"Without the resurrection, our faith is dead. The story's not complete without it." - The Passion director Mel Gibson, explaining why the movie ends with a scene of the empty tomb - Outreach (Jan/Feb 2004)

"I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." -- Oxford professor Thomas Arnold, author of the three-volume History of Rome

"After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted on the minds of human beings--or it is the most remarkable fact of history." --Josh McDowell in Evidence for the Resurrection

"It is no exaggeration, therefore, to maintain that the bodily resurrection of Christ is as certain as any fact of history can ever be. If there is anything at all in which we can believe with absolute confidence, it is the fact that Jesus Christ died, was buried, then conquered death and is now alive!" --Henry Morris in The Resurrection of Christ-The Best-Proved Fact in History

"The resurrection is the keystone of the arch on which our faith is supported. If Christ has not risen, we must impeach all those witnesses for lying. If Christ has not risen, we have no proof that the crucifixion of Jesus differed from that of the two thieves who suffered with him. If Christ has not risen, it is impossible to believe his atoning death was accepted." - D.L. MOODY, 'Jesus Arose: So Shall We' (sermon)

"If the first Christians had not believed that Christ rose from the dead there would have been no church and no New Testament. If Christianity had been founded merely on the moral teaching of Jesus, it would no doubt have flourished for a short time as a well-meaning deviation from orthodox Judaism. It would quickly have lost its identity amid the innumerable varieties of religion and philosophy which occupied the minds of the ancient world." - William Neil, The Life and Teaching of Jesus

"In the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we see God's decisive victory not only over death but over all God's other enemies as well. In that one climactic event, we see the certainty that someday, in the kingdom of God, there will be no more violence, war, jealousy, or death.. . . These forces are still alive and at work in the world, but because of the victory that God won at Easter, their doom is certain." - Stephen T. Davis, Risen Indeed

"There are times when I feel that he has withdrawn from me, and I have often given him cause, but Easter is always the answer to My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" - Madeleine L'Engle, The Irrational Season

"The great joy that disciples felt when they saw the risen Lord, that 'burning of heart' that they experienced on the way to Emmaus, were not because the mysteries of an 'other world' were revealed to them, but because they saw the Lord… They announced what they knew, that in Christ the new life has already begun, that he is Life Eternal, the Fulfillment, the Resurrection and the Joy of the world." - Alexander Schmemann, O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

"Death is the ultimate weapon of the tyrant; resurrection does not make a covenant with death, it over-throws it. The Resurrection, in the full Jewish and early Christian sense, is the ultimate affirmation that creation matters, that embodied human beings matter." - N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God

"The resurrection is God's way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost - not even our mortal bodies." - Henri J. M. Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift

Easter