Posted on 03/28/2016 10:01:18 AM PDT by truthxchange
As you can imagine, I have thought long and hard about Easter, since it is a central element of my faith. Indeed the Apostle Paul says that if the resurrection did not occur, we have all believed in vain. In May, Rebecca and I will be making a long-awaited visit to Israel. As I anticipate this trip, the historical force of this event keeps hitting me. It is the major reason I believe the message of Christianity—for two reasons:
It deals with my sense of guilt. Today is Good Friday so Rebecca and I naturally read Matthew 27, the account of the death of Jesus. The injustice of his execution screams from every verse. And yet, there is a good side to Friday. The sinless Jesus, in spite of all the human evil around him, carried my sins as he died a guiltless sacrifice. There is no other religion that offers anything like this incredible offer of moral relief. The Gospel does not take human evil lightly, but it deals with it satisfactorily by offering an acceptable, sinless substitute in my place. When we are in Israel, I intend to find Golgotha and to reflect on this historical event as I stand in that unique location.
The second reason is the historicity of the resurrection. I do not know if they have preserved the Garden Tomb as is, or if it has become a church building, but I want to go there as well, because, as I said, the resurrection is the major historical reason why I believe in the Gospel. Here the Christian faith makes an historical claim that could be falsified—but never has been. The problem in trying to falsify it is the empty tomb. According to Matthew 17:64, the Jewish authorities “ordered the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” I guess the first fraud was Jesus claiming to be the Son of God; the last would be his rising from the dead. They realized the two “frauds” went together, and if they were true, the implications were enormous.
The empty tomb and the missing body is a major problem. If indeed, the disciples stole the body, then most of them experienced horrendous deaths for the sake of a fraud. But not one of them said, at the crucial moment of torture or martyrdom, “We were only kidding!” On the other hand, if the Jews or the Romans took the body, all they needed to do was produce it to end this bothersome new sect. So how do you explain the empty tomb?
But for me, the real problem is not the empty tomb but the empty grave clothes. According to the Gospel of John, Simon Peter looked into the tomb and “saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen” (Jn. 20:6-7 NIV). In other words, just like the burial of Lazarus, the grave clothes, made up of linen strips wound around the body and a head scarf around the head, now lay separated, the strips keeping the shape of the body and the scarf keeping the circular shape of head. Though the body of Lazarus had to be “unbound” (John 11:44), the body of Jesus passed through the grave clothes, leaving them undisturbed. Thieves could not have taken the body and left the grave clothes in such a condition. Nor could the disciples. No, the disciples actually observed something incredible. What they saw is comparable to those big Christmas decorative figures that people inflate at night, with lights in them, but in the morning they are all lying flat on the ground, with the air gone out of them. This is the inexplicable mystery of the resurrection. No one took the body. It left on its own, passing through the unmoved grave clothes, in the power of a “resurrection body.”
As I am now in what one might call the “last six holes” of my life, it is this fact of the resurrection of Jesus that gives me the courage to “finish the round.” It is my great source of optimism in the face of death—the death that comes to all of us. Just once, in a cave in Jerusalem, death did not have the last word. “He is risen,” says the Gospel. “He is risen indeed,” responds the believer.
I trust you can all respond that way this Easter.
“No one took the body. It left on its own, passing through the unmoved grave clothes, in the power of a “resurrection body.”
Amazing, indisputable, Hallelujah! PRAISE GOD! AMEN!
I’m just curious.
Did Mary or somebody else leave a clean change of clothes for Jesus?
You know, just in case?
John 20: verse six, the linens were ‘laying yet’ ... the Greek word conveys the sense of laying as if the shape of the one who had been wrapped in them yet remaining. Jesus left that burial material AND the stone tomb without rolling away the stone, because the angel rolled the stone away so the women could see the tomb was empty! I’ve been ridiculed for that belief, yet it is based on a careful reading of The Bible.
John 20:6 the word κείμενα gives a sense of the linens lying yet, as if they lay there in the shape of Jesus but He is not in them any longer.
There is another passage which gives a very strong sense of Whom He is: John 14 where Jesus is given the suggestion by Philip that just showing the disciples God The Father Almighty will be sufficient for their surety, and Jesus gives Philip a Physics lesson, about dimensional limits, telling him that all he, Philip, can see of so great a God is where God intersects the dimensional limits of Philip. To have a grasp on the Physics of this Universe, at that time in the history of humankind, can only be the knowledge of God, God with us. everywhere Philip saw Jesus, he was seeing God to the maximum of his, Philip's, limitations.
As Paul said tot he Thessalonians, 'Wherefore comfort one another with these sayings.'
kerping
I also use the NIV version, although I don’t restrict myself to it.
I think in this case, NIV just has it wrong. It wasn’t “strips” of linen. Most versions say “clothes” or “Linen” or “Cloth”.
I am a firm believer that the “Shroud of Turin” is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I have researched this over the years and without a doubt in my mind, that it is real.
All the disputes that claim otherwise have been explained or discredited.
So if you want to know what the burial clothes of Jesus look like, just google the “Shroud of Turin”. and you can see for yourself what it looks like, with the image of our rising Lord imbedded within it.
” Just once, in a cave in Jerusalem, death did not have the last word.”
Let me fix that for you.
For the first time, in a cave in Jerusalem, death was “proven” to not have the last word.
Death never really had the last word.
Stated a better way:
For the righteous of those who died prior to Christ’s resurrection and the forgiven who died since His resurrection, death will not have the last word.
Get yourselves to a “bible believing” Southern Baptist (preferably) affiliated church. Get yourselves away from “religion” and into “worship” and “faith”.
Thank you.
Selah!
A?
THE central part of mine!
1 Corinthians 15:14
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
The central tenant of your faith is the milk bar. Some go on to meat. That does not remove the starting point to a lesser importance.
I too believe the Shroud is the burial clothes of Jesus. I wish I could have seen them myself.
Dr. Jones cites the passage in the beginning of the essay. You really should read it when you have time. It’s pretty good!
indeed!
repetition is good for remembering.
kerping
I am a firm believer that the “Shroud of Turin” is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I have researched this over the years and without a doubt in my mind, that it is real.
The scripture is pretty clear on this stuff...
Joh 20:6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
Joh 20:7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
The Jews of that time had a standard burial practice which consisted of covering the body with a mixture of salves and herbs and spices...And of course there had to be a way to keep this mixture on the body without it falling or smearing off...They accomplished that by winding 3-4 inch strips of cloth around the body while adding layers of the salve between the layers of cloth...
δέω
deō
deh'-o
A primary verb; to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively): - bind, be in bonds, knit, tie, wind. See also G1163, G1189.
Joh 19:39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Joh 19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
That's a very clear picture of what took place...It leaves nothing to the imagination...
Joh 11:44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
You claim the bible account has been refuted...People may disagree with the words of God but they have not been refuted...
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