Josh McDowell's Blog, page 26

3 Foundational Truths of Christianity

Welcome! Thanks for joining us for this, our thirteenth post in our new year-long blog series we’re calling “Journey Together.” In this post we’ll dive a bit further into three foundational truths of  Christianity.

What do Christians basically believe?

For starters, that God has a wonderful plan for humanity — though Adam and Eve mucked up the works pretty darn fast. Were the actions of these infamous first sinners a surprise to God? No. Because in creating us, God intentionally gave us free will. Just like He gave Satan. Despite knowing that we, too, would all too often choose sin over Him, God allows us the freedom to choose. God isn’t interested in robots, but messy people who sincerely love Him. 

Amazingly, God continually seeks to bring us back into right standing with Him. That’s true tolerance!

Let’s look at three foundational truths that committed Christ-followers find compelling enough to exclude all paths except Jesus.

Foundational Truth #1: Jesus Proved His Deity

During his 3-year ministry, Jesus repeatedly told His followers that He came from heaven to die for mankind’s sin, in order to reconcile us to God. In dying and resurrecting, Jesus fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophesies uttered hundreds of years before His birth.

But Jesus knows that talk can be cheap. So how did He make good on His claims? Through His actions.

Did Jesus demonstrate compassion, kindness, and acceptance? Yup! Jesus called out sin, but He foremost made it clear that He was motivated by the love that God the Father has for every single one of us. Did Jesus demonstrate incredible wisdom? Off the charts! He left even the most educated stumped. Did Jesus demonstrate miraculous power over nature, disease, demons, and death? Totally! Even over His own death, which validates His claim of the being the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Everything Jesus said AND did were congruent. Everything about Him, as I heard one scholar put it, “Hangs together.” It may still take quite the leap of faith for some of us to believe that God would come down in human form. But Jesus could NOT have done more to relationally prove God’s love.

Externally, Jesus appeared to be just a first-century Palestine peasant. But He proved His deity with His actions. Who can this be, asked His wowed disciples, that even the wind and sea obey Him?
Click To Tweet

Foundational Truth #2: Christianity Changes People

The Bible clearly says that humanity’s woes stem from our collective sinful nature. Even our modern technology can’t save us from ourselves. Just look at the online porn footprint, which has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Despite the societal view that modern man has become “enlightened” by leaving God behind, we just can’t get beyond the pull of addiction, abuse, hatred, revenge, and other crippling, destructive behaviors.

Many people actually are looking for a “savior” — but they’re placing bets on the wrong ponies. It won’t be government intervention or subsidies, New Age philosophies, the media, the money of the super wealthy, or even the “right” president who will be able to “fix things.” Because they can’t address the real root of the problem: Us.

As Jesus notes in the Bible, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.” 

It’s so frustrating to Christians that they don’t instantly become like Jesus the moment they accept Him as Lord. God might, of course, immediately release a person from an addiction or situation that had so painfully ensnared them. But to become the loving, patient, self-controlled person that Christ modeled, we must go through the daily (and sometimes painful) process of partnering with God to put ourselves second.

But here’s the good news: because God offers us complete assurance of His love, acceptance, and forgiveness, we can RUN to him and find His arms open to us every time we mess up. We need that grace so much!

Foundational Truth #3: The Bible is Historical Reliable

The Bible is God’s Word to us. It’s very cool that God not only cares about the issues we’re struggling with, but that in His Word He provides answers to many of our questions about life and purpose. To critics who suggest that the Bible is outdated, irrelevant, and in no way applicable to modern society, I’d have to ask if they’ve actually read much of it. The Bible teaches us how to love, how to forgive, where to place our focus, even how to be great spouses, friends, and parents.

The Bible’s integrity, specific to both its historical and geographical record, continues to be supported by external sources and archeological discoveries. Critics like to claim that the Bible can’t be trusted due to the element of human error. But this just isn’t true. We have lots of blog posts that cover the reliability of Scripture that you can peruse. Just one notable confirmation of the authenticity of the Bible can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in a cave in Qumran only about 70 years ago.

Jesus fulfilled loads of Old Testament prophesy through His birth, death, and resurrection. Even today, the Bible continues to provide convincing prophetic accuracy. The Bible isn’t an ordinary, static book. It contains the Spirit of God!

“I’m just not sure that I can make the leap that Jesus is God. Or that He really cares about me.”

I totally get this! Because I had to overcome these mental hurdles, too. I hated that Christ died such a gruesome death; it took me years to gratefully accept that Jesus purposefully, willingly chose to hang there to express God‘s ceaseless love for ME. Because of that sacrifice — not my actions — I am deemed worthy to enter God’s presence without shame or guilt. That’s mind-blowing!

When Jesus said, “I am the Way,” he meant it. It wasn’t small talk, it wasn’t bragging, it was truth. 

Where else, in all of existence, can we find a restorative relationship based not on our do, but on our who? Show me! Among all world religions, ONLY Christianity offers grace and full acceptance of our messy insides — even if they resemble that ghastly Dorian Gray’s portrait. #yowza

The foundational truths of Christianity are based on the historical personage of Jesus. He lived, He died, and He resurrected, to intimately show us God’s amazing power and love. But the choice is up to us: Will we accept that we are so valued and wanted by the Creator of the universe?

Only through Christ can we receive the free gift of unconditional acceptance and love that we instinctively crave. This makes Christianity completely unique, and completely cool.
Click To Tweet

In our next blog post, let’s look at five attributes of God. Wanna know God better? Don’t miss that post!

Catch up: The introductory post to this series.

The post 3 Foundational Truths of Christianity appeared first on Josh.org.

What Makes the Bible So Special? Quick VIDEO

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

The post What Makes the Bible So Special? Quick VIDEO appeared first on Josh.org.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Welcome! Thanks for joining us for this, our twelfth post in our new year-long blog series we’re calling “Journey Together.” In this post we’ll look at two answers for the question “Why did Jesus have to die?”

Here’s why the “Why did Jesus have to die?” question is critical: if you and I don’t get clear on the need for Jesus’ cruel death on the cross, we’ll never fully grasp the full nature of God. And we’ll cheapen the significance of the cross — which I’ll admit I did for a whole lot of years. People, I was 100 percent disgusted by the cross. I hated seeing it in church. I hated hearing about it in church. And there was no way I was wearing a shiny gold replica of it around my neck! As a child I can remember thinking, “The cross is seriously yucky. Poor grown-up baby Jesus!”

I was so focused on pitying Jesus, that for years I was mad at God. What kind of loving God, I asked, would send His son to endure torture and death? But my question only showed my cluelessness about God's supreme goodness.
Click To Tweet

“Why did Jesus have to die?” Let’s look at two important reasons!



Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Because of Justice.
Why did Jesus have to die? Reason #1: So that God can welcome us into His holy presence.

Once humanity chose to sin, our sin separated us from God. Because God is completely holy. This might be hard for us to understand, so let’s use an analogy. Imagine a freshly shampooed carpet in our family playroom — and our muddy-pawed puppy racing toward it. We’d stall the puppy to prevent it from spoiling the carpet, right?

The torture that Jesus endured on the way to His death was shameful. Crucifixion, perfected under the oh-so-enlightened Romans, remains the most monstrous form of public execution ever devised. It is horrific, excruciating, and inhumane.

But when we isolate the words horrific, excruciating, and shameful, we get our first hints of the depth of sacrifice God was willing to make of Himself to reconcile us to Him.
Click To Tweet

As a child — okay, even for a whole lot of my adult years — I missed the of Himself part. The phrase “God sent His son to die” muddies the reality that God and Jesus are one.

God wasn’t an indifferent, distant bystander. He felt every slap, punch, and lash of the whip. He felt the jarring pain in each step Jesus took to reach Golgotha. He felt the sense of suffocation Jesus experienced each time He struggled to fill His lungs on the cross. God felt the suffocating weight of our evilness and sin that draped heavy on Jesus. He felt the utter despair of Jesus’ loneliness when He turned His back on Jesus. God could have prevented the cross — but yet He couldn’t, if we were to be redeemed.

Together, at the cross, God and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, forever wiping the mud from our paws, so we can race, unfettered, to Them, 24/7.

Dr. Andy Bannister of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries answers the question, “Why did Jesus have to die?” this way. The cross, he explains, is the cross-section of God’s mercy and justice. When true forgiveness or mercy is bestowed, someone has to pay the price for it. The cross offers true mercy and forgiveness, but not at the expense of justice. God, through Jesus, was perfectly unselfish. He stepped up to pay the exorbitant fine required for our sin.

Notes Richard Cunningham in his excellent article on BeThinking.org, “We underestimate the significance of our sin — which is why the death of Jesus looks like gratuitous violence.” Adds Bibleinfo.com, “…a just and perfect God could not simply sweep sin under the carpet and go on running a perfect universe.”

Because we can’t see our sin the way God does, we kinda think maybe His standards are too high. Like, maybe, God should take a chill pill.

Christ's suffering was so terrible because it was equal to the seriousness of our sin.
Click To Tweet

Here’s my prayer for all of us: that we begin to see how our sin hurts God — and that we gain the desire to truly honor Him wholeheartedly with our words, thoughts, and actions.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Because of Love.
Why did Jesus have to die? Reason #2: To demonstrate God’s complete and utter love for us.

Why, asks Cunningham, did Jesus so deliberately co-operate with a series of events that took Him to a place of torture and bloody execution? It seems unnecessary. Except for the point we just made in Reason #1: That God Himself was in Christ, personally dealing with the sin.

“True love has the power not to ignore hurt, but to absorb it,” wisely notes Cunningham. God and Jesus absorbed the pain of our sin and digested it. And Christ, he adds, “plumbed the depths of His own divine heart for those inner resources which alone can quench God’s righteous anger.”

The loving and the dying are related. But we tend to separate the two, and view the cross to be an extravagant, self-indulgent mistake on God’s part. (Or am I the only one who has told God so, repeatedly, before I came to understand why the cross is so necessary?)

Well, it’s a fact, Jack, that the disciples certainly initially thought the cross was the end of things. But after seeing Jesus resurrected, they came to realize that the cross — not the resurrection — signified Jesus’ most victorious moment of glory. John 19:30 tells us that in nearing His death, Jesus shouts, “It is finished,” not “I am finished.” Translated correctly, the word Jesus used translates to “completed.”

At the cross, His disciples viewed Jesus as defeated. They didn't get it -- until they did! Soon they were preaching that Jesus defeated sin and death and hell itself.
Click To Tweet

Why did Jesus have to die? For us to clearly see God’s commitment to be in relationship with us.

Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? I think Bibleinfo.com’s view is spot on: “The cross is graphic enough to reach the most hardened criminal, but also the most sensitive humanist.” Jesus was willing to die brutally for us, to prevent our brutal punishment.

Have you accepted Christ as Lord? The expiration date on His loving invitation ceases only upon your last breath. But why wait? Life, walked daily with Him, is so much better than walking alone.

In our next blog post, let’s look at some of the foundations of the Christian faith. Christianity is based on truth!

Catch up: The introductory post to this series.

The post Why Did Jesus Have to Die? appeared first on Josh.org.

The Resurrection Answers Three Big Questions

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted on the minds of human beings—or it is the most remarkable fact of history.

My father has often shared these words to me in person, and he’s written them in his books. The older I get, the more I realize they’re unmistakably true. There’s no middle ground with the resurrection of Jesus. Either it is a colossal fabrication or the most important event in history.

Given that we are in Easter season, many people are thinking about the resurrection. Is it true? What does it mean? Why should I care?

In this short post, I have a modest goal: to persuade you of the monumental importance of the resurrection of Jesus. Thus, I consider three massive questions that the resurrection, if it is true, answers.

 

1. Does God Exist?

If Jesus has risen from the grave, and truly conquered death 2,000 years ago, then this seems to be powerful evidence for the existence of God. After all, a resurrection would require an enormous amount of power and an enormous amount of knowledge. Nature does not have the resources to account for a resurrection any more than a feather can account for a massive dent in a car (unless it’s a Chevy). There must be a supernatural explanation.

Commenting on Jesus’ claims to deity, Gary Habermas observes,

But were these claims true? To verify them, the Gospels assert that Jesus performed miracles as signs of his credibility. We are even told that he identified his resurrection and predicted in advance that this event would be the ultimate vindication of his message and his own claim to deity.

The sum of these teachings comprised Jesus’s personal belief in Christian theism. It makes sense that Jesus was in the best position to interpret the meaning of this event. And he claimed that God’s action in his resurrection would verify his teachings.

We need to entertain at least the possibility that Jesus was correct: that this unique historical event combined with Jesus’s unique claims might indicate that his theistic worldview was corroborated. 

If Jesus rose from the grave, then it seems to provide a positive answer to one of the most pressing issues humans ask—Does God exist?

 

2. Which Religion Is True?
If the resurrection actually took place in historical space-time, then all other religions and philosophies for coping with life fall short.

This doesn’t mean other religions are entirely false in everything they teach. Many religions offer profound insights about life. But it does mean that on core issues—the nature of God, salvation and the afterlife—Christianity is uniquely true. And on the flip side, as Paul observes, if the resurrection is not true, then Christianity is utterly false (1 Cor 15:14, 17).

Jesus encouraged people to believe in him because of both his teachings and his miracles (e.g. John 5:36-40; Luke 10:13-15). He seemed to view miracles as providing a divine seal on his own ministry. For instance, Jesus reportedly told the Jewish leaders that his miracles were proof that he was the Son of God (John 10:36-38). On another occasion, Jesus pointed to his resurrection as the greatest sign that would confirm his identity (Matthew 16:1-4).

Again, Gary Habermas observes:

In what the Book of Acts presents as its initial sermon, Peter reportedly declared that Jesus’s miracles, and especially the resurrection, were the chief indication that God had approved Jesus’s teachings (Acts 2:23-32)…By citing an early creed that utilizes at least three Christological titles, Paul proclaimed that the resurrection was God’s confirmation of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:3-4)…the resurrection would have been taken as God’s approval of Jesus’s message. 

 

3. Is There Life After Death?

How could we really know if there is life after death? In the 1990 science-fiction thriller Flatliners (which was poorly updated in 2017), some medical students want to know if there is life after death. Instead of studying religion or philosophy, they decide to flatline one another’s hearts, resuscitate themselves back to life, and then give a report on what happens in the afterlife. While morbid, their thinking does make sense—if we want to know what’s on the other side of life, we should ask someone who has been there and come back.

If the resurrection is true, then Jesus has actually returned from the dead and can confirm that there is life after death.

In John 14:3, Jesus says to his disciples, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (ESV). In other words, Jesus can testify about life after death because he has died, and then returned to life as a witness. Thus, if the resurrection is true, then life continues after death, just as Jesus taught.

Can you see how important the resurrection is? Again, either it is a colossal fabrication, or it is the most important event in history. There’s no middle ground.

If you haven’t really considered the evidence, then today should be the day. Maybe start by checking out Evidence that Demands A Verdict, the book my father first wrote trying to refute the Christian faith. He came to the opposite conclusion, and together we just completed an update with the most recent evidence for Jesus.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, a best-selling author of over 15 books, an internationally recognized speaker, and a part-time high school teacher. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org

 

 

 Gary Habermas, The Risen Jesus & Future Hope (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 66-67.

 Ibid., 91.

The post The Resurrection Answers Three Big Questions appeared first on Josh.org.

Josh Asks: Why Celebrate Easter?

Welcome! Thanks for joining us for this, our eleventh post in our new year-long blog series we’re calling “Journey Together.” 
As our excitement for Easter’s approach builds, I have a question for you: What should be our focus? The story of a chocolate-totting bunny? Or, maybe, love?




I don’t know why the Easter Bunny gets so much press at Easter. I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s not real. I’ve certainly found no historical record of him in the Bible. Not in the Old Testament. And definitely not in the New.

Porn, Sexual Assault & Changing a Culture of #MeToo

More than ever, we live in an over-sexualized world. Daily we are bombarded with sexual content from the media, advertising, video games, internet, and movies. Reports of sexual misconduct are regularly in the news. Misconduct that takes place in our communities, amidst those we love, amongst us, not some distant world. It’s not unusual for friends and family members to share their stories of sexual assault and harassment.

So many, including myself, have faced atrocities. I can tell you about the times I experienced sexual harassment as a kid by older men, being “cat-called” and inappropriately grabbed. I can tell you about the time I was stalked by a pedophile in a rest stop bathroom, and couldn’t escape his voyeuristic behavior. I can tell you about the many men and women I love who have been raped or sexually abused, and how porn played a key role in the abuser’s life.

So many people are hurting and struggling. I have long been devastated and sick to my stomach about the cycles of sexual exploitation that continue daily. For years now I’ve been writing, speaking, and leading healing groups on the topic of working through hurts and overcoming compulsive behaviors. Our world needs hope, healing, and change. Our world needs Jesus and his culture altering message.

The Problem: A Pornified Culture

The world is one tap away from hardcore pornography through tablets and smartphones. Why is this such a problem? Some of the truths about porn:

Porn has become the primary sex educator for many people (including teens and pre-teens).
Porn is directly responsible for fueling the use and abuse of others, as people become desensitized and begin to view others as mere commodities.
Porn teaches that sexual pleasure is to be taken, not given.
Similar to a drug, tolerance builds up in the brain after repeatedly viewing pornography. This often leads to the desire for more explicit and taboo forms of porn, the desire to act out scenarios, sexual aggression, and demeaning others through words and actions. Currently, one in three women and one in six men experience sexual assault in their lifetime. This is tragic and heartbreaking!
Porn fuels sexual harassment, sexual abuse, misogyny, and systemic sexism.
Pornography is strongly interlinked with the human trafficking industry globally. Many performers on film are victims of sex trafficking themselves, coerced into participation in sexual acts.

The Solution: Jesus & His Healing Design

Amid the challenges of our over-sexualized world, the need is greater than ever for sharing Jesus’ love and message of healing! 

Jesus has a lot to say about sex, healing, and thriving:

God designed sex within a certain context for deep connection and maximum satisfaction.

(Matthew 19:4-6)
Jesus came to heal our brokenness and to bind up our wounds. (Psalm 147:3)
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)
Jesus came to set the captive free. (Luke 4:18)
Jesus came to bring us an abundant, thriving life right here and now. (John 10:10)

We need a greater vision for sex – God’s vision for sex. And to share with others how they can be healed and set free from their experiences and struggles. Sadly, so many people are lost and trying to live with no universal truth or standard. They experience the damaging effects of that lifestyle, including sexual brokenness. But through Jesus’ design, we can truly thrive and heal, experience maximum satisfaction, and be protected from hurting others or being hurt.

Only when we know the original, can we spot the counterfeits and not settle for less than the thriving life God created us to experience.
Click To Tweet


Can We Turn the Tide on the Sexual Epidemic?

Yes! Jesus’ message of sexual wholeness meets one of the greatest needs of our day, offering light where darkness abounds! At Josh McDowell Ministry we’re working hard to disciple people in their faith and guide them into sexual wholeness. We define “sexual wholeness” as God’s thriving design for sex and sexuality.

The situation can seem overwhelming and hopeless. But there are solutions. We can start by asking these important questions:

Are we helping people to understand how Jesus heals the brokenhearted in practical ways?
Are we taking drastic measures in our churches and families to address these issues with both preventative and restorative means?
Are we seeking help ourselves, getting healthy, and changing the systems that perpetuate sexual

brokenness?
Are we teaching God’s design for sexual wholeness?
Are we inviting others to know this Jesus who can make them whole as well?

We care deeply that all experience healing, come to understand God’s design for sexual wholeness, and learn the best preventative and restorative solutions to pornography use. Stay with us as we continue this critical conversation!

Jesus’ invitation of wholeness is for all: the victim and the victimizer, the addicted and the broken, the hurting and the marginalized.
Click To Tweet

Helpful Resources:

Josh McDowell Ministry Sex & Relationships resource page
https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/NISVS-StateReportBook.pdf
https://fightthenewdrug.org/why-consuming-porn-is-an-escalating-behavior/#24
https://www.culturereframed.org/researched-harms/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johnhenry-westen/want-to-stop-sex-traffick_b_6563338.html

The post Porn, Sexual Assault & Changing a Culture of #MeToo appeared first on Josh.org.

Was the Resurrection of Jesus a Late Church Invention?

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

 

To be a Christian today is to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But what about the first Christians? Could belief in the resurrection have been a late church invention? If so, then Easter celebration is deeply misguided and Christians ought to reject the evidence for faith.

Critics often claim that there were a variety of “Christian” beliefs in the first and second centuries—some that embraced the resurrection of Jesus and others that rejected it. The resurrection party happened to “win,” and so contemporary Christians accept it.

The problem with this claim is that there is no early Christianity apart from belief in the resurrection.

Let me say it again—The earliest records we have all indicate that belief in the resurrection of Jesus was at the heart of the Christian faith.

Consider four points:

 

1. Early Christian Creeds:

Creeds are verbal proclamations that circulated before their inclusion in the New Testament (e.g., Romans 1:3-4, 1 Peter 3:18). They give us a glimpse into the earliest Christian beliefs. Perhaps the oldest creed comes from 1 Corinthians 15:3-5:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Notice two things.

First, Paul passes on a tradition that he had previously been given. Given the formulaic structure of this passage, most scholars agree that Paul is passing on material he received.

Second, the resurrection is of “first importance” for the faith.

 

2. Early Christian Preaching:

The book of Acts records the beginning and expansion of the church. Resurrection is mentioned in most of the speeches, which make up roughly one-third of the book. In the first speech in Acts, Peter describes how God appointed Jesus to do wonders but he was killed by lawless men, and yet “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24).

 

3. Early Letters of Paul:

The epistles of Paul are filled with references to the resurrection. N.T. Wright observes:

Squeeze this letter [Romans] at any point, and resurrection spills out; hold it up the light, and you can see Easter sparking all the way through. If Romans had not been hailed as the great epistle of justification by faith, it might easily have come to be known as the chief letter of resurrection.

 

4. Early Church Fathers:

Resurrection was a central theme for many of the believers shortly after the apostles. Affirmations of the resurrection can be found in Ignatius Letter to the Magnesians 11, Polycarp Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians 1.2, 1 Clement 42:3, and the Letter of Barnabas 5:6.

The centrality of the resurrection can be seen in the earliest Christians creeds, the first written documents, the first preaching, and in the apostolic fathers.

There simply is no record of early Christian faith divorced from the resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus was not a late church invention. It was the heart of the earliest Christian faith and proclamation.

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

 N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 241.

 

 

 

 

 

The post Was the Resurrection of Jesus a Late Church Invention? appeared first on Josh.org.

What is the Evidence Jesus Rose from the Dead? Quick VIDEO

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

The post What is the Evidence Jesus Rose from the Dead? Quick VIDEO appeared first on Josh.org.

Hope: Not Wishful Thinking For Christians

Welcome! Thanks for joining us for this, our latest post in our new year-long blog series we’re calling “Journey Together.” In this post we’ll dive a bit further into how our relationship with God infuses us with hope.

Hope over our missteps of the past, which God can redeem. Hope for our present. And hope for the future, on the glorious day we will see Him face-to-face. A Christian’s hope is not simply a desire for something possibly attainable. A Christian’s hope is certain, because God has guaranteed it. God loved us at creation, and sent Jesus to ensure our eternity with Him when we accept Him as Lord.

Bottom line: our hope gains us strength, rest, and contentment. Let’s look at three ways we can tap into this hope, and keep it with us on a daily basis.



—-Hope That We’re Special to God

Our value comes from one single source: God. Only what He says about us matters. Not what society says, not what our spouses say, not what our children say, not what our parents say, etc. God tells us over and over and over again in the Bible that He will never stop loving us, rooting for us, carrying us, and seeking after a relationship with us. Why? Because we are that special to Him.

If you’ve gotten the idea from your church that you’re not highly valued by God, you heard wrong. God may not like our behavior when it runs counter to His standards, but he never, for an instance, views us without love. That’s AMAZING grace, friends! The Bible tells us He CRAVES to be in relationship with us. Because He knows that if He can get our attention, He can tells us His love message over and over and over until it finally sinks into our souls and echoes with every heartbeat. Jesus covered all of our sins at the cross. God’s face is always turned toward us.

—-Hope That We’re Not Our Mistakes

I CANNOT tell you how much I love this one! We all want to be redeemed from our dumb choices, right?

On our worst days, we long for a Do Over button. The good news: one actually exists. God keeps His finger on it, ever willing to push it.
Click To Tweet

God repeatedly tells us to drop our soiled baggage at His feet — and to stop picking it up again. Yes, it can be so hard to sometimes let go of the guilt and shame we think we have to keep punishing ourselves with. But God tells us to drop our load because He knows how much it hobbles us in moving forward. Anyway, He’s already forgiven it. The FIRST time we asked!

You might have been told, as a child, that you were a screw up. You might have been reminded last week by a family member, boss, or stranger, that you’re a screw up. You might even, at this very moment, be hearing voices in your head that you’re a screw up. BUT YOU ARE NOT. Trust me; I know how hard this can be to believe!

I was raised in a church that taught that God’s love for me was conditional. So it intentionally reminded me of my screwed-up nature every single Sunday. Family members also repeatedly told me that I didn’t measure up. So sometimes the negative self-talk in my head is downright vicious. That’s when I limp to God, to anxiously test if He’s still with me. My hope returns when in my soul I hear God assert, “Your who is NOT your do, beloved child of mine. You are redeemed because of my son Jesus.” That renews my spirit!

Amazing grace. So hard to believe. But so necessary to believe if we're to love, trust, and wholeheartedly follow God. God's standards never deviate, but neither does His unceasing love.
Click To Tweet

—-Hope That Our Life Matters

There is nothing worse than wandering through our days without meaning and purpose. Because without either we get antsy and depressed and start to think of ourselves as inconsequential. And then we begin to compare ourselves with others, which is never good, because we lose hope.

God’s Word tells us that HE distributes our gifts and talents. And that HE doesn’t view one person’s talents as more important than another’s. You might feel yourself a tiny minnow in a miles-wide ocean, but that’s not how God sees you. He sees you as the right person, in the right place, to do what He needs done in the right moment.

You might not be aware of it, but your words and actions have the power to change the trajectory of many other lives. Your bright smile might be the very nugget of hope that buoys another person. Your shared meal might be the small gesture of generosity that soothes another’s rejected heart. Your carving time out of your hectic schedule to sit with a hurting friend might plant seeds of hope that blossom and bear fruit that others get to gratefully gobble up.

4 Misconceptions about Resurrection

 

 

Original post by Sean McDowell here. Used with permission.

 

 

Not long ago, I was invited onto a radio show to discuss the evidence for the resurrection with a Christian and a skeptic. The skeptical host pushed back on my argument for the uniqueness of the resurrection of Jesus. “Your claim is so obviously false,” he said, “Just look at all the resurrections of the dead in the Bible alone, including people like Lazarus.”

The host was certainly right that many other people have been raised from the dead in the Bible, but he was confused about the difference between rising from the dead and resurrection. This is a common misunderstanding. We are going to briefly consider four misconceptions about the meaning of resurrection, and then clarify the biblical idea.

 

1. Resurrection Is Not Immortality of the Soul.

Greek philosophers saw the body as the prison house of the soul. The material world was considered corrupt, fallen, and evil. Thus, the goal of salvation was to escape the physical realm and to be freed from its shackles. But in Hebrew thought, the material world is considered good. The soul without the body is incomplete. A human being is a body and soul in unity.

 

2. Resurrection Is Not Reincarnation.

Eastern religions teach reincarnation, the rebirth of the self (consciousness, soul, mind, etc.) after the death of the body. Reincarnation is considered a curse, not a blessing. Depending on the specific tradition, the goal is to escape the cycle of reincarnation and experience nirvana or personal annihilation. In contrast, the biblical view is that human beings live one life, and then are raised to be judged by God (Hebrews 9:27).

 

3. Resurrection Is Not Resuscitation.

As mentioned by the skeptic in the opening story, the Bible records many instances of people coming back to life. Elijah raised the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:17-24). Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-44). Peter raised Tabitha (Acts 9:36-42). And Paul raised Eutychus (Acts 20:9-12). But here is the difference between these people and Jesus: They would each die again, but Jesus was raised to immortality and glory.

 

4. Resurrection Is Not Translation.

The Bible records at least two instances where people were taken directly to God without dying. Enoch lived 365 years and then was taken up directly to be with God (Genesis 5:21-24). The prophet Elijah was taken to heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1). These are not examples of resurrection because there is no evidence either experienced death.

 

So, what is resurrection?

As my father and I state in the updated Evidence that Demands A Verdict, resurrection is a return to physical life. But it is not a return to the present physical existence with all its limitations. Resurrected bodies are transformed, incorruptible, and eternal (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

Jesus was not resuscitated, reincarnated, or translated. And his soul did not escape to an immaterial realm.

Jesus was resurrected—never to die again. And since Jesus is the firstfruits of those who are yet to come, if we trust in Christ, we too will one day have transformed, resurrected bodies and be able to experience eternity with Christ and the Church in the New Heavens and New Earth (Revelation 21-22).

 

 

Sean McDowell, Ph.D. is a professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, best-selling author, popular speaker, part-time high school teacher, and the Resident Scholar for Summit Ministries, California. Follow him on Twitter: @sean_mcdowell and his blog: seanmcdowell.org.

 

 

The post 4 Misconceptions about Resurrection appeared first on Josh.org.