The Authenticity of Christ's Resurrection

 

"If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except through the fantastic descriptions in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For this view of the resurrection is not credible, and if it is the only one, then Christianity, which is the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, is also not credible." /Bishop John Shelby Spong, Resurrection: myth or reality (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994), p. 238./

Answer: It is well known that atheists do not look to God when seeking meaning in their lives; instead: finances, creative pursuits, travel, leisure activities, and all the rest play a starring role. That is, valuing and freely choosing to exploit what life has to offer. For being stuck on this brutal planet for a few decades.

These are such meaningless, banal goals in themselves, compared to the unparalleled magnificence of existence, that for the atheist to focus on them and waste his years picking for himself the sources of enjoyment the planet has to offer, it made no sense for the confluence of coincidences to bring together all that could then be discarded as something that would otherwise have come into being completely meaningless and purposeless, without any reason whatsoever in the context of the universe's self-formation.

If the atheist puts his appreciation in writing, then why does he write a message /a kind of thank-you note/ to anyone that he loves them and thinks of them often when his own love is discredited?! For there is another message, evidence of a different, higher kind of love, which the atheist carries in his genes, and which he says is nothing more than the chemistry of nucleic acids and amino acids swirling around in him.

He believes that the ancient genetic system based on purines and pyrimidines may have formed and evolved together in the early Earth under stereochemical influence, although the modern code seems to be highly optimized to resist different types of errors, which complicates the situation. The extraordinary diversity of code specificity suggests that explaining the fixation of the canonical code in LUCA /the bacteria-like single-celled organism considered to be the oldest/ requires more historical reconstruction than reasoning from chemical principles.

The DNA code is actually the "language of life". DNA contains the instructions for the development, growth, reproduction and function of all life, the blueprints for millions of life forms. He whose own DNA is not evidence of God's love in him, for he denies the incomparably greater love that he carries in his genes as an intelligent message, how can he think that his few-word message is evidence of real, personal love, and not of the chemical compounds he has conceived in him, transformed into words?

The atheist invests the value of his love in a few words of information, but denies the value of the message hidden in his DNA, which is incomparably more valuable than his message! Code wasters are not worthy to carry the message of love under their hearts.

The genetic code of DNA has a universal purpose in that it is at the service of all life that exists. It is utterly meaningless to create and maintain it if it has no purpose, no purpose-driven value in the atheistic mind. For that which exists in a totally meaningless way has no value in its meaningless existence, because value and meaninglessness are incompatible, but the rather meaningful existence, which has value in itself. That the universe exists and functions nevertheless shows that its existence serves precisely the meaningful purpose for which it was created as value.

According to the Bible's revelation, the power given to Jesus Christ is related to the functioning of the existing planet and the fulfillment of its purpose for creation. This planet has been placed under the kingship of Jesus Christ by God the Creator, giving Him all authority in heaven and on earth, so that at His name every knee should bow. (Philippians 2:9-10) Christ has been given a thousand years of dominion by God, and then He will give everything to the Father, so that God may be all in all. (Revelation 20:6; 1 Corinthians 15:28)

The entire genetic apparatus of DNA, which is present in every living, pulsating organism, serves this purpose. The resurrection of Christ is fully consistent with the purpose of being the King of the Kingdom of God.

So if God maintains this planet, he is showing that he has a purpose for it, and if Christ had not risen from the dead, there would be no reason for the planet to exist and to continue to exist in its present and future operational system.

For the reasons atheists give for their existence are not sufficient: finances, creative pursuits, travel and leisure, and all the other such things that play a leading role. In other words, valuing what life has to offer? To squeeze it out and spend it on mere pleasures, to waste it on that without any appreciation.

It's just like robbing a huge department store that was created by accident and without purpose, everyone taking what they can grab for themselves to use for their own selfish pleasure.If the atheists are stuck on this brutal planet for a few decades - Because their existence has no purpose other than to waste for their selfish pleasure all that a sober minded person might consider the special value of Life.

So it's not just that the gospels contain a fantastic account of Jesus' resurrection, which atheists greet with great scorn and derision, but also that the existence and survival of the planet is for a very credible purpose, based on the truth that a planet furnished with reason does have meaning, purpose and functional determinacy - whereas atheism does not, not even a shred.

The proper functioning of the planet and atheism's unconditional desire to have fun, to exploit the pleasure-seeking that life offers, tending towards all kinds of leisure, are mutually incompatible factors. The resurrection of Christ is a rejection of this binge-driving lifestyle, and to reject it, to deny the resurrection of Christ, is to reject atheism for its own ideological ends.

To find out which side the truth is on, we need the return of Christ in power, which can only happen if his resurrection was real.

Since the resurrection has happened, atheism's genetic code-wasting view of life can only exist as long as God's time of grace exists, after which God's judgment will occur, which is already unbearable for atheists, which is obviously why they deny all that Christian teaching reveals in the pages of the Bible. That Jesus Christ did, indeed, RESURRECTED FROM DEATH!!! This is the divine guarantee of the meaningful existence of the planet, and that the true meaning of life is to experience a loving relationship with Him for all eternity.