The Gospel: Part Four By Pastor Luis R. Scott NOTE: I have been writing my thoughts as essays because we are dealing with tremendously serious issues (from my perspective) and this requires lengthy explanations. There are plenty of books that focus on “self-esteem” or about “the prosperity gospel, etc., but we need more discussion on theological matters. I believe I am a defender of the Christian faith and this is the reason I write the way I write. Thank you for reading and I pray that God will continue to bless you as you remain faith and obedient to Him. Over the last few days I have presented the reasons I believe the Bible is the necessary and essential book to establish the historical credibility, to define the doctrinal terms, and to codify the Christian faith. The Bible is not simply the place in which we find the Savior. It is also the necessary evidence that the first century church believed on the risen Savior. The resurrection is the foundation event for the establishment of the Christ’s Church and for the preaching of the Gospel. Without the resurrection there is no Church. Without the Church there is no Gospel. And without the Gospel there is no eternal life. There are two essential aspect of the Christian faith: (1) the Bible, (2) and the resurrection. This is the reason I dedicated the first three thoughts on this series to defend the significance of the Bible to our faith. It is not surprising to me that Satan’s first line of attack against Christianity has its starting point in discrediting the resurrection. Since the Bible did not exist in first century Judea, as we have it today, he could not discredit the Bible. Since Satan has not been able to find any evidence against the resurrection, he has refocused on discrediting the Bible. Satan tried to deny the resurrection during the first century, but he failed at the time in which it would have been most important to prove that it had not occurred—during the first century. Satan’s first attempt at denying the resurrection was the lie invented by the Pharisees that the disciples had stolen the body of Christ. I can only imagine Pontius Pilate confronting the Roman soldiers assigned to watch Jesus’ tomb (paraphrasing): “Hey guys”, said Pilate, “you have one, and only one responsibility over the weekend, but I have heard that Jesus’ Body was stolen during your shift. I need to know who stole the body, when did they steal it, what did you do to stop the thieves, or whether you guys fell asleep during the robbery. If you cannot come up with a logical and accurate explanation about the disappearing of Jesus’ body, I swear by Caesar that the same guys who torture Jesus are going to torture you and then I am going to hang you myself on the same cross that Jesus died.” This was a good opportunity for someone to die for a lie. However, I can also imagine that the guards spilled the beans about the off-the-wall conspiracy theory concocted by the Pharisees that Jesus’ body had been stolen. That lie died a fast and painless death. Don’t get me wrong. As may have noticed, nobody uses that line of reasoning any more. We still have people today trying to deny the resurrection. Well, I was not there, but the eyewitnesses’ testimony is strong and good enough for me. The eyewitnesses were not only willing to die for what they saw. They in FACT died for what they saw. I don’t know about you, but there have been only a handful of idiots in the entire history of mankind that have been willing to die for something they knew it was a lie (and I cannot name one of them). The problem for the resurrection deniers is that they are two thousands years too late for their opinions to count. If they want to deny the resurrection they have to come up with something more substantial than, “I don’t believe this kind of stuff” or “the resurrection is not possible”, or “Jesus is not God’s Son”, or “Jesus resurrection was a spiritual event.” COME ON PEOPLE!!!! Get Real. Let me tell you how convinced I am regarding the veracity of the eyewitnesses’ testimony: The deniers of the resurrection must produce Jesus’ body with his name tattooed on his forehead, a letter from Joseph of Arimathea donating the grave to Jesus with Mary’s signature included, a death certificate signed by Caesar himself inside an air tight sealed burial box with an authentic inscription of the date of Jesus’ death on the side of the box with a DNA reading that spells out Jesus name. If they can produce this type of evidence, then I would be willing to listen. Anything less than that its worst than believing in unicorns. Today’s deniers of the resurrection are afflicted with the same lunacy that motivated the Pharisees. Satan’s attacks on the resurrection have failed miserably so the devil has moved on to discredit the Bible. That was the reason I spoke about the Bible in the three previous posts. Now that we have established the two essential elements of the Christian faith, the Bible and the resurrection, tomorrow I will turn my attention to the Gospel message itself. (To be continued…)
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:07:51 +0000
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