Will He Find Faith?

I am loath to attribute the following statements to their maker. The duty to properly attribute statements to their proper source forces me to do so, but understand that the source is not the issue. When we make the source the issue, we miss the point. This is not intended as an attack on the source, but a discussion of the ideas and their ramifications.

On his blog, "Shuck and Jive", Pastor John Shuck of Tennessee asks the question, "What if we found the body of Jesus?" He concludes that it would be irrelevant to Christianity:

Critical study of the Bible and the study of comparative religions have combined to shatter the historicity of the resurrection. I would guess that many who call themselves Christian regard the resurrection symbolically. For many of us, the resurrection is a myth or a metaphor.

No question. No doubt. The resurrection is a myth, and any thinking person knows that. History proves it. The Bible says it. What are you thinking?

While I believe the gospel accounts of the resurrection are more in the realm of fiction rather than history, I find the risen Christ a valuable symbol or perhaps archetype.

The biblical concept of the resurrection of Christ is only a symbol, a metaphor. "He lives within my heart." There is no reason to believe He actually rose from the dead.

If resurrection simply referred to the resuscitation of the corpse of Jesus as a matter of history, then the resurrection would not be a matter of faith. I don't "believe" that Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. It is a fact of history that be documented by evidence.

Indeed, if the Bible documents the physical resurrection of Christ and you believe it on that basis, it isn't faith. Documentation is "evidence" and things believed by "evidence" are not things believed by faith. Thus, the Resurrection would not be a matter of faith. Think, people, think!

This post is a product of an article I read from Jim Jordan over at Moral Science Club, but it's also a product of my thinking of late regarding our "improved Gospel", the question of a trivial resurrection, and the decline of the church in our time. I guess we've pretty much determined that we can say whatever we want about Christ and Christianity as long as it makes people more receptive to our message. The real issue isn't that God became flesh and dwelt among us, dying on the Cross on our behalf, and rising again. The real issue is to make nice people out of bad people. The real issue has nothing to do with "born again", "spiritual life", "a new creation". God is not in the business of making dead people into live people. He's in the business of making unhappy people into happy people and immoral people into more moral people. Don't get all bogged down in that Bible stuff. It's metaphor, myth, mystery, not Truth. All we really need to be concerned about is that people be nice to other people, and that people are happy and psychologically healthy. Oh, and give to the poor. That's important. This post is a product of the concern I share with Christ: "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). Indeed.

Pastor Shuck, Bishop Sprong, and the like notwithstanding, it is not true that the Resurrection is a trivial issue, that the Resurrection was not physical, and that it doesn't matter. "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Cor. 15:14). Paul bases his position not on mere conjecture or pure, unsupported "faith". (In fact, "pure, unsupported faith" doesn't exist biblically.) He bases his position on facts.

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (1 Cor. 15:3-8).

Paul says, "This isn't minor. It is the essence of the Gospel: Christ died and was raised." He goes on to say, "Don't believe it just because I said it. Believe it because of the witnesses. Hey! Go ask them! There was Peter and the others. There were more than 500 eyewitnesses to His Resurrection! Yes, some of them are dead, but not all. Ask them! I saw the Risen Savior! Don't believe it without evidence. Believe it because of the evidence." John says the same sort of thing.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands ... (1 John 1:1).

"We're not telling you stuff we 'believe'. We're telling you stuff we've seen, heard, touched!"

You may choose to believe that the Resurrection is a metaphor, that it didn't actually happen physically. If you choose to do so, you choose to reject all the eyewitness accounts. You choose to call those who speak of touching Jesus after He rose again as liars. Their accounts of speaking with, hearing, touching, and eating with a Resurrected Savior are lies. They based their lives, their reputations, and the subsequent faith of all followers on lies. We can disagree on the exact content of Communion. We can disagree on the precise mode of Baptism. We can disagree on the sequence of events leading up to the Return of Christ. There is lots of room for discussion and valid disagreement. But denying the Resurrection of Christ, according to the Bible, is a denial of the Faith. It removes any reliable source for Christian belief and eliminates any reason to believe that Jesus actually conquered death on the cross. It makes Him a mere man, a feeble attempt at making an earthly government who failed miserably and died for his troubles. To all of this I would urge, "Let God be true though every one were a liar" (Rom. 3:4).