{"id":38299,"date":"2020-03-13T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secular-historian-on-clear-benefit-from-resurrection\/"},"modified":"2020-03-13T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:58:00","slug":"secular-historian-on-clear-benefit-from-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secular-historian-on-clear-benefit-from-resurrection\/","title":{"rendered":"Secular Historian on a Clear Benefit from the Resurrection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The historian Paul Veyne calls himself an &quot;unbeliever,&quot; and yet he extols the message of human dignity that we find in the sacrificial love and death of Jesus. Veyne writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>[In the gospel, a person&#39;s life] suddenly acquired an eternal significance within a cosmic plan, something that no philosophy or paganism could confer &#8230; The pagan gods lived for themselves. In contrast, Christ, the Man-God sacrificed himself for his [people] &#8230; Christianity owed its success to a collective invention of genius &#8230; namely, the infinite mercy of a God passionate about the fate of the human race, indeed about the fate of each and every individual soul, including mine and yours, and not just those of the kingdoms, empires and the human race in general.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3718,3719,3839,4077,4085,4178,4399,4460,4461,4828,4829,4830,4872,4931],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,389],"class_list":["post-38299","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-cross","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-good-friday","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-human-dignity","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-mercy","tax_ctp_tags-mercy-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-believers","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-sacrificial-love","tax_ctp_tags-self-sacrifice"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Secular Historian on a Clear Benefit from the Resurrection - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/secular-historian-on-clear-benefit-from-resurrection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Secular Historian on a Clear Benefit from the Resurrection - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The historian Paul Veyne calls himself an &quot;unbeliever,&quot; and yet he extols the message of human dignity that we find in the sacrificial love and death of Jesus. 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