Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 119
"and supposed that they saw a Spirit. " And he said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a. Spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. . No statement could be more definite than this! Jesus is delighted to see his disciples once more and to show them he has survived. And then again a spirit would not eat broiled fish (Luke) nor prepare a fire and invite his disciples to "come and have breakfast". (John 21:12). . Even our beloved spiritualists have not got it right when they say that Jesus appeared to his disciples in a materialised body of spirit, for Jesus himself emphasises that he is not Spirit. . Furthermore, Matthew and John do not speak of an ascent into heaven. John, the “beloved disciple", would certainly have been the one most likely to write of this, had it been so. And they would all have specified a particular place of ascent, which would have been marked and revered to this day. . Dr. Barnes, when Bishop of Birmingham, wrote in 1947: (Jesus) came to a criminal's end, whose body quite possibly had been flung ignominiously into a common malefactor's grave. . The Rise of Christianity. In his book Where did Jesus Die (1959), a former Imam of the London Ahmadiyya Mosque, J. D. . Shams, wrote: The cloth in which Jesus was wrapped was found in the sepulchre. This cloth is still in existence. It bears the marks of the body of Jesus made by the ointment which was applied to his body. . A group of German scientists in 1957 published results of their researches into the Shroud, in which they proved Jesus was alive when he was taken down from the cross. . It was well known that crucified men lived sometimes for several days, death finally releasing them from their terrible plight in some cases due to starvation and exhaustion, in others to nervous prostration and in others to attacks by birds and wild animals. Herodotus and Josephus recorded cases of men being taken down after several hours and brought back to life. . Jesus was put upon the cross at about nine o'clock in the morning (third watch) and taken down by Joseph of Arimathea and his companions after about six hours. Since Jesus was no weakling but a strong man still youthful in body, with a strong will, accustomed to hard work and a hard life walking about the countryside, we may understand the surprise of Pilate and the 123