J. Gresham Machen: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

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[00:00:30] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon they delivered

[00:00:35] today.

[00:00:36] We're hearing a sermon from Jay, Gresham, Machen.

[00:00:38] It was most likely preached in the 1920s.

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[00:01:12] Joe, we have had Jay, Gresham, Machen, sermons, and this will probably be the third one

[00:01:17] we've done.

[00:01:18] Why do we like this guy?

[00:01:19] Why do we keep going back to him?

[00:01:20] He's not perfect and we've gone over some of those imperfections before.

[00:01:24] But I think there's something about men who took a risk to defend the faith when no one

[00:01:28] else wanted to that makes them worth remembering.

[00:01:31] In this episode, we'll be talking about a different aspect of his faith than the ones

[00:01:34] we've focused on before.

[00:01:35] If you haven't listened to those episodes, we really encourage you to go back.

[00:01:38] We kind of build off of each episode as we do them and those other two are fantastic.

[00:01:42] But once you get if you have or want to get down with those in your back, this one's

[00:01:46] going to be really focused on his time serving in World War I.

[00:01:50] This was a part of his life that I had mentioned in previous episodes.

[00:01:53] But until this episode, I did not realize just how intense that portion of his life was.

[00:01:58] Yeah, whenever we do revisit to someone that's been on the show before, we always do kind

[00:02:02] of like a summary.

[00:02:03] What's a quick, you know, what are the bullet points about the history of this person?

[00:02:07] He was born in 1881.

[00:02:09] Jay Gresham, Machen, born in 1881.

[00:02:12] He would be a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and he served there as a New Testament

[00:02:17] professor and as an apologetics professor.

[00:02:20] You can see his apologetic side really come through in the sermon that we have today.

[00:02:25] After Baby Warfield, Die Princeton definitely took a more liberal swing in its theology

[00:02:30] and because of that, Machen left Princeton and started Westminster Theological Seminary.

[00:02:35] You know, smack dab in the middle of his life.

[00:02:37] If you know the timeline in 1881 to 1937, you know there's going to be World War I.

[00:02:43] And Joel and I actually kind of nerds on World War I.

[00:02:45] We would love to podcast about World War I.

[00:02:47] That was in fact what got me into podcasting was Joel saying you got to check out this

[00:02:50] podcast on World War I.

[00:02:53] So we really think this is an interesting time period.

[00:02:56] World War I is the first time all the nations from all over the world that get together and

[00:03:00] they fight across the world, either fighting in Africa or in Europe, they're fighting

[00:03:03] in Asia, they're all over the place basically.

[00:03:06] And it's just this massive thing.

[00:03:07] But the United States really promised to stay out of the fight.

[00:03:10] Woodrow Wilson was reelected on that promise.

[00:03:13] I'm going to keep us out of the fight in Europe.

[00:03:15] And he was both President of the United States, but before that he was the president of Princeton.

[00:03:18] So while Machen and some other guys we've covered Henry Van Dyke and BB Warfield were there,

[00:03:23] this was the president of that school and then eventually the president of the United

[00:03:26] States.

[00:03:27] But again, he was promising to keep him out of that fight, but they get into the fight

[00:03:30] in 1917.

[00:03:31] Now we talked about Henry Van Dyke on an earlier episode.

[00:03:34] This old man who was preaching on a ship as a naval chaplain encouraging the war effort.

[00:03:38] And Machen felt similarly called to serve.

[00:03:41] But I don't think these two guys could have had more different experiences of World War

[00:03:45] One if you had tried.

[00:03:47] Even though he was a professor at the time, he's in his late 30s and he was not really

[00:03:50] in any way out for the draft.

[00:03:51] He wanted to serve.

[00:03:53] He almost went with the army kind of driving ambulances but he didn't want to because ambulances

[00:03:57] would also have to carry bombs and ammunition and he really just wanted to serve as a pacifist

[00:04:03] more so he went with the YMCA instead.

[00:04:06] Yeah, and you might think of the YMCA in current day as an athletic fitness gym, right?

[00:04:12] You go to the Y and use the pool or run on the treadmill.

[00:04:14] Exactly.

[00:04:15] But it was founded primarily as a biblical study and resource help center almost.

[00:04:21] It was unequivocally a decidedly Christian organization and its members were on the front

[00:04:27] line of a lot of these World War One battles.

[00:04:30] They serve soldiers by teaching the Bible and giving them resources to help them.

[00:04:35] Almost as kind of a counselor's war counselors on the battlefield.

[00:04:39] And so, Machen thought that by serving with them he would still be contributing toward

[00:04:44] the war efforts, be still contributing towards his country but without having to pick up

[00:04:49] a weapon.

[00:04:50] And it might be easy to think that Machen was out of harm's way because of this position

[00:04:55] but he was placed in a YMCA hut.

[00:04:59] They called him Huts or a canteen that was on the front lines to serve tired soldiers

[00:05:06] between the shifts and the trenches.

[00:05:08] And so these soldiers are coming off the trench and going over to his hut to get water

[00:05:14] and to get refreshed but he's there in the trenches on that front line.

[00:05:18] So he goes from being the professor at one of the most prestigious universities and

[00:05:23] seminaries in the world to a man selling candy hot chocolate and tobacco to these exhausted

[00:05:30] soldiers.

[00:05:31] And these men were rough.

[00:05:32] I mean, they were the ones in the trenches.

[00:05:35] If you know anything about World War One, you know that they would sit in these trenches

[00:05:38] for hours and days at a time.

[00:05:40] They would be bombed.

[00:05:41] They would be sitting next to the bodies of soldiers who had been shot and who they couldn't

[00:05:44] retrieve.

[00:05:45] There are rats in those trenches.

[00:05:46] There is lice in those trenches.

[00:05:48] There is disease in all kinds of horrors.

[00:05:51] Just the worst things you can imagine are there.

[00:05:53] And when they would get off the trench schedule, they'd come back to this canteen.

[00:05:57] Can you imagine what talking to men like that would be?

[00:05:59] These dirty, unhappy people.

[00:06:01] How, you know, they're not going to come in and a good mood and they're going to be

[00:06:04] carrying all kinds of who knows what with them.

[00:06:07] Yeah, you could also imagine what a godsend someone like Machen and the YMCA probably seemed

[00:06:12] like to these men after they experienced what they experienced.

[00:06:14] Just a little tiny shred of something good out there in just a really bleak situation.

[00:06:19] Machen said that he never got any rest.

[00:06:21] In fact, he said that the YMCA guys got less rest than the soldiers who would sometimes

[00:06:26] be taken off the front lines and given rest.

[00:06:28] The YMCA guys were always on.

[00:06:30] And he said if you did get to sleep, it'd only be for three to four hours at a time.

[00:06:34] Oftentimes, you would be woken up to the sound of sirens, warning of a chemical attack

[00:06:38] or the sound of airplanes flying overhead, fighting or looking out and spying the encampments.

[00:06:43] And so you just never felt like you slept at all.

[00:06:45] Yeah, there's this story during the war where him and his teammates,

[00:06:49] found out that their army had retreated in that their camp, their hut was now an enemy

[00:06:56] territories and they had to get across this bridge to get back to their own army before

[00:07:02] the Germans essentially blocked them off because the Germans were blowing up the one bridge

[00:07:07] that they needed to get back to their army.

[00:07:09] And so it's this race to get back across the bridge back to your own army before they

[00:07:14] can blow up that bridge and either kill or capture you.

[00:07:17] So he's running with the soldiers here, getting back.

[00:07:21] He was close enough to be diving out of the way of shells that were coming in.

[00:07:24] He was getting rained on by debris and I mean, these YMCA teams also were some of the

[00:07:30] first on the battlefield to help clean up the battlefields and survey them for wounded

[00:07:34] soldiers that have been there.

[00:07:36] And so he's seeing some of probably the most grotesque horrors of war that have ever existed.

[00:07:42] He's said to have been blown apart from shelling slaughtered by machine gun fire cut down

[00:07:47] by machine gun fire blown up by mines.

[00:07:49] You know, the soldiers that have been stabbed and cut up by bayonet fights and so some serious

[00:07:55] psychological, you know, PTSD type stuff that they're dealing with on those battlefields.

[00:08:00] Although he never shot a bullet himself, he was considered a non combatant who served

[00:08:06] in a combatant zone.

[00:08:07] In 1921, France honored him with a medal of honor for his service of serving over six months

[00:08:12] in a combatant zone.

[00:08:15] And it was not like he was wildly successful either.

[00:08:18] He had gone there to teach Bible studies in the gospel while in the front lines, if you

[00:08:21] remember, he said the soldiers were just hardened and they had little interest in the gospel.

[00:08:27] This professor who would once teach schoolrooms where every student was hanging on his

[00:08:30] every word.

[00:08:31] Now he was teaching not uncommonly to groups of two.

[00:08:36] And for example, there's this one story.

[00:08:38] This one got to me.

[00:08:39] I think more than some of the other stuff really.

[00:08:41] There's this troop of soldiers that come in and they're American and they have a chapel

[00:08:45] a chapel and everything.

[00:08:46] And he's going to hold a whole worship service for them.

[00:08:49] He's so excited.

[00:08:50] The troops chaplain would do the morning service and he would hold the evening service

[00:08:52] to be this great thing, right?

[00:08:54] So you know, this is what he'd been planning.

[00:08:56] He finally had a chance to teach some people when he wakes up the next day to attend the

[00:09:00] Sunday worship where the chaplain was going to be.

[00:09:02] The troops are gone.

[00:09:03] They've been relocated his evening service that he had been all excited for in plan.

[00:09:08] It was just him and a couple other soldiers and not the troop that he had been there.

[00:09:12] I think it's easy to hear all this and just go, wow, that's pretty cool that he kept

[00:09:25] the faith but it's more than you know that.

[00:09:28] That's a heartbreaking situation.

[00:09:30] Many people had their faith crushed by World War One shattered on the horrifying battlefields

[00:09:36] of one of the worst wars up until that point and still one of the worst wars that ever happened.

[00:09:41] People couldn't believe in the goodness of God that they had been taught in after this

[00:09:44] war and after serving in this war.

[00:09:47] Machen who had gone over to be an aide and to have a successful ministry was not able

[00:09:51] to reach many of these people.

[00:09:53] When he came back from war, I mean he's a different man, things changed in his life.

[00:09:59] Before he was against theological liberalism for sure but after seeing the horrors of

[00:10:04] the war, after seeing how soldiers handled religion on the battlefield, he was staunchly

[00:10:11] against it, willing to fight tooth and nail against theological liberalism.

[00:10:16] He really believed it was one of the greatest threats to the gospel and now he was more

[00:10:23] confident, knew how to handle himself, knew that this was something that was worth fighting

[00:10:27] to keep out of the church.

[00:10:29] When he was over in the front lines, he talked about how all of the services there were

[00:10:35] either Roman Catholic or more theological liberal gatherings and all of them were pretty

[00:10:42] much empty by the end of the war after seeing that the horrors of war cleared out the few

[00:10:47] believers that were there.

[00:10:49] You know we were speaking of instances that would depress you.

[00:10:52] This one might in some ways actually be even worse, it's one thing when the soldiers

[00:10:56] are so depressed and hardened that they don't want to hear about God but there was another

[00:11:00] instance he had where he was trying to get a service together and they had to move it

[00:11:04] but they had to move it because the soldiers were so busy, routely playing a baseball

[00:11:09] game next door.

[00:11:10] They were so loud, cheers were so much that nobody could hear the service and so the few

[00:11:15] people that came to attend the service, he had to move it across the military camp to

[00:11:19] have a worship service somewhere else.

[00:11:20] Again, there's just something about that that would just feel so discouraging to me because

[00:11:26] it's one thing again you're so sad you don't believe in God I get that.

[00:11:29] It's nothing when you're just having too much fun to care yet and the letter at the end

[00:11:33] of the war he wrote with excitement that despite the difficulties he had not given up

[00:11:37] because he had hoped to have a Bible study is what he wrote to his mom back home and

[00:11:40] was like hey you know what good news though I might have a Bible study tonight with two

[00:11:43] or three men at the edge of camp and to me I'd view that as wow that in human terms

[00:11:46] it seems like a failure but Machen was excited that the gospel was making progress even

[00:11:51] if it was just in a few that tenacity that desire that that same thing that would drive

[00:11:56] him in those trenches and during those tough times would also be used by God and him to

[00:12:01] fight for the faith and all these intellectual and university ways later on.

[00:12:06] It was that same belief that what he believed in was real that would make him such a good

[00:12:10] apologetics professor maybe he was successful in World War I or maybe not but the man

[00:12:15] that God created while he was there despite being halfway through his life despite

[00:12:19] being you know seeing some of the worst moments of his life would be a man who was strong

[00:12:23] enough for the challenges that were ahead.

[00:12:25] He had seen with his own eyes the reality of human suffering and depravity on scale

[00:12:28] that most of us won't hopefully Lord willing never see but he also had the memories of

[00:12:32] small Bible studies on the edge of man's worst sins right next to those horrible sad fields

[00:12:37] of death where God was praised and remembered by a handful of people this sermon that

[00:12:43] we're about to listen to is a defense of the deity of Christ when so many had given up

[00:12:47] on God when God had been attacked by all sides when he was having to look at people and

[00:12:52] have his defend his faith in his belief in Christ he came up with these reasons and

[00:12:56] these understandings and said you know if you understand that the resurrection is true

[00:13:01] it changes everything and this isn't written and spoken by a man who spent every day

[00:13:06] in a you know a university reading a book although there's nothing wrong with that but

[00:13:12] this is a man who did that but then also went and lived it on a battlefield truly believing

[00:13:16] it now coming back to finish his faith saying this is what I believe in.

[00:13:34] Some 1900 years ago in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire there lived one that to

[00:13:39] a casual observer might seem to be a remarkable man up to the age of about 30 years he lived

[00:13:45] an obscure life in the midst of a humble family then he began a remarkable course of ethical

[00:13:50] and religious teaching accompanied by a ministry of healing at first he was very popular great

[00:13:56] crowds followed him gladly the intellectual man of his people were interested in what

[00:14:01] he had to say but his teaching presented revolutionary features and he did not satisfy the political

[00:14:07] expectations of the populace and so before long after some three years he fell a victim to

[00:14:13] the jealousy of the leaders of his people and the cowardice of the Roman governor he died the

[00:14:18] death of the criminals of those days on the cross at his death the disciples whom he had gathered

[00:14:24] about him were utterly discouraged in him they had centered all their loftiest hopes and now

[00:14:30] that he was taken away from them by a shameful death their hopes were shattered they fled

[00:14:36] from him in cowardly fear in the hour of his need and an observer would have said that never

[00:14:41] was a movement more hopelessly dead these followers of Jesus had evidently been far inferior to him

[00:14:49] in spiritual discernment and encourage they had not been able even when he was with them to

[00:14:53] understand the lofty teachings of their leader so now that he was dead how could they possibly

[00:14:58] continue it the movement depended one might have said too much on one extraordinary man so that when

[00:15:07] he was taken away then surely the movement was dead but then the astonishing thing happened

[00:15:16] the plain fact which no one doubts is that those same weak discouraged men who had just fled in

[00:15:22] the hour of their master's need and who were all together hopeless on account of his death suddenly

[00:15:26] began in Jerusalem a few days after their master's death what is certainly the most remarkable

[00:15:32] spiritual movement the world has ever seen at first the movement remained within the limits of

[00:15:37] the Jewish people but soon it broke the bands of Judaism and began to be planted in all the great

[00:15:42] cities of the Roman world within 300 years the empire itself had been conquered by the Christian

[00:15:48] faith but this movement was begun in those few decisive days after the death of Jesus what was

[00:15:56] it that caused the striking change in those weak discouraged disciples what made them the

[00:16:01] spiritual conquerors of the world historians are perfectly agreed that something must have happened

[00:16:08] something decisive even after the death of Jesus in order to begin this new movement it was not

[00:16:15] just an ordinary continuation of the influence of Jesus' teaching the modern historians at least

[00:16:20] agree that some striking change took place after the death of Jesus and before the beginning of

[00:16:26] the Christian missionary movement they agree also to some extent even about the question of what

[00:16:31] the change was they agree in holding that this new Christian movement was begun by the belief

[00:16:38] of the disciples in the resurrection of Jesus they even agree in holding that in the minds and

[00:16:45] hearts of the disciples there was formed the conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead of course

[00:16:52] that was not formally admitted by everyone it used to be maintained in the early days of modern

[00:16:57] skepticism that the disciples of Jesus only pretended that he had risen from the dead such ideas

[00:17:04] have long ago been placed in the limbo of discarded theories the the disciples of Jesus the intimate

[00:17:09] friends of Jesus in a short time after his death came to believe honestly that he had risen

[00:17:15] from the dead the only difference of opinion comes when we ask what in turn produced this belief

[00:17:23] well the New Testament answer to this question is perfectly plain according to the New Testament

[00:17:30] that the disciples believed in the resurrection of Jesus because Jesus really after his death came

[00:17:36] out of the tomb and appeared it to them he held extended discussions with them so that their

[00:17:42] belief in the resurrection was simply based on fact of course this explanation is rejected by

[00:17:51] those modern men who are unwilling to recognize in the origin of Christianity and entrance of the

[00:17:56] creative power of God this breaks from the laws which operate in nature since so another

[00:18:02] explanation has been proposed it is that the belief of the disciples in the resurrection was produced

[00:18:08] by certain hallucinations in which they thought they saw Jesus their teacher and heard perhaps

[00:18:14] words of his ringing in their ears a hallucination is a phenomenon well known to students of pathology

[00:18:22] in a hallucination the optic nerve is affected and the patient therefore does actually in one

[00:18:28] sense see someone or something but this effect is produced not by an external object but by the

[00:18:35] pathological condition of the subject himself that is the view of the appearances of the risen

[00:18:42] Christ which is held today by those who reject the miraculous in connection with the origin of

[00:18:47] Christianity it is also believed that what was decisive in the resurrection faith of the early

[00:18:54] disciples was the impression which they had received of Jesus's person without that impression

[00:19:01] it is thought that they could never have those pathological experiences which they called appearances

[00:19:06] of the risen Christ so that those pathological experiences were merely the necessary form in which

[00:19:13] the continued impression of Jesus's person made itself felt in the life of the first disciples

[00:19:20] but after all on this hypothesis the resurrection faith of the disciples upon which the Christian

[00:19:25] church is founded was really based on a pathological experience in which the men thought that they saw

[00:19:33] Jesus and maybe they heard perhaps a word or two of his ringing in their ears when there was

[00:19:38] nothing in the external world to make them think that they were in his presence

[00:19:46] even before these there have always been other explanations it used to be held at times that

[00:19:52] the disciples came to believe in the resurrection because Jesus was not really dead when he was

[00:19:57] placed in the cool air of the tomb he revived and came out and the disciples thought that they

[00:20:01] he had arisen a noteworthy scholar of today is said to have revived this theory because he is

[00:20:06] dissatisfied with the prevailing ideas but the great majority of scholars today believe that this

[00:20:11] faith of the disciples was caused by hallucinations which are called appearances of the risen Lord

[00:20:17] but let us examine the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus and of the related events

[00:20:23] this account is remembered specifically in six of the New Testament books of course all the New

[00:20:29] Testament books presuppose the resurrection and witnesses born to it in all of them

[00:20:34] but there are six of these books above all others which provide the details of the resurrection

[00:20:39] these are the four gospels the book of Acts and the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians

[00:20:46] according to these six books if their testimonies are put together

[00:20:50] Jesus died on a Friday his body was not allowed to remain and decompose on the cross but was

[00:20:56] buried that same evening he was placed in a grave chosen by the leader of the people a member of

[00:21:01] the Sanhedrin his burial was witnessed by certain women he remained in the grave during the Sabbath

[00:21:07] but on the morning of the first day of the week he arose certain women who came to the grave

[00:21:14] found it empty and saw angels who told them that he had risen from the dead he appeared to these

[00:21:18] women the grave was visited that same morning by Peter and the beloved disciple in the course of

[00:21:24] the day Jesus appeared to Peter in the evening he appeared to two unnamed disciples who are walking

[00:21:29] to Emmaus and apparently later on the same evening he appeared to all the apostles save Thomas

[00:21:35] then a week later he appeared again to the apostles Thomas being present

[00:21:40] then he appeared in Galilee as we learn from Matthew 28 and Paul is probably mentioning this same

[00:21:46] appearance when he says that he appeared to above 500 brethren at once in 1 Corinthians 156

[00:21:53] it was probably then also that he appeared to the seven disciples on the sea of Galilee

[00:21:58] John 21 then he appeared in Jerusalem and ascended from the Mount of Olives sometime in the course

[00:22:04] of the appearances there was one to James his own brother according to 1 Corinthians 157 and later on

[00:22:09] he appeared to Paul such as the New Testament account of the resurrection appearances of our Lord

[00:22:17] there are two features of this account to which great prominence has been given in recent discussion

[00:22:22] the first is the place and then the character of the appearances of Jesus

[00:22:29] according to the New Testament the place was first Jerusalem then Galilee and then Jerusalem again

[00:22:35] the appearances took place not only in Galilee and in Jerusalem but in both Jerusalem and in Galilee

[00:22:43] and the first appearance took place in Jerusalem and as for the character of the appearances

[00:22:49] they were according to the New Testament of a plain physical kind in the New Testament Jesus is

[00:22:55] represented even as sitting at tables with his disciples after his resurrection he engages in

[00:23:01] rather extended discussions with them there is it is true something mysterious about this

[00:23:06] dialogue it is not just a continuation of the old Galilee in relationship Jesus' body is

[00:23:12] independent of conditions of time and space in a way that appeared only rarely in his previous

[00:23:16] ministry so there was a change but there is also continuity the body of Jesus came out of the

[00:23:24] tomb and appeared to the disciples in such a way that a man could put his finger in the mark

[00:23:30] of the nails in his hands in two spots this account is contradicted by modern scholars

[00:23:37] in the first place the character of the appearances is supposed to have been different the disciples

[00:23:42] of Jesus it is accused saw him just for a moment in Galilee and perhaps heard a word or two ringing

[00:23:49] in their ears of course this was not according to the modern naturalistic historians a real seeing

[00:23:56] and hearing but just the hallucination but the point is that those who regard these appearances

[00:24:02] as hallucinations are not able to take the New Testament account and prove from it that these

[00:24:08] appearances were hallucinations that they were not founded upon the real presence of the body of

[00:24:14] Jesus instead they are obliged first to reduce the New Testament account to manageable proportions

[00:24:22] the reason is that there are limits to hallucinations no sane man could think that they had

[00:24:27] extended companionship with one who was not really present or could believe that they had

[00:24:32] walked with him and talked with him after his death as a group you cannot enter upon the modern

[00:24:38] explanation of those happenings as genuine experiences but at the same time merely visions

[00:24:43] until you modify the account that is given of the appearances themselves and if this modified

[00:24:49] account is true there must be a great deal in the New Testament account that is pure legend you

[00:24:55] will have to say this if you are going to explain these appearances as hallucinations so there is

[00:25:01] a difference concerning the nature of the appearances according to modern reconstructions against

[00:25:07] the New Testament account and there is a difference also concerning the place of the appearances

[00:25:14] according to the customary modern view of naturalistic historians the first appearances took place

[00:25:20] in Galilee and not in Jerusalem but what is the importance of that difference of opinion it looks

[00:25:26] at first sight as though if it were a mere matter of detail but in reality it is profoundly important

[00:25:33] for the whole modern reconstruction if you are going to explain these experiences as hallucinations

[00:25:39] the necessary psychological conditions must have prevailed in order for the disciples to have had

[00:25:45] the experiences therefore modern historians are careful to allow time for the profound discouragement

[00:25:52] of the disciples to disappear for the disciples to return to Galilee and to live again in the same

[00:25:58] scenes where they had lived with Jesus to muse upon him and to be ready to have these visions of him

[00:26:04] time must be permitted and the place must be favorable and then there is another important element

[00:26:12] we come here to one of the most important things of all the empty tomb

[00:26:18] if the first appearances were in Jerusalem why didn't the disciples or the enemies investigate

[00:26:24] the tomb and refute this belief finding the body of Jesus still there

[00:26:29] this argument is thought to be refuted by the Galilee and hypothesis regarding the first appearances

[00:26:35] if the first appearances took place not till weeks afterward and in Galilee this mystery is suddenly

[00:26:41] explained there would be no opportunity to investigate the tomb until it was too late to go open it

[00:26:46] and so the matter could have been allowed to pass and the resurrection faith could have arisen

[00:26:52] of course this explanation is not quite satisfactory because one cannot see how the disciples

[00:26:58] would not have been motivated to investigate the tomb whenever and wherever the appearances took place

[00:27:03] we have not quite explained the empty tune even by the Galilee and hypothesis

[00:27:08] but you can still understand the insistence of the modern writers that the first appearances

[00:27:13] took place in Galilee so there is a difference between the modern historian

[00:27:19] and the New Testament account in the matters of the manner and of the place of these experiences

[00:27:26] where these accounts of such a kind that they could be explained as hallucinations or where

[00:27:31] they have such a kind that they could only be regarded as real appearances was the first appearance

[00:27:38] three days after Jesus's death and near to the tomb or later on in Galilee let us come now

[00:27:46] to the New Testament account the first source that we should consider is the first epistle of Paul

[00:27:52] to the Corinthians it is probably the earliest of the sources but what is still more important

[00:27:58] the authorship and the date of this particular source of information has been agreed upon by even

[00:28:03] the opponents of Christianity so this is not only a source of first rate historical importance

[00:28:11] but it is a source of admitted importance even by its enemies we have here a fixed starting point

[00:28:19] in all controversy we must examine then this document with some care it was probably written

[00:28:26] roughly speaking about 55 AD about 25 years after the death of Jesus it's about as long after

[00:28:32] the death of Jesus as 1924 is after the Spanish-American war gendered in 1898 that is not such a very long

[00:28:40] period of time and of course there is one vital elements in the testimony here which does not

[00:28:46] prevail in the case of the Spanish war most people have forgotten many details of the Spanish-American

[00:28:51] war because they have not constantly talked about it and preached about it and written about it

[00:28:57] but it would not be so in the case of Jesus's resurrection the resurrection of Jesus was

[00:29:03] the thing which formed a basis of all the thoughts of early Christians and so the memory of it when

[00:29:07] it was 25 years past was very much fresher than the memory of an event like the Spanish-American

[00:29:12] War of 25 years ago something which has passed out of our consciousness

[00:29:17] let us turn then to 1 Corinthians 15 and read the first verses

[00:29:23] moreover brother and I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you

[00:29:27] which also you have received and wherein you stand by which also you are saved if you keep in

[00:29:34] memory what I preached to you unless you have believed in vain for I delivered to you first of all

[00:29:40] that which I also received first of all or among the first things may mean first in point in time

[00:29:47] or first in point of importance at any rate this was a part of Paul's fundamental preaching

[00:29:52] in Corinth in about the year 51 or 52 so we go back a little further than the time when the epistle

[00:29:58] was written but these things were evidently also first and fundamental in Paul's preaching in other

[00:30:03] places so that you are taken back an indefinite period in the ministry of Paul for this evidence

[00:30:09] but then you are taken back by the words farther still quote that which I also received

[00:30:17] there is a common argument as to the source from which Paul received this information

[00:30:21] it has generally agreed that he received it from the Jerusalem church

[00:30:26] according to the epistle to the Galatians he had been in conference with Peter and James only

[00:30:31] three years after his conversion that was the time for Paul to receive this tradition historians

[00:30:37] are usually willing to admit that this information is nothing less than the count which the

[00:30:42] primitive church including Peter and James gave of the events which lay at the foundation of the

[00:30:47] church so you have here even in the admission of modern men a piece of historical information

[00:30:54] of priceless value for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received how that

[00:31:01] Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again

[00:31:06] the third day according to the scriptures why does Paul mention the burial of Jesus

[00:31:12] the impression which the mention of the burial produces upon every reader who comes to it as for

[00:31:16] the first time is that Paul means to say that the body of Jesus was laid in the tomb the burial in

[00:31:22] other words implies the empty tomb and yet a great many modern historians say that Paul knows nothing

[00:31:31] about the empty tomb surely such an assertion is quite false Paul does not indeed explicitly mention

[00:31:38] the empty tomb he does not give a detailed description of it here but that does not mean that he

[00:31:43] knew nothing about it those that he was writing to believe in it already and he is simply reviewing

[00:31:49] a previous argument in order to draw implications from it with regard to the resurrection

[00:31:54] of Christians do you say that Paul knows nothing about the empty tomb ignores the fact that the mention

[00:32:00] of the burial is quite meaningless unless Paul had in mind the empty tomb I do not see how anyone

[00:32:08] can get any other impression moreover isn't this what the definition of resurrection means modern

[00:32:14] historians say that Paul was interested simply in the continued life of Jesus in a new body which

[00:32:20] had nothing to do with the body which lay in the tomb that is rather strange in this connection

[00:32:26] Paul is arguing in this passage not against men who denied the immortality of the soul but

[00:32:31] against men who held the Greek view of the immortality of the soul without the body the view

[00:32:37] that they were holding would logically make the resurrection of Jesus just the simple continuance

[00:32:42] of his personal life there's no point at all then what Paul says against them unless he is

[00:32:47] referring to the resurrection from the tomb unless he is referring to this he is playing into

[00:32:54] the hands of his opponents but many men nowadays have such a strangely unhistorical notion of what

[00:33:01] resurrection meant to the early disciples they talk as though the resurrection faith meant to

[00:33:05] that those disciples simply believe that Jesus continued it to exist after his crucifixion this

[00:33:13] is absurd there is not the slightest doubt about that they were thoroughly imbued with his belief

[00:33:20] they were not sageses even in those first three days after Jesus's crucifixion they still

[00:33:26] believe that he was alive if that is all that resurrection meant there was nothing in it to cause

[00:33:32] joy conviction of the continued life of Jesus would not make him any different from other men

[00:33:40] but what changed sadness into joy and brought about the founding of the church

[00:33:45] substitution for a belief in the continued existence of Jesus to a belief in the emergence of his

[00:33:52] body from the tomb and Paul's words imply that as clear as day quote and he rose again the third day

[00:34:02] end quote of all the important things that Paul says this is perhaps the most important from the point

[00:34:07] of view of modern discussion there are few words in the New Testament that are more disconcerting to

[00:34:12] modern naturalistic historians than the words on the third day we have just observed what a modern

[00:34:19] reconstruction is the disciples went back to Galilee it is supposed and they are some time after

[00:34:24] the crucifixion they came to believe that Jesus was alive but if the first appearance took place

[00:34:30] on the third day this explanation is not possible the modern reconstruction disappears all together

[00:34:38] if you believe that the first appearances were on the third day if Paul's words are to be taken

[00:34:44] at their face value the whole elaborate psychological reconstruction of the conditions and the disciples

[00:34:49] minds leading to up to the hallucinations in Galilee disappears many men it is true have an answer

[00:35:00] ready let us not they say an effect go beyond what Paul actually says Paul does not say that the

[00:35:07] first appearances occurred on the third day but only that Christ rose on that day he might have risen

[00:35:13] sometime before he appeared to them the resurrection might have occurred on the third day and yet the

[00:35:18] appearances might have occurred some weeks after in Galilee but why if nothing in particular happened

[00:35:25] on the third day and if the first appearance occurred some weeks after the disciples hit upon just

[00:35:31] the third day as the day of the supposed resurrection surely it was very strange for them to

[00:35:35] suppose that Jesus had really risen a considerable time before he appeared to them and had left them

[00:35:40] all that time in their despair so strange as a position on the part of the disciples surely

[00:35:45] requires an explanation why was it if nothing happened on the third day that the disciples ever

[00:35:51] came to suppose that the resurrection occurred on that day and not on some other day one proposed

[00:35:58] view is that the third day was hit upon as the day of the supposed resurrection because scripture

[00:36:03] was thought to require it Paul says it will be remembered that Jesus rose the third day according

[00:36:09] to the scriptures but where will you find in the Old Testament scriptures any clear reference to

[00:36:14] the third day as the day of the resurrection of Christ no doubt there is the sign of Jonah and

[00:36:19] there is also Hosea 6 too we are certainly not denying that these passages at least the former

[00:36:24] are true prophecies of the resurrection of the third day but could they ever have been understood

[00:36:30] before the fulfillment had come that is more than doubtful indeed it is not even quite clear

[00:36:37] that Paul means the words according to the scriptures to refer to the third day at all and not

[00:36:41] merely to the central factor of the resurrection itself at any rate the scripture passages never

[00:36:46] could have suggested the third day to the disciples unless something had actually happened

[00:36:51] on that day to indicate that Christ had risen but had not Jesus himself predicted that he would

[00:36:57] rise on the third day and it might not this prediction have caused the disciples to suppose that

[00:37:02] he had risen on that day even if the first appearances did not occur until long afterwards

[00:37:07] this is an obvious way out of the difficulty but it is effectively closed to the modern naturalistic

[00:37:13] historian for it would require us to suppose that Jesus's predictions of his resurrection recorded

[00:37:19] in the gospels are historical but the naturalistic historians are usually concerned with few things more

[00:37:26] than with the denial of the authenticity of these predictions according to ordinary liberal views

[00:37:32] Jesus certainly could not have predicted that he would rise from the dead in the manner recorded

[00:37:37] in the gospels so for the liberal historians this explanation of the third day becomes impossible

[00:37:43] the explanation would perhaps explain the third day in the belief of the disciples

[00:37:48] but it would also destroy the whole account of the liberal Jesus

[00:37:53] so then it becomes necessary to seek explanations further into the distance some have appealed to a

[00:38:00] supposed belief in antiquity to the effect that the soul of a dead person hovered around the body

[00:38:05] for three days and then departed this belief it has said might have seemed to the disciples to make

[00:38:11] it necessary to put the supposed resurrection not later than the third day but how far did this

[00:38:17] belief prevail in Palestine in the first century the question is perhaps not capable of any truly

[00:38:23] satisfactory answer moreover it is highly dangerous from the point of view of the modern naturalistic

[00:38:28] historian to appeal to this belief since it would show that some interest was taken in the body of

[00:38:33] Jesus and yet this is what these modern historians are most concerned to deny for if interest was

[00:38:41] taken in the body the old question arises again why the tomb was not investigated and the whole

[00:38:48] vision hypothesis breaks down since these explanations have proved unsatisfactory some modern scholars

[00:38:56] have had to go back and find a fourth explanation there were in ancient times they say to us a

[00:39:02] pagan belief about a god who died in rose again on the first day the worshipers of the god were

[00:39:07] to mourn but on the third day they were to rejoice because of the resurrection of the god so it

[00:39:12] is thought that the disciples may have been influenced by this pagan belief but surely this is a

[00:39:17] desperate and convenient excuse it is only a very few students of the history of religions who

[00:39:22] would be quite so bold as to believe that in Palestine at the time of Christ there was any prevalence

[00:39:27] of this pagan belief with its dying and rising god indeed the importance and clearness of this

[00:39:33] belief have been enormously exaggerated in recent works particularly as regards the rising of

[00:39:38] the god on the third day the truth is that the third day in the primitive account of the resurrection

[00:39:43] of Christ remains and that there is no satisfactory way of explaining it away indeed some naturalistic

[00:39:49] historians are actually coming back to the view that perhaps we cannot explain this third day away

[00:39:55] and that perhaps something did happen on the third day to produce the faith of the disciples

[00:39:59] but if this conclusion is reached then the whole psychological reconstruction disappears and

[00:40:05] particularly the modern hypothesis of the about the place of the appearances something must have

[00:40:12] happened to produce the disciples belief in the resurrection not far off in Galilee but near to

[00:40:17] the tomb in Jerusalem but if so there would be no time for the elaborate psychological processes

[00:40:25] which are supposed to produce the visions and there would be ample opportunity for the investigation

[00:40:30] of the tomb it is therefore a fact of enormous importance that it is just Paul in the passage where he

[00:40:37] is admittedly reproducing the tradition of the primitive Jerusalem church who mentions the third day

[00:40:45] then after mentioning the third day Paul gives a detailed account which is not quite complete

[00:40:50] of the resurrection appearances he leaves out the accounts of the appearances to the women because

[00:40:55] he is merely giving the official list of the appearances to the leaders in the Jerusalem church

[00:41:00] and so we have the testimony of Paul the testimony is sufficient of itself to refute the modern

[00:41:06] naturalistic reconstruction but it is time to glance briefly at the testimony in the gospels too

[00:41:12] if you take the shortest gospel the gospel according to mark you will find for starters that mark

[00:41:17] gives his account of the burial which is of great importance modern historians cannot deny that

[00:41:23] Jesus was buried because that is attested by the universally accepted source of information

[00:41:28] 1 Corinthians 15 mark is here confirmed by the Jerusalem tradition as preserved by Paul but the

[00:41:35] account of the burial in mark is followed by the account of the empty tomb and the two things are

[00:41:40] indesolibly connected if one is historical it is difficult to reject the other

[00:41:47] modern naturalistic historians are divided about this matter of the empty tomb some admit that

[00:41:51] the tomb was empty others deny that it ever was some say what we have just outlined that the

[00:41:56] tomb was never investigated at all until it was too late and that the account of the empty tomb grew

[00:42:01] up as a legend in the church but other historians are clear-sided enough to see that you cannot get

[00:42:08] rid of the empty tomb in any such fashion but if the tomb was empty why was it empty the new

[00:42:16] testament says that it was empty because the body of Jesus had been raised out of it but if this

[00:42:22] was not the case then why was the tomb empty some say that the enemies of Jesus took the body away

[00:42:29] if so they have done the greatest possible service to the resurrection faith which they so much

[00:42:34] hated others have said that the disciples stole the body away to make the people believe that Jesus

[00:42:40] was risen but no one holds that view anymore others have said that Joseph of Erymethia changed

[00:42:46] the place of burial that is difficult to understand because if such were the case why should Joseph

[00:42:52] of Erymethia have kept silent when the resurrection faith arose other explanations no doubt have been

[00:42:58] proposed but it cannot be said that these hypotheses have altogether satisfied even those historians

[00:43:04] who have proposed them the empty tomb has never been successfully explained away

[00:43:12] we might go on to consider the other accounts but I think we have pointed out some of the most

[00:43:16] important parts of the evidence the resurrection was of a bodily kind and appears in connection with

[00:43:22] the empty tomb it is quite a misrepresentation of the state of affairs when people talk about

[00:43:27] interpreting the New Testament in accordance with the modern view of natural law as operating

[00:43:31] in connection with the origin of Christianity what is really being engaged in is not an interpretation

[00:43:37] of the New Testament but a complete contradiction of the New Testament at its central core

[00:43:43] in order to explain the resurrection faith of the disciples as caused by hallucinations you must

[00:43:48] first pick and choose in the sources of information and then reconstruct a statement of the case of

[00:43:56] for which you have no historical information you must first reconstruct this account different from

[00:44:02] that which is given by the only sources of information before you can even begin to explain

[00:44:07] the appearances as hallucinations and even then you are really no better off it is after all

[00:44:15] quite preposterous to explain the origin of the Christian Church as being due to pathological

[00:44:20] experiences of weak-minded men so mighty a building was not founded upon so small a pinpoint

[00:44:28] so the witness of the whole New Testament has not been explained away it alone explains the

[00:44:34] origin of the church and the change of the disciples from weak men into the spiritual conquerors of the

[00:44:39] world why is it then if the evidence is so strong that so many modern men refuse to accept the

[00:44:46] New Testament testimony of the resurrection of Christ the answer is perfectly plain the resurrection

[00:44:53] if it is true is a stupendous miracle and against the miraculous or the supernatural there is

[00:44:59] a tremendous opposition in the modern mind but is the opposition well grounded it would perhaps be

[00:45:06] well grounded if the direct evidence for the resurrection stood absolutely alone if it were

[00:45:11] simply a question of whether a man in the first century otherwise unknown really rose from the dead

[00:45:16] there would in that case be a strong burden of proof against the belief in the resurrection

[00:45:22] but as a matter of fact the question is not whether any ordinary man rose from the dead

[00:45:27] but whether Jesus rose from the dead we know something of Jesus from the gospels and as such made known

[00:45:34] he is certainly different from all other men a man who comes into contact with his tremendous

[00:45:39] personality will say to himself it is impossible that Jesus could ever have been held by death

[00:45:44] when the extraordinary testimony of the resurrection faith which has been outlined above comes to us

[00:45:49] we add to this our tremendous impression of Jesus's person gained from the reading of the gospels

[00:45:55] and we accept this strange belief which comes to us and fills us with joy

[00:46:00] that the Redeemer really triumphed over death the grave and sin

[00:46:06] and if he is living we can come to him today and so finally we add to the direct historical evidence

[00:46:13] our own Christian experience if he is a living Savior we can come to him for salvation today

[00:46:20] and we add to the evidence from the New Testament documents an immediacy of conviction which delivers

[00:46:26] us from fear the Christian man should never say as men often say because of my experience of Christ

[00:46:32] in my soul I am independent of the basic facts of Christianity I am independent of the question whether

[00:46:37] Jesus rose from the grave or not but Christian experience even though it cannot be our proof of

[00:46:43] whether Jesus rose or not still can add to the direct historical evidence a confirming witness today

[00:46:51] that as a matter of fact Christ really did rise from the dead on the third day according to

[00:46:56] the scriptures the witness of the spirit is not as it is often quite falsely represented today

[00:47:03] independent of the Bible on the contrary it is a witness by the Holy Spirit who is the author of

[00:47:10] the Bible to the fact that the Bible is true

[00:47:24] these men who were the least likely people to spread the religion of Jesus Christ the least

[00:47:31] likely people to bring his teaching to the world did and there must be some reason for that

[00:47:37] it is really interesting to me if you listen to the sermon and defense of the resurrection of Christ

[00:47:41] and who he was if you like me you are listening to it and going this sounds like the exact same

[00:47:45] stuff I hear today the arguments against their faith are not really that new they are actually kind

[00:47:50] of the same old arguments and I have read the age of reason by Thomas Payne and it is the same

[00:47:56] thing he said a hundred years before Machen it is just the same stuff and so what Machen lays out

[00:48:01] here is it just doesn't make sense that the apostles would have done this if Jesus Christ had not

[00:48:07] resurrected to them and if he did then we should listen to what he said I think this sermon is great

[00:48:12] I think it's a good reminder you can get in an apology ex and stuff like that what you can get

[00:48:17] boiled down to these little things off to the side but at the end of the day our faith boils down

[00:48:22] to the resurrection Machen has seen some of the worst stuff in human history but he still believed

[00:48:27] that the resurrection was worth fighting for in fact he fought for it even more firmly after seeing

[00:48:34] the worst things of human history because he knew how important that faith was to preserving who

[00:48:39] you were and to preserving what God was doing in your life if you didn't have that if you couldn't

[00:48:44] stand firm on the word you would lose yourself thank you for listening to today's episode

[00:49:00] of Revive Fas today sermon was narrated by Ken Chippchase Ken is the planting pastor for

[00:49:07] pillar fellowship in southern Indiana and co-host of the Deuthiology podcast you can check out his show

[00:49:13] and learn more at Deuthiology.com we began this episode thinking some of our patreon supporters

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