HE HAS RISEN AS HE SAID HE WOULD
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: ‘Hy het opgestaan soos Hy gesê het’
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone sent a letter to me with a few questions, which I think can be summarised as follows:
“How do I know that Christianity is correct, and that other religions are wrong? It is easy to extract references from the Christian Bible, but the differences, for example, the content of the Koran and Bibles of different religions, which say or contains things which are totally different.”
It seems to me that this person wants me to prove, without the Bible, that my Christian belief is the only true religion.
I am going to try, especially here at the beginning, to do so but actually it is completely impossible for me to talk about my belief, without quoting from our Lord’s precious Word.
I will begin with, what I call, external proofs to the Bible, which makes sense to me, – but I know, right from the start that I will end this off by returning to our Lord’s precious Word.
Certainly the first question is:
Did Jesus really live on earth?
Luckily there is evidence, which are from non-Christian sources in the form of historical writings by Flavius Josephus, Cornelius Tacitus etc. which does not only prove that Jesus did live but that He was also sentenced by Pontius Pilate.
It naturally happened through the influence of the Sanhedrin, because Jesus, as well as others said He was God, which is a sacrilege in the eyes of the Jews.
Jesus was then crucified and His followers dispersed in fear and disappeared. Just like rats, hiding in their holes, Jesus’s followers tried to become invisible – which is definitely the normal reaction of ordinary people who saw how their Leader was nailed to a cross; hung there until He died and then was pierced with a spear.
Then, a few days later something amazing happened, so absolutely opposite to human nature, that there truly could be but only one explanation for this:
These previously frightened followers of Jesus suddenly appeared – and not just appear – they came to light with unashamed freeness and these previously fearful followers of Jesus started fearlessly doing their best to be seen and heard!
What happened of such importance in their lives that had brought around this change in their behaviour?
What happened, that people who were so terrified before, now all of a sudden without fear could no longer stop talking about what they believed? Not even being put to death in the most terrible ways could do so!
My answer –
They encountered the risen Jesus and talked with Him!
Also think a little about this:
Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem. Therefore, his grave is in Jerusalem in his enemy’s immediate vicinity and for that reason, a piece of evidence to show that Jesus’s followers would lie if they say He has risen.
Then, with that apparently condemning testimony, and Jesus' grave in their immediate vicinity, Jesus' followers began to proclaim in Jerusalem that He had risen.
The Jews could just have shown the people His crucified/damaged body, to show that the followers of Jesus were spreading lies but they did not, for one simple reason; that there was not a crucified/damaged body to show. No, they preferred to try through persecution, murder and threats towards Jesus’s followers to keep them quiet.
Almost all of Jesus’s followers died of unnatural causes, some of them after they had suffered the most horrifying torture which you can think of – and there is not even one single mention that one of them having changed their testimony about the risen Jesus; Even keeping in mind a person’s human nature, that there was a substantial danger for people while under torture of confessing that they were lying.
It is now more than 2,000 years later and in spite of an enormous attempt by satan, no-one has ever come up with a contradiction/discrepancy, which is, so to say, a lie in the Gospel that us Christians proclaim, that Jesus rose from the dead.
So you see, I believe in a Jesus who rose from the dead. Therefore also, that I want to quote the following from His Word for you.
I believe what this Jesus, who even has power over death, says – and this Jesus says that He is God:
JOHN 8:57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
JOHN 8:58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”JOHN 14:8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
JOHN 14:9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
You ask me:
“Which is the true, or the correct religion?”
My answer to you is:
It is this Jesus which predicted that He would overcome/triumph over death and then He accomplished it, The gospel that this Jesus proclaims, is the true religion.
This Jesus who previously announced that he would die and then He would conquer death:
MAT 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
MAT 12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.:
This Jesus who said He would do this and then did it:
MATTHEW 28:2-6
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
This same Jesus, of whom I have the wonderful privilege to call my Jesus, through the proclamation of His Gospel said the following:
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If this Jesus said, that He would enter death and then rise up from death and then could do it, then you can certainly believe Him when He says:
JOHN 14:6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (KJV)
If He says, that He is the only way to God, then there is only one way to the Father and that is to accept Jesus Christ as your Redeemer and Saviour.
That is the corner stone of the Gospel of Jesus when He said that we must proclaim the gospel, when He said:
MAT 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
MAT 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
You also wrote saying:
“How will I know?? I have no experience as a Christen so far, like speaking in tongues for example being baptized by the Holy Spirit. How do I know beyond reasonable doubt, not just blindly relying on the aspects of religion, because other religions also believe that they are right.”
Our Lord can do any means of wondrous thing to impress you but because He does not do these things, for He clearly teaches us through His Word that signs and wonders are not the way to come to belief.
Our Lord teaches me through His Word:
ROM 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ
These Words of God teaches me:
HEB 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
HEB 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
How blessed are the people, how absolutely wonderful is his/her expectations for the future, upon who the following from the Word is applicable:
1PET 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
1PET 1:9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
I also have another writing which ties into this subject, which I will gladly send to you with love on your request thereof. It is also available in English:
Die Diaboliese Bewys Van Die Bestaan Van God
The Diabolical Proof of God's Existence
Greetings,
Sakkie