[[Has any other historical occurrence ever convinced so many people to believe and had the staying power of 2000 years, like it happened yesterday? ]]
Sadly though the mockers will claim it is nothing more than ‘mass hysteria’ - no proof is enough for them-
An analogy From a website explaining why people go to hell willingly, and not forced to do so by some cruel heartless ogre of a God.
“I was on duty on the Coast Guard Rescue boat the other morning, when I spotted what I thought was drowning woman. A mile or so off shore, she was treading water and looked quite weary and dehydrated. We sped over to help her, but she swam away from the life preservers we tossed her, she wouldn’t grab hold of the lifeguard hooks we extended to her, and she swam away from the life raft and swimmers we sent out to help her. It was bizarre.
I asked her if she wanted some help—actually expecting her to be relieved and even grateful, and she screamed “no, go away!”—even though every now and then she would literally sink under water for a few minutes at a time, and come up frantically gasping for air. She said she was “doing fine without help”, and that she intended to stay out there forever like that, just “doing fine”.
I pointed out to her that she looked exhausted, dehydrated, seemed ready to drown any minute, and that she would be too tired to make it to shore if she waited much later—and she denied it. She said it wasn’t really all that bad, that she had made it okay so far on her own, and that she could no doubt keep it up indefinitely.
I told her I thought she obviously needed medical attention, rest, water, and she refused. She said she was her “own person” and that I could not force her to get out of the water. I told her, cautiously—since she would go ballistic whenever I tried to help her—that I didn’t think she was in any mental state to be able to make such decisions, and that I would have to subdue her and force her into the boat—for her own good. And you should have heard the curses, threats of lawsuits, murder, suicide from her...as she constantly kept swimming away from our boat and from our every attempt to rescue her...
“I kept sending people out, but she kept evading them...I offered and begged and offered and pleaded and offered and implored...and she railed and railed and railed...and always swam away further...and about sundown she went under for the last time...why wouldn’t she accept the free help? I’ll never know...I was in anguish for weeks and weeks over this senseless loss... “
https://www.christian-thinktank.com/meorburn.html