The Resurrection of Christ
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). As with many quotations from the later half of the book of Daniel, this verse sounds like it could have been taken straight from the book of Revelation instead. What great resurrection hope this must have provided Old Testament believers! [...]
“Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. / You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! / For your dew is a dew of light, / and the earth will give birth to the dead” (Isa. 26:19). This series seeks to demonstrate that Old Testament saints (like those in the New Testament) showed a conscious hope of resurrection—a hope that they received from the pages of Scripture. [...]
“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). New Testament believers are blessed with the hope of resurrection, but what of Old Testament saints? Were such blessings theirs? Did they have a conscious hope for the next life as well? According to the New Testament, the answer is yes. [...]
Many Modern Reformation readers are familiar with the theological language of the “already” versus the “not yet.” When the authors of the Bible described salvation, they portrayed it as a foretaste of a redemption [...]
On a clear day, I can see the Italian Alps from the balcony in my study. Their impressive form stares at me like the imposing faces of majestic giants, sculpted by deep lines of grey and green, crowned with snow-topped peaks. Living in Milan, I know that the Alps are never far away. Although a […]
Our world makes a radical separation between the realms of “truth” (for example, fact, science, reason) and “values” (opinion, religion, emotion).1 Yet the final two chapters of John’s Gospel make an intimate and unbreakable connection between true knowledge of Jesus and true belief in Jesus; there is no division between the “Jesus of history” and […]
On October 13, 2010, Florencio Avalos emerged from the ground and breathed fresh air for the first time in many days. He and thirty-two other miners had suffered virtual entombment two thousand feet below ground in the partially collapsed San José Mine in the Chilean desert. As Avalos stepped from the capsule that had lifted […]
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” This cry will rise from many churches this Easter season as we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. On the third day, the grave in which they laid his body was empty. His body had not been stolen’the posting of Roman soldiers and […]
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is inarguably the cornerstone of the entire Christian faith. And I think for a lot of non-Christians in the West that’s pretty clear because we (rightfully) make a big deal out of the resurrection. We love to tell the story of the empty tomb every chance we get, even though […]
Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important? After all, it’s not when our sins are paid for. That was the work Jesus did two days earlier on the cross. And the resurrection is not when Christ’s perfect obedience is credited to us so we can stand before God. That work was also done by […]
Make no mistake: if He rose at allit was as His body;if the cell's dissolution did not reverse, the moleculesreknit, the amino acids rekindle,the Church will fall. It was not as the flowers,each soft Spring recurrent;it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddledeyes of the eleven apostles;it was as His flesh: ours. […]
1. Biased Sources Those who wrote the NT documents were "believers" and therefore biased. These texts are not historical documents but articles of faith. Rebuttal Everyone is biased. A lawyer building a case is biased in favor of his client, but that does not invalidate the evidence. What accounts for the particular "faith" of these […]
In a 2014 interview with GQ magazine, actor Matthew McConaughey talked a little about his faith: Does your family go to church every Sunday? "Yeah. In Texas. It's non-denominational. It's based in the faith that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for our sins." Was that a return for you, or had […]
Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Ps. 30:5). On the chilly nights of our pilgrimage, this promise’for which David praises the Lord’is an electric blanket for our faith. With it, the Lord assures us that his faithfulness endures forever and that his mercies are new every morning. Yet, when […]
How many times have we heard that relativism is synonymous with postmodernism? Whether celebrated by friends or assailed by critics, postmodernism is getting a lot more credit (and discredit) than it deserves in contemporary Christian conversations. On the more "Emergent Church" side of things, breaking out of an era of rigid dogmatism and religious intolerance […]
