I was listening to a liberal theologian talking about how Christians need to give up this obsession with the resurrection, because we live in a scientific age in which people don’t believe such things. He said that if we want to be relevant to the society we have to stop insisting on scientific impossibilities like a bodily resurrection.
The Bible speaks about the
men of the tribe of Issachar “who had understanding of the times” (1 Chronicles
12:32). This theologian seems to have no understanding of Bible times or his
own. It was not the case that the disciples believed in the resurrection
because they weren’t scientific. People back then believed the same as we do,
dead men don’t rise. In fact, they were so convinced on that point they
believed that nothing less than a divine miracle could bring about a
resurrection, and if a someone rose from the dead then it was a proof that God
acted. Science has nothing to do with this. Science tells us what happens when
nature is left to take its course. The people back then would agree with people
now – when nature is left to take its course, dead people stay dead. That is
why, when a man who was dead didn’t stay dead, they realised God had raised
Him.
Neither does he have understanding
of his own times. The idea that the resurrection from the dead is something
that makes Christianity irrelevant is ridiculous. It is one of the things that
makes Christianity so relevant. It provides the answer to the universal problem
of death. Out of all the billions who have lived and are dead, there is one
unique person who has died and is alive. Is that not pretty relevant? It proves
He is who He claimed to be – the Son of God (Romans 1:4), and that He did what
He said He’d do – pay the penalty for sin (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). It is the
pledge that all who have bowed to Him as Lord and trusted Him as Saviour will
share in the victory and glory of His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18). The relevance of this is not local and temporal, but
universal and eternal.
We could stop talking about
the resurrection, and maybe some people will think we are relevant, and they
will listen to us, but it will be an irrelevant relevance because we would have
nothing to say. The most relevant message we can bring to a dying world is
“Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18).
