April 21 Easter Monday
Acts 2:14,
22-33; Psalm 16:1-2a,5,7-8,9-10,11; Matthew 28:8-15
The great event to which the
apostles bore witness—and to which we are called to bear witness—was the
resurrection of Jesus. But how can we be witnesses? The apostles saw the risen
Jesus. We haven’t.
We witness by making the risen Jesus
visible in us. We do that by living a lifestyle that cannot be explained unless
Jesus is living in us, enlightening and empowering us to live in a way that is
more than human. Our morality, our goodness, has to go beyond the Ten
Commandments. The guidelines for a Christian life are in the Sermon on the
Mount, Matthew, chapters five to seven. They sound totally unrealistic.
They are not meant to be taken
literally. They are wild examples to show us the way God thinks. We are
supposed to base all our behavior on God’s divine attitudes and values. That
challenges us to think.
If we try to apply God’s attitudes
and values to daily life, we will come up with new and creative ideas. Our
behavior will be different; raise eyebrows. Then we will be “prophets,” living
lives of “prophetic witness.”
We will be the sign and proof that
Jesus is risen from the dead.
PRAY: Lord, show me the path to life, fullness of joy in
your presence.
PRACTICE: Ask before every choice “How does this bear witness to
the values of Christ?”
Two of the biggest assumptions that many Christians make regarding the truth claims of Christianity is that, one, eyewitnesses wrote the four gospels. The problem is, however, that the majority of scholars today do not believe this is true. The second big assumption many Christians make is that it would have been impossible for whoever wrote these four books to have invented details in their books, especially in regards to the Empty Tomb and the Resurrection appearances, due to the fact that eyewitnesses to these events would have still been alive when the gospels were written and distributed.
ReplyDeleteBut consider this, dear Reader: Most scholars date the writing of the first gospel, Mark, as circa 70 AD. Who of the eyewitnesses to the death of Jesus and the alleged events after his death were still alive in 70 AD? That is four decades after Jesus' death. During that time period, tens of thousands of people living in Palestine were killed in the Jewish-Roman wars of the mid and late 60's, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem.
How do we know that any eyewitness to the death of Jesus in circa 30 AD was still alive when the first gospel was written and distributed in circa 70 AD? How do we know that any eyewitness to the death of Jesus ever had the opportunity to read the Gospel of Mark and proof read it for accuracy?
I challenge Christians to list the name of even ONE eyewitness to the death of Jesus who was still alive in 70 AD along with the evidence to support your claim.
If you can't list any names, dear Christian, how can you be sure that details such as the Empty Tomb, the detailed resurrection appearances, and the Ascension ever really occurred? How can you be sure that these details were not simply theological hyperbole...or...the exaggerations and embellishments of superstitious, first century, mostly uneducated people, who had retold these stories thousands of times, between thousands of people, from one language to another, from one country to another, over a period of many decades?