I began studying the historical resurrection of Jesus in 1970. I was a new Christian. My two campus pastors were William Lane Craig, and John Peterson. Both are excellent scholars. They introduced me to apologetics. I fell in love with it. To this day, my love for defending the faith has not waned.
I will preach at Redeemer on Easter Sunday. I always begin preparing in advance. This year is no exception.
Part of my preparing is re-reading N.T. Wright's The Resurrection of the Son of God.
Between now and Easter Sunday I intend to post Resurrection Thoughts. Here's a quote from Wright's book. He argues "that the only possible reason why early Christianity began and took the shape it did is that the tomb really was empty and that people really did meet Jesus, alive again, and that, though admitting it involves accepting a challenge at the level of worldview itself, the best historical explanation for all these phenomena is that Jesus was indeed bodily raised from the dead."
I am fully aligned with Wright on this. Fifty years of ongoing studies on the historical resurrection take me to these conclusions. (Including my doctoral dissertation, which was on metaphor theory, and drew heavily on theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg's analysis of the resurrection in his monumental Jesus: God and Man.
Easter Sunday is ,my favorite weekend of the year. I am going to celebrate, for the 51st time as a Jesus-follower! Will you be joining me?
