Last night The History Channel presented an hour long program on the resurrection of Jesus. The hostess interviewed a number of theologians from a broad spectrum on denominations. It was well done. The hostess left any conclusions up to the audience and for the most part didn't make many generalized comments as far as what all Christians believe.
The theologians who hold to the Biblical narrative did a fine job explaining the proofs for Jesus' bodily resurrection. They were open in admitting that they didn't know how it happened, but rather had faith that it did. They pointed to the undisputed fact that Jesus was missing from the tomb, the sudden boldness of the disciples, the martyrdom of many of the disciples, and the growth of the church. As it was noted, there were a number of so-called messiahs who claimed to have come to save God's people. A few of these garnered a following, but when the "messiah'" was killed the movement died away. Not so with the death of Jesus. Indeed, it was only after his death and resurrection that the Jesus movement really took off and has spread to all the corners of the world.
Of course, in typical secular media style they had to present views other than what has been held to be true by the faithful for two millennium. The majority of these spiritualized Jesus' resurrection. In their thinking, Jesus didn't rise in bodily form, but spiritually or simply in the dreams and visions of the disciples. For the most part, these individuals made a good but unpersuasive argument for their heresy.
The only one I really found offensive, was some feminist who said in effect "I think" that Jesus was never buried in a tomb but rather was thrown in a common grave with others who had been crucified and when the women came looking for Jesus in this mass grave on Easter morning, they simply couldn't find him and so the disciples imagined that he must have risen.
If you ask me, it takes a pretty good imagination to reject the clear statement of what happened found in the gospels and substitute that with one's own thinking.
The bodily resurrection of Jesus is the most important doctrine within the Christian faith. For as Paul says: "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Cor. 15:14).
The History Channel's programs have been better as of late about presenting the views of those of us who actually believe the Bible. Five years ago, any mention of orthodox Christianity was immediately preceeded by "Churches have always taught..." and followed by, "... but now we know that ..."
Posted by: rev-ed | February 10, 2006 at 09:40 AM