Easter, March 1979…a card from my USAF Academy roommate, Mike. The entire history and practice of the Christian life hinges on the resurrection. If it’s not true, Jesus is nothing short of a madman, considering all he said and did and claimed. Nothing else makes any sense. Why else would the Apostle Paul make the bold claim in his letter to the Corinthian church (authored only 25 years later) that Jesus appeared to over 500 people at once after his resurrection, many of who were still alive at the time? This was more than a feel good movement, the early church, by its bold and loving testimony, turned the world upside down, despite persecution and death for many. Even Paul wrote that “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…”. 1 Corinthians 15: 17,19.