What do Buddha, Muhammad, Ghandi, Karl Marx, John Lennon and Joseph Smith have in common? If signs marked their grave-sites, theirs would read “Occupied”. Christ’s grave would read “Vacant”.
Act 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
1Co 15:12-18 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
Christianity is an exclusive religion. It claims to have the ONLY truth and, as such, it is intolerant to any other belief system claiming the way to Salvation. In today’s progressive society, the word - intolerant - has negative connotations. Yet intolerance is necessary to our daily lives. Most people would not tolerate an inept pilot flying their airplane. Making a decision that affects our eternity demands that we do not tolerate deception.
It has often been said that there are many paths to God and that all religions are equally valid. This is a logical fallacy. I suspect that those who claim this are either not being entirely honest for various reasons or they haven’t thought through the implications of that statement:
1) Religions cannot all be valid because most contradict each other’s Salvation system.
2) Some deny any need for Salvation.
3) Buddhism is atheistic.
4) Hinduism teaches multiple gods.
5) Islam; the New Age and certain cults claiming to be Christian, deny that Christ was anything but a great man, master or prophet.
6) The New Age teaches that we are gods – we only have to arrive at that realization.
7) Christianity teaches that God became man and was crucified on a wooden cross to redeem mankind and the universe. There is no other way.
Given the contradictions above, there can only be two possibilities (despite claims by Oprah & co) - either all the belief systems are wrong, or only one of the systems is correct. If this world is the by-product of an accident then this article is worthless and so is Christianity. Simple as that.
In my personal search, I had to first deal with the prevailing attitude that this universe was the result of an explosion and life on earth began in a pond of primordial soup, or brought here via meteor from a pond elsewhere in the universe - and somehow evolved through a mechanism that is still not understood. This is basically what is being taught as fact in schools, universities and propagated by practically every media outlet. The evolutionary view has become so pervasive and repetitious that not many (if any) secular individuals dare question it publicly. Those who do are treated with derision.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
It’s not my intention to turn this into an apologetic for Creationism, but please refer to the links below as they will help anyone who is genuinely and objectively searching for answers. You can use the search engines to research particular subjects or you can contact these websites with specific questions no matter how complicated they are. These people are bona-fide scientists well able to hold their own in debates and many have even published secular peer-reviewed scientific articles and books. And, yes, I have challenged and tested them.
Answers In Genesis
Creation Ministries International
True Origin
Having satisfied myself that there was a God and that evolution was problematic, I spent years reading New Age materials and chasing the “truth” down rabbit holes. The New Age isn’t exactly a structured system per se. What it does do very well is obfuscate the truth by presenting a smorgasbord of appealing options for a fastidious seeker not wanting to be offended by blood spilled on wood. Those astute enough will quickly realize how contradictory its varied teachings are. Ironically, some see this as an advantage. In fact – and this is very significant – the only consistent teaching I found throughout the New Age and in other religions is that Jesus was just a human being – not God.
That’s not what the Bible teaches. When Adam and Eve fell, garments of skin were supplied as a covering for them by God (Gen 3:21). This idea of covering by sacrifice is a thread woven throughout Scripture. The myriad idioms and rituals used for priestly intercession and sacrifice were all designed to point to Christ’s substitutionary provision on the Cross for all who place their faith in Him (John 3:16). The testing lesson of Abraham in Gen 22:1-14 points directly to the Cross. God never intended for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and, furthermore, Abraham knew this because of the covenant promises God had made regarding Isaac’s future (Gen 17:1-7; Gen 21:1). Even though Abraham was distressed, he knew well enough to trust God:
Gen 22:7-8 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
Numbers 21:7-9 is also a prophetic foregleam of the Cross as Christ points out to Nicodemus in John 3:14, 15. And the manna from heaven (Exo 16:14-35); the smiting of the rock by Moses (Exo 17:6) and Jonah’s three days in the belly of the beast are only the most commonly recognized pointers to Christ – there are far too numerous similar examples to account for here. Finally, in Revelation, we read:
Rev 5:5-7 and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
Rev 22:13-14 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.
The Bible is an unparalleled, integrated system of sixty six books, written by forty different authors, spanning about 3,500 years that affirms Christ’s divinity and the ABSOLUTE necessity of the Cross. This truth is sprinkled throughout the book from beginning to end. No other literature purporting to be spiritual can match the Bible for consistency, integrity and critical scrutiny – leaving aside prophetic considerations. The message it contains is not about restrictions – it is about Freedom and Incredible Joy. Put it to the test for yourself.
What you do, or don’t do, will impact your eternity.
Further reading in no particular order:
Christian Answers for the New Age
A Brazen Epitaph
Aleph Tau
The Resurrection and Genesis
Jesus Christ Q & A
Can I trust the Bible?
Is Jesus Really God?
Evidence for the Resurrection
Ankerberg Theological Institute Apologetics
Showing posts with label Resurrection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resurrection. Show all posts
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
How Do you Explain the Empty Tomb?
An article from Middletown Bible Church.
The Resurrection of Christ
The tomb was empty. The lifeless body of the crucified Christ was laid in a new tomb, a giant stone was rolled up against the grave’s only entrance, and the burial site was guarded by Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:62-66). How do we explain the fact that on the third day this tomb was found to be empty? Not even Harry Houdini could have gotten out of that one!
The resurrection of Christ is one of the most thoroughly and solidly documented events in history. There were numerous eye witnesses who saw the risen Christ. See 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 where we are given a listing of different people who saw the Lord alive after His death, including over 500 people on one occasion (verse 6). If an impartial jury could have all the evidence presented to them, including an abundance of testimony from eyewitnesses, the members of the jury would be forced to conclude that Christ rose again from the dead. The facts of the case overwhelmingly support this conclusion.
The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christianity. If someone could prove that the resurrection never happened, it would destroy Christianity and render it a false religion and a lie. Anyone considering the claims of Christianity should begin with the empty tomb. If Christ did not rise again from the dead, then how do you explain the empty tomb?
George Lyttelton (1709-1773) was a famous English writer and statesman who lived during the period when rationalism, agnosticism and deism were very prominent in Western Europe. Just before he died, he told his close friend and biographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson: “When I first set out in the world I had friends who endeavored to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me....”
Lyttleton and a friend by the name of Gilbert West, being fully persuaded that the Bible was unreliable, determined to expose Christianity as a falsehood. Lyttleton chose the Conversion of Paul and Mr. West the Resurrection of Christ for the subject of hostile criticism. Both sat down to their respective tasks full of prejudice. However, the result of their separate attempts was that they were both converted by their efforts to overthrow the truth of Christianity. They came together, not as they expected, to exult over an imposture exposed to ridicule, but to lament over their own folly and to felicitate each other on their joint conviction that the Bible was the Word of God. Their able inquiries have furnished two of the most valuable treatises ever written in favor of revelation, one entitled, “Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul” and the other “Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.”
[Another example of a skeptic being transformed as a result of examining the evidence is the case of Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur. Wallace was a friend of the famous infidel, Robert Ingersoll. One day Ingersoll challenged him, “Lew, why don’t you write a book and prove to the world once and for all that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mythical figure, much less the Son of God?” Wallace spent a great deal of time and money investigating every shred of evidence he could find, and his conclusions were far different from what Ingersoll had hoped, as any reader of Ben Hur knows.]
Have you ever seriously considered the resurrection of Christ? How do you explain the empty tomb? Some, like Mr. West, discredit the resurrection and ridicule it. But have they ever sat down as Mr. West later did, and looked at the historical accounts and seen for themselves the wealth of evidence pointing to the fact that the One who was crucified rose again? Most people never even bother to examine the record or weigh the evidence.
Suppose a religious or political leader living today began to make the following announcement over the radio: “I want you all to know that when I go to London, my enemies will murder me, my body will be buried, but in less than a week’s time I will come back from the dead and hundreds of people will see me.” What an extraordinary prediction! And yet the Lord Jesus made these kinds of statements repeatedly during His ministry on earth (see Matthew 16:21; 17:9; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; etc.).
It is important to notice that Christ was seen by all kinds of people at different times and under different circumstances. On one occasion He appeared to just one person; on another occasion He appeared to two people. Several times Christ was seen by seven or more people. On one occasion there were more than 500 people who saw the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:6). Of those who saw the resurrected Lord, some were women and others were men. One was a tax-collector, others were fishermen, one was a skeptic (Thomas), another had recently denied Christ (Peter) and another was an enemy of Christianity (Saul of Tarsus).
The risen Lord was also seen under all sorts of conditions. Some saw Him in a garden, others saw Him in a room, others talked with Him on a road, and others ate with Him by the Sea of Galilee. He appeared more than once in Judea and more than once in Galilee and once He appeared north of Galilee near Damascus (Acts 9). Some met Him on a mountain; some saw Him at the dawn of day, others during the bright light of day, still others at night. After His death, He was seen alive for a period of 40 days (Acts 1:3). A medical doctor of the first century underscored the certainty of the resurrection as proven by the post-resurrection appearances of Christ when he said this: “He (Jesus) showed Himself alive after His passion (death) by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3).
Those who deny the resurrection have tried in vain to come up with satisfactory explanations for why the tomb was empty. Different people have suggested the following weak theories (except for #5 which is pure folly!):
1) The disciples stole the body of Jesus.
First of all, how would they have gotten past the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb and how would they have moved the giant rock which was rolled against the tomb’s entrance? But even more significant is this: If the disciples had stolen the body, then they would have known that Jesus was dead. Why then would they have gone forth and fearlessly preached that He rose again? Most of them were killed because of the message that they preached. Men seldom lay down their lives for what they know to be a lie or a falsehood.
2) The women went to the wrong tomb and found it to be empty.
If they had made such a mistake it is certain that the authorities would have quickly called this fact to their attention. If the enemies of Christianity had known where the body was, would they not have produced it? This would have once and for all proven that the resurrection was a falsehood. All they had to do was produce the body, but they never did.
3) The people who claimed to see Christ actually had hallucinations and visions. They thought they saw Christ but they really didn’t.
This might answer one or two isolated cases, but it’s impossible that 500 people on one occasion would all be afflicted by mass hallucinations (1 Corinthians 15:6). And again, this could have easily been answered by bringing forth the dead body of Jesus.
4) Jesus did not really die on the cross, and when He was put in the tomb He was still alive. When people later saw Him alive, it was because He had never died!
A question was once submitted to a newspaper column and received the following answer:
Q: Our preacher said, on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think?
A: Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy strokes; buffet him repeatedly; nail him to a cross, hang him in the sun for six hours; run a spear through his heart, embalm him; put him in an airless tomb for many hours and see what happens!
5) A UFO came and took away the body out of the tomb by means of a molecular transporter device.
******************
Do you have a reasonable explanation for why the tomb was empty? I’ve only found one that fits the facts and harmonizes with all the evidence: Jesus really did rise again from the dead, just as the many eyewitnesses declared. One of those eyewitnesses wrote this (speaking of himself even though he uses the third person): “This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24).
The Resurrection of Christ
The tomb was empty. The lifeless body of the crucified Christ was laid in a new tomb, a giant stone was rolled up against the grave’s only entrance, and the burial site was guarded by Roman soldiers (Matthew 27:62-66). How do we explain the fact that on the third day this tomb was found to be empty? Not even Harry Houdini could have gotten out of that one!
The resurrection of Christ is one of the most thoroughly and solidly documented events in history. There were numerous eye witnesses who saw the risen Christ. See 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 where we are given a listing of different people who saw the Lord alive after His death, including over 500 people on one occasion (verse 6). If an impartial jury could have all the evidence presented to them, including an abundance of testimony from eyewitnesses, the members of the jury would be forced to conclude that Christ rose again from the dead. The facts of the case overwhelmingly support this conclusion.
The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christianity. If someone could prove that the resurrection never happened, it would destroy Christianity and render it a false religion and a lie. Anyone considering the claims of Christianity should begin with the empty tomb. If Christ did not rise again from the dead, then how do you explain the empty tomb?
George Lyttelton (1709-1773) was a famous English writer and statesman who lived during the period when rationalism, agnosticism and deism were very prominent in Western Europe. Just before he died, he told his close friend and biographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson: “When I first set out in the world I had friends who endeavored to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw difficulties which staggered me....”
Lyttleton and a friend by the name of Gilbert West, being fully persuaded that the Bible was unreliable, determined to expose Christianity as a falsehood. Lyttleton chose the Conversion of Paul and Mr. West the Resurrection of Christ for the subject of hostile criticism. Both sat down to their respective tasks full of prejudice. However, the result of their separate attempts was that they were both converted by their efforts to overthrow the truth of Christianity. They came together, not as they expected, to exult over an imposture exposed to ridicule, but to lament over their own folly and to felicitate each other on their joint conviction that the Bible was the Word of God. Their able inquiries have furnished two of the most valuable treatises ever written in favor of revelation, one entitled, “Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul” and the other “Observations on the Resurrection of Christ.”
[Another example of a skeptic being transformed as a result of examining the evidence is the case of Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur. Wallace was a friend of the famous infidel, Robert Ingersoll. One day Ingersoll challenged him, “Lew, why don’t you write a book and prove to the world once and for all that Jesus Christ was nothing but a mythical figure, much less the Son of God?” Wallace spent a great deal of time and money investigating every shred of evidence he could find, and his conclusions were far different from what Ingersoll had hoped, as any reader of Ben Hur knows.]
Have you ever seriously considered the resurrection of Christ? How do you explain the empty tomb? Some, like Mr. West, discredit the resurrection and ridicule it. But have they ever sat down as Mr. West later did, and looked at the historical accounts and seen for themselves the wealth of evidence pointing to the fact that the One who was crucified rose again? Most people never even bother to examine the record or weigh the evidence.
Suppose a religious or political leader living today began to make the following announcement over the radio: “I want you all to know that when I go to London, my enemies will murder me, my body will be buried, but in less than a week’s time I will come back from the dead and hundreds of people will see me.” What an extraordinary prediction! And yet the Lord Jesus made these kinds of statements repeatedly during His ministry on earth (see Matthew 16:21; 17:9; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; etc.).
It is important to notice that Christ was seen by all kinds of people at different times and under different circumstances. On one occasion He appeared to just one person; on another occasion He appeared to two people. Several times Christ was seen by seven or more people. On one occasion there were more than 500 people who saw the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:6). Of those who saw the resurrected Lord, some were women and others were men. One was a tax-collector, others were fishermen, one was a skeptic (Thomas), another had recently denied Christ (Peter) and another was an enemy of Christianity (Saul of Tarsus).
The risen Lord was also seen under all sorts of conditions. Some saw Him in a garden, others saw Him in a room, others talked with Him on a road, and others ate with Him by the Sea of Galilee. He appeared more than once in Judea and more than once in Galilee and once He appeared north of Galilee near Damascus (Acts 9). Some met Him on a mountain; some saw Him at the dawn of day, others during the bright light of day, still others at night. After His death, He was seen alive for a period of 40 days (Acts 1:3). A medical doctor of the first century underscored the certainty of the resurrection as proven by the post-resurrection appearances of Christ when he said this: “He (Jesus) showed Himself alive after His passion (death) by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3).
Those who deny the resurrection have tried in vain to come up with satisfactory explanations for why the tomb was empty. Different people have suggested the following weak theories (except for #5 which is pure folly!):
1) The disciples stole the body of Jesus.
First of all, how would they have gotten past the Roman soldiers who guarded the tomb and how would they have moved the giant rock which was rolled against the tomb’s entrance? But even more significant is this: If the disciples had stolen the body, then they would have known that Jesus was dead. Why then would they have gone forth and fearlessly preached that He rose again? Most of them were killed because of the message that they preached. Men seldom lay down their lives for what they know to be a lie or a falsehood.
2) The women went to the wrong tomb and found it to be empty.
If they had made such a mistake it is certain that the authorities would have quickly called this fact to their attention. If the enemies of Christianity had known where the body was, would they not have produced it? This would have once and for all proven that the resurrection was a falsehood. All they had to do was produce the body, but they never did.
3) The people who claimed to see Christ actually had hallucinations and visions. They thought they saw Christ but they really didn’t.
This might answer one or two isolated cases, but it’s impossible that 500 people on one occasion would all be afflicted by mass hallucinations (1 Corinthians 15:6). And again, this could have easily been answered by bringing forth the dead body of Jesus.
4) Jesus did not really die on the cross, and when He was put in the tomb He was still alive. When people later saw Him alive, it was because He had never died!
A question was once submitted to a newspaper column and received the following answer:
Q: Our preacher said, on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think?
A: Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy strokes; buffet him repeatedly; nail him to a cross, hang him in the sun for six hours; run a spear through his heart, embalm him; put him in an airless tomb for many hours and see what happens!
5) A UFO came and took away the body out of the tomb by means of a molecular transporter device.
******************
Do you have a reasonable explanation for why the tomb was empty? I’ve only found one that fits the facts and harmonizes with all the evidence: Jesus really did rise again from the dead, just as the many eyewitnesses declared. One of those eyewitnesses wrote this (speaking of himself even though he uses the third person): “This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true” (John 21:24).
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