He Is Risen!

Posted on by October 12, 2012
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Not only is the Cross empty, because Christ died and is now at the right hand of the Father, but the tomb is also empty because Jesus rose from the dead.

Millions of Christians will celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ today—often referred to as Easter. Although this event is not emphasized enough by many in the church, it is the single most important event, not just in church history, but in all of human history.

When people think of Jesus, they think of a little baby in a manger, or the battered Savior on the Cross. Of course, the virgin birth and sacrificial, substitutionary death of Christ at Calvary are of extreme importance, but without the Resurrection, everything would be for naught.

Just how vital is the Resurrection to Christianity? The Apostle Paul wrote:

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:14–19)

Earlier in this same chapter, Paul told the Corinthians the gospel message he preached: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

Without the Resurrection, not only would our preaching and faith be empty and futile, but we would still be in our sins! Without the Resurrection, Christ’s death could not have redeemed us from our sins, and we would all be destined for an eternity in the lake of fire. Without the Resurrection, Christ’s early followers would never have turned this world upside down by boldly preaching the gospel wherever they went, and the church would not exist.

The Resurrection is central to the gospel message. Paul wrote, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Acts 2 tells us that on the day the church began, Peter preached before thousands of Jews and informed them that they had just crucified their Messiah. He then spent several verses explaining that God had raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24–32).

I think an appropriate way to conclude this post would be to quote the wonderful statement from historian Philip Schaff when he discussed the importance of the Resurrection.

The Christian church rests on the resurrection of its Founder. Without this fact the church could never have been born, or if born, it would soon have died a natural death. The miracle of the resurrection and the existence of Christianity are so closely connected that they must stand or fall together. If Christ was raised from the dead, then all his other miracles are sure, and our faith is impregnable; if he was not raised, he died in vain and our faith is vain. It was only his resurrection that made his death available for our atonement, justification and salvation; without the resurrection, his death would be the grave of our hopes; we should be still unredeemed and under the power of our sins. A gospel of a dead Saviour would be a contradiction and wretched delusion. This is the reasoning of St. Paul, and its force is irresistible.

The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records. (Philip Schaff and David Schley Schaff, History of the Christian Church)

Schaff is correct. The Resurrection is of supreme importance, and it is the greatest miracle that history records. In 2000 years, no credible theory has ever been proposed to explain away the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Skeptics and critics have launched assault after assault to explain away the obvious, but even their best attempts are plagued with problems, contradictions, and fail to explain the evidence.

The fact is that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Many people witnessed His death, and most of His own disciples were hiding in fear. But a few days later, the tomb was empty, and Jesus made several appearances to His followers, including one in which over 500 people saw Him alive (1 Corinthians 15:6). Listen to a message I gave a few years back on the proofs of the Resurrection and the empty claims of the critics.

As you reflect on what Christ has done for you by dying on the Cross in your place and rising from the dead, praise God for His incredibly gracious offer of eternal life. Knowing that He has risen, why should we be any less bold than His earliest followers who boldly proclaimed the truth, even though it cost most of them their lives.

Atheists Cower in Fear of Creation Museum

Posted on by February 16, 2012
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T-Rex

It seems that many atheists are more afraid of the Creation Museum than they would be of a live T-Rex. What are they so afraid of?

The Budget Travel website recently started a contest asking people to vote on the top 15 places that kids should see before they turn 15. The Creation Museum started well. When I first saw the site, it was ranked first with about 640 votes and about 80 positive comments. Well, word got out to popular atheist PZ Myers and on Wednesday morning (2/15/12), he encouraged his blog readers to visit the site and start voting on this “awful poll” for any tourist attraction that had a chance of beating the Creation Museum (which had slipped to #2 by the time he posted). His readers (one person called them the PZombies) immediately followed his advice and started voting.

I don’t have a problem with anyone voting in the poll. They have every right to do it, and there are some fabulous places that a person can vote for in addition to the Creation Museum. However, it’s the behavior of many of these atheists that is so enlightening. As I am typing this, there are eleven fake names that have been added to mock the Creation Museum, such as the Creation Tower of Jesus, Creationism & Fairy Tales Museum, and the Creation Museum of Child Indoctrination Anti-Intellectualism.

Those fake names are the least of my concerns, although they show the immaturity of some of these atheists (for the record, I don’t believe PZ Myers encouraged his readers to add these to the list). What is far worse are the numerous comments that have been added to the Creation Museum’s link for voting. Over 500 comments have been made about the Creation Museum, but by my count, no more than 13 comments exist for any other place. The first 50 or so comments were overwhelmingly positive for the museum. That was until the atheists arrived. It’s certainly okay for people to express their opinions, so I’m not calling on anyone to ban these folks from the site. I want to use this as an example to point out their utter hypocrisy and their irrational fear of biblical creationists.

About 400 of the comments are extremely negative. Many of them repeat the same tired lines about how teaching children creationism is child abuse, how believing in creationism is like believing in a flat earth, or comparing it to fantasy like Disney World. Some were flat out lies, such as the one claiming that the museum has live actors playing Adam and Eve in the nude, or that a triceratops with a saddle is part of the exhibit as proof of creationism (the dino with saddle is there for a fun photo for kids 12 and under, not that that has stopped atheists from jumping on it and posting their pictures online to mock the museum). However, there are some that are far worse. Some of the comments are absolutely blasphemous as certain people used God’s name or Jesus’ name as their own while leaving vulgar remarks. Others wished that terrorists would fly planes into the museum. There are many others that do not need to be recounted here, but these are enough to make my point.

Why do these atheists care so much about one privately funded museum that bases its teachings on the Bible when they have hundreds of publicly funded museums around the country promoting their religion of evolution? It’s somewhat humorous that these atheists are so offended by a God that they claim doesn’t exist. Why be offended by something or Someone that you don’t think exists? I’m not offended by pink unicorns, and if someone wants to believe in them, then they have that freedom.

If the atheist were to be consistent with his beliefs, then he wouldn’t care what others believed, because we would all be products of random chance processes; therefore our thoughts would merely be caused by random interactions of chemicals in our brains. As such, man would have no free will, no ability to think for himself (so much for the “free thinker” title atheists so often give themselves), and no reason to be upset at anyone for holding a different view. I have elaborated on this point in an earlier post about atheists being afraid of creationists so I won’t belabor it here.

Also, why must so many atheists resort to outright lies and mockery in trying to shout down the Creation Museum? Some might claim that they do it for fun or to protect people from being deceived by biblical teaching (nevermind the fact that if evolution were true, there would be no such thing as morality and so no reason to worry about deception).

The real answer to this question is found in the Bible. 2 Peter 3 makes it very clear that in the last days scoffers would come along, following their own lusts, and they would cling to a philosophy that says, “all things continue as they were from the beginning” (2 Peter 3:4). This is a perfect description of uniformitarianism, the philosophy that undergirds every old-earth/old-universe belief system. These scoffers would ridicule three specific prominent teachings in Scripture: Creation, the Flood, and the Second Coming of Christ. This is exactly what is taking place here. So in their zeal to ridicule Christians and God, these mockers are actually fulfilling the words of Scripture, thus providing even more confirmation that God’s Word is true.

Finally, the reason these atheists are so active in opposing the biblical God is because they know deep down that He exists, and they are desperately trying to justify their unbelief. They don’t exhibit the same sort of animosity toward any other deity. It is the God of the Bible that they hate, because they know that He is their Creator and will be their Judge. Rather than swallowing their pride and humbly bowing before the One who made them, these people decide to follow their own passions and lusts and shake their fists at the One who sent His Son to die for our sins. How tragic it will be for these people when they meet their Maker!

While they may not actually be cowering in fear of the Creation Museum, they would do well to heed the Lord’s words when He said, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, NKJV). We all need to fear God rather than men.

In my previous post on this subject, I concluded with these words, which I think are a fitting ending to this post:

Christians need to pray for these people and help others who buy into their nonsense to see the truth. We also need to trust God from the very beginning of His Word, speak the truth in love, and model godly behavior in an ungodly world. Let’s make sure that if the atheist is going to reject God, it is because the message of the Cross offends them (1 Corinthians 1:18), not the messenger.