Resurrectionless Christianity is vain and useless

Marcus Honesysett shared the following John Owen quote about the centrality of the resurrection and commented on it:

“This truth is so important that nothing in religion can exist without it. The apostles diligently confirmed it in the first churches; and for the same reason it was attacked by Satan and denied and opposed by many. This was done in two ways: first by an open denial of any such thing – “how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (1 Cor 15:12); and second, those who did not dare to attack it directly expounded it in an allegorical way, saying that “the resurrection has already taken place” (2 Tim. 2:18). Observe that our apostle in both cases does not only condemn these errors as false but declares positively that their admission overthrows the faith and makes the preaching of the Gospel vain and useless.”

(John Owen, Commentary on Hebrews 6)

Note well – denying the resurrection, or allegorising it away, invalidates everything else in Christianity. As Paul says, if Christ is not raised then we are still in our sins and our faith is useless. The resurrection – along with the crucifixion – really is at the centre of everything.

via The Resurrection Changes Everything – Blog – Digital H2O.