But did it really happen?

May 25

I often listen to the podcast of a prominent clinical psychologist. On this occasion he was interviewing and individual who spends a lot of time researching religions and produces commentary on the subject of faith, a topic that is covered frequently on this podcast as the psychologist has been seeking to understand more about what it means to be a person of faith and the roll that religion plays in our society. Not just our society as we know it today but historically.

Sometimes podcasts of this nature are difficult to listen to because the opinions of those interviewing and being interviewed may differ from my own, and the way we choose to exercise our faith. Though sometimes it is difficult, I think it is important that we are exposed to a variety of ideas that might even challenge our own understanding because this allows us grow in both our capacity to communicate our own faith and may help us let go of those traditions and ideas that are not founded upon Jesus Christ.

On this occasion the subject of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was being discussed and the person being interviewed had indicated there doubts about the resurrection being a physical occurrence but suggested that it was rather a spiritual process that did not have a physical manifestation. I see often in religions, the tendency to remove or justify away those points of doctrine and historical events that may be considered along the edges of what a secular person may consider to be supernatural. Perhaps some are even well-intentioned in doing this in an attempt to make religious practices more popular or attractive to newcomers. We even find in some practices, the belief that all religious traditions are true. To me this is as if to say that there is no truth but that anything can be made to be true, which I feel is a dangerous and self-destructive attempt at avoiding conflict. There is absolutely truth and a very real source of truth.

Upon hearing this idea that perhaps the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not a physical rebirth but merely a spiritual one, I began to consider the source of my belief that the resurrection was absolutely a physical one and that Jesus Christ did die and was buried and did become alive again. His physical body becoming renewed and perfected. What causes me to believe this? And why do I believe it with such conviction? How can I actually believe that a man just a real as I am, who lived in a mortal body as I do, was born, died, and lived again?

To some it may be easy to justify my belief as a person looking for more meaning and purpose in a life where there is none. Or perhaps it makes the challenges of this life easier two cope with if we believe that there is more to our existence than what we experience between our physical birth and death. Despite this criticism I remain firm in my conviction that everyone who has and will be born and died will live again through the grace of he who was first, and not because I feel this belief makes anything about life easier to cope with because I am not sure that belief does. Though I may have knowledge it does not always come before emotions and feelings. And though I may tell myself and remind myself of the truths I have learned, I cannot always stop from feeling what I feel in the moment, only later when action is able to take precedence over thought.

I had the privilege of being raised in a home where faith was practiced regularly, church was attended regularly, and scriptures were read and prayers were said together for which I am immensely grateful. It is because of this foundation that I am able to build a greater level of faith and understanding. There are many who had similar upbringings but have since chosen to discontinue their practice of faith; the fact that one is born and raised within a particular tradition does not guarantee or otherwise prove the validity of that tradition or it's continuance. Each individual must decide for themselves what to believe and what faith will motivate them to action.

My knowledge of the subject of the resurrection is based largely on scriptures which I believe to be mostly accurate historical records of events that did actually occur though, especially in the Old Testament, some may appear to be allegorical there is no less truth and knowledge that can be gained in every instance. I cannot usually recall by memory the references to every point of doctrine that is the foundation of my faith and so I must return again to the scriptures to find those events in order to share them more completely. When I refer to the scriptures, I do not only mean the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible. I think it is unreasonable to believe that the Bible contains the extent of all information that was meant to be shared by God but in fact there are likely countless records many being lost to time that contain the truth as it was revealed by God to his servants the prophets. Including the Book of Mormon, a record of the descendants of a faithful profit from Jerusalem who was instructed by God to leave with his family prior to its destruction. We find in the Book of Mormon more detail about doctrinal subjects including the resurrection and none that contradict the truths of the Bible but reinforce them.

Regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not a comprehensive list of all references, but a selection to demonstrate my point.

New Testament

Acts 26
22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

Matthew 12
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Which scripture Jesus referred to when answering certain scribes and Pharisees:

Jonah 1:17: And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

1 Corinthians 15 contains many points of doctrine related to the nature of mortality and the resurrection. Here Paul uses the analogy of the glories of celestial objects – the sun, moon, and stars to refer to differing orders of life:

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

A spiritual body meaning one that will no longer die. Dishonor and corruption here do not describe the nature of mortal conception but the inevitability of imperfection, disease, injury, and death – being renewed in a final form of glory like that of the stars, the moon, or the sun.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To me this clearly states that death, and renewal (resurrection) are real physical changes that occur, and though the nature of the resurrection is spiritual – being the opposite of mortal, the change comes after death.

Luke 24
36 ¶ And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

This Jesus spoke and did in the presence of his friends, after his death, after having risen again on the third day.

In the Old Testament there are writing that suggest the prophecy of the death and resurrection of the one who would be the savior of the world.

Old Testament

Job 14:14 14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

What is that change Job is referring to if not the changes that come as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:53.