Sunday, March 16, 2014
Why I believe the truth!
There have been many attempts to invalidate the life and mission of Christ over the past 2000 + years!
================================================================
Scottish theologian Dr. Principal Hill said, “But if notwithstanding every appearance of truth, you suppose their [the apostles] testimony to be false, then inexplicable circumstances of glaring absurdity crowd upon you. You must suppose that twelve men of mean birth, of no education, living in that humble station which placed ambitious views out of their reach and far from their thoughts, without any aid from the state, formed the noblest scheme which ever entered into the mind of man, adopted the most daring means of executing that scheme, and conducted it with such address as to conceal the imposture under the semblance of simplicity and virtue. You must suppose that men guilty of blasphemy and falsehood, united in an attempt the best contrived, and which has in fact proved the most successful, for making the world virtuous; that they formed this singular enterprise without seeking any advantage to themselves, with an avowed contempt of loss and profit, and with the certain expectation of scorn and persecution; that although conscious of one another’s villainy, none of them ever thought of providing for his own security by disclosing the fraud, but that amidst sufferings the most grievous to flesh and blood they persevered in their conspiracy to cheat the world into piety, honesty and benevolence. Truly, they who can swallow such suppositions have no title to object to miracles.”
History is inundated with accounts of those who have died for what they believed. But those who sacrificed their lives for the things they believed did so believing them to be true. I am not aware of a single instance in the history of mankind in which someone died for what he knew to be false. If, as some say, the disciples stole the body of Christ and hid it, is it reasonable to believe they gave the remainder of their lives to suffer privations, persecutions and death knowing that the Resurrection was a lie?
This is the point Dr. Hill makes so cogently. There is no evidence that the disciples profited by preaching the Resurrection. On the contrary, they were forsaken and disinherited by their families and ostracized by their countrymen. They were maligned as fools, they were pursued, arrested, tortured and martyred because they were faithful to declare the things they had witnessed.
If, as some say, the disciples stole the body of Christ and hid it, is it reasonable to believe they gave the remainder of their lives to suffer privations, persecutions and death knowing of a surety that the Resurrection was a lie? No, ours is not a blind faith. An empty tomb gives mute testimony to the angel’s words
“He is not here, but He has risen” Luke 24:6.
======================================================================
Why was Christ's Death and Resurrection necessary for the salvation of all people?
Because we die to God when we sin, we are incapable of doing anything to save ourselves. Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us that our sin "separates" us from God. Since we are separated, there is nothing that we can do in & of ourselves to overcome that barrier. It took God extending His grace for us to overcome sin. Christ is the personification of that grace.
His death was our death for our sakes. Because He died for us and because God chose to raise Him from the dead, Christ has opened a pathway up for us to reach Heaven. Without His death & resurrection, we could have no hope for salvation.
=====================================================================
For those who continue to harbor doubts about the veracity of the biblical evidence, one need only point to Dr. Simon Greenleaf, the greatest authority on legal evidences in the 19th century. It is noteworthy that after examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Greenleaf suggested that any cross-examination of the eyewitness testimonies recorded in Scripture would result in "an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability, and truth."
======================================================================
Then there was Frank Morison, a british lawyer; who set out to write a book repudiating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After having examined it, he was overwhelmed and forced to accept it as true.
Then he wrote a book " Who Moved the Stone?" The first chapter is called " The Book That Refused to Be Written. " .
============================================================================
Later Lew Wallace set out to disprove the deity of Christ. But after years ended up proving the Deity of Christ which was later made into a major movie called " Ben Hur ."
=============================================================================
Strobel says that he wrote Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary to help advance lay people's understanding and to increase the effectiveness of evangelistic efforts, and says insights drawn from his own experiences as a former atheist on why people avoid Christianity.
Strobel describes The Case for Christ as a retracing and expansion of his journey to becoming a Christian. It summarizes Strobel's interviews with 13 evangelical Christian scholars—Craig Blomberg, Bruce Metzger, Edwin Yamauchi, John McRay, Gregory Boyd, Ben Witherington III, Gary Collins, D.A. Carson, Louis Lapides, Alexander Metherell, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and J. P. Moreland—defending their view of the historical reliability of the New Testament.
The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity offers replies to doubts of Christianity, including the problem of evil, the contradiction between miracles and science, whether God is worthy of worship if he kills innocent children, whether Jesus is the only way to God, and the church's history of oppression and violence.
The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ presents a number of counter-arguments to challenges to the evangelical Christian view. Strobel addresses differences between the portrayal of Jesus in the non-canonical gospels versus the four canonical gospels, whether the church has changed this depiction over time, new explanations that challenge Jesus's resurrection, the proposed origins of the Jesus story in pagan religions, whether Jesus fulfills messianic prophecies, and whether contemporary people should have the freedom to believe what they want about Jesus.
Experiencing the Passion of Jesus was co-written with Garry Poole as a discussion guide for Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.
===========================================================================
