Apr 12, 2020 | Theology
These trying times are a reminder that the most important question of human existence came from a Jewish Rabbi 2,000 years ago: “But who do you say I am?” Jesus of Nazareth, objectively the most influential human being who ever lived, is himself life’s ultimate question mark. In the context of the time it was an explosive question, both for Jews and Romans, but for very different reasons. Jews had been waiting for their Messiah for 400(!) years. They had been enslaved by one nation after the other, and fully expected the God who had rescued their forefathers from slavery in Egypt, would send another savior to rescue them again. Romans, on the other hand, were not about to let some mythical Messiah figure of these strange and rebellious people threaten the hard won Pax Romana, earned through so much blood and warfare. There had been false alarms before, dynamic figures who claimed Messianic credentials, but nothing, at all, like Jesus of Nazareth. He was nothing like anyone expected, friend and foe alike. Let’s look at the context of the question from Matthew 16: (more…)
Apr 9, 2020 | Apologetics
Given we are celebrating this week the most important event in human history, and given mortality is on everybody’s mind, it is a good time to reflect on the very long term, which would be forever. Providentially, I’ve been making my way through I Corinthians 15 the last week, probably the most important chapter in all of the Bible because it credibly affirms that event, the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul tells us that the implication of Christ’s resurrection has eternal implications for those of us who trust its salvific meaning, the resurrection of the dead. If Christ was raised from the dead, so will if; if he did not, neither will we. He did, and we will! As I argued in my previous post, we have every reason to be confident this is true. In this final section of the chapter, Paul gets into detail about what exactly our resurrected bodies will be like, although for us words can hardly capture the reality.
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Apr 4, 2020 | Plausibility
Since I’m working my way through I Corinthians 15, and since tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and Easter next, I want to share my thoughts on the event that, completely in every way, changed everything. The following is from verses 12-22
Paul has established the essence of the gospel in a short creed he received not long after his conversion, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised on the third day, all according to the Scriptures. The gospel is rooted not only in historical events, but in those events predicted in the history of Israel found in the Jewish Scriptures. The apostles of course got this from Jesus who told them after his resurrection that the whole Old Testament is about him, and from Acts through Revelation they consistently teach and preach him as the fulfillment of Israel’s history. They did not make this up, as skeptics and critics insist they did. Indeed, without the gospel the Old Testament and Israel’s history doesn’t make any sense at all! And without the Old Testament and Israel’s history the gospel doesn’t make any sense at all either! (more…)
Apr 1, 2020 | Apologetics
As we come upon the Easter celebration, albeit in very odd times, I thought I’d share some thoughts from my meditations upon one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. In it Paul deals extensively with the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, establishing them as central to the validity of the Christian faith. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead Christianity is not true, and our faith is in vain, period. Our faith rests on a falsifiable historical fact, meaning if someone, anyone, could have proved Jesus stayed dead, Christianity would be dead too, would in fact have never gotten off the ground. But it did, and an actual, physical, witnessed resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the only explanation for it. Since the so called Enlightenment, many have tried to keep some form of Christianity without the resurrection, but why waste your time. If it didn’t happen, actually, in real space and time, then Christianity is a lie, and his followers who spread the message of the resurrection were liars. I don’t know about you, but I have no interest in basing my life on a lie. If it isn’t true, if it didn’t happen, I want nothing to do with it. This chapter, however, is a huge problem for the skeptics, and why our faith is so well grounded on a real resurrection of Jesus from the dead. (more…)
Mar 27, 2020 | Truth
There is something that the vast majority of people in the world take for granted: the modern world. Not only the most obvious things like science, medicine, and technology, or the infinite number of conveniences and blessings we enjoy every day, but things like universal education, universities, hospitals, human rights, equality, caring for the weak and the poor, in other words, all the things that make the modern world, well, modern! It seems that very few people bother to stop and wonder where all these things come from, and why they exist. This doesn’t surprise us because we live in the most ahistorical generation ever to have lived. The modern obsession with progress, itself a Christian concept, leaves little room for the critical importance of learning about the past. But the modern world is a miracle that itself only exists because of another miracle, a man 2000 years ago who died on a Roman cross, was buried three days, and rose from the dead, Jesus of Nazareth. The most consequential figure in all of history, his life, death, and resurrection, in a typically modern cliche, changed everything. Why and how did it do that? (more…)
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