Online Reporter
Cuthbert Mavheko, Correspondent
THE Easter season is upon us once again and millions of Christians around the world have been commemorating the death and resurrection of the greatest prophet ever to set foot on planet earth — Jesus Christ of Nazareth. By any evaluation, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most radical of all Christian doctrines. His teachings, His love and compassion for others and His martyr’s death all find parallels in other stories and religious traditions.
However, of no other historical figure has the claim been made boldly and persistently that God raised him or her from the dead. This is what makes Jesus Christ totally different from any other prophet who ever set foot on planet earth. Muhammad said of himself that he was merely a human prophet of the one deity — Allah. Buddha claimed only that he had found the way of release from the misery of the world – that he had discovered “Enlightenment”.
Confucius’s sole mission was to transmit the wisdom of the sages, and nothing more. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, had a totally different message for mankind. He claimed to be God incarnate. This is what incensed the religious leaders of his day. To the Jews, this was blasphemy and they sought to kill him.
Jesus Christ knew of his impending death and talked about it to his followers, explaining that he would sacrifice his life for the remission of the sins of humanity and be brought back to life after reposing in the grave for three days and three nights. To most people in Jesus’s day, this was imponderable. They had never heard of anything so bizarre.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection is also unfathomable and seems strange and enigmatic to most people today. Some misguided Bible scholars postulate that Jesus Christ’s resurrection is one of the myths surrounding his life. They seek to “demythologise” Jesus Christ in a vain attempt to depict his resurrection as a figment of the imagination of his disciples.
The oldest argument advanced against the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the intriguing theory that Jesus Christ’s disciples stole his body and then spread the rumour that he had been raised back to life.
This theory is misguided and far removed from reality. In all honesty, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a mere fable, were his disciples prepared to suffer humiliation, beatings, torture and even death for something they knew to be a fable?
The Inspired Scriptures reveal that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not secretive. After his resurrection, Jesus Christ was seen by many people. On one occasion, for example, he was seen by over 500 people at once (1 Corinthians 15 verse 6). To further affirm that a literal resurrection had occurred, when Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples, they were terrified and thought it was a ghost (Luke 24 verse 37). But when he asked the disciples for something to eat, they gave him some fish and honey (Luke 24 verses 41-43). Eating food in their presence gave further proof of his actual resurrection. For the benefit of the uninformed, ghosts do not eat earthly food. Since Jesus Christ’s disciples were given the task of taking the Gospel to the whole world, they had to be absolutely sure that what they promulgated to the world was genuine. The fact that they boldly proclaimed the resurrection and were willing to die in their evangelistic campaign is convincing proof that the resurrection of Christ was not a figment of their imagination.
Against this sense of things, only one conclusion is plausible: Jesus Christ’s disciples experienced the most unbelievable sight of all time. They actually saw the crucified Christ alive again, if their testimonies in the New Testament are anything to go by.
It was actually the appearance of the risen Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that ignited the flame of the Christian faith and prompted a group of once timid disciples to fearlessly proclaim the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ throughout the Greco-Roman world. In respect of this, renowned author Leon Morris, in an article titled: “Resurrection of Christ” (published in the International Bible Encyclopedia) wrote: “The conviction that Christ is risen from the dead transformed the first disciples . . .” These same disciples, through their writings in the New Testament, are our witnesses today that this most astounding event of all human history — the resurrection of Jesus Christ — is factual and not fictitious.
It is instructive to note that traditional Christianity the world over has come up with heterogeneous ways of commemorating the last week of Jesus Christ’s mortal journey. Some practices may seem very strange, but they all have one thing in common – the teaching that Jesus Christ was crucified at sunset on a Friday (Good Friday) and that His resurrection occurred the following Sunday morning (Easter Sunday). Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is considered the holiest time of the year by most Christian churches. The fact that Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected back to life is a cornerstone of the Christian faith. In fact, no miracle is more central to the Christian faith than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said to the Church: “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain,”(1 Corinthians 15 verse 14).
During Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, the doubting Scribes and Pharisees cast aspersions on his claim that he was the Messiah. When they demanded a sign from him to substantiate his claim that he was the Messiah sent by God, he said: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign but there shall no sign be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12 verses 39-40).
As stated above, one of the most popular teachings today is that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred on the days popularly known as Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The question that is uppermost in the minds of many sober, discerning and analytical theologians is: Did Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection really occur during the Easter festival? Through His written Word — the Holy Bible — the Creator God admonishes us to ‘prove all things and hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21). As Christians, we all have a sacred obligation to follow the example of the Bereans of ancient Greece, who studied the Scriptures daily to prove the truthfulness of what the Apostle Paul preached to them (Acts 17 verse 11).
Personally, I always make it a point to verify the truthfulness of everything that I hear being preached today, notwithstanding the fact that the preacher may be a seasoned or highly educated evangelist. One insightful observation that I have personally made since embracing the Christian faith is that some of the things we hear being preached in some churches today are at total variance with the teachings of the Holy Bible. Some preachers distort and misinterpret the Holy Bible in a bid to give credence to their teachings, which are at loggerheads with the teachings of the holy book. In Matthew 24 verses 4-5 and 11, Jesus Christ said: “Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ, and shall deceive many . . . And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
This prophecy is being fulfilled right before our very eyes. Today, many people are being deceived by a counterfeit faith, masquerading as Christianity. Indeed, it is quite disquieting to note that the introduction of false doctrines by some bogus evangelists has divided the Christian world, splitting it into contending sects and denominations, which are rent asunder by heresy and false teachings.
Concerning this shocking, if not altogether alarming development, Jesus Christ said: “They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Mark 7 verse 7). With this in mind, let us now turn to the Holy Bible to ascertain whether or not its teachings support the widely acclaimed dogma that Jesus Christ was crucified at sunset on Good Friday and raised back to life on Easter Sunday morning. Let us keep in mind that Jesus Christ said he would repose in the grave for three days and three nights. He actually staked his claim to being the Saviour of mankind upon remaining in the grave for a period of three days and three nights, before being brought back to life through a supernatural resurrection. If Jesus Christ failed to fulfil his promise, he risked being denounced and repudiated as a phony or impostor.
The pertinent question to ask is: How long is a day and a night, according to the Holy Bible? Jesus Christ himself answered this question: In John 11 verses 9-10, he said: “Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles. . .” This is clear evidence that, according to the Holy Bible, a daytime period and a night-time period are each 12 hours in length, making a full day (24 hours).
Using this plain Biblical fact as a yardstick, there’s no way that anyone can figure three 24-hour periods between Friday sunset, when the crucifixion of Christ is believed to have occurred, and a Sunday morning resurrection. All Friday night is one night, the daylight period of Saturday is one day, and Saturday night makes it two nights. As can be seen, we have only one day and two nights from Friday sunset to Sunday morning. That’s not three days and three nights. The simple truth that must be told without prejudice is that there’s not a shred of evidence in the Holy Bible to support the teaching that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred during the Easter period.
In my own in-depth study and research into the origins of Easter, I found that the festival has no Christian origins and actually gravitated to the Christian faith from paganism. The word “Easter” itself is derived from “Eostre,” the Anglo-Saxon goddess, whose religious ceremonies had sexual overtones and were celebrated in spring. The plain truth is that the Holy Bible reveals that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred on a Passover (in AD 31), on the 14th of Abib (Nissan), on the exact date that Passover lambs had always been slain under the Old Covenant, and his resurrection occurred three days later, just as he had said.
The original Passover marked the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt after God had poured out plagues upon Egypt to compel Pharaoh to free the children of Israel. From Biblical evidence as recorded in Exodus 12 verse 14, the Passover is a yearly reminder of the awesome sacrifice made by Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind, and was instituted as an ordinance forever. On the night before he was crucified, Jesus Christ instituted the New Testament Passover, or memorial of his death, using unleavened bread and wine — symbols of his broken body and shed blood. He commanded his disciples to: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22 verse 19).
In wrapping up this discussion, it is crucially important to state that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event of all history. For if Christ had not been resurrected, mankind would be without any hope of salvation. The resurrection is our hope of salvation; it is of momentous importance, not only to Christians, but to every human being on this earth. The Bible tells us that because Jesus Christ conquered death, we, too, have a chance to live again after death, and so do our friends and relatives who have already succumbed to death. This Biblical truism is amplified in John 5 verses 28-29, which says: “Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His (Jesus Christ’s) voice, and come forth-those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
*Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance writer and theologian. He can be contacted on 0773963448/0775522095 or via email [email protected]
