SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/12/2024 7:20 AM
My Worship
Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro to Matthew 28:11-15”
Bible
Reading &
Meditation Reference: Matthew
28:11-15
Message of the verses: “11Now
while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported
to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with
the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the
soldiers, 13 and said, "You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and
stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14 "And if this should come to the
governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble." 15 And
they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was
widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”
I
have been looking at the different theories that have come up about the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, and the theme of all of these is
that they are false. John MacArthur
continues to write about these different theories: “The ‘telepathy theory’ proposes that there
was also no physical resurrection, but rather God sent divine telepathic to
Christians that caused them to believe Jesus was alive. But that theory, among other things, makes
the God of truth a deceiver and the apostles and gospel defective and slow to
produce te intended result, because in a number of instances Jesus was not
recognized when He first appeared to individuals and groups who knew Him
intimately.
“The ‘séance theory’ suggests that a
powerful spiritualist, or medium, conjured up the image of Jesus by means of
occult power and that His followers were thereby deluded into thinking they saw
Him. But if that were so, how did they
hold onto His feet, put a hand in His wounded side, and eat a meal with
Him? Séances deal strictly in the
noncorporeal and ephemeral and are not made of such physical and tangible
things as I those.
“The ‘mistaken identity theory’ is
based on the assumption that someone impersonated Jesus and was able to dupe
His closet friends and companions into thinking he was really their Lord come
back to life. But the imposter would
have had to have himself scourged, crowned with thorns, pierced in his hands
and feet, and wounded in the side too make such an impersonation even close to
convincing . He would also have had to
mimic Jesus’ voice, mannerisms, and other traits to an unimaginable degree of
perfection. He would have had to steal
Jesus’ body from the tomb and hide it.
He would also have had to be an insider among Jesus’ followers in order
to identify and talk convincingly with the many people he met during the
appearances. He would also have to had
to know exactly where to find the people on every occasion and been able to
perform such illusions as materializing through walls and appearing and
vanishing at will. And he would have had
to be prepared in advance even of the crucifixion to do all of those amazing
things, because the first appearance was early on resurrection morning.
“The noted French philosopher Renan
debunked the resurrection by foolishly claiming the whole idea was based on the
hysterical delusions of Mary Magdalene (The
Life of Jesus [New York: Carleton, 1886], pp. 356-357). But Mary was but one among more than 500
witnesses, all of whom testified to the same reality. In his book Risen Indeed, G. D. Yarnold advances the idea that the material of
which [Christ’s] earthly body had been composed ceased to exist, or was
annihilated’ ([New York: Oxford, 1959], p. 22).
“Besides their own unique
shortcomings, all of those theories fail to explain how the apostles could be transformed
from cowards to heroes and how such a dynamic entity as the church could come
into existence, produce thousands of followers willing to die for their
beliefs, and manage to turn the world upside down if their faith was built on
illusions and falsehoods.
“The ‘theft theory,’ which contends that
someone managed to steal the body and hide it, is the only one that attempts to
explain the missing body. But the only
ones who might have had a motive for stealing it were the disciples, in order
to try to fulfill Jesus’ prediction that He would rise from the dead on the
third day. That, as Matthew explains in
the present passage, was the explanation promulgated by the Jewish leaders.
“Yet Matthew’s narrative of this
strange episode reveals that even that deceitful scheme became a rich and
compelling apologetic not against but for the resurrection. He first describes
the plot itself and then briefly tells how the proposed lie was propagated.”
Well I have my assignment for the
next few days in looking first at “The Plot” and then after a couple of days
look at “The Propagation.”
10/12/2024
7:50 AM
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