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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1997)
Paid Advertisement EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION Dr. J. Dowell Loftis Pastor 4220 S. Couth FM 158 Bryan, Tx. 77802-3674 776-5731 • email: hillcres@myriad.net illcrest Bible study & Worship Services Sundays 9:30 & 10:45 am God’s people sharing His Love’ Westminister Presbyterian Church 3333 Oak Ridge Dr. (across from Bryan High School, next to Bryan Aquatic Center) HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN, INDEED! Easter Sunrise Service at church 6:30 am Children's Easter Musical 9:40 am Morning Worship 10:55 am 776-1185 • email: wpc@myriad.net (a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America) (Sunday Worship 8:30 & 10:45 am, 7:14 pm D C'rutri Wednesday (Services 7:14 pm TTcTlil OI Randall Scott - Pastor ^ assembly of gckT 778-4835 • email: ranscot.@startel.net ‘Easter is the traditional time when we celebrate Jesus’ triumph over death, and prai&e God for the new life he has given us.” 2608 E. Villa Maria • Bryan, Texas 77805 Association of Baptist Students Invite you to join them for "RELOAD" Thursdays at 7:30 PM ASS Center 410 College Main & Sunday Mornings 10:30 AM In the facilities of A+ Tutoring For more information call 846-3223 A passion for Jesus A vision for people BAPTIST CHURCH Chris Osborne - Pastor 600 S. Coulter Dr., Bryan 779-1591 Prayer Line 779-PRAY Sunday School - 8:15, 9:30, 1 1:00 am Freedom College Bible Study - 1 1:00 am Worship Services - 9:30, 11:00 am, 6:30 pm ‘97 EASTER PAGEANT Thursday 27th through Sunday 20th at 7:00 pm Call the Church Office for more information. University (Christian JPellowship "A. Church Without Walls" With priorities on "celebrative worship” and ’’small groups." Cosponsor of V Sunday Mornings at 10:30 AM In the facilities of A+ Tutoring For more information call 268-6445 First Baptist Church Bryan Come Celebrate Easter Sunday With Us! 9:30 a.m. - University Worship and Bible Study 10:50 a.m. - Easter Celebration Located 5 miles north of Texas A8JVI on Texas Ave. John David Herring, ‘93 University Minister 779-2434 email: jdherring@juno.com Is it miracle or hoax? Reports of empty tomb circulate After 2,000 years the resurrection of Jesus Christ continues to remain a hotly contested issue. Josh McDowell writes in his best seller Evidence That De mands a Verdict, “After more than 700 hours of study ing this subject, and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most fantastic fact of history.” World’s Major Religions Examined Only four of the world s major religions are based upon personalities rather than philosophical propo sitions. Abraham, the father of Judiasm, died around 1900 B.C. and was said to have been buried with no claim to resurrection. Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore Stand, says, “The original accounts of Buddha nev er ascribe to him any such thing as a resurrection: in fact, in the earliest accounts of his death...we read that when Buddha died it was with that utter pass ing away in which nothing whatever remains be hind.” Mohammed, founder of Islam, died June 8, 632 A.D. and his tomb is visited annually by mil lions of devotees. Jews, Buddhists, and Mo hammedans agree their founders are dead and have never been resurrected. Only Christianity claims an empty tomb for its founder. To refute Christian claims one must first explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What exactly occurred that fateful weekend some 2,000 years ago? First, it is vital to note that Jesus was dead as a re sult of the crucifixion. Michael Green, Man Alive, writes of Christs death, “We are told on eyewitness authority that ‘blood and water’ came out of the pierced side of Jesus (John 19:34, 35)...Had Jesus been alive when the spear pierced his side, strong spouts of blood would have emerged with every heart beat. Instead, the observer noticed semi-solid dark red clod seeping out, distinct and separate from the accompanying watery serum. This is evidence of massive clotting of the blood in the main arteries, and is exceptionally strong medical proof of death.” Green also points out that Pilate required proof of a criminal’s death. “Four executioners came to exam ine him (Christ), before a friend, Joseph of Ari- mathea, was allowed to take away the body for bur ial.” Burial Customs Explained Second, Joseph of Arimathea then prepared the body for burial according to Jewish custom and placed it in a new tomb hewn out of solid rock. Merrill Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection, explains the grave clothes as follows: “In preparing a body for burial according to Jew ish custom, it was usually washed and straightened, and then bandaged tighdy from the armpits to the ankles in strips of linen about a foot wide. Aromatic spices, often of a gummy consistency, were placed between the wrap pings of folds, they served partially as a preservative and partially as a cement to glue the cloth wrapping? into a solid covering.” This “encasement” weighed about 100 pounds. Third, a stone “door” was rolled against the en trance to the tomb. Matthew said the stone was large. Mark called it extremely large. Frank Morri son, Who Moved the Stone?, as well as other engineers have calculated the size of stone that would have been needed to cover the entrance of such a tomb would have to have weighed 1 1/2 to 2 tons. In Mark 16:4 portion ol the Bezae manuscripts in theCambr>® Library in England, a parenthetical statement«'l found that adds, “and when he (Jesus) was laidlA.I he (Joseph) put against the tomb a stone whichrT ty men could not roll away.” Fourth, a detachment of at least fourRotJ guards was placed at the tomb and the tomb'dojl sealed according to Roman law. I his would pH quite a deterrent to anyone wishing to rob® gravesite. Tomb Found Empty' Even with all these precautions, the tomb.J empty three days later and the foundation forGf tianiry established. Dr. David Fredrick Strauss 1 unbelieving skeptic who was severely criticalofri thing supernatural in the gospels, has acknowIccT that the resurrection is the “touchstone not oftlit I of Jesus only, hut of Christianity itself. It “toucl Christianity to the quick” and is “decisive for:1 whole view of Christianity.” Paul Althus, cited by Wolfhart PanncnbergO -God and Man), says, “In Jerusalem, the placeo! :| [ sus’ execution and grave, it was proclaimed non after his death that he had been raised. Thesima:: demands that within the circle of the first comir; niry one had a reliable testimony for the fact that: grave had been found empty.” The resurrcctx Kerygma (proclamation) could have not been mi. rained in Jerusalem for a single day, forasingleboi if the emptiness of the tomb had not been establish! as a fact for all concerned.” (Information in this article was taken from!:: dence That Demands a Verdict and “The Resume tion—Hoax or History?” both by Josh McDowell Ml Who moved the stone? The 2 1/2 ton door was sealed by special government order and a guard of Rome’s elite was posted. The disciplines were cowering somewhere in Jerusalem. Yet Jesus’ body was gone within three days! How? Why? A 'JE5U5 IS .RISEN // WE HAVE SEEN HIM / TX/Vv @ HEY, SHUT those ^ C1'EAhTi SHUT THEM up. Tusr SHOW THEM THE BODY. YES. SHOW THEM THE I BODY, j f DO YOU HAVE THE 800Y? J NO, I WE DON'T I HAVE | THE 000V. I ] DOES anyone HAVE THE I 800V ? Bible reliability questioned; historicity defended \ Many discussions concerning the veracity of the claims of the Christ ian faith center upon the reliability of the Bible. F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reli able?, makes some appropriate com ments. Reliability Truly Important “Does it matter whether the New Testament documents are reliable or not? Is it so very important that we should be able to accept them as tru ly historical records? Some people will very confidently return a nega tive answer to both these questions. The fundamental principles of Christianity, they say, are laid down in the Sermon of the Mount and elsewhere in the New Testament (NT): their validity is not affected by the truth or falsehood of the nar rative framework in which they are set...” Bruce continues, “This argument sounds plausible, and it may be ap plicable to some religions. It might be held, for example, that the ethics of Confucianism have an indepen dent value quite apart from the sto ry of the life of Confucius him self... But the argument can be applied to the NT only if we ignore the real essence of Christianity. For the Christian gospel is not primari ly a code of ethics or a metaphysical system; it is first and foremost good news...And this good news is inti mately bound up with the histor- icalorder...This historical ‘once-for- all-ness’ of Christianity, which distinguishes it from those religious and philosophical systems which are not specially related to any particu lar time, makes the reliability of the writings which purport to record this revelation a question of first-rate im portance.” NT Evidence Overwhelming What exactly is the “evidence” for the historical reliability of the New St. Paul's United Methodist Church 2506 Cavitt, Bryan 779-7608 Good Friday Worship - 7:00 pm Easter Sunrise Service 6:00 am - Sue Haswell Park (located on William Joel Bryan Pkwy.) "Lawn Chairs Welcome" Easter Worship 8:30 & 11:00 am at Church Sunday School 9:45 am Testament? Bruce writes, “The evi dence for our NT writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no-one dreams of questioning. ” Many critics say the NT was writ ten long after the deaths of the origi nal apostles, which allows for the de velopment of myths and legends concerning the life of Jesus Christ. William F. Albright, who in his day was the worlds foremost biblical archeologist, said, “We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the NT after about A.D. 80, two full generations before the date between 130 and 150 given by the more radical NT critics of today.” “Perhaps we can appreciate how wealthy the New Testament is in manuscript attestation if we compare the textual material for other ancient historical works.” says Bruce. Cae sar’s Gallic War (written 58-50 B.C.) has only nine or ten good extant manuscripts (mss) the oldest of which was copied 900 years after the original. Plato’s Tetralogies (written 427-347 B.C.) has seven extuif# the oldest being scribed LW,® after the original. How do the ancient mssolikNT compare? There are more than 24,000 existing copies of the NTdat ed 125-250 A. D. There are also ovei 36,000 quotations oftheNTinpa- tristic writings to the fourth centur)'. Integrity of NT Established Sir Francis Kenyon, a scholar of ancient mss concludes, “The interval then between the dates of the origi nal composition and the earliest ex tant evidence becomes so small asio be in fact negligible, and the las' foundation for any doubt that o' 1 Scriptures have come down to substantially as they were writtenb now been removed. Both the W thenticity and the general integrity® the books of the New Testament ffl? be regarded as finally established. (Material for this article was tafc from The New Testament Documeti Are They Reliable? by F.F. Bruce a® Evidence That Demands a Verdif Josh McDowell.) Celebrate Easter at the Creek Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater March 30, 10:00 am 9:30 am Preservice & 11:00 am Postservice Concerts Featuring Aggie Concert Band, Freedom Worship Band, and Zion Jubilee Worship Service Music Presented by: A&M United Methodist Church Choir Admission Free Parking at Post Oak Mall Seating on lawn (bring blankets or lawn chairs) Transportation from parking lot for handicapped. Sponsored by A&M United Methodist Church For additional information, call 846-8731. New Life in Christ Church 401 Lawrence God has a good plan for you" Sunday Worship 10:30am & 6:30pm Children’s Church 10:30 am Wednesday 7:00pm Nursery Provided for all services Alfred Paine - P astor 779-1682 here exists no document from the ancient world witnessed by so excellent a set of textual and historical testimonies... Skepticism regarding the historical credentials of Christianity is based upon an irrational bias. Clark Pinnock McMaster University College Heights Assembly of God 4100 Old College Rd., Bryan • 846-2777 9:30 am Sunday Service 10:30 am Morning Worship 6:00 pm Resurrection Celebration Praise and Worship Service Tommy Thompson, Pastor “People Reaching People’ Paid Advertisement