That's correct snuff it rests on the empty tomb of Christ and the eye witness accounts of Jesus bodily resurrection. Without this even Saint Paul States Christians should be pitied the most if the eyewitness accounts are false.
1 Corinthians ch 15
NIV The Resurrection of the Dead
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
That is scripture but what did the earliest followers of Christ believe. Was Jesus deity made up at some council of Nicea in the fourth century a mishmash of pagan ideas.?
Well thankfully we have historical documents and writings from such early Christians that tell us what the contiguous transmission of belief in Jesus was and still is the same today amongst the true Christian followers.
Ignatius The bishop of Antioch who was a student of John the Apostle so one of the early Christians to bridge the transitional early church period the last direct contact at the time of the apostles and eyewitnesses.
ignatius wrote a series of epistles around 107 AD and during his capture in Syria and transportation to Rome for his execution he authored a series of letters that we have today.
The Bishop in his prologue clearly states Jesus as our God. The highest Christology is evident from the Gospels to the earliest Christians who were students of the Apostles.
Many false witnesses claim this belief that Jesus was not a God must either argue from a vehement reductionist view point or rewrite and edit the bible which we have seen today with some cults. As well as deny historical evidence such as those from the first century Christians.
ignatius epistle.
Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church which has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the Most High Father, and Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son; the Church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of Him that willeth all things which are according to the love of Jesus Christ our God, which also presides in the place of the report of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of honour, worthy of the highest happiness, worthy of praise, worthy of obtaining her every desire, worthy of being deemed holy, and which presides over love, is named from Christ, and from the Father, which I also salute in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father: to those who are united, both according to the flesh and spirit, to every one of His commandments; who are filled inseparably with the grace of God, and are purified from every strange taint, [I wish] abundance of happiness unblameably, in Jesus Christ our God.
In Saint Pauls letter to the Corinthians chapter 15 the same chapter the first scripture was taken from. Paul makes this frank admission.
9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God
Why was Paul the least yet he contributed so much to the scripture?
before Pauls conversion he was called Saul of Tarsus. A pious Jew who was given special dispensation to hunt down Christians due to their blasphemy and bound them so they could be sent for execution.
You were not executed for believing in a false Messiah that was not blasphemous
Blasephemy was taking onto oneself the prerogative only attributed to God. That is Christians worshipping Jesus as God...attributing deity that only Jahweh could have. That was Blasephemy punishable by death.
You see Saul was at the execution of Stephen the first Christian martyr and personally sent many others to their death. He laments the persecution he caused prior to his conversion and that is why he feels the least of apostles.
The empty tomb and bodily resurrection that is the Christian witness in a nutshell.
