203
T h e
April 1927
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
Resurrection and Modern Theories B y t h e E ditor - in -C h ie f
The analogies are wholly inadequate to explain the facts; The resurrection story was created and cir culated in Jerusalem, while those who put Christ to death were still living there and vitally interested in what hap pened. This theory also has to reckon with an empty tomb and'a transformed life. These phases are wholly lacking in the myths of comparative religion. III. T h e S pir itua l S ig n ifica n c e T heory This says, “Faith has by no means to do with knowl edge of form in which Jesus lives, but only with the con viction that He is the' living Lord.” “What Paul and the disciples regarded as ail important was not the state in which the grave was found, but -Christ’s appearances.” Thè Easter faith was that Christ actually survived the crisis of death and lives a deathless life. This theory is one of the most*; subtle set forth today, but is by no means free from difficulties. (à) In the final analysis this is nothing more than a belief in immortality and that cfertainly was not a new belief in the day of Peter and Paul. Then why should the conviction that Jesus lives beyond death lead them to accept Him as the Son of God with power to change their thinking and. lifefl The New Testament story is that the men of that day; actually believed that they met Jesus Christ; in a sense;, in which they never met anyone else who had died. They experienced Him in a sense in which they had experienced' none of their departed loved ones. Saul of Tarsus, for example, had no doubt that Jesus, who was crucified as a malefactor, survived the crisis of death. That simple fact meant nothing to him. The thing that he resented was the idea that this Jesus was actually raised from the dead, and when, on the way to Damascus, he met Him and became convinced that He was actually alive in a new and a different way, he believed on Him as the Son of God and this faith made him a new man. So real,,was this thing that the,Apostle says without it wè are of all men most miserable. The: story of the resurrection is the story-of the action of God as master in the realms of life and death and it remains forever the guarantee of the. final victory of righteousness and.the triumph of love.
EN have tried to get rid of the supernatural in the resurrection story of the New Testa- mènt ever since the day the Pharisees .paid soldiers money in order to lie about it. Men in our day try to get rid of it in ways which are in keeping with the thinking of the day.
Let us look at three of the ways in which mén of our day endeavor, with a show of reasonableness, to read the story apart from the supernatural. I. T h e P sychological W ay This has two approaches : (a)-5That 'which 'is empha sized from the psychical research point of view. It is said that it is now established that we can communicate with those who have gone before. In this, way Jesus communjA cated with the disciples and they called the experience a resurrection. This theory encounters at least two serious difficulties : First, it is not established as a fact that we can com municate with the dead. Second, communication with the dead in the sense which Dr. Oliver Lodge and others claim does not empty the graves of the people they talk with. (b) The second approach of the psychological theory is that it is now recognized that it is a common psycholog ical experience for men to project certain ideas from their subconscious life and objectify them in such a way as to make them think that they are really experiencing an ob jective reality. The thing that happened to the disciples was that while they could not possibly give up the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, the lurking thought of His resur rection buried in the subconscious life 'came to the surface and was projected in such a way that they honestly thought that they actually saw Him. This has several insuperable difficulties :■ : (1 ) Thé trouble with the disciples was that they did not have this idea in their subconscious life-^-far from it. This is why it was almost impossible for Christ Jo con vince them that He was actually alive. (2) It is not usual for five hundred people to project- the same kind of an idea at the same time. This is a fact in spfte of all that may be said regarding the won ders of mob psychology. (3) Even if the psychological conditions were favor able for such an experience, it certainly could not get rid of the tomb that held- the body of the One that they believed to be raised from the dead. II. T h e C omparative R elig ion T heory This theory calls attention to the fact that" other religions have, stories of gods who died and rose again, hind the New Testament writers got their idea of a resurrection from them. This also is embarrassed by several.serious difficulties : (a) The assumption that the New Testament stoty was influenced by oriental conceptions concerning a dying and rising Messiah is simply not justified by history. This has been settled in a very able way by Dr. Kennedy of Edinburgh in his treatment o>f this subject.
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