Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 "Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Many of the miracles Jesus performed, He did so to give credibility to His claims of Deity. All of the events in the gospels were performed in front of witnesses, and recorded within thier lifetime, or within a generation. If they had not occurred, then it would be very difficult to have people take the Bible seriously. Because people knew the stories were true, they treated them as such and the Bible is with us to this day. Picture writing a book about John Kennedy raising someone from the dead. People would know that it was not true, as there are still people alive today who were around to dispute that claim.

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