The Resurrection. Did it really happen?

In an article on Easter Sunday, Sandi Dolbee asked "Did it really happen?" Did Jesus really die and return?

I had to chuckle. Every monthly meeting at Seattle IANDS, people come forward to speak about how they experienced death and then returned to this physical life.

The whole gist of Ms. Dolbee's article is that many Christians sink their faith in the hope of eternal life. If Christian tradition is not based on fact, there will be some very disappointed dead people in the future.

"The classic Christian understanding of the Resurrection is that it did happen, it literally happened in a way that remains fundamentally mysterious," said the Rev. Lawrence Bausch, rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Ocean Beach.

Bausch turns to a famous passage in the New Testament from the apostle Paul, who writes that without the raising of Christ, all their beliefs are in vain. "In the end, if there is no Resurrection, then when you're dead you're dead," is how Bausch puts it. "There is nothing to be hoped for."

So here I go with another exciting chorus of "let's check in with the people who have died and gone to heaven (or even to hell) and see what they have to say about when you're (clinically) dead, you're not dead."