Posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
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Did Jesus rise from the dead?
This is the most important question in all of Christianity. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, and by rise I mean a bodily resurrection, then, as the apostle Paul tells us, our hope in our own resurrection is in vain. Several opening observations should be placed on the table.
First, this is a huge topic. Many books have been and will continue to be written about the resurrection. I will point you to one of the best and most recent defenses of the resurrection and one of the most recent attacks on the resurrection. Again, if Christianity is true, we should not be afraid to face our critics and show them why they are wrong.
The first book is written by N.T. Wright, one of the finest Jesus scholars of our day and this book is perhaps the finest defense of the resurrection ever written. On the other side of the coin is a book of collected essays by a number of skeptics. Some of these skeptics are gracious and deal with the issue like gentlemen. Others seem to think that this is little more than a sixth grade “I know you are but what am I� and while they have some decent arguments, it is difficult to get past the snide comments and flippant personal attacks. A lesson for Christian debaters from whom this kind of activity is all too common.
A second observation that one should keep in mind has to do with the question of worldviews. If you are a naturalist, who refuses to believe that God either could or would break into the world and intervene in nature with what we would call a miracle, then the argument is over. Your presupposition has decided the question for you with no appeal to the evidence, historical documents, or even the text itself. The score has been decided before the first batter steps up to the plate. It matters not what actually happens in the game because team X can’t win; they don’t win these kinds of games. They can’t win these kinds of games, so there is really no point in even playing.
With all of that behind us, what evidence do we have that Christ actually rose from the dead? I will lay out a number of arguments that can be followed up by looking in Wright’s book and following up the bibliographic material that is found there.
The foundational question has to do with the trustworthiness of the gospel writers. Were the writers eye-witnesses? Did they write the truth in the sense that we think of truth today? Can the books be trusted, given the fact that they have been handed down over thousands of years of hand copied manuscripts? In short I believe that the answer is yes. But don’t just take my word for it. A fine new book, just off the press from Eerdmans argues very strongly that the Gospels were written by eye-witnesses and thus can indeed be trusted.
One of the reasons for believing in the trustworthiness of the gospels has to do with what scholars call the criterion of “embarrassment.� That is the writings include things that are embarrassing to the main characters (the disciples) in the story. In this case the disciples run away and the women are the first people to show up at the tomb. This is bad for at least two reasons. First, women were very rarely allowed to give testimony in a court of law and secondly it shows the cowardliness of the disciples. They had run away and the women came to collect the body. It goes without saying that if one were making up a story, these are not the kind of details that would jump to mind if a disciple were making up a story about the risen Lord. These events have the ring of truth and the embarrassing ring of truth at that.
A second, and often overlooked passage, which is outside of the gospels, is in I Corinthians 15 where Paul says that Jesus was seen by Peter, by the twelve, by Paul and by over 500 witnesses, many of whom are still alive until this day. This passage is important for a couple of reasons: it is early, around 55 A.D., much earlier than the dates most give for the Synoptics; second Paul says confidently that there are hundreds of witnesses and that many of them are still alive. He means by this that they can be produced if need be.
There are many other arguments that you can track down for yourself from any good book on apologetics (I will list a few at the end of this blog) but at the end of the day the Lord of Glory must change the persons heart and draw them to himself. One of the tools that he can use to do that is argument, but it is not the only, or even the most effective tool. Sometimes just being kind and showing those around us that Christians are not all afraid to be nice to someone can go a long way. You can all do that. You may not be able to go through these arguments, and that is OK. You can show them the love of Christ, the grace of our Lord, the peace that comes only through Him, and a life that is different. That is an apologetic that is extremely powerful. That was my mother’s apologetic and someday I’ll blog about how effective it was. For now, think about these things. I’ll see you next time
Dr. SamLam
Posted on Saturday, November 25th, 2006 at 11:43 am
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Does the New Testament call Jesus God? Remember that Sam Harris has stated in his work Letter to a Christian Nation that the question of Christianity really centers upon who Jesus was and what he did. Yesterday we looked at the question “Did Jesus really exist?� Today we look at the question “Does the NT call Jesus God?�
If you have never examined the question it may be a little shocking to know that the answer is yes, but not very often. In fact there are only eight or nine cases in the entire New Testament in which Jesus is called God. Before looking at these a few preliminary comments are in order.
First, realize that Judaism was a very monotheistic religion. Most Jewish people began the day by reciting the Shema which comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Because of this intense monotheism, the writers of the New Testament had to be very careful about how they spoke of Jesus for fear of confusing the Jewish readers into thinking that Jesus was another God, separate from Yahweh.
Second, think about the fact that Jesus was worshiped as God by such strong Jews as Paul, Matthew, James, and others. What would have caused these men who had grown up saying the Shema to suddenly begin to worship someone who had been here on earth and yet still claim that they were a part of Judaism? It is that they realized that the God spoken of in the Hebrew Bible is a unity of persons. This point deserves lots of explanation, but will have to wait for another time.
Third, realize that there are other ways to show that one believes that a person is God. He could be worshiped, he could answer prayer, he could fulfill prophecy that was spoken of for God alone. In many cases the New Testament writers use this method to show that they believe that Jesus is God. But every once in a while, Jesus is flat out called God with no other way around it.
With that background in mind let’s look at these places where Jesus is called God. Keep several things in mind. First, I will list the passages that I believe call Jesus God. The passages are: John 1:1, 1:18, 20:28; Romans 9: 5; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:1 (others that are very possible are Acts 20:28 and I John 5:20). Second, there will always be those who will insist that the NT does not call Jesus God and as a result will do all that they can to force the grammar to do anything but call Jesus God. As a result of this, each of these passages has a history of being attacked by those who simply are not willing to admit that the New Testament does indeed call Jesus God.
For the most scholarly defense of the grammar of these passages see Murray Harris’s masterpiece (an that is not too strong a word) Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus. After reading this work, if you understand the Greek language and can still deny that the NT calls Jesus God, then please drop me a line and we can have a private chat, but not until you have carefully read Harris’s work, and certainly not unless you understand the complexities of Koine Greek.
Of course the upshot of all of this is a simple statement: Calling a person God does not make him God. Simply because the NT called Jesus God does not really mean very much in the grand scheme of things. Why should we believe that Jesus was God? Tomorrow we take up the question: “Did Jesus rise from the dead?� Until then, think upon these things.
Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
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I apologize for how long it has taken me to get back to this book. You may remember that at the last point, both Harris and I had agreed that the real question of Christianity had to do with Jesus. As I see it there are three critical questions about Jesus and I will try to deal with each of them in the next couple of days. The questions are these: Did Jesus exist? Does the New Testament claim that Jesus was God? and most important Was Jesus raised from the dead? Today let’s look at the first question, did Jesus exist?
First of all let me say that there are very few, even liberal scholars, who will doubt the existence of Jesus today. While it is true that there are not many extra-biblical mentions of Jesus from the first century, several things should be noted. First, we have 27 books of the New Testament, all of which speak of Jesus in one way or another and all of which were written in the first century (I know that some of the books are debatable, but even if one considers most of the books as written before AD 100 there are at least ten authors who speak of the historical person of Jesus).
As to non-Christian sources from the time of Jesus the only clear Jewish reference in this period is that of Josephus Antiquities XVIII.63 64, the so called Testimonium Flavianum. Virtually all scholars are agreed that the received text is a Christian rewriting, but most are prepared to accept that in the original text a brief account of Jesus, perhaps in a less complimentary vein, stood at this point. For a full examination of this passage see A Marginal Jew, Vol. 1. But reconstruction of what Josephus wrote is necessarily speculative, but almost all scholars of Josephus are willing to admit that he said something about Jesus of Nazareth. A Roman reference is found in a brief notice in Tacitus Annals xv.44 which mentions only his title, Christus, and his execution in Judea by order of Pontius Pilatus.
The truth is that we have more evidence for the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth than for many historical figures whose existence is taken for granted. Thus the answer to the first question “Did Jesus exist?” is a resounding yes. This is far from proving anything supernatural, but one must start somewhere. For those who have more specific or technical questions about the dating of the gospels or the epistles or the testimony of Josephus, I will place a “bibliography blog” up within the next few weeks that will point you to very detailed sources arguing these things. For now, these three questions come from a very accessible book by one of the finest New Testament Scholars in the world. Just click on this link to get it.
Three Crucial Questions About Jesus
Tomorrow: Does the New Testament Call Jesus God?
Have a blessed thanksgiving.
SamLam
Posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 7:57 pm
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This is the audio from the sermon preached on 11/19/06 at Coral Ridge contemporary service. The sermon deals with many of the same themes that my paper for ETS dealt with, specifically Jesus’ use of humor in the New Testament. Some of the humor in the sermon is based on being able to see the slides, so make sure you get the slide show along with the audio. If you want to know more about Jesus’ use of humor, take a look at my paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, in Washington D.C. on November 17, ‘06.
Hypocrite.mp3.mp3
Good Morning Hypocrites and Pharisees.ppt
Posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 7:45 pm
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First let me apologize for the length of time that has lapsed since the last time that I placed any content on the site. I have been away reading a paper at the Evangelical Theological Society in Washington DC as well as preaching last Sunday, so my last week and a half has been unusually busy. I will however be placing on the site several things in the next couple of days: The Paper from ETS (it is in uncorrected draft form so no laughing); the sermon from Sunday called Good Morning Hypocrites and Pharisees (and I mean that in a nice way); the power point from that sermon; a list of some of the new books that I picked up at ETS and am excited about reading; a recap of some of the better papers that I heard at ETS. All that and more on Sam Harris’s question as to the reality of Jesus’ existence coming up this week to make up for my sloth over the last two weeks. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
SamLam
Posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 11:09 am
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By now there is no one who has not heard of the fall of Ted Haggard, pastor and famous evangelical leader. Many are using this as a weapon to show the shallowness of Christianity or to prove the falsehood of the gospel. I would only ask that everyone look once again at what we call ourselves. We are Christians. We are on our way to the City of God. We are not holding to the doctrine of Haggard or the doctrine of Falwell or the doctrine of Bush; we hold to the doctrine of Christ. It is in him alone that we find our hope.
People fall and leaders fail. It has happened before and it will happen again. I only pray that God will preserve me for the sake of my wonderful wife and children, for the sake of his church, and for the sake of my Lord. None of us are above falling into sin without the help of God. But to offer hope, God ought to make a difference in our lives. Outsiders ought not to be able to say, “Is that all there is?” about ministers of the gospel. Let every one of us pray, and strive to keep ourselves from the lies and deceptions that cause the sin to grow into a great dark cloud as it did in Haggard’s life.
There is a tendency for us all to be Pharisees, who gain our own self-worth by making other people lower than ourselves. Then when a well known leader comes out an proves his own sinfulness, many of us tend to rejoice (inwardly) that we really are better than he was. Let us avoid that. We live in a state of realizing that God has extended to us such amazing grace that we sympathize with those who are hurting. Haggard’s wife, his children, and his church are all hurt. Are we ready to have God remove all of the defects of character that we have? Are we ready to have our sins placed in front of a national TV audience? This is not the minimize the terrible sin that Haggard was involved in, but to remind us all of the depth of the grace of God which has extended even to Pharisees like us.
Here is a wonderful article written by Carl Trueman that should be read by every potential pastor or church member:
http://www.reformation21.org/Reformation_21_Blog/Reformation_21_Blog/58/vobId__4575/
I found out about this article from Justin Taylors blog, a wonderful resource which you can find at Theoligica Blogspot
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