THE JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL ACCURACY, Vol.2, Iss.4A, April 1997
ANASTASIOS KIOULACHOGLOU
THE JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL ACCURACY
Vol.2, Iss.4A April 1997
ISSN 1363-1926
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy is a non-denominational
Christian journal. The position of the Journal of Biblical
Accuracy is that the Bible is accurate in everything in the
original text and languages. It is this accurate understanding of the
Bible that this journal wants to promote.
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***HE WAS RAISED!***
As we all probably know the present month is the month of the
celebration of Jesus' resurrection. I would like therefore to take some
time
today
to see some things about this event. From the many places where the Word of
God refers to this event, we will mostly concentrate our attention to some
of the
public preachings recorded in the book of Acts. To start we will go to Acts
2.
**1. Acts 2:14-36**
Acts 2:14-36 records a preaching made by Peter on the day of
Pentecost, just little after the pouring out of the holy spirit and the
manifestation
of speaking in tongues that followed it. We will start reading from verse
22:
Acts 2:22-24
"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God
to
you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your
midst, as
you yourselves also know - him, being delivered by the determined purpose
and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and
put
to death; WHOM GOD RAISED UP, HAVING LOOSED THE PAINS OF
DEATH, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE THAT HE SHOULD BE HELD
BY IT"
The people that made up Peter's audience, were not foreigners. In
contrast, they were people that used to live there and knew the miracles
and
the wonders that God did through Jesus Christ. However, despite the great
miracles done by him, they crucified him. But this was not the end of the
story,
since just three days after the crucifixion, something else, something
unique,
changed the whole situation dramatically. What was this? THE
RESURRECTION. Really, Jesus, after being three days and three nights in the
tomb, was raised again! Luke 24:1-7 tells us:
Luke 24:1-7
"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and
certain
other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had
prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they
went
in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they
were
greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining
garments. Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they
said to them, "WHY DO YOU SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD? HE
IS NOT HERE, BUT IS RISEN! Remember how he spoke to you when he was
still in Galilee, saying, "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands
of
sinful men and be crucified, and the third day be raised again."
(NKJV-KJV)
Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, exactly as he had promised to his
disciples, and exactly as God had promised in the Old Testament Scriptures.
One such prophecy regarding the resurrection of Jesus is quoted in the same
speech of Peter:
Acts 2:25-31
"For David says concerning him: "I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For
He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart
rejoiced,
and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For you
will
not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see
corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of joy in
your presence." Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the
patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this
day.
Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise
up
the
Christ to sit on his throne, ***he foreseeing this, spoke concerning the
resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did
his
flesh see corruption. THIS JESUS GOD HAS RAISED UP, OF WHICH WE
ARE ALL WITNESSES. THEREFORE BEING EXALTED TO THE RIGHT
HAND OF GOD, AND HAVING RECEIVED FROM THE FATHER THE
PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, HE POURED OUT THIS WHICH YOU
NOW SEE AND HEAR***"
God through David, many many years ago, had promised that Jesus
Christ wouldn't be left dead nor would his flesh see corruption. In the day
of the
resurrection this promise was fulfilled. Jesus Christ is the only one who,
though
dead was raised up and now lives eternally (see ftn.1). And not only that:
one
day he is going to come back and all that believed in him and in his
resurrection
are going also to live eternally. As I Corinthians 15:20-23 tells us:
I Corinthians 15:20-23
"**But now Christ is risen from the dead**, and has become the firstfruits
of
those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all
shall be
made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits,
AFTERWARD
THOSE WHO ARE CHRIST'S AT HIS COMING."
Apart from testifying the resurrection of Jesus from the Old Testament
Scriptures, Peter also said that it was Jesus Christ who received from the
Father
the promise of the holy spirit and poured it out. From this it is evident
that if
Jesus Christ was not risen from the dead, he couldn't receive and pour out
the
promise of the holy spirit and therefore neither the apostles nor someone
else
could receive it and manifest it. Turning it the other way round, the fact
that we
have holy spirit is because Jesus was risen from the dead and poured it
out,
and
is a proof of the resurrection. Really how many events do you know that can
present such an alive proof of their occurrence? Personally I don't know
any.
The occurrence of past events is usually witnessed only by history. The
resurrection also has its own historical witnesses: the people that saw the
resurrected Christ and whose witness is recorded in the Word of God.
However,
it goes more than this. It also has an ALIVE witness: THE HOLY SPIRIT IN
YOU. In Acts 5:32 Peter said characteristically:
Acts 5:30, 32
"The God of our Fathers RAISED UP JESUS......And we are witnesses to these
things, AND so also is the holy spirit whom God has given to those who
obey
Him."
See this "AND" there. The apostles and the others that saw the
resurrected Christ are NOT the only witnesses of his resurrection. Apart
from
them there is also one more witness: **the holy spirit that God gives to
everyone that believes in the Lord Jesus and the resurrection, and which
can also be manifested by the nine ways listed in I Corinthians 12:8-10**.
Truly, every time that you operate this spirit you know that Christ is
risen
from
the dead. For had he not been risen, you couldn't have holy spirit, and
therefore
you couldn't operate it. Do we therefore have an alive proof of the
resurrection? YES: the holy spirit and the manifestations that accompany
it.
**2. Acts 13:14-49 and other passages**
Though in the above we concentrated on the fact that the presence
and the manifestations of the holy spirit are an alive witness to the
resurrection,
this does not mean that the eyewitnesses are insignificant. To see some of
the
things that the Bible says regarding this kind of witnesses let's go to
Acts
13.
There Paul is preaching in a synagogue of Antioch, a city of Minor Asia.
Starting from verse 27 we read:
Acts 13:27-31
"For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not
know
him [Jesus], nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every
Sabbath,
have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause for
death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now when
they
had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from
the
tree and laid him in a tomb. BUT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.
HE WAS SEEN FOR MANY DAYS BY THOSE WHO CAME UP WITH
HIM FROM GALILEE TO JERUSALEM, WHO ARE HIS WITNESSES TO
THE PEOPLE."
God raised Christ from the dead. The chief priests and the Pharisees
put guards to guard the tomb. They sealed it also. BUT all this was in
vain.
For
Christ was raised from the dead, and "was seen for MANY days by those who
came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem". I would like here to point out
the
word "many" that is used in this passage, and which, as we know, always
declares abundance. In our case it declares ABUNDANCE OF DAYS in which
the resurrected Christ was seen. This is the first indication of abundance
of
proofs regarding the resurrection: the resurrected Christ was seen FOR MANY
days, leaving no doubt about his resurrection. However, this is not the
only
abundance of evidence that we have. The first three opening verses of Acts
tell
us:
Acts 1:1-3
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do
and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after he through the
holy
spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. TO
WHOM HE ALSO PRESENTED HIMSELF ALIVE AFTER HIS SUFFERING
BY MANY INFALLIBLE PROOFS, BEING SEEN BY THEM DURING
FORTY DAYS AND SPEAKING OF THE THINGS PERTAINING TO THE
KINGDOM OF GOD"
Jesus Christ presented himself by MANY infallible proofs. To
understand the meaning of an infallible proof, let's say that I did
something bad
and the police caught me at the very time that I did it. In a court this
would be
an infallible proof. It couldn't be broken. Even if I hired some false
witnesses, to
say some lies, their witness couldn't stand, since it would be invalidated
by the
infallible proof. Well, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an event that
is
based
ON INFALLIBLE PROOFS i.e. on proofs that cannot be broken. And in fact
not on just one or two of them but on MANY, i.e. on abundance!!
As it is evident from the above, the resurrection was not a secret event
for which we have just some bits of doubtful information. In contrast, as
Peter
said in Acts 10:39-41:
Acts 10:39-41
"And we are witnesses of all things which he [Jesus] did both in the land
of
the
Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. HIM GOD
RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY, AND SHOWED HIM OPENLY, NOT TO
ALL PEOPLE, BUT TO WITNESSES CHOSEN BEFORE BY GOD, EVEN
TO US WHO ATE AND DRANK WITH HIM AFTER HE AROSE FROM
THE DEAD"
God SHOWED JESUS OPENLY. The resurrection was not a hidden
event. Instead, through the abundance of Jesus' appearances, God
established as
clear and irrefutable that His Son was alive.
Though by now we have seen that Jesus appeared FOR MANY days,
and with MANY infallible proofs, we haven't yet seen to how MANY he
appeared i.e. how MANY were the eyewitnesses of his resurrection. To get an
answer to this question, let's go to I Corinthians 15:3-8 (see ftn.2).
There we
read:
I Corinthians 15:3-8
"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that
Christ
died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that HE
WAS
RAISED AGAIN THE THIRD DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES
AND THAT HE WAS SEEN by Cephas [Peter], then by the twelve. After
that he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that he was
seen
by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all he was seen by me"
In one of his appearances, Jesus was seen BY OVER FIVE HUNDRED
PEOPLE!! If this is not an abundance of eyewitnesses, what is it then?
Returning
to our example with the court, one eyewitness is many times enough to prove
the reality of an event. The resurrection of Jesus Christ does not have
just
one
or even a few eyewitnesses but OVER FIVE HUNDRED, let alone the witnesses
of the other appearances.
To conclude therefore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has two kinds of
witnesses. The first is the holy spirit and the manifestations that
accompany it.
Apart from this, there are also the eyewitnesses of the resurrection, whose
witness is recorded in the Word of God. As we saw above: the resurrected
Christ appeared to MANY people, for MANY days, and with MANY
INFALLIBLE proofs, thus leaving no doubt about his resurrection.
Truly, how many events do you know that can present such an
abundance of evidence, and for which, apart from any other witness, you
have
also an ALIVE witness? Personally, apart from the resurrection, I don't
know
any.
(to be continued)
Anastasios Kioulachoglou
Footnotes
1. Others have also been raised from the dead, as Lazarus for example, but
they
died again.
2. Apart from the appearances recorded in I Corinthians 15:3-8, there are
others
that though not recorded here are recorded in the gospels, such as the
appearance to Mary the Magdalene, to the two men that were going to
Emmaus, and to the eleven without Thomas, at the evening of "the first day
of
the week".
Unless otherwise stated all the verses were taken from the New
King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible
The Journal of Biblical Accuracy is published by:
Anastasios Kioulachoglou, Stavros Farsalon, 40300, GREECE
Tel: 0030-491-31242
E-mail address: J...@compulink.gr
Website: http://www.goldinc.com/Tour/Greece/Publications/JBA/