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Bible study: what difference does the resurrection of Jesus make?

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Here’s an article from Bible.org, written by famous New Testament manuscript expert Dan Wallace.

What does the Old Testament say about the doctrine of the resurrection in Judaism?

He says:

The resurrection of the dead was not plainly revealed in the OT until very late in salvation history. It was not until the Jews were taken in captivity, in the sixth century BC, that this was clearly articulated. Daniel 12:1-2 is the principal text: it speaks of the resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous:

At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time; but at that time your people shall be delivered, every one whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (RSV)

Why was it not clearly revealed till then? It was not revealed until there was a felt need for it. When the Jews had no present (because of the captivity) they had to look to the future. The revelation of the resurrection came at precisely the time when the people of God needed hope for the future.

What is significant about this is how masterful are God’s insights into human nature. In the NT era, one religious group in Palestine did not embrace the resurrection as a true doctrine: the Sadducees (cf. Mark 12:18)–that is why they were “sad, you see!” The Sadducees were in charge of the temple. They derived their income from the sacrifices. In a sense, they were the precursors to modern TV evangelists. They had it good! They were the rich aristocracy that ran the place.

Those who have it good in this life don’t often long for the next. The Sadducees illustrate this. The resurrection is a truth especially precious to those who are poor and those who are hopeless. It is precious to those who long for heaven enough that earth holds no sway over them.

This means something to me. I didn’t grow up with parents who had any plan for me. I had to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my life on my own, because they were both too busy doing their own things. This is true even to this day. After I became a Christian, there were many things that I wanted to achieve in this life. But for a variety of reasons, those most of those things never happened. I wanted to do great things for God, like getting married, having a family, getting a PhD and teaching computer science in a secular university. But things that I had intended to do for God just didn’t happen the way I had hoped.

I often find myself thinking of Heaven, and having that eternal perspective on this life. One of the things that is the hardest to accept is that being a Christian makes many things I’d like to do a lot harder. It certainly didn’t open any doors at school, or now, at work. I’m glad my salvation doesn’t depend on achieving anything in particular. And I’m especially glad that my salvation doesn’t depend on what anyone thinks of me. I find it almost impossible in this culture to get any respect by doing the things that I think are really important.

I think if a person were really successful at what they tried to do, then it would be really hard for them to give up living and go to be with Jesus.

What did Jesus intend to achieve with his resurrection?

Did you know that Jesus provided the resurrection as evidence for those who were skeptical of his claims to be God stepping into history?

Here’s an article from Got Questions? on the “Sign of Jonah”, which appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.

It says:

The phrase “sign of Jonah” was used by Jesus as a typological metaphor for His future crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Jesus answered with this expression when asked by the Pharisees for miraculous proof the He was indeed the Messiah. The Pharisees remained unconvinced of Jesus’ claims about Himself, despite His having just cured a demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute. Shortly after the Pharisees accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Satan, they said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:38–41).

To fully appreciate the answer that Jesus gave, we must go to the Old Testament book of Jonah. In its first chapter, we read that God commanded the prophet Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and warn its people that He was going to destroy it for its wickedness. Jonah disobediently ran from the Lord and headed for the city of Tarshish by boat. The Lord then sent a severe storm that caused the crew of the ship to fear for their lives. Jonah was soon thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish where he remained for “three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:15–17). After the three-day period, the Lord caused the great fish to vomit Jonah out onto dry land (Jonah 2:10).

It is this three days that Jesus was referring to when He spoke of the sign of Jonah.

I often bring up the Sign of Jonah when I am dealing with Christians who don’t want to learn how to explain their faith to non-Christians persuasively. I’m glad that story is in there!

The resurrection is a very important part of the life of the Christian. I argued in this post that it makes a difference to your feelings about your own life, and it makes a difference to your case-making with non-Christians.

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Ron DeSantis signs legislation against teacher indoctrination and ESG

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I’m keeping a close eye on Florida and Tennessee, to see who is winning the race to be the best state. Last time, we saw that Tennessee was scoring points, by passing a law forcing public schools to show children videos showing the development of unborn children. But now Florida has scored two points, and both of those in the last week. Let’s take a look.

Here’s the first win from last Thursday, reported by Florida’s Voice:

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Thursday prohibiting ideology-based requirements for teacher certifications in the state.

The bill, HB 1291, prevents teacher certification programs from “distorting historical events” or embracing politically ideological positions on race, sex and gender.

Specifically, the programs will not be allowed to claim that things like systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in systems of power.

DeSantis explained during a press conference that even if the state bans critical race theory or other ideological curriculum, teachers are still learning to teach students these concepts during their educator preparation training.

“This bill prohibits the indoctrination in teacher preparation,” DeSantis said. “There’s not gonna be DEI, there’s not gonna be any of the bogus history, it’s just gonna be standard teacher preparation without having an ideological agenda.”

“Parents want to send their kids to school knowing they get an education,” he continued. “I don’t think they’re interested in an indoctrination.”

“To say you’re going to take one viewpoint, one perceptive, and try to impose that as the standard for curriculum, that doesn’t work in Florida and we don’t do it,” he added.

That’s an excellent law. Many teachers seem to think that their job is to teach children their spiritual views and their moral views. But that’s not what they’re paid to do. Their job is to teach facts, and prepare children to find jobs in the competitive private sector of the economy.

By the way, don’t forget they also have mandatory teaching about the actual historical record of communism. It’s important for people to have a worldview based on evidence, not ideology.

But Florida’s not done scoring points. There’s more.

Here’s another article from last Thursday, also reported in Florida’s Voice:

ov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Thursday protecting businesses from financial institutions that promote environmental, social and corporate governance policies, also known as ESG.

The legislation, HB 989, expands consumer protections and amends certain roles and responsibilities of the state’s chief financial officer position, currently held by Jimmy Patronis.

“This will enhance Florida’s consumers against ESG activism in our financial system and it protects them against a social credit system or discrimination based on their viewpoints,” DeSantis said during a press conference.

“There’s now going to be a more robust process for people who have been in this situation,” he said. “So if you own a firearm store, federal firearm license, following the laws everyday, if they just cut you off because they don’t like that business, you have recourse here in this new piece of legislation.”

I know that lots of red states are passing legislation that’s good for conservatives, but it just seems like Florida is passing as much as every other state, except for Tennessee.

Related posts on DeSantis’ achievements

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New study: gender-affirming surgery associated with suicide attempts

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My understanding of how the secular left pushing transitioning kids onto parents is that the teacher, the guidance counselor, the health care workers, etc. tell the parents “would you rather have a dead girl than a live boy?” This approach is in keeping with the compassionate “don’t judge” worldview, which emphasizes emotions over moral standards and truth. But does it work?

Here is the latest study that I found on Pubmed, entitled “Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm Following Gender-Affirmation Surgery“. (archived)

The Abstract says:

Introduction

With the growing acceptance of transgender individuals, the number of gender affirmation surgeries has increased. Transgender individuals face elevated depression rates, leading to an increase in suicide ideation and attempts. This study evaluates the risk of suicide or self-harm associated with gender affirmation procedures.

Methods

This retrospective study utilized de-identified patient data from the TriNetX (TriNetX, LLC, Cambridge, MA) database, involving 56 United States healthcare organizations and over 90 million patients. The study involved four cohorts: cohort A, adults aged 18-60 who had gender-affirming surgery and an emergency visit (N = 1,501); cohort B, control group of adults with emergency visits but no gender-affirming surgery (N = 15,608,363); and cohort C, control group of adults with emergency visits, tubal ligation or vasectomy, but no gender-affirming surgery (N = 142,093). Propensity matching was applied to cohorts A and C. Data from February 4, 2003, to February 4, 2023, were analyzed to examine suicide attempts, death, self-harm, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within five years of the index event. A secondary analysis involving a control group with pharyngitis, referred to as cohort D, was conducted to validate the results from cohort C.

Results

Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not (3.47% vs. 0.29%, RR 95% CI 9.20-15.96, p < 0.0001). Compared to the tubal ligation/vasectomy controls, the risk was 5.03-fold higher before propensity matching and remained significant at 4.71-fold after matching (3.50% vs. 0.74%, RR 95% CI 2.46-9.024, p < 0.0001) for the gender affirmation patients with similar results with the pharyngitis controls.

Conclusion

Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.

This reminds me of how doctors in gender-bender clinics see their work. Are they helping children? Or are they virtue-signaling to parents about how much more moral they are than parents?

Here is a story from Daily Wire about that:

“It’s a lot of money,” VUMC Clinic for Transgender Health’s Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor said at one Medicine Grand Rounds lecture, video reveals. “These surgeries make a lot of money.”

Taylor noted that a “chest reconstruction” can bring in $40,000 per patient, and someone “just on routine hormone treatment, who I’m only seeing a few times a year, can bring in several thousand dollars … and actually makes money for the hospital.”

Citing the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, Taylor said vaginoplasty surgeries can generate $20,000, gushing that it “has to be an underestimate,” since hospital stay, anesthesia, post-op visits, and other add-ons are not included in the total.

“And the female-to-male bottom surgeries, these are huge money makers,” the doctor continued, adding that such surgeries could bring in “up to $100,000” for the hospital.

Some clinics are “entirely” “supported” financially by such phalloplasty surgeries, Taylor boasted.

“These surgeries are labor intensive, there are a lot of follow-ups, they require a lot of our time, and they make money,” she emphasized. “They make money for the hospital.”

The interesting thing about these stories is how often it’s white progressive women doing the virtue-signaling, and collecting the money for their new cars, traveling and cosmetic surgeries.

I recently spoke to my doctor about my concerns that medicine was becoming too politicized, and that their motivations seemed to be to follow the priorities of politicians and special interest groups. He actually lost his temper, and insisted that doctors are guided by “evidence” in every respect, and that people who oppose doctors are guided by “social media”. He was quite upset.

That might be the case for him, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for patients to ask their doctors what’s guiding their decisions.