Paul in Athens - The Risen Lord

The Risen Christ

Finally in Acts 17:29-34 Paul calls on them to repent and turn to God. The call to believe in Christ is not an option, it is a command, for one day everyone will be called to give an account to Him.

The evidence for the Lordship of Christ is the resurrection. The resurrection was the focus of all the New Testament preaching. At this point we come to the final myth of atheism that we will consider in this series of essays. This myth is that faith is not based on evidence. Time and time again you will hear in the media the notion that faith means believing something when there is no evidence, or despite the evidence. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The resurrection is based on solid evidence. The gospels record several incidents of Jesus appearing to men and women, and in various circumstances. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, tells us that on one occasion Jesus appeared to over 500 hundred people. Paul also pointed out that many of these people were still alive, so they could be asked.

There are various arguments given against the resurrection, we will look at a few of these:

It was just all nonsense

This is based on the idea that 1st century people were gullible. They knew full well that when someone died, they stayed dead. Remember also that whenever Jesus spoke about the resurrection His disciples never had a clue what He was on about. As mentioned above, the resurrection was based on evidence.

They made it up

If it was all made up, why then did the disciples risk their lives for a lie? Most, possible all, of the apostles died because of their faith. Note also that the first witnesses were women.

In the culture of their time you would not have women as the first witnesses if you were making something up.

Both the “made it up” and “nonsense” arguments run into the problem, that if Jesus was dead why did the Roman or the Jews not just point to the tomb? This would have put an end to all the talk of the risen Lord. But they did not do this because they could not do this because there was no body.

Jesus never died

This is a very weak argument. The Romans were very skilled at two things, building roads and killing people. They checked the bodies on the cross to make sure they were dead.

Even if Jesus had just “swooned”, then He would have been in a very weak state to say the least. Hardly someone to start a new movement. And it again runs into the same arguments as the “made it up” theory.

Disciples stole the body

This is equally unlikely, and again runs into the “made it up” arguments. Moreover, the Romans had guards on the tomb who risked their lives if the body was stolen.

Hallucination

This is the idea that the disciples suffered from hallucinations. This is psychological nonsenses. First there was no expectation of Jesus rising from the dead. Secondly, there were multiple appearances, in different situations, to different people.

One of the strongest arguments for the resurrection is the church itself, for otherwise it is difficult to explain the rise of the church. Remember the apostles paid a great price for following Jesus, and received little in the way of earthly gain.

One final important point is that because Jesus is the risen Lord we can know and experience Him for ourselves.

So the resurrection is not “blind faith”, but faith based on very strong evidence.

Further Reading

You can find much more on the resurrection, and the arguments I have mentioned briefly here in Andrew Warnock’s book, Raised with Christ. There are, of course, many other good books on this topic.

Paul in Athens - Turbo Charged Chimps

A Better Way of Life

In Acts 17:24-28 Paul seeks to expand their thinking. Athens was full of temples, and if you go there today you can still see some of them. Paul tells them that God does not need man-made temples. Rather, God created us, and did so with the intention that we should get to know Him. Paul uses the words of one of their own poets to point to the true aim of God’s plan for us, namely to be His children.

The truth is that God’s goodness is greater than we ever imagine, and His plans for us are greater than we conceive them to be.

Atheism tries to pain a picture of a God who seeks to constrict and constrain. Nothing could be further from the truth, for He is a God who gives freedom. Indeed it is atheism that has a poverty of thinking.

The materialist view of the world says that we are nothing more than biochemical machines that came about by random chance. That is what atheism says you are. Consider the implications of this. If you are in love, it has no real meaning, it is just a biochemical response. If you achieve something, whether academically, in sport or whatever, it doesn’t mean anything. It just came about by chance. If you are artistic, whether it be dance, music, literature or art, it is all meaningless. The deep pain and anguish we feel when someone love dies is just an illusion, there is no real loss, no real pain. This is the consequence of the materialist viewpoint.

Indeed, if we are just biochemical machines that came about by blind chance, then any pronouncements we make have no value, no meaning. This, of course, includes the statement that there is no God. As with all contentions of atheism, materialism contains the seeds of its own destruction.

Thankfully the truth is that life does have meaning. There is a God who cares. He created us to achieve things. Just as we feel joy when our own children achieve things, so God rejoices when we achieve things. He also shares in our pain. The loss of someone we love are times when we feel deep pain and loss, but they can also be times when we are supremely aware of the closeness of God, and the cross is the primary demonstration of the depths of God’s love.

More than a turbo-charged chimp

If you want to know what life is about, then Genesis 1-3 is the best place to go. It tells us that we were created in the image of God. We are more than turbo-charged chimps. We are not just more intelligent creatures, we are radically different from every other creature on the planet. And there are seven billion experiments going on in the world today that prove it.

There is no creature on earth that is as self-aware as we are. There is no other creature that seeks to explain, understand or explore as we do. There is no other creature that invents and creates like we do. There is no creature that produces works of art like we do. We are not just monkeys with over-developed brains, but are unique. We are the only creature that was made in the image of God.

If we look at mankind we see two conflicting pictures. On the one hand we see the wonder of humanity. We have already mentioned the creativity and achievements, but we see moral goodness as well. There are famously people who have achieved great things like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Mother Theresa. In times of war or great suffering, ordinary people will make extraordinary sacrifices, they will put their own lives or well-being at risk in order to help others. In all sorts of mundane ways we see people doing good things. Parents looking after disabled children, children looking after elderly parents. Even in your own life you there will be times when you do genuinely good things.

But then on the other hand we can be appalled at what we see in humanity, There are the infamous monsters like Hitler, Stalin and Mao-Tse-Tung who must have been responsible for about 100 million deaths or so between them. In times of war and hardship while some will be amazingly selfless, others will be horrendously selfish. There are parents who abuse their children, children who neglect their elderly parents. Again, if we are honest, there are times when do, or at least think, appalling things.

To say that humanity is wonderful is only part of the story, but to say that humanity is a complete disaster is equal nonsense. This is exactly what Genesis 1-3 tells us. It explains the good and wonderful side of humanity, because we are made in the image of God. We get all the bad stuff because we have rebelled against God, and the rest of the Bible is God’s plan to sort out the problem.

Further Reading

The Reason for God by Tim Keller is an excellent book which explores these and many other themes.

I have also produced a website that explores the issues involved in the creation-intelligent design-evolution debate.

Paul in Athens - Intro

This is a series of essays based on a sermon on Acts 17:16-34 I preached at Gate Church International on Sunday 27th November 2011. An MP3 of the sermon itself may appear on the Gate website in the near future.

In this section we see Paul going to the intellectual heart of Greek culture in Athens. Here we see that there were three key elements to Paul’s approach:

1. He met his opponents on their own ground, both physically and intellectually
2. He pointed them to a better way of life
3. He led them to the risen Christ

We will see how he did this, and apply the lessons to our own age. Today there is a common notion that science had done away with the need for God. This view is advanced by people like Richard Dawkins and others, but there is a very common belief that now we have scientific understanding we do not need God. This notion is complete nonsense.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul says “we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God”. There are many arguments made against God, but everyone of them contains the seeds of its own destruction. Let’s apply this to the notion that science has done away with the need for God.  

I’ll release the essays in three parts over the next few days:

1. Science's altars to an unknown God

2. More than turbo-charged chimpanzees

3. Raised from the dead