Newspaper Page Text
2
The Nelv 'Religion hs. the Resurrection of the Dead
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len C Rrought on, D. D.
Stenographieally reported for The Golden Age. — Copyright applied for.
Sixth of a series of sermons deal ng Ivith different
phases of teaching of the Nek> Religion.
Text, 2 Cor. 4:14: “Knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you.”
OR several weeks we have been consider
ing the New Theology and its relation
to the doctrines of grace. We have com
passed various phases of this subject
and now we come to close this series
with some suggestions of the New The
ology and the question of the resurrec
tion. Our question, putting it plainly is
this: Is this body to be raised from the
■■ ' ll
dead and to live again? Ihe new religionist, the peo
ple advocating a new theology for the world as a
substitute for the one that we have are very ready
to declare tneir disbelief in the doctrine of the resur
rection. They declare against the doctrine of the
resurrection, first, because they say that it is unsci
entific. Great scientists these fellows are. They
declare against the doctrine of the resurrection be
cause they say since it is unscientific it is therefore
unreasonable. They do not stop to consider the fact
that the God who is the Author of the generation of
the body, can as easily be the Author of the resurrec
tion. They forget that there is any mystery at all or
anything at all unreasonable about the first genera
tion, about a man’s natural birth, when, as a matter
of fact the greatest mystery that ever engaged the
attention of mortal man is his birth and there are
not enough scientists in all the round universe of
God to offer any satisfactory and reasonable expla
nation of the generation of life, and yet these same
men are the men who come to us asking that we
throw overboard our long cherished faith in the
doctrine of the resurrection of the body because, for
sooth, it is unscientific and therefore unreasonable.
Let them explain the generation of life; let them
reason it out, and then we will listen to them.
DID HE ARISE FROM THE DEAD?
And then they argue that since it is unscientific
and unreasonable that it is therefore unnecessary
and that God is not engaged in doing unnecessary
work —that the resurrection of the body is not nec
essary to the finishing up of the scheme of redemp
tion. Now, what I want us to see is the fact concern
ing the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Our
text declares Paul’s position with respect to this
question. Say what we please about other things
that Paul may have been in doubt about, he was not
in doubt about the resurrection, for he commits him
self without qualification to the fact of the resurrec
tion and he basis the resurrection of the body upon
the resurrection of Jesus. And to get rid of this ar
gument these same new' religion people come to us
saying that Jesus never arose from the dead. This
is a position which they have recently taken. Up
until very recently they had never assumed to doubt
the resurrection of Jesus. They had doubted the
resurrection of the body for the believer, but there
had not been any open questioning concerning the
resurrection of Jesus, but now' they are perfectly wil
ling, open and above-board in their declaration of
unbelief in the resurrection of Jesus. They say that
the resurrection of Jesus was unscientific, unreason
able, not necessary and therefore not true.
When these men are confronted wfith the testimony
of Jesus concerning His resurrection, here is the way
they get out of it: Some of them say that Jesus never
taught that he arose from the dead, and they try to
give His words a different meaning. Some of them
say, if He did teach it, He did not mean it; that it
was figurative; and some, say it was because of ig
norance; that He shared with other people the lim
itation of the knowledge at that time. I think one of
the most infernal things I have ever heard in ray
life is an attack recently made from a Baptist Univer
sity and made by a Baptist preacher. 1 refer to a
book recently written by Professor Foster, of Chi
cago University, in which he sets forth this, that
Jeenf never taught that he arete from the dead; that
Ttje OHelden Age fer deoemser £, itOi
which we find in the gospels is an interpolation. In
other words, it is something injected into the Scrip
tures by some superstitious ignoramus and therefore
it has no place or part in the Holy Scriptures; that
Jesus never arose from the dead, and no man else
ever arose from the dead, or will ever arise from the
dead. That is the teaching. Then when these same
men are confronted with the direct testimony of the
disciples concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
they get out of it by this method of argument, that
the disciples themselves wore ignorant men and that
they taught this because it was the superstition at
the time; it was a kind of mental illusion, the same
kind that people have when they fancy they see
ghosts. They fancied that they saw Jesus and fan
cied it so strongly that they put it down in a com
munication and have given it forth as Bible, when
it has no place in the Bible. They argue again that
these disciples found themselves in a hole; that they
had taught that Jesus was God; that Jesus Himself
taught that He was God, and God could not die or
pass away as man, and therefore, to' get out of a
predicament, when Jesus died they set up this doc
trine of the resurrection of His body. My brethren,
I want you to think of the extent to which this teach
ing has carried many men, and of the danger that
confronts us today as a Christian church when in
our pulpits and in our theological seminaries col
leges and universities, men are not only giving forth
this kind of teaching, but putting it down in books
which are circulated about over the world by the
thousands, destroying the faith of the Christian
church in the whole integrity of the Scriptures. What
are the facts? What of the teaching?
“I AM.”
What are the teachings first of all of Jesus con
cerning His resurrection? If we come and take a sur
vey of the teaching of Jesus, there is one expression
that is bound to force itself into the thought of every
thinking man and that is the expression so frequently
used by Jesus, “I am.” It occurs over and over and
over again in the four gospels. Let me give some of
them: “I am from above”; “I am not of this w'orld”;
“I am the bread of life”; “I am the light of the
■world”; ‘T am the door”; “I am the good shepherd”;
“I am the w r ay”; “I am the truth”; “I am the resur
rection and the life”; “Before Abraham was, I am.”
Now that is what Jesus said about Himself. Could
any man have said that and not have been God?
That “I am” speaks of eternity; that “I am” speaks of
His existence in the past, “Before Abraham was. I
am”; “I am from above”; in the present, “I am the
bread of life; the light of the world,” etc. The fu
ture, “I am the resurrection.” Could any man have
said that and not have been God and told the truth?
Either the man wno says this is God, or He is the
biggest liar that ever walked the face of the earth.
If Jesus did not arise from the dead, then the Bible
is false. Over one hundred times in the Scriptures
is tne fact set forth that Jesus arose from the dead;
if Jesus did not arise from the dead the Bible itself
is the bundling together of a lot of spurious super
stitions and ought to be destroyed. If Jesus did not
arise from the dead he is not God, for He said He
did and a God can not lie. It is an unthinkable
thought, that a God could lie. If Jesus did not arise
from the dead, He was not a prophet, for He said
before His death, “Destroy this body and I will raise
it up again in three days.” Again, if Jesus did not
rise from the dead, there is no truth in the holy men
and women who made the New Testament. The
first persons that ever saw Jesus after his resurrec
tion were women. Mary went to the sepulchre on
that first day of the week to weep about the grave of
her Lord. Jesus himself appeared to her. She did not
recognize Him at first because her eyes were holden
so that she could not recognize 1 Him. But gradually
He broke through the veil far enough to speak, and
she recognizes His voice as the voice of her Lord;
and He said, “Go tell my disciples and Peter that I
have risen from the dead.” Did Jesus lie? Did Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary lie? Are we prepared
to say that? Why should we say that? The next time
Jesus appeared It was to the disciples on the way
te Emwaaus. As they were walking along, Jesus in
their midst was talking to them by the way. When
He revealed Himself to them they recognized His
person, His voice, His tone; they were perfectly rec
ognizable. The next time he appeared was there
in the upper room when they had gatherd together
to worship and to recount their experiences and talk
over the past; there in that upper room Jesus in
bodily form appeared and talked with them. At any
rate, Thomas was not with them when Jesus came
and he missed the first appearing of Jesus in that
room, and Jesus, cognizant of the fact that Thomas
was not there, and he wanted to see him, so He
sent for him. I am so glad that Jesus sent for
Thomas. It shows that our Lord is far more con
«
cerned about us than we are about Him, and when
Thomas came, Jesus exhibited to him His hands with
the nail prints in them, His side, with the spear
wound, His feet where the spikes went through, and
His fore-head where the thorns pricaed. And Thomas
didn’t doubt any more when he saw that, for he knew
there was no other man that bore those scars.
The next appearing of Jesus was at the Sea of
Tiberious, where He was preparing a meal for the
disciples who were out on the sea. The next appear
ing is when he was beheld of five hundred. The
next appearing is upon Olivet beautiful Olivet, where
when the disciples were gathered about Him for that
last conversation, Jesus suddenly began to ascend
and w r ent through the clouds into space, back to
heaven. Once more he appeared. This time it was
to arrest Saul of Tarsus, the politician, and change
him to Paul, the humble apostle.
Now is it reasonable, I ask, that all these men
were liars? If they were, then where is any Bible?
They make the Bible. The New Testament is the
product of these men. If they were falsifiers with
reference to this great central truth, where is any
Bible?
NO HOPE OF SALVATION.
Again, let me say, that if Jesus did not rise from
the dead, there is no salvation. The Apostle Paul
in that scripture lesson declares “If there be no
resurrection from the dead, then is your faith vain,
and ye are yet in your sins.” This great fact is
set forth in the ordinances of the Church. There
are two Christian ordinances. First, there is the
ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, which typifies the
broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. But the
broken body and the shed blood of Jesus is only
half of the plan of redemption. Jesus on the cross
never could have saved the world. It took Jesus from
the cross through the grave back to His Father’s
presence to save the sinner. So the ordinance of
the Lord’s supper typifies the first fact of the plan
of redemption, which is the broken body and the
shed blood of Jesus, but, mark you the ordinance of
the Lord’s Supper, leaves our Lord hanging upon the
cross, and if our Lord had been left hanging on the
cross, this world would never have been saved, or
else Paul’s teaching in the Corinthian letters is
absolutely false. The ordinance is the ordinance of
the Baptism, typifying the burial and resurrection of
Jesus. It typifies the other half of the plan of sal
vation. It takes Jesus from the cross through the
grave, back to life, and so, my brethren, every
time we come together in communion, and every
time the Baptism is administered there is the set
ting forth through these two ordinances in type the
complete plan of the world’s redemption in the shed
blood of Jesus and in His resurrection from the dead.
And if Jesus never arose from the dead, then there
is no salvation.
Let me submit another thing. If Jesus never arose
from the dead, there is no authority for the great
work of missions. Where do we find the great com
mission falling from the lips of Jesus prior to His
resurrection? The great commission set forth in
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is after the resur
rection, and if Jesus never arose from the dead, then
the great commission that has fired the Church in this
last century and that today is sounding salvation all
over the round world, is something with which we
have nothing to do, for, if Christ never arose from
the dead, then these word® that fell from His lips
(Continued oi Page I.)
