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

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.

RCMP police laugh about trampling elderly disabled woman in leaked texts

So, I have been following the trucker convoy protests pretty closely on social media. Watching all the videos of police brutality, looking over all the photographic evidence. What’s been interesting to following is the Ottawa Police twitter account, and the Canadian mainstream media. The Ottawa Police has just been tweeting out continuous lies, and the media just repeats those lies.

In my last post, I had a lot of photos and videos of the police running people over with horses, beating them with rifles, spraying them with tear gas, etc. The victims are peaceful unarmed protesters. But what’s new today is that one of the militarized RCMP police leaked a bunch of text messages from a group that many of them below to. So now we get to see the attitudes that Canada’s federal police force have to the people who pay their salaries through taxes. 

Rebel News reports: (and see this Twitter thread)

In what appear to be authentic screenshots of the RCMP Musical Ride team currently in Ottawa to assist in the crackdown on peaceful protesters in the capital city, members brag about using brutal force.

Over the last 24 hours in Ottawa, police have deployed pepper spray and canisters on demonstrators, arrested dozens and trampled two people with horses.

Rebel News’ Alexa Lavoie was brutally struck with a baton, shot at close range with a pepper canister which then broke, burning her face and eyes.

In the chat, RCMP Musical Ride member, Andrew Nixon sends a picture of a pint of beer hoping for his chance to abuse protesters:

“Don’t kick all of them out until next weeks group gets our turn”

Member Robin Thibault remarks about accommodations police are being given in Ottawa:

“Nice Downtown in Chateau Laurier”

Nixon jokes about police brutality:

“Time for the protesters to hear our jackboots on the ground”

[…]A member named Marca laughs off the prior night trampling of two demonstrators, one of which had a mobility scooter.

“”just watched the horse video – that is awesome”

“we should practice that manoeuvre”

Nixon is excited that someone shares his sense of cruelty and punishment. “Agreed!!!” he says. Three exclamation points.

And here’s what they are joking about, this video of Trudeau’s militarized police trampling the peaceful protesters in a cavalry charge. Their victim is an elderly woman with a walker. Trampling her is “awesome” and a “manoeuvre” (sic) for them to “practice”, according to the RCMP text messages.

The elderly, disabled woman they ran down with their horses pays their salaries. That’s how the police get paid – through the taxes of law-abiding citizens.

Ottawa Police lying on social media

The Ottawa Police Twitter account is lying constantly. They tweeted out that they are not using gas on the protesters. Except, in the leaked messages, you can see the RCMP officers talking about equipping themselves with gas masks. And then there is the video evidence of the police using gas on protesters – at point blank range:

Here’s a closer look at the weapon, and the gas cannister:

Ottawa Police Gas Cannister On the Ground

You can watch the video right here. Notice how the other police quickly grab the gas cannister and then block the people filming their actions. That concealment of their actions is repeated in so many of the videos I’ve seen.

Can you have morality without God?

Canada has been extremely secular for decades. Their elites didn’t think it would break the fabric of society to destroy the religious foundation of their country. But you can’t help yourself to human rights and morality on an atheistic worldview. The theistic foundation for morality is gone, on atheism. An atheist doesn’t keep the morality of Jesus, after taking God out.

Canada’s secular left thugs aren’t any better than Stalin’s thugs or Mao’s thugs or Hitler’s thugs. They just follow orders. They aren’t capable of reasoning about morality. When you read those text messages, that’s what you’re getting there. Atheist morality. It’s down on the level of animals. People who think that the universe is an accident, and human beings are machines made out of meat, are not capable of moral behavior.

The police in Canada is not unbiased. Canada is notorious for ignoring crimes committed by the secular left. Certain groups are exempt from the laws. Police in Canada ignore violent crime, arson, etc., as long as it’s committed by people in groups who support the Liberal Party. Just like in every communist country. They are there to do the dirty things that their leaders order them to do, so that their leaders will stay in power.

Canada is not a country you want to visit. Their police force is not honest. You would not visit a dictatorship like North Korea or Zimbabwe. You should not visit Canada, either. It’s a dangerous, lawless dictatorship. They have a dictator, and a cult of personality around him. They’ll freeze your finances. Damage or steal your property. Gas you. Punch you. Hit you with their guns. Shoot you at point blank range. Arrest you. Trample on your human rights, then trample on you. Then they’ll lie about it on social media, and their news media will cover it up. Don’t go there.

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Video: Trudeau’s mounted police charges protesters, tramples elderly, disabled woman

The trouble with people who are born into wealth is that they often have an inflated sense of their own ability out of all proportion to their actual skills and achievements. Justin Trudeau is a former snowboarding instructor and part-time drama teacher. He was raised by a Prime Minister, so he thinks he should have a turn. Now that he’s failed to perform, he’s using violence to silence dissent.

Trampling elderly, disabled woman

Here’s the video of Trudeau’s militarized mounted police charging the peaceful protesters in a cavalry charge, which tramples an elderly, disabled woman with a walker.

That’s the best I can do on Friday night when I’m writing this.

Assault rifles for me, but not for thee

Just to be clear, Trudeau has deployed militarized police with assault rifles to arrest peaceful protesters, and to perform illegal searches on vehicles:

Those are M-4 rifles they are carrying. They’re like our civilian AR-15 rifles, except M-4 rifles fire full automatic. One trigger pull, many bullets. Those are illegal in America. With 30 bullets per magazine, Trudeau’s militarized police could kill an awful lot of people in a short time.

One of the first things Trudeau did after he took office was enact a massive gun ban, to remove almost all firearms from civilians. That’s standard operating procedure for dictators. When you want to violate human rights, vandalize and steal property, arrest people for no reason, the first thing you do is take their guns. Everything is easy for a dictator if the dictator is the only one with guns.

As you can see, Trudeau has no problems deploying militarized police with armored vehicles, assault rifles, body armor, etc. It was also reported that he deployed snipers on the roofs. With a 50% tax rate for top earners, Canada collects a lot of tax money to spend on their militarized police force. All this battle rattle for a bunch of unarmed protesters honking their horns, and singing the national anthem. They must have been really afraid of the children jumping around in bouncy castles.

So will Trudeau be in trouble if it’s found that he ordered this cavalry charge? Not at all. The Ottawa Police will lie for him. They already are claiming that someone threw a “bicycle” at the horses, but the video is pretty clear. The “bicycle” is lying at her feet, and she is lying on the ground. They can say whatever Trudeau tells them to say, but we have video and photo evidence of what really happened.

Bicycle Lying At Her Feet

Trudeau can try to block the video in Canada, but it will survive on American web sites. Trudeau can order the blocking of those American websites in Canada, like China blocks websites with  the Ti4n4nmen Squ4re m4ss4cre videos, but Americans won’t comply. He doesn’t have a long enough reach to silence us with “publication bans”, the way that Canadian courts routinely silence Canadian journalists. And he won’t be able to run us down with soldiers on horses, either.

Several officers beat a woman with a rifle muzzle

I thought this video of several police dragging a woman behind a line of officers, and then beating her with a rifle muzzle, was interesting:

This is several very big, very strong men, beating a woman with a rifle loaded with bullets. Breaking every firearm safety rule. You NEVER point a weapon at someone like that, because of the possibility of accidental discharge. They are literally beating her with it, and the other officers in front form a line to prevent anyone from filming it.

The Ottawa Police denied that this event happened, even though it’s on film. And the Canadian mainstream news media (CBC, CTV, etc.) backed them up. More beating up of protesters here. The news media and police who are covering up this violence don’t think anyone will see these videos. Their victims are scum, they think, and deserve to be treated like this. There is nothing in the secular left worldview that would stop them from doing these things, and then lying about it. Nothing will happen to these police officers, because the secular left sees their victims as subhuman scum.

Pepper-spraying and arresting journalists

Trudeau’s militarized police are very hostile to independent journalists who report things that make him look bad.

Rebel News reports:

While covering the police action against the Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa, True North‘s Andrew Lawton was pepper sprayed by police.

Candice Malcolm, the editor-in-chief of True North has now hired a lawyer to take the police to court.

Trudeau bought off the big corporate journalists with taxpayer-funded subsidies, so they’re no threat to him. And he controls the government-run CBC. He pledged to give the CBC $675 million to save them from bankruptcy, because no Canadians would watch their propaganda. They won’t report anything against him. And they’re probably leading the propaganda charge to keep Canadians from finding out what really happened.

What’s interesting about the trampling of this woman is how the supporters of the dictatorship are responding on social media. She was a dangerous threat to the police. She asked for it. She deserved it. She was going to throw her walker at them, so they had to run her over. Just any kind of hypothetical they can come up with to justify violence against people they see as beneath them. It doesn’t matter if there’s no evidence for their claims, they don’t want to believe that they are on the side of intolerance and violence.

None of these videos were reported on any mainstream news media in America, except Fox News who posted this story on their front page:

Tucker Carlson covered it. And it was also on “The Five”. But Canadian progressives don’t watch these shows. They don’t see the videos. So they just mindlessly parrot whatever their politicians and journalists tell them. Most Canadians are horribly uninformed, just like most people in the Soviet Union were brainwashed.

For a Christian reflection on these events, check out Bill Muehlenbeg’s post.

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