Today is Easter Sunday, also appropriately called Resurrection Sunday. It’s the day when Christians recall the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb, two days after His singularly brutal death by crucifixion on Good Friday.
As difficult as it is for some to believe because of the supernatural elements involved, Jesus’ bodily resurrection is in fact one of the most thoroughly documented events in all of human history. Though denial of Christ’s resurrection remains in vogue among non-Christians (and even, shamefully, among some liberal members of the Christian clergy), the apostle Paul confronts such denial head-on in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapter 15), where he points out that if Christ has not been resurrected bodily, then there is no salvation from sin, and therefore, the entire Christian faith is useless. In a pointed comment that could have been presciently directed at liberal clergy who deny the Resurrection, Paul adds further that all Christian preaching is useless if the Resurrection is not accepted. In other words, if no Resurrection, then no salvation–and, in truth, no real faith. It’s that simple. And Paul, a former persecutor of Christians who became an apostle following his own dramatic encounter with Christ, knew what he was talking about.
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