At Easter time we focus on the cardinal Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Christianity is a sham. The truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead sets Christianity apart from all religious systems.
Many of the world’s religions look back to the martyrdom of their leader/founder. None but Christianity look back to an empty tomb which once contained His body. Only in Christianity has the slain martyr risen from the grave.
Furthermore, in Christianity, Jesus Christ had specifically come to die, to pay the penalty of death which He did not owe. He had predicted His death, submitted to its brutality, and even dismissed His Spirit when all had been done. But He had also predicted His Resurrection, and after three days, replaced His Spirit back into His broken body, and it revived. Now, He ever lives and offers eternal life to those for whom He died.
In today’s secular religion of naturalistic evolution, no resurrection from the dead is possible. Only once, they say, did lifeless chemicals spring to life, eventually descending into us all. But even they recognize that the spontaneous generation of life is “impossible,” and has been disproved, yet they still believe it. It takes a Creator to have life.
In Christianity the Creator is identified as Jesus Christ. The very same One who died on the cross created life in the first place. Thus, only He had the power and authority to again take up His life.
The mighty Creator, perfect sacrifice, and risen Lord is recognized in Christianity as the very Son of God. He willingly set aside aspects of His glory, took upon Himself the form of created man, died to pay sinful man's death penalty, and won total victory over the sin and death which had temporarily twisted His “very good” creation.
Thus the resurrection sets Christianity apart from all non-Christian religions. The fact that the resurrected One is the Creator God Himself sets Christianity apart from pseudo-Christian cults which deny His deity. This conundrum often culminates in a climactic clash where the Christian is forced to choose between re-interpreting Genesis (based on man’s current interpretation of science), or re-examining proclamations of mainstream scientists (based on the plain teaching of Genesis).
There is perhaps no greater threat to the veracity of Scripture than the modern-day conventional science claims that the earth is billions of years old. Once a Christian caves into this notion, it forces him or her to radically transform the plain narrative of the creation week into esoteric poetry, myth, or fiction. The “slide down the slippery slope” is then set in motion as “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20) pull the Christian from faith in God’s inerrant Word to a sole reliance on man’s latest interpretation of science. In too many cases, it leads to a tragic abandonment of the Christian faith.
ICR remains unabashedly committed to revering Scripture as the final authority for truth. To the extent that God allows us to continue discovering scientific evidence that lines up with His Word, we will endeavor to provide faith-strengthening resources to equip God’s saints and bring glory to His name!
Artist: George Richardson, george-richardson.artistwebsites.com
Adapted from Dr. Morris’ article “The Resurrection and the Origin of Life” in the March 2005 issue of Acts & Facts.
* Dr. Morris was President of the Institute for Creation Research.
