#70 The First Apology of Justin - Part 6

By Justin Martyr, from The Ante-Nicene Fathers

Chapter 18 - Evidence for Immortality and Resurrection

Consider how every previous king died the common death. If death led to unconsciousness, that would be a relief for the wicked. But since feeling continues for all who have lived, and eternal punishment awaits the wicked, be careful to believe that these things are true.

Consider the evidence: fortune-telling, divinations using innocent children, summoning dead souls, and what magicians call dream-senders and helper spirits - all these should convince you that souls remain conscious after death. Also consider those tormented by spirits of the dead, whom everyone calls demon-possessed or mad. And your oracles at Amphilochus, Dodona, Delphi, and similar places. And the teachings of your writers Empedocles, Pythagoras, Plato, and Socrates. And Homer's story of the underworld and Ulysses's descent to see these things, and all similar accounts.

Grant us the same consideration you give to these. We believe in God no less firmly - actually more firmly - than they do. We expect to receive our bodies back, even though they die and are buried in the earth, because we believe nothing is impossible with God.

Chapter 19 - The Resurrection Is Possible

To any thoughtful person: would anything seem more incredible than this - if we were not already in bodies and someone told us that from a tiny drop of human seed, bones, muscles, and flesh could form into a shape like ours? Consider this hypothetically: if you did not already exist and were not born from parents, and someone showed you human seed and a picture of a person and confidently said that such a being could come from such a substance, would you believe it before you saw it happen? No one would believe it.

In the same way, you now disbelieve because you have never seen a dead person rise again. But just as you would not have believed that people could be produced from a tiny seed, yet you see it happen, judge that it is not impossible for human bodies - after they have broken down and returned to earth like seeds - to rise again at God's appointed time and become immortal.

Those who say everything simply returns to what it came from, and that even God cannot do more than this, have a very limited view of God's power. They themselves would not have believed they could become what they are from such materials. It is better to believe even what seems impossible to human nature, rather than to disbelieve like the rest of the world.

We have learned that our Master Jesus Christ said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God," and "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And hell is a place where those who lived wickedly and do not believe what God taught us through Christ will be punished.