Lots of people admire Jesus and what he said without believing he’s the Son of God, as Christians do.
But whether Jesus was God or not, I think there’s an important question:
What happened to the followers of Jesus after he died?
There’s a bit of a puzzle in history that deserves to be thought through a bit. Lots of people admire Jesus and what he said without believing he’s the Son of God, as Christians do. But whether Jesus was God or not, I think there’s an important question: What happened to the followers of Jesus after he died?
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Today is Ash Wednesday.
Christians all over the world will mark themselves with Ashes, and begin a joyful and holy season called Lent. What’s this about and why do we do it? One of the phrases you might hear today is “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In other words, don’t forget, you’re gonna die. Seems a bit morbid. Why do I even need this reminder? I've been working on my historical-critical method for the past bit now, and I've still reached the startling conclusion. It does not make sense for the Resurrection not to have happened. There's lots of reasons why. I'm going to stick with just the witness argument: how else can a reasonable historian explain why hundreds of backwoods peasants traveled thousands of miles to give testimony on pain of humiliating and painful death, except that they had really seen a dead body come to life in a glorified way? Even more convincing for me is that these witnesses, with no textual, physical, or authoritative evidence but their own word, managed to convince peoples throughout the Ancient Mediterranean, just by their own testimony. Before the Gospels were written, philosophers and slaves and merchants and military believed that the God of all creation - the only god, mind you - came as a human being to... What? Get nailed naked to wood as a disgusting billboard of brutal Imperial violence? What a ridiculous story! Imagine hearing it for the first time, maybe having seen crucified bodies on your way into town. What could have possibly convinced you that it were true, to such a point that you'd die rather than deny it?
Early in the morning, first chance they get, the women bring spices and ointment prepared for the dead body of Jesus. They went straight to the place where they saw it buried. And then things got interesting. For forty days we have journeyed to the cross, and along the way we have stopped and prayed at the Stations of the Cross.
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AuthorRyan LeBlanc, B.A., B.Ed., M.A, is a career classroom teacher, learning leader, and workshop facilitator. Now, his cutting-edge educational methods and years of practical experience with thousands of learners are available through his comprehensive online courses. Categories
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April 2019
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