Jonathan Dodson and Brad Watson have written an incredibly helpful, culturally accessible and doctrinally sound book in Raised? Finding Jesus by Doubting the Resurrection. Here are my brief takeaways.
Read MoreIf you do not follow Jesus and want to begin to explore the life and claims of this man (and you should) start with his resurrection. If the resurrection did not happen, there is no point in moving on to anything else. Even the Apostle Paul said, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." (1 Cor 15:17). So, start with Jesus' resurrection. A common question I frequently get is, "How many intelligent, self-respecting people could actually believe an obscure Jewish preacher in a rural province of the Roman empire 2,000 years ago was God who raised from the dead?" That's a good question. Answer: Quite a few actually.
Read More“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.”
“Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present.”
“We could cope—the world could cope—with a Jesus who ultimately remains a wonderful idea inside his disciples’ minds and hearts. The world cannot cope with a Jesus who comes out of the tomb, who inaugurates God’s new creation right in the middle of the old one.”
“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”
“For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.”
“I don’t care to inquire why they cannot believe an earthly body can be in heaven, while the whole earth is suspended on nothing.”
“Any position in which claims about Jesus or the resurrection are removed from the realm of historical reality and placed in a subjective realm of personal belief or some realm that is immune to human scrutiny does Jesus and the resurrection no service and no justice. It is a ploy of desperation to suggest that the Christian faith would be little affected if Jesus was not actually raised from the dead in space and time.
A person who gives up on the historical foundations of our faith has in fact given up on the possibility of any real continuity between his or her own faith and that of a Peter, Paul, James, John, Mary Magdalene, or Priscilla. The first Christian community had a strong interest in historical reality, especially the historical reality of Jesus and his resurrection, because they believed their faith, for better or for worse, was grounded in it.”
“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.”
“Christian hope is more than wishful thinking, because the future on which we have set our hearts has already begun with Jesus’ resurrection. He is now what we shall be.”
