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You Can Bet Your Life on It!

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Recently I was wasting time doing research on the internet, and I came across the results of a contest for "Most Creative Scientific Theory." Check these out:

Grand Prize Winner:

When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet. And when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat; the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.

Runners-Up:

1. If an infinite number of rednecks riding in an infinite number of pickup trucks fire an infinite number of shotgun rounds at an infinite number of highway signs, they will eventually produce all the world's great literary works in Braille.
2. Why Yawning Is Contagious: You yawn to equalize the pressure on your eardrums. This pressure change outside your eardrums unbalances other people's ear pressures, so they must yawn to even it out.
3. The earth may spin faster on its axis due to deforestation. Just as a figure skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body, the cutting of tall trees may cause our planet to spin dangerously fast.

Honorable Mentions:

1. Birds take off at sunrise. On the opposite side of the world, they are landing at sunset. This causes the earth to spin on its axis.
2. The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks" his "cah," the lost r's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl wells."

Do these people have an awesome imagination or what? Especially when it comes to fact and fiction. If you noticed, these theories follow a similar pattern. They take facts (cats land on their feet, rednecks shoot guns, etc.), add in a whacky theory (spinning buttered cat, infinite number of road signs, etc.), and come up with an even wackier conclusion (kitty monorail, Braille from shotgun fire).

After I read these, I wasted time researched some more, and I think I came across the original "creative theory" of all time. It's actually in the Bible, and it was made up immediately after the most significant event of all time occurred. Here's the scene: Jesus has risen from the grave, which means good for disciples, bad for Jewish religious leaders. An empty tomb meant proof, and proof meant an end to their reign of religious bullying and righteous posing.

Solution? Make up a CREATIVE THEORY so whoppingly whacked, people simply must believe it! Here's what happened:

A meeting of all the religious leaders was called, and they decided to bribe the soldiers. They told the soldiers, "You must say, `Jesus' disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.' If the governor hears about it, we'll stand up for you and everything will be all right." So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today. (Matthew 28:12-15)

Amazingly enough, the religious leaders and soldiers used the same formula that we talked about -

• Take a fact: the empty tomb
• Mix in a mad theory: Jesus couldn't have come back from the dead
• Come to a crazy conclusion: The disciples stole the body!

This pattern quickly caught on, and over the years people have continued this proud tradition of trying to disprove the resurrection with theories that make as much sense as a spinning buttered cat. In no particular order, here they are:

1. "The women who reported that the tomb was empty went to the wrong tomb."
   Oh you mean they missed the one that was sealed and had four squads of soldiers guarding it? Because you know that was such a common thing back then.
2. "The appearances of Jesus after the resurrection were mass hallucinations."
   Exactly, because mass hallucinations of precisely the same thing are common. Right? Wrong. The only time I've seen it happen is on the Sci-Fi channel with people describing UFOs, but I could be wrong. The point is, it doesn't happen. As one psychologist said: "Over 500 people having the same hallucination would be more of a miracle than resurrection itself!"
3. "Jesus never died; He fainted and then regained consciousness in the tomb."
   Yeah, that's the ticket. You gotta admit though, it would take quite the fainting spell to survive a spear thrust through your heart. Even more impressive is the part where you bust out of your grave clothes, roll a boulder weighing several thousand pounds uphill, overpower the Roman soldiers, then show up at the disciples doors and convince them you came back from the dead so well that nearly all of them were cruelly killed for their faith. Sorry, but I don't have enough faith for that. In fact, believing the Resurrection of Christ to be fact doesn't take much faith at all...just a little common sense.

Lee Strobel put it like this...

"If we were holding a trial to determine the facts concerning the resurrection, and if we were to call to the witness stand every witness who personally encountered the resurrected Jesus and we cross-examined them for only 15 minutes, and if we went around the clock without a break...we would be listening to first-hand testimony for more than 128 hours...that's over 5 days worth of testimony...who could possibly walk away unconvinced?"*

This is where the common sense comes in. Imagine 5 solid days hearing story after story of these details:

• There was a broken Roman Seal. This meant an investigation, an apprehension and automatic death for whoever did it...so obviously the Roman soldiers didn't break it. The disciples? Right - they were in hiding.
• There was a huge stone that was moved uphill. We're not talking about a small boulder here. This was a 3000-4000 pound massive hunk of mountain that was supposed to stay where they put it. It didn't.
• There was an empty tomb, and the disciples started preaching about it right away IN Jerusalem (where the resurrection happened). They would have been written off as a big joke if the tomb wasn't empty.
• The Roman guard split town. This was a death penalty offense - death by being burned alive, I might add. Why would they do that if they could simply produce the body and get off the hook?
• Jesus stayed in town for 40 days. He appeared to more than 500 people in all kinds of places, times and circumstances.

I think the bottom line here is best put by Lord Darling, the brilliant Chief Justice of England: "No intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true."

Which it is...and that's why you can bet your life on it!

*Source: J.I. Packer quoted in God's Outrageous Claims by Lee Strobel, pp. 170-171.

Head: What you need to know about this truth

The physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a well established fact that is supported by historically valid documents. Alternative explanations do not coincide with the evidence.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

The resurrection of Jesus is the most significant event in all of history. When the grave busted open, so did the way to God. Christians should feel incredibly amazed and eternally grateful for the miracle of our Savior coming back from the dead. We should also feel confident that if God can raise Jesus, He will raise us from the grave as well to live with Him forever in heaven. By the way, have you "tasted" Jesus lately? Click here to read an inspiring story.

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

You are now armed with some powerful facts, but are also armed with the all-powerful Holy Spirit. When you talk to unbelievers about the resurrection of Jesus, remember to balance the truth with love. Here's a story that might help you with this:

"My wife and I were vacationing in Estes Park, Colorado, and had breakfast in a coffee shop. It was empty except for four men at another table. One was mocking Christianity; in particular, the resurrection of Christ. He went on and on about what a stupid teaching that was. I could feel the Lord asking me: 'Are you going to let this go unchallenged?' However I was thinking, But I don't even know these guys. He's bigger than me. He's got cowboy boots on and looks tough. I was agitated and frightened about doing anything. But I knew I had to stand for Jesus. Finally, I told Susan to pray. I took my last drink of water and went over and challenged him. With probably a squeaky voice, I said, 'I've been listening to you, and you don't know what you're talking about ' I did my best to give him a flying rundown of the proofs for the resurrection. He was speechless, and I was half dead. I must have shaken for an hour after that. But I had to take a stand. We cannot remain anonymous in our faith forever. God has a way of flushing us out of our quiet little places, and when he does we must be ready to speak for him."

Now I admire this pastor's courage and his determination to be a witness, regardless of how difficult it was. A lot of Christians would have just sat there in fear or fumed, thinking about how terrible the things were that these men were saying. I realize that I have the opportunity of looking back with hindsight on the situation, but I wonder if there wasn't another possible approach that may have been more positive, and perhaps had more impact, than rattling off a list of rational arguments for the resurrection. It seems to me that he missed the most important and impressive proof of the resurrection - his own life. I wonder if it would not have been more effective to walk over to the men at the table and say something like this:

"You know, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, and found it very interesting. If you don't mind, I would like to pay for all of your breakfasts. The reason I want to do this is that, because of the resurrection, Jesus Christ has changed my life and lives in me, and wants to communicate his tremendous love for you."