The Road to Easter: The Risen Lord

With the upcoming Easter Holiday approaching soon, I thought it to be proper to write this post. The most important event in history was the resurrection of Jesus. First of all, it’s important to discuss both proponents and disagreements of this to a certain degree. To make a long story short, Mary Magdalene, first witness of the empty tomb, according to the gospel of John, visited the tomb of Jesus and discovered that the tomb to be empty. She then goes out and sees a man whom she had thought to be the gardener and then discovers that it was Jesus all along.

John 20:17

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”

There’s no other explanation, as historians agree, for the rise of early Christianity because it’s so difficult to truly account for any other reasons. There are some who claimed that the disciples just fabricated the resurrection, but it’s so difficult to imagine people suffering for a lie, therefore, if one concludes this, can you truly answer this question:

Can a person die for a lie?

We must understand that the disciples weren’t with Jesus when he was crucified, indicating that they feared for their lives, except John who was young enough at the time for Roman Soldiers to dismiss as any kind of threat. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus were also there in Jesus’ crucifixion. What’s important is that this could not have been made up because it fits within the bounderies of what the disciples had to do. And they had to hide because if they didn’t, they would have been arrested and crucified along with their leader that day, making an old testament prophecy come true that foretells that the Messiah’s disciples will be scattered during his sacrifice.

Then 3 days later, the same disciples who were afraid for their lives were now going around the country side to say that the lord has risen and that hundreds of others would eventually see him. This sudden transformation indicates that something did happen that first Easter Sunday.

Some scholars have tried to justify their conclusions by trying to say that the disciples were just hallucinating. But, as serious logical people, confirmed with psychological studies, it’s not possible for hundreds of people to hallucinate at the same time. Why is it that there wasn’t anyone at the time who just said that they didn’t witness the risen lord speak to them?
The fact that skeptics couldn’t come up with Jesus’ body and the fact that they couldn’t prove that what these people had witnessed was not real, lends a greater drama on what truly happened that first Easter Sunday.

This is important because without that first Easter Sunday, the world that we know today would be tremendously different.

Did Jesus rise from the dead that day?

The only logical conclusion is: YES.

Why Saint Patrick matters

(Click on picture to learn more about Saint Patrick)

There are many legends surrounding Saint Patrick, but the overall significance of what he truly did is often overlooked. Without Saint Patrick, it is very doubtful that Christianity would’ve been able to spread at the rate it did at the twilight of Roman power in the west. When marauders burnt writings in the western part of the former Roman Empire, Ireland remained practically untouched because of its location, therefore, the Bible was able to be copied and preserved in Irish monasteries. We now know that the Bible that we hold today, despite many translations remain unchanged. The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran proved that. What’s even more amazing is Saint Patrick’s tale as a former slave who would later help bring Christianity to an entire nation. It’s quite an amazing story as a whole.

Reader’s Question: Jesus’ Divinity

A reader had asked: “Why is it that those who call themselves Christians believe that Jesus is God?”

I will try to answer this as simple as possible because not everybody is a biblical scholar or a historian. If everybody was, then everybody would have an answer, now, would they?

The attestations that Jesus is God is found in Jesus’ actions in the New Testament. Keep in mind that there are Jewish views and Christian views of the Messianic legacy. It’s very important to distinguish between the two because in Jewish tradition even the Messiah isn’t supposed to be that close to God; however, it’s also important to distinguish Jesus from other messianic figures in Jewish history. And there are indeed plenty, but none of them grew to such prominence after their passing.

For example, in Mark’s Gospel 2:5, Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

Now, this is important because in Jewish tradition, this is blasphemy. This is why the Sanhedrin feared Jesus. There are many miracle workers in ancient times, but his miracles are different because by saying these words, he’s saying that he is God himself. And to immediately cure the ailments of the person, he confirms it without a doubt. He didn’t need spells, he just needed to say something and it’s gone. Same thing with banishing evil. He just tells evil to disappear, and it disappears.

It must’ve been quite a shock when people heard and saw what Jesus did. It was something new.

The Son of God and God himself has many allusions. In Luke 20:8
Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

To say this, it would have been clear in antiquities that Jesus meant that he does things by the power of God. Separating the humanity and divinity of Jesus is key because to call Jesus as God in human form would be to totally ignore God’s mission on earth. God died in order to remind people that he does love them and to take away all the sins of the earth. It would have only been possible if he was in human form. In Jesus, Christians call God as Son of God because Jesus is the human form of God. It’s very important to separate God and Son of God.

In the lord’s prayer, Jesus kneels to pray to God because he wanted people to realize that people need to not forget. Humanity and divinity are what make Christianity unique compared to other faiths.

I will write more about this in the future.

Jonah and the Whale

Upon stumbling about the story of James Bartley, the man who survived inside a whale’s belly for 15 hours, I began to think about the story of Jonah, the popular figure in the old testament. For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Jonah, it is one of the last stories in the bible. Unlike many other biblical stories, Jonah is a narrative story. It tells the story of a man who gets swallowed by a whale for 3 days.

James Bartley’s story had captivated thousands of investigators of the miracle of Jonah. But, not so fast, according to this insightful article, Man Swallowed By Whale?, the story of James Bartley would probably most likely be fictional. The captain’s wife, who traveled with her husband in 1891, the proported year the the story of James Bartley’s tale was supposed to have happened told the press that there was never a man named James Bartley on board and that there’s no truth to the story.

Jonah’s story is difficult to really determine whether it really happened, but that’s the whole romantic appeal to the story: it takes tremendous faith to believe it. That’s where faith comes in.

But, those who try to look to the James Bartley story to try to prove God’s divine work, I think are really missing what the biblical message of the story of Jonah is trying to tell. The book of Jonah’s message is a simple, yet powerful one: God loves all people, not just the people of Israel.

Feel Free to ask me questions

I do like a challenge and I’m currently aiming to pursue a career in Biblical Archeology. The only problem is that the schools I’m interested in to pursue a graduate degree in the field is very expensive. Until I can find a scholarship program, I would have to rely on challenges brought upon me in here and my colleagues in the field to improve my knowledge. I don’t know everything, but I am used to doing research. I love the challenge. If you have anything daring for me to answer, within bounderies, of course, feel free to ask me questions. Ask me anything.

Until further notice, please write your questions on my comment box on one of my posts.

I am very elated to know how fast my readership is growing.

God Bless.

Life Is Precious

As many of you know, two high profile celebrities took their own lives in the past 2 weeks. For respect, I don’t want to mention their names because what had happened to them was tragic. Reading various articles about what happened in their lives, it made me wonder how a person can take their own life. Life is the most precious thing that God gave us. No amount of problems could be worth taking it away. But these things do happen.

Life is a challenge. There are disappointments and joys. These kinds of tragic events are too common. I felt the need to write this post because I somehow want to let people know that depression is all too real. Suicide is the result of disappointments that a person can’t somehow deal with. If you somehow suspect that a friend or a family member is depressed, show your support and/or read a passage from the Bible that shows the joys of life. Call a suicide hot-line, which could be searched throughout the web.

I am not a doctor, but I am someone’s friend, and I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if a friend of mine, someone I cared about dearly takes their own life.