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The resurrection an historical fact

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It is not difficult to find sceptics who will dismiss the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus with a casual wave of the hand.  Richard Dawkins, for example, says:-

I don’t know where the story of Jesus rising from the dead comes from. The actual documentary evidence is very bad as historical evidence goes, and so, given its enormous inherent implausibility, I’d be much more inclined to suspect it. You needn’t go as far as to say ‘hoax’ – it’s just that when very, very charismatic people die, legends grow up about them in a very mysterious way.

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Paul and the empty tomb

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There are those (including some Muslim scholars) who like to drive a wedge between the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and those of Paul.  ‘Paul,’ they say, ‘never mentions the empty tomb; therefore, he must have believed in a very different kind of resurrection – a ‘spiritual, rather than a physical kind’.  This impression seems to be strengthened by Paul’s insistence that resurrection bodies (of both Christ and others) are ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘fleshly’.

Bultmann famously asserted:

‘The accounts of an empty  tomb are legends, of which Paul as yet knew nothing.

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Justification – a peripheral doctrine?

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A couple of years ago Roger Forster, founder of Ichthus Christian Fellowship, discussed the atonement with atheist Marilyn Mason on Premier Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ show.  I’m normally a big fan of ‘Unbelievable’, but this was not, I think, one of the more enlightening episodes.  Marilyn Mason’s stock response to any and every point made from the Christian perspective tended to be, simply, ‘That doesn’t make sense to me’, and so little progress could be made.

More disappointing still, however, was Roger Forster’s dismissal of justification as a central element in the atonement:-

I could run you off a list of some fifteen words which are used in the New Testament to try and explain what is going on at the cross, showing that there are at least fifteen – probably a lot more – models of actually what is taking place.

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Glorying in the Cross of Christ

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‘May I never,’ writes Paul in Galatians 6:14, ‘boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Let us note, says J.C. Ryle, what the Apostle Paul did not boast or glory in.  He did not boast in his

  1. national privileges, cf. Php 3:5.  He was a Jew by birth, a member of the favoured people of God, a child of the covenant;
  2. works, cf. 2 Cor 11:23.  He worked tirelessly, travelling, preaching, and enduring many hardships;
  3. knowledge, 2 Cor 12:4. 
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The Cross inspires justice, as well as love

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John Stott spells out one important aspect of ‘living under the cross’:-

The cross is a revelation of God’s justice as well as of his love.  That is why the community of the cross should concern itself with social justice as well as with loving philanthropy.  It is never enough to have pity on the victims of injustice, if we do nothing to change the unjust situation itself.  Good Samaritans will always be needed to succour those who are assaulted and robbed; yet it would be even better to rid the Jerusalem-Jericho road of brigands.

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Is the self to be affirmed, or repudiated?

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Christians, no less than many of their critics, can get in an awful muddle about the question of whether we are supposed to have a positive or a negative view of human nature; whether we are to affirm or repudiate it.

John Stott clarifies by noting that what we are is partly the result of our creation by God in his image, and partly the result of the defacing of that image in the Fall.  Stott explains:-

Whatever we are by creation we must affirm: our rationality, our sense of moral obligation, our sexuality (whether masculinity or femininity), our family life, our gifts of aesthetic appreciation and artistic creativity, our stewardship of the fruitful earth, our hunger for love and experience of community, our awareness of the transcendent majesty of God, and our inbuilt urge to fall down and worship him. …

Celebrating the Cross

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Reflection on the death of Christ and its achievement, so far from being a sombre experience, actually leads to a type and degree of celebration that can be found nowhere else.

For the cross brings us into a new relationship with God.  This relationship is marked by boldness, love and joy.  And these do not belong merely in the interior experience of the individual believers, but are to distinguish our public worship.

As W.M. Clow points out:-

‘There is no forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, except through the cross of Christ. …

If you’re going to review a book, it helps to read it first

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Interested in seeing what has been published recently on the relationship between science and Christian faith, I chanced upon some reviews on Amazon of Andrew Parker’s The Genesis Enigma (Black Swann, 2010).

Some of the reviews were favourable, others not.  Among the latter, one individual informed us:-

[This] book is not worth reading.

Another opined:-

[This book has nothing] interesting to say at all.  [It is] candy for believers, a comforter which has nothing relevant to contemporary discourse.

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Quotes on the Cross

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There is not a word in the Bible which is extra crucem, which can be understood without reference to the cross.  (Martin Luther)

This one event of the cross of Christ is a final revelation both of the character and consequence of human sin and of the wonder and sacrifice of divine love.  (Alan Stibbs)

Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, and how far God will go for man’s salvation.  (H.C. Trumbull)

In the cross, sin is cursed and cancelled. …

The Gift of Pain

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C.S. Lewis famously wrote of ‘The Problem of Pain’, and Christian apologists generally regard the reality of suffering as one of the most serious objections to the existence of a good God.

However, it is not difficult to see that at least some types of pain are absolutely necessary for our well-being.

Nick Lane’s recent book Life Ascending (Profile Books, 2009) is subtitled ‘The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution’.  Writing as a biochemist, sets out his ‘top ten’ as follows:-

  • The origin of life
  • DNA
  • Photosynthesis
  • The complex cell
  • Sex
  • Movement
  • Sight
  • Hot blood
  • Consciousness
  • Death

Although adopting a strictly naturalistic stance, Lane’s discussion of pain is of relevance to theodicy (i.e.…