Calvin Synod Herald, 1985 (85. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1985-04-01 / 2. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Founded in 1900 Official Organ of the Calvin Synod-United Church of Christ Vol. 85, No. 2., 1985. April ISSN 0161-6900 REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Alapítva 1900-ban A Kálvin Egyházkerület hivatalos lapja 85. évf., 2. szám, 1985. április WHA TKIND OF A RESURRECTION? “But some one will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of a body do they come?’ ”(I Cor. 15:35) In the Hungarian Reformed Church we believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. In the New Testament we read that the Messiah has come, and Jesus, claiming to be the Messiah of the Old Testament, rose from the dead. Our Biblical teaching about the Messiah and the Resurrection are so related and interdependent that they stand or fall together. The greatest holidays in our churches are: Christmas and Easter. At Christmas time we remember the coming of the Messiah, and at Easter time we celebrate His bodily resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of the Messiah is the central theme of Christianity, and the cornerstone of the Church. On this resurrection our Christian faith stands or falls. For almost 2,000 years the resurrection of Jesus the Christ was regarded to be a historical fact. For many centuries the teaching of the Church was that Jesus rose from the dead. In our Church we also teach the bodily resurrection of the Messiah. There are some theologians today who seriously question, and even deny the possibility of bodily Resurrection. Some scholars advocate a spiritual resurrection, saying that this resurrection can be experienced by a believer upon the starting of a new life. The above theology divides Easter into two parts. One is related to the Easter message, the other is to the Easter faith. When we discuss the events that took place in Jerusalem during Holy Week, then we hear the Easter message. But when we begin to talk about the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, we enter into the realm of the Easter message, we must also proclaim the Easter faith, by advocating the bodily resurrection of Christ, and by even advocating the faith in our own resurrection. In our modern age there are many church members who do not accept the resurrection as a fact, or at least their lives and their actions do not show the evidences of their belief. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians said, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.” (I Cor. 15:17) The resurrection about which the Apostle Paul was writing was not the spiritual resurrection which is advocated by the liberal theologians, but the bodily resurrection of the Messiah. Paul’s message provides us with the Easter faith, while the liberal doctrines of our age are written in the language of unbelief. If we have trouble believing the New Testament’s teaching about the resurrection of Jesus, then we may have trouble with the prophecies of the Old Testament also. The two of them are dependent upon each other. They stand together, and they fall together. The Easter faith of the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Never in history did we ever find a person who put his entire claim upon his ability to rise again from the grave as Jesus did. He repeatedly foretold his resurrection. These predictions were not understood at the time, but they were remembered after Easter, and his enemies also recalled them at the time of his death. That is the reason why they posted guards to the grave. The Bible tells us that there were many witnesses who saw the risen Lord after Easter. At one time as many as 500 saw him alive. Could all the disciples and the witnesses be wrong about the resurrection? It is very unlikely that they would have dedicated and sacrificed their lives for the Christian cause, if they would have had doubts about the bodily resurrection of Christ. Is it possible that our lack of dedication may also be related to the lack of our conviction in the Easter faith? It seems safe to say that our faith is determined by our belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, or a spiritual resurrection of the believer. What kind of a resurrection is within your religion? The resurrection is a great miracle of life. It is as great as life itself. But there is something more supernatural in the possibility of life after death because we can not see, or touch that realm of existence. The question is whether we can believe in something we can not see? We can not see electricity, but we can see its power. We do not have to touch the wires to be convinced that there is power in them. We accept the story of those who had first hand experience with the power of electricity. In nature the water bug exists in the depth of ponds until one day it climbs above the water and receives the new body of a dragonfly. A dragonfly can no longer return into the water, into the old existence to share the story of a new life. Those who died can not return to us either, and tell us what kind of an existence is beyond this life. We must rely on our faith, and we must accept the accounts of the witnesses who say that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. Once when I took my children to Letchworth State Park in New York State I saw some deer in the distance. They blended into the surrounding so much that the children could not see them. As we were driving closer the deer ran (Continued on Page 3)
