Category: Defending the Faith

Seven Reasons to be Confident in the Resurrection of Jesus

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei Class1 Comment

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised” (1 Corinthians 15:12-15).

 All of Christianity hinges upon the resurrection of Christ. Paul argues that if he has not been raised, we are still in our sins and are completely misrepresenting God. But if he has been raised, Paul argues in Acts 17:31, everything he said and did, including his perfect life and sacrificial death, is vindicated. Therefore, it is not a stretch to say that if we do not have confidence in the resurrection, we cannot have confidence in our salvation.

But Christ has been raised! We can and should be confident in his resurrection. Here are seven reasons why:

1. The Empty Tomb

    Jesus was buried in a known location. His tomb was owned by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin. It was also guarded by Roman soldiers, who must have been told which tomb to guard and where it was. If the tomb was occupied, Jesus’ body could have been easily produced by the Roman guards or the Jews. Everyone who went there found the exact same thing- an empty tomb.

    2. The Soldiers’ Response

    Matthew reports that the guards immediately reported to the Jewish leaders. That’s interesting in and of itself. Why didn’t they go to Roman leaders? Because they would have been killed! The Jewish leaders paid the soldiers to spread the lie that Jesus’ disciples stole the body in the night. They told the guards, “if this [the empty tomb] comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble” (Matt 28:14). The soldiers’ lives were on the line. Yet they “took the money and did as they were told” (Matt 28:15).

    Here’s the question. Why would the Roman soldiers trust the Jewish leaders who promised to “satisfy”  the governor and keep them out of trouble? They didn’t have that much influence. And the soldiers knew that. But they had no other option. The tomb was empty. Their life was in danger. Their best bet was to take the money, spread the lie, and take their chances on the Jewish leader’s protection. They had no other option.

    3. The Early Claims

    Claims of Jesus’ resurrection began days after his death. Once again, if these claims were false, why did no one prove it? Critics will say that resurrection claims camemuch later, even decades after Jesus’ death, too far from his death to really prove such claims false. But 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 proves this such theories false. Paul writes,

    “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

    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.”

    Many scholars believe that verses 3-5 are an early creed that dates immediately after Jesus’ death up to five years later. And Paul is quoting this creed in his letter written in the 50s, only two decades after Jesus’ death. So we can be confident that the claims regarding his resurrection did not arise later. They began as early as the day the women discovered the empty tomb.

    Continue reading “Seven Reasons to be Confident in the Resurrection of Jesus” →

    Is Jesus Really God? A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Summary

    On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei ClassLeave a comment

    Does the Bible present Jesus as God in the flesh? Is the Son of God really God? Or did the doctrine of Christ’s deity evolve over the centuries? Christianity rises and falls upon this doctrine just as much as any other. It is not an overstatement to say that salvation hangs in the balance. So, what’s the answer?

    Dan Brown writes in his enormously popular book The Da Vinci Code that Jesus’ deity was a doctrine proposed and voted on at the Council of Nicaea in 325. He writes that the Roman emperor at the time, Constantine, “turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable.”[1] However, The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, and so is this claim. Fiction.

    Not only is this claim historically inaccurate (the deity of Christ was not proposed/voted on at the council of Nicaea), it is biblically and theologically inaccurate. The Scriptures clearly present Jesus as God and our theology of salvation requires it. Yet countless cults and critics have bought into Brown’s claims or those like it, believing that the deity of Jesus is a historical development rather than biblical truth.

    Biblical Evidence

    I would like to pose three arguments that demonstrate that the Bible clearly expects us to believe that Jesus is God: 1. Jesus bears the names and titles of God. 2. Jesus does the works of God. 3. Jesus receives the worship of God.

    1. Jesus bears the titles of God.

      Consider the following verses:

      “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

      “Thomas answered him [Jesus], ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28)

      Titus writes that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). This verse features the Granville Sharpe Rule in Greek, where God and Savior refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. It is similar to how we might say “our father and friend David.” We would understand David to be both the father and friend referenced.

      There’s another one of these in 2 Peter 1:1- “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”Peter clearly refers to Jesus as God and Savior.

      Paul writes, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:5)

      And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 21:6). Compare this to what Yahweh says about himself in Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”

      The New Testament authors clearly identify Jesus as God by using these titles in reference to him.

      Continue reading “Is Jesus Really God? A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Summary” →

      Six Reasons You Can Trust the Bible

      On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei Class4 Comments

      This week we are considering the question of whether or not we can trust the Bible. What makes it unique, setting it apart from other religious books? How can we be sure that what we have is what was originally written? And how can we know that it is actually from God?

      A quick reminder: we are not looking for absolute certainty. We are looking for confidence. Can we have confidence that God has spoken to us in the sixty six books of the Bible? Here are six reasons that I believe we can.

      1. The Unity of Scripture

      The Bible was written over 1,500 years by over forty authors in three languages on three different continents, yet it tells one cohesive story about God and man. All of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation centers upon the Son, the Seed, the Servant, who will save his people from their sins and reconcile them to God. His victory is promised in the first book of the Bibe and is realized in the final book of the Bible. How amazing is it that all of the biblical authors, in different languages, in different centuries, write in such unity with each other?

      2. The Explanatory Power of Scripture

      This unifying story is an apologetic in and of itself. It answers all the biggest questions of life: How did we get here? Why are we here? Why is the world the way that it is? Why is there suffering, pain, and death? What hope is there for us? What should we live for? What comes after this life?

      The Bible possesses the greatest explanatory power for all of the major questions of life. It explains who created us, how sin entered the world, why we experience pain and suffering, and how God, in his mercy and love, has purposed to save us in His Son and redeem us from all the effects of sin. It explains to us who God is- the One in whom we live and move and have our being. It gives explanation to life in a way that nothing else can.

      3. Fulfilled Prophecy

      At many points in this unfolding story, God speaks through prophets who specifically predict future events. Some of them are so accurate in their predictions that liberal scholars claim that the books must have been written after the events predicted (the book of Daniel, for example). A couple of these prophecies include Judah & Israel’s exile and captivity, Isaiah’s prediction of Cyrus leading the Jews home, and Jesus prophesying the destruction of the temple within a generation in Matthew 24.

      However, the most impressive prophecies are those that are made about the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Conservatively, Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament. Some of these include specific prophecies such as his birth in Bethlehem or his family fleeing to Egypt, but also include typological prophecies such as Abraham sacrificing his only son, Isaac. God tells Abraham to spare his son, of course, but the story points to God the Father sacrificing his Son, Jesus.

      4. Historical Reliability

      The first three reasons are impressive, but not if the story and prophecies have been edited and re-written over the centuries to make the Bible appear more impressive than it is. Can we be confident that what we have in our modern Bibles is what was actually written thousands of years ago? Yes we can.

      We have greater historical evidence for the Bible than any other work of antiquity. In seminary, I focused on the work of textual criticism. I was able to compare several different manuscripts (copies) of the New Testament and evaluate their similarities and try to make sense of their differences. Get this: we have well over 5,000 copies of the Greek New Testament, and some of those copies go all the way back to within 30-50 years of the originals. And these copies agree 93-95% of the time!

      There are, of course, minor differences between the copies. They were all handwritten copies, so we should expect differences to appear. We call those differences variants. But the vast majority of the text of the New Testament has been miraculously preserved through centuries of copying. When we put the copies side by side, the original (what we call the autograph) emerges, and we can be confident that we have what was originally written.

      Continue reading “Six Reasons You Can Trust the Bible” →

      Three Classic Arguments for the Existence of God

      On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei Class1 Comment

      Can we be certain that God exists? Many have claimed that we can be absolutely certain, and that and doubt regarding God’s existence is absurd. While I appreciate the sentiment, and generally agree that you can’t even talk about the existence of God without assuming that he exists (by the use of logic, reason, and language), I don’t believe that attaining absolute certainty regarding his existence should be our goal.

      The Bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Furthermore, we must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:3). If we could attain certainty regarding the existence of God, what role would faith play? How could we believe that he exists if we could know with absolute certainty that he does?

      Instead of attaining certainty in the existence of God, we should aim for confidence. “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). Consequently, we need an informed faith. A faith that is strong, confident, and full of substance. A faith that is strengthened by what we do know, yet is content with what we do not know. This is the kind of faith we need.

      As we consider three arguments for the existence of God, let’s keep this kind of faith in mind. Our faith cannot be separated from reality, yet it cannot demand the certainty that would render faith useless. For example, God has clearly shown us his attributes in the things that have been made, and thus we are without excuse (Romans 1:20). But the righteous must still live by faith (Romans 1:16-17).

      Therefore, when these arguments regarding the existence of God are considered, we must recognize the clear demonstration of God’s existence and his attributes, but we must choose to exercise faith in them, or rather in God. Its not enough to be convinced of God’s existence intellectually, we must exercise faith in the God who’s existence we are considering. With that being said, here are three of my favorite arguments for the God’s existence:

      1. The Cosmological Argument

      The primary claim of the cosmological argument is that the universe must have a cause. If everything that begins to exist has a cause, and if the universe began to exist, then the universe must have a cause. That which causes the universe to come into must be its creator, able to stand outside of the universe and bring it into being. Nothing comes from nothing. Something must come from something, or someone.

      Imagine you are taking a stroll down the beach, and you come across a glorious sand castle. Would your assumption be that it has always existed, or that at some point in time, it had a beginning? Of course you would assume that it had a beginning. Such is the case for everything else you experience in life. Everything that exists has a cause. This is why the scientific consensus has adopted The Big Bang Theory, because it explains the beginning, or the cause, of the universe. However, even The Big Bang, if it began to exist, had to have a cause. Who or what caused it?

      The cosmological argument asserts that the universe had to have a beginning, and that it is probable for that beginning to be God. More on that in the next argument.

      Continue reading “Three Classic Arguments for the Existence of God” →

      My Truth, Your Truth, or The Truth: Who Gets to Decide?

      On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei Class2 Comments

      Recently I had a conversation with someone who embodied the postmodern sentiment of rejecting all universal truth claims. “There are no universal truths,” he stated plainly. “Is that a universal truth?” I asked. He stopped to think, and after a period of silence, he responded, “That’s a good point.”

      This man recognized the problem with making a universal truth claim that there are no universal truth claims. In order to state his premise, he had to assume that which he intended to deny. This kind of argumentation is typical in our culture that has adopted the pragmatic theory of truth.

      The pragmatic of theory of truth states that something is “true” if it works for you. It’s a deviation from the correspondence theory of truth that states that something is true if it corresponds to reality. In the pragmatic theory, everyone gets to decide what set of “truths” work for them. Truth becomes subjective instead of objective. But this doesn’t work in reality. Should each pilot decide which set of truths work for them? Or each surgeon? Or teacher? And what if “my truth” conflicts with “your truth?” What then?

      We must have objective truth. In other words, there must be truth that it is what it is regardless of what anyone thinks. The question that must be asked is “who has the truth?” The Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, or atheists?

      Jesus claimed to be the objective truth. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:16). He claims that the only way we can know the only true God is by knowing him (John 17:3).

      Notice that Jesus doesn’t leave the door open for multiple Gods. “The only true God.” There is one true God, and the only way to know him is to know His Son. He alone offers us salvation, and with it infuses our life with meaning, value, and beauty.

      What we believe about truth impacts our lives daily, because the nature of truth correlates with the nature of morality. Subjective truth leads to subjective morality, and objective truth naturally leads to objective morality. Everyone believes in some set of rights and wrongs. But who gets to decide what is right or wrong? My friend that I mentioned at the beginning suggested that whatever the consensus of the populace is should determine right or wrong. But what happens if the consensus is wrong? For example, if the consensus of 18th century America was that slavery was morally acceptable, does that actually make it morally acceptable?

      There must be some standard outside of ourselves to correct us, including our misguided consensuses. Jesus is that standard. He is the lawgiver and judge. “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12).

      What we must do, then, is assess Jesus’ life and words and determine if he is who he says he is. Is he the truth? Is he the only way to the only true God? Is he the lawgiver and judge? I invite you to follow along as I blog through our life group series, Defending the Faith. I’ll post here weekly the week after we discuss a particular topic. I will also include a pdf of my notes as well. It’s my prayer that these posts will increase your confidence in the Christian faith and encourage you to share it!

      Defending the Faith- The Nature of TruthDownload