2. Hostiles would’ve busted ‘em and told everyone the disciples were lying. (F.F. Bruce**)
3. No-one dies for lies. See how the disciples died.
Easy to memorize.
[Gleaned from the lecture "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel, part of the curriculum for Biola's apologetics certification.]
** “It was not only friendly eyewitnesses that the early preachers had to reckon with; there were others less well disposed who were also conversant with the main facts of the ministry and death of Jesus. The disciples could not afford to risk inaccuracies (not to speak of willful manipulation of the facts), which would at once be exposed by those who would be only too glad to do so. On the contrary, one of the strong points in the original apostolic preaching is the confident appeal to the knowledge of the hearers; they not only said, ‘We are witnesses of these things,’ but also, ‘As you yourselves also know’ (Acts 2:22). Had there been any tendency to depart from the facts in any material respect, the possible presence of hostile witnesses in the audience would have served as a further corrective” (F.F. Bruce).”
| — | John Warwick Montgomery, Tractatus Logico-Theologicus, Pg 92 |
