Jesus: The Theological Earthquake

The Theological Earthquake             
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Sitting here in our 21st Century societies on this rock we call Earth, Christians often do not truly comprehend the Theological Earthquake that came with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  All of human history bends on this event we call The Resurrection of Jesus!

  An event some want to think is folly, but it is to their folly they live in a world upside down from what Christ taught, lived, and died for.  It would have been for nothing, His life worth nothing except for one reason-> an Empty Tomb bearing witness to His Resurrection!  But, many people do not want to believe, live denying that it happened, many even saying there is no God.

In a book published in 1998, "The Case for Christ" authored by a one time atheist, Lee Strobel provides about 270 pages of well documented reasons he became an ardent, well spoken Christian.  This happens when he had set out to disprove beyond any reasonable doubt the preposterous belief of Christianity and God's work in His creation.

I provide but three of some of the most interesting.

1.  There are forty-eight prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus satisfied.   I explain it here but I will leave it to you the reader to find in chapter 10 the documentation of the probability of this happening.
  The probability of a person satisfying all forty-eight prophecies is one chance in a trillion, 
        trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion,
          trillion, trillion trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.
or for the mathematical inclined-
 (1/1 trillionth) to the 13th power
or
 1 in 10 to the 156th power.

Another way to look at it is with a more personal down to earth probability about equal to the above probability:

You choose 26 lucky people on a random basis, you put them in randomly selected places in the world by giving them free vacations to any place in the world of their choosing, and then on your command of "now", all 26 of them are struck by lightening at the same moment.  And by the way it really takes 27 people all getting  hit by lightening at the same exact moment to equal the above probability, so you are included in the lightening hit too.

You are thinking, "That could never happen."  The probability is too small, and you are correct.  But as for the prophecy, it did happen, God and Jesus, they made it happen.  Jesus IS who He claimed to be.  IT IS THE TRUTH and good for us to think absorb into our everyday thoughts.  

2-   The Martyrdom of Christians:  Imagine you are one of the disciples, say Peter.  You have watched Jesus do miracles for three years.  One time you were sent in mission and you were blessed with the Holy Spirit, but not just you, so too were the other disciples.  In some places you were run out of town, in other places you did miracles Jesus had anointed you with the Holy Spirit.  You watch the process of the crucifixion of Jesus and His going through a nasty terrible unimaginable agony of death.  You are confused, scared, and out of your mind of what to do.  According to the Gospel of John, you find your fellow disciples and hide in a little room scared of every sound outside your door.  You are afraid you are next!  Then two days later, word comes, "He is risen!".  You go, you find the empty tomb.  Your fist thought, "Who stole his body?"  You run back to the room, your friends are still there and you speak of what you saw.  All of you are still bewildered and still so afraid of dying, when...There is a rush of wind, and Jesus appears and He breaths the Holy Spirit on you.  And, in an instant, everything becomes much clearer.
      Now,  within weeks, as recorded, Jesus appeared to hundreds, within months the disciples were openly testifying to Jesus and performing similar miracles as Jesus.  Soon, there were thousands of Jews casting off 2500 years of tradition and accepting Jesus as Lord.  And more, tens of thousands who saw Jesus do "miracles" come to realize who he was, not just a miracle worker, but The Messiah.
     It is recorded that all but one of the disciples were killed for claiming Jesus as Lord and in time, thousands would die at the hands of the Romans and as entertainment as they fought for their lives in arenas.  They could prevent their death but no, they died professing Jesus as Lord.  Even in their death, people became Christians.
    People still are being martyred today professing, "Jesus as Lord."  Maybe a few people would have done this, but certainly not thousands, and certainly not the thousands long removed from His death and Resurrection.

3-  An Earthquake and THE Empty Tomb  In the history of time, in the time of history there is nothing that has been more significant than the empty tomb where Jesus was lain after His death.  Even in the fulfillment of all the scriptures completed by Jesus, without the empty tomb, it would all have been to accomplish nothing and you would not be reading this.  Jesus dying as a poor criminal would not even garnered a footnote in history.  Even time itself, BC, AD and the politically correct BCE and CE are based on the Resurrection of Jesus.
Consider the Roman Guards
          responsible for guarding the tomb of Jesus

Just think about those four guards there that Sunday morning, guarding the tomb of this seemingly insignificant person.  They must have thought it was crazy to be there, a waste of time to be guarding the tomb of a 'common' criminal.  Knowing that criminals are crucified it was in their mind crazy to think that a criminal as this would even have a tomb!  But, they did their job because their life depended on it.
Now, mind you, they were awake when Bang! An earthquake, and as recorded in Matthew:

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men (Matthew 28:2-4).

One can only surmise that what is here recorded in Matthew somehow came from the soldiers themselves as told to others and then circulated in the community.  But, this is not even the best testimony.  It is the testimony of the thousands who saw the post resurrection Jesus walking and talking that we believe this testimony of the soldiers.  Others, include Peter who transforms from one denying Jesus three times to verbally crucifying the Sanhedrin weeks later as in Acts 4:8.  Then, there is the testimony of St. Paul.

There is certainly much written in books and found across the internet testifying as to the authenticity of the Resurrection Story.  But, there is clearly one thing for certain:

"His tomb is empty! The tombs of Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Karl Marx, and every other religious founder and philosophical genius still hold and will hold the remains of their occupants until they go back to the dust. 

But not that of the Lord Jesus Christ. His body was there for only three days, and then, having been resurrected, glorified, and immortalized, He appeared to His disciples, showing Himself to be "alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). Then He ascended back to heaven and ever since has been "at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34)." *

Accepting Christ is a Real decision in life 

that affects eternity, your eternity.

Remember  Jesus' words-

John 14:6 NRS

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Fatherexcept through me."

Thanks be to God

© lonnie coggins

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Publication  0109


intro

TO DENY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST IS SELF-CONDEMNATION.  Click the link for more on the historical evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus.
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http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/02/jesus-theological-earthquake.html

*Morris, Henry. http://www.icr.org/ChristEmptyTomb/