Skepticism about the resurrection recurs in the New Testament. Even those closest to Jesus did not immediately accept His resurrection. Initially, the reports of the empty tomb were met with outright dismissal. When the women returned from the sepulcher, the apostles reacted with collective disbelief: “And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not” (Lk 24:11). Thomas remains a famous example of this struggle. He demanded empirical evidence before he would concede...

“As I pressed against the amassed bodies of the crowd that bright spring morning outside Jerusalem, the dust rose in golden clouds beneath a thousand stamping feet. Palm branches snapped from the trees and waved overhead like green banners of triumph, while men flung their cloaks into the road until the path became a living carpet. I had come with the rest—curious, hopeful, hearts pounding—for word had spread that the prophet from Nazareth was riding in at last. Then He appeared, seated not...

The continued existence of true churches today bears witness to their origin in the first church in Jerusalem under the Lord Jesus Christ and to the truth of the New Testament. Jesus Christ declared, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). This promise requires that His church would not cease, but continue from its beginning in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry. The...