Quote from Forum Archives on April 25, 2006, 7:55 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

EVIDENCE

April 16, 2006

 

TEXT: Matthew 28:1-15

 

One of the popular television genres these days is the crime story. I can’t remember which program started the current craze, but I know there are plenty of them out there. Shows like “Law and Order SVU” - or SUV; I can’t keep them straight - and “CSI” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.” People have gotten into them as they follow the efforts of detectives and forensics teams to track down the bad guys.

I don’t watch them. I just never got around to following them. Doesn’t mean that I don’t like mystery stories. I do watch the PBS “Mystery” programs when I know that they are on, and I have been in the process of reading all of the Agatha Christie books that the Peru Public Library has. She’s a good one for keeping a reader guessing until the very end.

Regardless of whether it is one of the new shows, or one of the classics like Sherlock Holmes, or even real life - they solve crimes in real life, too - they all come down to the same goal: sifting through clues to obtain evidence that can lead to solving a crime and, in real life anyway, obtaining a conviction. Our entire legal system, and most legal systems, revolves around testimony and evidence that convinces a jury beyond reasonable doubt that an accused person actually committed the crime. Without evidence, there will be no conviction. In fact, without evidence, there won’t even be a trial.

It’s always newsworthy when it is discovered that someone has been convicted on insufficient or inaccurate evidence. It is a tragedy for anyone to be convicted for a crime that he or she did not commit. I would not want that to happen to me. At the same time, I think that it’s a tragedy when evidence is ignored. We have had reports in the last few days that a suspect in the Jill Behrman murder has been arrested. It has come after literally years of work by detectives and police and forensics experts and who knows how many others. What if they gathered solid evidence against this suspect and a Prosecutor decided not to issue a warrant or take him to trial? Wouldn’t that be a tragedy, too, if evidence is ignored?

Yet, that is exactly what happens when it comes to the Word of God and belief in salvation from Jesus Christ. Since Easter, at least religious Easter, is all about Resurrection, skeptics come out of the woodwork to question and deny the reality of a bodily resurrection. Now, I expect that from unbelievers. After all, if a person refuses to believe in God, there is no need to believe in a resurrection. But there are also those calling themselves Christians who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, more tragic than that, there are clergy serving Christian congregations and Christian theologians who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I was given some polling data awhile back that obviously surveyed clergy from various denominations. In response to a question about the resurrection, there was an all too large percentage of American Baptist clergy who do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I could not find the survey to give the exact figure this morning, but let’s face it, there should not be any clergy of the Christian faith who doubts the resurrection.

Unfortunately, there are. For those pastors and theologians and congregations who deny the resurrection of Jesus, I ask, “What is there to celebrate about today or any Sunday?” I just do not understand it. The Christian faith is under attack like no other time in our lives, and there are those who call themselves Christians who side with and provide fuel for the secularists, atheists, and other enemies of Christ! We read from Matthew, “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.’” That means killed, brothers and sisters. The Roman executioners were good at what they did and more than capable of assuring that their job was done. “’He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.’” According to those claiming Christianity but denying the bodily resurrection, we are invited to disbelieve the authors of Scripture, disbelieve the women, disbelieve the proclaiming angel, disbelieve Jesus, disbelieve the very Word of God and still be a Christian! What am I missing?

You may be like me and wonder how they come up with this. Well, as with so much false teaching, it takes a twisted line of thinking to arrive at their justifications for denying the evidence. While looking for the results of the survey I mentioned before, I came across this: “Many liberal and some mainline Christian leaders believe that Jesus died during the crucifixion, did not resurrect himself, and was not bodily resurrected by God. At his death, his mind ceased to function and his body started the decomposition process. Returning to life a day and a half later would have been quite impossible… They also believe that Paul regarded the resurrection to be an act of God in which Jesus was a passive recipient of God's power. Paul did not mention the empty tomb, the visit by a woman or women, the stone, the angel/angels/man/men at the tomb, and reunion of Jesus with his followers in his resuscitated body. Rather, he believed that Jesus was taken up into heaven in a spirit body. It was only later, from about 70 to 110 [AD] when the four canonic Gospels were written, that the Christians believed that Jesus rose from the grave in his original body, and by his own power.” (jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/13143.htm)

What lengths will some go to in order to deny the evidence? It is Paul himself who writes about the resurrection of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15. Turn there and see for yourself. Verses 3-5: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” Now verses 14-17: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” I ask again, rhetorically, what am I missing? How do they justify that there was no bodily resurrection? Since the evidence is clearly to the contrary, I can draw only one conclusion. They are still being seduced by the testimony of the chief priests and the soldiers guarding the tomb, not by the testimonies of the angel and the women and the disciples and Jesus himself. Whether they call themselves a brother or sister in the faith or not, those who deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ are false teachers!

I am here to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ! I believe that through the faith given me by the Holy Spirit, and I believe that through the evidence given me by God. Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, set out to discredit the claims of Christians. He was as hard-nosed a skeptic and atheist as they come. In what became published as The Case for Christ, Strobel interviewed - no, cross-examined - about a dozen Christian scholars about the reliability of the evidence. Taking the same ideas of liberal scholars I have already shared, he sought to discredit anyone who held to fantastic beliefs like the resurrection. I cite two of his encounters. His first interview was with Dr. Craig L. Blomberg, a professor of New Testament at the Denver Seminary. Strobel asks, “How early can we date the fundamental beliefs in Jesus’ atonement, his resurrection, and his unique association with God?” “’It’s important to remember that the books of the New Testament are not in chronological order,’ [Blomberg] began. ‘The gospels were written after almost all the letters of Paul, whose writing ministry probably began in the late 40s…. And here’s the point… If the Crucifixion was as early as A.D. 30, Paul’s conversion was about 32. Immediately Paul was ushered into Damascus, where he met with a Christian named Ananias and some other disciples. His first meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem would have been about A.D. 35... Now, here you have the key facts about Jesus’ death for our sins, plus a detailed list of those to whom he appeared in resurrected form - all dating back to within two to five years of the events themselves! That’s not later mythology from forty or more years down the road, as Armstrong suggested. A good case can be made for saying that Christian belief in the Resurrection, though not yet written down, can be dated to within two years of that very event. This is enormously significant… Now you’re not comparing thirty to sixty years with the five hundred years that’s generally acceptable for other data - you’re talking about two!’” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, Zondervan, 1998, pp. 34-35)

Later in his inquiries, Lee interviewed Dr. Edwin Yamauchi of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. At the end of the interview, Strobel asked him, “You’ve spent forty years studying ancient history and archaeology… What has been the result in your own spiritual life? Have your studies bolstered or weakened your faith in Jesus Christ?” Dr. Yamauchi replied in a firm, sincere voice, “There’s no question - my studies have greatly strengthened and enriched my spiritual life. They have given me a better understanding of the culture and historical context of the events… I think the alternative explanations, which try to account for the spread of Christianity through sociological or psychological reasons, are very weak… Very weak… For me, the historical evidence has reinforced my commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God who loves us and died for us and was raised from the dead. It’s that simple.” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, Zondervan, 1998, p. 90)

“It’s that simple.” Amazing how many experienced, credentialed scholars of Bible, archaeology, and other ancient studies who express their simple belief in the evidence are cast aside in favor of alternative and unsubstantiated theories that deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers large sums of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’” There are those yet today who put forward a theory that the disciples stole the body. As an example of the weakness of these theories, I’ll address this one. The grave-robbing theory does not work because: (1) The disciples were not expecting the resurrection. They ran and hid from the authorities. They were defeated by the death of their leader. Later, they were surprised by talk of resurrection; they did not believe the women. (2) The tomb was sealed and guarded. It is doubtful that all of the guards fell asleep. The penalty was quite severe for sleeping on watch. (3) The tomb was sealed and guarded. Even if all of the guards had fallen asleep, the commotion of a group of disciples moving a large, sealed rock from the entrance of the tomb would have caused the soldiers to stir. (4) Testimony reveals that Jesus made post-resurrection appearances to many more people than the closest disciples. Would so many people keep a conspiracy secret? It is so unlikely as to be absurd.

Those are four quick responses to one of the arguments against resurrection, yet they powerfully demonstrate the weakness of the argument. As Dr. Edwin Yamauchi says concerning the evidence, “It’s that simple.” There are scoffers; there are skeptics; there are unbelievers to this day, but they can remain so only because they reject the evidence that God has given to us all. Evidence. It’s that simple.

Where are you this day? What does the evidence mean to you? Do you still refuse to believe? You are free to make that choice. I question your choice, but you are free to make it. Another former skeptical atheist, Josh McDowell, writes in Evidence for Christianity that “Evidence is not for proving the Word of God but rather for providing a basis for faith.” (Josh McDowell, Evidence for Christianity, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006, p. xiv) The evidence is there; what do you make of it? I celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.’”

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
Bunker Hill, Indiana

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