Case for Christ's resurrection remains strong
By Mike Haynes
“ And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have
fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in
Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (I Cor. 15:17-19, NIV)
Plenty
of people do pity those of us who believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth died on
a Roman cross, was buried in a nearby tomb, came alive again and interacted
with many people for 40 days before ascending into heaven. Some just don’t buy
it.
If
Jesus’ effects on us are limited to this material world, the King James Bible
puts it, “we are of all men most miserable,” and the Message version says,
“we’re a pretty sorry lot.”
The
physical resurrection is the foundational belief of Christianity and the historical
event that followers of Christ celebrate on this Easter Sunday. C.S. Lewis wrote in his 1947 book,
“Miracles,” that for the first-century disciples, to “preach Christianity meant
primarily to preach the Resurrection.”
It’s
a key element in the current movie, “The Case for Christ,” which recounts real-life
newspaper-reporter-turned-minister Lee Strobel’s journey from atheism to faith.
While the film, based on Strobel’s 1998 book of the same name, probably will
draw mostly a church crowd, several reviewers have indicated it’s subtle enough
to appeal to thoughtful skeptics.
“The atheists and nonbelievers in ‘The
Case for Christ’ don’t have horns and tails, or even mustaches for twirling,”
wrote Steven Greydanus of the National Catholic Register. “The conflict turns
on faith and unbelief, but believers and unbelievers aren’t cast as natural
enemies.”
The movie shows Strobel as a
successful 1980s Chicago Tribune reporter who, when his wife becomes a
Christian, sets out to bring harmony back to their marriage by proving that
Christianity can’t be true. His interviewing and reporting skills result in a
conclusion he didn’t expect.
 |
| Dr. Craig Blomberg Denver Theological Seminary |
Strobel interviews experts in
three areas: (1) medical evidence showing that Jesus could not have survived
the cruelty of the cross, (2) the reliability of accounts that his body was
missing from the tomb and (3) the evidence that Jesus was seen alive after his
death.
Some of that material is
presented in the current movie.
Another objection to the truth
of Christ’s resurrection is that similar accounts exist of gods in other
religions. Dr. Craig Blomberg of Denver Seminary shot down that argument during
an interview with Tommy Politz at Hillside Christian Church last week.
Blomberg said the resurrection
stories most similar to that of Jesus all are post-Christian. “If anybody’s
borrowing from anybody, other religions in the Greco-Roman world were trying to
make a way for themselves by looking like Christianity,” he said.
“Not one of them, before or
after, ever even claims that a man, known to have lived during the
lifetime of people still around – there’s no question about his humanity, not
some mythical character of old – was seen bodily raised from the dead.”
Lubbock
native and Houston trial attorney Mark Lanier also addresses the issue in his
2014 book, “Christianity on Trial.” Using legal arguments, Lanier shows the
likelihood that the gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection are true.
But he also looks at the why.
“Christ’s
death allows a just God to set aside the immorality and impurity of humanity
and accord humanity a resurrection into perfection, just as Christ was resurrected.
…
“It was not
some harebrained idea concocted by a few fishermen, a tax collector and a
budding rabbi that somehow caught fire amid a dreadful and documented
persecution, finally arriving three hundred years later as a legal religion. It
was the facts – no more and no less.”
Some
Christians refer to Easter as Resurrection Day, which is fitting. For those who
believe in the message of Jesus, it’s a day to rejoice not only that he
defeated death, but that he did it for us, too.
