Acts 2:32

This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we are all witnesses.

The resurrection: This is the bedrock and cornerstone of the Christian faith, dogmatically affirmed in the five historical books of our holy religion, and the quibbles of sinful men with regard to variations in the records themselves are powerless to cast any shadow over the fact itself. What is needed is honesty in the reading of them. If Liby, Polybius, Dionysius and Tacitus describe the same event with variations, no one denies that the event occurred; and the Gospels should be received the same way, especially in view of the truth that the "variations" in them are so minor as to be negligible.

Hunter noted that the New Testament accounts of the resurrection all agree (1) that the tomb was empty and (2) that the resurrection occurred the third day. Regarding the empty tomb, he said:

Paul's tradition implies it. So does the apostolic preaching in Acts. The four evangelists declare it. The silence of the Jews confirms it ... In trying to fathom the mystery of the first Easter Day, we should think of something essentially other-worldly, a piece of heavenly reality, invading this world of time and sense and manifesting itself. We are concerned with an unmistakably divine event which yet occurred in this world of ours, on an April day in A.D. 30 while Pontius Pilate was Roman governor of Judea.[35]

We are all witnesses ... Peter could not have meant "all" of the one hundred and twenty disciples, but all of the Twelve apostles. The blessed Mary herself, who was one of the one hundred and twenty, was not a witness of the resurrection; nor is there any record that Jesus ever appeared to her.

In the certification of so important an event as the resurrection to all times and conditions of men, Jesus trained and qualified a group of men fully equal to the task. They were outdoorsmen, unspoiled by any human sophistication, but still prepared in the most complete and perfect manner to witness and proclaim the resurrection. It is simply incredible that such men as the Twelve could have been led, either intentionally or otherwise, into believing the resurrection of Christ UNLESS IT HAD INDEED occurred. This conscious limitation of the witnesses of Christ's resurrection was noted by Peter himself who said:

Him God raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before of God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead (Acts 10:40,41).

The resurrection of Christ as the fulfillment of God's oath to set a descendant of David upon his throne should be noted. God promised David:

And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish his kingdom for ever .... Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

I have sworn unto David my servant: Thy seed will I establish for ever, And build up thy throne to all generations (Psalms 89:3,4).

Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven (KJV Psalms 89:35-37).

It is regrettable that many have envisioned the Davidic throne as something that would be upon earth, despite the fact of the throne in view here being compared to the sun or the moon, neither of which was ever on earth, and especially in view of the plain promise that it would be "in heaven," that is, the authority (or throne) would be in heaven. The rendition of "heaven" as "sky," as in the English Revised Version, does not change this meaning. The apostle Peter forever settled this question when he declared here in Acts 2:31 that the resurrection of Christ was the fulfillment of the above promises to David. The Davidic throne was a type of the eternal throne and authority of Jesus Christ.