I’m writing this on Easter morning 2023. It is the holiest day on the Christian calendar. Easter observes the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as an historical event. It is upon this event that Christianity stands or falls. Either it happened or it did not. If it is a myth then my faith spanning more than 40 years has been in vain, my suffering from aggressive multiple sclerosis since 1984, and cancer and clinical depression served no transcendence purpose. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not happen then the Bible is a hollow lie. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then the faith and hope of 2.2 billion Christians worldwide are also in vain.
On this point, Saint Paul said, "But if there is no resurrection then Christ is not risen. ... And if Christ is not risen then your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable." (1Corinthians 15: 13-14, 17, 19).
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the Biblical account of Him raising Lazarus from the dead is also false. The Bible says the body of Lazarus was already rotting and had that telltale putrid stench of decomposition. If Jesus was going to bring Lazarus back from the dead, He had to reverse Lazarus' decaying flesh. He had to make rancid coagulated blood fresh and flow again through Lazarus’ veins. A rotting heart, brain, and other internal organs had to be renewed and brought back to life. Can you believe something so fantastic? I can and I do.
I believe that Jesus did raise Lazarus and Christ did rise from the dead on Easter morning. I believe it with all my heart, and I would stake my life on it. I know it happened; I know that the Bible IS the inspired and inerrant word of God, my final authority on all matters of faith, morals, conduct, and the cosmos.
How do I know Christ rose from the dead and raised Lazarus from the dead? Because I have had personal encounters with the risen Christ, and I experience the presence of the holy spirit. They are real and above my temporal understanding. They come to me from beyond me. Jesus Christ is and will be my ultimate reality when I step across the threshold from this life to the next. It is the Holy Spirit (the 3rd member of the Trinity) that assures me that the Bible IS the word of God.
The same Holy Spirit has been present, like a foretaste of heaven, throughout 39 years of degenerative and aggressive multiple sclerosis, and cancer. I told this to an agnostic. He responded, “Perhaps you have experienced nothing more than cognitive changes caused by your disease?" My response was:
“That’s your speculation because you can’t accept what you don’t understand. Even if that were the case, how do you explain the billions of Christians throughout the last 2,000 years who have experienced the same as I have? Many chose death rather than renouncing their faith in Christ.
How do you explain the murder of 30 Ethiopian Christians, or 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded on a Libyan beach, rather than renounce their faith in Christ? The last word on their lips was the name of Jesus. How do you explain that? Were they all deluded?"
No! They knew Christ. They had a personal relationship with Him, and He was with them. They knew that within 30 seconds (or how long it took to sever their heads) they would stand face to face before Jesus."
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We have the blessed assurance that we will be raised as Jesus Christ was raised. Happy Easter. He IS risen! The King of kings.
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“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
