Special to WorldTribune.com
By Bill Federer, March 29, 2024
Excerpts from American Minute
Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could possibly be considered the most important day in the world! …
President Ronald Reagan stated April 2, 1983: “This week Jewish families … have been celebrating Passover … Its observance reminds all of … the battle against oppression waged by the Jews since ancient times … And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus.”
Passover is the first of the seven major Jewish Feasts, as listed in Leviticus 25. … Passover was first observed around 1,400 BC, the night before the exodus from Egypt. Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites. The Pharaoh ordered their infant boys thrown into the Nile River. In response, God sent plagues upon Egypt as judgments, the final one being similar to Pharaoh’s order, the angel of death sent to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.
On the 15th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, each Israelite family was to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts of their house so that the judgment of the angel of death would “pass over” their home, indicating their faith, that the lamb had taken the judgment in their place. …
In 33 AD, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the evening and then in the morning he was crucified — on the day of Passover.
The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” The lamb is considered the most innocent of animals. John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!” …
Crucifixion was the most painful Roman torture, reserved for slaves and rebels. …
Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.” Historian Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans … pitied the victims.”
Isaiah chapter 53 prophetically foretold the Messiah’s suffering:
“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed …
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent …
He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished … Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer … The Lord makes his life an offering for sin …
My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities … For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Theologians have debated what Jesus may have experienced when He suffered. In Matthew 12, Jesus replied to those demanding a sign:
“None will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Sir Lionel Luckhoo (1914-1997) was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as world’s most successful criminal attorney. He wrote:
“The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. …
But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN!
He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of God.” …
One of the great evidences is the long series of prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah. These prophecies extend hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ. They include a vast amount of detail concerning Christ himself, His nature and the things He would do when He came–things which to the natural world, or the scientific world, remain to this day completely inexplicable.”
In addition to this, many non-Christian ancient sources confirmed details of Christ. Dr. Gary Habermas catalogued over 3,400 sources, many of which are skeptical or even critical of Christians, adding to their veracity, including:
Josephus 37-100 AD,
Suetonius 70-160 AD
Pliny the Younger 61-113 AD
Tacitus 56-120 AD
Mara Bar-Serapion 72 AD
Lucian 125-180 AD
Babylonian Talmud.
Piecing together these non-biblical sources, they confirm the key points of the gospel, such as:
Jesus died by crucifixion; He was buried; His death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope, believing that His life was ended; The tomb was empty a few days later; The disciples had experiences which they believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus.
The twelve apostles went to their deaths holding their faith in the risen Christ. …
In closing, one last question needs to be answered. Why did the Lamb have to die?
To answer that, we must ask: Why did God make us?
First, we are creatures made in His image with a free will ability to love God.
Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of overwhelming, omnipotent, universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!
Thirdly, God is just and therefore must judge every sin. If He does not judge a sin, His silence would be giving consent to sin. …
Believers in the Old Testament had faith in the Lamb to come; believers in the New Testament have faith in the Lamb that came, but salvation is through the Lamb.
The Lamb of God took the judgment for all of your sins.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” …
When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, and that they are accepted by God – they are filled with joy and gratefulness.
Experiencing the unconditional love of God brings a behavioral change from the inside – out, a polarity change in the heart – instead of avoiding God, you are drawn to God – a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus the Son, then, filled with Holy Spirit, a desire to share the unconditional love of God with a lost and hurting world.
‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!’ added by Editor One on
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