Other than making the observation that evangelicals are way too involved in U.S. politics these days, I’ve studiously avoided writing about politics in my posts. I have no plans to change course now. For that reason, I’m not going to respond to any comments made here.

I was, however, struck yesterday by a remarkable parallel between Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s reversal of his testimony to congress regarding the need for a quid pro quo from Kiev to free up military aid from the U. S. and Chuck Colson’s experience in Watergate.

Sondland reversed his testimony because a parade of high level administration officials directly contradicted him in their congressional testimony. Facing the specter of jail time for lying to Congress, Ambassador Sondland promptly wrote an addendum to his testimony reversing his observation that there was no quid pro quo. This from a man who is a rock solid supporter of President Trump.

I’m bringing Ambassador Sondland’s reversal up to prove a point: very few people are willing to suffer for another person’s lie, a fact that was not lost on the late Chuck Colson, President Nixon’s Special Counsel and one of the “Watergate Seven” during the Watergate impeachment scandal: “Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks” he often pointed out.

Self preservation is a powerful solvent when it comes to the act of covering up a lie. And when multiple people are involved, the odds of all of them sacrificing themselves for what they know is a lie become astronomically absurd.

This brings me to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians believe it is an actual historical occurrence based on several strands of historical evidence. One of those strands of evidence is the fact that none of Jesus’s 12 apostles ever recanted their testimony. Writes Chuck Colson:

I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.

And, I might add, the apostles maintained their witness even though most of them were martyred for it.

You may dispute the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But you cannot dispute that twelve men held fast until the day they died, even in the face of intense opposition, to their conviction that they saw Jesus risen from the dead.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.