St. John Studies

The women who went to tend to the body of Jesus after seventy-two hours were so distraught and overcome with grief that they got confused in the dim early morning hours and went to the wrong tomb—a tomb that was empty. Of course Jesus was not in it!  When they saw it was empty, they jumped to the conclusion that He was resurrected, when in reality He was not.

Wow, this is the third theory of why Jesus was not resurrected.

Dr. Kirsopp Lake wrote a book on this theory, Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In it, he details why he doubts Christs’ resurrection.  The neighborhood that Jesus was buried in was full of tombs and one could easily get confused.  It was very doubtful that they were close to the burial ceremony and since they were so far away this could have led to them getting confused about returning.  The fog of the early morning hours [literal and mental] could have caused them to get confused.  The upshot?  Dr. Lake is a doubter at best and an unbeliever at worst.

How as Christians do we reply?

First of all, how confused would you think people could get in just seventy-two hours, especially confusion about something as important as this? Also, these were not just any women.  They were Mary Magdalene and Mary the Mother of James and another woman named Salome.  Mary was a faithful follower of Jesus and she witnessed His crucifixion, death and burial.  Mary the Mother of James was the mother of the Disciple James.  Salome was likely another follower but less is known about her.   It would be unlikely that they would have made this mistake.

Peter and John were the first Disciples who heard their report of the empty tomb and they went to the location and they saw the empty tomb also. Would they be confused later in the day and would they also go to the wrong tomb?

In Matthew 28:6 we read that an Angel rolled back the stone from the tomb, an angel in clothing white as snow. The Angel spoke 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.”  Dr. Lake assumes that the Angel is wrong and prefers to explain that the Angel is a “young man” [Mark 16:5].   The young man is a gardener and is telling the women incorrect information.  I enjoy working in my yard but I rarely go out in the yard in the wee hours of the morning.  It is hard to see in dark or near dark conditions.

The Sanhedrin could have taken the body before the women got there and that could have caused the tomb to be empty but would these Jewish leaders have hidden Jesus’ body. As mentioned in yesterday’s post, they would have displayed it to hurt the ministry of Jesus.

If anyone could have confirmed the empty tomb it would be Joseph of Arimathea who gave the tomb for the burial of Jesus. He owned it and the tomb was close to his home; it was described as “a man-made cave hewn from rock in a garden of his house nearby” [Wikipedia, Joseph of Arimathea].  Paul Little states surely Joseph “owner of the tomb, would have solved the problem” [of the tomb’s location].

Lastly, the women are called into question, that they were so blinded by remorse that they were unable to find the tomb. First of all seventy-two hours had passed and they were about doing the business of completing the anointing of their Lord’s body.   Jesus died so close to the Sabbath that His body had to be interred so devout Jews could observe the day of rest.  John Stott feels that instead of blinded by remorse, they were probably “devoted and business-like”, quite a contrast from Dr. Lakes’ description.

The theory of the distraught women in my opinion is hardly credible, but people who are dedicated to attacking Christian belief will try anything, even writing a two hundred seventy-nine page book.

For me and maybe for you, these words are enough: “When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth,[a] who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid His body” [Mark 16: 5-6].

The earliest and most popular way to attack the idea of Jesus’ Resurrection was to say the Disciples removed His body from the tomb.

The second most popular theory is the idea that the Jewish religious leaders or the Romans removed the body.

Like any crime, you look for motive. Like any crime, you look for fact.

Yesterday, the fact of Matthew 28: 11-15 was presented, the fact that the Jewish religious leaders paid the Roman guard money to say that the Disciples stole the body. However, there is no mention in the Bible that anyone even responded to that story.  No one even bothered to refute it.

But today, we look at two other theories that can be the basis of doubt in the unbeliever.

The Jewish Religious Leaders Stole Jesus’ Body

Let’s examine what the benefit would be to these “status quo” people, people who were on the top of the religious hierarchy in Jesus’ time. These people wanted Jesus out of the way because He questioned their practices.  But would they steal His body from the tomb?

First of all, what would these people do with Jesus’ body? Would they dispose of it, not telling anyone of it?  I think not.  What I think these leaders would do is parade it for the public to see.  What would the effect be?  Of course, the whole resurrection idea would be debunked and the Christians would have no information to spread among the people about Jesus who came to show us a better way.  He is gone but to a better place, a place where we can go if we follow His way.

This is not a message that they wanted spread in the community.

J.N.D. Andersons observes “Within seven short weeks, [after Christ’s resurrection]—if the records are to be believed at all, and I cannot see any possible reason for Christian writers to have invented that difficult gap of seven weeks—within seven short weeks Jerusalem was seething with the preaching of the Resurrection. The apostles were preaching it up and down the city.  The chief priests were very much upset about it.  They said that the apostles were trying to bring this man’s blood upon them.  They were being accused of having crucified the Lord of Glory.  And they were prepared to go to almost any lengths to nip this dangerous heresy in the bud.”

Like pay off Roman guards to lie.

Like parade Jesus’ body in the streets [if only they had it].

The Romans Stole Jesus’ Body

The Romans in Jesus’ day had a different agenda at the time of the Resurrection. Of course they were reluctant torturers and executioners but Governor Pilate wanted control over the province of Caesarea and spent a lot of time in Jerusalem.  This is where the greatest unrest was.  Pilate wanted peace.  A lack of peace in his province spoke poorly of his ability to govern.

Again, J.N.D. Anderson explains the possible motive for Pilate: “He…was upset about the strange teaching [of Jesus].  If he had the body moved, it seems incredible that he would not have informed the chief priests when they were so upset.”

Pilate would have accomplished several things by producing the body: he would have reestablished the authority of the chief priests, he would have debunked the radical teachings of Jesus and the end result would have probably been peace.

People will believe what they want to believe. They may try to tell you that the Romans stole Jesus’ body but they may not be able to tell you why the Romans guarded a tomb they were going to loot.

People will believe what they want to believe.   They may try to explain that the chief priests stole Jesus’ body but there was no body mentioned and they definitely would have “mentioned” that they had Jesus’ body.

People will believe what they want to believe. They may explain that the Romans stole Jesus’ body but why?  Again to steal a body and then not display a body makes no sense.

“The simple faith of the Christian who believes in the Resurrection is nothing compared to the credulity of the sceptic who will accept the wildest and most implausible romances rather than admit the plain witness of historical certainties” [G. Hanson].

Some folks like reality crime shows on television, you know “48 Hours” or “Dateline”. My wife Susan is one of those people.  She can watch episode after episode of those shows devoted to a criminal event [usually a murder] and the accusation and trial of the alleged perpetrator.  The whole show is the solving of the crime and the passing of judgement by a jury.  At the end, there is always a question—did they send the right person to prison?

You never know.

I tell you this to lead-in to the topic of the day; what caused Jesus’ tomb to be empty after He died and was put in it?

With people who doubt Christ, this is a basic sticking point and many espouse the theory that His Disciples simply stole His body.

Let’s examine the evidence, just like those reporters on 48 Hours or Dateline and ask ourselves would Jesus’ Disciples really steal His body?

First of all, one has to account for how the Disciples could actually accomplish this task. The stone according to some, would weigh around one to two thousand pounds, making the rolling difficult.  It could be done with a couple of men but the problem the Disciples had was how could they roll it without making sound?

The tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers and they would have heard the effort. The Roman soldier was dedicated and not likely to be bribed by the Disciples who would have a motive to remove the body.  Also they probably did not have the money to “buy” them off anyway.  Along with that, the Disciples were not physically powerful enough to face a detachment of soldiers, overpower them and take the body.

Who had the money?

In Matthew 28: 11- 15 the Bible records this idea of bribery: “While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’  So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.”  Obviously it benefitted the Jewish status quo to have a stolen body and they could afford to have the Roman soldiers alter their story that something mysterious happened—Jesus arose from the dead.

Some posit that the soldiers could have fallen asleep and the sound did not disturb their sleep. Again, dedicated Roman soldiers don’t fall asleep on guard duty.  It meant certain death by their superior officers.

Let’s look at another piece of evidence. Let’s examine the grave clothes that were left where Jesus’ body was.  Gregory of Nyssa, writing over fifteen hundred years ago, described the tomb:  “The disposition of the clothes in the sepulcher, the napkin that was about our Savior’s head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself, did not bespeak the terror and hurry of thieves, and therefore refutes the story of the body being stolen.”  Orderliness is inconsistent with snatching bodies from graves.  Looters and vandalizers are not tidy.  Roman soldiers taking the body would not have been that tidy.  Even Disciples taking Jesus’ body would not have been that tidy; they would be in a hurry to get away.

Some point to the fact that the Disciples would really benefit from lying about this special event. However, many of the Disciples did not realize that Jesus was to rise on the third day and they were surprised that He had.  Mentally would they have been prepared to fabricate such a history-making lie?   These were men of high character and not likely to fabricate a tale anyway.  Following the resurrection, their behaviors support the idea that they believed.  They spent the rest of their lives proclaiming the message of the resurrection.  I find it hard to believe that liars would face arrest, imprisonment, beating and horrible death and not recant their lie.

Theologian John Stott states “the theory that the Disciples stole Christ’s body simply does not ring true. It is so unlikely as to be virtually impossible.  If anything is clear, from the Gospels and the Acts, it is that the Apostles were sincere.  They may have been deceived, if you like, but they were not deceivers.  Hypocrites and martyrs are not made of the same stuff.”

Ok folks, we have an empty tomb.

How did it get empty?

You solve the mystery.

For me the Disciples did not steal the body, the Roman soldiers did not steal the body, grave robbers did not steal the body.

The chief priests tried to make everyone think the Disciples stole the body but that was pure bribery on their part. We know they didn’t.

Is there a perpetrator?

You know the answer to that question.

No murder, no theft…

Resurrection

Josh McDowell begins his chapter on the resurrection the following way: “After more than seven hundred hours of studying this subject and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted on the minds of men, Or it is the most fantastic fact of history” [New Evidence that Demands a Verdict].

Paul Little thinks the “supreme” credential to authenticate Jesus’ credentials for Deity is His resurrection from the dead.

In short, the resurrection is a foundation of Christianity.

Little devotes a chapter to this question alone.

Early church leaders like Paul said “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” [1 Corinthians 15:14]. Attacks on the church have been centered on the resurrection because it is such an important matter, the most important matter in the life of Christ.

Of the four major religions, only Christianity has an empty tomb for its founder.

Abraham, the father of Judaism, died about 1900 BC but no resurrection was claimed for him.

Buddha never has resurrection attached to his divinity. When he died, it was a passing away with nothing remaining behind.

Mohammed died on June 8, 632 AD at the age of sixty-one and his tomb is visited annually by thousands of devout Muslims.

Yet our Christ went into the tomb as a dead man and came out alive.

I am not an expert on any religion but I have studied the ways of Buddha a little and the main message of Buddha is “follow this leader and do your best” and from what little I have read about Judaism and Islam, the message is similar. For Christianity the message is “follow this leader and if you become a true follower, you will be resurrected.”

What a difference.

In previous posts, I have commented and used others to comment on the many miracles of Jesus but this miracle is special.

Jesus predicted it and it came about just as He predicted.

In Mark

Mark 8: 31

“He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.”

In Matthew

Matthew 20: 17-19

“Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, He took the Twelve aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day He will be raised to life!’”

Mark again

Mark 10: 32-34

“They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again He took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to Him. ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ He said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles, who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.’”

Isaiah

Isaiah 53: 1-7

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.  Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted.  But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

For a man to predict his future treatment, death and resurrection is amazing and certainly the claim opens one to attack but to read the words of the Prophet Isaiah written around 792 to 740 BC and realize that they predicted the life, treatment, death and resurrection of Jesus is truly amazing and for me awe-inspiring.

I am not going to claim that religions with the message “follow this leader and do your best” are faulty and they are powerless. That would be folly on my part.  I am not qualified to make such a judgement.  But let me close this post with a quote from William Lane Craig, author of the book Reasonable Faith : Christian Truth and Apologetics:  “Without the belief in the resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being.  The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men.  Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, His crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of His being the Messiah.  The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of His career.  The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that God had called Jesus from the dead.”

“Follow Me and if you become a true follower, you will be resurrected.”

Paul Little thinks the unbeliever who is questioning that Christ is God will need a little reminder of Jesus’ ability to control nature.

In the Bible, Jesus was able to perform many miracles but no miracle is more impressive than His ability to calm the raging storm on the Sea of Galilee.

In Mark 4, the storm is described as “great” and the boat that Jesus and his Disciples were in was “shaking”. In Matthew 8: 24 it says the boat was in danger of being swamped.

Pastor Scott Harris describes the conditions that lead to such a storm: “Such storms were not unusual on the Sea of Galilee. It is a very large lake, some 13 miles long by 7 1/2 miles wide. It sits in a depression with mountains all around except at the extreme southern end where it drains out as the Jordan River. To the immediate north is Mt. Hermon rising to 9,200 feet. Air currents moving across the area would be forced over Mt. Hermon where they would cool, becoming denser, heavier. They would then crash through the warmer, lighter air that would be over the Sea. The cool air down, the warm air up, the winds created what would then bank off the sides of the hills surrounding the lake and begin a swirling motion. The word used in Mark and Luke to describe this storm means a whirlwind or a storm of furious gusts. These storms would come suddenly and whip the sea into a very dangerous tempest. Such was the storm in the middle of which the disciples found themselves.” [from Harris’ sermon “Storm at Sea”].

What is Jesus doing in the middle of this dramatic storm? He was asleep.  Here is a solid indication of His humanity because He has had a tiring day and He needs rest.  Here also is an indication of His faith in His Father because He is able to ignore these life-threatening conditions because He knows He is going to be all right.

His condition is not the same as the disciples. They think they are going to die.  They rush to Jesus and say things like “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” and “master, master we are perishing.”

They are at the end of their rope. They need His help.  They have seen Him cast out demons, feed masses of people with very little provisions and even heal the afflicted but now they ask Him to control nature.

They knew their way around the Sea of Galilee. They knew about these storms and they knew they were in real danger.  They were shocked in Jesus’ ability to sleep and they were shocked in His response to their cries.  “How frightened you are, you men of little faith.”

Jesus has complete faith in God.

The disciples knew the Psalms: Psalm 46: 1-3, that God is our refuge no matter if the mountains fall, the earth gives way or the sea surges. They know Psalm 107: 23-30 when God stirred up the waves and then calmed them.

But in this situation they had “skin in the game.” They were in the sea and it was threatening their lives and like most of us, they forgot the words of God and their faith has flown out the window.

Jesus awakens and rebukes them and then basically says “hush” to the waves and they instantly become calm.

For the Disciples this was a watershed moment. They had seen Jesus do miracles but not on this scale.  They say “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

In Mark, Jesus calms the storm after walking on the water. The change is evident in the words about the Disciples “They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.  Now they see that Jesus is Divine.

Is His control of nature the deciding factor?

What kind of man has authority over nature to command it in the manner of Jesus so that even what we would call natural law is broken? Only a man who is in fact God, and that is who Jesus is.

Stop and think about this calming of the waters. Think about what this means as you use this incident to get an unbeliever to question their unbelief.

Who controls nature? God.

Why? Because He created nature.

Jesus controls nature.

Why? Because He is God.

How do unbelievers doubt the divinity of Jesus?

Paul Little says they call him a liar, a lunatic or some legend.

Today we will address these doubts.

First of all the idea that Jesus was a liar…

Inherent in this doubt is the idea that Jesus knew He was not God when He told everyone that He was. Not only was He a liar but in the process of lying, He was a hypocrite.  He told everyone else to speak the truth and He did not.  The condemnation can get even more serious.  Jesus told everyone that He should be trusted because their eternal destiny was in His hands.  For some, this is pure evil to dupe people into that type of belief.

Secondly, some regard Jesus as an insane person. He was just like other people who claim to be Jesus or The Messiah.  They think they are…but only in their own minds; not the minds of others.  Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft says that there are different levels of insanity that may be placed on Jesus: the first is that He was an egomaniac, expressing that He was a person who was greater than others.  Another layer of insanity is taking on a personality that is not yours [kinda like me telling everyone that I am Napoleon].  A further layer is taking on the characteristics of something that would be impossible [me declaring that I am a butterfly].  The most bizarre claim would be that a man would say “I am God.”

Thirdly is the idea that Jesus was a legend. We all know how this works.  People who achieve some degree of fame can become legendary, which means that their actions take on superhuman status as time goes by and as stories get passed from one person to another.  Some of our founding fathers may have legendary status today.  For example, did George Washington really chop down the cherry tree and say to his father “I cannot tell a lie” when questioned about it?  Did he really throw a silver dollar all the way across the Potomac River?  Those stories were probably myths or legends born out of the desire to make the man larger than life.

Let’s look at Jesus as liar. Josh McDowell in his book The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict states that it is “incredulous that Jesus was a liar due to the fact that He left us with “the most profound moral instruction and powerful moral example that anyone has left…could a deceiver…teach such unselfish ethical truths?”  McDowell cites church historian Phillip Schaff who says “How in the name of logic, common sense and experience could an imposter—that is deceitful, selfish and depraved…have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to the end, the purest and noblest character known to man”.  Let’s look at Jesus’ end.  This is where a true character would be revealed.  He is facing sure death and all He has to do is weave a new web of lies and He will go free.  He did not have to say “I and the Father are One” but He did.

Let’s look at Jesus as insane. One can go to the trial scene again.  Jesus stands before Pilate, knowing His life was in danger.  Being Jesus, He knew the human suffering He was going to have to endure. Yet it is reported in the Bible that He was very composed under this huge pressure.  Would an ordinary man react this way?  Would an insane man act this way?  Knowing what Jesus knew, one might argue that it would be insane to be composed but He was.  Psychiatrist J.T. Fisher looks beyond Jesus’ behavior at the trial.  He judges all of the body of work that Jesus left us in all His words and His behaviors and he states: “that the Christian world has been holding in its hands the complete answer to its [humankind’s] restless and fruitless yearning.  Here…rests the blueprint for successful human life with optimism, mental health and contentment.”  Think of the message of Jesus and you will come to the same conclusion as Dr. Fisher.  Jesus’ message is one of sanity, not insanity.

Jesus as legend may be the most plausible. After all, His actions were passed along largely by word of mouth.  His miracles were attention-grabbing and you know what can happen as events get passed from person to person: the legend grows.

What flies in the face of legend are the Gospels. Four biographies of Christ were written within the lifetime of contemporaries of Christ.  Mr. Little cites Dr. William Albright, a famous archaeologist, who posits that none of the Gospels were written later than A.D. 70 and it is amazing the agreement between the Gospel writers.

What causes a legend to grow? One factor is time.  Another factor is the fact that someone has not written down what has happened close to the event itself.  A third factor is distance from the event or person who is written about.

Not much time elapsed between Jesus’ life and the record of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The fact that they wrote their accounts is wonderful and the agreement between these four men is astounding.  Finally, two of the gospel writers were Disciples and two were close to people who were disciples.  Mark was a follower of Peter who was a Disciple.  Luke was a close friend of Paul, one of the greatest Apostles of Christianity [by the way, he had a well-recorded conversation with Jesus].

Liar, Lunatic, Legend or Truthteller?

The unbeliever will call Jesus the first three of these.

I don’t know about you, but I believe the latter word is the one that applies…Truthteller.

Well I guess it naturally follows our first question “Is there a God?” but it is just as difficult to answer for the nonbeliever.

Is Jesus Christ God?

For a Christian raised on the idea of God and Jesus, the question is preposterous but for others, it may be a major stumbling block.

The famous philosopher Bertrand Russell states “Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.”

If you have ever read your Bible or even attended a good Sunday School class, you know the information. The child born in the stable over 2000 years ago.  He lived in relative obscurity in Nazareth and astounded his parents and rabbis and scholars in the temple by going there and claiming he was “about My Father’s business.”   Nothing much is known about Him until his thirtieth birthday when He began his three year ministry, a ministry that changed the world.

He began to make shocking statements about His connection to God, in fact that He was God. At the time, this challenged the status quo.  Now we know what He meant as we have the New Testament to help us and more astute readers of the Old Testament can see the life and death of Jesus forecast in that part of the Bible and can understand Biblical explanations of His Divinity.

But what about the unbeliever who questions those statements made by Jesus? The Jews of Jesus’ day certainly did not believe Jesus as many of them wanted Him put to death for proclaiming His blasphemy–that He was God.

One can turn to the miracles of Jesus for support. The miracle of the water into wine is minor but have you tried to do that lately?   What a wonderful trick to have up your sleeve for the person who runs out of wine at the party.  What of the Roman official’s son?  Jesus healed that sick son “long distance”, while He was in the presence of the official.  He said “He is healed” and when the father returned to the son, Jesus had already done what He said, at the time that He said it.  Jesus made the lame man walk after he had been on his mat at the healing waters for many, many years.  He got in trouble because He did the healing on the Sabbath but the man got up and walked.  Jesus fed the masses on very few fishes and very few loaves of bread [with leftovers!].  After that He walked on the water to His disciples in the middle of the storm and He calmed the stormy waters.  Of course Jesus healed Lazarus, a friend who had been dead for four days.

This laundry list of miracles began to turn doubters into believers in Jesus’ time and they became part of God’s plan.

He said to His disciples these miracles are “for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

What is this reasoning? How would a list like this make a doubter become a believer.  It is called inductive reasoning.  Fact after fact is thrown at the unbeliever until the unbeliever takes what is called an “inductive leap.”  How many miracles does it take for a nonbeliever to become a believer.

It took an earthquake at Golgotha for the centurion to say what he said but he finally said it:   “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely He was the Son of God!’” [Matthew 27:54].

What does the Divinity of Jesus depend upon? It depends upon the claims of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus and the reporting of Jesus in the Gospels.

For some that is enough.

For others, the labels liar, lunatic and legend seem to apply.

That person needs more.

In tomorrow’s post we will discuss that more dedicated unbeliever, the one who questions the veracity of Jesus’ claims, the mental stability of our Lord and the historicity of Jesus.

Was the life of Jesus real or was it just fiction?

Maybe for people who say things like this, nothing will help.

Look at these strong words from this unbeliever>

“Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.”

Bertrand Russell

Man can save himself. Some people believe that.

And people can freely choose to obey or disobey moral standards.

Really?

Most people choose to obey moral standards, especially those standards that are more public. We hear of the breaking of laws because immoral behavior is news and the news media is all about getting our attention.  By and far, most people obey moral standards.

Why?   Because man sets the moral standards.

Yet where does man get the idea about right and wrong?

The famous British author C.S. Lewis calls our conception of “right and wrong as a clue to the meaning of the universe.” In other words, our conception of right and wrong is a direct link to God.

In our moral standards is a behavioral expectation that people are supposed to meet and for those moral standards to work, people have to agree on some limitations on their behavior. For a simple example, I know it is rude to push another person as I have a discussion with them.  My discussion partner knows that it is rude to push me.  Together we can have a discussion without pushing because that behavior does not facilitate discussion; it impedes discussion.  This is a basic unspoken rule, a moral standard.

Of course moral standards are much more complex than that simple example and much more important. One need only to turn to the ten commandments for examples.

As in yesterday’s post, the notion of God seems to tie cultures together; the notion of cultural moral standards seems to apply across civilizations also.

I did not live through it but I have studied the history of World War Two. The nation of Germany is a good example of a culture that went “off the rails” as they tried to exterminate Jews [and other “undesirables”] from their culture.  When it became clear that Germany would lose the war, allied forces began to liberate concentration camps, the world was outraged.

The Nazi influence on German culture has been long-lasting and this stain may never disappear. It happened.  It was heinous.  It was an outrage.

It violated human moral standards.

One must ask, what is the source of the outrage? Some would point to God and God’s desire to see a world where people are treated fairly, where people are unselfish, where people have honest relations with one another and where people tell the truth.

Some people see God as meting out judgments on man but for me the New Testament God [His Son Jesus] is not like that. The OT God did try to educate the Israelites about behavior for many years but His methods did not seem to take.  He laid down the law, the people chafed, they rebelled, they were punished, then repented.  He laid down the law again etc. [you get the picture].  For me that is the story of the Old Testament [too simple I am sure].

Paul Little says that the insertion of Jesus into man’s history is God’s different tack in behavior modification.   “If you wanted to communicate your love for a colony of ants, how could you most effectively do it?  Clearly it would be best to become an ant.”  The insertion of Jesus into our world showed God as a more understanding and forgiving God.

If moral standards exist and they seem to exist across cultures and the root of our conception of right and wrong comes from a God that laid down laws to a special group of people and the Son of God who spent time on earth with us, how can man affect history in a positive way?

The simple answer is by following moral standards [aka God’s laws].

God has a plan for man and it involves knowing, accepting and following Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. This is the most important thing that we can do.  It is the most important choice we can make.

Following moral standards give us a chance to make a positive impact on this world.

Man can save himself.  Some people do believe that.

And people can freely choose to obey or disobey moral standards.

Of course they can.

Will disobedience benefit man? Will it benefit our world?

You know the answer to that question.

Not really…