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Dec. 26, 2005 “12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Corinthians 15:12-19 NIV Bible Online) Paul is preaching in simplicity here. Perhaps it is because he is dictating the letter. The scribe may not have been his best nor his quickest. The sentences are simple and flatly stated. Too, the simplicity of Paul’s words may have been for the simple minded of the Corinthian Church. There was a lot of sin that Paul had already addressed in this Epistle so now it was time to get down to brass tacks and tell the Corinthians pointedly that their faith was suffering if they doubted the history of the resurrection. Again, this first letter to the Corinthian Church is a long letter. If Paul was dictating this in one sitting I could imagine that by this point in his dictation he was very tired and needed to make sure his thoughts remained in order and that his scribe did not make any mistakes having been at his writing for what may have been several consecutive hours. Granted this is speculation, but it is logical given the historical setting, the times and the circumstances of Paul’s infirmity. If Christ was not raised then all preaching is vain, no one will face a resurrection, we are all still dead in sin and Christ is not raised, meaning he is still in his grave. OOPS! The flaw in the plan is that the disappearance of the body of Jesus from the grave of Joseph of Aramathia was well attested to and documented. Too, the body of Jesus appeared physically AFTER the resurrection. Jesus asked his disciples to touch and feel him because a spirit did not have flesh and bone as they could readily attest by a single touch. The Gospel is so intricate that it records the express words of Jesus as “flesh and bone”. This is neither a mistake nor an omission. Jesus was a physical being in a resurrection body that did not exist because of blood. His blood had been shed to the last drop for the sins of men. The blood of Jesus was used in the atonement. The blood of Jesus had served its intended purpose. The body of Jesus was gone. Had the Romans stolen it they could have squashed the message of the resurrection by immediately producing the body. They did not because they could not. Too, had the Pharisees taken the body they could have shown the preaching of Peter foolishness on the day of Pentecost by simply showing the body of the Christ? They did not. They could not. They had insisted on a Roman guard over the body. The disciples were powerless to remove the body themselves, yet the body was gone on the first day of the week and no one had the explanation until the Holy Spirit came, indwelt the core group of believers and Peter explained the circumstances. What of Paul the Apostle? He had persecuted the church of God and should have been killed for his crimes. Instead, God saved him and brought through Paul the message of salvation by faith in the resurrection more powerfully that through any other voice of his contemporaries. Paul was not a liar. Paul’s faith was not vain. If this life is the only one man will ever live then we are miserable indeed. To think we have to go through life putting up with the anger and hatred of atheists only to go into a hole in the ground. It might be better to seek out all atheists and place duct tape over their mouths so there will be peace in this life. No. I suppose that wouldn’t work out. (In case you do not recognize this as an attempt at humor, I assure you it is an attempt at humor in much the same vein as any atheist calling for the total destruction of all believers as in a recent column by one of the resident UK atheists.) Finally, for this article, a comment of Constantine and Helena; I read the argument that these two people were into “Christianity” for fame and fortune. They hatched a scheme to create a religion and forced the world into belief. That was interesting spin and slant. What the atheist failed to consider, or did not care to consider; being extremely slanted toward unbelief, is that this was another instance of God preserving his truth amid all the other false belief structures existing at the time. Was the truth of Christ and the resurrection to be buried among all the mythological machinations of the Greeks or the Romans or the Egyptians, or even the Jews? No. It was important that the historical accuracy of the event of the resurrection be preserved. Therefore the Bible was assembled, leaving out any writing that was held in dispute or poor repute. Helena did what she could to preserve sites that went into severe disrepair but had substantial meaning to the history of men. The atheist condemns Constantine and Helena for doing what men do today. Men preserve ancient texts and ancient building sites all the time in the name of historical preservation. When Christians do this it is called a “motive” with “sinister” ramifications, but any other historical society not dealing in religious preservation is to be commended for their work. I just wanted to point out another possible explanation that atheist struggles to even consider. NEXT: More on the Resurrection from 1 Corinthians Chapter 15. ------------ Email Skip: skiptoomaloo@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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