Success and Failure Blog

So the story is you meet this awesome guy a man’s man yet somehow, a caring, loving, supportive, and fun guy.  The kind of guy you want to be around with A LOT…dare I say man crush.. Then you meet his wife, He tells you how great she is but the more you look the more she disturbs you, she seems bi-polar, and controlling. Basically you can’t stand her, but you know if you reject her you jeopardize your relationship with your new best friend.  Welcome to church.

Flyleaf has a song “Beautiful Bride”

Unified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
You’re irreplaceable, indispensable
You’re incredible
Incredible

Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride

And this is beautiful.  But sometimes I don’t see it. We are to be one body, but what body doesn’t realize when part of it is hurt and doesn’t nurture that spot. (stub your toe even and see what your body’s reaction is).  I see us celebrate baptism and when people join the body, but today I heard ANOTHER story of someone walking away from the church, our church, and nobody noticed.  How does a body not notice when part of it falls away?  I had even a toe nail fall off once and I freaked out.

Then today at the same time, I saw 4 men drop what hey were doing, take time from their jobs and help a brother in need, at the mere mention of a need. & this weekend hopefully dozens or hundreds will go out into the community to help flood victims.

Then, then I see the beauty He talks about.

Romans 13:11-12- And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Wake Up Church of the Living God! I write this exhortation tell you that it is time for the Church to arise out of its slumber. It is time for the Church to let their candle burn bright again in a lost and dying world. While the world becomes more and more inherently evil, the Church needs to realize that our redemption draweth nigh, and we as a Church need to be about doing the Lord’s business and laboring for the King so that when He does return, he will not find us lax and apathetic towards the things of God.

The Church of the Living God has been duped by the demonic doctrines of hyper Calvinism and hyper Pragmatism. What I mean by hyper Calvinism is the belief that God predestined the elect (saved people) before the foundation of the world and that since they are predestined to heaven there is no way for them to turn from irresistable grace. On the other hand, God predestines some people to go to Hell and there is nothing that they can do to change their eternal destination because God already predestined it before the foundation of the earth. This particular idea is heresy, but nevertheless it is spreading in the churches of America at a unprecedented rate. What is so appalling about this particular aspect of Hyper-Calvinism is the fact that it teaches that some people from the moment they were born are damned to Hell and there is nothing they can do to change their destination! Oh, but I have good news for you. The Bible says that God would have none perish but that all might come to everlasting life. Focus on the word ALL. That is clear that God wants all of humanity (that includes every man, woman, boy and girl that has existed or ever will exist) to be saved, and to experience everlasting life. The fact of the matter is that God created us with a free will. People have the choice of whether to accept what he did on Calvary, or people can reject what he did on Calvary. God wants us to choose to love him. If we did not have a choice or a free will then we would be no better than robots.

There is also a heretical doctrine spreading known as Hyper-Pragmatism. Pragmatism says that if it feels right then it is okay to do. The truth is that every man thinks he is right in his own eyes. Pragmatism is currently sweeping through the Churches at an astonishing rate. Many Churches are compromising their convictions in order to appease the flesh. Many Churches are using the methodologies of the world and are in effect saying it is okay to use the world and the world system in order to keep people entertained and keep people happy. Folks the truth of the matter is that this whole idea of collaborating with the world is heresy and has no place in the Church of America. Churches have become so worldly and they have bought into the idea of pragmatism and the sad truth about it is they don’t even know it. When a evangelical Church in this country is playing secular songs in the pulpit there is something wrong. Not too long ago a evangelical Church played the AC/DC song I am on a Highway to Hell. The sad truth about it is that many people in that Church is probably really on the highway to Hell. It is so sad to see the Churches in America for the most part become so apathetic and become so duped by demonic doctrines. It is obvious that they are not reading the same Bible that I read. The Bible clearly states in 1st John to love not the world neither the things that are in the world. The Bible clearly tells the Church that we are not citizens of this world. We are pilgrims and sojourners passing through.

We must never expect the Lord to bless a church that is duped by these doctrines. We must never expect God to bless a church that is full of proud and conceited people. God will only start to bless the Church of the Living God when it is humbled to the dust under a sense of its own shortcomings. When the Church does this then God will look upon the Church with mercy. God blesses his people when they begin to pray, as well as when they confess their sins. The prayer is urgent, humble, and believing; therefore, it has to speed to the throne of God. “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us”. These agonizing desires will be part of the mourning of a Church that is conscious of having lost the blessing from God when the entire Church is interceding with urgency and persistence.

Prayer is the best resort of an earnest people. I can testify to this. In my church (Second Baptist Church), we have had prayer meetings in which everyone has been stirred, much as the trees of the forest are moved in the wind, and afterward the presence of God has always been manifested by conversion of souls. Our best times of prayer have always been followed by joyful harvests of new believers. Churches everywhere must be prayerful, intensely so, or else they cannot expect that the sound of abundant rain will be heard throughout their land.

I call on the church to awake, to confess their sin, to awake to struggle in prayer for the souls of men. The the Lord God will visit us from on high. Come Holy Spirit, and rouse your slumbering people Stir up the lazy multitude of believers, for when Your power is felt, then the bright day of triumph has dawned upon us.

Introduction

The Resurrection is what makes Christianity different than all the other religions in the world. Without the Resurrection, Christianity would have nothing to stand on because Jesus Christ would have been just a mere mortal man. But can Christianity be validated? Did Jesus Christ really resurrect from the dead and authenticate His claim to be God? There are at least three reasons why Jesus rose from the dead and they are the following: 1.) The fact that so many people testify of seeing Jesus after His resurrection, 2.) The fact that the apostles were willing to die for what they believed in. and 3.) Paul’s conversion from being a murderer of Christians to preaching the resurrection of Jesus. These are the three reasons that will be discussed in detail in this paper.

Post Resurrection Appearances

The fact that Jesus appeared to so many people after the Resurrection authenticates Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh. Jesus appeared to over 500 people after His resurrection. The fact that Jesus appeared to over 500 people at one time is more than enough evidence to suggest that Jesus did in fact resurrect from the dead.

J.N.D. Anderson writes of the testimony of the appearances:
“The most dramatic way of dismissing the evidence would be to say that these stories were just mere fabrications, that they were pure lies. But, so far as I know, not a single critic today would take such an attitude. In fact, it would really be an impossible position. Think of the number of witnesses, over 500. Think of the character of the witnesses, men and women who gave the world the highest ethical teaching it has ever known, and who even on the testimony of their enemies lived it out in their lives. Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence- and then attempting to attribute the dramatic change to nothing more convincing than a miserable fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That simply wouldn’t make sense.”

So we see that that the character of the witnesses who saw Jesus after His resurrection was exemplary. In fact, these people were transformed by what they saw.  Josh Mcdowell in his book Evidence for Christianity gives a list of all the people that Jesus appeared to and they are the following: Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, to women returning from the tomb, to Peter later in the day, to the Emmaus disciples, to the apostles without Thomas, to the apostles with Thomas present, to the seven by the Lake of Tiberias, to a multitude of 500-plus believers on a Galilean mountain, to James, to the eleven, at the Ascension, to Paul, to Stephen, to Paul in the temple, and to John on Patmos. The fact that Jesus appeared to so many people is evidence for the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead
Persecution and Death of Apostles

The second reason why Jesus rose from the dead is the fact that the apostles were willing die for what they believed in. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek state that:
“the New Testament writers suffered persecution and death when they could have saved themselves by recanting. If they would have made up the Resurrection story they certainly would have said so when they were about to be crucified (Peter), stoned (James), or beheaded (Paul). But no one recanted- eleven out of the twelve were martyred for their faith (the only survivor was John, who was exiled to the Greek island of Patmos). Why would they die for a known lie?”

Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, had this to say about the apostles:
“Twelve powerless men, peasants really, were facing not just embarrassment or political disgrace, but beatings, stonings, execution. Every single one of the disciples insisted, to their dying deaths, that they had physically seen Jesus bodily raised from the dead. Don’t you think that one of those apostles would have cracked before being beheaded or stoned? That one of them would have made a deal with the authorities? None did.”

The apostles would not have subjected themselves to all the persecution and ultimately execution if the resurrection did not happen. The fact that they would not recant and went to their death suggests that they had a life-changing experience. Jesus really did rise from the dead and the people who saw him literally shook the foundations of the world for the cause of Christ.
Some critics suggest that the apostles stole the body of Christ and that Jesus really did not rise from the dead. Again, why would the disciples not come clean to the authorities and admit that they stole the body before they died. The body was not stolen. Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead. Others state that Jesus did not actually die. They state that he swooned. Now this argument can be taken apart because of the brutality of Jesus’ death. Crucifixion was a brutal way for someone to die. It is a known fact that Jesus’ friends and his enemies thought he was dead. Geisler states that “the Romans, who were brutal executioners, whipped and beat Jesus brutally to the point of collapse. They then drove heavy, wrought iron nails through his wrists and feet, and plunged a spear through His side. They didn’t break his legs to speed death because they knew he was already dead.” When Jesus was laid into that tomb there was no doubt that he was dead. So knowing that fact and knowing that the disciples were willing to stake their lives on the fact that Jesus died, was buried and that he rose again is pretty solid evidence to suggest that Jesus literally rose from the dead.

Paul’s Conversion

The third reason why Jesus rose from the dead is Paul’s conversion from being a murderer of Christians to being the greatest missionary who ever lived. Paul, who at one time was known as Saul of Tarsus, was present in the stoning of Stephen. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians when a bright light knocked him off his horse and blinded him. Paul heard a voice and questioned the voice asking the voice who it was, and the response was, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.

According to Ed Hindson and Ergun Caner,
“ recent scholars agree, for a variety of reasons, that Paul is the most reliable witness to Jesus’ resurrection appearances. Once an adamant adversary of Christianity, Paul explains that he jettisoned his unbelief after he saw the risen Jesus. Given his conversion from the ranks of Jewish scholarship to one of Christianity’s greatest scholars, Paul is certainly viewed as an excellent witness to the resurrection appearances.”

Paul was taught by the great Jewish teacher Gamaliel, and was on track to possibly become a member of the Sanhedrin. His scholarship was brilliant and many suggest that he had a P.H.D in his time. The fact that he was so opposed to Christianity only to suddenly become a Christian suggests that he indeed had something miraculous happen to him. He did have an encounter with Jesus Christ and that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that He is indeed Deity.

Conclusion

To summarize what has already been stated Douglas Groothius declares:
“The New Testament reverberates and glistens with the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. The Gospels record Jesus’ teaching that he must be betrayed, killed, and rise again. Then they all testify that his tomb was empty and that he appeared to his disciples as he said. The Book of Acts records the preaching of the resurrected Christ as its central fact. The various New Testament letters and the book of Revelation would melt into nothingness without a resurrected Jesus. The resurrection is attested to by four separate Gospels, the history of the early church, by the letters of Paul, Peter, John, James, Jude, and the Letter to the Hebrews. There is a diversity of credible witnesses. Since the New Testament volumes show considerable fitness in terms of historical reliability… this is a good initial reason to accept the resurrection as an objective reality.”

C.S. Lewis writes this regarding Jesus:
“I am here trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a mad man or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

I choose to believe He is God. He is my Lord and my Savior and I will preach that He rose from the dead till the day I leave this body. Even if there was no evidence to suggest that He rose from the dead I would still believe because I have faith. Faith is believing God when you can not see the tangible reality. I was not there when Jesus rose from the dead, but I have the Word of God that tells me that there were godly men who lived with him and saw him after he rose from the dead. That is enough evidence for me.