Telepathy and the Resurrection

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

This is Michael E. Abendroth, also known in his own mind as M .L. Abendroth. Paul, theologians, we're good. We're known by their first initial and their middle initial, although that's not true. John Calvin, Martin Luther, see?

Now, of course I know I'm not anywhere close to those guys, but here's the cool thing. I'm in the long line of theologians. I'm trying to stay within that current or that stream and not merge out of that, not emerge from that.

There you have it. Let's see what's on my mind today. Don't forget, you need to read donotbesurprised .com. My friend, Erin Binziger. I think that's how you pronounce her name. She does a great job of collating things.

You know, when Phil Johnson stopped blogging and stopped tweeting and stopped Twittering and stopped blithered, and he stopped blithering and blathering. No, we like Phil a lot. I didn't really, you know, I stopped reading Team Pyro because really it wasn't much on there.

And you know, I go to the Gospel Coalition site to read Justin Taylor because even today, for instance, the new Nesli Alland 28th edition is out with ESV on one side and Greek on the other. And I thought, you know what?

I need to order that book. That's good to know. I mean, he works for Crossway, but he promotes other books as well. And so I go to that site because I just go to that site. But then, you know, where else do you go?

What else do you read regularly? I don't think I really read anything else regularly. So every couple of days I make sure to check Do Not Be Surprised. And Erin puts together a list, I think on Fridays, a veritable cornucopia.

And actually once in a while she'll put something that No Compromise did on there. So this is, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. Hey, shouldn't we charge a fee or something like that for if on the right-hand side of DoNotBeSurprised .com, there's a little No Compromise thing there?

This is money, this is a fee. Pay for service, right? Let's see, what do we have here? You will pay for this service though. If you wanna go to Greece with us, make sure you get your $300 in and your form, your registration form in by November 30th, 2012 for our April 17th through 27th trip.

We'd love to have you go with us. Prices are out of Boston and that will be right around the corner. So basically what we're doing now is seeing who actually is gonna go. It's easy to say, oh, I'd love to go to Greece, but how many people would actually put up the money to go?

Say, well, what's gonna happen in Greece by then? Well, who knows what's gonna happen any place. So let's just plan on going, having a great time. We're going to go to Athens, Corinth. I've been to both those places.

I would love to give you the inside scoopage and the best coffee shops around besides the Areopagus, Act 17. To stand there on the Areopagus and go through Act 17 is just, I think we used to call this in Nebraska, the bomb.

Then we'll work our way up on the cruise ship, down to Crete, up to Berea, Thessalonica, Thessaloniki, Philippi, over to Patmos, Turkey, Ephesus, man, I cannot wait to go. And right now I'm planning to go with my 11-year-old daughter, Grace, and that is going to be exciting.

Speaking of exciting, I'm trying to sell to a large publisher the idea of S. Lewis Johnson and a Romans commentary. So we'll see how that works as well as a systematic theology. So there's, see, it's just exciting things going on, but everything's for a fee.

You notice that? It's all fee-based. All right, today I'd like to talk a little bit more about the resurrection. Here's how No Compromise Radio works. Yes, our slogan is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

Did you hear that, Raven? Did you hear that dirty bird out there? Dirty, a dirty Vogel. What's dirt again in German? Vogel is bird, right? What's dirty? Schmutzig. I think that's it, I think that's it.

Schmutzig Vogel. I don't know a whole lot, but that I think I do know. Schmutzig. By the way, I can't wait to get over to Germany. By the time you hear this, I'll already have been back, I think. And one of the favorite things there in Germany besides the fellowship of other Christians there in Berlin and I'll go down to Vienna and then over to Bruno in the Czech Republic.

And there's lots of things that I like, of course, and I don't mean this is at the top of the list, but in the culinary area, this is at the top of the list. I cannot wait to get myself one of these. It's in a Mason jar.

It's in a glass bottle, a jar, whatever you call those things. And there is European rhubarb yogurt, yogurt from Europe. It's always good. And this is rhubarb flavor. And it's not really too sweet, you know, and it doesn't have the strawberries in it or blackberries or raspberries.

You ruin rhubarb, rhuberries, et cetera, when you add these other fruits in it. I want just tart rhubarb. And so they have yogurt over there in the Kaise supermarket. I can't wait to get one. In your honor, to no compromise, all for one, one for all.

False Resurrection Theories: The Swoon Theory

Weird, no, but here's what happens. When I'm studying a particular passage in the book that I'm preaching through, which happens to be 1 Corinthians 15 on Sunday mornings, and then on Sunday nights when Pastor Steve is not preaching or someone else, I'm in 1 Thessalonians 1 at the moment, and I should finish verses five through 10 this Sunday.

Well, chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians, 58 verses about the resurrection. Not just a to-do list, but we have a to-believe a list here in chapter 15. Excusez-moi. Well, that means I study the resurrection a lot.

And chapter 15 is a large chapter, and there's a few spots in there where I just go, oh yes, verse three and four, we use those all the time. Motivation for ministry, verse 58, I get that. But then the section for like 35 to 49, what does that really mean?

What's the point? How do we grasp this? What's happening really in verses 21 and 22? So I've been fascinated by the resurrection of the body and of Jesus's body. Therefore, I'm studying a lot and I don't get to say everything from the pulpit that I want to say.

Some of it is I don't have enough time. Some of it is I need to be nice on Sunday mornings, contrary to the no compromise style. Once in a while when I preach on Sundays, I'll say just a little no compromise moment here for a second.

So basically, I'm studying the resurrection a lot. So I thought what we would do, I don't think I've done this before. Maybe I just did it, I don't know, but I'm getting older, so I'll attribute it to being older, is I have some theories about the resurrection that would be false, that would be wrong, and I put them together.

I think maybe Josh MacDonald, MacDowell, Josh MacDonald works for us here, no compromise. Hi, Josh. But Josh MacDowell, I think these were accumulated maybe in his book, Evidences That Demand a Verdict, or maybe it's in Geisler's book on the resurrection myth.

Does that sound right? The resurrection myth or reality, or I don't know what it's called. It's hard for me to read a lot of Geisler's stuff, especially in light of Chosen But Free and how that was written.

But anyway, we have some of these. By the way, I never come up with anything original anyway, unless it's some error, so I guess I don't need to have my plagiarism moment. Oh, denial. Sometimes I say irregardless, and I should say regardless.

So Ted, aren't you happy? Regardless, milk, et cetera. So see, I am learning. I'm 52 years old, and I'm going to try to get this language down. Our, are. See, I knew I could do it. Mama Africa. The first one is the Swoon Theory.

It's also known as the resuscitation theory, maybe the lifeguard theory. And all these theories have this in common. Besides being sinfully wrong, there is a very creative side to mankind's brain, even though fallen and even though sinful.

Mankind is creative. It doesn't take you a whole lot of living to figure out that man is creative. And I'm talking about fallen man, unregenerate man. You go to the art museums. We just went to Isabella Gardner's art museum there in Boston where those thieves stole, what did they steal?

They stole Rembrandt's Jesus Calming the Storm on the Sea of Galilee. And all you see there is a frame and it says Rembrandt. Stolen, I think in 1990. And so what's this have to do with anything? I have no idea what this has to do with anything.

Creative minds, you go to the art gallery, creative. You turn on the radio, creative. You listen to a jazz station, creative. You listen to Miles Davis, creative. So here the swoon theory or the recitation theory basically says this, that Jesus died.

No, maybe not. Jesus didn't really die. It was, he swooned, right? So when the Beatles get off the plane in 1964 and come to America, that everybody was swooning. Jesus just swooned, not in that particular way.

And he was revived or resuscitated. So Jesus nailed to the cross, pain, shock, loss of blood, brutal beating his face, a lot of stuff. And he basically fainted because of pain and exhaustion and the way he was treated.

And maybe the sinful view here is he was in a coma and Strauss was the first to put this forward. Some Muslims called Madia think this way. And Jesus is laid in the tomb. Remember he's still alive according to this view.

And they put him in the tomb and you know what the tomb is? Cool, there's some spices for anointing of his body. And he got up right on his own and he got up. Well, this is going to cause a problem for the Christian.

A, it's going to make Jesus, what? A liar, it's gonna have to force the issue and here this person, the centurions know when a person was dead and when they weren't. And now I guess this is going to be a little mini miracle.

So in this case, instead of being raised from the dead, it's basically on your deathbed and then you make yourself get up. You make yourself push the stone away, fight off the guards and then show up to the disciples all better.

Your boo-boo's all better now? No, Jesus has received this beating and he has received the spear in his side. When you're on the cross, you can just imagine no food and no water for several days, no medicine, right?

The tomb's dark. He's gonna walk seven miles in that body to Emmaus. No, you're gonna need some recuperative power and time to do that. Now you say, well, it's Jesus so he could have recuperative power but you're going to need the time.

What about the witnesses? What about the women? Matthew 28, he is not here for he has risen just as he said, come see the place where he was lying. And he said to them, do not be amazed for you're looking for Jesus the Nazarene who has been crucified.

He has risen, he is not here. Behold, this is the place where they laid him. Oh, he's resuscitated. They didn't say that. He didn't say that at all. What about the linens? What about the linen wrappings lying undisturbed?

That's quite the miracle, quite the amazing Kreskin type of Houdini thing to wriggle out of those wrappings that were tightly bound around the body with all sorts of sticky wrappings around them to hold it on gummy consistency, as one commentary said.

And how do you get this gluey, cementy, sticky stuff away from your body and fold it up real nicely? Jesus actually died. John 19 says, the soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man and the other man who was crucified with him.

But coming to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. They did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately there came out blood and water. These professional guards knew he was dead.

Actually, when you think of Mark chapter 15 later regarding the dead body, they granted the body to Joseph. Everywhere you look, Jesus died. This theory is not very popular anymore. Theory two, Mike Abendroth, no compromise radio, false theories of the resurrection.

False Resurrection Theories: The Hallucination Theory

This is called the hallucination theory. This is an amazing one. And just because the person's French, it doesn't mean they came up with it. But Ernest Renan said that Mary Magdalene, remember according to him, she was the one possessed by seven demons and she was just imagining things.

You know what it was? It was like, what's that movie about? The Island, Shutter Island. Yeah, something like that. It was an M. Shyamalan night deal. I don't think that was, but it seemed like it. French scholar who said, she just made it up.

It was a hallucination. She wanted to see Jesus's raised body so badly. She just made it up. Jay Gresham Machin said, it means that if there had been a good neurologist for Peter and the others to consult, there never would have been a Christian church.

Don't you love Machin? Professor Wilbur Smith said, an apparent act of vision takes place for which there is no corresponding external object. In a hallucination, the optic nerve has not been stimulated by any outward waves of light or vibrations of the ether, but has been excited by a purely inner physiological cause.

So isn't it pretty amazing that there is a mass hallucination? 500 people are more at one time, 1 Corinthians 15. He appeared to 500 brethren at one time. More than 500. That's pretty good. That's pretty good work there.

Mass simultaneous hallucinations. Doctors say that certain kind of people have hallucinations and there were too many different types of people in those 500 per se over the more than 500. You need to have a select group of people along the paranoid schizophrenic type, according to this doctor, to have hallucinations.

And so you mean to tell me all 500 had those same things? No, that's not true. Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, we have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of his nails, of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again, his disciples were inside and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here your finger and see my hands and reach here your hand and put it into my side and not be believing, unbelieving, but believing.

Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believe. So, and I have another question that some of the commentators ask.

Why did all these hallucinations stop after the ascension? That'd be a good question. What would that mean? Number three, all right, let me have a drink of my Keurig coffee. I don't really like Keurig too much.

And, but this is Starbucks, little Keurig deal. When we were in Boston the other day for a master seminary banquet, it was interesting. I got my Around Me app and clicked on it and then said, where's the Pete's Coffee?

We walked 0 .38 of a mile to Pete's Coffee, downtown Boston. And it was closed, just Starbucks in every corner, Dunkin' Donuts on every other corner. And it was closed, 0 .38 of a mile. So we had a $4 cupcake anyway.

False Resurrection Theories: The Impersonation Theory

The third false resurrection theory. We believe in a bodily resurrection, literal body, literal resurrection. Jesus died and he was buried. And on the third day he raised from the dead and then he appeared to many and he ascended in heaven.

This is called the impersonation theory. I kind of like this because when I was a kid growing up, I loved to watch Johnny Carson. And my favorite person on Johnny Carson or on Ed Sullivan would be a person who would do impersonations.

Now I can't remember those people that did impersonations back in the old days. Probably if you're younger, you remember Robin Williams doing impersonations, Jimmy Fallon doing impersonations. Some people are very excellent at impersonating.

I'm trying to remember the guy who was really popular. He played, oh, well, I can't remember. So anyway, here we have somebody impersonating Jesus. Not just kind of throwing your voice a little bit, but this is an actor.

This is someone who is a stand-in. And so no wonder they didn't recognize Jesus from the beginning. Oh yeah, because it's just all a fake deal. It's a Jesus, you know, dies, but he's not raised from the dead.

You get somebody that looked kind of like him and he goes around and acts like Jesus. Well, how do you refute such a thing? You know, the disciples wanted real proof. And what about the Thomas thing that I just read?

If he was fake, why would Jesus sometimes make himself unrecognized? Luke 24, but their eyes were restricted that they should not recognize him. If you're an imposter, you don't do that. You don't do that at all.

Who is going to impersonate God? Well, let's see, I'll just kind of make the breakfast there. I'll create fish out of nowhere. I'll come and go, walk through walls, walk through doors, you know, reroute all the fish in the Sea of Galilee.

And he's an imposter. Number four, these are false resurrection theories on No Compromise Radio. The spiritual resurrection theory. Theodore Kime was the one who would hold this, the big name that would hold this.

It wasn't a real resurrection, basically. Christ's body was in the grave, but he spiritually was raised. Yes, it's a spiritual resurrection. Well, you can read William Craig's book entitled Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection, A Response to the Empty Tomb, and find this on page eight.

We need to see clearly that there can be positive theological implications of the resurrection only insofar as its historical reality is affirmed. While many theologians may find such a conviction hopelessly antiquated, the man in the street knows better.

His common sense tells him that there is no reason why a dead man should be decisive for his existence today. And I agree with him. Once doctrinal teachings are detached from their historical realities, we have entered the arena of myth.

And there is simply no good reason to prefer Christian myths over other myths, or for that matter, secular philosophies. The resurrection is only real for our lives today if it is a real event of history.

So, what happened? You've got a body that was touched and handled by the disciples. Jesus ate with the disciples. Have you anything here to eat, Luke 24? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them.

Jesus came, and John 21 took the bread and gave them, and the fish likewise, and here is a real body. How does a spirit pick up bread and hand it to someone? What a farce this would be. What a deception.

Now, the theory is number five, the theft theory. The disciples steal the body. And run off with it, and then say a bunch of lies. Remember? And they said, you are to say his disciples came by night and stole away while we slept.

This is actually what the elders counseled the soldiers to say via a bunch of cash. Matthew doesn't even take time to refute this in Matthew chapter 28. It's such a bogus thing. Simon Greenleaf, Harvard law professor, said they would not have taken the trouble thus to fold them together regarding the linen wrappings that was rolled up all nice and neat.

Okay, let's see. Oh, there's more to be said about that. The unknown, unknown, unknown. The roaming gnome, the unknown tomb theory. They went to the wrong tomb, and it was empty. Huh. That's a new one.

The telepath theory. God sends mental images into the minds of Christ followers. That kind of goes against Titus chapter one, verse two, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ago. There's a seance theory, number eight.

See how fast we have to go. A medium conjured up the spirit of dead Jesus through occult power. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's on the 4 .30 show or the Saturday Seventh-day Adventist show, but that's not on this particular show.

I don't know how you touch a spirit. So every one of these theories does not adequately deal with the real resurrection of Jesus. The real resurrection of Jesus was with his body, and it is a body that was physical.

Well, yes, afterwards it was a glorified body, but it was still his body. What do I want to say here in the time we have left? Well, my name's Mike Avendroth. It's No Compromise Radio Ministry. If you have an email and you have a question, you want to be nice about it, or if I want to talk slang, you want to be cool about it, go ahead and write me.

If you want to be jerky, I guess you could write me as well. I got a letter the other day from a Roman Catholic who was very kind and nice, and I thought, how good is that? Just kind and nice, and we can do that.

He thinks I'm wrong. I think he's wrong. We can just talk about it in a nice manner. And since this is my show, I get to talk about what I want. Hey, there you go. So, Mike Avendroth, No Compromise Radio.

You can go to info at nocompromiseradio .com. You could also go to bbchurch .org. Don't forget, we have those Institute of Biblical Studies classes, especially the latest one. Pastor Steve, Tuesday guy, talked about the difference between Geisler's book and White's book on the sovereignty of God and human responsibility.

I think you need that book. Mike Avendroth, info at nocompromiseradio .com. Don't forget, do not be surprised.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.