Faith or Fact

Resurrection Sunday:
Faith And Fact

The resurrection is the central doctrine of the Christian faith because the Crucifixion would be ineffectual… a wasted of time, if it were not for the Resurrection. The evidence of the power of God to accomplish what the crucifixion was meant to do- atone for our sins. Without the resurrection, there is no atonement.

There were many witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus in the 1st century. Look at what Paul has to say about it in 1 Corinthians 15:1-19

It seems to me that Paul’s point is that Christianity stands or falls on the fact of the resurrection so Paul stresses the point that if anyone in Corinth doubted it, there were over 500 living witnesses who could attest to its verity. I have 3 assertions that I want to make in support of the historical reliability of the New Testament and its account of the Resurrection.

Preface: 1 Corinthians is an irrefutably reliable document- everyone agrees it was written by Paul in the 1st Century.

So let me present my first Proposition:
1. Early records of Christ’s resurrection are more reliable then the later sources that try to deny this truth because the documents that try to deny Christ’s resurrection don’t begin to appear for several centuries after the event.

You would think that if the early church’s claims about Christ’s resurrection were a fabrication, the Jews or the Romans would have preserved their own 1st century document that would make a similar assertion as Paul saying something like, “the whole thing is a hoax and we have witnesses who are still alive, they will tell you that the disciples of Jesus overpowered the Roman guards and took the body of Jesus.” But no such documents exist.

So here’s the hypocrisy of modern deniers of the resurrection: some archaeologist produces scraps of a document that was written under the pseudonym of Judas and all the doubters of the New Testament’s trustworthiness run to this bogus manuscript and claim it to be authoritative- knowing full well that it originated in the third century.

The heretical views that the Judas document are no revelation to Christian historians: they are views that are consistent with the Persian and Babylonian mystery religions that mixed with Greek Philosophy and tried to creep into Christianity as early as the late first century.

The philosophy and doctrine contained in the Judas Document is contrary to the Jewish worldview of the New Testament. It poses no threat to our faith!

Here’s my Second Assertion:
2. The Da Vinci Code is bad History! In fact, I doubt that there is an historian living or dead who would lend any credibility to the Da Vinci Code. There is just too much easily dismissed bad heresy, for this book to pose a credible threat to the testimony of the Disciples.

Imagine if I were to write a book today claiming that Mount Rushmore contained a secret code revealing that Abraham Lincoln was actually an African disguised a white man and that he faked his death so that he could flee the United States and he lived out the rest of his life in Canada. Everyone would scoff- I hope!

Well that’s exactly what has been done with the DaVinci Code. For one thing, even if Da Vinci had written a code- he was born in the 15th century- he is an unreliable source.

And what about the claim that the Disciples or some early church Fathers doctored the gospels to hide Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene by portraying her as a prostitute? That begs the question, “Were the disciples that inept that in attempting to defame Mary Magdalene, they unwittlingly made her into a heroin of the gospel and at the same time portrayed themselves as fools and cowards who abandoned Jesus in his hour of need?

Moreover, the fact that the Jewish, Greek, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Asian, Syrian, Persian, Latin and German church Fathers who disagreed on everything were able to come together and agree to the claims of the New Testament and the orthodox faith at Nicea and other church councils militates against any allegation that a conspiracy to modify the faith could have occurred.



Finally, my third assertion is:
3. Knowing what Paul said about the futility of Christianity if the resurrection had not occurred, why would twelve men who had so much to lose have been willing to die telling the world that Christ is risen if they did not need to- knowing it was a lie?

Conclusion:
This Resurrection Sunday, we have the same assurance that the Disciples had that Christ is risen. I will close with Jesus words to Thomas, when he convinced Thomas that he was truly alive: “Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Our faith is not a blind faith, it is a faith that is founded on fact- He is Risen!