JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

282
G. B. Hardy has said, "Here is the complete record:
Confucius' tomb - Occupied
Buddha's tomb - Occupied
Mohammed's tomb - Occupied
Jesus' tomb - EMPTY"47
Daniel Fuller who wrote one of his doctoral dissertations on the subject of the relation of
history and Easter faith claims: ". . . to try to explain this (the church) without reference to the
resurrection is as hopeless as trying to explain Roman history without reference to Julius
Caesar."48
New Testament scholar C. F. D. Moule of Cambridge University puts the challenge to the
secular historian:
"If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested
by the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of
Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?"49
The bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the most rational historical explanation for
the birth of Christianity.
The Sacraments of the Church
In the early church two sacraments were prominent. Each presuppose the resurrection of
Jesus. The first sacrament was the Eucharist (from the Greek word eucharisto meaning "giving
thanks" also called "The Lord's Supper" or "Communion") which was an early practice which
began no later than just a few years after Jesus' death. This sacrament is the commemoration of
Jesus death with the elements of bread to symbolize Jesus' broken body and the wine to
symbolize His shed blood (1 Co 11). This is a commemoration and celebration not of His life,
not of His teachings, but of His death and His continued presence with them.
Baptism is the other sacrament. The meaning of this sacrament is also linked to Jesus'
death and resurrection (Ro 6:1-6; Col 2:12). John the Baptist's baptism was a baptism of
repentance which was probably an adaptation of the act of baptism practiced in Judaism. Jesus'
baptism, however, was not only a sign of repentance and cleansing from sin, and an outward
commitment to follow Jesus, but it was also an identification with Him in His death and
resurrection to usher in a new life in the Spirit because of His enduring presence.
Thus both of these sacraments point to the resurrection as a necessary precondition for
such a change from the Passover Meal to the Eucharist and from the Baptism of Repentance to
Christian Baptism.
Evaluation Concerning the Veracity of the Resurrection by Prominent People through History
such as Legal Experts, Philosophers, Educators, Historians, and Theologians