Christians, by definition, believe that the Designer of the Universe entered His creation as a man.
Stop the presses, for that statement is among the most profound written on this site. The ancient Greeks found it patently absurd. (Acts 17) Modernists have called it a fairy tale. Every consistent Christian believes it to be so true as to be worthy of building his/her entire life upon it and even surrendering their life for it.
The Incarnation (God becoming man) and the Resurrection (God-Man destroying death) are the two central tenets of the Christian faith. Anyone “Christian” who rejects either is no Christian at all, but an impostor. All true Christians affirm both.
CS Lewis, among others, noted that Jesus’ teachings leaves His student with only three viable options: He was who He claimed to be, YHWH of the Old Testament, “the Lord,” or a conman, “a Liar,” or a total wackjob, “a Lunatic.”
Post-modernists seem to lean toward lunatic. Jesus needed psycho-therapy. The boys down at the Synagogue/Mosque tend toward liar, noting that his teaching about God contradicts theirs. Hey, that is why he was crucified in the first place!
Only the most intellectually vacuous try to argue He was merely a good teacher. What good teacher gets Himself crucified for false teachings? What good teacher claims to be the self-existent One from the Exodus narratives?
As for His teachings, both Jesus’ identity and authority hang on his resurrection from the dead. He taught such Himself.
Stop the presses, for that statement is one of the most profound on this site. If Jesus is risen from the dead, then all He taught is endorsed by the Power that can reverse the bane of Life, the final frontier, the greatest scourge in the Universe.
If He was risen from the dead then Jesus is who and what He claimed to be.
If He was not risen from the dead then He was either a liar or a lunatic or a lying lunatic.
That dichotomy is nothing but applied logical thought. Choose this day whom you will serve.
If Jesus was not risen then his body decomposed in some Judean tomb. And if in such a tomb, then the Jewish and Roman authorities, who wanted him dead and killed off many of his disciples, needed only produce that rotting body to strangle Christianity in the crib.
They did not, but they did persecute to death almost all of the disciples and entire generations during the early years of the Church. We have no record of any “cracking” and confessing to a con job. They courageously died for the proposition that Jesus lived. Their blood was the seedbed of the Church. They firmly believed that they served One who could deliver their lives back to them.
About 80 generations later I join billions in affirming that Jesus Christ truly was risen from the dead. I join them in the Church, the only institution on the planet that has proved it can withstand the ravishes of time. Our constitutional republic is pretty much done after a mere 10 generations. The longest lasting monarchical families of Europe came and went in less than 10 generations and the monarchy as a viable institution did not last much more than 20 generations. No institution known to man other than the Church has lasted 1900 years. The Church of the Risen King is still going strong despite sword, despite the black death, despite wars, revolution, economic transformation, dissent and far too many Judases within.
At the great risk of waxing subjectivist, I should also add that my personal experiences in life inform me that Jesus is risen from the dead. I approach the Divine Godhead in His Name, and have witnessed answered prayers. I have witnessed the moving of the Unseen Hand. I have “felt” His assurances as I walk through dark valleys. He comforts my soul.
Reason and experience both inform me that I am right as rain in affirming that Jesus is risen from the dead.
The “therefores” that follow this keystone historical fact are very consequential – especially on a fallen planet. Many, far too many, who claim the name minimize or ignore the therefores. That is the main reason our civilization is dying. Christians giving their Lord the kiss of Judas.
John Paul II had this to say about the crucial therefores:
“Christ’s Resurrection is the greatest Event in the history of salvation, and indeed, we can say in the history of humanity, since it gives definitive meaning to the world. The whole world revolves around the Cross, but only in the Resurrection does the Cross reach its full significance of salvific Event. The Cross and Resurrection constitute the one paschal mystery in which the history of the world is centered.”
Pope John Paul II, March 1, 1989. (Quoted in Rice, 50 Questions)
The Resurrection results in a world view that transcends this world.
Jesus was the Passover Lamb who taught that in seeing Him we see the Infinite One in the realms beyond this one. Jesus was the appointed Sacrifice that taught in knowing Him we know the Ground of All Being. Jesus was our redeemer who taught that He and the Father were one.
Jesus taught that your Creator is both Infinite and Personal.
And if He taught it, you would do very well to act upon it – today — for “God overlooked [ignorance of Him in the past] but now he telling everyone everywhere that they must repent because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged, and judged in righteousness, and he has appointed a man to be the judge. And God has publicly proved this by raising this man from the dead.”
Acts 17, Jerusalem Bible
Friends, seek the Risen Lord of History. Seek a personal experience with the Infinite-Personal. What search could be more crucial?
Want more on how reason can lead one to faith in Christ? Then buy this fantastic book: 50 Questions on the Natural Law: What it is and Why we Need It by Professor Charles Rice, Ignatius Press. ISBN # 0-89870-454-5
Click here for Dr. Rice’s award winning book! http://www.amazon.com/50-Questions-Natural-Law-What/dp/0898707501
Postscript: Click here for more on the above painting
President Harry S. Truman
The deadline for the Culture of Death to file an appeal against the Honorable Judge William C. Lee’s ruling on Bryan Brown’s Rule 60 motion was midnight, September 8, 2009. (
