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| According to the ], ] miraculously raised ] from the dead three days after his ]. This miraculous event, which is generally referred to as '''the resurrection of Jesus Christ''', is commemorated and celebrated by Christians each year at ]. | According to the ], ] miraculously raised ] from the dead three days after his ]. This miraculous event, which is generally referred to as '''the resurrection of Jesus Christ''', is commemorated and celebrated by Christians each year at ]. | ||
| Christianity is the only religion that bases its claim to acceptance upon the resurrection of its founder. For any other religion to base its claim on such a doctrine would be to court failure. Test all other religions by this claim and see. | |||
| In his chapter on the resurrection (1 Cor. 15) Paul makes Christianity answer with its life for the literal truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That the body of the founder of the Christian religion did not lie in the grave after the third day is fundamental to the existence of the religion of Christ: "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (v. 14). "If Christ be not raised . . . ye are yet in your sins" (v. 17). "Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished" (v.18). Remove the resurrection from Paul's Gospel, and his message is gone. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an appendage to Paul's Gospel; it is a constitutive part of it. | |||
| The importance of this doctrine is very evident from the prominent part it played in the preaching of the Apostles: Peter--Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 1 Peter 1:21, 23. Paul--Acts 13:30, 34; 17:31; 1 Cor. 15; Phil. 3:21. It was belief in such preaching that led to the establishment of the Christian church. Belief in the resurrection of Christ was the faith of the early church (Acts 4:33). The testimony to this great fact of Christian faith was borne in the midst of the fiercest opposition. Nor was it controverted, although the grave was well known and could have been pointed out. It was in this fact that Christianity acquired a firm basis for its historical development. There was not only an "Easter Message," there was also an "Easter Faith." | |||
| Our Lord's honor was, in a sense, staked upon the fact of His resurrection. So important did He regard it that He remained forty days upon the earth after His resurrection, giving many infallible proofs of the great fact. He appealed to it again and again as evidence of the truth of His claims: Matt. 12:39, 40; John 2:20-22. | |||
| Both the friends and the enemies of Christianity admit that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is vital to the religion that bears His name. The Christian confidently appeals to it as an incontrovertible fact; the sceptic denies it altogether as a historical reality. "If the resurrection really took place," says an assailant of it, "then Christianity must be admitted to be what it claims to be--a direct revelation from God." "If Christ be not risen," says the Apostle Paul, "then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." The one tries all he can to do away with the proofs submitted for the accepted fact; the other plainly says that if the resurrection cannot be believed, then Christianity is nothing but a sham. If the resurrection of Christ can be successfully denied, if it can be proven to be absolutely untrue, then the whole fabric of the Gospel falls to pieces, the whole structure of the Christian religion is shaken at its foundation, and the very arch of Christianity crumbles into dust. Then it has wrought only imaginary changes, deluded its most faithful adherents, deceived and disappointed the hopes of its most devoted disciples, and the finest moral achievements that adorn the pages of the history of the Christian church have been based upon a falsehood. | |||
| Nor must we ignore the prominent place the resurrection of Jesus Christ occupies in the Scriptures. More than one hundred times is it spoken of in the New Testament alone. | |||
| Most ] accept the ] account as an accurate historical account of an event that is central to their ], although there is significant dissent. | Most ] accept the ] account as an accurate historical account of an event that is central to their ], although there is significant dissent. | ||
Revision as of 12:27, 13 December 2002
According to the New Testament, God miraculously raised Jesus Christ from the dead three days after his crucifixion. This miraculous event, which is generally referred to as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is commemorated and celebrated by Christians each year at Easter.
Most Christians accept the New Testament account as an accurate historical account of an event that is central to their theology, although there is significant dissent.
For very many self-identifying Christians, the Resurrection is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity: the belief that Jesus Christ died for the sins of humanity and was resurrected to live with God the Father is regarded by many as the cornerstone of Christianity. Saint Paul said that if the resurrection did not really happen, then Christians were to be pitied above all men (I Corinthians 15:19). Christians have lived and died the death of martyrs in hope of the resurrection, both in hope of Christ's resurrection in the past and in hope of their own in the future.
Non-Christians generally view the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus as fictional. Some people who call themselves Christians regard the resurrection as a myth; but since some Christians view belief in the resurrection as essential to Christianity itself, the latter would not regard the former as bona fide Christians. See Christianity.
The Biblical account
Some New Testament references that describe this event are:
- Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
- 1 Cor 6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
- Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
- 1 Pet 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God
Non-Biblical records
Some of the earliest records of the resurrection outside the New Testament are found in the writings of Josephus (37 - 110), Ignatius (50 - 115), Polycarp (69 - 155) Justin Martyr (100 - 165), and Tertullian (160 - 220).
The Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians -- 1:2 - 2:1, 12:2
The Letters of Ignatius...
- ... to the Ephesians -- 20:1
- ... to the Magnesians -- 11:1
- ... to the Trallians -- 9:1-2 (one of the more detailed mentions of the historical events)
- ... to the Romans -- 6:1
- ... to the Philadelphians -- 8:2 - 9:2
- ... to the Smyrnaeans -- 1:1 - 3:3 (another passage with slightly more historical details than the others)
Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, book 18 chapter 3
The letter of the Romans to the Corinthians, probably written by Pope Clement I, also speaks of the resurrection at length.
The historicity of the resurrection
As with all historical events which occurred beyond a few hundred years ago, the issue of historicity is an important aspect of any person's belief in the actual occurrence of the event. In contrast with scientific phenomenon for which reproducibility and falsifiability is important, historical phenomena depend on different criteria, such as uniqueness of occurrence, plausibility of circumstances, and testimony of witnesses.
Some historians have questioned the historicity of the events related by the New Testament. One of the first to do so was Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794). See The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for an extensive quote from that work in which Gibbon wonders why no contemporary historians noticed three hours of darkness in the middle of the Roman Empire. Other historians have explained this darkness as an eclipse local to the Jerusalem area.
The Resurrection of Jesus compared with accounts of resurrection in other cultures
While the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity, accounts of other resurrections also figure in religion, myth, and fable.
Some Christians hold that the stories are significantly different and that the similarities are superficial and that therefore no special significant need be attached to the similarities. Other Christians would observe that while many believers in the various "mystery religions" in the first and second centuries of the Roman Empire freely borrowed from each other, Christianity was not founded by any of these, but by Jews. Paul of Tarsus, who authored much of the New Testament, was himself a Jew, a Pharisee until his conversion on the road to Damascus, and had been trained by Gamaliel, one of the leading Jewish theologians of the time. In each town that Paul visited, he preached in the Jewish synagogues before preaching to the Gentiles or non-Jews. Thus, Christians think it unlikely that the resurrection story would be invented or borrowed in order to appeal to Gentiles. Jews point out that the story would have little appeal to Jews, however.
On a similar note, many stories in the Torah, held sacred by both Jews and Christians, also are noted by historians to have close parallels to earlier pagan myths and stories. Liberal Jewish and Christian denominations agree that this is likely the case, and have theologies that do not depend on this finding. Many traditional Christians and Orthodox Jews reject any similarities. Justin Martyr suggested in his First Apology that these earlier pagan myths had themselves borrowed from Hebrew prophecies concerning Christ, which prophecies were made "first 5000 years before, and again 3000, then 2000, then 1000, and yet again 800; for in the succession of generations prophets after prophets arose." (See also The First Apology of Justin, chapters 54 - 64.)
External links:
- Possible historical influence on New Testament's account of resurrection
- Parallels between pagan and Christian account of resurrection
/Talkarchive (archive of less recent discussion. Still important to read.)