The Truth? Part 2

Okay, so today we're going to continue looking at Jesus, specifically looking at his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. This should be a little shorter than yesterday's (and they all breathed a sigh of relief).

So, number 2...

Jesus really did die on the cross

You don't have to look very far before you see that the crucifixion of Jesus and the events leading up to it are all completely historically correct and it would be uneducated and immature to suggest otherwise. However, arguments have been made that Jesus, although he was crucified, was not really dead when they buried him and so his supposed "resurrection" was nothing more than Jesus waking up, rolling the stone away and walking out. So, let's tackle why this could not have been the case.

Argument #1: The soldiers in charge of the crucifixion were not new to this job. In fact, taking into consideration who it was that was being crucified that day, the soldiers chosen were probably the "best" crucifixioners (I may have made that word up...) out there and would have seen more crucifixions than you could wave a stick at. There is no way that they would risk a) the humiliation and b) the punishment (probably execution) of not making sure somebody they were in charge of crucifying was dead, especially when it was someone as famous as Jesus. This is why it is such a big deal when the centurion and those with him witnessed Jesus die (don't forget they also witnessed the 3 hours of darkness before he died and the earth-shattering earthquake that took place just after he died) and were so awe-struck that they declared "Truly this was the son of God!". They knew this was like no other crucifixion they had ever overseen before.

Argument #2: Because it was so important that Jesus really was dead, the soldiers took a spear and pierced Jesus' side and blood and water came out. From a medical perspective, this proves that the person is dead. (Note that this is one of the fulfilled prophecies I mentioned in the last blog). Also, in Mark's gospel he mentions that, when Joseph of Arimathea comes to ask Pilate for permission to bury Jesus, Pilate is so surprised that he is already dead (as I mentioned yesterday Jesus took a very unusually short period of time to die) that he sends for the supervising centurion to ask him if Jesus really is dead and the centurion confirms this. Permission is then given to Joseph for the corpse to be buried. This would never have been granted if Jesus were still alive.

 Hopefully you now recognise that the possibility of Jesus surviving the crucifixion experience really is tiny. In fact, at risk of being criticised, I would say that really it would have been impossible for that to have happened.

 Moving onto number 3...

Jesus really did rise from the dead

So now that we've, theoretically, declared Jesus as officially deceased after being crucified, let's look at the argument people have against him rising from the dead, that is, that the disciples came and stole Jesus' body from the tomb to make it look like he had risen when in fact he was still dead. Let's take a look at the arguments against this theory.

Argument #1: There were far too many guards at the tomb for the disciples to have rolled back the stone and smuggled the body out. The day after the crucifixion, the pharisees get together to go and talk to Pilate and tell him all about how, while he was alive, Jesus had said that three days after he died he would rise again. They therefore urge Pilate to secure the tomb in order that the disciples couldn't come and stage a resurrection. Pilate grants this request and tells them that they will be given a guard of soldiers and to make it as secure as they can. They then proceed to do this by setting the guard and sealing the stone. Let's look at this logically, the minimum amount of guards that would have been at the tomb is four (they would keep watch in three hour shifts during the night). However, neither the Romans or the religous leaders want to let this body disappear under any circumstance. Now, we know that the Romans were quite a clever bunch really and quite strategic; consider how they would have gone about guarding the tomb taking into account Jesus' 11 dedicated disciples- it would make sense to have at least the same amount of soldiers, and seeing as it's Romans we're talking about there is a possibility there were many, many more than that. If you look in the book of Acts when Peter is imprisoned, it tells us that 16 soldiers were guarding him, and he was only a disciple of Jesus! Also, all these events took place during the passover; Jerusalem would be absolutely chock-a-block with thousands of pilgrims, a lot of whom would be in support of Jesus = more potential tomb raiders. I imagine that, similarly to the soldiers supervising the crucifiction, these would be no inexperienced, fall-asleep-on-the-job kind of soldiers either; they were guarding the man who claimed to be King of the Jews- no way he's going to be getting out of that tomb if they can help it!

Argument #2: Not only would there be Roman soldiers, it is more than likely that- given that the pharisees probably trusted the Romans as much as they did the disciples- they would send some of their own men. Now that you're beginning to get an idea of the number of different people guarding the tomb, you're probably picturing how extremely difficult it would be to even get past these guys, nevermind shift a huge rock (estimated to be between 1.5 to 2 tonnes, the weight of a midsize car) which required levers to move and get the body out!

Argument #3: So, assuming that the disciples somehow manage to sneak past the guards who, contrary to the their report, were most definitely awake, silently move the huge rock and run away with Jesus' body unnoticed, this must mean that the disciples had to lie to a whole lot of people AND stash the body somewhere (considering the body has never been found in the near 2000 years since he died, it must have been a pretty good hiding place). The majority of the disciples were killed for telling people about Jesus and his resurrection that had brought life to all men- is it not somewhat surprising that, if all of this were built on a lie, they didn't buckle under the pressure and save their own lives, especially considering that none of the disciples actually believed Jesus when he told them that he would die and rise again in three days? In addition to this, the Roman seal was on the stone covering the entrance; if you were caught breaking this seal the punishment was upside-down crucifixion. Would you risk it?

Argument #4: Let's consider the possibility that Jesus is still alive in your mind, despite the arguments above, and has woken up in the tomb and manages to get himself out. The first problem with this theory is that, even if he wasn't dead from being crucified, it is most certain that he would have died from the injuries (nevermind being well enough to walk about, shift a stone that potentially weighed 2 tonnes from the inside of the tomb and walk away!). Before Jesus was crucifed he was horrendously beaten and tortured, so much so that it is said that he barely looked human, and it wouldn't be out of the question to suggest that he could have died from these injuries alone. Add to this the nails that were put through his hands and feet (considering he had nails in his feet, I would think it impossible he would even be able to stand nevermind walk!) and then add onto that the spear wound in his side from the soldiers checking to see if he was dead and the blood lost from these injuries. It is highly unlikely (I would say it was impossible but I'm trying to be polite and understanding here) that, if he was alive when put into the tomb, he would have come out of it alive.

Argument #5: Jesus appeared to hundreds of people after he had risen. He proved to them he wasn't a ghost because he ate and drank with them, and proved it was him (other than his appearance duh) by showing them the scars from the nails on his hands and feet. Again, you could try and argue that the disciples just lied but, other than referring back to the same logic as argument #3, in all four gospels it is mentioned that women found the empty tomb first and were spoken to by the angel. In Jewish society, if the disciples were going to make such a story up, there is no way that they would say that women had found the empty tomb first or that they disbelieved the women when they came to tell the men. Also, it wasn't just the disciples who witnessed the resurrected Christ; before Jesus ascended back to Heaven he was on earth for forty days. Think of all the things you could do and all the places you could go in forty days! More than 500 people (that we know of) saw Jesus after his resurrection; if only the disciples claimed to have seen him resurrected, do you really think we would have Christianity 2000 years later? There's no way people would have believed if only the disciples had seen him! Even Thomas (one of the disciples who missed seeing Jesus at the same time as the others) didn't believe them, and he had spent three years with Jesus listening to him telling them he would rise again! If you're not satisfied with that and still think that it was down to bias, it wasn't only believers that Jesus appeared to: one of Jesus' own brothers called James, despite growing up with Jesus, didn't believe he was the son of God and is mentioned along with his other non-believing siblings all through the gospels. Jesus appeared to him after his resurrection and now, aswell as believing, he's even written one of the books in the Bible! If that's not good enough then what about Paul? He hated Jesus' "Christians" so much that he did all he could to get rid of them, including imprisoning them and sentencing them to death! If there was anyone who disbelieved the resurrection of Jesus, it was Paul! Jesus appeared to him in a blinding light while he was on his way to arrest more christians one day, and he became the world's very first missionary, writing about half of the New Testement in the Bible! That's one hefty turn around if you ask me. He even went on to die for his faith. He must have been completely and utterly convinced that what he experienced that day was Jesus speaking to him.

You are now left with two choices:

To ignore what you have just read and think up reasons for it not to be true, or

To realise that Jesus is the son of God who died to pay the price for your sin, and overcame death so that you may have eternal life because God loves you. I can't expect mere logical arguments to reach your heart, for logic speaks to the brain, but I pray earnestly that you recognise God's voice calling to you and that you realise who He is; not some distant, angry God just waiting to condemn you, but a Father who is waiting for you to come home to him with open arms, ready to forgive and bless you. You don't have to be certain any of this is true to ask God to forgive you, there is nothing wrong with uncertainty, but if you ask Him to come into your life and turn it around He will be more than happy to show you how real He is!

If you have any questions I would be amazingly happy to do my best to answer them for you, and if I can't I'll go away and find out about it for myself and get back to you. If you're reading this and you don't know me, feel free to add me on facebook (Amy Beth Ferry) or to follow me on Twitter (@ampedsilence). I love you all, and it pains my heart to think of anyone spending eternity in Hell. It's not nice to talk about but it's a real place and there are far too many souls in there already without you joining them. If you haven't already read my blog entitled Life? feel free to do so. Keep seeking, friends.

"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

 Love and prayers,
Amy

Here are some articles I looked at to write this blog:
http://sntjohnny.com/front/how-many-guards-at-the-tomb-of-jesus/485.html
http://www.ichthus.info/CaseForChrist/Resurrection/intro.html

The Truth?

Many of you may have read my blog entry entitled "Life?" in which I talked about sin and our need to be saved. You may have found it interesting, you may even have felt challenged by it or encourage by it. However, some of you may have read it and thought, "That's all very well, but I don't believe it". This is fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions. Today I'm going to discuss the core issue surrounding unbelief: Jesus Christ.
 You may be surprised by this. Perhaps you think it would make more sense for me to talk about or prove that the Bible really is the diving and living word of God, or to discuss suffering in the world, why science and christianity don't agree and so on and so forth. However, if I can prove to you that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he died on a cross at Calvery and rose from the dead three days later, all of the issues I mentioned become irrelevent. It proves that the Bible is dependable and that it was written by God through more than 200 prophecies concerning Jesus, most of which were written hundreds, if not thousands, of years before Jesus was even born. By proving the Bible to be true that then scores out everything else as the Bible addresses it all.
  So then, there are three things that I am going to tell you about Jesus:
1) He is the son of God
2) He really did die on the cross and
3) He truly did rise from the dead, ultimately proving he is God.
 Depending on how long this gets I may have to split into three separate entries so I don't bore you! (Not that there is anything boring about Jesus).

Okay, number 1...

Jesus is the son of God

The first things I'm going to talk about in relation to this are all the prophecies that I mentioned up there. Now, we're not talking a few little guesses about Jesus scattered here and there, over 200 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. They weren't all written (physically) by the same authors, they weren't all written in the same time period, they don't all talk about the same things, NONE of them disagree- it's pretty mind-blowing stuff. We're talking about

• Promises of a Messiah (Saviour) for the world who would rescue it from sin
• Which men he would be descended from (concerning his earthly-adopted father, Joseph): Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the tribe of Judah, King David.
• Where he would be born: Bethlehem
• When he would be born
• That he would be born to a virgin
• That there would be a massacre of infants (this was done by King Herod in attempt to kill the baby born to be King of the Jews)
• That they would flee to Egypt
• Prophesying his ministry in Galilee
• That he would be a prophet
• That he would be a High Priest (in the sense of atoning for our sins, not earthly-literal)
• That he would be rejected by his people, the Jews
• Describing some of his characteristics
• How much money he would be sold for (Judas and his 30 pieces of silver)
• That he would be accused of things he didn't do by false witnesses
• That he would be silent when accused
• How he would be torchered
• How he would die
• That he would die alongside sinners
• That he would be mocked
• That people would gamble for his clothing
• That he would be given gall and vinegar to drink
• That his side would be pierced (this was to prove that he was really dead)
• That NOT ONE bone in his body would be broken (in crucifixion, normally it can take up to three days to die- Jesus died in approx. 6 hours- and the legs of the offenders would usually be broken to speed up the process)
• That he would be buried among the rich
• That he would rise from the dead after 3 days
• That he would be seen by hundreds of people and eat and have fellowship among them
• And that he would ascend back to Heaven to be with his father

Now that's a pretty hefty list, right? If you want to look at the exact references you can google the subject for yourself or here's a site I found: http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/prophecies-concerning-jesus-and-their-fulfilment and that's not even all of them!

My second point is that the whole of the Old Testement, although Jesus isn't there physically (apart from if you believe it was him in the furnace with Radshach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel 3) the whole of it points towards him. The first mention of a Saviour is right back at the very beginning in the garden of Eden! I can't name all of the pictures of Jesus in the OT but to mention some of them:

• The one door in the ark that Noah built is a picture of how Jesus is the ONLY way to have salvation
• The unblemished ram to sacrifice provided by God to Abraham instead of his son, Isaac whom God had promised to him, even in his and his wife's old age
• Moses is a picture of Jesus as he comes and saves the Hebrews from the Egyptian Pharoh
• The Passover feast, instigated in Egypt before the Hebrews leave. They sacrificed an unblemished lamb and painted the doorposts of their houses with the blood, and when the Lord sent his spirit through Egypt to kill all the first born (the 10th and final plague) he passed over the houses with the marked doorposts. This is a picture of how Jesus (the lamb) died in our place and that if we accept him as our saviour we will be given eternal life.
• The Bronze Snake in the desert (if you read Life? then you will recognise this story!) in which the Isrealites were dying from snake bites after disobeying God and God told Moses to make a snake on a pole made of bronze and that all who looked upon it would be saved (Jesus is the bronze snake).
• The different sacrifices the Isrealites had to make to atone for their sin, set down in the book of Leviticus mostly, point towards Jesus and his role as, not only the High Priest making the sacrifices, but also as the ultimate sacrifice would would be able to atone for ALL sin.
• Joshua leads the Isrealites into the land promised to them by God. This is a picture of what Jesus does for us spiritually.
• Boaz, in the book of Ruth, is pictured as a Redeemer when he redeems the property belonging to Naomi so that Ruth can be his bride. So Jesus has redeemed us by paying the ultimate price for sin, death, so that we can be his (The church is often called The Bride of Christ).
• King David life is a picture of all that Jesus would be, including his birth in Bethlehem.

I think I have given enough examples to make my point. Jesus is not some random guy who turns up and claims to be God and happens to be able to perform all these miracles. He is there from the beginning and, between pictures of him and prophecies about him, he is all over the Old Testemen

Now, speaking of miracles, Jesus did enough while he was here to prove he was the son of God, nevermind all the OT stuff! Again, you might choose not to believe it, but once I tell you all about how he definitely died and definitely rose again, we'll have all that sorted out.
 Some of you might have been fortunate enough to have gone along to Sunday School or be taught some of these stories in school etc but for those of you who don't know let's give you some examples of what Jesus did while he was here.
 He had authority of Nature: He turned water into wine without physically doing anything; he walked on water; he calmed a storm which had experienced fisherman, who knew the sea of Galilee like the back of their hands, terrified; he healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, the terminally ill and the lepers; he raised people from the dead; he fed crowds of thousands of people with only enough food for a few on at least two occassions, with baskets of food leftover!
 He had authority over spirits: On multiple occassions Jesus casts out demons, they fear him! He saved a little boy from a demon who was causing him to have epileptic fits and fall into fire and water; he heals two men with demons and allows them to enter into a herd of pigs which then rushed down into the sea and drowned.
 He had authority in speech: all through the gospels (The four books at the start of the New Testement which tesitfy to Jesus' life on earth) the religous leaders and teachers are trying to trick Jesus into saying something for which they could condemn him, they tried to "outsmart" him and failed every time. Everything Jesus said was completely perfect and agreed with the scriptures, when people heard him speak they recognised that he spoke with an authority no man before him had. When he healed a lame man one day, he heard the attitude of the pharisees that was in their hearts and answered them. When a woman with internal bleeding touched his cloak while he was passing by so that she may be healed, despite the fact they were in a great crowd he felt that power had gone out of him and spoke to the woman.
 These are only the things that are mentioned! At the end of the book of John he says: "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I supposed that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." OOFT. That's a lot of things left out!
 In all Jesus did while he was here, he demonstrated that he was the son of God. Even in death: after Jesus gives his spirit up to death (death had no authority over him to take it itself) a Roman centurion recognises that he must have been the son of God.

You can debate the reliability of these historical accounts if you want but just know that, forgetting about how most of it was prophesied hundreds and thousands of years before he was born, four different people wrote accounts of Jesus' life, containing a lot of the same stories and not contradicting one another at all, despite the fact they were from people from different backgrounds writing at different times, some of them who had witnessed events for themselves and others who hadn't, in particular Luke who went about it like an investigation, interviewing witnesses and finding evidence.
  I think that's where we'll end if for today, and I'll move onto the next two areas in my next entry!

Continually praying for all who read this, may God bless you and have mercy upon you,
Amy :)

 

Anytime guys...

So today's blog is going to be a little more laid back and a little less serious than previous ones. I'm just gonna chat about some things that have been on my mind lately, namely, guys.
 Don't get too excited, it's no-one inparticular, just guys in general. In fact, christian guys mostly.
 Something a lot of people don't seem to realise is that us religous nuts/bible bashers/spiritual fruitcakes/christians are in fact, beneath the banner of grace God has put over us, pretty normal. Unfortunately I can only come at this from a girl's perspective but whatever, this is a blog from the girls to the guys of christendom.
  Amongst the regular, normal things that us christians do like other people, is date. Or go out, or "go steady" for you americanised folks out there. However, like most areas of life, for christians it's not quite the same as it is for those who aren't christians; we don't have sex, we don't live together, we don't have fun... haha, just kidding folks. On the last one anyway. Anyway, another area in which it's different, and sometimes not in a good way, is the speed at which- not the relationship grows- but at which the relationship actually formulates.
  Now, maybe this is just because I'm a single 19 year-old christian who's not had the best (or most existant haha) love life but from my experience, christian guys are about the slowest movers on the planet:

Okay, so maybe I exaggerate slightly. In fact, maybe it's specifically a British problem (she said, expertly basing her opinion on her intake of American culture: movies and TV). Now please don't misjudge me; I am very happy where I am in life, singleness included. I have peace knowing I am in the centre of God's plan for me and He's got it in under control. However, that doesn't mean that I don't go all girly and throw the occasional pity party for myself because Mr. Right hasn't walked into my life. What I am saying is though, when he does come into my life walking is fine. Walking briskly is fine. Running is fine. Crawling and tip-toeing is not.

 Christian guys of Britain: BE MEN.

By all means get to know someone, pray about it, but seriously, if you like a gal just ask if she'd like to hang out some time- with other people, with a bible in between you- you can add your own side details as you wish, just as long as you go for it!

2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline" Amen to that, brothers!

 On a serious note, society has kind of messed up the roles of men and women and it does kinda get confusing about who does what and who pays and whatever. However, in a biblical man-woman relationship, the man is the leader. Check out Ephesians 5 where it talks about Man - Woman equates to Christ - Church.

• Christ seeks US out and pursues us; men, you can figure out how that equates to men-women relationships.
• Christ leads the church.

When you guys take months/years to approach a woman in terms of starting a relationship or expressing interest, you have no idea what it's like for us bible-believing, God-fearing woman and girls waiting for YOU to make the move, and the longer you take the more tempting it is for us to try and take control of the situation by trying to make a move, flirting, wearing more revealing/eye-drawing clothing etc etc. Basically, not good. It is serious. It's issues like this that have driven people to start christian dating sites. I don't know what your opinion is, but honestly I think it is one of the most contradictory things on the planet: "Oh yes, I trust God, I want a Godly man/woman, but nothing is happening so I'm going to take control of the situation, not trust God and look online instead." YEAH... okay. Now, I'm not saying that good relationships don't form out of them but I just don't think it's the way to go. It's like you're telling God that His way isn't working or isn't good enough and thinking you can outsmart Him. Doesn't sound good to me.

 Now guys, if you feel you have some growing to do in your relationship with God first before you can even think about starting one with a girl then that's fair and I would REALLY encourage that. There is nothing more attractive to a Jesus-loving woman than a man who is completely captivated and in love with Jesus himself, so get into the biblical weight room and exercise your faith muscle some more. But if God brings a woman into your life, don't run away from it- God made women because it wasn't good for you guys to be alone, come on!

 Maybe I'm by myself in this and I'm just making myself look like a lonely, desperate Queen of the Singles, but that's not why I'm writing this, and I hope I'm not the only person who feels this way.

As much as I'm basically telling you guys to get a move on, more than anything else, just listen to God and react to what (or more importantly, who) He's putting in front of you. If you feel God's telling you to remain single, then do that. But don't use your spirituality as an excuse for being a woose.

(In case you hadn't cottoned on, I'm talking about christian-christian relationships here. If you don't understand why christian-nonchristian doesn't work then I'll maybe write something else to do with that.)

There ya go, your regular dose of Amy-thoughts for a while. God loves you guys and He's reaching out for you, you just have to acknowledge the signs. Praying you find God's peace,

Amy, Queen of the Singles.