Posts Tagged ‘ Resurrection ’
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33, ESV
Christ proved through His resurrection that nothing can stop Him.
This world may beat us down, but through Christ we shall arise on the New Earth in glory. This hope gives us the courage to face whatever comes our way.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26, ESV
Believe in the resurrected Lord. Only through Him can we find eternal life and joy.
He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
Luke 24:6-7, ESV
Jesus Christ is not dead.
He is risen!
Is there evidence God exists.
There is a running theory that atheists and even many Christians believe that God does not prove His existence.
Take as a prime example the god of Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”:
“I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I an nothing.”
“But,” says Man, “the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.”
“Oh dear,” says God, “I hadn’t thought of that,” and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.
(emphasis added)
This is a fun exercise, but a) I defined faith in the last video, discrediting the second point of faith made here, and b) ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE does God say He would not offer proof.
In fact, Psalm 19:1 exclaims “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”
In Romans 1:18-20, Paul says:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
No, God has offered proof and calls for humanity to pay attention.
Basically, it is in the complexity and obvious orderedness of Creation, including the human body and mind.
The ultimate proof, though, may begin to sound like an overused cliche that I have used time and again: Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate, who came as a man to talk with humanity, lived a perfect life, claimed the Hebrew Scriptures were about Him, predicted His death and resurrection claiming they would validate His message and that He is God, and then did it! (See 1 Corinthians 15)
In other words, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ prove God exists. (And I already dealt with the reliability of Scripture.)
I am sure there are those who wish to debate this.
Leave your comments below or e-mail us at Together@asimplemanofgod.com, and remember to subscribe to get regular updates.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
JOHN 3:16, NASB
God is so much about relationship with us that He did what no other deity has offered: He became human, and then He died for our rebellion.
It sounds foolish to the world, that God He did this and rose from the dead, but believing this is what saves.
People ask if the the Bible is reliable, that it can be trusted as authentic and historical. (See the video on YouTube by clicking this sentence.)
There are a few items that prove the historicity and reliability of the Bible.
To begin with, in the last 20 years alone, several archaeological discoveries have been made confirming the existence of Kings David and Solomon, as well as much of ancient Israel from Biblical times, including NT times.
One of the greatest discoveries was the Dead Sea Scrolls, collections of biblical manuscripts dating from before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 and even before the time of Christ. These scrolls contained much of the Hebrew Bible, confirming that existed it before Jesus’ time. This is important, because it means the prophecies of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection existed prior.
What about the New Testament?
First, if we want to discuss numbers of manuscripts, as a whole there are about 24,000 of the New Testament, and the four Gospels alone have nearly 6,000 copies from early on, possibly as early as late first century or early second century. This is within 100 years of Jesus’ and the Apostles’ lives. Even further, we know the majority of the gospels were written before 70 due to Paul – who was killed by 64 – quoted Luke 10:7 in 1 Timothy 5:18. By contrast, the next closest ancient document is Homer’s “The Iliad” with 643 manuscripts from over 500 years after Homer lived.
This should be enough to convince anyone, but just in case, the ultimate proof is that Jesus corroborated much of the OT and said His testimony is true. His proof was that He predicted His own death and resurrection (See Luke 20-22), adding validity to His claims by being crucified and rising again.
Therefore, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (vv. 16-20)
In other words, the resurrection proves the Bible is true (by backing up Jesus’ claims). (See also the series beginning with this post.)
Wanna debate, challenge, or question what was said here? Leave a comment below or send us an e-mail at Together@asimplemanofgod.com.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9, ESV
We may get rewarded for our good works in this life, but our ultimate reward comes when Christ returns!
Welcome back, people of the internet!
Today’s topic: FAITH!
Why?
Recently, I have heard several people – including Richard Dawkins, AronRa (an atheist apologist?), Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy – all call faith in general, with Christians in particular, foolish.
These people claim that Christians believe with a blind faith, that they do not believe in the Bible or God for any good reason, but just because that is what they were told to believe.
Is this true?
According to Hebrews 11:1 (ESV):
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So, what does this mean?
Basically, faith is trusting and believing something based on evidence. Something that is not seen is believed because there are things we can see and test that support it.
A popular example is a chair.
The chair looks sturdy. I have seen other chairs hold people up. Therefore, I have faith this chair will hold me up.
How do I know your faith is true?
Live it out. Show me. Sit on the chair. Show your faith by sitting.
Another example is a compass.
We believe a compass points north, because we have seen so many compasses point north.
(Though, it is possible a compass can be manipulated by magnets …)
“Ah,” you may say, “But that is science!”
What evidence do we see of not seeing things in science?
A lot!
What about black holes?
We have never seen black holes, because they literally eat light. So, how do we know they exist? We have evidence they are there.
An interesting example from the past few years is the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson is, essentially, what gives matter mass (the ability to have weight and substance). It was theorized using mathematics. The so-called “God particle” (actually, the “Oh my God particle”, from a note scribbled by a physicist) was officially discovered by slamming atoms together in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and using the resulting mathematical probabilities to “see” this “thing”.
In other words, it was seen through the symbols of mathematics.
It was not actually seen with eyes. Rather, it was predicted (hoped for) and then proved through mathematics. We used these symbols to express the evidence of what we cannot see to prove (have conviction) that it is there.
In the math.
Scientists use written symbols to find evidence of things unseen.
Sound familiar?
You could say I have faith that people have faith, even when they are “faithless.” Because I see the evidence.
They say “These words made out of symbols and numbers tell me this should be here, and I am going to believe it because all of the other math checks out, too.”
Because we have these words that tell us about Jesus.
Some of you may remember the Four Core Facts I covered a few years ago. What does this have to do with anything?
The Four Core Facts:
If you are willing to objectively look at this evidence, you can see the evidence for the truth of God and His Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.
That evidence includes that Jesus quoted the Old Testament, which we know existed before He was born, He claimed it was about Him, and then He claimed He would die and raise again.
And He did it! Thus validating what He said.
In fact, this is the ultimate evidence. Paul himself (you know, one of the most successful evangelists for the Church, having planted so many throughout the Roman Empire) said this is all that needed to be preached! (1 Corinthians 1:22-23, 2:1-2)
It could be argued that the Church itself is the biggest evidence.
Jesus proved it Himself.
So we do not believe it “Just because,” but because Jesus said He would die and come back and did.
God called Abraham to sacrifice his son. Some call this barbaric, but it really is not.
Abraham and his wife were way too old to have children, but God said “You will have a son.”
When God then called him to sacrifice this son, I can guarantee you that he thought something like, “Well, you said I would have a son through whom you would multiply my descendants, and here he is. You could easily bring him back to life, so though I may not like it, I will obey.”
God did not raise Isaac back to life (He did not need to), but He did do it with His own Son!
So there is faith: “I have seen the evidence. I may not see God. I may have seen Jesus Himself. I may not be able to see everything the Apostles and other disciples saw, but I see the written evidence.
People just do not want to accept the evidence.
Do have the foolish faith of a Christain or the foolish faith of those who say there is no God? (1 Corinthians 1-2)
I still have faith in science, even with a lot of people who do not believe the Bible, because the math and the science checks out and proves the validity.
I also have faith that God’s Word is true.
B.C. (c) 2015 Johnny Hart.
Find the source of wisdom, and begin at Proverbial Thought!
HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY!
Yes, many call it Easter, but today we celebrate the anniversary of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead.
As Paul said, “if Christ has not been raised . . . we are of all people to be most pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)
The poem today is actually based on the resurrection story found in John’s gospel:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.
John, 20:1-7, ESV
If I may wax apologetic for a moment, think about this: if the burial cloths of Christ truly were found in the tomb without His body (they were!), why would (non-followers of Christ) thieves take the time take off the linens and neatly fold the face cloth? Rather, would this not show Jesus is saying in essence, “Oh. I do not need these any more. I will just place this neatly over here …”? (He just beat death, after all!)
He is risen!
risen
the curtain torn
the tomb now sealed
God watching as
His angels work
the lights flashing
thunder clapping
the joy surrounds
all in heaven
explosions cheers
lightning thunder
flashes novason earth Jesus
taking a breath
opening eyes
He sits straight up
removes the cloths
folds them neatly
rises and leaves
a simple man of God 