raised?... Dead men cannot take effective action; their power of influence on others lasts
only till the grave. Deeds and actions that energize others belong only to the living. Well,
then, look at the facts in this case. The Savior is working mightily among men, every day
He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all over the world... to accept His faith and
be obedient to His teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt that He has risen and
lives, or rather that He is Himself the Life?... If He is no longer active in the world, as He
must be if He is dead, how is it that He makes the living to cease from their activities, the
adulterer from his adultery, the murderer from murdering, the unjust from avarice, while
the profane and godless man becomes religious?... It is, indeed in accordance with the
nature of the invisible God that He should be thus known through his works."
St. Athanasius
On the Incarnation.
4th century