The Greatest of All Miracles

"Wherefore of these men * * * must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection." ¶

THE GREATEST OF ALL MIRACLES ¶

The greatest of all miracles is being celebrated by the Christian world today in the world-wide festival called Easter. Elder Whitney has referred to the reasonableness of the miracles of Jesus Christ. I say the greatest of all miracles is his resurrection from the dead; professed followers of the risen Lord are celebrating, in form at least, this great miracle. We have heard today that many people reject the reality of the resurrection of the Lord. They believe, or profess to believe, in his teachings, but do not believe in the immaculate conception, nor in his literal resurrection from the grave; yet, this latter fact was the very foundation of the early Christian church. The passage I have just read in your hearing is contained in the first chapter of Acts, and is accepted as being the testimony of Peter, the chief apostle on the occasion when the eleven had met to choose one to take the place of Judas Iscariot. It always interests me to study about the class of men that surrounded the apostles at that time, from whom the apostles chose this special witness. They were men who had been "witnesses" of the resurrection. Only such a one was considered eligible and worthy to be chosen one of the Twelve Apostles. I read further: ¶

"This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. ¶

"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." ¶

Peter then continues: ¶

"Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: ¶

"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: ¶

"Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death." ¶

THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST ¶

There seems to have been no question about the reality of Christ's resurrection in Peter's mind when he spoke to the very men, some of whom at least, had been witnesses of Jesus' death. Prior to this, as I have said, Peter had declared to the eleven that "we must choose from among those who are such witnesses, one who will stand by us as eye witness of the Lord's resurrection." There is no doubt, so far as the first chapter and the second chapter of Acts are concerned that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a reality. No Christian can read it without being convinced that these early apostles, were firmly convinced that the resurrection of the Lord was real. Jesus their Lord was as real to them after his resurrection as he had been prior to his crucifixion, a man among them, though divine. ¶

Later another man testified to the same thing. He was Paul, known as Saul of Tarsus. In his early life Saul did not believe that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. When he was sitting at the feet of Gamaliel, studying the philosophy of the times, he undoubtedly would have ridiculed the idea. To that extent, Paul was a modernist in every sense of the word. Just before his conversion he not only ridiculed the idea, but secured papers that authorized him to punish all who did believe in the resurrection of Christ, and yet Paul was a Pharisee, the members of which sect believed in the doctrine of the resurrection. However, there came a wonderful change in this persecutor's life. This same Jesus who had been crucified and who had risen from the dead, appeared to Paul when he was on his way to Damascus with papers in his pocket to arrest the saints who dwelt in that old city. ¶

"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" said the voice. "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." "What wouldst thou have me do?" "Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Later Paul wrote that testimony, and we have it today as the oldest authentic written record testifying to the literal resurrection of the Lord. That oldest written testimony is not the one I have just read in Acts, it is not found in Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, it is not in Mark nor Luke nor John, but the first epistle to the Corinthians. If you will turn there to that epistle you will find a wonderful array of testimony to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Fifteenth Chapter I read the following: ¶

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ¶

"And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: ¶

"And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; ¶

"After that, he was seen of above five thousand brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. ¶

"After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. ¶

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. ¶

"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God," ¶

WITNESSES TO THE RESURRECTION ¶

Some may say: "If we knew that these testimonies were the direct testimonies of these men, then we should give full credence to them." "But," say the critics, "we do not know that Peter's testimony as recorded in Acts is as he gave it, because he did not write the Acts of the Apostles." True, but we do know that Paul and Luke and Mark and other writers of the New Testament did communicate with Peter as the chief of the apostles. We do know from this authentic record from which I have read that Paul communed with some of these five hundred men, at least our inference that he did is justifiable. He watched them so closely that when one of those eye-witnesses died he evidently took note of it as much as to say: "There is another of the eye witnesses to the resurrected Lord gone to the other side." What else can you read in that phrase, "but some have fallen asleep?" Mark, Luke and Paul conversed with Peter. We have that testimony from Paul's own writings; and what would be the nature of their conversation? "Peter," Paul would say, "did you really see the resurrected Lord?" Peter's answer was affirmative, because here Paul says: "He was seen of Cephas" or Peter. Paul in another place says: "I conversed with James," who was then presiding over the branch in Jerusalem. There can be no doubt that Paul would say: "James, did you see the risen Lord?" James' answer is found in the fifteenth chapter of Corinthians. ¶

What can we do if we cannot accept such irrefutable evidence? To me their testimonies mean but one thing, and that is that Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary, who preached the gospel after his own name, who sought the lost ones, whose life as we know it, even from the fragmentary accounts thereof, is an inspiration and has been an inspiration to millions, for two thousand years, who was crucified in ignominy and who was buried; that this same Jesus Christ arose from the grave literally, and that the early Christian church was founded upon that divine fact. ¶

THE GREAT AND COMFORTING MESSAGE ¶

Marvelous miracle it is! but oh, what a message to your soul and to mine! If he, Lord and Savior, conquered death after having taken upon himself mortality, then we have the divine assurance that our spirits shall transcend that thing which we call death. We have the assurance that our loved ones who have gone before, now live, for death cannot touch the offspring of God, the spirit which is divine. That is the message. ¶

As was stated here on another occasion, we have witnesses nearer to our day than Peter, Mark and Paul and the others. This vast congregation is assembled on this Easter day because of witnesses in this dispensation, of the reality of Christ's resurrection, and the integrity of these men is unquestioned, too, by all honest persons who have studied the characters of these witnesses. Those who misunderstand it are those who in ignorance or through wilfulness desire so to do. ¶

A LATTER-DAY WITNESS ¶

The latter-day witness is this: that Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, appeared by the side of his eternal Father who introduced him in this dispensation as follows: ¶

"This is my beloved Son, hear him;" As the Christian church in the meridian of time was founded upon the reality of the living Christ, -- not merely upon the teachings of the Great Teacher -- so the Church of Jesus Christ in this age was founded upon the reality of Christ's existence and upon the reality of his appearance in this dispensation to the earnest seeking boy, Joseph Smith. ¶

OTHER CORROBORATIVE WITNESSES ¶

Other witnesses corroborate the testimony of the reality of Christ's appearing, and also to the reality of the appearing of resurrected beings, which confirms the reality of the resurrection from the dead. Christ's personality, as his divinity, persisted after death. This being true, then God is beyond all doubt a resurrected personal being. ¶

"It is the eye of faith that sees the broad horizons, the color and the gleam. Religion standing on the known experience of the race, makes one bold and glorious affirmation. She asserts that this power that makes for truth, for beauty and for goodness is not less personal than we." [And that is the declaration of the Church of Jesus Christ, that he is not less personal than we, and that his Father, the eternal Father, is a personal God.] "This leap of faith is justified because God cannot be less than the greatest of his works, the cause must be adequate to the effect. When, therefore, we call God personal, we have interpreted him by the loftiest symbol we have. He may be infinitely more. He cannot be less. When we call God a spirit, we use the clearest lens we have to look at the infinite. As Herbert Spencer has well said: 'The choice is not between a personal God and something lower, but between God and something higher.' " ¶

So wrote Charles Dinsmore of Yale. ¶

WHERE THE L. D. S. CHURCH STANDS ON THE QUESTION ¶

So, the Latter-day Saints declare to the world that God is a personal God, not just a power, and force, he is that and more. He is all that because of his divine and eternal personality, and the Church stands on the reality of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. ¶

AN APPEAL TO THE YOUTH OF THE CHURCH ¶

Fellowworkers, young men of Israel, standing on that platform, having in our hearts the testimony that Christ lives, and that this is his Church, I ask you how can we turn an indifferent ear to the appeal made this morning by the President of our Church to defend, to honor the laws of our land, to labor by example and by precept to establish in all our communities, a determination to keep the communities pure from the contaminating influences of alcoholic beverages and tobacco. I should like to see the application of this testimony, the reality of Christ's resurrection and belief on his gospel, made manifest in a high moral and spiritual condition that would radiate righteousness from the individual lives and the communities of those who make that profession. Latter-day Saints, a message was given this morning in an appeal to sustain the Eigtheenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and I hope we shall never hear of officers in the stakes or in wards, nor of young men, nor young women who are led astray by the propaganda that is now being spread over this country with the avowed intention to bring about a modification of the prohibition law. If you have the testimony of Jesus Christ, if you know that the principles he has revealed are true, then you will obey the Word of Wisdom, and also stand by the prohibition laws of this country. Knowing as I do that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, I pray God to help me and mine and my friends to be true to those principles, which we all know Christ will be pleased to have us incorporate in our lives. Amen. ¶