Did Jesus rise from the dead?

I just finished reading "The Case For Christ" by Lee Strobel. Excellant book, for both Christian and non-Christian alike.

And well, this excerpt is the bit that touched me the most. In context, Lee was interviewing Gary Habermas, PH.D, D.D. one of the world's leading theologians in the area of the Resurrection. Lee asked Gary about what he thought was the importance of the Resurrection of Christ and this was Gary's answer... (this may be a bit long, but it's really worth reading)

"I sat on our porch," he (Gary) began, looking off to the side at nothing in particular. He sighed deeply, then went on. "My wife was upstairs dying. Except for a few weeks, she was home through it all. It was an awful time. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen."

He turned and looked straight at me (Lee). "But do you know what was amazing? My students would call me--not just one but several of them-- and say, 'At a time like this, aren't you glad about the Resurrection?' As sober as those circumstances were, I had to smile for two reasons. First, my students were trying to cheer me up with my own teachin. And second, it worked.

"As I would sit there, I'd picture Job, who went though all that terrible stuff and asked questions of God, but then God turned the tables and asked him a few questions.

"I knew if God were to come to me, I'd ask only one question: 'Lord, why is Debbie up there in bed?' And I think God would respond by asking gently, 'Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?'

"I'd say, 'Come on Lord, I've written several books on that topic! Of course he was raised from the dead. But I want to know about Debbie!"

"I'd think he'd keep coming back to the same question-- 'Did I raise my Son from the dead?' 'Did I raise my Son from the dead?'-- until I got his point: the Resurrection says that if Jesus was rasied two thousand years ago, there's an answer to Debbie's death in 1995. And do you know what? It worked for me while I was sitting on the porch, and it still works today.

"It was a horrible emotional time for me, but I couldn't get around the fact that the Resurrection is the answer for her suffering. I still worried; I still wondered what I'd do raising four kids alone. But there wasn't a time when that truth didn't comfort me.

"Losing my wife was the most painful experience I've ever had to face, but if the Resurrection could get me through that, it can get me through anything. It was good for 30 A.D., its good for 1995, its good for 1998, and its good beyond that."

Habermas locked eyes with mine. "That's not some sermon," he said quietly. "I believe that with all my heart. If there's a resurrection, there's a heaven. If Jesus was raised, Debbie was raised. And I will be someday too.

"Then I'll see them both."

Strobel, L. 1998, The Case for Christ, pp 326-327, Zondervan, Michigan.