by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
“God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.“ Acts 2:32 (NLT)
Historians generally agree that a man called Jesus lived his life until around 33 A.D. They generally agree that Jesus was executed by crucifixion around that time. It is a fact not up for debate. What historians debate is the validity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God who would die for all people as the ransom for sin, redeem humankind as the atonement for sin, reconciling all people past, present, and future, back into right relationship with God.
What historians also debate is the possibility that a man could be dead for three days and then come back to life. Jesus would not only be resurrected into life, but instead of being brain dead, having been deprived of oxygen for three days or there abouts, would be transformed into someone very special as a human being, and then ascend to heaven some six weeks later. That’s right. If resurrection wasn’t crazy enough, the notion that someone could ascend up into the sky until he vanished, well… who’s gonna believe that? And then, He will return by way of some kind of spirit or ghost to inhabit people’s minds, souls, and bodies; now… that’s just being ridiculous, right? How is that remotely possible?
12 But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (NLT)
You can research articles and videos online from doctors, neuroscientists, and scholars dealing with the human brain who suggest that typically the brain begins to die within six minutes when depleted of oxygen due to the lack of a pulse; the stoppage of the heart. Even ten minutes without oxygen to the brain can lead to irreparable severe brain damage. What about 15 minutes, 20, 30, 45 minutes without oxygen? But 17 hours?
Ruth Lambert, who since has became a hospital chaplain, suffered a near-death experience when a fall led to the blood supply to her brain being cut off.
“It was a sense of welcome and going to something better,” she recalls. “I had a strong sense of being addressed by God directly, that this was not the right time for me and then I woke up.”
Did you know that you can go online to read articles of people who died and then came back to life; search YouTube videos to hear their stories?
There are stories and more stories of people who have died, in circumstances where CPR was not provided or even possible. There is science that suggests that there are rare circumstances when individuals’ hearts have stopped beating, and their brains were deprived of oxygen for more than 10-30 minutes, and on extremely rare occasions, several hours. With medical technology to support CPR to restart a pulse, medical personnel “revive” the person to life, without irreparable brain damage. In other words, when the person regained consciousness they were not essentially brain dead or quadriplegic. They could breathe on their own. They could talk. They could tell you their names, what year it is, who the president is, the names of their loved ones, etc. But while it is possible, these cases are extremely rare.
In the case of Jesus, he suffered a tortuous death experience crucified on the cross. There was no such thing as CPR. Even if there was, he had been executed by the government. There would be no intention to revive his heart to oxygenate his brain. He was left for dead. Now, you can read articles on the internet, and watch people interviewed on YouTube of their death-to-life experiences.
Did it really happen? Are they making it up? Or, did it happen? Did it happen exactly as they said it did? You have to decide for yourself.
The thing about the resurrection of Jesus is this. Did it happen exactly as the literal accounts say that it did? Or, is it all made up? Why? If the resurrection of Jesus did not happen, wouldn’t the Christian movement have faded away and died out by now? It’s been more than 2000 years! How is that possible? You can say the same for other faiths and religions. There is Jewish faith, Muslim faith, Hindu faith, Buddhist ideas, and so on, that typically do not include Jesus. The difference with Christian faith is that it is built on one thing: the resurrection of Jesus, the only historical prophet who proclaimed to return from death to life, and is alive today. For those who struggle to believe that, and those interested in scholarly perspective regarding the history surrounding this resurrection, please proceed.
So far this study of Jesus has examined his humanity. I have concluded that for Jesus to be born into the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), he would have, as the apostle Paul wrote, set aside diving standing and privilege. For there to be authenticity concerning Jesus being tempted to sin, he would have to be capable of sin. If not, then Jesus being tempted to sin in all aspects through full participation in the human condition and experience is word play; hyperbole at best. No one can be honestly tempted to do what they are not able to do, or do what they do not want to do. For Jesus to be tempted to sin, he would would have to be devoid of deity or else he could not be selfish enough to even consider capable of sin and therefore, would not have been tempted to sin.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:14-15 (ESV)
Then, we took a closer look at the sacrifice of Jesus as the Christ; the one who would reconcile humankind back into right relationship with God because of his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus suffered psychological (emotional) torment while praying in the garden, pleading with his heavenly Father to spare him from the cup of God’s wrath against sin, as if there was any other way. There was the torture of the incredulous beatings and ridicule Jesus experienced, and the horror of crucifixion. Along with the sacrifice of Jesus was what he may have experienced between death and resurrection having experience the emotion connected to even the most horrific sin while on the cross. Jesus experienced separation from the Father while taking into his body, mind and soul, every element of every sin ever committed while on the cross, but even more so throughout his descent into whatever the heart of the earth is… hell of some kind.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:38-40 (ESV)
Just as the great fish could not contain Jonah before vomiting him about of his mouth, so could the heart of the earth not contain Jesus as he would be resurrected from his death experience into newness of life. What happened to Jesus for those three days and nights in the “belly of the earth”? What is there? Hades? Did Jesus experience a kind of hell?
He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. Luke 22:41-44 (NLT)
It is generally thought that at the cross Jesus experienced the emotion of even the worst sin of the most vile sinful act of any person thorough the history of humanity. Did he also experience the cost of that sin in the belly of the earth? Could that be why Jesus pleaded for another way while praying in the garden before he was arrested?
While you have seen testimony (videos above and below) of individuals who experienced some kind of heaven known as paradise at that time, it does appear as though Jesus experienced heaven; but rather an experience far darker and severe. The end result in the case of Jesus is that he overcame death and was raised into new life as having fulfilled prophecy of his resurrection.
There are lots of people out there that believe that God must exist for the life of any species to exist. Even plant life and that of microorganisms does not really make sense without God as the catalyst for the birth and growth of any living thing. Yet, while believing that God must exist, folks struggle with Jesus having advocated for lost souls while on the earth; that he lived and died with that one divine objective, and then was resurrected from the dead, as he said himself that he would, some three days later. How can resurrection from the dead be possible?
Okay, so maybe some have flatlined on the table anywhere from a few minutes to 10, 20, even 30 minutes. Someone oxygen deprived for 20-30 minutes or more should not ever have been able to breathe without a ventilator. But some have awoken and recognized where they were, identified loved ones, could talk, walk, and other things deemed impossible. Alright, so that has happened. But dead three days? Come on, how is that remotely possible?
“Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us. But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne. David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave. “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.” Acts 2:29-32 (NLT)
Consider this, if you believe in the existence of God as some thing or someone who originated life from nothing, then to raise a person from the dead, how hard is that to believe? If God can big bang a universe into existence in less than the blink of an eye (which is what most of the scientific community believes with the recent discovery of gravitational waves moving through space at millions of light years per second), and who can create life from dust or however he did it, how is it not possible that God can resurrect the dead, whether after 30 minutes or three days? What difference would it make?
Too Bible-centric, so far? It appears it is not enough to convince people that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Because folks do not accept the Bible as a historical document, it is necessary to explore the literary work of historians dating back to somewhere close to the time of Christ’s resurrection. What makes it so likely, so probable, that the resurrection of Jesus in actuality occurred, that it becomes irrational not to accept that there is far greater probability for the resurrection than not.
Historical Accuracy
It’s too bad that so many skeptics give up on both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as historically sufficient to document the historical record. They want to discredit the Bible as accurate since it was written and copied by people, and people are fallible, prone to mistakes. That is true, but so is the case for all documented history written by fallible human beings. Whether is it the documentation of events, inventions, periods of time, quotations attributed to the people who said them, inaccuracies flow throughout all of it. Yet, when history book are studied by students of all ages, no one questions its authenticity as anything but truth. Because it fits into their world of selective truth.
In order to qualify the written record concerning the resurrection of Jesus, it is necessary for some to trust in the credibility of the New Testament as a viable, reliable account. In 1947 was the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in a cave near the Dead Sea. What that changed was that the earliest manuscripts of the Old Testament dated around 980 A.D. were now supported by the document known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated to around 250 A.D. Similar passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls compared to partial passages of manuscripts dated 1000 years earlier were nearly identical. Because of this, it can be safely concluded that the Old Testament within the Dead Sea Scrolls is in fact trustworthy as historical. Particularly relevant then is Old Testament prophecy that would be fulfilled in the birth (and lineage), life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
“They proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more that 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” —Gleason Archer, Biblical Scholar, educator & author
It is therefore say to say that no other historical literature has been so carefully preserved and historically confirmed. The skeptics and cynics will continue to dispute this claim because of their agenda to dispute the resurrection of Jesus.
When we come to the New Testament we see a similar circumstance. There are more than 5,000 Greek New Testament manuscripts in existence. This is easily more than any other sets of historical documents, in which the closest documentation of events are much later in proximity to the historical events sited. The New Testament manuscripts are plenty and come from a broad geographical area, such as Jerusalem, Egypt, Syria and so on for New Testament historians to compare variations. And while variations do occur, they are relatively few and rarely important to the meaning of the text. Objective historians tend to agree that the New Testament manuscripts reflect the history of events as reliable, credible, and trustworthy.
Critics have challenged the historical accuracy of the Bible and have been proved wrong. One example is the accuracy of the accounts having to do with Pontius Pilate’s crucifixion of Jesus. The biblical portrayal informs readers that Pilate found nothing wrong with Jesus and was apprehensive about crucifying an innocent man. Jewish officials put pressure on Pilate saying that if he refused to do this he was no friend of Caesar (John 19:12). Pilate then yielded to the will of the Jews. This did not fit any historical records of Pilate as a cruel and domineering man; a dictatorial governor not likely to give into a group of Jews he totally disrespected and found to be an annoyance. So, there are scholars out there who believe that this account is historically inaccurate because of the way in which it portrayed Pilate.
Later it was discovered that Pilate had been appointed by a man, Sejanus, who was plotting to overthrow Caesar. Sejanus was executed along with many of his appointees (Delashmutt, Sejanus, p. 55, 56). What this indicates is that Pilate was not in a position to make a mistake with Roman authority that may have thought it risky to execute someone with a magnitude of followers that could provoke an unnecessary uprising. If word returned to Rome that Jerusalem was in rebellion, Pilate could be the first to be eliminated from his position. So, little stands in the way of confirming the gospel account as accurate.
Many facts recorded in the Bible have been challenged with the same result, later archeology confirms the reliability of the biblical records down to the smallest detail. A respected Jewish archaeologist has claimed that, “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference” (Shelly, p. 103). This is a strong statement for any archaeologist to make because if it were not true, he would quickly be condemned in his own field.
It is thusly safe to conclude then that the Bible is a reliable historical document. Its accuracy proven time after time. Approaching the Bible as a literary work of history can be done do so with a high degree of confidence that what it records truly occurred as it says it did. If this is true, then we need to come to terms about what the Bible claims. It cannot be dismissed summarily because of meaningless inconsistencies.
Why not consider the biblical account of the resurrection of Jesus as historical documentation or literature of first century events? At the time these accounts of history were written, they were not intended to be a collection of writings that would one day come together to be presented as a greatest hits package to satisfy religious objectives. The first time the writings of the New Testament was presented as a collection was the fourth century, and individual copies of the manuscripts describing the events having to do with historical events and experiences during the times of Christ were discovered around the year 200 A.D.; less than 200 years from when these events and experiences took place. Signature writing styles in the original language of the texts date the manuscripts to some time around the first century.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. John 20:11-18 (ESV)
What is particularly remarkable about this passage that lends itself to its authenticity is that no one else claimed credit for having, “Seen the Lord” first. Women were typically marginalized at that time, to say the least. Mary Magdalene is a famous person today in Jewish and Christian lore as someone considered to be part of the inner circle of Jesus; the 13th disciple, so to speak. But this Mary is not mentioned that often in the New Testament. She appears on the seen when she is delivered from demonic torment and perhaps healed of mental illness. She is there with the mother of Jesus while Jesus is dying on the cross, then … there she is having been the first to see the tomb empty.
Mary was there to anoint the body of Jesus with oils and spices. She anticipated that Roman security would roll back the stone so that she and two other women with her could fulfill the Jewish custom on the day after the Sabbath. When they arrived, security was absent, nowhere to be found, and the stone was already moved from the entrance to the tomb. What they must have wondered as they drew closer to the abandoned open entrance while approaching the tomb early that morning. Mary went in and all she saw was grave linens. No body! She bursts into tears. Oh, and than she sees two angels at either side of the slab where the body of Jesus would have laid. They may have looked like men. One asked her, “Why are you weeping?” Mary responds wondering where they (Roman security?) have taken the body. It’s not clear where the other women had gone off to.
Eyewitness Accounts
As Mary turned to exit the entrance of the tomb, someone perhaps in her periphery, not having a clear look at him, asks her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She recognizes his unforgettable voice, looks him in the eyes, and responds, “Teacher!” She immediately embraces him, perhaps to touch him to know that he is real and not something she is imagination. She so desperately wants it to be Jesus. It looks like him… it sounds like him… but I saw him dead before my very eyes… how is it possible? Then he tells her not to “cling” to him in the way that she might have, as though needing proof that she is not hallucinating, or to know that this is not the second coming of Jesus as prophesied. Jesus had told his disciples that he would rise to the throne next to the Father. Instead, Jesus assures Mary that he is flesh and blood. “It’s really me Mary! Great to see you, too! Now, there is something I need you to do. So, you can let go, now.” Mary did not do anything wrong. She was sent by Jesus to go tell the rest of the gang what had just happened. She can’t wait to tell, everyone!
Mary is out of breath and knocks on the door, full of excitement and anticipation. She tells her friends, “I have seen the Lord!” The disciples in the room do not believe her. They remember when Mary was ill, hallucinating, possessed, and beaten down by spiritual oppressors. Once, they observed that she was able to calm down and sensibly communicate that the prophecy had been fulfilled, the rest of Jesus’ friends were filled with anticipation. They then ran to the tomb to see that it was empty. Jesus wasn’t there now, though. Is it possible that Mary arrived just after Jesus had risen and got dressed? Had the angels come with clothes? Were the angels there to assure Jesus that he was alive and not dreaming, considering the hell he may have experienced in his death in the heart of the earth? Keep in mind that Jesus is still fully human, and while he had not yet ascended to the Father, his deity was likely restored. He would do things he had not done before; like disappear while talking to a couple of people along the road, and pop up in a room without opening the door; and then… poof… disappear again.
When Jesus did appear to the disciples in the secret room they were still hiding in, he was different. There was a glorious countenance in his presentation that perhaps was breath-taking when anyone encountered him. When one disciple, Thomas, came to the house a week later (who knows where he went for a week that he did not get word from his friends that Jesus was alive), he could not believe what he was seeing; a ghost perhaps.
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:24-29 (ESV)
It is unique to the times of the early part of the first century that after all of that, Mary Magdalene is credited with having seen Jesus first, according to John’s Gospel. Like I said, John is just writing what he witnessed in all honesty as it occurred. There is also opportunity for anyone who word for word copied what John wrote to credit a man like John or Peter with having seen Jesus first. Why not, unless it happened just as it did? No one knows this will be read over the next 2000 years and beyond as something known to be canonized as this sacred piece of literature known referred to as the Holy Scripture; the Bible. People talk today as though the Bible is some kind of forgery devised to deceive and manipulate masses of people to convert their lifestyles according to some mandate to control how they live. It is so much more than that. For this document to be believed as special and holy; their needed to be a consistency of experiential testimony accompanying the literature that would come to be known as the inspired the Word of God that breathes life into people.
Skeptics Challenged
If the biblical account is still insufficient to “prove” the reality of the resurrection, then perhaps their needs to be documented historical accounts from writers not considered to be believers; people who trended toward skepticism while still mystified by the going-ons of the time, and wrote about it. One such historian is someone known as Flavius Josephus. The first century Jewish priest, Josephus, according to historical documents was not known to be a believer. He wrote the following about the events around the crucifixion and reported resurrection of Jesus:
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man; if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross; those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again, the third day: as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” —Flavius Josephus, 1st Century Historian, Antiquities XVIII, Chapter III
While it was known during the middle of the first century that Josephus did not count himself as a follower of Jesus, being a Jewish man who did not believe, what occurred among the disciples and followers of Jesus captivated his attention. Flavius Josephus was a Jewish priest and an ardent writer of his experiences. He was recorded speaking about the meticulous nature of people documenting history who wrote with conviction to be accurate about what was reported to them and what they themselves witnessed first hand. When it came to making copies of documents, historians copied them by hand and were sure to copy written material word for word, syllable for syllable, and letter for letter.
“We have given practical proof of our reverence for our own Scriptures. For although such long ages have now passed, no one has ventured either to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable; and it is an instinct with every Jew, from the day of his birth, to regard them as the decrees of God, to abide by them, and, if need be, cheerfully to die for them.” —Flavius Josephus
This writing of Josephus regarding the events around the resurrection was commented on by the Saint Ambrose, a fourth century theologian who was the bishop of Milan around 374 A.D. He is said to have converted Saint Augustine of Hippo into the Catholic faith. So, Saint Ambrose appears to have been highly respected in his day as an authority related to matters of theology and early church history. The following is what he had to say about Flavius Josephus:
“The Jews themselves also bear witness to Christ, as appears by Josephus, the writer of their history, who says thus: ‘That there was at that time a wise man, if (says he) it be lawful to have him called a man, a doer of wonderful works, who appeared to his disciples after the third day from his death, alive again according to the writings of the prophets, who foretold these and innumerable other miraculous events concerning him: from whom began the congregation of Christians, yet he was no believer, because of the hardness of his heart and his prejudicial intention. However, it was no prejudice to the truth that he was not a believer, but this adds more weight to his testimony, that while he was an unbeliever and unwilling, this should be true, he has not denied it to be so.” —St. Ambrose, 4th century theologian, Bishop of Milan, Italy
Saint Ambrose is suggesting that if Josephus was convinced that the resurrection absolutely did not occur, he would have denied it as at all possible. Yet, Josephus did not. These early century writers documented consistently the undeniable event experienced by the first “Christians” that changed everything. The fact that these events were reported by people that did not give testimony of belief or faith as the Christians did adds significantly to the measure of credibility of their testimony. These so-called Christians, compelled by spiritual experience, were radicalized into people that would stop at nothing to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. They did so at the expense of their livelihoods and life itself, since so many were martyred for proclamations of faith in Jesus. This would continue into the next centuries as the Christian movement lived on and multiplied substantially.
There is literature that sites Roman historian and senator, Cornelius Tacitus that dates back to 115 A.D. recording events pertaining to the Roman Emperor Nero about a fire that destroyed much of Rome. Nero was held primarily responsible. Prior to that catastrophe, Tacitus had this to say about how Nero planned to confront the Christian movement of the first century.
“Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition [Christ’s resurrection] thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.” —Cornelius Tacitus, Roman senator and historian, 115 A.D.
What was so threatening about the movement that Emperor Nero found found it necessary to torture Christians ruthlessly as a means of washing the taste of Christianity from their mouths that he understood to be evil-handed? Nero understood Christianity to be an abomination to religious faith and wanted the movement extinguished. He definitely felt threatened by a movement so raw and potent he did what he could to stifle it in its tracks. If there is no resurrection and eyewitness testimony by hundreds and hundreds of people, if not thousands, but only a circulation of a myth without any eyewitnesses, does Christianity take off the way it did throughout the centuries up to this very day?
In about 112 A.D. the Roman governor of what is now northern Turkey wrote to Emperor Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus) regarding what was commonly understood to be Christians in his district:
“I was never present at any trial of Christians; therefore I do not know what are the customary penalties or investigations, and what limits are observed… whether those who recant should be pardoned… whether the name itself, even if innocent of crime, should be punished, or only the crimes attaching to that name…. Meanwhile, this is the course that I have adopted in the case of those brought before me as Christians. I ask them if they are Christians. If they admit it I repeat the question a second and a third time, threatening capital punishment; if they persist I sentence them to death. For I do not doubt that, whatever kind of crime it may be to which they have confessed, their pertinacity and inflexible obstinacy should certainly be punished… the very fact of my dealing with the question led to a wider spread of the charge, and a great variety of cases were brought before me. An anonymous pamphlet was issued, containing many names. All who denied that they were or had been Christians I considered should be discharged, because they called upon the gods at my dictation and did reverence… and especially because they cursed Christ, a thing which it is said, genuine Christians cannot be induced to do.” —Pliny the Younger, Roman Governor, 112 A.D.
King Herod felt so threatened by the birth of Jesus that he had thousands if infant children slaughtered and killed to ensure that no person would rise up in that time period to be the Messiah and King of the Jews. The Roman Governor Pliny the Younger was going to snuff out the Christian movement growing and increasingly widespread, just 80 years after the risen Jesus has made his presence known, including speaking to hundreds of people at single event. There was such momentum 50 years earlier that scores of people were coming into faith by the day.
36 “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all. Acts 2:36-41 (NLT)
It certainly sounds and feels like this pattern of early church growth continued at exponential levels with so many people radicalized to proclaim the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the degree that governors of Rome found it absolutely necessary to cut off the head of the movement. Yet, no matter what they did to extinguish the movement, the only time in history when they seemingly had the chance, they could not kill it. Worship of the risen Christ continues to this day. Today, more than 2.5 billion people at any given time worship Jesus by praise and worship, pray with gratitude for the provision of needs, petition Jesus for healing and deliverance. They testify to experiencing the presence and Spirit of the resurrected Jesus in the core of their very soul, having been changed; transformed and restored by the power of God in their experience.
Why not? If you have accepted that there must be a creative force in the universe that made life from nothing with intention and purpose; call him God or whatever name you want to give him; then God can certainly raise his son from the grave his body had laid in. Once you recognize a creator and find the sensibility in this creator—originator of life—having a connection with what HE created, then anything and everything is possible after that; anything and everything! God who made life from scratch can surely resurrect it from from the dead. Why not?
Experiential Testimony that Jesus Lives
Billions of people have testified to their lives being changed by the presence of God, most specifically, Jesus Christ. This is only possible if Jesus is alive. Some have been changed so radically by the love of Jesus that they have so entirely turned their lives over to Jesus in surrender that they are ridden off by nonbelievers as religious zealots no longer objective about real life stuff.
I cannot say that I am one of those people so surrendered to living each moment of each day to do the will of Jesus that I give my all in serving him. I am very selfish with my leisure time, if I am being entirely honest. It’s my time. I work hard at my job counseling people battling depression and seriously considering suicide. Many have attempted suicide and survived. I take time, if they allow it, to explore with them the God who is the originator of life, and of Jesus who sacrificed everything to provide a way into relationship with God. I try not to impose my values into their belief systems or tug at them emotionally. I present a reasonably logical explanations as to why it makes sense to believe that God is real, and that Jesus is alive, loves them, and is able, willing, and desiring to heal them, deliver them, and restore them. I work hard to help people to, not just feel hopeful, but to be hopeful in what they can know is truth about life being better. So, when it comes time to kick back and relax, I have earned it. There is nothing wrong with that. Except, that I will binge-watch television shows that I know is not particularly healthy for me to be watching.
I am going to share a few experiences here that for me has been life-changing. I guess, in some strange way, I am suggesting to you that I am just a guy, called by the risen Jesus to help others to know Him, and provide a path into relationship with Him, while not being the so-called holy-rollin’, bible-thumpin’ preacher man. I simply fulfilling my role as I have opportunity to do what I do when I get to do it.
I had an opportunity recently to talk to someone on the unit at the hospital psychiatric unit who told me she did not believe in God but had been thinking about some things. I had been called up from the adolescent unit where I was working to the adult unit because its staff was dealing with a violent patient. I was monitoring the halls checking on patients on the floor.
1st Case
I tapped on a woman’s door and opened the door to check on her. Laying under the covers in her bed, she looked up barely and asked quietly, “Are you a pastor?”
I told her that I was a counselor called up to the floor temporarily to help out. I asked her, “Why do you ask?” inquiring what she might be wanting to talk to a pastor about.
I asked her why she was in the hospital, and like most patients in behavioral health, she was battling depression and thoughts of suicide. I asked her what she believed about God and spirituality. That is when she spoke of not really believing that God exists, not having thought much about it. But lately, she has been feeling very depressed, lonely, and seriously contemplating suicide. This had led to her being a little curious about something like God being out there. How could she know?
One of the things I start with is with this question, assuming that something had to always exist: “If God didn’t always exist, what did?” The woman appreciated the question. We talked for a bit about how life must have originated from something or someone alive in order to produce life. I told her that I was attempting to make a logical, reasonable case for the reality of God. She responded that it made sense that it would take something or someone alive to to produce new life. She also expressed agreement that if God can produce human life from dust, or essentially nothing, than anything and everything after that from God is logically and reasonable possible. It made sense to her.
So then, we talked about the historical facts surrounding the life death of Jesus; and that even the empty tomb is considered to be historical fact. It’s not something really up for debate. Long before that, I had mentioned that I am an ordained minister, but not in the role of pastor, but as a counselor getting to speak with her. This woman was then able to agree that if God could make life out of nothing than it was possible that God could resurrect Jesus from the dead, even after three days. On an intellectual level this made sense to her.
I shared with her the story of an alcoholic in treatment who did not believe anything about Jesus because he had never been told, never been to church or anything (not even as a child), and didn’t know; completely unaware. He said he was not opposed to faith, but felt he was never in need of it. I told the patient I was talking to about how I had shared much of the same things with my client in treatment. I told her that he let me know that the evening before his urge to drink “on a scale of 10 was a 30.”
As he sat in a gas station parking lot about to buy cigarettes and beer (lots of beer), knowing he would lose his second marriage and never see his estranged daughter from his first marriage, he talked to Jesus, who he had just heard about. He said out loud, “Jesus, I don’t know if you’re real or I am talking to myself, but if you are real, then I need your help.” He said he felt something go through him head to toe, as if he’d been washed. His urge to drink went from 30 to like, two. He left the gas station and went home.
When my client returned for the next treatment session, he wanted it all: get his hands on a Bible, find a church, faith-centered meetings, etc. The more I shared about the resurrected Savior now with this patient in the hospital psych ward, the more the affect (countenance) in her face seemed to light up.
We then went on to speak about how, if God could resurrect Jesus from death into life, then maybe he could do the same for her; that God could resurrect this woman’s hopelessness into hope; that God could take this woman from her dread into feeling confident that her life has the potential for joy and purpose. By then, she was sitting up and smiling, talking about her life with a much more positive outlook. This happened over a period of 20 minutes or so, but may have changed her life.
Before, leaving her doorway, she said this to me, “Steven, just before you tapped on my door, I thought to myself, “God if you are real, bring someone to talk to me. It was just at that moment that you tapped and opened my door.” Then she asked, “Are you a pastor?”
Did this happen just as I said it did? Or, am I making it up? Perhaps I have embellished the facts. Truth be told, it was much more intense than what I have been able to convey with mere words. It was one of dozens of these kinds of situations that the resurrected Jesus, very much alive today, showed up and did something very special for someone. It was a very special for me as well.
2nd Case
I am going to share one more story that I believe is experiential testimony that Jesus is alive and involved today. This time it involves a man well into his 40s and his 11-year-old niece. The man identified here was receiving treatment for a DUI to satisfy a court ruling. He was admitted to my faith-based intensive outpatient alcohol and drug treatment program at a Christian counseling agency where I took prayer requests at the outset of our treatment groups. He told us he had grown up Catholic but hadn’t had even a thought about it since he was a teenager.
At the end of his second week in the program, this man asked for prayer for his 11-year-old niece who was dying in the hospital due to multiple organ failure and hooked up to all kinds of machines. The man admitted he had not prayed in a long, long time and that this was as good a day as any to revisit his religious beliefs from the past. I led the treatment group in praying for his niece. I would always ask for updates when praying for someone in the name of Jesus.
We prayed for the man’s niece at the end of a treatment week leading into the weekend. This is where it gets tough for me. I want so badly for Jesus to show up and do something special. But that’s on Him. I obviously have no control over that. Honestly, I expected my client to come to group the next week with tragic news.
This man spent much of the weekend at the hospital supporting his niece, hoping for her recovery. He returned the next week and couldn’t wait to report back with an update concerning his niece. He shared with the group that she was making tremendous progress with a prognosis for full recovery. He told us that the medical team was totally mystified as to the reversal of what was happening in the young girl’s body. My client reported later in the week that his niece was getting better and was no longer hooked up to anything. The doctors and specialists were now keeping her under observation until they felt she was safe to return home. My client told us at the beginning of the next week that his niece was home.
My client told the group that his mother had been praying for weeks for her granddaughter’s healing but that Jesus did not answer her prayer until I prayed for his niece. It was imperative that I corrected him about that. I made certain to make it known to this man that God indeed answered his mother’s prayer. It was the timing that needing clarification. I told him that his mother prayed for her granddaughter for weeks but in all likelihood had been praying for her son for years to come home to the faith he had grown up believing in. This man told his peers in group that he believed without any doubt that Jesus healed his niece and restored his faith.
Resurrection can mean a lot of things. In this case, the same Jesus that was resurrected from the dead, resurrected the failing organs of a dying 11-year-old girl, while resurrecting the faith of her 40-something-year-old uncle. It’s an awesome story! I love talking about this stuff and share these stories with anyone willing to consider that there is someone who is the originator of life who can and will resurrect lives that are withering and dying.
3rd Case
I was counseling a high graduate still under the cloud of passive suicidal ideation (thoughts and feelings with no plan) while able to contract for safety as she prepared for discharge from the hospital. While we were talking, there was another adolescent patient struggling with symptoms that evoked a profanity-laced psychotic rant from her room that could be heard throughout the adolescent psychiatric ward. Her rant included threats of violence against whoever it was that had violated her in the past.
I asked the young lady before me how suicide would be of benefit to her. What did she have to gain? She responded by telling me she would finally be free. I asked her what she would be free from. (Keep in mind that as we are having this discussion, the psychotic rant of the patient in the other room continued and seemed to be escalating.)
The teenage patient before me told me some things she would be free from that included anxiety and a general sense of hopeless dread. She would tell you that her life was good and that she was relatively happy with a healthy self-esteem. This led to her suspecting that her neurochemical pathways were amiss, which she found quite troubling; though she was doing much better than she had been.
I asked her how she knew she would be free. In the background continued to be the intensifying rant of that other patient. The girl before me told that she would be dead, and therefore free of whatever it was in her brain that aroused in her a prevailing sense of fear. So I had to ask, “What would happen to you if you died?” She told me with a degree of certainty that she would be in heaven. Unwilling to allow her to feel sure about heaven after suicide, I asked her how she knew, or even could know, that she would land in heaven following her suicide. I did not challenge that fact that someone justified by faith and reconciled into relationship with God was somehow disqualified from grace. I was very careful about that. I just wanted from her what her assurance was that she would be in heaven. What is heaven? How did she, or could she, know that heaven is real? What did she know or believe about that? The teenage graduate before me stumbled and bumbled as to be questioning and perhaps even doubting that heaven was in play for her.
The patient in the other room suddenly stopped what had been an evil-sounding half-hour long blusterous onslaught of rage. She stopped while the girl before me struggled to respond to my questions. Suddenly and oh so clearly, the patient says from the other room, “I believe in Jesus. I believe in God.” Then, silence.
The patient and I looked directly at one another as those words were spoken. Still silence from the other room. I asked if what the other patient just said answered my question. As tears began to fill her eyes, the patient before me told me it did. She then told me that she had wondered what it would be like to ever hear from God, or receive some kind of message or sign from God. I shared with her the following scripture passage:
O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
mere mortals that you should think about them? Psalm 144:3 (NLT)
I informed her that the same God who created the universe and is the maker of life, just noticed her in the most tangible way. Jesus made his presence known as he used the voice of a very sick girl to speak to her. Tears were now leaking out of both eyes making their way down her cheeks. By now, the patient in the other room had returned to those psychotic ramblings, as vicious in its content as at any time before.
The young lady before me had more questions as we talked about the purpose for her life. We were able to touch on some things of significance that had deep meaning for her. Though tears continued to fill her eyes they were tears of joy. I asked her if I could tell this story to others in the future. She said she wanted me to tell everyone. She called the hospital several months later and gave a report of how well she was doing. From that experience, she was motivated to return to church, and had her entire family back in church. She wasn’t back in church out of some sense of religious obligation, she was loving being in what Jesus said is a house of worship and prayer.
What about the young lady in the other room? Are you curious about her? She would get better with medication and therapy. I got to tell her the amazing story of how Jesus showed up when she was at her worst to use her voice to speak His words of hope to the patient who had been discharged by then. As the patient from the other room listened to the story, tears filled her eyes. A nurse approached her to ask if she was okay. The patient from the other room told the nurse that those were happy tears. She asked me if I would write out the story for as I told it since she too was discharging the next day to resume living her life. She knew that it was Jesus who had lifted her up through deliverance and healing.
To people who have experienced Jesus Christ in the most personal of ways specific to them, there is no question or doubt of his resurrection. They do not need to read something like this to be confident that Jesus arose from the dead and is alive today. It is not something they need to believe. It is something they have come to know by their very specific experience to be a matter of fact.
Eternal Conflict
I have a feeling that most people that reject the possibility of Christ’s resurrection, declaring that they do not believe in God, cannot believe in God since it would mean deferring to His will and purpose for their lives. Believing requires conditions and accountability, therefore to them God cannot exist.
It does not matter to them that their quality of living would be far better; that the emptiness they feel would be filled with something substantial. Instead, they settle for counterfeit pleasures connected to pain and struggle. They do not believe God to be good but conceptualize God as condemning. So, they settle for the burden that is to heavy to carry and crushing them. Faith means laying down the burden to be raised with Jesus. Rejecting relationship with the risen Savior means being buried under the weight of selfish sin as a logical, natural consequence for having made that choice. Then, adding to the weight of such a crushing burden, is the weight and misery associated with resentment against God.
Along with resentment against God is often acrimony for people of faith. Many agnostics who may be bent toward atheism regard people of faith as dependent on religion as a crutch for protection against social realities such as injustice, poverty, and oppression. There is an absence of understanding feeding into the cynicism that anyone laying claim to having relationship with Jesus is nothing more than living in some religious fantasy. There is insufficient recognition that true faith is the very substance of authentic eternal hope and the evidence of something experienced that transcends human understanding. They are deaf and blind to faith as an authentic experience that renews and transforms lives.
If you cannot see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, or taste it, it must not exist. Is that right? Mostly everyone using a cell phone has absolutely no idea how the signal coming in and out of the phone is transmitted from one location to another. We know about cell towers and satellites, but no idea how data is transmitted on any scientific level. It is beyond comprehension. Yet, people trust it with total confidence. Faith is like that. God is real and Jesus is alive; believe it or not… like it or not. Unfortunately, like attempting to defy gravity, rejecting the reality of Jesus Christ, fully alive for now and forevermore, will lead to a catastrophic fall.
If you have read this refusing to acknowledge that God is real, that his Son Jesus arose from the dead so that you can be forgiven to live in relationship with Him, it’s a choice you will have to live with. You will be reckoned to give an account for rejecting truth in favor of deceptions and distortions that will one day be sorted out when there is no doubt. It will be your ‘uh oh’ moment that comes when God honors your choice to align yourself with your selfish choices.
3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But, when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Titus 3:3-7 (NLT)
People often say that they cannot believe in a sovereign God who is supposed to be loving but then condemns people to hell. They leave out the part that people possibly destined for hell willingly chose to reject God, not wanting to be held accountable to any kind of moral standard. According to that way of reasoning, if God allows for a hell to even exist, then God cannot exist. And, if God does not exist, then all that stuff about Jesus being someone that died for sin, and was resurrected from the dead doesn’t really mean anything either. It is self-reasoned and determined that none of it is reality or truth if God allows for the existence of hell. Then, there is no standard or condition that violated requires forgiveness. Is it easier then not to believe in God or Jesus, or any of this that comes with it?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:16-18 (ESV)
The irony is that we live with the condition of forgiveness everyday in our relationships; especially those most important to us. When critical mistakes are made in relationships—infidelity, betrayal, disloyalty—without forgiveness the relationship is broken requiring reconciliation and restoration. When those conditions are not met, even though the one or both parties in the relationship claim to love one another, the relationship is ultimately terminated.
In our selfishness—sin—we have been disloyal, choosing to align with the relationship we have with the other gods in our lives. Those other gods are what we have given preference to. We may favor such preferences to the point that we cherish and treasure them; worship them. It is a betrayal to the relationship we have with Jesus, having rejected his sacrifice in his death that paved the way for reconciliation with God. To reject that is to reject relationship with God. Relationship with the risen Savior is the condition for forgiveness and reconciliation that makes us right in the sight of God.
To not believe in God is to not have relationship with Jesus. To not have relationship with Jesus, is to trust in ourselves to navigate our way through the good and evil of life. We are selfish by nature and will choose evil from time to time, whether we deem to call it evil or not. Either way, selfish decisions that effectually bring harm to ourselves or anyone else is sin. It is what it is. Because, we as the human race are by nature selfish, and choose to align ourselves with a selfish society, it’s a choice we have to live with. Should God’s presence—His goodness, love, and favor—vacate civilization, prepare yourself for how uncivilized it becomes. It will by nature give in to evil and become its own hell. Choose to embrace civilization without God, you choose what naturally comes with that.
If there is a heaven, whatever heaven is, then it is truth that applies to everyone. If there is a hell, whatever hell is, then it is a truth that applies to everyone; believing it or not, or liking it or not, does not change that truth. If conditions apply than so be it.
For people like that have turned away from the truth, and their own sins condemn them. Titus 3:11 (NLT)
Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save its inhabitants from condemning themselves. We have been afforded the opportunity to align with Jesus; like a fireman rescuing you from a house on fire. The problem for people who have closed their minds to the possibility of something spiritual bigger than they are, is the lack or absence of comprehension. They have no idea the house is on fire. They don’t even smell the smoke. Everything written on this page sounds foolish to them. They want nothing to do with it; at least not until something hurts bad enough that they have nothing to lose in their desperation, and wonder if there is a way that paves a way to hope when they are hopeless. But until then, it’s all ridiculous nonsense.
9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him.”
10 These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 (ESV)
“Christians stake their entire faith on the resurrection of Christ because it is only through this event that forgiveness can come. The gospels and the historical evidence bear out this claim that Jesus rose from the dead. The question is what will you do with the evidence? It has been God’s practice to give evidence to those who are willing to respond. Christ appeared to his disciples because they were willing to believe when given enough evidence. He will not give evidence to those who refuse to believe.” —Chris Lang, The Case for Christ’s Resurrection
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (ESV)
What Jesus is saying here is a statement of fact. It is not meant to be exclusive, but fully intended to be a fully inclusive invitational for all to enter into this covenant reality with Jesus.
How can a loving God have conditions on what relationship with Jesus is all about? Just as ignorance is no excuse, neither is arrogance. When you give and sacrifice consistently in a relationship only to be rejected repeatedly, what does it say about the relationship? Love may be unconditional but relationships are always conditional. Children who grow up and reject their parents continue to be loved by their parents but what is the condition of the relationship? At best, it is broken. But worse, the injury is beyond repair. Unless, the child returns home. Then all is forgiven. Love is restored. Relationship is renewed.
What are you waiting for? Come home!
Well, the day of reckoning has not come yet. You can today admit you are at fault for having broken off fellowship with God, having until now rejected relationship with Jesus. The Bible insists that if you confess your mistake—your sin—God is true to His word to forgive you and reconcile with you. It will be as though you never sinned against Him at all. God’s response to you is compassion and grace. He will welcome you as a daughter or son into His family.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (ESV)
When digging deeper into this promise, also meant to be a statement of fact (as opposed to hyperbole), it is profound at its core. John, the apostle, has deduced that because Of the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross, and beyond—the three days between the cross and resurrection, it is the justice of almighty God to forgive any and all who confess in order to repent of their sin. John is saying that when you sincerely confess your sin, admitting you are a sinner seeking forgiveness, God HAS to forgive you… HAS to by His own decree. It is a startling reality, when considering that there is nothing we can do by our own merit to deserve it. Try to soak that in.
Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is risen and alive! He wants you to know Him and be known by Him. The choice is yours. How it all turns out is up to you. Don’t be complaining about heaven and hell, or any of it. Simply embrace the grace of God and it is a done deal. There is no doubting the outcome. Your future is sealed. Heaven awaits. But as I have stated repeatedly, how it all turns out is on you. Own it!
But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. Philippians 3:20-21 (NLT)
