IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY?
PART THREE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
What did Jesus say about God?
God is Relational
Many think of God more as a force than of a Person Who we can know and enjoy. The God of Whom Jesus spoke was not like the impersonal force in Star Wars, whose goodness is measured in voltage, nor is He some great unsympathetic bogeyman in the sky, delighting in making our lives miserable.
On the contrary, God is relational, like us, but even more so. He thinks, He hears, He communicates, in language we can understand. Jesus told us and showed us what God is like . According to Jesus, God knows each of us intimately and personally, and thinks about us continually.
God is Loving
And Jesus told us that God is loving. Jesus demonstrated God's love wherever He went, as He healed the sick, and reached out to the hurting and poor.
God's love is radically different from ours in that it is not based upon attraction or performance. It is totally sacrificial and unselfish. Jesus compared God's love with that of a perfect father. A good father wants the best for his children, sacrifices for them and provides for them. But in their best interests He also disciplines them.
Jesus illustrates God's heart of love with a story about a rebellious son who rejected his father's advice about life and what is important. Arrogant and self-willed the son wanted to quit working and "live it up" Rather than waiting until his father was ready to give him his inheritance, he began insisting that his father give it to him early.
In Jesus' story, the father granted his son's request. But things went bad for the son, After squandering his money on self-indulgence, the rebellious son had to go to work on a pig farm. Soon he was so hungry even the pig food looked good. Despondent and not sure his father would accept him back he packed his bags and headed home.
Jesus tells us that not only did his father welcome him home, but he actually ran out to meet him. And then the father went totally radical with his love and threw a huge party celebrating his son's return.
It is interesting that even though the father greatly loved his son he did not chase after him . He let the son he loved, feel pain, and suffer the consequences of his rebellious choice. In a similar way the Scriptures teach that God's love will never compromise what is best for us. It will allow us to suffer the consequences of our own wrong choices.
Jesus also taught that God will never compromise His Character. Character is who we are down deep. It is our essence from which all our thoughts and actions stem. So, what is God like - down deep?
God is Holy
Throughout the Scriptures
(nearly 600 times) God is spoken of as "holy." Holy means that God's character is morally pure and perfect in every way. Unblemished. This means that He never entertains a thought that is impure or inconsistent with His moral excellence.
Furthermore. God's holiness means that He cannot be in the presence of evil. Since evil is the opposite of His character, He hates it. It is like pollution to Him.
But if God is holy, and abhors evil, why didn't He make our character like His? Why are there child molesters, murderers, rapists and perverts? And why do we struggle so with our own moral
choices ? That brings us to the next part of our quest for meaning. What did Jesus say about us?
next post - not sure - going into hospital for tests.
IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY
PART TWO
(copied from
Y-Jesus,com)
Madonna attempted to answer the question of "Why am I here ?" by becoming a diva, confessing "there were many years when I thought fame, fortune, and public approval would bring me happiness. But one day you wake up and realize they don't. I still felt something was missing. I wanted to know the meaning of true and lasting happiness and how I could go about finding it.
Others have given up on finding meaning. Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the Seattle grunge band, Nirvana, despaired of life at age 27 and committed suicide. Jazz-age cartoonist, Ralph Barton also found life to be meaningless, leaving the following suicide note: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes, I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to house, visited countries of the world, but I am fed-up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of the day."
Pascal, the great French philosopher, believed this inner void we all experience can only be filled by God. He states: "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, which only Jesus Christ can fill." If Pascal is right then we would expect Jesus to answer not only the question of our identity, and meaning in this life, but also to give us hope for life after we die.
Can there be meaning, without God? Not according to atheist Bertrand Russell, who wrote: "Unless you assume a god, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Russell resigned himself to ultimately "rot" in the grave. In his book "Why I am not a Christian." Russell dismissed everything Jesus said about life's meaning including the promise of eternal life.
But if Jesus actually
defeated death, as eyewitnesses claim, (See Did Jesus Rise From The Dead) then He alone would be able to tell us what life is all about, and answer where am I going?
In order to understand how Jesus' Words, Life and Death can establish our identities, give us meaning in life, and provide hope for the future, we need to understand what He said about God, about Himself and about us.
next post
IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY
PART ONE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Many think that Jesus Christ wants us to become religious. They think Jesus came to take all the fun out of life, and give us impossible rules to live by. They are willing to call Him a great leader from the past, but say He is not relevant to their lives today.
Josh McDowell was a college student, who thought that Jesus was just another religious leader, Who set up impossible rules to live by. He thought that Jesus was totally irrelevant to his life.
Then one day, at a student union lunch table, McDowell sat next to a vibrant young coed, with a radiant smile. Intrigued, he asked her why she was so happy. Her immediate reply was "Jesus Christ!"
"Jesus Christ?" McDowell bristled firing back:
"Oh for God's sake, don't give me that garbage. I'm fed up with religion. I'm fed up with the church, I'm fed up with the Bible. Don't give me that garbage about religion.
But the unfazed young coed calmly informed him; "Mister, I didn't say religion, I said Jesus Christ."
McDowell was stunned, he had never considered Jesus more than a religious figure and didn't want any part of religious hypocrisy. Yet, here was this joyful Christian woman talking about Jesus as Someone who had brought meaning to her life.
Christ claimed to answer all the deep questions about our existence. At one time or another we all question what life is all about. Have you ever gazed up at the stars on a pitch-black evening and wondered Who put them there? Or have you ever seen a sunset and thought about life's biggest questions?
* Who am I ?
* Why am I here ?
* Where am I going ?
Although other philosophers and religious leaders have offered their answers to the meaning of life, only Jesus Christ provided His credentials by rising from the dead. Skeptics, like McDowell, who originally scoffed at Jesus' resurrection, have discovered that there is compelling evidence that it really occurred.
Jesus offers life with real meaning. He said that life is much more than making money, having fun, being successful, and then ending up in a graveyard. Yet many people still try to find meaning in fame and success, even the greatest superstars.
next post tomorrow 19th June
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART TEN
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Why did Christianity Win?
Morison was bewildered by the fact that "a tiny insignificant movement was able to prevail over the cunning grip of the Jewish establishment, as well as the might of Rome." Why did it win in the face of all those odds against it?
He wrote: " Within twenty years, the claim of these Galilean peasants had disrupted the Jewish church ... In less than 50 years it had begun to threaten the peace of the Roman Empire. When we have said everything that can be said ... we stand confronted with the greatest mystery of all.
Why did it Win?
By all rights, if there were no resurrection, Christianity should have died out at the cross, when the disciples fled for their lives. But the apostles went on to establish a growing Christian Movement.
J.N.D. Anderson wrote: "Think of the pyschological absurdity, of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a
company that no persecution could silence - and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication ..... that simply wouldn't make sense."
A Surprise Conclusion
With myth, hallucination, and a flawed autopsy ruled out, with incontrovertible evidence for an empty tomb, with a substantial body of eyewitnesses to His reappearance, and with the inexplicable transformation and impact upon the world of those who claimed to have seen Him, Morison became convinced that his preconceived bias against Jesus Christ's resurrection had been wrong. He began writing a different Book, - entitled Who Moved The Stone? - to detail his new conclusions. Morison simply followed the trail of evidence, clue by clue, until the truth of the case seemed clear to him. His surprise was that the evidence led to a belief in the resurrection.
In his first chapter "The Book that refused to be written," this former skeptic explained how the evidence convinced him that Jesus' resurrection was an actual historical event. "It was as though a man set out to cross a forest by a familiar and well-beaten track and came out suddenly where he did not expect to come out."
Morison is not alone, countless other skeptics have examined the evidence for Jesus' resurrection and accepted it as the most astounding fact in all of human history. C.S. Lewis who once even doubted Jesus' existence was also persuaded by the evidence for Jesus' resurrection. He writes:
"Something perfectly new in the history of the universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door that had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open."
Let us consider just one more skeptic who was persuaded by the evidence.
A Stunned Professor
One of those who originally thought the resurrection was simply a myth, only to reverse his position, like Morison, was one of the world's leading scholars, Dr. Simon Greenleaf. Greenleaf helped to put the Harvard Law School on the map. He wrote the three-volume legal masterpiece A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which has been called the "greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure. The U.S. judicial system today still relies on rules of evidence established by Greenleaf.
While teaching law at Harvard, Professor Greenleaf stated to his class that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was simply a legend. As an atheist he thought miracles to be impossible. In a rebuttal three of his law students challenged him to apply his acclaimed rules of evidence to the resurrection account.
After much prodding, Greenleaf accepted his students challenge and began an investigation into the evidence. Focusing his brilliant legal mind on the facts of history, Greenleaf attempted to prove the resurrection account was false.
Yet the more Greenleaf investigated the record of history, the more stunned he was at the powerful evidence supporting the claim that Jesus had indeed risen from the tomb. Greenleaf's skepticism was being challenged by an event that had changed the course of human history.
Greenleaf was unable to explain several dramatic changes that took place shortly after Jesus died, the most baffling being the behavior of the disciples. It wasn't just one or two of the disciples who insisted Jesus had risen. It was all of them. Applying his own rules of evidence to the facts, Greenleaf arrived at this verdict:
In a shocking reversal of
his position, Greenleaf accepted Jesus' resurrection as the best explanation for the events which took place immediately after the crucifixion. To this brilliant legal scholar and former atheist, it would have been impossible for the disciples to persist with their conviction that Jesus had risen if they had not actually seen the risen Christ.
In his book The testimony of the Evangelists,
Greefleaf documents the evidence that caused him to change his mind. In his conclusion he challenges those who seek the truth about the resurrection to fairly examine the evidence.
Greenleaf was so persuaded by the evidence that he became a committed Christian. He believed that any unbiased person, who honestly examines the evidence, as in a court of law, will conclude what he did, - that Jesus Christ has truly risen.
But the resurrection of Jesus Christ raises the question : What does the fact that Jesus defeated death have to do with my life? The answer to that question is what New Testament Christianity is all about.
Did Jesus say what happens after we die?
If Jesus really did rise from the dead then He alone must know what is on the other side.
What did Jesus say about life and our future?
next post follows
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART NINE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Were the Disciples Hallucinating?
People still think they see a fat, gray-haired Elvis darting into Dunkin Dounuts. And then there are those who think they spent last night with aliens in the mother ship being subjected to unspeakable testing. Sometimes, certain people can "see" things they want to, things that aren't really there. And that is why some have claimed that the disciples were so distraught over the crucifixion that their desire to see Jesus alive caused mass hallucination. Plausible?
Psychologist, Gary Collins, former President of the American Association of Christian Councillors, was asked about the possibility that hallucinations were behind the disciples radically changed behaviour. Collins remarked:
"Hallcinations are individual occurrences. By their very nature, only one person can see a given hallucination at a time. They are certainly not something that can be seen by a group of people."
Hallucination is not even a remote possibility, according to psychologist Thomas J. Thorburn,
"it is absolutely inconceivable that ..... five hundred persons, of average soundness of mind, should experience all kinds of sensuous impressions - visual, auditory, tactual and that all these ... experiences should rest entirely on hallucination.
Furthermore in the pyschology of hallucinations, the person would have to be in a frame of mind where they so wished to see that person, that their mind contrives it.
Two major rulers of the early church, James and Paul, both state forcefully that they encountered a resurrected Jesus, neither expecting or hoping for the pleasure. The apostle Paul, in fact, led the earliest persecution of Christians, and his conversion remains inexplicable except for his own testimony that Jesus appeared to him resurrected.
The hallucination theory then. appears to be another dead end. What else could explain away the resurrection?
From Lie to Legend
Some unconvinced skeptics attribute the resurrection story to a legend that began with one or more persons lying or thinking they saw the risen Jesus. Over time the legend would have grown and been embellished as it was passed around.
On the surface this seems like a plausible scenario, but there are three major problems with that theory.
* First, legends simply do not develop while
multiple eyewitnesses are still alive to refute them. One historian of ancient Rome and Greece, A.N. Sherwin-White, argued that the resurrection news spread too soon and too quickly for it to have been a legend.
* Second, legends develop by oral tradition and do not come with contemporary historical documents, that can be verified. Yet the gospels were written within three decades of the resurrection.
* Third, the legend theory does not adequately explain either the fact of the empty tomb or
the historically verified conviction of the
apostles that Jesus was alive.
Therefore the legend story doesn't seem to hold up any better than other attempts to explain away
this amazing claim.
Furthermore, the resurrection account of Jesus Christ actually altered history, beginning with the Roman Empire. How could a legend make such an enormous historical impact within such a short time period?
next post tomorrow 18th June
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART EIGHT
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Consistent to the End
As if the eyewitness accounts were not enough to challenge Morison's skepticism, he was also baffled by the disciples behavior. A fact of history that has stumped historians, pyschologists, and skeptics alike, is that these eleven former cowards were suddenly willing to suffer humiliation, torture, and death. All but one of Jesus's disciples was slain as martyrs. Would they have done as much for a lie knowing they had taken the body?
The terrorists on September 11th, proved that some would die for a lost cause they believe in. Yet to be a willing martyr for a known lie is insanity.
As Paul Little wrote: "Men will die for what they believe to be true, although it may actually be false. They do not however, die for what they know is a lie. "
Jesus' disciples behaved in a manner consistent with a belief that their leader was alive.
No one has adequately explained why the disciples would have been willing to die for a known lie, but even if they all conspired to lie about Jesus' resurrection, how could they have kept the conspiracy going for decades without at least one of them selling out for money or position? Moreland wrote: "Those who lie for personal gain, do not stick together very long, especially when hardship decreases the benefits."
Chuck Colson, implicated in the Watergate scandal, during President Nixen's administration, pointed out the difficulty of several people maintaining a lie for an extended period of time:
"I know that the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because twelve men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and they proclaimed that truth for forty years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned, put in prison. They would not have endured that if it wasn't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world - and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
Something happened that changed everything for these men and women. Morison acknowledged;
"Whoever comes to this problem, has sooner or later to confront a fact that cannot be explained away .... This fact is that .... a profound conviction came to the little group of people - a change that attests to the fact that Jesus had risen from the grave."
next post follows
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART SEVEN
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Grave Robbing?
As Morison continued his investigation, he began to examine the motives of Jesus' followers. Maybe the supposed resurrection was actually a stolen body. But, if so, how does one account for all the reported appearances of a resurrected Jesus? Historian Paul Johnson in A History of the Jews wrote: "What mattered was not the circumstances of His death but that He was widely and obstinately believed, by an expanding circle of people, to have risen again.
The tomb was indeed empty, But it wasn't the mere absence of a body that galvanized Jesus' followers, (especially if they had been the ones who had stolen it). Something extraordinary must have happened, for the followers of Jesus ceased mourning, ceased hiding, and began fearlessly proclaiming that they had seen Jesus alive.
Each eyewitness account reports Jesus suddenly appeared bodily to His followers, the women first.
Morison wondered why conspirators would make women central to its plot. In the first century women had virtually no rights, personhood or status. If the plot were to succeed, Morison reasoned the conspirators would have portrayed men, not women, as the first to see Jesus alive. And yet we hear that women touched Him, spoke with Him and were the first to find the empty tomb.
Later, according to the eyewitness accounts, all the disciples saw Jesus on more than ten separate occasions. They wrote that He showed them His hands and His feet and told them to touch Him. And He reportedly ate with them, and later appeared alive to more than 500 followers on one occasion.
Legal scholar, John Warwick Montgomery, stated: "In 56 AD. (The Apostle Paul wrote that over 500 people had seen the risen Jesus and that most of them were still alive. (1st Corinthians 15:6)
It passes the bounds of credibility, that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it, simply by producing the body of Jesus.
Bible scholars Geisler and Turek agree. If the resurrection had not occurred why would the Apostle Paul give such a list of supposed eyewitnesses? He would immediately lose all credibility with his Corinthian readers by lying so blatantly.
Peter told a crowd in Caesaria why he and the other disciples were so convinced that Jesus was alive.
"We apostles are witnesses of all He did throughout Israel and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by crucifying Him, but God raised Him to life three days later. We are those who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead."
(Acts 10: 39-41)
British Bible scholar Michael Green remarked;
"The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity.
There can be no rational doubt that they occurred.
next post tomorrow 17th June
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART SIX
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
The Matter of the Empty Tomb
No serious historian really doubts that Jesus was dead when He was taken down from the cross. However, many have questioned how His body disappeared from the tomb. English journalist, Dr. Frank Morison initially thought the resurrection was either a myth or a hoax, and he began research to write a book refuting it. The book became famous but for reasons other than its original intent.
Morison began by attempting to solve the case of the empty tomb. The tomb belonged to member of the Sanhedrin Council, Joseph of Arimathea. In Israel at that time, to be on the council was to be a rock star. Everyone knew who was on the council. Joseph must have been a real person. Otherwise the Jewish leaders would have exposed the story as a fraud, in their attempt to disprove the resurrection. Also Joseph's tomb would have been at a well-known location and easily identifiable, so any thoughts of "Jesus being lost in the graveyard" would need to be dismissed.
Morison wondered why Jesus' enemies would have allowed the "empty tomb" myth to persist if it weren't true. The discovery of Jesus' body would have instantly killed the entire plot.
And what is known historically of Jesus' enemies is that they accused Jesus' disciples of stealing the body, an accusation clearly predicated on a shared belief that the tomb was empty.
Dr Paul L. Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, similarly stated that "If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable ... to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter, and no shred of evidence has yet been discovered .... that would disprove this statement.
The Jewish leaders were stunned. They accused the disciples of stealing Jesus' body, but the Romans had assigned a 24-hour watch at the tomb, with a trained guard unit (from 4 to 16 soldiers). Josh McDowell notes that these were not ordinary soldiers. "When that guard unit failed in its duty - if they fell asleep, left their position, or failed in any way, - there are a number of historical sources that go back and describe what happens. Many of them were stripped of their own clothes, they were burned alive in a fire started with their own garments, or they were crucified upside down. The Roman guard was committed to discipline and they feared failure in any way.
It would have been impossible for anyone to have slipped by the Roman guards and to have moved a two-ton stone. Yet the stone was moved away and the body of Jesus was missing.
If Jesus' body was anywhere to be found His enemies would have quickly exposed the resurrection as a fraud. Tom Anderson former president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, summarizes the strength of this argument:
"With an event so well publicized, don't you think that it is reasonable that one historian, one eyewitness, one antagonist, would record for all time that he had seen Christ's body? ...... The silence of history is deafening when it comes to the testimony against the resurrection.
So, with no body of evidence, and with a known tomb clearly empty Morison accepted the evidence as solid that Jesus' body had somehow disappeared from the tomb.
next post follows
IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY?
PART FOUR
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
OKAY FOLKS I AM BACK.
What Did Jesus Say About Us
Made for a relationship with God.
If you were to read through the New Testament, you would discover that Jesus constantly spoke of our immense value to God, telling us that God created us to be His children.
Irish U2 rock star, Bono, remarked in an interview:
"It's a mind blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people."
In other words, before the Universe was created, God planned to adopt us into His family. Not only that, but He has planned an incredible inheritance that is ours for the taking. Like the father's heart in Jesus' story, God wants to lavish on us an inheritance of unimaginable blessing and royal priviledge. In His eyes we are special.
Freedom to Choose
In the movie, Stepford Wives, weak, lying, greedy and murderous men have engineered submissive, obedient robots to replace their liberated wives, who they considered threats. Although the men supposedly love their wives, they replaced them with toys in order to force their obedience.
God could have made us like that - robotic people
(people) hardwired to love and obey Him, programming worship into us like a screensaver. But then our compulsory love would be meaningless. God wanted us to love Him freely. In real relationships we want someone to love use for who we are, not out of compulsion - we would prefer a soulmate over a mail-order bride.
Soren Kierkegaard summarized the dilemma in this story.
Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power - and yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way his very kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels ...... she would surely not resist - no one dared resist him. But would she love him? She would say she loved him of course, but would she truly?
You see, the problem. Less poetically put :
How do you break-up with an all-knowing boyfriend? ("It's just not working between us, but I guess you already knew that.") But to make freely exchanged love possible, God created human beings with a unique capacity - free will.
next post tomorrow 3rd July
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD
PART FIVE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Was Jesus Dead?
"Marley was deader than a door nail, of that there was no doubt." So begins Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol," the author not wanting anyone to be mistaken as to the supernatural character of what is soon to take place. In the same way,before we take on the role of CSI and piece together evidence for a resurrection, we must first establish that there was, in fact, a corpse. After all, occasionally the newspapers will report on some "corpse" in the morgue who was found stirring and recovered. Could something like that have happened with Jesus?
Some have proposed that Jesus lived through the crucifixion and was revived by the cool damp air in the tomb. But that theory doesn't square with the medical evidence. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association explains why this so-called "swoon-theory" is untenable.
"Clearly the weight of historical and medical evidence indicated that Jesus was dead. The spear thrust between His right ribs, probably perforated not only the right lung, but also the pericardium and heart, and thereby ensured His death."
But skepticism of this verdict may be in order, as this case has been cold for 2,000 years. At the very least we need a second opinion.
One place to find that is in the reports of non-Christian historians from around the time when Jesus lived. Three of these historians mentioned the death of Jesus.
Lucian (c.120 - after c.180) referred to Jesus as a crucified sophist (philosopher) (16)
Josephus (c.37 - c.100) wrote: "At this time, there appeared Jesus, a wise man, for He was a doer of amazing deeds. When Pilate condemned Him to the cross, the leading men among us, having accused Him, those who loved Him did not cease to do so.
Tacitus (c.56 - c.120) wrote: "Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty ..... at the hands of our Procurator, Pontius Pilate.
This is a bit like going into the archives and finding that on one spring day in the first century, The Jerusalem Post ran a front-page story saying that Jesus was crucified and dead. Not bad detective work and fairly conclusive.
In fact, there is no historical account from Christians, Romans or Jews, that disputes either His death or His burial. Even skeptical scholars who deny the resurrection, agree that Jesus was dead. Noted skeptic James Tabor, stated, "I think we need have no doubt that given Jesus execution by Roman crucifixion He was truly dead.
The notoriously skeptical Jesus Seminar, agrees
that Jesus really lived and died. He states, "That
He was crucified is as sure of anything historical can ever be. "
In light of such historical and medical evidence, we seem to be on good grounds for dismissing the
first of our five options. Jesus was clearly dead. "Of that there is no doubt. "
next post 16th June
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART FOUR
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Something Happened.
But it wasn't the end. The Jesus movement didn't disappear, (obviously ) and in fact Christianity exists today as the world's largest religion. Therefore we have got to know what happened after Jesus' body was taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb.
In a New York Times article, Peter Steinfels states the startling events that took place three days after Jesus' death.
"Shortly after Jesus was executed, His disciples were suddenly galvanized from a baffled and cowering group into people whose message about a Living Jesus and a Coming Kingdom, preached at the risk of their lives, eventually changed an empire. Something happened.... But exactly what?"
That is the question we have to answer with an investigation into the facts. There are only five plausible explanations for Jesus' alleged resurrection, as portrayed in the New Testament.
* Jesus didn't really die on the cross.
* The "resurrection" was
a conspiracy.
* The disciples were
hallucinating.
* The account is
legendary
* It really happened.
Let us work our way through these options and see which one best fits the facts..
next post follows
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
PART 154
(copied from Mark Cahill's Book)
When John Owen, the great Puritan, lay on his deathbed, he had his secretary write to a friend, "I am still in the land of the living." Then Owen cried, "Stop! Change that to say, I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope to soon be in the land of the living.."
Time is progressing, but soon it comes to a standstill for each one of us in this physical realm.
Your last breath could be today. If so, what would your last words be?
You .................................................................
........................................................................
.........................................................................
What if you had more time in your life ?
What if you could live your life differently than you have?
What if you could write down what your last words will be before you die?
What if you could then live a life that would actually reflect those words?
What would those words be?
You ..........................................................
................................................................
.................................................................
........thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in Whose hand your breath is and Whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified ? (Daniel 5:23)
God holds you breath
indeed your very life in the palm of His hand. He can snatch it away at any moment and take you off to eternity. He has chosen to let you have another breath at this moment, what are you going to do with that breath? Will you glorify Him, or not? It is your choice .
This book was written by me and now it has been read by you, when you put it down and go on with your life, remember this, you will be serving somebody.
Please remember that while you are still breathing that God has given you that breath of life for this moment. The only question is: what are you going to do with it? If you are not saved, now is the time to surrender to God. If you are saved, live radically for Him. Once you die and go to heaven or hell , there is no crossing over from one side to the other.
Truth has been found, The journey of your life continues. Die with no unfinished business. Have no regrets on Judgment Day. Don't waste your life.
There are still moments of your life to be lived. I wonder how those moments will be played out. Use your time wisely.
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
PART 153
(copied from Mark Cahill's Book)
Martin Luther: "Into Thy hands I commend my spirit! Thou hast redeemed me O God of truth!
John Milton: (British poet) "Death is the great key that opens the palace of eternity."
Charles Dickens: "I commit my soul to the mercy of God, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try and guide themselves by the teaching of the New Testament."
Daniel Webster: "I still live." As he was dying , he said, "The great mystery is Jesus Christ, the Gospel. What would the condition of any of us be if we had no hope of immortality? ... Thank God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light."
Andrew Jackson: "My dear children, do not grieve for me.... I am God's, I belong to Him. I go but a short time before you and ... I hope and I trust to meet you all in heaven."
Henry Ward Beecher:
"Now comes the mystery,"
Beecher, a man with a great mind, did not know the answer to the mystery beyond death. Beecher might not have known, but after reading his book, you do. The question is: "What have you done with what you know?"
next post follows
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
PART 152
(copied from Mark Cahill's Book)
quotes continued ....
Aldous Huxley: (humanist/atheist) "It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all of one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than : try and be a little kinder."
Karl Marx: "Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"
Napoleon : "I marvel that where ambitions dreams of myself and Alexander, and of Caesar, should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant, Jesus, should be able to stretch His hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations."
Diana, Princess of Wales: (per police files):
"My God, What's happened?"
James Dean : "My fun days are over,"
Jonathon Edwards : (evangelist) "Trust in God and you shall have nothing to fear."
Patrick Henry: "Doctor I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man who is about to die ..."
D.L. Moody : (evangelist) "I see earth receding, heaven is opening, God is calling me ..."
William Shakespeare; I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Savior, to be made partaker of life everlasting and my body to the earth from which it was made."
next post follows
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD
PART THREE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
A Horrific Death and Then ....?
You know what the last hours of Jesus' life was like if you watched the movie by road warrior/braveheart Mel Gibson. If you missed parts of The Passion of The Christ it was because you were shielding your eyes. (It would have been easier to simply shoot the movie with a red filter on the camera). Just flip back to the last pages of any Gospel in your New Testament to find out what you missed.
As Jesus predicted, He was betrayed by one of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot, and was arrested. In a mock trial, under the rule of Pontius Pilate, He was convicted of treason, and condemned to die on a wooden cross. Prior to being nailed to the cross, Jesus was brutally beaten with a Roman cat-o-nine-tails, a whip with bits of bits of bone and metal that would rip the flesh. He was punched repeatedly, kicked and spat upon.
Then using mallets the Roman executioners pounded the heavy wrought-iron nails into Jesus' wrists and feet. Finally they dropped the cross in a hole in the ground, between two other crosses bearing convicted thieves.
Jesus hung there for approximately six hours. Then at 3.00 in the afternoon - that is at exactly the time the Pass over lamb was being sacrificed as a sin offering, ( a little symbolism there you think?) - Jesus cried out "It Is Finished," (in Aramaic). and died. Suddenly the sky went dark and an earthquake shook the land.
An even greater darkness of depression annihilated the dreams of those who had become infatuated with His charisma and joyful vitality.
Former Lord High Chancellor of Britain, Lord Hailsham notes: "The tragedy of the Cross was not that they crucified a melancholy figure, full of moral precepts ascetic and gloomy .. what they crucified was a young man, vital, full of life and the joy of it. The Lord of life itself.... Someone so utterly attractive that people followed Him for the sheer fun of it.
Pilot wanted verification that Jesus was dead before allowing His crucified body to be buried. So a Roman guard thrust a spear into Jesus' side. The mixture of blood and water that flowed out was a clear indication that Jesus was dead. "The dead do not bleed, ordinarily, but the right auricle of the human heart holds liquid blood after death, and the outer sac holds a serum called hydropericardium. Once His body was certified by the guards, Jesus' body was then taken down from the cross, and buried in Joseph of Aramathea's tomb. Roman guards next sealed the tomb and sealed it with a 24 hour watch.
Meanwhile Jesus's disciples were in shock.
Dr J.P. Moreland explains how devastated and confused they were after Jesus' death on the cross. "They no longer had confidence that Jesus had been sent by God. They also had been taught that God would not let His Messiah suffer death. So they dispersed. The Jesus movement was all but stopped in its tracks.
All hope was vanquished. Rome and the Jewish leaders had prevailed - or so it seemed.
next post 20th June
IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY?
