Class: Religion Class

You are writing a reply to forum posts made by my classmates.

2 replies. 200-words in each reply. 

The main forum post[1] is at the bottom.

What you are replying to:

First reply:

The quote for this option resonated with me quite a bit. It opened my eyes reading this option as in my opinion, believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fundamental belief of all of Christianity. I do not think that someone can claim to be a Christian and yet deny that Christ was resurrected on the third day after his crucifixion. In the Bible this is illustrated quite clearly: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9) Obviously scripture makes this pretty cut and dry, but something that really stuck out to me was not from the Bible, but rather our assigned reading this week. From the Resurrection and Ascension section, “there must be some historical truth in the claims of Jesus’ Resurrection, for no one trying to build a case would have rested it on the testimony of women, who had little status in a patriarchal society.” (Fisher, pg. 320) this opened my eyes a bit because I never thought of it in this sense. Of course women did not have the equal social and economic status back then as they do today in the majority of the world, so the fact that the two Marys were the first people to witness Jesus after death really lends credit to the truthfulness of the Bible. Further, I would argue that the most fundamental belief of Christianity is that Christ died to forgive the sins of all of humanity, and resurrected to rule alongside his Father in Heaven. The belief in Christ’s resurrection is necessary in order to subscribe to the entire narrative of Christ being the savior and messiah of all of humanity. Without Christ’s resurrection he simply becomes a martyr, or perhaps a false prophet to many people. It is his “otherworldly” resurrection that signifies his status as the savior of mankind. 

Second Reply:

Hello classmates and professor,

This week I chose option A which states “the whole Christian Church stands or falls based upon the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This seems to be a great debate, and I thought it’d be interesting to research. After review it seems the loyal believers of the resurrection have a few  facts that they abide by. Below are those facts.

1. The Empty Tomb

2. The Burial

3. The Guard

4. The Disciples 

5. The post resurrection appearance 

6. The enemies of Christ gave no refutation of the resurrection 

To the believers these are the undeniable facts that they go by to support that the resurrection took place. Now i will lay out the facts that the doubters go by.

1. There is no external historical confirmation of the New Testament stories

2. The New Testament stories are internally contradictory. 

3. There are natural explanations for the origins of the Jesus legend

4. The miracle reports make the story unhistorical

From my readings it actually has me a little torn to side with one particular group. On one side I am not one to question another person’s faith (who am i to do so) cause at the end of the day all a person has is his/her faith and if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. Then you go to the other side who takes a literal approach with evidence and simple reality that a person cannot rise from the dead. For the sake of argument I will join the believer of the Christ being resurrected side. There seems to be evidence pointing to Christ being crucified on the cross, we also know his tomb was sealed with an almost immovable stone, and when they finally went to prep the body for a proper burial he was gone. Now moving to the belief that a miracle happened and a dead person rose up. In my 40 years on this planet we have heard examples and rumblings of miracles of the unexplainable, also there are things in the ocean and in space that simple science cannot explain so it is very hard to shut down this side of the argument. The Christian faith is a strong one. A particular verse to me that stands out is “And if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is in vain” (1 Corithians 15:14). To me this means that Christ knew he was going to be crucified and if he died for our sins we will be forgiven and he will rise again. So the faith in some people’s mind can become reality, and by Christians having this deep faith they will live their lives according to the gospel. I enjoyed this weeks discussion topic and I look forward to the insight from my classmates.

References:

https://www.christianity.com/jesus/death-and-resurrection/resurrection/christianity-stands-or-falls-on-the-resurrection.html

https://infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/jesus_resurrection/chap4.html

[1] Initial Forum Question:

It has often been said that, “the whole Christian Church stands or falls based upon the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Given the nature of your studies this week in Christianity, compare and contrast the foundational issues at the center of this debate and academically defend your position as to whether you agree or disagree with the statement based upon the results of your research?