Law (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany, 1975), pp.
132-133. (Greenleaf’s Testimony of the Evangelists is reprinted as an appendix).
21 In Linton, p. XXIV.
22 Ibid., p. XXV.

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23 Ibid., p. 242; Sherlock’s text is reproduced herein.
24 Ibid., p. 277.

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