Author: Higher Things

By Rev. Jonathan Fisk

It’s kind of an important question.  I mean, if the resurrection didn’t happen, what on earth are we Christians doing?  It’s not like its gaining us any power or money or anything.  But if the resurrection did happen, then how come so many people in the world don’t believe it?

The resurrection did happen, and I can tell you how you can be certain of it.  More than that, I can do it without telling you that you have to believe it just because the Bible says so.  That’s the key thing.  A lot of non-Christians in our world think that Christians are just a bunch of willfully ignorant nincompoops who believe in some book that fell out of the sky.  But nothing could be further from the Truth.  Christians are Christians because something happened in history unlike any other thing ever: A guy named Jesus was murdered, but refused to stay dead.  It’s not a leap of faith.  It’s a historic fact that is as easy to prove as any other bit of history, that is, if you aren’t too close-minded to consider the evidence.

1. Jesus was a real human.  Even without the Bible, modern scholars have to admit that there was a Jewish man named Jesus who lived in the first century.  Non-biblical writings like Flavius Josephus, Mara Bar-Serapion, and the Jewish Talmud all mention Him as a real, historical figure.

2. The real human Jesus died by crucifixion and was buried.   In the same way, some of these extra-biblical texts mention that Jesus was killed.  They don’t go into detail, but only an ignorant person who gets all their information from internet forums will try to tell you that the real Jesus didn’t die, and wasn’t even buried.

3. This Jesus had real followers who took his death very hard.  At this point, we have to start trusting the books of the Bible as eyewitness accounts.  We don’t have to believe they are true.  We just have to trust that they tell us what the people who wrote them actually thought.  That’s what we do with every historical document about any piece of history, at least, until we find other histories that tell us something different.  So the guy who wrote John’s Gospel around 90 AD also claims he followed this real guy Jesus and believed He was the Savior of the world before He was murdered, watched Him die, and then fell into despair.

4. Jesus’ tomb was found empty three days later.  Next, the followers of Jesus who despaired after his death also tell us that they stopped despairing because He appeared to them risen.  But not just to them.  Extra-biblical sources from Roman historians tell us that after Jesus was killed, “a most mischievous superstition…again broke out.”  Yet another document, traced to Jewish sources, tells of a gardener named Juda who stole Jesus’ body.  When you put all of these pieces of history together, and combine it with the fact that Christian belief in Jesus’ resurrection all started within walking distance of His tomb, there is only one reasonable historical answer: Somehow, some way, that tomb was empty.

5. The disciples stopped despairing and started preaching, even though it meant their own deaths.  Both biblical and extra-biblical documents tell us that Christianity came from the meeting together of these followers, in order to worship their leader “Christ” and listen to his teachings.  Rather than give this up, the same disciples who once fled, willingly faced gruesome and painful deaths.

6. Antagonists convert.  James, Jesus’ brother by blood, and Saul, a man who made a business of killing Christians, were among these converts.  More so, Saul’s own writings claim his reason for conversion was a face to face meeting with the risen Jesus.

7. This is the event upon which Christianity is founded.  Christianity is not direct proof that Jesus rose, but it is proof that people who knew Jesus personally before His death believed that He rose.

8. Christianity was founded in Jerusalem.  No one in the town where all this was happening could present the dead body so as to put a stop to it.  Instead, the “stolen body theory” is preached even by the first skeptics.

9. They worshiped on Sunday.  These new Christians, a bunch of Jews (whose religion insists they worship on Saturday) start worshiping on Sunday because Sunday is the day when they believe the resurrection happened.

10. Do the math.  The challenge for the non-Christian or the skeptic (which they are usually unwilling to take up) is to find an alternative historical explanation for where this Christianity came from which also fits all of these simple, documented facts.  What could make orthodox Jews change their most sacred rituals, and go to the ends of the earth to tell others about it even though it only gets them killed?  They say it was because they themselves saw this man risen from the dead.  On top of this, the tomb was clearly empty and the man was nowhere to be found.  So, what other explanation for all the facts can you come up with?

Over the last several hundred years the skeptics have tried.  There’s the hallucination theory, and the swoon theory and that good ol’ stolen body theory.  But none of those theories explain all of the above facts.  You can’t steal a swooned body that gets up and walks away.  Separate groups of people don’t experience the same hallucination.  A Jesus who needed to be taken to the hospital would hardly have convinced terrified disciples to go out and die for him.

The simple reality is that there is only one explanation of the evidence that fits all the facts.  It might be unbelievable, but it is anything but unreasonable.  So put it in your pocket for the next time a skeptic attacks you with his claims about you being ignorant.  Ask him how he explains what Tacitus says.  Ask him why the Talmud called Jesus a sorcerer.  Ask him to explain all the historical facts.  Then, when he won’t (since he can’t), feel free to go right on believing the truth: that the resurrection did happen.  Not only is it the best explanation for all of the real historical evidence, it also happens to be what the Bible says was God’s plan for the precise purpose of saving you.

by Rev. Shawn L. Kumm

Hell. Who wants to go there? Jesus tells us just enough about heaven that we know we want to be there. Jesus tells us just enough about hell that we know we don’t.

The word hell was spoken at your baptism. Right smack dab in the middle of the Apostles’ Creed, there it is: Jesus descended into hell. Big deal, right?

Yeah, hell is a BIG deal. Misery loves company, and Satan desires nothing more than to have lots of company. That is why Jesus suffered on the cross so that you wouldn’t ever have to. You don’t need to worry about hell.

But did Jesus descend into hell in order to suffer—or did He go there for another reason? There are those who understand these words to mean that after Jesus died upon the cross He wasn’t quite finished with His work, so He needed to suffer in hell. This doesn’t make sense, since Jesus exclaimed on the cross, “It is finished.” This literally means, “It is finished and stands finished forever” (John 19:30). On the cross, Jesus has already suffered hell. Period.

The Apostles’ Creed summarizes the Christian faith in the tightest, shortest language possible. There are churches that confess creeds. There are churches that do not confess creeds. There are churches that sort of confess creeds.

The sort-of-confessing-creeds churches omit the words, “He descended into hell.” Since the phrase doesn’t show up until later in history, these folks believe the words shouldn’t be said.

But a later addition to this creed shouldn’t bother us. The words may very well have been added to combat the wrong teaching that the effect of Jesus’ death and resurrection wasn’t as far-reaching as everyone thought. Even now it appears Satan is still in control and hellish things still happen in this world.  So some conclude that Jesus’ work on the cross just wasn’t quite enough. But remember Jesus said, “It is finished.” His devil-defeating work reached the very pits of hell. In fact, Jesus descended there to tell Satan himself.

At least two passages of Scripture teach us this:

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison . . .” (1 Peter 3:18-19).

“He [that is, Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him” (Colossians 2:15).

In all of His resurrected glory, Jesus descended into hell so you wouldn’t have to. If Jesus’ death is your death and if Jesus’ resurrection is your resurrection (see Romans 6:3-11), then Jesus’ descent is your descent. There is great comfort in that for you. Who of us could stand face-to-face with Satan and proclaim such Good News? Not a single one of us. I know I wouldn’t want to and I don’t have to. Neither do you.

But there is the pesky question about timing. We know when all but one of the events of Holy Week happens. But the one event we wonder about is Jesus’ descent into hell. Does His descent happen as soon as Jesus says, “It is finished?” Does Jesus go to hell when the sun rises on Easter morning? We simply do not know. God, in His wisdom, chooses not to say much of anything about the invisible world. Think about, for example, how He does not tell us during which of the six days of creation the angels were made. There is a curiosity on the part of God’s people to have answers about angels and demons. But God’s Word tells us just enough to know they exist.

So why don’t we know when Jesus descends?  Perhaps, just as in the same way when we focus on what we know about the angels or demons, the more we are tempted we will be to know less about Jesus. Jesus wants us to focus on Him and no one else. Jesus goes victoriously to hell for us so that we don’t.