Theologian Erich Sauer has written:  “The present age is Easter time.  It begins with the resurrection of the Redeemer and ends with the resurrection of the redeemed.  Between lies the spiritual resurrection of those called into life through Christ.  So we live between two Easters, and in the power of the first Easter we go to meet the last Easter.”  The last Easter to which Sauer refers is, of course, the bodily resurrection of the saved.  Scripture speaks of that resurrection of the righteous in several places calling it the first resurrection.  The second is the resurrection of the unrighteous (John 5:29).  It is of the first resurrection that Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 15. 

The apostle has reminded the Corinthians that they already believed in Christ’s resurrection (15:1-11) and that logically they must also believe in their own resurrection and that of all saints, mentioning several disastrous and absurd consequences that would result if they were not raised.

Paul makes it clear that without the resurrection, Christianity is a farce.  In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 he plainly states that if Christ is not raised from the dead then our sins are not forgiven, there is no faith and if our hope is in this life only, we are those who are to be pitied.

In light of all that the Bible has to say about the necessity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Christian faith (Romans 10:9), it always amazes me that there are people who deny the resurrection but still claim to be Christians.  This article by Dr Albert Mohler tells of one such testimony.

The story is told of Harold Fortescue, a budding newspaper reporter, who was sent to cover a local social function.  It was his first assignment.  He expanded himself and submitted to his editor two dozen pages of typewritten oratory.  The editor did not even glance at it, but handed it right back with the words, “Cut it in half.” Crestfallen, Fortescue complied.  Again the editor handed it back with the dry comment, “Cut it in half again.” Grumbling under his breath the youthful reporter did as he was told.  When he handed in the finished article the editor handed it back once more.  “Now reduce it to a single page,” he said.  The horrified reporter ventured a protest.  His boss cut him off.  “Young man,” he said, “you have evidently overlooked the fact that when the Creator of the universe gives His account of Creation He does so in ten words: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”‘  

The first chapter of Genesis is one of the most God-centered chapters in the Bible.  God is mentioned by name thirty-two times in thirty-one verses.  Add to that the use of personal pronouns, and He is mentioned no less than forty-three times. 

Thus, on the very first page of Scripture the Holy Spirit brings us into the presence of God and keeps us there.  No wonder Satan hates this chapter! No wonder he has brought up his heavy artillery to discredit it in the minds of men.  Abandon Genesis 1-as unfactual and unreliable, as mere mythology, as a doctored-up copy of the Babylonian creation epic, as totally unacceptable to modern science-and Satan has won. 

If the Holy Spirit cannot be trusted when He tells of creation, how can He be trusted when He tells of salvation? If what He says about earth in Genesis 1 can be questioned, then what He says about heaven in Revelation 22 can be questioned.  If the Holy Spirit cannot be trusted in Genesis 1, how can He be trusted in John 3:16?

Someone has wisely said, “if you can believe one verse in the Bible you can believe it all” that verse is Genesis 1:1.  In our day scientific achievements like the Hubble telescope are allowing us to see like never before the awesome grandeur of our universe and reinforce for us the truth of Genesis 1:1 and Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” (ESV).

Strange things can happen in church as evidenced by the video below.

One of the great failings of the 21st century church is the failure to clearly proclaim the gospel.  Many churches and believers instead proclaim moralism and think it is the gospel.  This mistake is quite common in Southern Baptist churches and can be difficult for the average Christian to discern. 

Dr Albert Mohler has an excellent explanation of the difference between the gospel and moralism here.

I read an interesting article in the blogsphere today which asked the question:  Do all religions lead to God?  Really that is somewhat of a trick question.  The writer said that the answer is actually yes, all religions will take you to God.

Listen to the words of John 14:6 where Jesus said: “I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Other religions will bring you to God.  Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam-they all eventually bring you to God.  Mormonism, Christian Science, paganism, animism, and Roman Catholicism will bring you to God. 

Every practitioner of every religion created by man and/or demon will, by that religion, be brought to God.  But note carefully: none of those religions will bring us to God as Father!  They will bring man to God as Judge. 

They will bring men to stand before the Great White Throne Judgment clothed in the filthy rags of his own righteousness (Isaiah 64:6), without excuse, hopeless, guilty and damned eternally (Matthew 12:36; Acts 17:31; Romans 1:20, 32; 2:16; Revelation 20:11-15), falling continually and infinitely short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

The only way to God as Father is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  Regenerated by His sovereign grace and declared righteous on the basis of His finished work on the cross.

All religions lead to God for damning judgment.  Only through Christ can we come to God as Father.

One of the best songs written in the last 50 years (this is my opinion of course, but I’m the one expressing the opinions today)!

Several times in the past months I have written about the tendency among evangelicals in America today to shun orthodoxy in favor of pluralism. 

Pluralism denies the exclusivity of the gospel and says that all religions are basically the same and all roads lead to heaven.

Dr Albert Mohler, the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky and one of the leading theologians in evangelical life today has written on this subject here.

What is to be the focus of a pastor’s preaching in our day?  Should a pastor speak on contemporary issues and topics in the news?  Can a pastor be relevant if he does not preach on sociological and pop culture issues? 

These are questions that all pastors must answer and questions that church members must wrestle with as well, as they seek men to fill their pulpits and stand before them week after week.

Dr John Piper, one of the leading pastors of our times speaks to this crucial issue in this video.  His viewpoint might surprise you.

There is a widespread belief among some in the church that evangelism is simply a matter of “good sales technique.”  This philosophy teaches that if you take the same methods used to sell cars then you can persuade people to “buy the gospel.”  They will believe your sales pitch, make a profession of faith, be baptized and live happily ever after. 

Several years ago I read an article by one of the most successful mega-church pastors in America.  In the article he stated that his family had been selling produce for years and he simply took the methods they had used to sell tomatoes and began selling the gospel.  Using this method he built the largest church in North America, though now he has admitted that it did not work quite as well as he first thought. 

The problem with this approach is that it is simply not Biblical.  Evangelism is not the job of a salesman who persuades people to believe in Christ.  Evangelism is nothing less than the raising of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph.  2:1). 

In Luke 7:7-11 we find the story of Jesus raising a man from the dead.  It is interesting that every time Jesus raised someone from the dead He did it the same way, by the power of His word.  He spoke to the corpses and they came from the dead. 

Since the miracles of Jesus are also signs to us (according to the apostle John) we can conclude that what is required to bring people to life who are spiritually dead is not clever sales techniques, or marketing prowess but the life giving word of God found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

It is our task as Christians to proclaim the gospel, it is God’s task to raise sinners to life by the power of that word which we proclaim.

Much of the confusion that exists in the church today is because of competing agendas about what constitutes real growth.

One of the most influential persons in the church growth movement in the middle of the 20^th century was a man by the name of Arthur Flake.  His books were required reading in theological seminaries for years and he had a profound impact on Southern Baptists.  One of Flake’s principles for growing a church’s Sunday School could be summarized in the words “build it and they will come.”

Flake assumed that Sunday School would always be the primary means of outreach for churches.  For decades, he was right, especially in the post-World War II baby boom years.  In growing suburbs across America, virtually all you had to do was build a church building, throw open the doors, and find yourself in need of even more space very shortly.  Whole generations of pastors and educators were trained in that paradigm of church growth.

Someone has pointed out that Flake’s formula failed to take two major factors into consideration. For one, a day was coming in the post-modern world where, in many places, Sunday School would cease to be the most effective way of reaching people.  The major flaw in Flake’s paradigm was that church growth was too narrowly defined by how many people you could get into the church building on Sunday morning, a standard most Baptist churches still use to define the success of their professional leadership.

Another factor overlooked by Flake’s formula was the natural tendency of church people to become territorial.  After a few weeks in the same room, that room becomes the exclusive domain of the people who meet there for one hour a week.  The result was the billions of square feet at a cost of uncountable billions of dollars have been built since WWII that sits empty for seven days a week, except for one hour on Sunday.

This way of thinking also overlooks the fact that numbers of people have very little if anything to do with whether one is doing the will of God.  Frequently, in the Bible, the majority is wrong.  If ones agenda is simply to fill a building then it matters very little how you go about doing it.  That explains some of the ridiculous and carnal methods that are employed in the church today.