The Discerning Hour Episode 3 - Defending the Cross

The Discerning Hour Episode 3

Defending the Cross Show notes:

• Jesus Christ the "Myth"
• Defending the Cross
• The Pete Rose Church Service

http://www.sacredpearlministry.com/apps/blog/show/42105081-the-discerning-hour-podcast-episode-3-defending-the-cros

The Discerning Hour Episode 2 - The False Prophets

 Episode 2 of the Discerning Hour

Show notes and topics covered:

• Why do people fall to false prophets?
• Discerning prophets through the Bible
• The last prophets of God
• Describing the Sacred Pearl Ministry Correspondence Bible Study Course
• Information about Reformers Unanimous

http://www.sacredpearlministry.com/apps/blog/show/42070376-the-discerning-hour-episode-2-the-false-prophets

Defending the Cross

   April has come around the bend and with it we near the time of the year where Christians the world over stop to celebrate the most remarkable event in history, this event being none other than the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Naturally of course, as Christians remember the very reason for our faith, skeptics, atheists and all those opposed to Christianity as well beat their chests and take to their soap boxes in protest. Many attacks come especially around this time as well as many other Christian focused holidays. Unfortunately, many Christians are left empty handed in their own personal battles to defend the truth of the cross and the resurrection of Christ.

                Why is the focus of most skeptical attacks pointed at the cross and the resurrection? The answer is simply put by the Apostle Paul in Scripture and to paraphrase; if the cross, the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ did not occur, then our faith and purpose as Christians is for nothing. In a nutshell there is no other reason. To defeat Christianity one must take down the most dominant reason or cause of our faith and that is belief in Jesus Christ as a risen from the dead Lord. If Christianity did not have this point there would be no foundation for our faith.

                Many try to take down this moment in history. The weakest of arguments of course is the many that claim that Jesus Christ was simply a mythological person. Not much needs to be done in countering this claim as Jesus Christ is a recorded person in history. He is a person who occupied time and space and has been recorded in many historical places. Even the Jewish Rabbis cannot argue the existence of Christ as it was Christ that created the Schism in their own system. The Jewish Historian Josephus as well recorded the existence of Jesus Christ not even 100 years later and countless Roman manuscripts reflect Christ’s life. Islam was a religion that formed hundreds of years after Christ and knowing that Jesus was a historical person required them to somehow dispel the Christian beliefs and claims about Jesus. It is no wonder that even though wrongfully the Quran teaches about Jesus Christ.

                All in all the world needs to demolish the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus in order to destroy the Christian faith. The unbelieving Jewish world simply claims Jesus was crucified as a blasphemer and heretic, which was the charge that led Him to the cross and the Islam stance, as taught by the Quran is that it really wasn’t Jesus on the cross so Jesus really didn’t die so He could not have been resurrected and that the entire event was a deception put into work by God. This is a claim the Islamic world holds true to even though if this where the case it paints their “god” as a deceiver, liar and responsible for leading untold millions if not billions already into certain death for believing in a false faith.

                Beyond the most unlearned skeptics who claim that Christ never existed, there are other claims or attacks on the event that many Christians find hard to defend or argue against. As much as these claims cry that the resurrection was simply a myth, these claims themselves are nothing more than myths. They are easy to dispel and brush aside but if a Christian is not able to answer the claims it will either lesson the Christians own personal faith and do little to shed the light of the truth to the sceptic or possibly even both. In this article I wish to share four common mythical arguments against the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is my intent with this article to give a Christian solid answers for these arguments against the most important event in the history of the Christian world.

False Argument #1: The enemies of Jesus stole His body.

                Many claim that the Jews, Pharisees or others who were against Jesus stole His body from the tomb. This is not only false but highly illogical. What would an enemy of Christ gain from steeling and or hiding His body in a different or hidden place? The only thing that this action would do is further fuel the cause for the Christian claim that Christ was risen. The enemies of Christ where angered against Him for claiming He would rise again from the dead. To steal His body and to never show it again would only fuel the resurrection claims being highly counterproductive to their own plans to destroy Christ’s work.

                How could Christ’s enemies come out clean handed in such an act? Not only would they be found of guilty foul behavior if they were caught, they would spur a riot or possible revolt from the followers of Christ when the news of a stolen Christ would come out. The Jews at the time were worried the new band of Christians were already going to revolt or cause tension to the already weak relationship between Jerusalem and the Roman Empire. This act would have destroyed many things for the Jews if it were the case. A stolen body does not count for the countless hundreds that seen the risen Lord after the day of resurrection.

False Argument #2: Jesus’ body was stolen by His own Disciples.

                Another false argument is that the very Disciples of Christ stole His body. Again this can easily be put to rest much like the first. The Disciples needed a risen, living Lord to solidify their claims. At the moment of Christ’s death, many disbelieved and went away doubting the truth of Christ’s claims. If Christ was not truly risen and alive they could not move on in their faith. This is evident as well as many people who were against Christ or did not believe had a sudden and complete conversion to belief in the risen Lord. How could this have happened without a risen Lord?

                Two other factors debunk this myth as well. First of all, if the Disciples stole the body, which was guarded by the Romans and Jews, the likely hood of them being caught is very high. The tomb of Christ was heavily guarded. We have to remember the Jews could not have Christ risen or appear to be risen so the last thing they desired to happen was for Christ’s body to leave the tomb either dead or alive. This is why the tomb was guarded to be sure that nobody tampered with the tomb until after the 3^rd day claim of Christ.

                Secondly, if the Disciples stole the body then they are left with nothing more than a corpse on their hands. They would be left with the mess of dealing with a body and somehow would have to create a scenario in which they could pass off that the Lord was risen. This as well does not count for the untold amount of people that witnessed and seen a living risen Lord Jesus Christ.

False Argument #3: The women went to the wrong grave.

                This is yet another attempt to discredit the resurrection claims. Simply put, the women who discovered the empty tomb went to the wrong one. Let’s look at this logically. You just seen a person who you loved dearly die, then you took his body, prepared it for burial, placed it in a grave then went away for 2 days. The likely hood you would return to the cemetery and forget where the burial was is very unlikely.  

                Other reasons this argument cannot stand is that 1. Christ was buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea who owned the plot. We can be pretty certain that through this arrangement it was obvious where Jesus was buried. 2. The tomb was guarded and the women were nervous. The fact that they were supporters of Christ was enough to make them on edge going to the tomb and they would have anticipated guards at the tomb which it states in Scripture where there. The event itself was such a public spectacle that the likelihood of anybody “forgetting” where Jesus was buried is highly improbable.

False Argument #4: Jesus never died on the cross.

                This is historically one of the most improbable false arguments out there. The very notion that Christ did not die and somehow survived the cross is simply unfounded. Of course, as Islam needs to make the event of the cross nonexistent goes to the lengths of claiming that God put somebody else on the cross and made it appear that Christ died when in reality He didn’t. The sad fact is, however, that historically, even the biggest scholarly skeptics of the resurrection and Christianity claim that the one thing we can be certain about is that Jesus Christ did indeed die on the cross. Virtually nobody in historical scholarship argues this point. The main opponents that do not believe Christ died on the cross are predominately Islam components and skeptics that illogically claim Jesus never existed. Jewish, Roman and Greek history places Jesus on the cross and dying by crucifixion as historical fact and very few scholars of anti-Christian presumption will claim otherwise. Historically, it happened.

                The other argument against this false claim is the act of how Christ died. He died through the methodology of crucifixion under the hands of Romans. The Romans where masters at killing and crucifixion and rarely made a mistake. They took great measures to be sure anybody sentenced to be crucified did indeed die. It was meant to be a deliberate death. The act of flogging in the manner it was done was called “pre-death”. In other words, it was meant to put the victim in a state that would bring death upon them very soon and put them at a near death state even before being placed on the cross. The act of flogging alone ripped flesh in chunks and strips from the body exposing arteries and at times scourging so deep as to expose intestines. This was done all over the body from head to toe. The act of nailing one to the cross was done in a manner that destroyed the feet and hands disabling them for use ever again. If Christ did not make it to the cross or came down alive He would have been an unrecognizable, profusely bleeding man that could not walk or use His hands. Even if this was the case, it was not the risen Lord that many seen three days later. The possibility he could even recover with the best medical attention of today would be highly improbable.

                The very act of killing on the cross itself even derived its own word we still use today. The word excruciating we use today was invented from the cross. Ex-cruciate means out of the cross. This method of killing was so thorough it had its own word. To further be sure that men did indeed die on the cross, the Romans would deliver what was called a death blow. This is what was done to the two thieves who died beside Christ by crushing and breaking the legs. This caused the person to be unable to push themselves up on the foot nails in order to breath and the man would suffocate. They would also sometimes crush the skull or as they did with Christ, pierce the heart which is recorded in Scripture. Even though the Romans seen Christ was already dead they still, as custom, delivered the death blow by piercing His side.

                As gruesome and harsh as this is to explain, it is important to show that there was no way that this historically proven man who was historically places on a cross for crucifixion and is testified about in many non-Christian sources did not in any way come down  off the cross alive as this false argument claims. If this were the case the Romans would have failed, the Jews would not have gotten what they demanded and the punishment would not have been served. Even if Christ somehow physically survived this ordeal, He would not have been the walking, talking and risen Lord as hundreds witnessed days later.

                As we can see these false arguments and attacks on the cross do nothing to debunk the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, many are unable to give this defense and that is why I have felt lead to write this article. There is simply no reason why we should stand by and allow others to tear apart the very core of our Christian faith. As Scripture tells us, “always be ready to stand and give a reason.” I hope I have empowered you to be able to stand and defend our risen Lord. If these are arguments you heard or been given before and you have not been able to give solid reason to debunk them then I hope and pray that this was a helpful article.

                The resurrection of Jesus Christ is indeed the greatest event in history. It is only for Christ, because of Christ and through Christ death and resurrection that we can be forgiven for our sins, come into the presence of God, be united in the body of Christ through the Holy Spirit and secure our eternal everlasting life. If Christ could not have achieved this act then we have no foundation for our faith. However, the risen Lord means we can have victory over death as well. When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God and become united with Him and abide in Him we will gain our victory, be resurrected from our own physical death and live in Glory with our risen Lord.

Be blessed and remember, He arose to give us victory.

C. Speakman