The Resurrection of the Dead: If God raised you to life once before, can He not do it again?

Our mere existence and personal experience demonstrates God’s ability to raise the dead.

Why should it be thought incredible that God can raise the Dead? God has clearly shown his power before being understood from the things that are made. The mere fact that you exist now should be self-evident. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. God knit you together in your mother’s womb. He formed your inward parts and not another. It was He who made you grow and made you into the person you are now today. God is the only one who really gives men life and breath and all things. What part of this process can you really take credit for? No man has power over his own birth just as He has no power over his own death. No one could deliver themselves from such things. Neither can any man deny such obvious facts. If God raised you to life once before, can He not do it again? Why see God as powerless to raise the dead knowing His power has been clearly manifested in your life before?
Why say there is no resurrection when personal experience tells you otherwise? The creator has filled the world with such resurrection examples. The same sun that sets always rises again in the morning. Seeds that are sown into the ground sprout again into new life. Planting a seed is one thing; making something grow of it’s own accord is quite another. Every night we lie down and sleep. In our slumber, we find rest from our labor and our strength is renewed. As we rest, we dream of all our hopes, aspirations, cares, and fears. Our very dreams should tell us there is more to life than just the physical world that surrounds us. We awake again because the Lord sustains us. Should these personal experiences not tell us something? Should not the Creator’s Handiwork tell us something of his intentions?

Don’t knock the Historical evidence of Scripture until you have at least examined the data.

Scripture gives us an even more clear word on the subject. The History recorded there attests to the resurrection of the dead. Now many like to outright dismiss the historical evidence of Scripture staring them in the face. They let their preconceived notions of disbelief get the best of them. You cannot learn anything by closing your eyes to historical data. Putting your head in the sand and refusing to listen is not objectivity. This should be obvious to everyone but too many people miss this point. Objectivity requires seeing things as they are and not just how you want them to be. Nothing can be proven to someone who refuses to listen. All atheist arguments in a nutshell can be reduced to one irrefutable fact. The fact they don’t see God for themselves. Failing to perceive something does not of itself prove non-existence. There are plenty of things in the world like thoughts, microbial life, and the wind that cannot be seen with the human eye and yet we know them to exist. We perceive these invisible things through indirect means. The same can be said of the invisible God or singular events like the resurrection. Perceiving them can never occur if you refuse to look. You have to be willing to use the eyes God has given you with an open objective mind and heart. God promises everyone who has ears to hear shall hear. For everyone hears what they listen for. A closed mind hears nothing.

Test the foundation of Scripture to know it is in fact firm.

Of course, a person should not simply swallow what is claimed either; they must be willing to critically examine what is written. These claims are either true or false. Believing in something that was not really true holds little value for anyone. What point would there be in following Christ if indeed there were no resurrection from the dead? Scripture itself actually concedes this point. The Biblical account goes into great detail to prove that Jesus died, was buried, and was then resurrected from the dead. I discuss some of these evidences surrounding the empty tomb in a previous post. These accounts are recounted that people might come to know Christ’s power over the dead and that by believing in Him they could have life in his Name. Anyone willing to read the text can see this; let the text speak for itself. Don’t try to make the text say something other than what it says. Accept the claims at face value and then weigh them for their veracity. Until a person presses against the foundation for himself, He cannot really know that it is in fact firm. Biblical faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you have not seen. A person can only be certain after He has critically examined the evidence for himself.

Let God’s promises of resurrection be an anchor for your soul.

Promises are only as good as the individuals who make them. God, who has proven his ability to raise the dead through creation and through the resurrection of Jesus, has put his own character on the line by making these promises in Scripture. Though some may sleep, yet shall they all be awake; for all are alive to God. For who could really praise the Lord if they really ceased to exist. What you sow is not really made alive until it first dies. Scripture says the righteous perish and no man takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away and none consider that in doing so they are spared evil. They enter into peace as they rest in their beds. Only when a man loses his life for Christ’s sake first does He then find it. Death may cast it’s shadow, but for the believer it remains a shadow. Death holds no sting for the believer. Whoever lives and believes in Christ shall never die. He who raised the Lord will someday raise us also. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Because He lives all those who believe in Him shall also live. Each shall be made alive in their own order: Christ, the first fruits and afterward those who are Christ’s at his Coming. For Jesus will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the dead shall rise first. He has promised to physically raise all those who believe in Him on the last day and at the last trumpet. At that time, the earth will cast out her dead. God will open our graves and cause us to rise. He will put His Spirit into us and cause us to live. He will gird us with sinews and cover us with flesh; a house made without hands. He will endow us with a body of His choosing. He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. We will all be changed. We will be made incorruptible and will be clothed with immortality. In our own flesh and with our own eyes we shall see God for ourselves. Let His precious promises be an anchor for your soul.