In Matthew 12:38, the religious leaders of the day came to Jesus and said, "We want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove that you are God."
Jesus takes them to task in verses 39 to 45.
Check it out in your Bible, he didn't mince words with them. You can also check it out in an on-line Bible.
Why did Jesus unload on them?
The incident prior to this is about Jesus casting out demons. Some poor guy who was blind and couldn't speak got better because Jesus healed him. And what did the religious leaders of the day say upon hearing this happy report?
They said, "No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan."
Can you believe it? See Matthew 12:24!
Go back to the story before that when the religious leaders tried to trap him regarding the Sabbath. Jesus heals a guy with an injured hand and the religious leaders decided to call a meeting to kill Jesus (see Matthew 12:14).
Hmmm ... maybe Jesus had some reason to be upset with them.
They have seen signs already and they simply don't want to believe!
They were more concerned with their own standing as religious authorities that they couldn't respond to Jesus.
Jesus does tell them about a sign nonetheless, in Matthew 12:39-41, the sign of Jonah.
Jesus forecasts his own death and resurrection by saying, "As Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and nights, so I, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights."
The empty tomb is a huge sign.
How do we explain it away?
The disciples stole the body?
Those guys all scattered when Jesus got arrested. Think they would have the guts to go fetch Jesus' body from the tomb and then run around saying, He rose from the dead?
Jesus really didn't die?
Um, the Romans were very, very, very good at killing people.
Jesus died and his twin claimed he was the resurrected Jesus?
One of my good friends told me that some scholars who don't believe in Christianity use this explanation.
This twin of Jesus would be lying. And so all the disciples would have to be in on the conspiracy. And lastly, the twin eventually would have died and opponents of Christianity would point to the body of the twin as well as the body of Jesus.
The disciples hallucinated that Jesus rose from the dead?
Every single one of them hallucinated the same thing, eh? And of course, if they only hallucinated the resurrection, all the religious-political leaders of the day would have to do is show the body and say those guys-gals are nuts.
What "sign" would "prove" to you and me that God is out there?
Or has there already been enough? Or would there never be enough?
2 comments:
The question wether or not God exists is basically very simple: Do we control everything, or doe everything control us? You cannot say that each contros himself because we DO have an effect on our surroundings. And it would be pretty outrageous remark to say that we control everything. There for someone or something is controling us, and what ever it is we can call it God.
A good friend of mine ones pointed out a good fact: "When we make love and try to have a baby, at that point we cannot even say is it going to be a boy or a girl. How can we say that WE are creating the new life?" It is is obious that we are just tools for something else (=God) to do the actual creating part.
Take care!
Pete
Thanks for dropping by.
The classic "natural theology" discussion on the existence of god focuses on the following observations:
1) There is a universe thus there is a creator. This is the cosmological argument.
2) There is complexity in the universe thus there is a designer. This is the teleological argument.
3) In every culture, there is a god concept. Since no idea can exist without some basis in reality thus there is a god. This is the ontological argument.
4) Humans have a sense of right and wrong (though we don't always do what is right) while animals only have instinct. Dennis Prager (http://www.dennisprager.com) often likes to point out that animals don't wear clothes, relieve themselves in public and have sex in public. Humans (most!) don't do this. Why? Why are humans different? This sense of modesty and right and wrong came from somewhere and point to god. This is the argument from morality.
5) Lastly, people make claims to know god. Thus, they are either, lying, crazy or telling the truth. We usually can tell when someone is lying or crazy. Once we rule that out, we have to consider what they say. This is the argument from religious experience.
Of course, people will point to weaknesses in each of the five natural theology arguments. Indeed, they aren't conclusive proofs but they are suggestive of the possibility of god.
Thank again for dropping by.
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