Bible Verse for Good Friday: A meeting of all the religious leaders was called, and they decided to bribe the soldiers (Matthew 28:12).

Watergate, one of America's greatest political scandals, led to the resignation of Richard Nixon and the imprisonment of some of his top political aides. To protect the president from impeachment, some of his assistants tried to create and maintain a cover-up. It lasted only three weeks. Chuck Colson, one of Nixon's most trusted aides, explains: "The first to crack was John Dean. He went to prosecutors and offered to testify against the President. After that, everyone started scrambling to protect himself. … Some of the most powerful politicians in the world—and we couldn't keep a lie for more than three weeks."

While in prison for his role in Watergate, Colson became a follower of Christ. What convinced him of the truth of Christianity? The implausibility of the disciples doing what he and Nixon's top aides couldn't do—successfully maintain a lie. These men had everything to gain by maintaining their silence. The disciples and earliest Christians apparently had nothing to gain by their silence—only persecution, marginalization and, in many cases, martyrdom. When Colson tries to persuade others of the veracity of the disciples' claims to have seen the risen Christ, he starts with Watergate. "The Watergate cover-up proves that 12 powerful men in modern America couldn't keep a lie—and that 12 powerless men 2,000 years ago couldn't have been telling anything else but the truth."

—J.P. Moreland in God Conversation

Adapted from The Passionate Journey (Regal, 2006) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Lord, let me glimpse the staggering nature of the Resurrection, and its transforming power.

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