British Bible scholar C.H Dodd recorded that as a young man he
fretted about the time interval between events mentioned in the
Gospels and when thoses events were written several decades later.
He changed his mind:
" When Mark was writting there must have been many people about
who were in their prime under Pontius Pilate, and they must have
remembered the stirring and tragic events of the time....
If anyone had tried to put over an entirely imaginary of ficitious account
of them , there would have been middle-aged or elderly people who
would have said..
You are wasteing your breath: I remember it as if it were yesterday.' "
( Traditions; Old and New, page 41 ).

* It is hard to account for the Christian Faith's sweep across the
Roman Empire without a spectacular primary cause.
The ressurection was the catalyst.
" One of the most compelling proofs of the resurrection is that the
crucifixion left the disciples in despair and that, hopeless, they
were transformed by their expirence of the risen Jesus....
Even more important was the conviction nourished in Christians
that by the resurrection Jesus had been vindicated and had been
show to be the Son of God with power"
( Kenneth Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol 1, pages 58-59)

That power, that life, proved invincible. It still is...
The Plain Truth April 1995