Reply to a Friend on the Evidence of Jesus’ Death

A guest post by Jordan Esmay

On a previous post, the conversation went to the subject of Jesus and the evidence of his death.  I thought I would address this briefly.  My arguments for the life and death of Jesus are not uncommon, they’ve mostly been the same for a very long time and when good arguments hold water I think we should keep using them.  Therefore, the following, although not entirely cited (mostly because there are so many and I’m not sure where they originated), is taken from several sources.  Also the post will not be terribly.

To start, we Christians do have evidence for the death of Jesus.  Primarily the New Testament and, even more specifically, the Gospels.  The Bible is at the very least an historical text.  To simply say that it is not evidence for the death of Jesus is like saying it is not evidence for the life of Pontius Pilate.  There needs to be sound arguments for why the text is not reliable as evidence.  As I am not talking about the reliability of the New Testament I will only suggest reading scholars such as F.F. Bruce and Walter C. Kaiser for the arguments on the reliability of the Biblical Texts.

Secondly as to extra-Biblical sources, we have many.  Also for the sake of space, I will point to Philip Schaaf’s work: The Person of Christ: The Miracle of History (Collection of Testomonies of Unbelievers) for a list, citation, and brief explanation of those who mention Jesus and his death.

As to the argument of Jesus surviving the crucifixion, where is the evidence for that?  How does a man who is beaten to the point of not being able to carry his object to which he is later nailed, then being stabbed with a spear to make sure he is dead, then wrapped in cloth, then placed in a cold tomb able to recover from the trauma enough to not only stand, but to remove the cloth that is wrapped around him, fold the cloth that covered his face, leave the bandages (i.e. not use them to stop bleeding wounds) remove the stone that is in front of his tomb and finally to make not only his closest friends but 500 people believe that he rose from the dead.  I’m guessing that he wouldn’t be to shiny after all of that.  We Christians have at least the evidence above.

Finally, why would Jesus’ closest friends after seeing him in such a horrible state and recognizing that he had merely survived a horrible ordeal, go on to put there lives through torture, and ultimately death, knowing that what they were doing was a hoax.  As Paul even said, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

My hope is that more discussion will follow in the comments, so please comment.

Was Anyone Saved at the Cross

A guest post by Jordan Esmay

Below is a link to an article written by James White.  James White is a leading Protestant Christian apologist.  His ministries website is here.  A friend of mine who is not explicitly Reformed in his theology read it and said it was the first time he had thought about the issues discussed like Mr. White presented them.

Was Anyone Saved at the Cross? by James White

Resting in God

A guest post by Andrew Reiners

This is a devotional taken out of a book called The Valley of Vision edited by Arthur Bennett. This specific devotional pretty much sums up what I have been feeling lately as I have fought for joy and peace with God throughout a couple of stressful weeks at work and the absence of my wonderful girlfriend who is in Serbia on a missions project for the next five weeks. I have often found myself lately wanting to just crawl into bed for the next few weeks and avoid the realities and hardships of life. This is my prayer tonight that the Lord would restore my joy in him and give me a deeper pleasure in the gospel and desire to let the light of Christ shine in me during my day. The author of this devotional is unknown as the book does not state the authors of each specific article.  Hope this can be an encouragement and blessing to others.

O God, most high, most glorious, the thought of Thine infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but Thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond, Thy goodness no stint. Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are Thy victories: The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

I come to Thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to Thee, every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood; revive deep spirituality in my heart; let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear His voice, know its tones, follow its calls. Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit. Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know; Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I may bear its reproach, vindicate it, see Jesus as its essence, know in it the power of the Spirit.

Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill; unbelief mars my confidence, sin makes me forget Thee. Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots; grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to Thee, that all else is trifling. Thy presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong and happy. Abide in me, gracious God.

Mark Driscoll on Idolatry

A guest post by Andrew Reiners

Well Hello everyone.  My name is Andrew and I will be one of two guys that will be guest posting for James while he is back in the United States for several weeks.  I don’t know what his deal is ( something about spending a little time with his fiance who he hasn’t seen for 5 months getting in the way of his blogging).  Just a note, I am nothing special, in fact I do not think I am worthy of posting on such a blog as Beneath the Cross, but I will try.  I am currently working in Lincoln, Nebraska as a social worker helping teens and families deal with very real and troubling issues.  Its a great job but tough at times.  I will try my best to stay consistent with the posts so here goes.

Last night I was watching a conference message by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle about the subject of idolatry in our personal ministry.  Now I know that Mark Driscoll has rubbed some people the wrong way with his preaching style and often very candid sermons.  Whether you like Mark Driscoll or not, this message had a very different tone than most of his conferences messages have had in the past.  This message titled “Ministry Idolatry” was given by Pastor Mark at the Advance 09 conference in Durham, NC two weeks ago.  In this message Mark addresses the very seriousness of every human’s problem with idolatry and the ways that it fuels other sin issues in our lives.  The statement that had the strongest impact on me was when Mark said something like this “People don’t have sex problems, money problems, drug problems, or alcohol problems; people have idolatry problems”.  I highly encourage you to take an hour or just half an hour and watch some of this message and let it take hold of you and convict you of some of the things that you idolize in place of our Lord Jesus.  Listen to the message.

Here are a few notes I took from this message:

• Pastor Mark explains that idols are usually good things that we turn into God things and in turn become bad things.
• Idols such as money, sex, alcohol, relationships, education, even blogs act as functional saviors that if we allow to take precedent in our lives take us away from our real problems and insecurities and give us a false sense of worth and joy that can only be found in the light of Jesus Christ.
• What is my ultimate source of delight?  Is it in my girlfriend, my job, my car, my church, my knowledge?  Jesus needs to be my ultimate source of delight.
• Even sports can be an idol.  A football stadium is simply a temple where people can gather and worship their idols. (I may post more on this topic in the coming days.)

• Those who idolize must also demonize.  Those who find their identity and worth in an idol, must also demonize the very things that contradict or compete with that idol.

Guest Post – Jordan: “The Prodigal God”

Hi, my name is Jordan and I’m a guest blogger while James is gone.  I’m on facebook and am always up for having more friends, so if you want to have private conversations with me then facebook would be the best medium for me.

I’m going to try and post more and to write a better, but to start I thought I’d just share a book that a group of friends and I read through and discussed.

The book is The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.  It’s a good read and great for conversations in a small group.  I’ll just give the basic jist to see if anyone can relate. 

Jesus tells a parable to a mixed group of people of ’sinners’, tax collectors, Pharisees, and Scribes.  We find this parable recorded in the book of Luke, chapter 15, verses 11-32.  Keller renames this parable as “The Parable of the Two Lost Sons” because that’s how Jesus starts the story out, “there was a man who had two sons”.  So here we are looking at this story with the well known sinner brother who basically robs his father and could have been put to death for what he did, he goes off and spends it all on parties and prostitutes.  But the elder brother stays to work hard like he always has.  Little bro comes back and big bro is angry that his father is throwing him a party… So we’ve got two basic kinds of people listening: Those who are Licentious and those who are Moralists.  We’ve got two brothers: the licentious  one and the moralist.  Both brother need the Savior and one is repenting.  The book serves a few different purposes, one to teach what Jesus was saying, one to figure out which brother you are more like, and one to challenge you to be like Jesus.   Are you an elder brother or a younger brother?

Jordan

Happy Holiday, I’ll be Back in a Few Weeks

For the next three weeks I’ll be on holiday (as my South African friends would say).  Later tonight, I’ll start a 36-hour journey back to Nebraska.

Carly and I will get to spend some much-desired time together.  I’m super pumped about this, if you couldn’t guess.  We haven’t seen each other since January 6.  It has been a hard, yet joyous 5+ months apart, and such a learning experience.  It’s going to be a delight to see her.  Also, my sister gets married on June 27, and I am the best man in my friend Matt Meschke’s wedding on July 3.

I’m going to take these weeks away from blogging.  (Please, hold your tears.)  For you three faithful readers out there, you’ll be pleased to know that I have a couple friends who will be posting from time to time in my absence.  Let me introduce them to you.

• Jordan Esmay studies ELED at the University of South Dakota.  He’s from the booming metropolis of Murdo, South Dakota, and he is married to Julie.  Jordan loves dancing and reading, and he is a fan of St. Augustine and Mike Huckabee.
• Andrew Reiners graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln with a business administration degree.  He currently works as a family assistant with Owens Associates in the greater Lincoln area.  Andrew loves coffeehouses, Alaska, and rap music, and he’s passionate about not wasting his life.

I hope you find their posts edifying, inspiring, and good for a laugh.  Lord willing, I’ll be back sometime around July 8.

peace,
james

Driscoll at Crystal

Mark Driscoll is preaching at the Crystal Cathedral this morning.  Crystal Cathedral has advertised themselves as “America’s positive television church to the world.”  We know that Driscoll is, well, a self-proclaimed pessimist (he says this only half-jokingly.)  What an opportunity this is for literally millions to hear the precious gospel of our Lord Jesus.

Driscoll’s message can be seen next weekend on The Hour of Power.

*  *  *

Related Posts:

• Crystal Cathedral Leader, Schuller, Announces Daughter as New Leader

The Diverse Multitude

God’s Big Story: View Series
Continued from Part 6

Jesus sits with his disciples, Pharisees, and others who are gathered around.  He tells yet another story that doesn’t make sense.  Jesus might as well be talking to a brick wall.

“When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice,” Jesus says.

Everyone is confused.  Jesus tries to clear things up.  He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep…I am the door.”  I can see the disciples: “A door, Jesus?  What are you talking about?  You are a man!”  Remember that Jewish teaching—Old Testament or New—has layers of meaning, and weird examples to explain things.  It’s eastern, not western.  Sometimes (very often), even the Jews themselves didn’t understand these examples.

Jesus continues: “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.”  Now this makes sense.  The Jewish crowd understands.  Some like it.  Others despise it.  John 10:19 says, “There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.”

The words, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold,” no doubt struck a chord with the Pharisees and their band of followers.  How could a Jewish man who claims to be the Savior of Israel say that he has “other sheep”?  Dirty Gentiles?  Did Jesus just say that?  They can’t comprehend, but that’s exactly what Jesus said.  If it wasn’t clear enough, he says, “So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

In addition to Christianity, there won’t be Jewish and Muslim and Scientologist and Buddhist and Hindu and humanist and rationalist or Republican or Democrat or atheist or any other religion we could make up.  There will be one flock and one shepherd.  You are either with Jesus or not.

John the disciple, who wrote the Gospel of John, also wrote Revelation.  In chapter 7, he gives us a stirring illustration of what heaven will be like:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (vv. 9-10).

The Good Shepherd is also the sacrificial Lamb who died to purchase people for God—every kind of person in every kind of race who speak every kind of language in every nation for all time (see Rev. 5:9-10).  One day, this vast, diverse multitude will sing together in heaven, praising God.  That day will last forever.

It is a glorious thing for a king if a single people group worships him.  However, it’s more glorious for a king if he is worshiped by multiple people groups.  Further still, it’s most glorious for a king if he is worshiped by every people group on the earth.  The level of glory a king deserves is measured by the diversity of his worshipers.  God is the God of ultimate diversity.  He will have the most diverse group of worshipers.  This only reveals how glorious, how majestic, how attractive, how powerful, and how lovely he really is.

What will God do with this diverse people?  God’s desire is not to take this group and make them uniform.  No, his desire is to take a diverse people and bring them unity.  There is no glory in making everyone the same, but there is glory in diversity, and there is more glory in unity amidst diversity.  This diverse multitude will have unity, not uniformity, in their Shepherd, their Lamb, their Savior and Lord.  Their unity will be found in one name—the only name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved—Jesus Christ.

How Helpless

By Anne Steele (modified by Matthew Smith)

How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load
The heart, unchanged, can never rise
To happiness and God.
Can nothing less than power divine,
The stubborn will subdue?
‘Tis Thine, eternal Spirit, Thine,
To form the heart anew.

‘Tis Thine, the passions to recall,
And upwards bid them rise;
And make the scales of error fall,
From reason’s darkened eyes.
To chase the shades of death away
And bid the sinner live
Heaven’s beam, a vital ray
‘Tis Thine alone to give

Oh change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine;
Then shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty Lord, be Thine.
Oh change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine;
Then shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty Lord, be Thine.
Almighty Lord, be Thine
Almighty Lord, be Thine

How helpless guilty nature lies,
Unconscious of its load

Crystal Cathedral Leader, Schuller, Announces Daughter as New Leader

Robert H. Schuller, the founder and pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California, announced on Wednesday that his daughter would be the new leader of the church.

The Crystal Cathedral is known mostly for it’s “Hour of Power” television ministry.  Schuller had recently ousted his son, Robert A. Schuller, from leadership.  The Cathedral has basically built their whole ministry around a self-esteem gospel.

In the first link above, Schuller’s daughter said this:

“Our church didn’t even start ordaining women until 1973,” she said today. “I’m proud of my dad for doing this and I hope I can serve as a role model for younger women who want to get things accomplished in this church.”

Basically (probably unknowingly), she is saying, “I’m so proud that my Dad is in violation of Scripture by disobeying what God says about eldership in the local church.  And I hope I can be a great example of disobedience to other women.”

Men are made to be leaders.  Women are made to be helpers.  Leader doesn’t mean superior.  Helper doesn’t mean subservient.  God has laid out the rules for the church, and churches who claim to follow Jesus and his word have no excuse to not obey them.