And now *here* is an interesting way to think about whether someone was raised from the dead!  This is a Platinum Guest Post by Ryan Fleming.  It is begging for responses.  What do you think?

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A short story:

Suppose you are a French-resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II. One of your countrymen, Jacques, is unbeknownst to you, a Nazi spy. He openly supports passivism towards Nazi authority, keeps the peace, and even promotes paying taxes to the Nazis. Periodically you see Jacques in the company of a Nazi officer. You and your fellow countrymen become suspicious, even fearful. Is he subverting the mental drive to undermine resistance, or at worst, is he giving away secrets, risking the lives of resistance fighters?

You and your countrymen conspire to present a charge to Nazi authority that Jacques has raped a woman to see what they will do. You demand Jacques is guilty, present the woman as a witness who emphatically exclaims Jacques raped her, and demands Jacques must be executed. Eventually, Nazi authority, wanting to avoid an uprising and exposure, agree to execute Jacques.

The day of the firing squad, Nazi soldiers keep everyone at a distance as they blindfold Jacques and tie him to a pole. The soldiers march in and raise their rifles. The Nazi officer gives the command, the rifles fire, and Jacques immediately falls limp. The Nazi commander removes Jacques’ hood, places two fingers up to his throat to feel for a pulse, pulls up his eyelids and then suddenly calls out, “He is dead! Such a brave man to have faced death so eloquently! Surely this man was innocent of the charges made against him!”

The Nazi commander directs an independent person, someone you are not familiar with – let’s call him Joseph of Amarna, to take Jacques from the pole and place him in a tomb. Nazi soldiers are assigned to the tomb to keep everyone at bay from gawking at the body.

Three days later, you are at the train station, and you are shocked and amazed to see Jacques running on a platform as he jumps onto a train. You run up in disbelief as the train starts moving. As it goes by, you see Jacques looking directly at you from one of the windows. He recognizes you, then smiles and waves in sarcastic victory.

Your countrymen do not believe you, since the man was at a distance when he was running on the platform, and seen through a pane of glass up close. So, you and your countrymen go back to the tomb and find it empty.

What do you think happened here?

• You simply thought you saw Jacques, but it really wasn’t him
• Jacques miraculously came back to life and escaped the eternal bondage of the tomb
• The Nazis staged the execution and Jacques never died

Would you change your answer if 14 others, including his own brother, saw Jacques and swore it was him?

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