The 21st century has become a turning point for many civilizations in the galaxy. New thinking is being actively formed. It is associated with bringing home the light of distant truths. The beginning of the 21st century is a time of great discoveries. They turned the idea of Everyone heard about the journey of star pilots to the center of our galaxy - Astaron. Readers of the novel "Diamond of Hell" also know a lot about Carte Blanche, one of the planets of the Amber Necklace. There have been fights between good and evil for many centuries. And until the parties agree on who will be evil and who will be good, the war will not end. At least that's what directors of plays and musicals think. We will continue the theme of the life and death of Jesus Christ. There are unknown moments in the scenario of life….I read from sources that the spiritual essence of Jesus lived here, on Carte Blanche, before appearing on Earth….Many peoples died on this planet. But all the details below...
This new entry has come to my heart, inspired by the comments and feedback from my readers.
*** The feeling of love is a special kind of energy. Divine love is the most powerful and complete manifestation of love. This love was possessed by Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born on Earth, there was a supernova explosion in Heaven at that moment. New energy was sent to the Earth. This energy was taken over by the newborn soul. She accepted, passed through herself its powerful radiation and then gently spread it to people.
*** The spread of the new energy has been going on since the moment of the birth of Jesus Christ and was stretched out in time. This process was different. Usually the energy from the stars will propagate directly - this is a rough distribution of energy. And through a person, cosmic energy is transformed gently, both on the earth itself and on other people. Yes, you guessed it, the energy from the supernova explosion was taken in by a single soul, a single entity. This is one of the mysteries of the Universe, but God is in no hurry to reveal it to people. At least at this stage of human development.
*** The execution for Christ was invented by the Higher powers on the cross not by chance. There are no accidents at all. Randomness was invented by limited people. Being free is scary. Terribly interesting. You can also die. For those who know, death is not terrible. And the rest came up with and created limitations for themselves. They created a shell in which they hid from space. Until people in this shell they know that the cosmos is densely populated with Life.
*** This execution, according to the directors, should be the most impressive for that time. Coincidence or not, but on the day of the execution of Christ there was another Christ, who was also to be executed. But he was a criminal, and therefore the curator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, postponed the second execution. The scenario of the life of Jesus Christ did not end with his death. Do you understand why?
***People must remember this execution for the next 2,000 years. In addition, the cross has a deep physical background - it was introduced into the script as an antenna. She became her in the daily life of Christians. Every Christian wears a cross around his neck. It doesn't hang by accident. The heavenly system decided to collect people's spiritual energy in this way. Using an antenna to transmit it into space.
*** In order for people to wear such a cosmic antenna, it was decided to prepare Christ for martyrdom on the cross. Man loved Christ as his Savior and loved the cross on which Jesus was crucified. And thus, a person worships the cross for many centuries and transmits pure spiritual energy into space. The cross appeared in every family, turning into a small emitter of pure energy. The cross has become a symbol of faith.
***Cosmos collects the purest energy of people, giving people its Divine energy. Thus, with the help of the exchange of energies, the development of man as a future cosmic force takes place. When a person fully realizes his cosmic destiny, realizes himself, from the inside, then the goal of the Higher powers will be achieved. The Universe is developing and the intelligent Force, the Creator of the Existing, needs to replenish its resources. And the soul, passing through the human stage of development, must in its development grow to such a cosmic level. And for this you need to strive to reach for Heaven, as Ramon Aden says. When the energy produced by a person, or rather his soul, grows to the minimum that will open the door to space for the soul. In the upper layers of space. Where the offices of the Heavenly Chancellery are located.
***After Christ died on the cross, he rose again. That's what religion says. In those distant times, it was religion that was the force that changed the morality of society. So how did Christ rise? Star pilots say a little more about this. They bring us new knowledge from outer space. After the resurrection He was in the astral body. And the physical body was decomposed into atoms. This was done on purpose so that there were no cults. Cults appear because of the limitations of people.
*** In the astral body of Christ there was so much pure energy that it shone and was visible even to the naked eye. I must say that some people, as a result of a pious life, gain so much energy that it is visible in the visible spectrum of radiation as light. And even death does not change anything, since this energy is gained not by the physical, but by the astral body of a person.
*** After death on the cross, the soul of Christ went to Heaven. Part of the script was completed, but the director has not yet reached the climax. It remained to fulfill the most important thing - to show the world a miracle. The miracle of resurrection. The miracle of the resurrection of the body of Christ. The physical body was already decomposed into atoms so that enemies would not abuse it or it would not become a cult for Christians. But His physical body was and is not needed in the future. Does the reader understand why?
***Before Christ, not a single soul returned to Earth after death. Usually the soul returns to Earth after 9 months, through the birth of a new person. But this is normal, but here was a different case. Higher powers couldn't wait 9 months. All work had to be done within a few hours. Therefore, powerful resources of subtle forces were involved.
*** First, the soul must appear in a visible shell. People need to see it. The protective shell for the soul had already been prepared in advance. Even three days was not enough for such a difficult job. For three days, the soul of Christ must learn to control this astral shell. And she studied hard and continuously. As a diver puts on a heavy lead suit, as an astronaut learns to control his suit in a simulator. Something like this. It is even difficult for us to imagine the amount of painstaking work until the soul learns to live in a new body. Let it be thin.
Rammon Aden: Now it becomes clear why as many as 9 months are given for the birth of a new person. In animals, the gestation period is much shorter, everything is simpler there. And for celestial bodies, such as the Earth or some Star, these periods stretch to thousands and millions of years. But the processes of birth and death are the same for everyone, that of the Star, that of cats. In outline.
*** A child masters a new body for three years, but Christ was given three days. But he did the job too. The peculiarity and difficulty of this part of the task was that a very powerful energy was concentrated in a light, almost transparent shell. After all, she must make this air shell visible. And keep a light soul in the dense matter of the globe. even contact with air could kill the soul, not to mention dense objects from the physical world.
***How to lower the light soul of Christ into the depths of the air mass, closer to the Earth? It was an almost impossible task. Everyone knows that even water pushes bodies out of itself. The same thing happened in the air. After all, the more spiritual the soul, the more pure energies it has gained, the easier it is. It is much easier to lower a balloon a kilometer deep in the ocean than to lower the soul of Christ from Heaven to the surface of the Earth. This task was solved thanks to the special design of the protective shell in which the soul stayed on Earth, performing this stage of the mission.
What happened next? Oh, the most interesting is ahead.
***After 40 days of being on Earth, Christ disappeared again, and this time for good. His soul in a thin protective shell ascended to Heaven. More precisely, in several shells, which she dumped as she climbed up, since the pressure difference contributed to this. It's like a submarine floats up from a depth and sheds ballast as it rises. So the souls of people, after leaving the dense physical body, rising up, throw off unnecessary ballast, starting with the most rough and heavy.
*** The shells that the soul of Christ threw off remained in the atmosphere of the Earth. More precisely, in that layer of it, which the great Russian scientist Vernadsky called the noosphere. This is the information layer of the Earth. These shells contain certain information about the life of Christ.
*** The Soul of Christ ascended to Heaven, throwing off its shells. At the same time, there was no usual purification that all the souls of dead people go through. I have already described this process in detail in the entry “Death. And then what? Life goes on. For the soul of Christ, purification was not required, it did not accumulate negative karma and did not commit sins. Through its suffering, the soul has already been so cleansed of low energies that it shone like the sun. Not a single speck on the surface or inside.
*** One must understand that the process of suffering is universal. No matter how high the soul rises in spiritual development, it will still pass through it. But for souls that have passed the human stage of development, there are other ways of cleaning from dirt. This is a separate story.
***Here it must be said that before being born on Earth, the soul of Jesus Christ "earned" a certain karma. Nobody canceled the law of karma. Star pilots, having explored a large part of the galaxy, argue that the law of cause and effect is always valid. And as a consequence of this universal law, an axiom follows: there are no accidents. If Christ came to Earth, then there must be a reason for that. And the appearance on Earth is already a consequence.
***Jesus Christ appeared on Earth with a specific mission to work off his karma. The mission was completed, the karmic burden disappeared. What is the reason, what actions did such a highly developed essence perform in the past, if it accumulated karma?
*** He used to be a ruler and by His mistake peoples perished on one separate planet. If the third world war had taken place on Earth and the peoples had perished, then the ruler of the planet Earth would also have accumulated negative karma. The heavenly team on Earth is doing everything possible to prevent a war. But people should not rely only on this circumstance. They need to decide their own fate. Look back and look at your planet, and what it was like a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years ago. Was it more comfortable to live there? What was the atmosphere, nature, fauna and flora like before. And draw certain conclusions. And try to work together to make a difference. Return purity to the planet. So that the fate of the steward does not hang by a thread from laxity and indifference, indifference, vices of people.
***He made a mistake and the mistake cost many living beings dearly. And the karma of Christ was that if He destroyed living beings on one planet, then on another planet He must save civilization from the wrong path. For this, the 10 commandments were given to the peoples as a direction to the Truth, to the light, to freedom.
***Again, the law of cause and effect explains His mission and the nature of His death. Martyrdom atoned for His past sins and gave hope and faith to the people of the Earth.
*** By death on the cross, the Higher powers combined two meanings: religion and redemption of His karma.
*** After Christ ascended to Heaven, His mission was largely accomplished. His soul practically did not accumulate new karma, in general, everything was done almost perfectly. "Practically" allows minor deviations from the program, here I want to clarify right away. Not a single person died, and the fate of the Earth's civilization has changed and this is the main thing.
*** In addition to Christ, the mission of creating a new religion was also carried out by His apostles. The spread of the new faith went like this: from Christ to the apostles, from them to their groups. And from the groups, new information reached ordinary people.
***Currently the spiritual essence of Christ is sent to another planet. She is the Ruler of this planet and is engaged in the development (development, as the Higher powers say) of a new civilization. In this process, the Christ Soul continues to evolve.
Rammon Aden: I would like to think that He will not make such a mistake again.
But what about us? Earthlings? Save the Earth?
This record is over. The blessed time for morning prayers has arrived. 6 a.m. I congratulate all my readers on the new day and God bless you! Good luck and bright thoughts!
Pro: TokiAden
I keep chronicles of the inhabitants of the worlds of our galaxy on the author's blog Polygon Fantasy. The author's blog was opened in 2013. And in 2014, he opened the esoteric website Edges of Reality. Because my home, my homeland is the whole galaxy. How the subtle worlds are arranged. How the laws of the universe work. What is spirituality, the Creator, the meaning of Existing... Sharing with the reader his spiritual experience and knowledge about the world. These are my goals.
The Orthodox Jews of Jerusalem were implacable in their hostility to the teachings of Christ. Does this mean that Jesus was not a Jew? Is it ethical to question the Virgin Mary?
Jesus Christ often called himself the Son of Man. The nationality of the parents, according to the theologians, will shed light on the Savior's belonging to one or another ethnic group.
According to the Bible, all mankind descended from Adam. Later, people themselves divided themselves into races, nationalities. Yes, and Christ during his lifetime, given the gospels of the apostles, did not comment on his nationality.
Birth of Christ
The country of Judea, the Son of God, in those ancient times was a province of Rome. Emperor Augustus ordered to conduct He wanted to find out how many inhabitants in each of the cities of Judea.
Mary and Joseph, the parents of Christ, lived in the city of Nazareth. But they had to return to the homeland of their ancestors, to Bethlehem, in order to put their names on the lists. Once in Bethlehem, the couple could not find shelter - so many people came to the census. They decided to stop outside the city, in a cave that served as a shelter for shepherds during bad weather.
At night, Mary gave birth to a son. Wrapping the baby in diapers, she put him to sleep where they put the feed for livestock - in the manger.
Shepherds were the first to know about the birth of the Messiah. They were tending their flocks in the vicinity of Bethlehem when an angel appeared to them. He broadcast that the savior of mankind was born. This is a joy for all people, and the sign for the identification of the baby will be that he lies in the manger.
The shepherds immediately went to Bethlehem and came across a cave, in which they saw the future Savior. They told Mary and Joseph about the words of the angel. On the 8th day, the couple gave the child a name - Jesus, which means "savior" or "God saves."
Was Jesus Christ Jewish? Nationality by father or by mother was determined at that time?
star of bethlehem
On the very night that Christ was born, a bright, unusual star appeared in the sky. The Magi, who studied the movements of celestial bodies, went after her. They knew that the appearance of such a star speaks of the birth of the Messiah.
The Magi began their journey from an eastern country (Babylonia or Persia). The star, moving across the sky, showed the way to the sages.
Meanwhile, the numerous people who came to Bethlehem for the census dispersed. And the parents of Jesus returned to the city. Above the place where the baby was, the star stopped, and the Magi went into the house to present gifts to the future Messiah.
They offered gold as a tribute to the future king. They gave incense as a gift to God (even then incense was used in worship). And myrrh (scented oil, which was rubbed on the dead), as a mortal man.
King Herod
The local king, who obeyed Rome, knew about the great prophecy - a bright star in the sky marks the birth of a new king of the Jews. He called to himself the Magi, priests, soothsayers. Herod wanted to know where the baby Messiah was.
With false speeches, deceit, he tried to find out the whereabouts of Christ. Unable to get an answer, King Herod decided to exterminate all the babies in the area. 14,000 children under the age of 2 were killed in and around Bethlehem.
However, ancient historians, including do not mention this bloody event. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the number of children killed was much smaller.
It is believed that after such villainy, the wrath of God punished the king. He died a painful death, eaten alive by worms in his luxurious palace. After his terrible death, power passed to the three sons of Herod. The lands were also divided. The regions of Perea and Galilee went to Herod the Younger. Christ spent about 30 years in these lands.
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, for the sake of his wife Herodias, beheaded The sons of Herod the Great did not receive the royal title. Judea was ruled by a Roman procurator. Herod Antipas and other local rulers obeyed him.
Mother of the Savior
The parents of the Virgin Mary were childless for a long time. At that time it was considered a sin, such a union was a sign of the wrath of God.
Joachim and Anna lived in the city of Nazareth. They prayed and believed that they would definitely have a child. Decades later, an angel appeared to them and announced that the couple would soon become parents.
According to legend, Virgin Mary Happy parents swore that this child would belong to God. Until the age of 14, Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was brought up in the temple. From a young age, she saw angels. According to legend, the Archangel Gabriel took care of and guarded the future Mother of God.
Mary's parents had died by the time the Virgin had to leave the temple. The priests could not keep her. But they were sorry to let the orphan go. Then the priests betrothed her to the carpenter Joseph. He was more of a guardian of the Virgin than her husband. Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, remained a virgin.
What was the nationality of the Virgin? Her parents were natives of Galilee. This means that the Virgin Mary was not a Jew, but a Galilean. By confession, she belonged to the law of Moses. Her life in the temple also points to her upbringing in the faith of Moses. So who was Jesus Christ? The nationality of the mother, who lived in pagan Galilee, remains unknown. Scythians predominated in the mixed population of the region. It is possible that Christ inherited his appearance from his mother.
father of the savior
Theologians have long been arguing about whether Joseph should be considered the biological father of Christ? He had a fatherly attitude towards Mary, he knew that she was innocent. Therefore, the news of her pregnancy shocked the carpenter Joseph. The Law of Moses severely punished women for adultery. Joseph had to stone his young wife to death.
He prayed for a long time and decided to let Mary go, not to keep her near him. But an angel appeared to Joseph, announcing an ancient prophecy. The carpenter realized what a great responsibility lies on him for the safety of the mother and child.
Joseph is Jewish by nationality. Is it possible to consider him a biological father if Mary had an immaculate conception? Who is the father of Jesus Christ?
There is a version that the Roman soldier Pantira became the Messiah. In addition, there is a possibility that Christ had an Aramaic origin. This assumption is due to the fact that the Savior preached in Aramaic. However, at that time this language was common throughout the Middle East.
The Jews of Jerusalem had no doubt that the real father of Jesus Christ existed somewhere. But all versions are too doubtful to be true.
The face of Christ
The document of those times, describing the appearance of Christ, is called the "Message of Leptulus." This is a report to the Roman Senate, written by the proconsul of Palestine, Leptulus. He claims that Christ was of medium height with a noble face and a good figure. He has expressive blue-green eyes. Hair, the color of a ripe walnut, combed into a straight parting. The lines of the mouth and nose are impeccable. In conversation, he is serious and modest. Teaches softly, friendly. Terrible in anger. Sometimes he cries, but he never laughs. Face without wrinkles, calm and strong.
At the Seventh Ecumenical Council (VIII century), the official image of Jesus Christ was approved. The Savior should have been written on the icons in accordance with his human appearance. After the Council, painstaking work began. It consisted in the reconstruction of a verbal portrait, on the basis of which a recognizable image of Jesus Christ was created.
Anthropologists assure that the icon painting uses not the Semitic, but the Greco-Syriac thin, straight nose and deep-set, large eyes.
In early Christian icon painting, they were able to accurately convey the individual, ethnic features of the portrait. The earliest depiction of Christ was found on an icon dated to the beginning of the 6th century. It is kept in Sinai, in the monastery of St. Catherine. The face of the icon is similar to the canonized image of the Savior. Apparently, the early Christians considered Christ to be of the European type.
Nationality of Christ
Until now, there are people who claim that Jesus Christ is a Jew. At the same time, a huge number of works have been published on the topic of the non-Jewish origin of the Savior.
At the beginning of the 1st century AD, as Hebraic scholars found out, Palestine broke up into 3 regions, which differed in their confessional and ethnic characteristics.
- Judea, headed by the city of Jerusalem, was inhabited by Orthodox Jews. They obeyed the law of Moses.
- Samaria was closer to the Mediterranean Sea. The Jews and Samaritans were old enemies. Even mixed marriages between them were forbidden. In Samaria there were no more than 15% of the Jews of the total number of inhabitants.
- Galilee consisted of a mixed population, some of which remained faithful to Judaism.
Some theologians claim that the typical Jew was Jesus Christ. His nationality is not in doubt, since he did not deny the entire system of Judaism. And only he did not agree with some postulates of the Mosaic law. Then why did Christ react so calmly to the fact that the Jews of Jerusalem called him a Samaritan? This word was an insult to a true Jew.
God or man?
So who is right? Those who claim that Jesus Christ is God? But then what nationality can be demanded from God? He is out of ethnicity. If God is the basis of all things, including people, there is no need to talk about nationality at all.
What if Jesus Christ is a man? Who is his biological father? Why did he get the Greek name Christos, which means "anointed one"?
Jesus never claimed to be God. But he is not a man in the usual sense of the word. His dual nature was to acquire a human body and a divine essence within this body. Therefore, as a man, Christ could feel hunger, pain, anger. And as a vessel of God - to work miracles, filling the space around him with love. Christ said that he does not heal from himself, but only with the help of a divine gift.
Jesus worshiped and prayed to the Father. He completely submitted himself to His will in the last years of his life and called on the people to believe in the One God in heaven.
As the Son of Man, he was crucified in the name of saving people. As the Son of God, he resurrected and incarnated in the trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Miracles of Jesus Christ
About 40 miracles are described in the Gospels. The first happened in the city of Cana, where Christ, his mother and the apostles were invited to the wedding. He turned water into wine.
Christ performed the second miracle by curing the patient, whose illness lasted 38 years. The Jews of Jerusalem were angry with the Savior - he violated the Sabbath rule. It was on this day that Christ worked himself (healed the patient) and forced another to work (the patient himself carried his bed).
The Savior resurrected the dead girl, Lazarus and the widow's son. He healed the possessed and tamed the storm on the lake of Galilee. Christ fed the people with five loaves after the sermon - about 5 thousand of them gathered, not counting children and women. Walked on water, healed ten lepers and blind men of Jericho.
The miracles of Jesus Christ prove his divine essence. He had power over demons, sickness, death. But he never performed miracles for his glory or to collect offerings. Even during the interrogation of Herod, Christ did not show a sign as evidence of his strength. He did not try to defend himself, but only asked for sincere faith.
Resurrection of Jesus Christ
It was the resurrection of the Savior that became the basis for a new faith - Christianity. The facts about him are reliable: they appeared at a time when eyewitnesses of the events were still alive. All recorded episodes have slight discrepancies, but do not contradict each other as a whole.
The empty tomb of Christ testifies that the body was taken away (enemies, friends) or Jesus rose from the dead.
If the enemies took the body, they would not fail to mock the students, thus stopping the emerging new faith. Friends had little faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they were disappointed and depressed by his tragic death.
Honorary Roman citizen and Jewish historian Flavius Josephus mentions the spread of Christianity in his book. He confirms that on the third day Christ appeared alive to his disciples.
Even modern scholars do not deny that Jesus appeared to some followers after death. But they attribute this to hallucinations or some other phenomenon without questioning the authenticity of the evidence.
The appearance of Christ after death, the empty tomb, the rapid development of the new faith are proof of his resurrection. There is not a single known fact that denies this information.
Appointment by God
Already from the first Ecumenical Councils, the Church unites the human and divine nature of the Savior. He is one of the 3 hypostases of the One God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This form of Christianity was recorded and declared the official version at the Council of Nicaea (in 325), Constantinople (in 381), Ephesus (in 431) and Chalcedon (in 451).
However, the controversy about the Savior did not stop. Some Christians claimed that Jesus Christ is God. Others claimed that he was only the Son of God and was completely subject to his will. The basic idea of the trinity of God is often compared with paganism. Therefore, disputes about the essence of Christ, as well as about his nationality, do not subside to this day.
The cross of Jesus Christ is a symbol of martyrdom in the name of atonement for human sins. Does it make sense to discuss the nationality of the Savior if faith in him is able to unite different ethnic groups? All people on the planet are children of God. The human nature of Christ stands above national characteristics and classifications.
Psychic is a term used to refer to a person with the ability of supersensitive (extrasensory) perception or influence. How much this word can cause associations. Some will immediately think of a strict man who pierces through with his heavy gaze, others will remember a grinning fortuneteller predicting the future along the lines on her hand, others will probably think of gypsies who can cause damage and mystically take away all the money. There are many associations, but all of them are connected with something otherworldly, beyond the limits of the laws of this world, with the secrets and hidden possibilities of the human soul.
This is what attracts the minds of hungry people, hungry spiritually, who feel that not everything ends with the laws of physics and Darwin's theory, that there is something else. They are looking for it and want to feed. Perhaps, in some way, this explains the fact that the popular program “The Battle of Psychics” has already been filmed for fourteen seasons, that spiritual centers are opening everywhere, that the popularity of sectarian spiritual literature has increased. This trend has been traced since the days of the late USSR, when people enthusiastically watched operations involving A. M. Kashpirovsky, "charged" shampoos with energy from radios with silent A. L. Chumak and were surprised at Vanga's predictions. This aroused interest and delight, partially satisfying the thirst for knowledge of the spiritual world. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, a large stream of teachings about spiritual laws poured into the country; practices for controlling the forces of nature, predicting the future and communicating with spirits became the property of the broad masses. Psychics flooded all around, a slender line of those who wanted to save or create a business, recover from illnesses, remove damage, bewitch a loved one reached out to them. Now they were no longer afraid, they were listened to, they ceased to be a curiosity.
The opinion of the Church on this issue has long ceased to be heeded. She unequivocally stigmatizes them all as sorcerers and soothsayers, about whom it is said: “You should not have a soothsayer, a fortuneteller, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, summoning spirits, a magician and questioning the dead; For every one who does this is abominable before the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God casts them out from before you. (Deut. 18:10-12). But there are questions. People are perplexed why a serious representative man who conducts supposedly important experiments on the study of spiritual forces and calls himself a bioenergetic is a sorcerer? Why is a pious grandmother, who heals illnesses with prayer and whose house is furnished with icons, a witch? Why are the spiritual mentors of the East, who help their students to achieve enlightenment, actually possessed by demons? “Well, they can’t all lie,” someone will say. Say, it's just archaic Christianity that has "fallen out" of fashion, cannot cope with modern trends in world development, and that's what stigmatizes everyone and everything. After all, if the saints predicted the future and cured diseases, then why can't Tibetan monks do this? Why was it revealed to the elders what was in the soul of a person, and this was not considered a demonic gift, but when a human aura is seen by a guru in a spiritual center, then it is considered? And aren't prayer and mantra the same thing?
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that an unbeliever will be able to think and understand the difference between all these concepts. This requires experience of life in the Church according to the Commandments and real attempts to follow Christ. We need such practical experience when you limit yourself contrary to human logic just because you do not agree to commit sin, in the hope of God's mercy. We need the practice of prayer, which always puts the Lord's will above the human. If there were no attempts at tearful petitions and humble expectations, it is difficult to understand the difference between a prayer and a spell. But you can try to explain it. So, why do psychic practices, like everyone who uses them, actually receive demonic help?
When Jesus Christ began His preaching on earth, He said: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Prior to this, the Forerunner of the Lord John baptized people into repentance, saying: “I baptize you in water into repentance, but He who comes after me is stronger than me; I am not worthy to bear His shoes; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Since that time, repentance has gained unprecedented importance and has become the bridge through which a person comes to the gates of the Church. All the miracles performed by the Lord are done not just for the sake of bestowing earthly blessings, but incite to think about heavenly things, to feel the touch of grace and to follow into the world of eternal bliss. Jesus says there is no point in acquiring earthly goods for their own sake: “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (Mark 8:36). In this sense, miracles that do not bring spiritual benefit are useless. How can the Savior give us something to harm us? Even the Apostle James says: "Ask and you do not receive, because you do not ask for good, but to use it for your desires" (James 4:3). So, having performed a miracle of healing over the paralytic and meeting him after that in the temple, the Lord said to him: “Behold, you have recovered; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you” (John 5:14).
How different is it when a healer tries to heal a wound with some kind of magical herb and is not at all interested in the spiritual state of the “client”. Or he is interested, but rather superficially, without delving into the concept of sin, but only finding out the information necessary for the successful implementation of the ritual. Sometimes sorcerers are asked to commit even a deliberately heinous act, such as bewitching someone else's husband or making the boss fired from his job. Often the price of the issue is only in the amount of money offered. The selfish motives of the one who pays are put at the forefront and there can be no talk of true spirituality. It is clear that only demons can respond to such “requests”.
But then what about the “white magicians” who do nothing “to harm”, or, finally, the “pious” grandmothers hung with icons, who, during a treatment session, say to repent of sins with prayer? Can't they help solve problems with God's help? Alas. The Lord always values our freedom very highly, so as not to violate it. He does not even forcibly convert us to the faith, even though He would like us all to convert: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones those sent to you! how many times I wanted to gather your children like a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you didn't want to!» (Matthew 23:37). For our part, we must also value His freedom, respect our Creator. How can a slave give a direct order to his master? He can only ask for a service and, if the master agrees, then humbly wait for its execution. With such an attitude to the matter, it becomes clear that we are turning to the One who is higher than us. But what about psychic clients? They expect guaranteed results! They need everything to be as planned, they give orders. Even when a supposedly believing fortune-teller grandmother recites a prayer for someone to get rid of back pain, she uses it as a tool that helps to get a guaranteed result. True Christians always leave the decisive choice to God. He himself taught us this! Christ, before the tradition on the crucifixion, prayed: “Saying: Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me! but not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). And Christ was crucified. Therefore, if through prayers you are immediately healed - praise to the Creator, if not immediately - also praise to the Creator, He knows better, and if the problem is solved in a slightly different way, also praise to the Creator, because no one will be left without consolation: “Come to Me, all you who are laboring and burdened and I will give you rest;" (Matthew 11:28). But it is obvious that it is impossible to build a business on such a “no guarantees” approach, it is impossible to create an entertainment show, it is impossible to conduct any bioenergetic research. Therefore, psychics have no choice but to achieve the opportunity to receive a guaranteed result. But if you cannot order the Lord, you can completely order the demons, who, due to their malice and desire to cast you into hell, are even ready to obey your commands.
But only those who have succeeded in serving Him can ask with boldness from Christ and have the opportunity to independently dispose of the wonderful gifts of the Lord. That is, those who for decades, renouncing their will, pleased the Creator. Are such people "pious" grandmothers-fortunetellers or "white magicians" middle-aged women? They are not and cannot be. Only a few holy ascetics, a few, mostly monks, were honored to receive some kind of miraculous gift in order to use it free of charge for the benefit of people. Of course, Shaolin monks, Tibetan monks, sages of the East and the like cannot be attributed to these people. After all, true miracle workers live strictly observing all the commandments of Christ and in the spirit of Orthodoxy. They cut off their own will and wholly desire the fulfillment of God. They do not work miracles on their own, it is God who works miracles through them, synergistically, achieving unity with their will, therefore for these miracles the basic principles inherent in the miracles of Jesus are preserved. They are not done just like that, but have a deep providential meaning, contribute to the repentance of unbelievers and the strengthening of believers.
It is also important to pay attention to the fact that holy people heal people for free. Since Jesus himself once said to his disciples: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; gift received, gift give» (Matthew 10:8). Is this what we see in the environment of motley psychics? Where there. Elite magicians rip off such money in one consultation that after several months of their visits, even a rich person by modern standards will begin to feel blows to his well-being. It is even more vile when people, losing hope and turning to "folk healers" for help, carry the last penny in the hope of getting healed from the disease. They are treated extremely cruelly, assuring them with false promises of a speedy recovery. Or when a desperate person turns to a psychic with a request to find a missing relative, and he deceives him, saying that he died or sends him to no one knows where in search. For these reasons, a very expedient move on the part of the state would be to ban the activities of charlatans who earn on someone else's grief.
Considering the negative aspects of extrasensory perception, one cannot fail to mention one more important point - the factor of selfish perception of extrasensory abilities as one's own achievement. When a bioenergyist studies the influence of spirits and ghosts on the world around him, when he tries to feel the aura of a person opposite, he perceives this as his own study of processes that exist by themselves. That is, for him, a look into the future and a sense of energy are not revelations, these are his own skills that are developed regardless of whether God exists the way Christianity understands Him, or any other. Then superhuman abilities are accepted as a personal achievement, praise to the Lord is not given, pride grows exorbitantly. It is very doubtful that Christ gave people such abilities that do not lead to salvation, but, on the contrary, lead a person to destruction. It is clear that the psychic sees his "gifts" only as a tool that can be used to achieve their own selfish goals.
The sorcerer has no objective way of knowing whether his abilities are from God or from demons. Without an evaluation system, the psychic himself comes up with some "rules" and "laws" of the spiritual world, or adopts them from a more advanced "magician". As John the Evangelist said: “Beloved! believe not every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Recognize the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error) in this way: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God, but it is the spirit of Antichrist, about whom you heard that he would come and is already in the world” (John 4:1-3). Given the above, is it possible to count on the fact that an Eastern guru who communicates with spirits, who probably never held a Bible in his hands, actually communicates with angels? Definitely not.
By right, one can name a huge number of superstitions, which also contribute to the "flourishing" of the occult. A person who “removes” damage and cannot be from God just because he does not believe in human freedom granted by the Creator, does not trust His providence. When we startle when we see a black cat running across our path, we belittle the greatness of the Creator, we think that this trifle, this ridiculously insignificant event, can affect our destiny beyond the plan of Christ. After all, even a pig cannot be possessed by a demon without His permission: “A large herd of pigs grazed there by the mountain. And all the demons asked Him, saying, Send us into swine, that we may enter into them” (Mark 5:11-12). How is it possible then to believe that someone who knows where, secretly caused damage and thereby ruined your life? This is especially absurd if you continue to live in accordance with the will of the Creator. How can you believe that the lines on the hand or the stars in the sky predetermine something, if Christ said that we who believe in Him are free, and therefore do not depend on anything like this: “Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him “If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 31:32)? To believe in this and go to the sorcerers on matters of palmistry and prediction is the gravest sin, leading to the death of souls.
Often our sin also lies in the fact that it seems to us that we certainly know how it will be better. Not getting career growth or good health, we begin not to humbly make new attempts and wait for success, but to climb into the spiritual world, resorting to the help of psychics, as if saying: “But I still think that it will be better this way, God does not give me this, but I will achieve it all the same, even if I had to go to a fortune-teller. We do not trust Christ, we do not trust His love, and by doing so we destroy ourselves. Although even if something does not work out, the Lord clearly says what to do - they keep knocking, even if He hesitates to answer: “Will not God protect His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night, although He is slow to defend them? I tell you that he will soon give them protection” (Luke 18:7-8). The sorcerer, contributing to the spread of unbelief among people by the mere fact of providing his services, thus further aggravates his guilt.
I would like to believe that a sufficient amount of evidence was given above that psychics, sorcerers, bioenergetics, spiritualists, multi-colored magicians and other public are servants of demons. After all, they can only find deceit, despair and death. And even when the trip to the fortuneteller ended relatively “successfully” and the person seemed to even feel some relief, you can definitely be sure that it is not durable. And once having given him what he asked for, the demons will then take away from him tens and hundreds of times more, including their own talent. After all, by their nature they cannot create, their whole being is directed only towards death, pain and destruction.
Definition of the word psychic
http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc1p/53386
Anatoly Kashpirovsky
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashpirovsky_Anatoly_Mikhailovich
Allan Chumak
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumak,_Allan_Vladimirovich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanga
If a sick or in trouble person rushes to psychics and sorcerers for help, the first thing a loved one should do is to invite him to assess the risks
From dialogue:
How to protect yourself from sorcerers?
- Pray to Cyprian and Justina.
Such a conversation had to be heard more than once. Those who have suffered from what themselves know how to help those who have fallen into the same trouble. And both of these saints were well aware of this. A sorcerer who managed to give up divination and became a priest, and then a martyr for Christ; and a courageous Christian woman, by the power of her faith, who by the purity of her life destroyed witchcraft spells - to whom, if not to them, to resort for prayerful help in order to protect herself from witchcraft and demonic machinations?
Cyprian and Justina
They lived in the III century in Antioch. Cyprian was a powerful sorcerer who, as it is said in his life, "given all of himself to the power of the devil." Once, at the request of a young man who fell in love with a Christian girl Justina, he tried to force her to respond to the passion of an admirer with the help of a “love spell”. The "love spell" did not work: Justina was so pure and firm in faith that the evil one did not find a way to get close to her.
The sorcerer Cyprian decided to take revenge on the girl for his failure: he sent pestilence and ulcers to the house of Justina, and to the whole city in addition. She continued to pray, and the demonic obsession ceased. Struck by the incomprehensible power of a very young girl who revealed the still unknown "secrets" of the world, Cyprian renounced the devil and became a Christian.
A year after being baptized, he was ordained a priest, and soon became a bishop, whom many revered as a saint. Bishop Cyprian made Justina a deaconess, and then entrusted her with a nunnery, making her abbess.
During the persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian, Cyprian and Justina were martyred. Commemoration of the Saints - 15 October.
About how dangerous psychics and sorcerers of “white and black magics” are, what to do if your loved one got carried away with their “treatment”, or your photo was taken by a kind but unscrupulous relative “to the healer,” said Abbot Nektariy (Morozov) , author of the book about sorcerers "Walking in the Darkness", rector of the Peter and Paul Church in Saratov, head of the information and publishing department of the Saratov diocese.
Wizards or swindlers?
— Father Nectarius, do sorcerers really exist, or are they all charlatans?
“We also know from the book of the Acts of the Apostles that there was such a sorcerer named Simon, who worked all sorts of miracles, and the witnesses of these miracles saw in him “the great power of God.” Enticed by the power of the apostles to give the gift of the Holy Spirit, Simon wished to buy this gift for himself with money, but was convicted and rejected by the apostles.
So, from the earliest times of the existence of Christianity, the Church recognizes the possibility of a person possessing superpowers, but the nature of such a gift in a fallen, sinful person is not Divine.
Therefore, those who are going to turn to a sorcerer or magician should know that the danger in this case of harming themselves is quite real. And therefore, before seeking help from them, it is worth knowing about the risks, because we do not take medicine without reading the instructions, so as not to harm our health.
- What is this danger?
- In the market of occult services, there are both ordinary swindlers and those who really have some kind of superpowers. In the first case, you run the risk of throwing money away, or making some decisions that will spoil and even destroy your life.
If a person is dealing with a high-class deceiver, then he can easily become dependent on this specialist. After all, those who engage in such practices for the sake of money are interested in tying a client to themselves for a long time. Many become good psychologists over time, easily identifying vulnerabilities and strings for which you can pull a person and firmly tie him to the right “hooks”.
Sometimes such people resort to open intimidation: if you leave me, then you will feel bad.
In the second case, you can get even more significant harm - spiritual, because those who really have abilities are some kind of conductors of dark destructive power.
Why is the Church convinced of this?
— It is enough just to compare these specialists with the saints, who were worthy of the gifts of healing and insight.
None of the saints made the creation of miracles the main goal of their lives.
And only those who, by the nature of their activities, were doctors, like St. Panteleimon, or St. Luke of Crimea, were engaged in medical practice. The saints lived in God, and the Lord, because of the purity of their hearts, because of their closeness to Him, fulfilled their prayers and gave them gifts.
Many saints of these gifts have fled and even prayed to lose them, because they understood how easy it is to fall into pride.
Will we see among modern healers and psychics, as well as "grandmothers" and bioenergetics - true ascetics? No, they are not better than all of us. Then it is quite natural to raise the question: where did their amazing gift come from?
And perhaps the most important thing: any healing, any other miracle that was performed through the prayers of the saints, brought the person with whom it happened to God, or returned him to the righteous path of following Christ, if he had gone off this path before.
And what do the healings of "grandmothers" or bioenergetics lead to? What do love spells and lapels done by sorcerers and magicians lead to? “By their fruits you will know them,” Christ says in the Gospel.
When a person enters into communion with this force opposing God, resorts to its help, he gives her the full right to enter his life and break and distort everything, gives her the right to herself.
Such a person literally sells his soul to the devil. Becomes not free, dependent on the devil's will. With the consequences of this, sometimes very delayed, the priests have to face constantly.
What do you have to pay for "services"
One can recall such a famous psychotherapist as Anatoly Kashpirovsky. People at his sessions and television sessions behaved like possessed, and after that they often ended up in hospitals with mental and nervous system disorders. It is clear that this was not only achieved by his actions, there was also some kind of force at work here. These are the facts, how can they be ignored?
Or here is a real family, terrible events suddenly begin to occur in it, and no one can understand what became the starting point of the process that ultimately led to the destruction of this family and even the personalities of its members. And then it turns out that this family was formed thanks to a witchcraft love spell ...
I knew a woman who, looking at a man, could sometimes feel that he was about to die. There were also a number of cases in her life when she managed to "remove" epileptic attacks in people - by a strange accident, she constantly encountered such patients. At the same time, as she explained, each time after that she felt terrible devastation, fatigue, weakness.
She felt a kind of “thinning” of herself, and this thinning was of the kind about which they say: “Where it is thin, there it breaks.” It often seemed to her that some kind of anguish was about to happen, it seemed as if she was walking along the edge.
Once, wanting to help once again a man in an epileptic seizure, touching him, she fell into some kind of semi-conscious state and in this state she saw the village, the Nazis and this man in the form of a policeman, only much younger. At that moment, the epileptic calmed down, calmed down and spoke to her in German ...
And for some reason, it was after this incident that she realized that she would leave such help forever. I must say that it cost her a lot of work, and according to her, she found salvation in the fact that she deliberately "stupid" in relation to such premonitions and subtleties.
There is one important criterion: everything that comes from God fills the heart with peace and tranquility. At the same time, a person has neither fear nor anxiety, there are no physical or mental “shudders” of any kind.
And the strength that comes from the enemy, and the “help” that he gives, are always associated with a feeling of restlessness, uncertainty, some kind of excitement, exaltation.
But really this difference can only be felt by people with the skill to distinguish between good and evil, to distinguish between spirits, as the apostle Paul says. But for us, the most ordinary, weak people, it’s better to just stay away from all this.
Magic "white" or evil in disguise
- You can object: after all, there are people with superpowers who do not practice witchcraft. They really want to help: diagnose, heal, warn, instruct. Many of them send people to churches to light candles, even to be baptized, or to confess and take communion. And the fact that they take money, because they need to live on something ... And doctors take money.
The devil is cunning, and to those who are inclined to evil, he offers open evil; to those who have those very good intentions, he will offer evil under the guise of good.
Most of those who have superpowers do not know where they got them from and really cannot fully control them. All these "energies from space" are excuses for clients. How can you unequivocally assert that you are doing good if the instrument with which you do it is not in your full power?!
And the fact that they are sent to churches or their offices are furnished with Christian paraphernalia, so there is nothing surprising in this. We live in a country with very deep and ancient Orthodox roots, and people who are engaged in the provision of this kind of service are perfectly able to play on this. If, however, they sincerely consider their practice and the sacraments of the Church to be something unified - "spiritual", then this is again a temptation by the devil's cunning, which I am talking about.
"I've been spoiled!"
- And if a person is not of his own free will forced to deal with sorcerers, for example, someone decided to damage him, is it dangerous?
- No need to be afraid. If we found some occult objects in the house or at the workplace that someone planted for us, the main thing is not to panic, because fear, like a magnet, attracts all kinds of illnesses, misfortunes to us, because fear is distrust of God. If we are afraid, then we believe that the enemy of our salvation is stronger than the Lord, that the Lord may not protect us. And lack of faith or complete distrust of God is one of the most important sins. When we are separated from God by our lack of faith, we willy-nilly find ourselves in the hands of the enemy.
But at the same time, you can’t blame any misfortunes that have happened or a period of troubles in your life on the damage or evil eye induced by someone. This is an attempt to relieve oneself of responsibility for one's life and for what happens in it. With an honest and careful look into ourselves, it will become clear that the source of all our troubles is not in someone or in something: it is always ultimately one - apostasy from God or complete forgetfulness of Him.
- And if one of the relatives, wanting to help, went with a photograph of a church person to a sorcerer or healer, what should I do?
- If this does not involve the will of the person himself, whose photograph was taken to the healer, and if he is really already in the Church, then there is no need to be afraid of this. Here you can try to try to somehow reason with those who “took care” so much, to pray that their intention would not be realized, and if this was not possible to do, then rely on the will of God.
There is definitely no need to panic, or come into conflict with these unreasonable friends or relatives, because the enemy always needs an excuse to invade our lives and begin his destructive work.
And this reason is our fear as distrust of God, our bitterness towards someone, inner non-peace.
But if we did all this, and still something happened, then it means that the Lord allowed it to happen. Again, not because this is an inevitable consequence of someone with our photograph going to the sorcerer, but because it was God's will, and for some reason we need to endure it. We need to approach what happened in a Christian way.
- So you say - try to reason - but why appeal if a person says: "I don't care, as long as it stops hurting"?
- In the apostolic letters there is such an idea:
those who are wise must be saved by reason, and those who are obviously unreasonable must be saved by fear.
In this case, this fear can be saving. We need to familiarize our loved ones with all the side effects of such treatment, and then all that remains is to pray for them and hope that they will make the right choice. But his life depends only on the person himself, and the Lord will give to each according to his heart: if a person seeks to be tempted, he will be tempted. We cannot save him against his will.
"There are sorcerers, there is no God"
- Some people believe in witchcraft, magic, "cosmic energies", that is, they are not materialists at all, but they don't believe in God, why?
“You know, I once asked one of my acquaintances, a good caring person who often asked questions about God, about faith: “Why don’t you take the Gospel and read it?” To which he honestly answered me: “I know that what is written there is true, and if I read it, I will have to live like this, but I am not ready ...”. Here is the answer.
Magicians and sorcerers, "cosmic energies" put the self-aggrandizement of a person at the center, even through his "improvement".
Many people talk about “love”, “forgiveness of insults” - in order to “cleanse their aura”, lulling gullible people with beautiful words.
But in our sinful world there is neither forgiveness of offenses nor love without suffering. Christ speaks directly: if we want to become better, learn to love - we must follow Him, His way of the cross - each in his own measure.
Yes, the Kingdom of God is within us, that is, we can be happy already here on this earth, but at first we will not have to “exalt ourselves”, but humble ourselves, rejecting ourselves. It's painful and difficult. Indeed, not everyone is ready for this.
There is another reason why a person "chooses" a magician, and not God. A modern person, according to psychologists, has many different phobias, but all of them can be combined into one - the fear of living. One of the manifestations of this fear is the unwillingness to take responsibility.
Coming to some kind of sorcerer, magician or healer, a person says: “I have such and such a problem, solve it for me,” that is, he shifts responsibility for his life to another.
And he does not care how this problem will be solved, and what will be done with him.
Another manifestation of the fear of living is the lack of critical thinking, since any analysis requires a choice, and hence responsibility. People of a certain type suffer from this, people who fall into the hands of occultists, into totalitarian sects.
And there are those who under no circumstances will go to magicians and healers: if I don’t understand what they will do with me, then I won’t allow anyone to do anything with me.
But after all, in life there are some extreme, stressful situations when a person simply cannot adequately assess what is happening, including critical thinking. Is there some kind of safety technique for them so as not to fall into the clutches of sorcerers or swindlers?
- A person in a critical situation does what suits his warehouse.
And if in a normal state he developed a clear attitude towards such services and phenomena as witchcraft and magic, then even under stress he will not resort to them.
The main thing is to remember that if at least once, even in the form of a game, for example, in a spiritualistic session, a person consciously calls on the dark force, or enters into any interaction with it, he himself opens the door to the enemy in his life.
And then it can be very difficult to terminate this union, because, having received the rights to a person, the devil will not want to give them away so easily. And a person will be forced to pay not for this desire to terminate the union, but for allowing this union to take place. But it must be endured - humbly and courageously. And if you also turn to God for help and truly strive for Him, then the Lord will help, protect, and deliver.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is, without a doubt, an epochal event in the history of mankind, and therefore it is extremely important to confirm its historical authenticity. In fact, it is the resurrection that is at the core of Christianity, and it is the resurrection that binds together every promise and blessing. If it were proved that the fact of the resurrection was falsified, Christianity could be considered a cheap fake that does not bring people redemption. In this case, Jesus could not even be called the “great teacher of morality”, as some unbelievers see him, since his main prediction, that he would rise from the dead, would turn out to be a lie.
In fact, our very salvation depends largely on the reliability of four historical facts: birth, life, death, and especially resurrection Jesus Christ. For our firm faith in the historical certainty of the resurrection conditions our eternal salvation. Romans 10:9 contains what might be called the "formula" of salvation: "For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." If we question any fact of Scripture, are we undermining the foundation of our salvation? But the most important fact in Scripture is the affirmation of the historical authenticity of the event on which our salvation depends!
Therefore, the assertion that the resurrection is historically unprovable, or that there is no need to prove it, is contrary to the apostolic testimonies. The resurrection became the foundation on which the apostle Paul built his ministry. He became convinced of the reality of this fact as a result of a personal meeting with the risen Christ. In the following passage, we have highlighted in bold type Paul's statements about what the consequences would be for Christianity if there were no resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:14-20
(14) a if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain.
(15) Moreover we would also be false witnesses about God, because they would bear witness to God that He raised Christ whom He did not raise, if, that is, the dead do not rise;
(16) for if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen.
(17) And if Christ is not risen, then your faith is in vain: you are still in your sins.
(18) That's why and those who died in Christ perished.
(19) And if in this life alone we hope in Christ, then we more unfortunate than all men.
(20) But Christ has risen from the dead, the firstborn of the dead.
The Resurrection Passages Are Historically Accurate
The New Testament passages relating to the resurrection bear all the hallmarks of historical accuracy. The fact that they appeared very early, at a time when hostile eyewitnesses of those events were still alive, minimizes the possibility of falsification, since this would be very dangerous. There is agreement on the basic facts, and at the same time the passages contain differing details. These descriptions are not elaborate reproductions of a single, standardized story. In fact, all five descriptions of the appearances of Christ after his resurrection are independent of each other, as indicated by conspicuous differences. However, deeper analysis shows that these descriptions do not contradict each other. Henry Morris writes:
A well-known theory of evidence is that the testimony of multiple eyewitnesses, each covering the facts from their own point of view, forms a strong evidence base if the apparent inconsistencies contained in the testimony are resolved through a process of careful investigation. This is exactly the case with various descriptions of the resurrection.
The Life and Ministry of the Apostle Paul Testify in Favor of the Resurrection
At the moment when Paul met the resurrected Christ, he was an ardent opponent of the Christian faith. He was a highly educated man who was difficult to convince of the truth of a doctrine that in any way contradicted the Mosaic tradition or did not agree with it. It can be said that he was last a man on earth who could accept the idea of a crucified and risen Messiah based on the Jewish expectations of the time. The fact that he so unreservedly believed in the resurrection of Christ and fully dedicated his life to his resurrected Master is a strong proof of the truth of the resurrection. Canon Kenneth writes:
A few years after the crucifixion of Jesus, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, to at least one educated person [the apostle Paul], seemed irrefutable.
Empty tomb - historical fact
No respected historian of the New Testament questions the fact that the tomb in which Christ was placed after the crucifixion was empty. There are only three explanations for this circumstance. Either Jesus' body was taken by his enemies, or his friends did, or Jesus rose from the dead. The first option is extremely unlikely, since the enemies would certainly have demonstrated his body in the future in order to humiliate the disciples who believed in the possibility of his resurrection. Moreover, they would have done this to stop the spread of a new religious movement that posed a threat to Mosaic traditions. It is equally unlikely that the friends of Jesus took away his body, because after his crucifixion they were completely depressed and disappointed precisely because they did not believe in his resurrection. It is absurd to suggest that people in this state could go to the trick, steal the body and spread a story that they themselves did not believe.
The disciples were zealous Jews
The disciples of Jesus were Jews, and they all took their privileges and duties very seriously. It is unthinkable that they would decide to create a new religion just for personal gain. For a Jew living in the first century, this would be tantamount to lying about the God of Israel. Paul writes about this in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (where he calls it "perjury" which is a violation of one of the 10 Commandments). For a Jew living in the first century, slandering God and distorting His revelation meant the risk of losing salvation and future participation in the Messianic kingdom. Would such a person risk future rewards for a few years of prestigious status as the leader of a new religion? The answer can only be a resounding "no".
Women's Testimony
The presence of women at the tomb is strong evidence of the veracity of the biblical story. In the Jewish culture of the first century, women's testimonies were virtually ignored. Their testimonies were not considered in court at all. A man could not be convicted of a crime that only women witnessed. If the story of the resurrection were subsequently invented in order to confirm the authenticity of Christianity, why even mention what exactly women were the first to see him and report the empty tomb? The reason can only be that this is exactly what happened in reality. The story of how women brought the message of the resurrection, but the male disciples did not believe them, casts a shadow on the people who were the first leaders of the Christian Church. If the Church had made up this story after some time, it would certainly have portrayed its early leaders in a more favorable light.
Propaganda by the Jewish authorities as confirmation that the tomb was empty and the body was missing
Jewish religious authorities paid people who claimed to have seen an empty tomb to lie and tell everyone that the disciples had stolen the body. In addition, they killed many of those who preached about the resurrection. With a great opportunity to nip a new current in the bud, they would stop at nothing to take possession of the body of Jesus and then present it to the people. However, they did not succeed. They couldn't find the body since Jesus was resurrected.
Enemies of Jesus would present his body to refute the words of believers
If Jesus was not resurrected, then what became of his body? If his enemies stole the body and did not show it to anyone, this would only contribute to the spread of rumors about the resurrection, which they so feared. The decisive proof that the enemies could not take away the body is the fact that they would certainly have presented it on demand, since they tried with all their might to discredit the words of the disciples. As William Lane Craig writes, "This is historical evidence of the highest order, because it comes not from Christians, but from opponents of the early Christian faith."
No mention of veneration of the tomb
If Jesus was not resurrected, why do we not find references to the veneration of his tomb, as is often the case with the burial places of religious leaders? Although God forbade such worship, the Israelites did not abandon the practice. So God took the bodies of Elijah and Moses to prevent their followers from turning their graves into places of worship.
Non-Christian Historian Testifies for the Resurrection
Josephus, a Jewish historian of the first century, wrote the following about Jesus Christ and the spread of Christianity:
And when Pilate, on the charge of our elders, sentenced him to be crucified, those who had loved him from the very beginning remained faithful to him. On the third day he appeared to them alive again. For the divine prophets foretold this and a great many other miracles concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, whose name came from him, has not disappeared to this day ”(Jewish Antiquities, XVIII, 3, 3).
Although many view this testimony from a non-Christian source as a forgery, this is unlikely, since the writings of Josephus were favorably received by both Jews and Romans at the time of their writing. He was an honorary Roman citizen. There is no mention of objections to this passage raised by opponents of Christianity. If this passage were a fake and a later insertion, this fact would have been widely discussed in the literature of the time. However, the silence of critics in this case speaks against them.
Lack of other explanations in early non-biblical sources
The early historical sources contain no other explanation for the rapid growth of the Christian Church, no attempt to tell "the way things really were." If the story were fabricated, some critic or disenchanted with Christianity would certainly offer an alternative explanation. However, the only plausible explanation for the rapid growth of the Church was that the early Christians believed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Biblical descriptions of the appearance of Jesus after the resurrection form a unified witness
The four gospels and the apostle Paul give a combined testimony of ten appearances of Jesus after the resurrection. Since all these descriptions agree in detail and do not contain contradictions, the burden of finding proof lies with those who do not believe in the truth of these words.
The ten appearances of Jesus are listed in tentative chronological order:
- Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9)
- Other women (Matt. 28:8-10)
- Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5)
- Two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35; Mark 16:12)
- Eleven disciples (excluding Thomas - Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23)
- Twelve disciples eight days later (1 Cor. 15:5; John 20:24-29)
- Seven disciples near the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-23)
- Five hundred followers (1 Cor. 15:6)
- James (1 Cor. 15:6)
- Twelve disciples at the moment of rapture (Acts 1:3-12)
The idea of a new body of Christ was a foreign concept to the disciples
The disciples had difficulty believing in the possibility that Christ would die and then rise again, and never even thought that the Messiah would come in a new body. It is inconceivable that the early Christians could have fabricated such a story, which even today seems like science fiction to many skeptics.
Modern scholars and historians acknowledge that there is strong evidence for the resurrection of Jesus in the body.
J.P. Morland confirms this fact and quotes other scholars:
Virtually no New Testament scholar today denies that Jesus appeared after his death to some of his followers. Some scholars interpret this phenomenon either as hallucinations or as visions given by God but not related to the physical presence of Jesus. However, none of them deny that believers have had similar experiences. The skeptical scholar Norman Perin admitted: "The more we study the tradition relating to the appearances of Jesus, the stronger the foundation on which this tradition rests seems to us." Dunn, professor of divinity at Durham University, England, agrees: “It is virtually impossible to dispute that Christianity is rooted in certain visions experienced by early Christians who interpreted them as appearances of Jesus raised from the dead by God.”
Thomas Arnold, former professor of history at Rugby and Oxford and one of the world's most renowned historians, made the following statement regarding the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
I do not know of any other fact in the history of mankind which, in the eyes of an unprejudiced student, would be confirmed by more convincing or exhaustive evidence than the great sign that God gave us to show that Christ died and rose from the dead.
Simon Greenleaf is recognized as one of America's greatest lawyers of all time. He was an expert in testimony and a founder of Harvard Law School. Greenleaf analyzed the four gospel passages describing the resurrection of Christ in light of their credibility as objective evidence and concluded:
Therefore, it is impossible to imagine that they could have been so obstinate in defending the truths they preached if Jesus had not actually risen from the dead, and if this fact had not been known to them as well as any other fact.
The conviction of the followers of Jesus in his resurrection
Those people who first published the story of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead believed in the reliability of this fact. They based their faith not only on the fact that the tomb was empty, but also on a personal meeting with the living Jesus, who appeared to them after his burial. He was seen not once or twice, but at least ten times, all of which are recorded in the Bible. In addition, he appeared to the disciples not individually, but in groups of two, seven, eleven, and even five hundred people.
The martyrdom of Jesus' followers for believing in his resurrection
First-century believers preached and acted convinced of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. Many of them even died for their faith. If Jesus' friends had stolen the body to make it look like he was resurrected, then they would know for sure that it was a lie. People do not become martyrs in the name of an idea that they consider to be a hoax.
Unanimous testimony of witnesses who could not have been mistaken or deceived
Some critics argue that early Christians who saw Christ after his death actually experienced a vision or hallucination, much like some people today who claim to have "seen" pop star Elvis Presley. Maybe it was an ecstatic vision? Dream? A fantasy of an inflamed imagination? Maybe a ghost? All this is implausible, since different groups of people cannot have the same hallucination for a long time, and 500 people in a crowd cannot have the same dream at the same time.
Some contemporary Christian apologists have advanced the idea that physical Christ's resurrection is of no particular importance, since his "spirit" somehow ascended to God. Presumably, God showed the followers a "vision" of Christ continuing to live "spiritually" at the right hand of God. Such a mystical and spiritualistic conception would not satisfy the inquisitive mind of the Jewish disciples, who believed that the dead remain dead until they are resurrected in the body, physically. Such an idea, in addition, replaces the historical basis of the Christian faith with a subjective, mystical basis, which in no way explains the zeal and enthusiasm of the early disciples who spread the testimony of the bodily resurrection of Christ.
The disbelief of the disciples in the resurrection
With the exception of Joseph of Arimathea, none of Jesus' followers believed in his death and subsequent resurrection. They didn't expect it to happen, and when it did, they didn't believe it at first. They dismissed the message as "empty words" (Luke 24:11). They didn't believe until they had to believe after they saw the resurrected Lord right in front of them. Henry Morris writes:
One thing is certain: the disciples could not make up the story of the resurrection from their own rich imaginations. On the contrary, they could not get used to this idea, despite numerous prophecies from Scripture and the words of Christ himself. It took very strong arguments to convince them that the resurrection took place.
The idea of a resurrected Messiah was alien to the Jews and absurd to the Greeks
The description of the death and resurrection of Jesus did not fit in with the then widespread idea of the Messiah (a theocratic ruler who would deliver Israel from the pagan yoke), and therefore it was very difficult to convince people of the truth of this fact. The Greeks, with their doctrine of the immortality of the soul, considered the idea of a bodily resurrection to be absurd and unnecessary (cf. Acts 17:32). If the disciples came up with a concept to create a new religion on its basis, they would try to make this concept more consistent with the generally accepted expectations of the time.
Jesus could only leave the tomb if he was resurrected
Proponents of the "swoon theory" claim that Jesus was not actually dead when he was buried, and that he later came to his senses. However, in this case, the weak, emaciated, wrapped in heavy burial linen, Jesus could hardly move the heavy stone that closed the entrance to the tomb and go outside. Moreover, the Roman authorities ordered the door to be sealed, so even if he managed to move the stone, the guards would seize him and subject him to further abuse. Since there is no mention of such an incident, it simply did not happen. Otherwise, the enemies of Jesus would certainly raise a fuss around such an amazing event.
The very existence of the Christian Church has no meaning if Jesus is not resurrected.
Some critics claim that the resurrection story is a later addition to the life of Christ, written by the Church many years later to glorify their dead hero. However, we know from independent historical sources that a sect of Christians arose in the area of Lake Tiberias, and that the main reason for its appearance was their belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The resurrection was not a later addition to the Christian faith, it was its cause and stimulus. The followers of Christ built their faith not on historical accounts, but on what they saw with their own eyes. The descriptions were the result of their faith, not its cause. Christianity is based on the historical fact of the resurrection, because without it, faith is a fake. If there were no resurrection, there would be no New Testament, no Christian Church.
The disciples could not benefit from a fictional history and a new religion.
By Jesus' investigators faced hardship, ridicule, hostility from those around them, and many died martyrs for their faith. In light of all this, it is hard to imagine that they would have stood up for their beliefs so unwaveringly if they knew they were preaching a lie. They found a certain reward in religion, but the basis for it was a sincere belief in the truth of what they teach.
Unanimous Testimony of Early Christian Leaders
If the empty tomb and the resurrection were fiction, why didn't at least one of the disciples break away from the rest and create their own version of Christianity? Or why didn't at least one of them tell the world that the disciples' claim was a lie? The Temple authorities would gladly pay any amount of money to anyone who could provide such information. If money was not a sufficient incentive, why couldn't some enterprising person prove that the resurrection story was a lie in order to attract disciples and become the leader of a new cult? History has shown that this role has always been very popular, and the situation described was an excellent opportunity for this.
Without exhaustive and conclusive evidence for the resurrection, it is difficult to explain the enduring unity of early Christian leaders, especially in light of the human propensity for self-promotion. The fact that they were all committed to the truth of their proclaimed message is the only explanation for their unity and the absence of any revelation. Those who lie for personal gain usually don't stick together for long, especially when the hardship overshadows the gain.
Any other explanation for the resurrection seems implausible
In light of such evidence as the empty tomb, the appearances of Jesus after the resurrection, and the explosive growth of the Christian Church, a reasonable person should conclude that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a confirmed historical fact. In a court of law, such evidence would have sufficed for a guilty verdict, had it not been for the contradictory evidence that creates the basis for a "justifiable doubt." However, any alternative explanations and theories look very dubious and based on speculation. Consequently, Christians who build their faith on confirmed historical fact behave quite prudently and in accordance with common sense. Christianity not only has a solid historical foundation, but also holds the promise of unimaginable benefits for those who believe. According to the Bible, the only undeniable promise of eternal life to mankind, both individually and collectively, depends on our faith in the resurrection. As Halley writes: “What a radiance of glory this simple faith illumines human life! Our hope for the resurrection and eternal life is based not on philosophical hypotheses about immortality, but on historical fact.”
