Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

Understanding The Importance of the Empty Tomb

April/May, 2017

M A G A Z I N E

The Truth About God! Does He Hate Sinners?

Understanding Your Complete Loss of Faith

Trials and Tribulations: Why Are They Important?

Did Jesus Really Have to Die for Us? Overcoming the Doubting Thomas Syndrome

Why You Should Believe in the

Resurrection of

Shattered by Molestation: How to Start the Recovery Process Misdirected Sex Drive: Why Do I Feel Aroused By Inappropriate Targets?

64

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Contents April/May, 2017

Inside This Issue

46

15

 Trials and Tribulations: Why Are They Important? – 15  Understanding Your Complete Loss of Faith – 17  Overcoming the Doubting Thomas Syndrome - 21

Relationships: 27

 Shattered by Molestation: How to Start the Recovery Process – 27  The Truth About God! Does He Hate Sinners? – 31  Did Jesus Really Have to Die for Us? - 35

Image by Shutterstock

Spiritual Wellness:

Personal Wellness: 38

 Misdirected Sex Drive: Why Do Individuals Feel Aroused by Inappropriate Targets? -38

Why You Should Believe in the Resurrection

Feature Story: 46

 Why You Should Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus! - 46

8 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

Cover Photo Shutterstock Photos

Also in this issue‌ 11 Letter from the Editor 56 Understanding the Importance of the Empty Tomb 63 Just For Fun

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 9

Editor’s Corner

First giving all glory and honor unto the Lord Jesus Christ for without Him in my life, nothing I could ever do would amount to anything!

As we approach Resurrection Sunday, I pray that each and everyone of us examine our walk with the Lord to ensure we are walking according to His Word and within His Will for our lives. One of the most precious accounts in history is the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ and with His defeat over death and sin, we too can become victorious through the Blood of Jesus! Amen!

I want to personally thank all of our fans and readers for their continued support of this ministry which has continued to strive and for that I am grateful to our Lord, Jesus Christ Our goal is to continue being a resource for Christians and others for years to come and with your support we can keep this publication available free of charge always on our digital platform

Pray for us as we continue to pray for you and thank you for reading this issue of Blessed Magazine God bless you!

Your Humble Servant in Christ,

Laraine Turner

Letter From the Editor

Praise the Lord My Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Editor-in-Chief

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 11

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Spiritual Wellness

Trials and Tribulations: Why Are They Important?

By S. Michael Houdman

One of the most difficult parts of the Christian life is the fact that becoming a disciple of Christ does not make us immune to life’s trials and tribulations. Why would a good and loving God allow us to go through such things as the death of a child, disease and injury to ourselves and our loved ones, financial hardships, worry and fear? Surely, if He loved us, He would take all these things away from us. After all, doesn’t loving us mean He wants our lives to be easy and comfortable? Well, no, it doesn’t. The Bible clearly teaches that God loves those who are His children, and He ―works all things together for good‖ for us (Romans 8:28). So that must mean that the trials and tribulations He allows in our lives are part of the working together of all things for good. Therefore, for the believer, all trials and tribulations must have a divine purpose.

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 15

Spiritual Wellness As in all things, God’s ultimate purpose for us is to grow more and more into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This is the goal of the Christian, and everything in life, including the trials and tribulations, is designed to enable us to reach that goal. It is part of the process of sanctification, being set apart for God’s purposes and fitted to live for His glory. The way trials accomplish this is explained in 1 Peter 1:67: "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." The true believer’s faith will be made sure by the trials we experience so that we can rest in the knowledge that it is real and will last forever.

Trials develop godly character, and that enables us to "rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us‖ (Romans 5:3-5).

Jesus Christ set the perfect example. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). These verses reveal aspects of His divine purpose for both Jesus Christ's trials and tribulations and ours. Persevering proves our faith. "I

16 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

However, we must be careful never to make excuses for our "trials and tribulations" if they are a result of our own wrongdoing. "By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler" (1 Peter 4:15).

God will forgive our sins because the eternal punishment for them has been paid

by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

However, we still have to suffer the natural consequences in this life for our sins and bad choices. But God uses even those sufferings to mold and shape us for His purposes and our ultimate good.

Trials and tribulations come with both a purpose and a reward. "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. . . . Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved,

Spiritual Wellness he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him" (James 1:2-4,12).

Through all of life’s trials and tribulations, we have the victory. "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ." Although we are in a spiritual battle, Satan has no authority over the believer in Christ. God has given us His Word to guide us, His Holy Spirit to enable us, and the privilege of coming to Him anywhere, at any time, to pray about anything. He has also assured us that no trial will test us beyond our ability to bear it, and ―he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it‖ (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Article Shared with Permission from Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Understanding Your Complete Loss of Faith

There are two primary ways Christians can stop doubting God. The first is reading the Bible. In order to stop doubting, trust must be built. But it is hard to trust a stranger, or even an occasional acquaintance. When salvation occurs and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in one’s heart, it is just the beginning of a lifelong journey (and beyond) of getting to know God. The primary way of knowing God is reading the Bible. One thing that the Bible makes abundantly clear is that God is faithful, trustworthy, and good. As we fill our minds with the proofs of God’s power and love through history, we are better able to overcome doubt. ―Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ‖ (Romans 10:17).

The Bible is unique because it is God-

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 17

Spiritual Wellness -breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), which means the words on the pages may look ordinary but they are inspired by the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word even ―judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart‖ (Hebrews 4:12).

Bible reading encourages us (Romans 15:4), satisfies and sustains us (Matthew 4:4), and guides us through life better than any GPS (Psalm 119:105). The Bible simultaneously reveals God to us—what He is like, what He loves, and what He hates. And the more a believer learns about the person of God, the more his faith will increase—and the less he will doubt.

The second way Christians can stop doubting God is prayer. Prayer may be the most difficult discipline to develop in the believer’s life, but it is also the most rewarding. Our reading of Scripture should prompt our praying. In Daniel 9:2–3, we read, ―I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.‖ In other words, Daniel knew from Scripture that God was going to end Israel’s captivity, and that knowledge spurred him to pray. Why did Daniel pray for what he already knew would happen?

Because Daniel knew that God uses the prayers of His people in the working out of His eternal purposes. If God is so benevolent that He would allow us such an important place in His plan for this world,

18 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

surely we can trust Him to hear our prayers and answer them.

Not only does God hear our prayers, but whatever we ask in accordance with His will shall come to pass (Luke 11:9–13). In the words of Andrew Murray, ―Let no delay shake our faith. Of faith it holds good: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory. Each believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it; it fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone; it conquers the hindrances in the unseen world; it hastens the end.‖ Our prayers should be made daily, in a quiet place with no distractions. It’s good to keep a prayer journal. There’s no need to write down every detail of your prayers, but do write some of your petitions, and, when God answers, write that down also. It won’t be long before you have a bona fide record of how God supernaturally speaks into the lives of His children through answered prayer. This can be a tremendous help in overcoming doubt.

Spiritual Wellness God doesn’t want His people to doubt Him; He wants them to be confidant in His love, watchfulness, and protection. Do not hesitate to call to Him; He has promised to answer (Jeremiah 33:3).

Article Shared with Permission from Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 19

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Spiritual Wellness

Overcoming the Doubting Thomas Syndrome

We should thank God for the example of "doubting Thomas"! The famous story of the disciple Thomas is recorded in John 20:24-29. All Christians suffer doubt at one time or another, but the example of doubting Thomas provides both instruction and encouragement.

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 21

Spiritual Wellness After His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared alive and glorified to His disciples to comfort them and proclaim to them the good news of His victory over death (John 20:19-23). However, one of the original 12 disciples, Thomas, was not present for this visitation (John 20:24).

After being told by the other disciples of Jesus’ resurrection and personal visit, Thomas ―doubted‖ and wanted physical proof of the risen Lord in order to believe this good news. Jesus, knowing Thomas’s human frailty resulted in weakened faith, accommodated Thomas.

It is important to note that Jesus did not have to fulfill Thomas’s request. He was not obligated in the slightest bit. Thomas had spent three years intimately acquainted with Jesus witnessing all His miracles and hearing His prophecies about His coming death and resurrection. That, and the testimony Thomas received from the other 10 disciples about Jesus’ return, should have been enough, but still he doubted.

Jesus knew Thomas’s weakness, just as he knows ours.

22 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

The doubt Thomas experienced in the face of the heartbreaking loss of the One he loved is not unlike our own when facing a massive loss: despair, heartbreak, and exceeding sorrow, all of which Christ sympathizes with (Hebrews 4:15). But, although Thomas did in fact doubt the Lord’s resurrection appearance, once he saw the risen Christ, he proclaimed in faith, ―My Lord and my God‖ (John 20:28). Jesus commended him for his faith, although that faith was based on sight.

As an extra encouraging note to future Christians, Jesus goes on to say, ―Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed‖ (John 20:29, emphasis added).

He meant that once He ascended to heaven, He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would live within believers from then on, enabling us to believe that which we do not see with our eyes. This same thought is echoed by Peter, who said of Christ, ―Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls‖ (1 Peter 1:8-9).

Although we have the Spirit within us, we can still experience doubt. This, however, does not affect our eternal standing with God. True saving faith always perseveres to the end just as Thomas’s did, and just as Peter’s did after he had a monumental moment of weakness by denying the very

Spiritual Wellness Lord he loved and believed in (Matthew 26:69-75). This is because, ―he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus‖ (Philippians 1:6). Jesus is ―the author and perfecter of our faith‖ (Hebrews 12:2).

Faith is the gift of God to His children (Ephesians 2:8-9), and He will mature and perfect it until He returns.

So how do we keep from doubting as Thomas did? First, we must go to God in prayer when experiencing doubt. That may be the very reason God is allowing a Christian to doubt—so that we will depend on Him through prayer. Sanctification is the process of growing in Him, which includes times of doubt and times of great faith. Like the man who brought his demon-possessed child to Jesus but was unsure whether Jesus could help him, we go to God because we believe in Him and ask Him for more and greater faith to overcome our doubts, crying, ―I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!‖ (Mark 9:17-27).

Second, we must recognize that Christians fight a spiritual battle daily. We have to gear up for the battle. The Christian needs to daily be armed with the Word of God to help fight these spiritual battles, which include fighting doubt, and we arm ourselves with the ―full armor of God‖ (Ephesians 6:10-19). As Christians, we must take advantage of the lulls in spiritual warfare to polish our spiritual armor in order to be ready for the next battle. Times

of doubt will become less frequent if we take advantage of the good times to feed our faith with the Word of God. Then when we raise the shield of faith and do battle with the enemy of our souls, his flaming darts of doubt will not hit their target.

Doubting Christians have two things doubting Thomas did not have—the indwelling Holy Spirit and the written New Testament. By the power of both the Spirit and the Word, we can overcome doubts and, like Thomas, be prepared to follow our Lord and Savior and give all for Him, even our lives (John 11:16).

Article Shared with Permission from Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

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Relationships

Shattered by Molestation: How to Start the Recovery Process

By Anna Diehl

Family members molesting other family members is a far more common situation than anyone would like it to be. Often these situations remain unknown and/or intentionally ignored until someone in the family system hits their limit with the horror of it all and drags the whole sordid affair into the spotlight. At that point, family members are forced to respond to both the victim and the perpetrator. But how exactly should you respond to such a situation? Where do you even start? In this kind of situation, there are two main strategies that can speed up the healing process, and these strategies are best used simultaneously.

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 27

Relationships The first strategy is to humanize the perpetrator in your own mind. In cases of sexual abuse, the trauma is very intense, and when humans are hurting intensely, they tend to see their attackers as monsters. Once we dehumanize someone, we feel justified in hating them, and hate causes us to get stalled in our own recovery process. So reducing hate is critical, and to get there, we need to gain compassion.

To gain compassion, we need to gain understanding. Non-pedophiles often have no understanding of what causes a pedophile to feel sexually attracted to children or to desire to molest. Ironically, while everyone is rushing to the defense of the newest victim of molestation, no one has any sympathy for the fact that the molester has undergone sexual trauma in his own life. Such one-sided compassion only complicates the matter further.

Pedophiles become pedophiles by experiencing some form of sexual violation as children. It’s a response to trauma, and understanding this can be especially helpful to the victim who is trying to make sense out of what happened. Molestation victims naturally ask, ―Is there something wrong with me that caused the molester to target me?‖ It’s important to realize how impersonal the choice of victim is in these situations. The molester is often focused on availability, a specific age range, and sometimes a specific gender.

28 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

Understanding what causes pedophilia, and why some pedophiles resort to molestation, can really help family members gain some much needed perspective. Getting answers to ―why‖ questions helps us sort through overwhelming emotions.

Now the second strategy is just as important as the first for healing: each family member needs to work on processing his/her own feelings with regards to what happened. For parents of a molested child, intense guilt over failing to protect is often a big issue.

Victims of molestation are often passive in temperament–meaning that they froze and allowed the molester to violate them instead of attempting to defend themselves.

Observing a passive response in yourself often results in intense confusion and guilt (―Why didn’t I stand up for myself??‖).

In cases of sexual molestation, some feeling of sexual arousal/excitement is

Relationships inevitable, and this leads to intense confusion and guilt for the victim (―How sick am I to enjoy how he touched me??‖). It’s critical to help the victim understand how involuntary sexual arousal can be so that many fears can be put to rest.

In family systems, individual family members often react very differently to these kinds of traumas. It is very common for family members to choose a scapegoat: one member of the family who everyone decides to dump their anger on. When the scapegoat accepts this position, intense shame and severe depression can result.

In cases of someone molesting within their own family system, it is very common that certain family members were aware of what was happening, yet they were too afraid of what might happen to them if they spoke up, so they stayed silent and let the victim suffer. Some family members will even go so far as to help

the molester get easy access to the victim, and some will threaten to punish the victim if the victim tries to ask for help. Playing any of these fear-driven roles can result in immense guilt and shame later on when you are forced to face the depths to which you sunk in order to protect yourself. It is a fact that humans often don’t have the courage they need to do what is right at the critical moment. Wallowing in shame over your past failures is only going to do greater harm to yourself, so despite the wrongness of your past actions, it is critical that you learn how to overcome the obstacle of shame.

When humans are upset with each other, they often refuse to forgive. It is rare for molesters to be forgiven by their victims. It is rare for victims to forgive those who played a role in abusing them.

As someone who wants to move through this trauma in a healthy way, realize that you can’t force your family members to make wise choices about how they are going to respond to this situation. Your own choices are the only ones you have control over, so ask God to help you learn what He wants to teach you through this difficult time.

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Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 29

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Relationships

The Truth About God! Does He Hate

Sinners

It might seem a contradiction that a God who is love can also hate.

Yet that’s exactly what Bible says is true: God is love (1 John 4:8), and God hates (Hosea 9:15). God’s nature is love—He always does what is best for others—and He hates what is contrary to His nature—He hates what is contrary to love.

No one should be surprised to learn that God does hate some things. He created us with the capacity to both love and hate, and we acknowledge that hatred is sometimes justified—we naturally hate things that destroy what we love.

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 31

Relationships This is part of our being created in the image of God. The fact that we are all tainted with sin means that our love and hatred are sometimes misplaced, but the existence of the sin nature does not negate our God-given ability to love and hate. It is no contradiction for a human being to be able to love and hate, and neither is it a contradiction for God to be able to love and hate.

When the Bible does speak of God’s hatred, the object of His hatred is sin and wickedness. Among the things God hates are idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:31; 16:22), child sacrifice, sexual perversion (Leviticus 20:1–23), and those who do evil (Psalm 5:4–6; 11:5). Proverbs 6:16– 19 lists seven things the Lord hates: pride, lying, murder, evil plots, those who love evil, false witnesses, and troublemakers. Notice that this passage does not include just things that God hates; it includes people as well. The reason is simple: sin cannot be separated from the sinner except by the forgiveness available in Christ alone.

God hates lying, yes, but lying always involves a person—a liar—who chooses to lie. God cannot judge the lie without also judging the liar.

The Bible clearly teaches that God loves the people of the world (John 3:16). God spared wicked Nineveh, bringing them to repentance (Jonah 3). God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32). He is patient to an extreme, ―not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance‖ (2 Peter 3:9). This is all proof of love—God wants what is best for His creation. At the same time, Psalm 5:5 says about God, ―You hate all evildoers‖ (ESV).

Psalm 11:5 is even harsher: ―The wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion.‖ Before a person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the enemy of God (Colossians 1:21). Yet, even before he is saved, he is loved by God (Romans 5:8)—i.e., God sacrificed His only begotten Son on his behalf. The question then becomes, what happens to someone who spurns God’s love, refuses to repent, and stubbornly clings to his sin?

Answer: God will judge him, because God must judge sin, and that means judging the sinner. These are the ―wicked‖ whom God hates—those who persist in their sin and rebellion, even in the face of the grace and mercy of God in Christ.

David writes, ―You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you‖ (Psalm 5:4, ESV, emphasis added). By contrast, those who

32 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

Relationships take refuge in God will ―be glad‖ and ―ever sing for joy‖ (verse 11). In fact, both Psalm 5 and Psalm 11 draw a stark contrast between the righteous (those who take refuge in God) and the wicked (those who rebel against God). The righteous and the wicked make different choices and have different destinies— one will see the ultimate expression of God’s love, and the other will know the ultimate expression of God’s hatred.

still unforgiven, God hates ―for their many sins, for they have rebelled‖ (Psalm 5:10). But—and this is important to understand—God desires that the wicked repent of their sin and find refuge in Christ. At the moment of saving faith, the wicked sinner is removed from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of love (see Colossians 1:13). All enmity is dissolved, all sin is removed, and all things are made new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

We cannot love with a perfect love, nor can we hate with a perfect hatred. But God can both love and hate perfectly, because He is God. God can hate without sinful intent. He can hate the sinner in a perfectly holy way and still lovingly forgive the sinner at the moment of repentance and faith (Malachi 1:3; Revelation 2:6; 2 Peter 3:9).

In His love for all, God has sent His Son to be the Savior. The wicked, who are

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 33

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Relationships

Did Jesus Really Have to Die for Us? When we ask a question such as this, we must be careful that we are not calling God into question. To wonder why God couldn’t find ―another way‖ to do something is to imply that the way He has chosen is not the best course of action and that some other method would be better. Usually what we perceive as a ―better‖ method is one that seems right to us.

Before we can come to grips with anything God does, we have to first acknowledge that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts—they are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8). In addition, Deuteronomy 32:4 reminds us that ―He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.‖ Therefore, the plan of salvation He has designed is perfect, just, and upright, and no one could have come up with anything better.

Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017 35

Relationships The Scripture says, ―For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures‖ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Evidence affirms that the sinless Jesus bled and died on a cross. Most importantly, the Bible explains why Jesus’ death and resurrection provide the only entrance to heaven.

THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN IS DEATH. God created earth and man perfect. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commands, He had to punish them. A judge who pardons law-breakers isn’t a righteous judge. Likewise, overlooking sin would make the holy God unjust.

Death is God’s just consequence for sin. ―For the wages of sin is death‖ (Romans 6:23). Even good works cannot make up for wrongs against the holy God. Compared to His goodness, ―All our righteousness are as filthy rags‖ (Isaiah 64:6b). Ever since Adam’s sin, every human has been guilty of disobeying God’s righteous laws. ―For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God‖ (Romans 3:23). Sin is not just big things like murder or blasphemy, but also includes love of money, hatred of enemies, and deceit of tongue and pride.

Because of sin, everyone has deserved death – eternal separation from God in

36 Blessed Magazine April/May, 2017

hell.

THE PROMISE REQUIRED AN INNOCENT DEATH Although God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, He didn’t leave them without hope of reconciliation. He promised He would send a Savior to defeat the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Until then, men would sacrifice innocent lambs, showing their repentance from sin and faith in the future Sacrifice from God who would bear their penalty. God reaffirmed His promise of the Sacrifice with men such as Abraham and Moses.

Herein lies the beauty of God’s perfect plan: God Himself provided the only sacrifice (Jesus) who could atone for the sins of His people. God’s perfect Son fulfilled God’s perfect requirement of God’s perfect law. It is perfectly brilliant in its simplicity. ―God made Him (Christ), who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him‖ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Relationships THE PROPHETS JESUS’ DEATH

FORETOLD

From Adam to Jesus, God sent prophets to mankind, warning them of sin’s punishment and foretelling the coming Messiah. One prophet, Isaiah, described Him: ―Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the

LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors‖ (Isaiah 53:1-12). He likened the coming Sacrifice to a lamb, slaughtered for the sins of others.

Hundreds of years later, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the perfect Lord Jesus, born of the virgin Mary.

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Relationships When the prophet John the Baptist saw Him, he cried, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!‖ (John 1:29).

Crowds thronged Him for healing and teaching, but the religious leaders scorned Him. Mobs cried out, ―Crucify Him!‖ Soldiers beat, mocked, and crucified Him. As Isaiah foretold, Jesus was crucified in between two criminals but was buried in a rich man’s tomb. But He didn’t remain in the grave. Because God accepted His Lamb’s sacrifice, He fulfilled another prophecy by raising Jesus from the dead (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 26:19).

WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE? Remember, the holy God cannot let sin go unpunished. To bear our own sins would be to suffer God’s judgment in the flames of hell. Praise God, He kept His promise to send and sacrifice the perfect Lamb to bear the sins of those who trust in Him. Jesus had to die because He is the only one who can pay the penalty for our sins.

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

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Misdirected Sex Drive: Why Do Individuals Feel Aroused by Inappropriate Targets? By Anna Diehl

We use the term sexual target to define what turns you on sexually. The world is full of potential targets, but God puts out a very narrow definition of what appropriate targets are. For men, women are the only appropriate targets. But not just any women. God says you’re not supposed to be lusting after some other man’s wife or little girls or your mother. The list goes on and on, and there are similar restrictions for women. Women are supposed to be sexually aroused by men. Not little boys, not their friend’s boyfriends, not their grandfathers— you get the idea. God is a real stickler when it comes to defining morally acceptable sexual desires and activities, and then He slaps the label of perverse onto anything that falls outside of the morally acceptable zone.

Personal Wellness Well, now what?

In real life, things often don’t work out the way God says they ought to. Some of you have made the distressing discovery that there seems to be something very wrong with your internal wiring. For you, the targets that God says are acceptable leave you feeling totally flat while the targets that God says are sick and perverse intensely arouse you. What does it mean when you’re a guy who finds himself turned on by other guys?

What does it mean when you can’t stop fantasizing about doing it with kids?

What does it mean if you can’t experience an orgasm unless you start fantasizing about graphic torture? What does it mean if you want to have sex with animals? This is real life: some of us are intensely attracted towards very wrong targets and try as we might, we can’t seem to fix ourselves. So what does it mean and how did we end up like this? Here’s where we need to learn some basic facts about how the sex drive works.

THE SEX DRIVE All humans have a sex drive, but in the early years of our lives, we just don’t care. We aren’t thinking about sex when we’re kids—we’re busy thinking about other things. An interest in sex develops when those hormones start riling up during the not so fun period of life called puberty and then suddenly we’ve got sex on the brain and it starts becoming very clear to us that certain things turn us on while other things don’t.

Well, that’s one way it works. But it’s a very common story that sexual arousal gets forced upon us long before we would naturally develop an interest in the topic. Sometimes a caretaker starts messing around with us in a sexual way before we’ve even had time to figure out what the point of all that pelvic equipment is. When sexually arousing experiences are forced upon us early on, the nature of those experiences has a drastic impact on what kinds of sexual appetites we acquire.

To understand how the sex drive gets misdirected, let’s set a toy train at the top of a downhill track. Halfway down the descent, the track splits into three branches. If the train is left alone, it will go roaring down the center track and we’ll end up developing an attraction to

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Personal Wellness appropriate targets. But if someone throws a switch on the tracks, then when the train hits that intersection, it will go flying off to the right or the left because the straight path has been physically barricaded. The point is this: you aren’t controlling that train, and you’re not controlling the switches on the tracks.

You aren’t the reason that your sex drive is all warped. Sexual perversion is a result of our sex drives being manipulated apart from our wills. No one says, ―Pedophilia? Sounds good: sign me up.‖ But when our first experience of sex is Dad groping us, we go through a very traumatizing mental experience and suddenly we find ourselves fantasizing about passing that degradation on to targets who are as defenseless as we were when we were being abused.

The sex drive is a very powerful force.

Toss a rope around the neck of a wild stallion who is tearing across a field and you’d better be ready to eat dirt, because there’s no way you’re going to singlehandedly restrain a beast who is that muscular and determined. In the same way, you can’t just mentally seize hold of your sex drive and reprogram it.

Once it makes up its mind about the kinds of targets it wants to feast on, there’s just no reasoning with it.

The range of experiences that can result in perverse sexual appetites is

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surprisingly broad. It all comes down to earthsuit associations.

Your earthsuit has three basic components: mental, emotional and physical. Your sex drive is part of the physical component, but each component affects the other two. This means that when you experience sexual arousal in your physical body, your emotions and your mind are strongly impacted. Sometimes our first associations with sex are formed during experiences that have nothing to do with it. Your father is a creep who likes to strip you down and terrorize you just for kicks. He isn’t being primarily sexual with you, but by the time he’s done manhandling you, your earthsuit has formed strong associations between sexual arousal, physical pain, emotional humiliation, and psychological degradation. Now as an adult, you can’t get sexually excited unless you are fantasizing about someone sadistically tormenting you.

If people could see what you think about today, they’d write you off as a

Personal Wellness disgusting little pervert. But if we were to take a closer look at your history, we’d find your earthsuit using a stream of logic which really makes a lot of sense given the kinds of experiences it has been through.

Your earthsuit isn’t born with God’s moral code imprinted on it. Your sex drive is a very moldable, impressionable thing. Many things impact it: unmet core needs, sexual traumas, and early sexual experiences. When we stop freaking out over the pervert label, we can start to appreciate the very logical way that your earthsuit operates.

WHY WE LOVE PERVERTS We love working with sexual perverts— especially those who have a bunch of sex crimes on their record. Why? Because there’s just so much good news that we can tell you which no one else wants to talk about. We know that you’re getting seriously desperate by the time you become an active sex offender, and the higher the shame piles up on you, the closer you’re getting to your breaking point, and that’s when you will finally become receptive to some critical truths that can radically improve your quality of life. One of those truths is that you simply had no say in defining the basic appetites of your sex drive. Sure you can do things to warp it further once it’s already in motion, but when it comes to

defining the kinds of targets that it initially wants, that’s just not in your control. Just as God didn’t ask you which flavors of food you’d like your tongue to enjoy most in life, He didn’t give you a say in what kinds of targets your sex drive would fixate on. And where God gives you no choice, He doesn’t sit around blaming you for being who you are.

While it’s commonly believed that God hates homosexuals and pedophiles, this is simply not true. God loves all souls, and He doesn’t confuse your soul with your sex drive. Every human is packed with depravity, and every human is filled with perverse sexual desires. While your society uses a very narrow definition of the term sexual pervert, God’s definition of the term is so staggeringly broad that we all qualify. This means that if God isn’t willing to seriously love on sexual perverts, then no one can get saved, and we’re all on our way to Hell.

God has a glorious of way of leveling the playing field so that no one can pull rank on anyone else. While straights look down on gays and pedophiles, they’re no better in God’s eyes. By the time we’ve got men jumping in the sack with every sexy babe that they meet and women fantasizing about fictitious dream lovers, no one is anywhere close to meeting God’s definition of sexual purity. We’re all in the cesspool of perversion together, and God is right in it

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Personal Wellness with us, calling us to stop using our sexual issues as an excuse to keep our distance from Him.

Is it a drag to be stuck with a sex drive that is lusting after the wrong targets?

Yes, it is. And does being stuck with depraved desires mean we have some pity pass from God to go ravage whoever we want whenever we want?

Certainly not. God calls us to come to Him and surrender ourselves into His hands—perversity and all. He tells us that if we do not hold back in the submission department, He will use our perverse desires as a catalyst for positive transformation. Show us a mind that is plagued with sick fantasies, and we’ll show you a breeding ground for fabulous compassion, mercy and love. It’s by getting continuously pummeled with defeat that we acquire true humility and a strong grip on our dependency on God. Nothing shatters the illusion that we are intrinsically good like a perverse sex drive. Nothing crushes the delusion that

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you can rise above sin like having those disgusting fantasies running in a continuous loop through your brain.

Sexual perverts are like diamonds that are buried in a swamp of sludge: they’re just waiting to be fished out and washed off so that their beautiful sparkle can be seen by all. So if you’ve come to realize that something is seriously warped way down deep in the core of your being where you just can’t get at it, realize that a perverse sex drive isn’t cause for despair. It’s evidence of thrilling potential.

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Why You Should Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus

Feature Story It is a fairly well-established fact that Jesus Christ was publicly executed in Judea in the 1st Century A.D., under Pontius Pilate, by means of crucifixion, at the behest of the Jewish Sanhedrin.

The non-Christian historical accounts of Flavius Josephus, Cornelius Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, Maimonides and even the Jewish Sanhedrin corroborate the early Christian eyewitness accounts of these important historical aspects of the death of Jesus Christ.

As for His resurrection, there are several lines of evidence which make for a compelling case. The late jurisprudential prodigy and international statesman Sir Lionel Luckhoo (of The Guinness Book of World Records fame for his unprecedented 245 consecutive defense murder trial acquittals) epitomized Christian enthusiasm and confidence in the strength of the case for the resurrection when he wrote, ―I have spent more than 42 years as a defense trial lawyer appearing in many parts of the world and am still in active practice.

I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials and I say unequivocally the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.‖ The secular community’s response to the same evidence has been predictably

apathetic in accordance with their steadfast commitment to methodological naturalism. For those unfamiliar with the term, methodological naturalism is the human endeavor of explaining everything in terms of natural causes and natural causes only. If an alleged historical event defies natural explanation (e.g., a miraculous resurrection), secular scholars generally treat it with overwhelming skepticism, regardless of the evidence, no matter how favorable and compelling it may be.

In our view, such an unwavering allegiance to natural causes regardless of substantive evidence to the contrary is not conducive to an impartial (and therefore adequate) investigation of the evidence. We agree with Dr. Wernher von Braun and numerous others who still believe that forcing a popular philosophical predisposition upon the evidence hinders objectivity. Or in the words of Dr. von Braun, ―To be forced to believe only one conclusion… would violate the very objectivity of science itself.‖

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Feature Story Having said that, let us now examine several lines of evidence for Christ's resurrection.

THE FIRST LINE OF EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST'S RESURRECTION To begin with, we have demonstrably sincere eyewitness testimony. Early Christian apologists cited hundreds of eyewitnesses, some of whom documented their own alleged experiences. Many of these eyewitnesses willfully and resolutely endured prolonged torture and death rather than repudiate their testimony. This fact attests to their sincerity, ruling out deception on their part. According to the historical record (The Book of Acts 4:117; Pliny’s Letters to Trajan X, 97, etc) most Christians could end their suffering simply by renouncing the faith. Instead, it seems that most opted to endure the suffering and proclaim Christ’s resurrection unto death.

Granted, while martyrdom is remarkable, it is not necessarily compelling. It does not validate a belief so much as it authenticates a believer (by demonstrating his or her sincerity in a tangible way). What makes the earliest Christian martyrs remarkable is that they knew whether or not what they were professing was true. They either saw Jesus Christ alive-and-well after His death or they did not. This is

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extraordinary. If it was all just a lie, why would so many perpetuate it given their circumstances? Why would they all knowingly cling to such an unprofitable lie in the face of persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death?

While the September 11, 2001, suicide hijackers undoubtedly believed what they professed (as evidenced by their willingness to die for it), they could not and did not know if it was true. They put their faith in traditions passed down to them over many generations.

In contrast, the early Christian martyrs were the first generation. Either they saw what they claimed to see, or they did not.

Among the most illustrious of the professed eyewitnesses were the Apostles. They collectively underwent an undeniable change following the alleged post-resurrection appearances of Christ. Immediately following His crucifixion, they hid in fear for their lives. Following the resurrection they took to the streets, boldly proclaiming the resurrection despite intensifying persecution. What accounts for their sudden and dramatic change? It certainly was not financial gain. The Apostles gave up everything they had to preach the resurrection, including their lives.

Feature Story THE SECOND LINE OF EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST'S RESURRECTION A second line of evidence concerns the conversion of certain key skeptics, most notably Paul and James. Paul was of his own admission a violent persecutor of the early Church. After what he described as an encounter with the resurrected Christ, Paul underwent an immediate and drastic change from a vicious persecutor of the Church to one of its most prolific and selfless defenders. Like many early Christians, Paul suffered impoverishment, persecution, beatings, imprisonment, and execution for his steadfast commitment to Christ’s resurrection.

James was skeptical, though not as hostile as Paul. A purported postresurrection encounter with Christ turned him into an inimitable believer, a leader of the Church in Jerusalem. We still have what scholars generally accept to be one of his letters to the early Church. Like Paul, James willingly suffered and died for his testimony, a fact which attests to the sincerity of his belief (see The Book of Acts and Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews XX, ix, 1).

THE THIRD AND FOURTH LINES OF EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST'S RESURRECTION A third line and fourth line of evidence concern enemy attestation to the empty

tomb and the fact that faith in the resurrection took root in Jerusalem.

Jesus was publicly executed and buried in Jerusalem. It would have been impossible for faith in His resurrection to take root in Jerusalem while His body was still in the tomb where the Sanhedrin could exhume it, put it on public display, and thereby expose the hoax. Instead, the Sanhedrin accused the disciples of stealing the body, apparently in an effort to explain its disappearance (and therefore an empty tomb). How do we explain the fact of the empty tomb?

Here are the three most common explanations: First, the disciples stole the body. If this were the case, they would have known the resurrection was a hoax. They would not therefore have been so willing to suffer and die for it. (See the first line of evidence concerning demonstrably sincere eyewitness testimony.) All of the professed eyewitnesses would have known that they hadn’t really seen Christ and were therefore lying. With so many conspirators, surely someone would have confessed, if not to end his own suffering then at least to end the suffering of his friends and family. The first generation of Christians were absolutely brutalized, especially following the conflagration in Rome in A.D. 64 (a fire which Nero allegedly ordered to make room for the expansion of his palace, but which he blamed on the Christians in Rome in an effort to

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Feature Story exculpate himself). As the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus recounted in his Annals of Imperial Rome (published just a generation after the fire): ―Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.‖ (Annals, XV, 44) Nero illuminated his garden parties with Christians whom he burnt alive. Surely someone would have confessed the truth under the threat of such terrible pain.

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The fact is, however, we have no record of any early Christian denouncing the faith to end his suffering. Instead, we have multiple accounts of post-resurrection appearances and hundreds of eyewitnesses willing to suffer and die for it.

If the disciples didn’t steal the body, how else do we explain the empty tomb? Some have suggested that Christ faked His death and later escaped from the tomb. This is patently absurd.

According to the eyewitness testimony, Christ was beaten, tortured, lacerated, and stabbed. He suffered internal damage, massive blood loss, asphyxiation, and a spear through His heart. There is no good reason to believe that Jesus Christ (or any other man for that matter) could survive such an ordeal, fake His death, sit in a tomb for three days and nights without medical attention, food or water, remove the massive stone which sealed His tomb, escape undetected (without

Feature Story leaving behind a trail of blood), convince hundreds of eyewitnesses that He was resurrected from the death and in good health, and then disappear without a trace. Such a notion is ridiculous.

THE FIFTH LINE OF EVIDENCE FOR CHRIST'S RESURRECTION Finally, a fifth line of evidence concerns a peculiarity of the eyewitness testimony. In all of the major resurrection narratives, women are credited as the first and primary eyewitnesses. This would be an odd invention since in both the ancient Jewish and Roman cultures women were severely disesteemed. Their testimony was regarded as insubstantial and dismissible. Given this fact, it is highly unlikely that any perpetrators of a hoax in 1st Century Judea would elect women to be their primary witnesses. Of all the male disciples who claimed to see Jesus resurrected, if they all were lying and the resurrection was a scam, why did they pick the most ill-perceived, distrusted witnesses they could find?

Palestine. There are old rabbinical sayings that said, 'Let the words of Law be burned rather than delivered to women' and 'blessed is he whose children are male, but woe to him whose children are female.' Women's testimony was regarded as so worthless that they weren't even allowed to serve as legal witnesses in a Jewish court of Law. In light of this, it's absolutely remarkable that the chief witnesses to the empty tomb are these women... Any later legendary account would have certainly portrayed male disciples as discovering the tomb - Peter or John, for example.

The fact that women are the first witnesses to the empty tomb is most plausibly explained by the reality that like it or not - they were the discoverers of the empty tomb! This shows that the Gospel writers faithfully recorded what happened, even if it was embarrassing.

This bespeaks the historicity of this tradition rather than its legendary status."

(Dr. William Lane Craig, quoted by Lee Strobel, The Case For Christ, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998, p. 293)

Dr. William Lane Craig explains, ―When you understand the role of women in first-century Jewish society, what's really extraordinary is that this empty tomb story should feature women as the discoverers of the empty tomb in the first place. Women were on a very low rung of the social ladder in first-century

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Feature Story IN SUMMARY These lines of evidence: the demonstrable sincerity of the eyewitnesses (and in the Apostles’ case, compelling, inexplicable change), the conversion and demonstrable sincerity of key antagonists- and skeptics-turnedmartyrs, the fact of the empty tomb, enemy attestation to the empty tomb, the fact that all of this took place in Jerusalem where faith in the resurrection began and thrived, the testimony of the women, the significance of such testimony given the historical context; all of these strongly attest to the historicity of the resurrection. We encourage our readers to thoughtfully consider these evidences. What do they suggest to you? Having pondered them ourselves, we resolutely affirm Sir Lionel’s declaration: ―The evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.‖ Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

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Understanding the Importance of the Empty Tomb

From the earliest apostolic period, the reality of the empty tomb—the biblical truth that the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth was found empty by His disciples—has been at the center of the Christian proclamation. All four Gospels describe, to varying degrees, the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the empty tomb (Matthew 28:1–6; Mark 16:1–7; Luke 24:1– 12; John 20:1–12). But are there any good reasons to think that these claims are historically accurate? Could a fair-minded investigator conclude that, in all probability, Jesus’ tomb was found empty on that first Easter morning? There are several arguments that have convinced a good many historians that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was indeed found empty on the Sunday following His crucifixion.

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Blessed Magazine First, the location of Jesus’ tomb would have been known to Christians and nonChristians alike. While it is true that most victims of crucifixion were either thrown in a graveyard reserved for common criminals or simply left on the cross for birds and other scavengers to feed upon, the case of Jesus was different. The historical record indicates that Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, the very group that had orchestrated Jesus’ execution. Many skeptical New Testament scholars have been convinced that Jesus’ burial by Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to have been a Christian fabrication. Given the understandable hostility of the earliest Christians toward the Sanhedrin, whom they felt were largely responsible for their Master’s death, it is unlikely that Jesus’ followers would have invented a tradition about a member of the Sanhedrin using his own tomb to provide Jesus with a respectable burial.

In addition, recent archaeological discoveries have demonstrated that the style of tomb described in the burial accounts in the Gospels (an acrosolia or bench tomb) was largely used by the wealthy and other people of prominence.

Such a description fits nicely with what we know of Joseph of Arimathea.

Moreover, when we couple these considerations with the fact that Arimathea was a town of little

importance that lacked any type of scriptural symbolism and that no competing burial tradition exists, any serious doubt that Jesus was buried in Joseph’s tomb is eliminated.

The significance of these facts should not be overlooked as the Sanhedrin would then have certainly known the location of Joseph’s tomb, and thus, where Jesus had been interred. And if the location of Jesus’ tomb was known to the Jewish authorities, it would have been nearly impossible for the Christian movement to have gained any traction in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was known to have been buried. Would not any of the Jewish religious leaders have taken the short walk to Joseph’s tomb to verify this claim? Did not the Sanhedrin have every motivation to produce Jesus’ corpse (if it were available) and put an end to these rumors of a resurrected Jesus once and for all? The fact that Christianity began to gain converts in Jerusalem tells us that no corpse had

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Blessed Magazine been produced despite the Jewish religious leadership having every motivation to produce one. If Jesus’ crucified body had been produced, the Christian movement, with its emphasis on a resurrected Jesus, would have been dealt a lethal blow.

Second, the empty tomb is implied in the early oral formula quoted by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. While all four Gospels attest to the vacancy of Jesus’ tomb, our earliest hint at the empty tomb comes from the Apostle Paul. Writing to the church at Corinth in approximately AD 55, Paul quotes an oral formula (or creed) that most scholars believe he received from the apostles Peter and James just five years after Jesus’ crucifixion (Galatians 1:18–19). Paul states, ―For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve‖ (1 Corinthians 15:3–5). When Paul writes ―…that he was buried, that he was raised…‖ it is strongly implied (given Paul’s Pharisaical background) that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was empty. As a former Pharisee, Paul would have naturally understood that what goes down in burial comes up in resurrection; he accepted the idea of physical resurrection even before his encounter

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with Christ. Given that Paul’s source for this creed was most likely the Jerusalem apostles and their proximity to the events in question, Paul’s citation of this oral formula provides strong evidence that Jesus’ tomb had been found empty and that this fact was widely known in the early Christian community. The oft-repeated objection that Paul was unaware of an empty tomb is answered when we see that elsewhere Paul taught that Jesus’ resurrection was bodily in nature (Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:21). For Paul, a resurrection that did not produce a vacant tomb would have been a contradiction in terms.

Third, there appears to be strong enemy attestation of the existence of an empty tomb. The first of these comes from within the pages of the Gospel of Matthew itself where Matthew reports that there was an acknowledgment of the empty tomb by the Jewish leaders themselves (Matthew 28:13–15). They were claiming that the disciples had come and stolen away Jesus’ body. Given the proximity of the writing of Matthew’s Gospel to the event in question, such a claim would have been easy to disprove if untrue. For if Matthew were lying, his report of the Jewish response to the empty tomb proclamation could have easily been discredited as many of the

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Blessed Magazine contemporaries of the events in question would still have been alive when Matthew’s Gospel was initially circulating. But why would they accuse the disciples of stealing Jesus’ body if the tomb still contained the dead body of Jesus? The counter-accusation made by the Jews presupposes that the tomb was empty.

“I Am the Resurrection and the Light” That the Jews accused the disciples of stealing Jesus’ body is corroborated by the Christian apologist Justin Martyr in the middle of the second century (Dialogue with Trypho, 108) and then again around AD 200 by the church father Tertullian (De Spectaculis, 30).

Both Justin and Tertullian were interacting with the Jewish debaters of their day and were in a position to know what it was their Jewish opponents were saying. They were not simply relying on Matthew’s Gospel for their information.

For both Justin and Tertullian mention specific details not found in the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, all three of these writers cite details not mentioned by the others. Based on these considerations, it appears that there was an early Jewish acknowledgement of an empty tomb.

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Fourth, all four Gospels report that the tomb of Jesus was discovered empty by women. This point is especially significant given the patriarchal nature of first-century Palestine. While it is true that, under very limited circumstances, women were allowed to testify in a court of law, it is also the case that, in first-century Jewish society, a woman’s testimony was worth far less than that of a man. If you were making up a story in an attempt to persuade others that Jesus had been resurrected, you would never have used women as your primary witnesses. Any made-up story would have featured male disciples like Peter, John, or Andrew as the discoverers of the empty tomb, as the testimony of men would have provided muchneeded credibility to the story.

Yet the Gospels report that, while Jesus’ male disciples were cowering in fear, hiding from the authorities, it was women who were the earliest witnesses of the empty tomb. There would simply be no reason for the early church to concoct such a scenario unless it was true. Why would the early Christians portray their male leadership as cowards and place females in the role of primary witnesses? One of these named female witnesses (Mary Magdalene) was said to have been possessed of seven devils earlier in her life, thus making her an even less reliable witness in the eyes of many.

Blessed Magazine And yet, despite these evidential handicaps, the earliest Christians insisted that the first witnesses to the empty tomb were, in fact, women. The most likely explanation of this insistence is that these women were the initial witness of the empty tomb and that the earliest Christians were unwilling to lie about it despite its potentially embarrassing nature.

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

All four of these arguments help to provide cumulative proof that the tomb of Jesus Christ was empty on the first Easter. Particularly telling is the conclusion of historian Michael Grant, himself a skeptic of Jesus’ resurrection, ―…if we apply the same sort of criteria that we would apply to any other ancient literary sources, then the evidence is firm and plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was, indeed, found empty.‖

Of course, there is more to the story than merely an empty tomb. The reason the tomb was found empty was that the man who was buried there had risen from the dead. Jesus would not only vacate His grave but appear to numerous people individually (Luke 24:34) and in groups (Matthew 28:9; John 20:26–30; 21:1–14; Acts 1:3–6; 1 Corinthians 15:3–7). And His resurrection from the dead would be the sure proof that He was who He claimed to be (Matthew 12:38–40; 16:1– 4)—the risen Son of God, our only hope of salvation.

Question: Do You Know

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