This is a first for me. I have written newsletter articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles and blogs since 1987. Newsletter, newspaper and magazine articles were, for eleven years, written during the same time frame. Here in Indiana, I have written newsletter articles and blogs during the same time frame. That is a lot of words! More articles written than sermons preached. And never once have I written an article for one publication and then just reprinted it for another publication.

Until now.

Actually, I am not just repeating the article from April’s newsletter to this blog. Once a month Rena (church secretary) will send me a text saying that it is newsletter time again. This means I am to get it in gear and get an article ready for the newsletter. (She can be quite forceful and scary.) When she let me know for the April newsletter, I was involved in something else, I had two procedures coming and I had given no thought to the April newsletter. I wanted to skip the month, but as stated earlier, Rena can be scary. So, I sat down and wrote the article. I sent it to her and figured I would just move on.

But it has bugged me ever since I wrote it. It is one of those things that you don’t really think through until you talk about it or, in this case, you write about it. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to go back and add to it. It is so important! My ministry span goes from a time when you could settle an argument by quoting Scripture to now when people will just roll their eyes at the mention of the Bible. So, without further ado (whatever that means) I give you my April newsletter article, 2.0.

James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. at 9:30 am on Saturday, July 2, 1881. He died in Elberon, New Jersey, 79 days later on September 19, 1881. The shooting occurred less than four months into his term as president. Garfield's assassin was Charles J. Guiteau, whose motive was revenge against Garfield for an imagined political debt, and getting Chester A. Arthur elevated to president. Guiteau was convicted of Garfield's murder and executed by hanging one year after the shooting. It was a busy train station and dozens of people witnessed the shooting. Garfield died from complications of the shooting.

None of the witnesses are alive today to tell the story, but we know the story because it was recorded in the media of the time and in historical records. It is an indisputable fact.

Taking the Roman calendar and correlating it to our calendar, Jesus was crucified on April 3, in the year 33 AD. He was crucified because Jewish leaders feared Him and wanted Him dead. His trial was witnessed by many people, His march through the streets with the cross on His shoulder was witnessed by hundreds and His crucifixion was witnessed by a thousand people or more. A few days later scores of people witnessed Him walking the streets of the city and then, several weeks later, many people witnessed His ascension into heaven.

None of the witnesses to these events are alive today to tell the story, but we know the story because it was recorded in the media of the time and in historical records. It is an indisputable fact.

Only a fool would dispute the details of Garfield’s death.

    Only a fool would dispute the details of Jesus’ death.

    Of course, no one could have predicted Garfield’s death. But the death of Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament. The method was foretold, where He would be buried was foretold, even His birth and the location of His birth were foretold.

    None of the witnesses to these prophesies are alive today to tell the story, but we know the story because it was recorded in the media of the time and in historical records. It is an indisputable fact.

     I pastored just 20 minutes from Garfield’s home in Ohio. His home is a museum now. He was a lay preacher and preached often at his home church in Mentor, Ohio. I have been in that church often. Never have I ever heard anyone say that Garfield’s death did not happen.

     I have been in many churches over the years. Many, sadly, are just dusty Spiritual museums now where nothing ever happens. And, sadly, I have heard several times a minister cast doubt on the life and death of Jesus. One of those museum like churches is the church Garfield used to preach in.

     So why is the death, burial and Resurrection of Jesus called into question? Many more witnesses saw the events of Jesus than saw the events of Garfield and the Roman historians were far more thorough than the American historians of 1880 and, finally, it was an event that President Garfield believed and proclaimed. So, why is it disbelieved?

     Maybe if we Christians didn’t cover our holy days with a man in a red suit and a rabbit carrying a basket of eggs it would be more widely believed. But it goes further than that.

     Why do people disbelieve? Because people still fear Him and want Him dead.