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Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is the cornerstone of Christianity. The faith stands or falls on this foundation.
Theologians say there are three questions about Easter that Christians should be prepared to answer: Was Jesus God? Was He crucified? Did He Rise from the dead? Every other detail about Jesus’s life, ministry, arrest, trial and death sentence, are secondary in comparison to those three questions.
Theologian and author Dr. Lee Strobel said he once talked to Hugh Hefner, the owner of Playboy magazine and an agnostic, about Jesus. He asked him, “What if the resurrection were true, that Jesus actually rose from the dead? Hefner said, “Well, yeah, that would change everything?” Then Strobel asked, “Have you ever investigated the Resurrection?” Hefner answered, “No.”
That parallels the culture at large’s beliefs about organized religion. Researcher George Barna said the greatest spiritual threat today is “syncretism.” In other words, designer religion, where people create a fusion of different religions, without bowing down to anyone of them. While a study at Cornell University found that young people today are creating their own personal faith; a ‘spiritual not religious’ form of self-worship.
It’s the kind of spiritual individualism that doesn’t ask questions about the core tenets of any faith.
Was Jesus God? Was He crucified? Did He Rise from the dead? (iStock)
But are those three questions about Easter answerable? Yes, says Strobel.
“As an atheist trained in law and journalism… I spent two years of my life investigating this stuff,” says Strobel… “and coming to the conclusion that in light of the avalanche of historical data for the Resurrection of Jesus, it would have taken more faith for me to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian.”
Strobel has written a series of books based on investigating the claims of Christianity. The best-seller, “The Case For Christ,” was the first of many. His latest book, “Seeing the Supernatural,” explores the plethora of the mysteries of the unseen spiritual realm, like angels and demons, mystical dreams, near-death experiences… and of course, the Resurrection.
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On an episode of my “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Strobel says the Resurrection as a supernatural and divine event, hinges on Jesus being the Son of God, equal to God, the Word of God made flesh, and God incarnate. Why? Because Jesus said. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
So…
1. Was Jesus God Incarnate?
In the New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, it’s pretty clear Jesus claimed to be God. Theologian and author Rick Renner, in his book, “Easter: The Rest of the Story,” highlights some key events of Holy Week that help answer that question. On Thursday after the Last Supper, Jesus and the Apostles go to the Garden of Gethsemane. There, hundreds of Roman soldiers descend on the Garden to arrest Jesus. The Gospel of John recounts that Jesus said to them, “Whom do you seek? ‘They answered , “Jesus of Nazareth. “In most English translations, Jesus responds, “I am he.”
Easter cross (iStockphoto)
But Renner says, “The (actual) Greek says, ‘ego eimi,’ which is, I AM. It’s the same words that God identified himself with to Moses in Exodus chapter three.”
On a recent episode of my “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Renner talked about some of the unknown facts about that scene in the Garden, like how many Roman soldiers did it take to arrest one man? And who was that mysterious youth wrapped in only a towel that ran away naked after being chased?
Renner says there are other places in the Bible where it’s clear that Jesus acts and says things with the kind of authority that only someone believing he was God would say and do. Jesus tells His followers, “Very truly I tell you… before Abraham was born, I am! “Again, the words God uses to identify Himself in the Old Testament and his claims to have been in existence long before the patriarch Abraham was born. And this famous verse, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus’s declaration of divinity is what sealed His fate. It angered the prevailing religious leaders, who then pressured the civil authorities to do away with him. They had him arrested. He was beaten and then crucified on a cross.
2. Did Jesus Die on the Cross?
Strobel says despite Dan Brown’s widely popular fiction “The Da Vinci Code,” and other conspiracy theorists who postulate that Jesus didn’t die on the cross and somehow he survived… the evidence proves otherwise.
Says Strobel, “We have not only accounts in the New Testament, we’ve also got five ancient sources outside the Bible that talk about His execution. In fact, no less of a source than the Journal of the American Medical Association, which is a secular, scientific, peer-reviewed medical journal, carried an investigation into the death of Jesus and said, quote, ‘clearly the weight of the historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead even before the wound to his side was inflicted’. So, Jesus clearly was dead.”
3. Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?
Strobel says one of the key issues about the Resurrection is that the accounts are quite early in the historical timeline. Skeptics say that the resurrection was a legend concocted by Jesus’ followers. But legends take about100 to 200 years to develop.
Author Lee Strobel says one of the key issues about the Resurrection is that the accounts are quite early in the historical timeline. (iStock)
Says Strobel, “We have a report of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, including named eyewitnesses and groups of eyewitnesses including 500 at once who saw him alive, that has been dated back by scholars to within months of the death of Jesus. That is a news flash in ancient history.”
In comparison, the first two biographies of Alexander the Great were written 400 years after his life… and they are generally considered reliable, says Strobel. “So here we’ve got something that goes right back virtually to the scene.”
And that pesky empty tomb is a head scratcher. Did his disciples steal the body and perpetuate a lie about his raising from the dead? The fact, says Strobel, that everyone admits the tomb was empty, corroborates eyewitness accounts.
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Says Strobel, “We have no fewer than nine ancient sources inside and outside the New Testament confirming and corroborating the conviction of the disciples that they encountered the risen Jesus. That is an avalanche of historical data.”
So what? What difference does it make if the Resurrection is true?
Former cold case murder detective J. Warner Wallace says it makes all the difference in the world. Wallace, a former atheist, used his forensic skills to try to debunk Christianity and came away a staunch believer. He saw in the four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection not a series of discrepancies, but four different eyewitness accounts of the same event. If the four writers had said the exact same thing, just like in any murder investigation, Wallace says he would have known there was a cover-up.
Says Warner, “The evidence broke through my philosophical naturalism, and the Gospels passed all the tests we use to evaluate eyewitness accounts.”
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But there is one more mountain to climb. To believe Jesus is God, that he died on a cross and was supernaturally resurrected… can all be intellectual facts. But to bow down and worship Jesus as your Lord and Savior because on that cross he defeated death and bridged the eternal chasm between God and humanity… that takes a lot more…. that takes leap of faith.
HAPPY EASTER!
