“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." —Paul, apostle to the Gentiles

Dear Partaker in the Resurrection,

If your family is anything like mine, you spent a good deal more time preparing to celebrate Christmas than preparing for the celebration of Easter.

Apart from the resurrection of Jesus, however, there is little point in even discussing Christmas. As the apostle Paul put it in a letter to the Corinthian Christians, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.”

In light of Paul’s sobering reminder, it is incumbent on you and me to demonstrate that the Christ of Christmas had the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up again, thus demonstrating that He is God in human flesh!

Simply put—nothing is more significant than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And because of its centrality to Christianity, those who take the sacred name of Christ upon their lips must be prepared to defend the reliability of the biblical account of the Resurrection.

Make no mistake: The biblical account is being undermined in the minds of children and adults alike. Internet lies, such as the notion that the resurrection motif was borrowed from ancient pagan mystery religions, circle the globe before truth has had the chance to put its proverbial boots on.

In like fashion, magazines from Time to Vanity Fair bombard the public with misinformation regarding the Resurrection.

On the one hand, it is chilling to read their pontifications. Pontifications such as: “Tales of entombment and resurrection were latter-day wishful thinking. Instead Jesus’ corpse went the way of all abandoned criminals’ bodies: it was probably barely covered with dirt, vulnerable to the wild dogs that roamed the wasteland of the execution grounds.”

On the other hand, what should we expect?! Pagans are going to exercise their job description. The real question is, “Will We?”

And that is precisely why I am so excited to be writing you today. In our ongoing quest to tackle the problem of biblical illiteracy, I’ve just completed the second in a series of flipcharts titled: RESURRECTION: Memorable Keys to the Greatest F-E-A-T in History.

What is exciting about this flipchart is that it provides a definitive statement regarding what we believe with respect to the central event in Christianity. In color-coded fashion, I follow-up with bullet points that document why we believe it.

And, again, let me remind you that this is not just any subject. The laminated flipchart that I want to put into your hands is a memorable guide to defending the very subject that empowered early Christians to turn an empire upside down.

Today, however, I am not only writing to put another unique and valuable resource into your hands. I’m writing to encourage you to sustain and strengthen the many crucial ministry outreaches of the Christian Research Institute with the most generous gift you are able to provide.

As always, please know that I am deeply grateful for your partnership in ministry. Because of you, CRI is enabled and empowered to rally and resource multiplied thousands of Christians each and every day in the battle for truth. What is being accomplished by God’s grace is possible only because committed Christians like you really care—and only because you truly understand what is at stake.

You can also give to the ongoing work of CRI and request your copy of the “F-E-A-T” flipchart by calling toll-free 1.888.7000.CRI (1-888-700-0274) or, better yet, by logging on to www.equip.org.

Only from the perspective of eternity will you fully realize how God has used your faithfulness for His glory and for the extension of His kingdom.

because Truth matters,

Hank Hanegraaff
President

P.S. Thank you for standing with me as together we tackle the problem of biblical illiteracy. And as you give this month please be assured that multitudes are being fortified in the faith and are being equipped to communicate what they believe and why they believe the glorious reality of resurrection. And please request your laminated F-E-A-T flipchart when you make your donation today.