https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/04\/once-more-john-updikes-seven-stanzas-at-easter.html)<\/a>.\u00a0 The idea, they say, emerges from a pre-scientific era, long before modern medicine, to say nothing of quantum physics and the theory of evolution. \u00a0As such, modern people can no longer accept it.<\/span><\/p>\nEven some purported Christians have reinterpreted the Resurrection as no more than what Updike terms \u201ca parable.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOne\u00a0cannot use electric light and radio,\u201d declared the German Lutheran theologian Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976), \u201cand, in the event of illness, avail oneself of modern medical and clinical tools and, at the same time, believe in the spirit- and wonderworld of the\u00a0New Testament.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBut why not? \u00a0As a matter of fact, many highly intelligent and well-educated people do<\/em>\u00a0use electric lights and radios and modern medicine while believing in the literal resurrection of Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is it, exactly, about electronic technology and modern cardiology, for example, that supposedly makes the resurrection any more incredible today than it was in the first century?<\/span><\/p>\nAncient people knew well enough how to distinguish life from death. \u00a0In some ways, they knew death more intimately than we do, because, unlike today, people didn\u2019t die in sterile hospitals, separated from family and friends by limited visiting hours, hooked up to the wires, tubes and measuring devices of modern technology, surrounded by cool and calm medical professionals. \u00a0They died at home. \u00a0And their bodies weren\u2019t whisked away by professional undertakers but were watched over by family members, keeping vigil.<\/span><\/p>\nLike ancient Jews generally, the first Christian disciples didn\u2019t believe in Christ\u2019s resurrection because they thought resurrections commonplace. \u00a0They knew as well as we do that the dead don\u2019t typically get up again. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMany Jews of first-century Palestine believed in a universal resurrection at the end of time, but none expected an individual resurrection in their day:<\/span><\/p>\nThus, when Jesus assured sorrowing Martha that \u201cThy brother shall rise again,\u201d she replied to him \u201cI know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.\u201d \u00a0 To which Jesus responded with the stirring declaration: \u00a0\u201cI am the\u00a0resurrection, and the\u00a0life: he that\u00a0believeth\u00a0in me, though he were\u00a0dead, yet shall he\u00a0live:\u00a0And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never\u00a0die.\u201d \u00a0(John 11:23-26)<\/span><\/p>\nWhen Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary\u00a0the mother\u00a0of James, and the other\u00a0women that were\u00a0with them, reported the words of the angels at the tomb to the apostles, Luke tells us, \u201ctheir words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.\u201d \u00a0(Luke 24:9-11)<\/span><\/p>\nDespite the repeated teachings of Jesus reported in the four gospels, the first Christians didn\u2019t understand what he was saying.<\/span><\/p>\nThe two disciples walking the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion weren\u2019t expecting Jesus to reappear at any moment, although they had heard some extremely puzzling reports. \u00a0They were baffled and discouraged and, when the risen Jesus joined them on their walk, they didn\u2019t even recognize him. \u00a0(See Luke 24:13-35.)<\/span><\/p>\nWhen Jesus stood amid the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, they didn\u2019t respond with a nonchalant \u201cWhat took you so long?\u201d \u00a0They were perplexed and frightened. \u00a0\u201cBehold my hands and my feet,\u201d he said, to calm their fears and answer their questions, \u201cthat it is I myself:\u00a0handle\u00a0me, and see; for a\u00a0spirit\u00a0hath not\u00a0flesh\u00a0and bones, as ye\u00a0see\u00a0me have.\u201d \u00a0Even so, Luke records, \u201cthey yet believed not for joy, and\u00a0wondered.\u201d \u00a0So, to demonstrate his down-to-earth physical reality in a very practical and earthly way, he took a broiled fish and a honeycomb and ate \u201cbefore them.\u201d (See Luke 24:36-43.)<\/span><\/p>\nHowever, the apostle Thomas was not present when Jesus appeared to them and, according to John, when his fellow apostles told him \u201cWe have seen the Lord,\u201d he reacted not with overeager gullibility, but with skepticism: \u00a0 \u201cExcept I shall see in his hands the\u00a0print\u00a0of the nails,\u201d he said, \u201cand put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.\u201d\u00a0 (See John 20:24-29.)<\/span><\/p>\nIn due course, Thomas too was convinced. \u00a0Ancient accounts relate that he was martyred in distant India, bearing witness to the resurrection of his Lord.<\/span><\/p>\nThere is little reason beyond smug prejudice to assume that the story of Christ\u2019s resurrection emerged out of ancient ignorance of modern technology and modern medicine.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 This was my 2019 Easter column for the Deseret News: \u00a0 Some dismiss belief in the resurrection of Jesus as reflecting merely \u201cthe faded\u00a0credulity of earlier ages\u201d (for the phrase, see John Updike\u2019s \u201cSeven Stanzas at Easter\u201d; https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/04\/once-more-john-updikes-seven-stanzas-at-easter.html).\u00a0 The idea, they say, emerges from a pre-scientific era, long before modern medicine, to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1356,9773,9802,1363,9799,9767,1369,1366,9755,2815,4003,921],"class_list":["post-84262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christ","tag-credulity","tag-credulousness","tag-easter","tag-gullibiity","tag-gullible","tag-jesus","tag-resurrection","tag-thomas","tag-updike","tag-witness","tag-witnesses"],"yoast_head":"\n
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