»

»

»

»

The most important question!

 “If you could meet any person of the past, and ask just one question, whom would like to meet, and what would you ask?”  When asked this question, a professor of philosophy at London University, and not a Christian at that time, answered: “I would like to meet Jesus Christ, and ask him, Did you or did you not rise bodily from the dead?”

Did Easter really happen?  Here are the “theories” that say NO, and the reasons that say YES.

          FRAUD THEORY:  The writers of the New Testament basically lied in order to create a new religion.  They stole his body and hid it.
            RESPONSE:  This theory ignores the security precautions taken by the Roman authorities to make sure that the body of Jesus was not stolen.  In fact, his disciples were never charged with stealing.  This theory fails to answer why, if they had taken his body, the grave clothes were still left in the tomb.  It omits the fact that Jesus’ body was never found.  But what amazed the Romans and the Jewish authorities was that the men disciples, who were supposedly lying, happily admitted that women – who were in those times disdained as uneducated and inferior to men – were the first to discover the empty tomb.  If these men had lied, they would surely have claimed that privilege for themselves.

            SWOON THEORY:  Jesus fainted on the cross, and was mistakenly thought to have died.
            RESPONSE:  This theory forgets that Roman soldiers were experts in crucifixion.  They knew when someone was dead.  It ignores how effective crucifixion was.  No one survived.  It fails to take into account that one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear – a fatal wound to the heart.  It ignores how utterly weak Jesus must have been after the Roman flogging, then after an entire day struggling to breathe on the cross, and after three days in a cold tomb without water or food, supposedly still alive,.  How could such a broken man escape from the binding of his grave clothes, and from the solidly sealed tomb, moving the heavy stone at the entrance?  This theory claims that Jesus, who lived a morally pure and truthful life, lied that he had been dead.

            HALLUCINATION THEORY:  The disciples only thought they saw Jesus alive after he died on the cross.  Perhaps, an emotional response under great stress.
            RESPONSE:  This theory assumes that the disciples expected Jesus to rise from the dead.  But they were shocked and utterly surprised to see him alive again.  Jesus had to repeatedly convince them and prove to them that he was physically alive.  It ignores that many people, women first, – some of them hard doubters – saw Jesus alive.  If their seeing and touching Jesus’ resurrected body was a “hallucination”, all the Romans or the Jewish leaders had to do was to produce his body.  They never did. They tried. They could not do so. What they saw was the amazingly transformed lives of the disciples.

            Will any of these responses convince people today?  Perhaps.  Some say that they believe on the basis of evidence alone. Others accept that Jesus could possibly have come alive, though he had been dead.  That is, they accept, but they do not become followers of Christ.  Why? See Romans 1:19-20.  They may say, “One day modern science will discover how it’s possible.”

            But the question is not whether people will accept factual evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. Many do.  The question is whether they are willing to accept what the Bible says about man’s total dependence on God – that man is not an independent or autonomous being (Genesis 1:27), and that man cannot know truly unless God’s Spirit reveals truth personally.  Why?  See 1 Corinthians 2:14.

            Yes, giving factual evidence can prepare people to consider the truth.  But bringing about a change in their heart attitude – in their basic assumptions or presuppositions -- is something that only God can do.  Yet, we can pray that God’s Spirit would convince, convict, and draw a person to Christ (John 6:44, 16:8).  And we can very simply tell them Jesus’ good news (Rom. 10:14-17).         

            In John 3:16, Jesus gives us the A.B.C.D. of his good news:  The AMAZING love and grace of God.  The BARRIER of sin, the rebellion and the refusal in the human heart to confess his or her need for Christ. The CROSS, where Christ took upon himself God’s judgment of us. The DECISION of faith by which a person turns away from their sins, and trusts who Christ is and what he has done for each of us.