The attendees of thousands of churches this Easter morning heard a message like this: “We can’t believe in a literal, physical, historical, resurrection anymore. But we still have the idea of Easter. Doesn’t nature itself teach us that after winter comes spring—that even in disaster and death there can be new beginnings? But we must have faith that even in our misfortunes we can discover new life by growing. That is the message of Easter.” Thousands of churches founded by Bible-believing people have given way to this kind of message—that it doesn’t matter whether these events in the story of Jesus’s life actually happened. All that matters is that Christians be good, ethical people, who love others, oppose injustice, and make the world a better place. This trend in mainline denominations is just one data point in a downhill narrative of depressing news about the influence of Orthodox Christianity. Here are some others: The non-churchgoing population in Europe and the United States is steadily increasing. The number of Americans answering “no religious preference” to poll questions has skyrocketed. A century ago, most U.S. universities shifted from a formally Christian foundation to a secular one. As a result, those with traditional religious beliefs have little foothold in any of the institutions of cultural power. The number of teen girls who identify as trans has exploded. The darkness of despair is closing in. Satan seems to be winning… Sometimes we need a fresh blast of wind to blow away the clouds of doom and darkness—a fresh wind of FACTS. The rest of this episode is about THE FACT OF THE WORLDWIDE IMPACT of the headline, “He is Risen.”
Demographers tell us that the churches, where the historic fact of the resurrection was not proclaimed this weekend probably weren’t very full. The only churches growing in the United States are those with supposedly obsolete views of an infallible Bible and miracles. This truth was painfully confirmed a few years ago by a New York City pastor who was about to retire. He had been in a liberal Manhattan denomination for forty years. When being prepared for ministry, he was confidently told that the only religion that would survive in the future was the most mild, modern kind that did not believe in the deity of Christ or a literal, bodily resurrection. Those proclaiming that view, he lamented, now presided over empty church sanctuaries and dwindling, aging, congregations. “Ironically,” he observed, “they can only keep the doors open by renting them out to growing, vibrant churches that believe all the doctrines we were told would soon be obsolete.” So, lets look at the stubborn historic fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ—a fact that refuses to go away.
1 Corinthians 15:3-7 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. No other religious faiths begin, “You must believe these certain historic truths.” Other religions have origin stories—almost always an example to emulate. But Christianity is rooted in a historic fact. Christ’s death on the cross redeemed Christ-followers from sin’s curse, a fact proven by Jesus’ bodily resurrection. And as Paul points out if it didn’t happen, we of all men are most to be pitied.
A. Attempts to Deny the Historic Fact of the Resurrection
1. Jesus never died. He somehow was resuscitated in the tomb. A Roman spear was thrust into his side while on the cross making sure he was dead. If he had resuscitated, he would have to have torn his way out of the mummy strips, but they were found neatly folded. How could he have rolled the stone away?
2. The apostles stole the body and the resurrection a hoax. Ten of the original eleven apostles, died for their faith in Christ and his resurrection. You can’t explain this many people being persecuted and dying for a lie.
3. The Jewish leaders stole the body. They were trying to stop belief in Christ. If they had his body, they would have produced it to stop belief in the resurrection.
4. It is a legend made up by his followers
- Legends can’t grow during the lifetime of those who know the facts. The summary we read of what the Christians believed was circulating in where Jesus died before Paul cited it just 20 years after Jesus’ death.
- There was nothing in either Greek culture or Jewish culture that would have led anyone to expect an individual resurrection in the middle of history. The Jews who did believe in the resurrection believed only in the resurrection of the righteous at the end of time.
- A growing movement of Jews who worshiped a human being as the Son of God was a radical departure from the history of human cultural thought. It was completely unprecedented. And this consensus was there immediately after Jesus’ death. There was no debate about this within the early church.
- Had the resurrection sightings of Jesus been fabricated, the myth would have expected Jesus’ resurrected body to look just like Jesus before death, as Lazarus did. Yet, eyewitness reports show that there was something about Jesus’ resurrected body such that at first, people did not recognize him. Mary thought he was the gardener, the travelers on the road to Emmaus did not recognize him, nor did the apostles who were fishing.
- The gospels claim that the first witnesses to the resurrection were women. But someone inventing the story would have never had the first witnesses be women because they were not allowed to give evidence in court.
- The early belief in the resurrection is not based on one or two individual sightings. A large number of people, across a diversity of circumstances, testified that they had seen the risen Jesus. Peter Williams gives the list: The resurrected Jesus is recorded as appearing in Judea and in Galilee, in town and countryside, indoors and outdoors, in the morning and in the evening, by prior appointment and without prior appointment, close and distant, on a hill and by a lake, to groups of men and groups of women, to individuals and groups of up to 500, standing, walking, and always talking (Tim Keller, Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter).
In our own day, the word, proof is mostly associated with scientific proof, which is defined as getting the same result when you repeat the experiment, (e.g. water, at sea level boils at 212 Fahrenheit—every time). But throughout history, guilt leading to execution could be proven beyond any reasonable doubt by two eyewitnesses. When you look at the eyewitness testimonies to the resurrection recorded in documents proven to be historically reliable—the factual, historic resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most well documented fact in history. And it makes Christianity completely different from every other religion of the world.
B. The Spread of the Kingdom of Christ in History
Despite the enormous beneficial impact of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness spreading across the earth, which we are about to examine, I would be remiss if I left out the many failures of the church. Here are just some: aspects of the Crusades, aligning Christianity with the state, antisemitism, the Inquisition, attempting to force Protestantism on Roman Catholics militarily (French Huguenots slaughtered by Calvinists), colonialist expansionism mixed with mission work, the Salem witchcraft trials, the racism of Southern slave owners, the racism of allowing Jim Crow laws to be passed, the racism of opposing the right of Martin Luther King, Jr. to peacefully assemble to proclaim the injustice of segregation against blacks. Our record of failures should humble us and remind us that spreading the kingdom of Christ is not about spreading our majority culture over the earth—but righteousness. Nor is it about using the sword, which God gives to the state. Our weapons are prayer and influence—salt, light, leaven.
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened” (Mt 13:31-33).Both parables teach that Christianity cannot but succeed. They describe the small and insignificant beginnings, gradual progress, and final marvelous increase of the kingdom of Christ spreading over earth. That is exactly what has happened for 2000 years.
One of the most amazing and significant facts of history, is that within five centuries of its birth, Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the population of the Roman empire. The church was expanding eastward as well. By 225 twenty Christian bishoprics were established in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and on the borders of Persia.
The history of the spread of Christianity during the Middle Ages presents a mixed picture—significant advances and declines. On the negative side, the explosive military growth of Islam in the seventh and later centuries meant territorial losses for Christianity in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where Sharia law was imposed. In Northern Europe invasions by the barbarians and Vikings created social upheavals in the dying Roman empire and the cultural attainments of Christianity were lower than they were in the 4th and 5th centuries. Another downside to Christianity was the withdrawal from culture into monasteries by highly committed Christ-followers because of the worldliness of the church. On the upside, monastic teams brought the gospel to Ireland (this monk’s name was St Patrick), Scotland, France, Germanic tribes, Poland and Russia.
One of the greatest examples of the transforming power of the gospel is the Vikings. In the ninth and tenth centuries the Vikings, who were marauding adventurers terrorized much of the coastline of Europe. The Vikings pillaged, raped, and killed men, women, and even children, systematically putting the torch to what was left of the villages. Their fighting men, berserkers, were so fierce in battle that our word, berserk, comes from them. What changed this horrible scourge of humanity? Jesus Christ did. The gospel managed to penetrate even the Vikings—not without some resistance—and not even without some violence on the part of the new converts who didn’t know better! Nevertheless, over time, many of the Scandinavians became true Christians and so the Vikings stopped their terrible raids. In 1020 King Olav made “old practices illegal such as blood sacrifices, black magic, leaving infants to die, slavery, and polygamy.” (D James Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born).
John Wycliffe emerged in the fourteen-century translating the Scriptures from the Vulgate into Middle English for the ordinary people. Wycliffe had an effect that rippled across Europe. Jan Hus and others in Prague produced Scriptures in Hungarian and Bohemian. In the 1450’s Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and in 1455 completed his Gutenberg Bible. About the same time, Constantinople fell, sending scholars westwards clutching their Greek and Hebrew texts to Paris, London and Rotterdam. It was Erasmus of Rotterdam who produced an edition of the Greek text of the New Testament in 1516. In the 1530’s William Tyndale completed a translation into English using the Greek text compiled by Erasmus. Martin Luther, who posted his 95 Theses on the Whittenburg castle door in 1517 translated the Bible into German. As the gospel spread around the world, many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries who wanted the people to study the Bible for themselves. In 1934, Cameron Townsend founded, Wycliffe, whose most recent report is that 698 languages now have the complete Bible, 1,548 languages have a complete New Testament, 1,138 have some translated portions of the Bible. Right now, translation or preparatory work is going on in 2,617 languages in 161 countries.
The age of European Colonialism brought a mixed bag for the church. Roman Catholicism brought Christianity to Asia and the Americas. But conquistadors imposed Spanish civilization and Catholicism by force in South America. By the 1740’s, Moravian missionaries had reached the Virgin Islands, Greenland, Surinam, the Gold Coast, North America and South America. The evangelical awakenings of the 18th century, by the labors of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards, gave tremendous impetus to the development of the world missionary movement. The Baptist Missionary Society was founded by William Carey (who went to India) in 1792, the London Missionary Society, in 1795. American Mission Societies began in 1787 and a student movement at Williams College and Andover Seminary led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1810. The result was that the nineteen century was called by historian, Kenneth Scott Latourette, “the great century of Christian missions." The period 1815-1914 witnesses the greatest numerical and geographical expansion of the missionary enterprise of any epoch until that time—including the penetration of the most populous nation of the world—China, by Hudson Taylor and the China Inland mission. Has God suddenly stopped this expansion of the gospel over earth? NO.
The Bible-believing churches in America are still growing, despite the losses of nominal Christians. Despite the secularism of colleges and universities religious faith is growing in some corners of academia. It is estimated that 10-25 percent of all the teachers and professors of philosophy are orthodox Christians, up from 1 percent just thirty years ago. (Tim Keller, The Reason for God.) In the non-Western world, the present growth of Christianity is stunning:
- Last Sunday there were more Christians attending church in China than there were in all of “Christian Europe.”
- In the last 50 years, the number of Christians in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) has grown from 11.4 million to 171.1 million (1.2% of population to 10.5%)
- In 1910, only 12 million people in Africa were Christians (9% population). Today, there are 630 million Christians in Africa (almost 50% of populace)
- Last Sunday, each of the nations of Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa had more Anglicans in church than there were Anglicans and Episcopalians in all of Britain and the United States combined (Ibid).
C. Kingdom Impact In History
Hear is just a smattering of snapshots revealing the impact of the spread of Christ’s kingdom of righteousness in history.
- Before Christianity it was dangerous to be conceived and born in the ancient world. It was common for infirm babies or unwanted little ones to be taken into the countryside and abandoned to be eaten by wild animals. But when Christianity burst on the scene, the cry went out to bring the children to the church. Foundling homes, orphanages, and nursery homes were started to house the children, and many were adopted by Christians.
- In India, prior to the influence Christ’s kingdom of righteousness, widows were voluntarily or involuntarily burned on their husband’s funeral pyres—a grisly practice known as suttee. The word itself literally translates “good woman,” implying that Hindus believed it was a good woman who chose to follow her husband into death. Africa had a practice similar to suttee. The wives and concubines of the chieftain were killed at his death. Such tribal customs were stopped after Christianity began to penetrate the continent.
- The early church was known for helping the needy. The Roman Emperor, Julian wrote: “It is disgraceful that when no (Christian) has to beg and the impious Galileans (Christians) support both their own poor and ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”
- George Mueller began several orphanages that were supported by faith.
- The YMCA and YWCA founded in 1855 greatly ministered to the whole person, both physically and spiritually (although the spiritual emphasis seems to be played down today) in many urban centers in England and the US.
- Even Santa Claus reflects the impact of Christianity on the world. The real St. Nicholas lived in Myra in the fourth century and was reported to have given gifts to children on his feast day, December 6.
- It is well known that Blaise Paschal, Johannes Kepler, and Sir Isaac Newton were orthodox Christians. Less well known is one of the great organizations that helped propel science and technological advance, The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge founded in 1660. Seven of the ten founders were Puritans.
- In 325 the Council of Nicaea, made a world-changing decree. The bishops of the church were instructed to go into every cathedral city in Christendom and start a hospital. (Data taken from, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?)
The HISTORIC FACT is the that the mustard seed Jesus planted is GROWING DYNAMICALLY. Its best days might even be just ahead. We don’t know. But we do know this. One day that kingdom will have grown so much that birds from all over the world will make nests in its branches.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What arguments against the resurrection have you heard? Which ones are the hardest to refute? What would you say to one who says the story of the resurrection was a legend made up by his followers?
- What stands out to you about the way the mustard seek of Christ’s kingdom has grown geographically?
- What stands out to you about the way that Christ’s kingdom of righteousness has spread over earth by his followers being salt, light, and leaven?
