How is Prayer Different from Witchcraft?
So when facing flogging, torture, and some of the cruelest deaths known at the time, they would know it was all a lie because they made it all up (unlike the zealot who just believes his cause passionately). Surely they would have recanted at the last minute to avoid such a fate. Surely at least a few would have instead of all of them going to their death in different places.
