Risen Hope

I’m on rotation with some other men at church who participates in offering the communion thought during service. I am asked to share something about once every eight weeks or so. below is what I shared yesterday.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote “things must be loved first and improved afterwards.” This seems to echo what Paul wrote in Romans 5:6-8 (NASB):

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Even while we were sinners, God loves us first and only after we come to Him does He ask us to change. We are not asked to change prior to Him loving us. Our changing is followed by His love.

I know sometimes we sing songs and we do not really pay attention to the words, so I want to take a couple of minutes here and read through the words to the song we just sang. Pay attention to the chronology of what is happening in the song: God does something first, and asks what we have done second.

I Gave My Life For Thee
I gave my life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;

I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou giv’n for Me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou giv’n for Me?

My Father’s house of light,
My glory circled throne,
I left for earthly night,
For wand’rings sad and lone;

I left, I left it all for thee,
Hast thou left aught for Me?
I left, I left it all for thee,
Hast thou left aught for Me?

I suffered much for thee,
More than Thy tongue can tell,
Of bitt’rest agony,
To rescue thee from hell;

I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee,
What hast thou borne for Me?
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee,
What hast thou borne for Me?

And I have bro’t to thee,
Down from My home above,
Salvation full and free,
My pardon and My love;

I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee,
What hast thou bro’t for Me?
I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee,
What hast thou bro’t for Me?

Chapter 2: The Maniac

In this chapter, Chesterton talks about what makes the madman mad. It is not due to too much imagination or flights of fancy, rather it is due to too much reason and not enough mystery.

The madman latches on to one single, simple idea and then attempts to explain the entire cosmos through the lens of that one idea. Everything else becomes subject to it in seeing, understanding, and explaining. Chesterton labels this first madman as the materialist.

But as Chesterton points out, the individual who does this shrinks the entire cosmos down to the size that his head can fit in, but nothing more. Its ultimate failure is not what it explains, but what it fails to explain.

Taken further, at least the madman above starts with a concept outside himself. Chesterton fears for the madman who is even more limiting and starts from within himself (the person who believes in himself). Why is this worse? Because while the first madman is allowed to believe in a world full of objects external to him, the second madman who begins with himself makes a mythology of everything external to himself.

The sanest man is the one who can accept a cosmos that is broad enough to allow for mystery, while still using reason to understand it, but not understanding all of it. An individual who can hold both the material and the immaterial as viable explanations.

Chapter 3: The Suicide of Thought

Chesterton now takes on the limits of the will (action). This, as Chesterton states, is the “narrowest groove” a person can find themselves in.

To take a particular action means to forego all other options that one could have chosen to take. For instance, when a man marries a woman, he foregoes all other women. When an individual engages in a particular activity, it is to the sacrifice of all other activities at that time.

What one chooses to do at any given moment carries with it a multitude of options that are not being acted upon. This, Chesterton finds as significant. The anarchist wants complete freedom from rules and restrictions, but it is the limitations set by those rules that really allows for true freedom.

A painter is limited by the frame and it is a welcomed limitation. To free a painting from its frame is to destroy art. If an artist wishes to be free of limits and wants to paint a short-necked giraffe, he may choose to do so, but the painting will be of anything but a giraffe. Why? Because a giraffe is limited by its long-neck. The same may be said of the camel. One may wish to free the camel of its hump, but only succeed in freeing the camel from being a camel. One may wish to free a triangle from its three-sides, but to do so destroys the triangle.

If we look at this in modern terms, one may wish to “free” marriage by redefining what it means, but to do so destroys what it actually is.

Previous posts from The Gospel Coalition (GC) and Mere Orthodoxy (MO) in this series:

1. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Introduction (GC)
2. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Chapter 1 (MO)
3. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Chapters 2 & 3 (GC)

Previous posts from Risen Hope in this series:

1. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Part 1
2. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Part 2

In this final post and short video in this series of Resurrection Myths with Dr. Michael Licona, he addresses the myth of the Lost Gospels. What are we to do with these documents and the skeptics claims regarding these Lost Gospels.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Licona is talking about, you can head over to Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection. Beyond that, Credo House is currently involved in a Kickstarter campaign that I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Kickstarting the Resurrection. Please consider helping fund this excellent course so that more Christians can be trained in defending this very important doctrine of the Faith.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations
5. Resurrection Myth #5 – It’s a Matter of Faith
6. Resurrection Myth #6 – Apparent Death Theory
7. Resurrection Myth #7 – It Was Merely a Legend
8. Resurrection Myth #8 – Science Proves that Resurrections Cannot Occur
9. Resurrection Myth #9 – Not Enough Evidence

We know that there is evidence pointing to a resurrection, but is there enough evidence? In this short video, Dr. Michael Licona tells us how the evidence for the resurrection measures up to other ancient figures and their supporting evidence.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Licona is talking about, you can head over to Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection. Beyond that, Credo House is currently involved in a Kickstarter campaign that I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Kickstarting the Resurrection. Please consider helping fund this excellent course so that more Christians can be trained in defending this very important doctrine of the Faith.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations
5. Resurrection Myth #5 – It’s a Matter of Faith
6. Resurrection Myth #6 – Apparent Death Theory
7. Resurrection Myth #7 – It Was Merely a Legend
8. Resurrection Myth #8 – Science Proves that Resurrections Cannot Occur

You will get no argument from me that resurrections can occur by natural causes. I doubt anyone would say that they could. In this short video, Dr. Michael Licona helps us to understand what is different about Jesus’ resurrection in this regard.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Licona is talking about, you can head over to Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection. Beyond that, Credo House is currently involved in a Kickstarter campaign that I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Kickstarting the Resurrection. Please consider helping fund this excellent course so that more Christians can be trained in defending this very important doctrine of the Faith.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations
5. Resurrection Myth #5 – It’s a Matter of Faith
6. Resurrection Myth #6 – Apparent Death Theory
7. Resurrection Myth #7 – It Was Merely a Legend

Michael Patton over at Credo House had a vision: to create high quality courses on apologetic and theological topics that the lay person could afford so that they could study alongside the top scholars in their respected fields.

For instance, this past summer Credo House had another kickstarter campaign where they created a course on Textual Criticism taught by one of the world’s foremost and respected scholars on the subject, Dr. Daniel B. Wallace. This course looks to be delivered to the public for purchase in September of this year.

Credo House has several ideas for future courses to be created over the next couple of years. The next course on the list, which happens to be a topic that is close to my heart and mind, is on the Resurrection. This course will be taught by none-other than Dr. Gary Habermas. Dr. Habermas has spent nearly the last 40 years on this topic studying, lecturing, writing, debating, etc. Now, Credo House is bringing him in to create and teach on this topic, but they need our help to do so.

The Resurrection is the most important topic in Christianity because all of Christendom is founded upon this singular historical event. All one needs to do to demonstrate that Christianity is false is to disprove the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Dr. Habermas has taught countless of people both in an academic setting and through his articles and books to defend the historicity of the Resurrection event.

If you have the means, the ability, and the heart to do so, I would strongly encourage you to donate to this wonderful course. I am sure Michael and the rest of those at Credo House would appreciate the gesture. Also, it would be such a wonderful study and tool for the church in general to use to train those in their congregations how to defend this cherished and crucial doctrines of Christendom.

To see the kickstarter campaign for the Textual Criticism course taught by Dr. Wallace, you can see that here.

To see the kickstarter campaign for the Resurrection course taught by Dr. Habermas, please go here and back it if you are so led.

Chapter 1: The Introduction in Defence of Everything New

Chesterton begins this wonderful little book with a discussion of holding on to both wonder and familiarity at the same time.

First he provides his motivation for writing this book. It is a way for him, in a series of “mental pictures,” to describe that particular philosophy that he has come to believe. As he points it, it is not his philosophy since he did not make, but rather “God and humanity made it; and it made [him].”

And just as promised, Chesterton delights us with a story; a mental picture. It is one of an English yachtsmen who sets off for adventure in discovery of new lands. And when he finds it, as he sets off to stake his claim, he realizes that he hasn’t discovered anything new at all, but instead he finds himself in his old land.

For Chesterton this provides immense joy and comfort. The ability to still find wonder and discovery without the bother of leaving home. This becomes his metaphor for the way in which he discovered the Christian faith. He thought he was going against the grain, an original, cutting a new path, hot on the pursuit of truth only to discover that what he ended up finding had been founded 1800 years earlier and he had all of Christendom behind him.

Chesterton closes out this chapter with this poignant paragraph:

I did strain my voice with a painfully juvenile exaggeration in uttering my truths. And I was punished in the fittest and funniest way, for I have kept my truths: but I have discovered, not that they were not truths, but simply that they were not mine. When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all Christendom. It may be, Heaven forgive me, that I did try to be original; but I only succeeded in inventing all by myself and inferior copy of the existing traditions of civilized religion. The man from the yacht thought he was the first to find England; I thought I was the first to find Europe. I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Believing you had discovered something new and unique only to find out that you were the last in a long line of adventurers?

To join in on the online discussion of this book over the next several weeks, navigate on over to the Mere Orthodoxy blog and dive right in. We might just discover some new wonders while searching for new lands and end up discovering we never left our own backyard.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton – Part 1

You can also see my initial contribution in the comments section here.

In this short video by Dr. Michael Licona, he talks about the objection that the resurrection being a legend. Once again, in an attempt to find a purely naturalistic explanation for the resurrection, skeptics must attempt to offer an explanation for the missing body. However, their conclusions always come up short because they never account for all the data that exists.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations
5. Resurrection Myth #5 – It’s a Matter of Faith
6. Resurrection Myth #6 – Apparent Death Theory

In today’s video, Dr. Michael Licona deal with the “Apparent Death Theory” objection that skeptics bring up. With this theory, the skeptic claims that Jesus was not really dead when he was taken off the cross. As a matter of fact, I recently had a skeptic challenge me with this particular objection on Twitter just last week.

In addition to the evidence that Dr. Licona provides in this video, there is also other evidence that one can give as noted by cold-case detective and Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace’s new book Cold-Case Christianity. Wallace states three things about dead bodies that are not easy to overlook:

1. Temperature – they are colder
2. Rigidity – they become stiff
3. Lividity – they bruise easily because the blood settles

Let’s see what Dr. Licona has to say.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Licona is talking about, you can head over to Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection.

You can also learn more about J Warner Wallace and his book Cold-Case Christianity at his website by the same name here. I highly recommend this book to you. It is excellently written and very clear in the content it communicates.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations
5. Resurrection Myth #5 – It’s a Matter of Faith

In today’s video, Dr. Michael Licona takes on the myth that in order to believe in the Resurrection, one must take it completely on faith because there is no evidence to back it up. While the video is short and Dr. Licona does not go into great depth or detail here, that there is no evidence for the resurrection is a false notion. There is plenty of evidence and the evidence is very, very strong.

Remember, to see the course on the Resurrection that Licona is talking about, you can head over to Credo House’s website and see what that is all about and hopefully purchase a copy for yourself. I own a copy and it is a good introduction to the topic of the Resurrection.

Also, to learn more about Licona, the work he does, head on over to RisenJesus.com and give him your support. I am sure he would appreciate it.

Previous posts in this series:

1. Resurrection Myth #1 – Contradictions in the Gospel
2. Resurrection Myth #2 – Pagan Parallels and Christianity’s Origins
3. Resurrection Myth #3 – The Fraud Theory
4. Resurrection Myth #4 – Hallucinations