Last week, in response to our online article “Is Jesus The Only Way?” a reader, a Muslim, remonstrated with us with regards to the person and work of our Lord Jesus. According to him, Jesus was not God; but only a prophet of God.

What interested me most in that conversation was his denial of the crucifixion  and resurrection of Christ. This is because, if you take away the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the whole foundation of Christianity comes crumbling down. Obviously if Christ didn’t die by crucifixion, then he didn’t rise. And if he didn’t rise, then there will be no resurrection. And if there is no resurrection; there is no hope for the Christian (1Corinthians 15:12-18). Ultimately, if Christ was not crucified, then the Apostles and Jesus himself were all liars; and the Bible a fraud.The death and resurrection of Christ is the hope upon which the foundation of Christianity stands. And Islam calls that into question. “The bible says Jesus was not sacrificed for the sins of mankind”, this reader asserted. When asked what his authority was, he quoted Psalm 91. The Qur’anic narrative on the crucifixion confirms Jesus was not crucified, he claimed. In this article, I will provide a response to his assertions and claims, with particular respect to the Psalm he referred to.

Psalm 91:10-15 reads:

no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him (Ps. 91:10-15).

Here is The Qur’anic narrative also

They [The Jews] declared, ‘We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of God.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been so]. And those who differ in this matter are in doubt concerning it. They have no definite knowledge about it, but only follow mere conjecture. But they certainly did not kill him. God raised him towards Himself. God is almighty and wise (Qur’an 4:157-158).

The argument being made was, Psalm 91, as a Messianic Psalm rules out any possibility of a crucified Messiah. “No harm will overtake you“, he emphasised. He continued that as Psalm 91 foretold, the angels would “lift him (Jesus) up” and furthermore, the Qur’an states that “God raised him up”; what the Qur’an reports about Jesus being in fact the fulfilment of Psalm 91:11-12 he affirmed. “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands…”

“They certainly did not kill him. God raised him up to Himself”, was the final plea.

So here we stand, with the Qur’an apparently correcting the Bible. The only problem is that, this is simply a misinterpretation.

I will now address three points in defending the crucifixion of Christ.

The Bible Doesn’t Contradict Itself

Firstly, we should bear in mind that Psalm 91 doesn’t obliterate all the other Scriptures in the Bible pointing to a suffering Messiah. One of the first principles of hermenuetics—the science of interpreting Scripture–is the analogy of faith. R.C. Sproul in his book Knowing Scripture states that,

The analogy of faith is the rule that Scripture is to interpret Scripture: Sacra Scriptura sui interpres (Sacred Scripture is its own interpreter). This means, quite simply, that no part of Scripture can be interpreted in such a way as to render it in conflict with what is clearly taught elsewhere in Scripture.¹

Simply, God’s word–the Bible– doesn’t contradict itself. The crucifixion was God’s plan as much as his promise of protection was. When God promises to protect us; it doesn’t mean the absence of trials, temptations, or even death.

Jesus won’t bypass the road to Calvary. God’s steadfast love doesn’t mean the absence of pain, not for Jesus and not for us. God showed him salvation (Psalm 91:16), but remember the empty tomb came after a blood-soaked cross.²

While protection of the Messiah was spoken of in Psalm 91, we must also note that, a suffering Messiah was also prophesied in Isaiah 53. It is only proper that when interpreting the Bible, we look at it as a whole. Also, if we read the Bible, we will indeed see the Messiah was protected and angels did bear him up. Examine Christ’s encounter with Satan in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). After the whole episode, we are told “angels came and were ministering to him [Jesus].”

The Crucifixion Was God Ordained

Secondly, Christ’s death was God’s ordained plan. In Acts 2:22-23, we are told that Jesus was killed “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”. So, anyone who calls the death of Christ to question is calling God’s plan to question. Christ didn’t die a reckless death where God was unable to protect him.

In fact, God offered Christ up for the sins of the world. He was put up as a propitiation for the sins of the world (Matt. 1:21, Jn 3:16, Rom. 3:25, 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). A striking observation one may make reading through the gospel of John is the many assassination attempts, so to speak, on Jesus’ life. But none succeeded because his “time was not yet come” (Jn. 7:6; 10:39). Jesus only died at the time appointed by God through crucifixion.

A Moral Dilemma

Who is Jesus? A liar or a messenger of God (borrowing the Islamic description of Christ). Now Jesus on numerous occassions spoke about his death. If he didn’t die on the cross; then we are faced with a moral dilemma: was Jesus a liar or a messenger of God?

Considering the person of Jesus, his moral virtues and the perfect life he lived; if his words about his death, are not true, then we will have to reconsider how we view him. Either he is a liar or he is who he claims to be—the Son of God.

In fact, Islam does acknowledge a Jesus who is a “Messiah, and a messenger of God” in the very place they question his crucifixion. The question we have to ask of Islam is that, can a Messiah and Messenger of God lie? Was Jesus a liar to have spoken about his death, if it was never to be?

Consider these words spoken by Jesus:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40).

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised (Matt. 16:21).

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (Jn. 2:18-19; 21-22).

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (Jn. 10:11).

Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial (Jn. 12:7).

Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour (Jn. 12:27).

These are some few words spoken by Jesus himself. If he didn’t die by crucifixion, then he lied when he spoke these word. Is the person of Jesus as recorded in Scripture consistent with a liar? No. Lying is sin and the Bible tells us Jesus was without sin (Heb.4:15). By the Biblical narrative, there is no reason to doubt the Crucifixion of Jesus. Indeed, if Christ was not crucified; as Paul said, we will be of all people the most miserable.

Notes:

1. R.C. Sproul, Knowing Scripture , Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009, Kindle Edition

2. Online article, Why you don’t have to fear terror by Jonathan Parnell, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-you-dont-have-to-fear-terror

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1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Recently, in a conversation with a friend, we spoke soberly about the universality of death and how all of us are confronted by its reality, whether great or small, young or old, male or female, rich or poor; we are all subjected to the power of this great enemy. With every passing day each of us gets closer to the grave. I have a friend who is not particularly excited when you wish him a happy birthday. According to him, every birthday reminds him that he is getting closer to the grave. So for him there is nothing happy about a birthday.

However, as tragic and universal as death is, it is not the most important puzzle to solve. Considering the fact that the soul doesn’t die; the most important questions we should be asking are;
(i) What happens when I die? (ii) If my soul lives on, where will it be? (iii) Will it be in a happy place?  (iv) Where will God be when I die? (v) Will I see God? (vi) Will I meet my friends in the afterlife?

Every religion has something to say about death and what happens when we die. Buddhism and Hinduism believe that after death one is reborn into another body. Existence, they believe, is a cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. They also believe that depending on your deeds in one’s previous life, they will be born in one of six realms. If you’ve been good in your previous life, you get to be reborn as a higher specie in your next life. The ultimate goal is to enter nirvana (their form of heaven) and escape the cycle of life. The Muslims also believe in the continued existence of the soul. They believe that on the last day Allah will recreate the decayed bodies of all dead people and then there will be judgment. Some believe all Muslims will eventually go to heaven. Those who did some bad things in life may be punished for a while in hell and eventually go to heaven.

Equally, like all these religions, Christianity also believes in life after death. However what sets Christianity apart from all the others is that we believe in a personal Saviour who died and was resurrected. So the Christian’s belief about life after death is not mere speculation. I am yet to meet a Buddhist or a Hindu who can tell me what species they were in their previous life. They have no idea because their belief about life after death is pure speculation. I will like to examine the Christian’s hope of resurrection through the eyes of the first century believers at Corinth. Paul had received a letter from the church in Corinth about various matters, some very disturbing. There was division in the church, cases of sexual immorality, confusion over the Lord’s Supper, disagreement over the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly speaking in tongues, and the list goes on.

Now, one source of confusion was about the resurrection of the dead. Living in a Greco-Roman culture which had weird views about life after death, it was possible their belief in the life after death was getting influenced by the prevailing wisdom rather than the Bible. The Greek belief in the life after death ranged from nonexistence to a shadowy and immaterial existence in an underworld. Some people in the church believed that by the gift of the Spirit, and especially the manifestation of tongues, they had already entered into their spiritual, “heavenly” existence. The body was just a hindrance waiting to be done away with at death. They had therefore denied the body in the present, and had no use for it in the future. That pretty much explains why there was sexual immorality of various kinds in the church. With such a distorted view, it didn’t matter what they did with their bodies.

Paul, addresses this particular sin saying, “…The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1Corinthians 6:13-20).

You see, their view of the resurrection had huge ramifications for their present life. And it does for us as well. In 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, Paul sets out to help them renew their minds about the resurrection of the body and how that should affect how they lived.

1) The Certainty of the Resurrection
2) The Mystery of the Resurrection
3) The Implications of the Resurrection

The Certainty of the Resurrection

Paul first and foremost appeals to the resurrection of Christ as the basis for the Christian’s own resurrection. “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”(v.12). There is a chain of consequences for such a denial, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (vv.13-15). The correlation for Paul was very clear. As compelling as such an argument is, there were people who could still not wrap their heads around it. Yes they believed Christ has been raised from the dead. But that is Christ, what about us, how could that happen? Right in verse 35, we see what the confusion was in Corinth. They could not understand it, and that means it cannot be true. That’s the problem with many of us even today. We measure truth by our ability to understand it. If we cannot understand something we conclude that it cannot be true. We limit the power of God by our finite minds. For many, the idea that Jesus the Son of God could die to save sinners doesn’t sit too well in their finite minds, and that is what has kept them from accepting Him as their personal Saviour.

The Resurrection And The Natural World

Paul draws an analogy from the natural world of agriculture to paint a picture of the resurrection. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (v.36). Besides the fact that the seed must first die, Paul also emphasises that the final product is totally different from what is originally planted: “And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.  But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” (vv37-38). He further appeals to the different kinds of bodies that exist in nature, how the human body differs from that of animals or birds or the fish. Then in vv.40-41 he makes allusion to the galaxies “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.”

From everyday natural experiences he draws lesson for the reasonableness and certainty of the bodily resurrection of the Christian (vv.42-44). Further, Paul compares this to our natures both in the first Adam and the last Adam who is Christ: “Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”(45-49).

The First Adam And The Last Adam

In our first Adamic nature we are like the seed that is planted, we must first die to attain the new nature which is after the order of the last Adam. We will have the same kind of body Jesus had when he was raised from the dead, the perishable for imperishable, dishonour for glory, weakness for power and natural for spiritual. Spiritual here is not referring to a ghost-like or immaterial form. We will have real bodies, except that this body will be pure and holy, not susceptible to decay and corruption. Just as Jesus had a physical body after his resurrection and could be touched and seen, we will also have recognisable bodies after our resurrection. There will be both continuity and transformation.

The resurrection is a work God does: “God gives it [the seed] a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” When we consider the fact that it is God who works out all of this in creation, there should be no doubt that he is also able to accomplish this in us. A denial of the resurrection is a direct denial of the power of God. So regardless of what the Corinthians believed about the power of the Holy Spirit, the show-off of spiritual gifts and their elaborate “churchianity”, their beliefs about the resurrection was anti-Christian. Like the Corinthians, is it possible that we ourselves have denied the resurrection, perhaps not with words but with our actions?

To be continued.

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The topic was: “are all religions the same?” As usual my Hindu friends were of the view that all religions are the same, and were trying hard to convince me of their reasons. According to them we all worship the same god, the only difference is that we have different names and approach him differently.

What surprised me wasn’t the genuine belief of my Hindu friends, but that of my supposed Christian counterpart. In his words “all religions are the same, it’s all about loving your neighbor as yourself”. According to him “we need to keep an open mind about some of these things, since we are not sure whether they are right or we are right. We need to be open in order to increase our chances on the last day”

The view of this “Christian brother” sums up the spirit of the age. We live in a time where any claims of exclusivity is viewed as intolerant and arrogant. There is an enormous pressure to conform to what the world considers to be tolerant and unifying. There should be no claims of exclusivity or rightness, everything is relative and should depend on what each person deems to be right we are told.

It is in the midst of these pressures, Christ calls on his followers to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20). The message these disciples were to carry was “[Jesus] I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Elsewhere in the book of John, John the Baptist in giving his testimony about Christ said “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

From these texts, Jesus doesn’t leave the issue of God open-ended. Far from Christians being bigots, it was Jesus Christ Himself who made the most exclusive and audacious claims about His identity and the way to find reconciliation and forgiveness with a holy God. Therefore you cannot claim to be on the side of Christ without affirming these exclusive claims. In a world where “tolerance” and “love” are in demand, such exclusive claims are not going to win any genuine Christian brownie points, but we must decide on whose side we are on.

Is it Unloving to be Exclusive?

Love is a very evasive term in a fallen world like ours; it means different things to different people. In the sight of the world, love is not confrontational, it doesn’t criticize, it must always say yes, and it is reciprocal. In the world’s definition of love it will be unloving to run and snatch my son out of the middle of the road, so long as he is happy playing there even if there is an approaching vehicle at the speed of 140 km/h. And that is where the world gets it wrong — by defining love in the context of what makes the other person happy or feel “loved”.

In our fallen state we are totally depraved and do not appreciate what is loving from God’s perspective. Love, like any good trait must be understood from the context of God, because God is the meaning of Love.

The question then is, is it unloving to tell people that Jesus is the only way to find forgiveness with a holy God? It is, if it wasn’t true. But if it is true, it is the most loving thing to do. Just a few days ago Christians all over the world celebrated Easter to commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ in triumph over sin and death. Man in rebellion had rejected God, and was therefore under God’s righteous judgement. But in His mercy and love God, the one who had been wronged gave His only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

God in His love did not sweep our sin under the carpet and assume nothing had happened. The rebellion had happened and the punishment for this treason was death (both physical and spiritual). Love didn’t mean God would turn a blind eye to our sin, it meant giving up His dear Son to die in the place of sinners so that he might be both the just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). Love is not blind to wrong, love is not playing dumb that nothing had happened, and obviously love is not pretending that we are all the same.

If it is true(and it is) that we have all sinned against God and are under his righteous and just condemnation, our greatest need as humans is forgiveness from him. The question is, how do we secure this forgiveness? As Christians we believe there is no way we could ever do enough good deeds to make up for the wrongs we have done and continue to do. Besides, God’s standards are so high and perfect that no matter how long and hard we try, we cannot measure up.

The only way is to accept the perfection offered freely by Christ.
Love, is pointing people the right way where they can find forgiveness and peace with a holy God. Love, is telling people that there is an impending danger and they need to take cover in Jesus Christ. What is unloving is agreeing that we are all the same, when we are actually not. That is deception. The most loving thing to do is let people know that there are differences, but they have a choice which comes with consequences.

Make A Choice

Like my “supposed Christian” friend, most of us often go along with the flow and affirm the lie that all religions lead to God, either because we are afraid of ridicule or the desire to increase our chances on the last day in case others are right and we are wrong. Whatever beliefs we hold, by Jesus’ own words, He is the only way to the Father:

No one comes to the Father except through me. ~ Jesus Christ

I am trying to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make the choice: Either this man was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.~ C.S. Lewis

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