Rejoice Always!

Questions & Answers

Question: If God loves me and wants a personal relationship with me, why doesn't He just show me a miracle or give me proof that He exists.

Answer: God has already done both. He has shown both miracles and proof of His existence. The question is whether you are willing to acknowledge either one.

God doesn't give us absolute proof of His existence because that would require no faith. Faith after all is belief in things unseen. If you have a house plant in your room and you ask someone if they believe that house plant exists they have to say yes. For them to answer anything else makes them wrong. A house plant is a physical thing that they can touch and see and verify. If in the same way God would sit on a mountain for a day and say to anyone who wanted to verify that He exists that they could come and see then there would be no need for faith in Him because we would have absolute proof and anyone who said they didn't believe would just be wrong. This isn't the way that God works. God wants us to choose to love Him and relate to Him. In order for us to do that, we have to have two main things, free will and faith. God has given us all free will and with that He shows that He respects us all enough to not force everyone to believe in Him. He doesn't make it impossible to believe but instead gives us just enough information that we can find Him if we want to. This allows each of us to exercise our free will to choose to believe or not.

The reason it has to work this way is God wants us to love Him. In order to have true love you have to allow the possibility of a choice to love or hate. This is where our free will comes in. In order to have love you also have to have faith. I know most people don't think of love in that way. I know that I have to have faith in my fiancée that she has my best interests at heart. If I don't have that faith the relationship doesn't last because I would constantly be doubting her motives. So simply put God has given His son as an offering for us, Jesus life is full of miracles and thus proof that God exists.

On a very practical note, miracles do still occur on a daily basis today and everyday. For instance, my grandfather (my Dad's father) was in the hospital and had been ill from emphysema and complications. He was in critical condition and our whole family didn't expect Him to make it through the night. I remember hearing that he had no more then a 5% chance of making it through the night. However, God choose to save him, I say that because the doctors told us there was no more they could do, so it isn't as though some brilliant doctor was able to save him at the last second. Instead, God saved him because the next day he was still alive and he improved to the point where after that he was able to talk with a pastor from my church and he accepted Jesus as his savior! Tell me that is not a miracle. This is an example from my own life and there are doubtless thousands of similar stories from all over the world.

Question: Did Jesus really die on the cross?

Answer: This question comes up because some people subscribe to the "swoon theory" that Jesus didn't really die on the cross that instead he just acted like he was dead in order to come back from the dead by just waking up in the tomb and then coming out. This theory is in itself foolishness.

First, Jesus was subject to 39 lashes in a Roman flogging. A Roman flogging isn't just what some would imagine, I know before doing research I thought of this flogging as 39 times of being hit with a whip. This sounds bad, but a Roman flogging is much different. The whip that would have been used would have had pieces of sharp bone and metal balls woven into it. Obviously being hit with a whip that has metal and bone woven into it would cause severe damage to anything it hits. Imagine being hit 39 times with a whip that would slice into your skin. Being whipped 39 times like this would cause bleeding, damage to the skin, bruising and trauma. Assuming this amount of damage to Jesus body he would have been in serious to critical condition before he even had to carry the cross to Calvary.

Second, the spikes that were driven into Jesus were just that, SPIKES! I know that many of us don't want to think about the reality of what held Jesus to the cross. I know it's a given that his arms were most likely tied to the cross to hold him in place, but what also caused a lot of blood loss and further trauma was he 5-7 inch spikes that were driven into his wrists and feet. As sickening as it sounds, Jesus was subject to being laid on the cross while it was on the ground, then the Roman soldiers took these spikes and a hammer and drove them through his wrists and feet. Imagine if you can how that would have felt. After the spikes were in, the cross would have been raised and he was hanging there by the spikes and the rope to keep him in place.

Third, the way that Jesus died is sometimes mistakenly assumed to be to blood loss. This is not correct. Jesus died of asphyxiation. He literally died because he couldn't make his body breath anymore. While Jesus was on the cross he had to raise his body up slightly to breath, however in order to raise himself up he would have to push against the cross with his feet which were bleeding profusely. After enough time had passed the body is simply not able to continue to push up enough to get that ability to breath in. The inability to breath would have caused his heart to go into palpitations given that he wouldn't have enough oxygen. Once his heart went into these palpitations Jesus would have known that his time was close which is how he could say "It is finished" and then die.

Question: Did Jesus rise from the dead?

Answer: Yes, he did. Jesus resurrection can be believed based on the facts. If you think about the way that his resurrection is reported in the Bible, and the fact that this fact wasn't disputed at the time it just makes sense.

One, the stone used to guard the tomb would have been a stone cut into the rock of the tomb. This rock would have been large enough that it would have taken several men to move it. In addition the stone would have been fitted into a groove so that the fit would have been tight to the rock of the tomb.

Two, the Roman's knew of Jesus claim to rise from the dead so they assigned two guards to watch over the tomb and make sure that no one tried to open the tomb and steal the body to claim that Jesus rose from the dead. Roman soldiers were trained to watch over the tomb and the Roman's would not have had the option to "fall asleep at the wheel" so to say. Given the importance of the assignment these soldiers would not have been underestimating to assume that they could be put to death for failing at this duty. So you tell me, if you knew you would be killed if you let your guard down what do you think you would do?

Three, the site of the tomb would have been known by believers and unbelievers. This allows for the fact that everyone who doubted would have been able to verify the tomb was still sealed shut. The tomb being sealed shut would have been verified by more then just the soldiers.

Four, in ancient times it would have been an embarrassing detail to say that women discovered the tomb first. Woman in this time frame were considered less then men and to say that they discovered the tomb open and Jesus gone would not have been shared unless this was the truth. How would the disciples have even explained the mistake away if this was a sham.

Fifth, the lack of evidence showing the opposite. In truth, don't you think that doubters would have trumpeted that this was all a sham and that Jesus didn't really rise? If the tomb wasn't really empty there would have been many doubters that would have gone to the tomb to make sure that this wasn't just a big hoax. In addition if the tomb were open and Jesus wasn't there why would there be many people claiming that Jesus appeared to them?

Finally, Jesus number of appearances refutes the idea that this was a hoax. Jesus appeared to about 500 people at the same time according to Paul. Jesus also appeared to apostles more then once, sometimes to all of them, sometimes to just a few. He also appeared to the disciples with and without Thomas. Above and beyond all of these other reasons the most convincing reason to believe that Jesus rose from the dead is the fact that his disciples all chose to proclaim this fact until their deaths. These men chose to live the rest of their lives proclaiming that Jesus was risen and they chose to die painful and horrible deaths testifying to this fact.

• Home •

Contact me: ch1274@yahoo.com