Suprised by Hope Week 3…What If We Were Wrong?
Here is the text for the third week’s discussion!
What If We Were Wrong?
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
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So, what do you think? Have you ever though about the fact that if the resurrection never happened that there would be no Christianity? Or do you think there would be Christianity anyway? let the discussion begin.
I guess we could debate this for a while, however, if Christ had not been resurrected, then his death would have been in vain. God knew that He would resurrect Him. As much as God loves us, I don’t think He would have sent His Son to die for us if the resurrection wasn’t going to happen, what’s the point, it would be useless. Therefore, this argument, like our faith if the resurrection didn’t happen, could be said to be useless. We aren’t false witnesses, our faith isn’t useless, Jesus rose.
great point! And you are right, but I think some people have the rub, when you say that Jesus did not bodily raise from the dead, or that he did not really die. And those both might indicate that it was the resurrection that did not occur. And that is some serious accusations to the Christian world view.
Thank God we DO have hope and Christ HAS risen. Sin does not reign but rather does our faith in Christ, hope for an eternity with him & his unfailing love.
How miserable to not believe & have this hope.
I guess if you’re stuck with a single of idea
(or more traditional idea
(minus the movements
(gnostic/mystical)
that have been constantly looked at as heretical
(which is why the Bible has certain books and not others
(to further the desires of those in power
(usually to keep them in power or control)
)
)
)
of Christianity)
of who Jesus was and what his purpose was then yes, it would be awful.
Or, it that was hard to follow (lost my nesting, should have used the code tag).
I guess if you’re stuck with a single idea of who Jesus was and what his purpose was, then yes, it would be awful. But there are many who have thought differently throughout the time since Jesus and perhaps if their views weren’t stomped out as being heretical by those with the power to do so, we would have a different idea of Christ and his purpose and the resurrection wouldn’t be what we really focused on. But people had agendas and we ended up with the collection of books called the Bible because they did, which shape how and what we think of Jesus. Sometimes I think that Christ’s more important teachings may have been overshadowed by things not as important do to the desires of men after him. I guess that it requires faith in the decisions that have been made that have shaped what Christianity is today and that those decisions were really what God would desire. Though I personally have trouble having faith in that, as I don’t think I’d trust spiritual leaders today to not have their own agendas (whether realized or not), so I logically (avoiding the appeal to tradition/antiquity) should not trust those of past times any more than those of today.
I guess I’m going to stop rambling now.
I understand that you think that most people in power are courrupt (because I agree that is what power does, heh), but who is to say that those that wrote the other gospels (gnostic/mystic) where just wanting to provide a power play of their own when they wrote their words? It is my understanding that the cannon that we today call the “Bible” were the books/letters/poetry that were already being used all across the churches as “scripture”. The churcheshad been using them for several years already, and those that came together to define out the cannon were just agreeing with what was already being used as “the norm” for the churches at the time.
But you just like all of us are making a decision to agree or disagree with those decisions that came before. And I see no difference in the choice of those that went before and choosing those that were deemed heretical. We are all making choices, But from a theological stand point, if Jesus did not raise form the dead, then he would not be God and all of his claims of being God would be null and void. And to the Christian faith this would take away the fact of Jesus’ divinity and then the ability to trust all of his words….and then we would really be debating to decide which words could be trusted and which could not. And so you get into a sticky mess to decide which words of his were filled with wisdom and which were lies. And at that point the authenticity and authority fall be the wayside.. as well as the Holy Spirit (whom Jesus said he would send after him… well, if he had not been resurrected then can we trust those words? And now the Trinity has become suspect if Jesus was not resurrected.
The resurrection is still key to the truth, life, and faith of Christianity in my mind.
(BTW: you know I love ya Matt, heh heh heh) But seriously, I would love to read a book about the Gnostic and then discuss it, and then we can read a book that would be on the other side and discuss that one)