THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONFESSION.

“David Friedrich Strauss, the most important and enlightened rationalist of the 19th century, openly admits: “The center of all centers, the true heart of Christianity, is the resurrection of Jesus.” Strauss didn’t say anything new. Even Paul, nineteen hundred years ago, was aware of the significance of this event. He wrote to the community in Corinth: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our message is empty, and your faith is also empty.” (1 K 15,14). Yes, Paul dares to imply, “But if Christ has not been raised, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.” (1 Cor. 15:17ff.). This statement of the apostle is not only true in the dogmatic sense that our entire faith in salvation and our hope of redemption rests on faith in the resurrection, but it is also true in the apologetic sense: the miracle of the resurrection is the most important miracle of Christ, which confirms everything. The Resurrection is the great seal of God, which proves that Jesus is the Savior sent from God. If the disciples, who did not come from the capital city, were not convinced that Jesus did not remain in death, it would have been incomprehensible that they gathered in that city. Above all, it would have been utterly incomprehensible that they committed themselves to “Christian” preaching in the holy city of Judaism. “Something must have happened, therefore, which brought about a complete change in their thinking in a short period, but which also fitted them for new activity and the founding of a community. This ‘something’ is the historical core of the Passover faith.” (Gerhard Kroll) THE HISTORICITY OF THE RESURRECTION “I know of no fact in the history of mankind that has been better proved and has more evidence than that Jesus Christ died and rose again.” (Thomas Arnold, historian) Anyway, here we have FOUR INDISPUTABLE FACTS: 1. Jesus was tried, condemned, crucified, and proved to have died on the cross. We’ve already discussed this at length here. 2. Shortly after His burial, His tomb was found empty. This, too, is a fact that no one has ever – not even Jesus’ opponents, especially the Jews, have ever and in any way disputed, not even in the 1st century itself. 3. The disciples – including the skeptics (Thomas, James, the Elder), claim to have met Jesus alive, real, flesh and bone, talked with Him, touched Him, and ate with Him. 4. All of them were willing to die for this belief, but they did (except John). What options do we have to explain this? There are a few theories: – THE APOSTLES DID MAKE IT UP ONCE: This would explain points 1 and 3, but no longer 2 and 4. In addition: o What would be the motive? They did not make anything out of it for themselves; on the contrary, they were persecuted and eventually killed for this witness of theirs. “When you read the New Testament, you cannot doubt that the disciples sincerely believed the truth of the resurrection and proclaimed it until their deaths. The idea that the empty tomb resulted from trickery or conspiracy on the disciples’ part cannot be defended today.” (William Lane Craig) o WHAT ABOUT THE WITNESSES? The disciples proclaimed the risen Christ demonstrably right after these events! As early as A.D. 35, Paul receives a confession of faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Jerusalem Christians! Why were the witnesses never convicted of lying? – THE APOSTLES STOLE JESUS’ BODY FROM THE GRAVE: The testimony of the guarded tomb casts doubt on this theory. This theory fails to explain why they were willing to abandon everything for their invention, endure hostility and persecution, and ultimately die for the sake of… a corpse they stole? At least the 4th fact remains unexplained. The 2nd is also the earliest because something like that is impossible in the case of a guarded grave. “This theory no longer has any supporters today.” (William Lane Craig) – JESUS did DIDN’T DIE; HE JUST FELL ON A CROSS INTO A COMEA AND WOKE HIMSELF IN HIS GRAVE: Probably the weakest possible explanation: ‘I tell him that’s out of the question. … Those soldiers 100 percent didn’t go to any medical school, but let’s remember that they were experts at killing people – it was their job, and they did it very well. They knew when a person was dead, which is not hard to figure out. Moreover, if any prisoner did manage to escape, the soldiers in charge paid for it with their own lives, so they had a big enough incentive to make perfectly sure that each one of the victims was dead when they were taken down from the cross. … It’s a fanciful theory without any real basis… the cross could not have survived in any case. If the cross had survived, how could it have walked with both legs driven through with a wedge beforehand? How could he have appeared just a short time later on the road to Emmaus and walked long distances? How could he move the arms that were dislocated at the cross? And let us not forget that he had deep wounds all over his back and on his side. … a man in such a sorry state would never have inspired his disciples strongly enough to go into all the world and proclaim that he was the Lord of life who had triumphed over the grave. Do you understand what I am saying? After enduring such horrible treatment, with catastrophically great blood loss and trauma, he would have looked so miserable that there is no way the disciples could have considered him a glorious victor over death; “The theory of “fogging” dates back to the 19th century. Some researchers wanted to explain the resurrection that Jesus fainted on the cross from exhaustion and fainted in the humid air of the tomb; he came to himself again. Even the Gospel account that Jesus sweated blood is said to be only pure fantasy. Recent research, however, completely disproves this theory. The observed phenomenon that Jesus sweated blood is a microcirculatory disorder in modern medicine.
They are associated with extreme psychological stress. Stressful states of great fear can lead to the capillaries in the sweat glands bursting and the sweat and the blood penetrating the skin’s surface. The scourging alone must have brought Jesus to a complete breakdown. The leather straps with metal balls and bone fragments tied to the end of the whip could, in the opinion of the physician Alexander Metherellus, tear the skin on his back so much that it partially exposed the spine. The flogging created such deep wounds in the flesh that they reached as far as the skeletal muscles and strips of spasmodically writhing and bleeding forces. To this was added an excessive loss of blood, which led to death before they could be crucified in many of the tortures. Crucifixion was associated with such indescribable pain that a particular word was invented for it, cruciate, which translated as “to crucify.” It already referred to the nailing of the wrists, in which the so-called nervous medians are punctured so that it is crushed. The exposed back was digging into the rough wood with every inhale and exhale. According to John’s tale, when Jesus finished breathing, one of the soldiers needed to assure his death by piercing him with a spear.
The stab went through the ribs on the right side of the rib cage, pierced the lung’s right lobe, and hit the heart. From the wound oozed “water and blood,” an unmistakable sign that death had occurred. Theologians have called this fluid the water and blood of Christ, which cleanses and saves the world. Physicians know it as the discharge from the pericardium and pleura, the fluid that collects in the heart region when the heart wall ruptures, resulting in necrosis of the heart. Dr. Metherell states that there was no possibility, Dr. Metherell says, that Jesus could have survived the crucifixion: “Jesus was absolutely and beyond the shadow of a doubt dead.” The thesis of the apparent death of Jesus, who then woke up in the tomb, ultimately also overlooks the fact that a crucified man, whose legs were pierced with thick nails, could not walk even if he survived.” (Peter Seewald)
– THE DISCIPLES, OVERCOME WITH GRIEF, HAD DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS:
Hallucinations are never collective. If several saw the same thing at once, it cannot be a hallucination. Skeptics and enemies – including Saul (Paul), met and saw resurrected Jesus. It doesn’t explain the fact of the empty tomb either. The 2nd and 3rd facts are unexplained.
O “Hypnosis occurs as a unique phenomenon; it does not affect several people at once. Fanaticism cannot be accounted for in the Gospels. Jesus with his disciples never manipulated his disciples and always respected their freedom of personal choice, as we see in the Judas’ case. The success of Christianity, which took a short time, spread throughout.
An argument was first used by the German theologian David Strauss in 1835, and no one has been able to refute it since. The Roman Empire was not achieved by armed force and military technology but
through the spirit of Christ’s missionaries. The apostles and disciples would hardly have laid down their lives for the fictional story. Jesus’ post-Easter revelation was the final proof of the truth of the prophecies. Now Jesus was opening up to them already as Christ and Teacher and as the incarnation of the living God.” (Peter Seewald)