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Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both things were done in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed by the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. (First Clement 42)

I desire to guard you beforehand so that you do not fall upon the hooks of useless teaching, but that you attain to full assurance in regard to the birth, passion, and resurrection which took place in the time of the government of Pontius Pilate, being truly and certainly accomplished by Jesus Christ, who is our hope, from which may no one of you ever be turned aside. (Letter to the Magnesians 11)

As with the followers of every other messiah the empire had killed, there was nothing left for Jesus's disciples to do but abandon their cause ...
   Then something extraordinary happened. What exactly that something was is impossible to know. Jesus's resurrection is an exceedingly difficult topic for the historian to discuss ... Obviously, the notion of a man dying a gruesome death and returning to life three days later defies all logic, reason, and sense. ...
   However, there is this nagging fact to consider: one after another of those who claimed to have witnessed the risen Jesus went to their own gruesome deaths refusing to recant their testimony. ... Many zealous Jews died horribly for refusing to deny their beliefs. But these first followers of Jesus were not being asked to reject matters of faith based on events that took place centuries, if not millennia, before. They were being asked to deny something they themselves personally, directly encountered.
   ... Perhaps the most obvious reason not to dismiss the disciples' resurrection experiences out of hand is that, among all the other failed messiahs who came before and after him, Jesus alone is still called messiah. It was precisely the fervor with which the followers of Jesus believed in his resurrection that transformed this tiny Jewish sect into the largest religion in the world. (Aslan, Reza. 2013. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Trade Paper (2014). New York, NY: Random House. 174-175.)

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