Christians hold many views on Jesus’ resurrection – a theologian explains the differing views among Baptists

Every Easter Sunday, Christians around the world come together to worship God. Easter, also known as Pascha and Resurrection Sundays, is the last day of a weeklong celebration of Jesus Christ. the story of Jesus’ final days In Jerusalem, leading up to his crucifixion.

The week leading up to Easter is often referred to by most Christians as Holy Week. In Western Christianity, Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Easter is the final day of the larger three-day festival, also known as Holy Triduum, which begins on the evening of Maundy Thursday, marking the night of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. Good Friday marks Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death. Holy Saturday marks Jesus’ burial in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. The Easter Vigil, which takes place on Sunday mornings, is the highlight of the festival. It ends on Sunday evening.

As a Baptist minister theologian Personally, I think it is important that Christians, and Baptists specifically, understand each other’s views regarding the meanings of the resurrection.

The resurrection

According to the Christian faith, resurrection is the pivotal event when “God raised Jesus from the dead” after he was crucified By Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

Although none of these are true, four canonical Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke, and John all detail the resurrection, but they give different reports. empty tomb and Christ’s post-resurrection appearances His followers were found in Galilee as well as Jerusalem.

They also claim that the empty tomb was discovered by women, who then received and preached the first message that Christ had been raised from the dead. These stories were transmitted orally to the earliest Christian communities. then codified in the Gospel writings beginning some 30 years after Jesus’ death.

The Earliest Christians believed God released Jesus from all wrongdoings by raising Jesus of Nazareth to life by executing Pilate unjustly.

By affirming the resurrection, Christians do not mean that Jesus’ body was merely resuscitated. As a New Testament scholar, it is more. Luke Timothy Johnson writes, resurrection means that “[Jesus] entered into an entirely new form of existence.”

As the risen Christ, Jesus is believed to share God’s power to transform all life and also to share this same power with his followers. It is believed that the resurrection happened not only to Jesus but to all who were there. to his followers.

Opposing views

This central doctrine has been a topic of heated debate for Christians over the years.

Two major approaches emerged: the “liberal” view and the “conservative” or “traditional” view. Current perspectives on the resurrection have been predominated by two questions: “Was Jesus’ body literally raised from the dead?” and “What relevance does the resurrection have for those struggling for justice?”

These questions emerged from the wake of theological modernisma European-American movement that began in the middle of the 19th century and sought to reinterpret Christianity to reflect modern science, history, ethics.

Liberal Christian theologians were inspired by theological modernism to find a way to break the monotony of the Christian churches’ orthodoxies and embrace the rationalism of atheists.

Liberal Christians were prepared to abandon cherished Christian beliefs like the bodily resurrection or Jesus Christ as Lord if it was not possible to explain them against the background of human reason.

Baptist views on resurrection

As with all Christian denominations and churches, Baptists are divided over the question of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. The one thing that may make the group unique is its belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Baptists believe An individual member cannot be forced to follow any of the tenets or beliefs of Christian faith by an external religious authority. You are free to reject or accept any teaching of the church.

In the 20th century, Baptists in America found themselves on the opposite side of a schism among American Christianity. This was known as The fundamentalist-modernist controversy.

The Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick was a liberal Baptist pastor who served First Presbyterian Church, and later Riverside Church in Manhattan. rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Rather, Fosdick viewed the resurrection as a “persistence in [Christ’s] personality.”

In 1922, Fosdick delivered his famous sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” rebuking fundamentalists for their failure to tolerate difference on doctrinal matters such as the infallibility of the Bible, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection, among others, and for downplaying the weightier matter of addressing the societal needs of the day.

In his autobiographyCivil rights leader and Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said that he believed in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ during his early years.

While attending Crozer Seminary, 1949 King wrote a paper trying to make sense of what led to the development of the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. King says that Jesus’ early followers were at the root of their faith in his resurrection.

“They had been captivated by the magnetic power of his personality,” King argued. “This basic experience led to the faith that he could never die.” In other words, the bodily resurrection of Jesus simply is the outward expression of early Christian experience, not an actual or, at least, a verifiable event in human history.

His later writings do not indicate that King had changed his mind about the bodily resurrection. One of his most notable works is Easter sermonsKing stated that the resurrection’s meaning implied a future in God’s hands where there will be no racial discrimination.

Others in the Baptist movement disagreed. His fundamentalist forebears were also his Baptist theologian. Carl F.H. Henry argued in 1976 The rational explanation of all Christian doctrines is possible and can be understood by any non-believer. Henry rigorously defended the bodily resurrection of Christ as a historical occurrence by appealing to the Gospels’ telling of the empty tomb and Christ’s appearances among his disciples after his resurrection.

In his six-volume magnum opus, “God, Revelation, and Authority,” Henry read these two elements of the Gospels as historical records that can be verified through modern historical methods.

Views from other angles

Despite their dominance, Baptists also accept both liberal and conservative arguments regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In his book “Resurrection and Discipleship,” Baptist theologian Thorwald Lorenzen also outlines what he calls the “evangelical” approach, which seeks to transcend the distinctions of “liberal” and “conservative” approaches. He agrees with the conservatives on the historical fact of the resurrection but he disagrees with the liberals on the validity of such an event in modern historical contexts.

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Other than these, there is a “liberation” approach, which stresses the social and political implications of the resurrection. Baptists who hold this view primarily interpret the resurrection as God’s response and commitment to liberating those who, like Jesus, experience poverty and oppression.

Baptists are not the only Christians who engage in faith practice because of their diverse perspectives on the resurrection. However, I argue that Baptists may be distinct in that they believe that such matters must be freely believed by one’s own conscience and not enforced by any external religious authority.

This is an updated version. first published on April 15, 2021.

This article was republished by The ConversationA non-profit news website that encourages the exchange of ideas between academic experts. The Conversation is independent news site that provides trustworthy information from experts. Try our free newsletters.

It was written and edited by: Jason Oliver Evans, University of Virginia.

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Jason Oliver Evans has not disclosed any affiliations other than their academic appointment.