Death on The Cross? — Page 10
world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. " (John 16:32, 33). . Now what does Jesus' victory consist of? His death on the cross or in his escape from the cross? If he died on the cross, then the Jews were successful because their very aim was to prove that he was false in calling himself the Messiah. They had in their support, the Biblical statement that, ". . . he that is hanged is accursed of God" (Deut. 21:23). . But if we believe that he was taken down from the cross alive, unconscious and he entered the heart of the Earth alive and came out of it alive, then he can rightly be said to have overcome his enemies and frustrated all their evil designs. Jesus said: "For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the. Son of man be to this generation. " (Luke 11:30). In other words, Jesus said to the Jews that God Almighty would save him from the clutches of death in the same way as He had saved. Jonah from the belly of the whale. The similarity between the two incidents can be real and genuine only when Jesus enters the heart of the Earth (grave) alive and comes out alive. . X - His prayer was heard. From the study of the Bible we learn that God listens to the prayers of his apostles and saves them from tribulations and trials. In the. New Testament we read:. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much". Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. " (James 5:16-18). . Again we read: ". . . And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. (John 11:41, 42) "And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; 10