16 Apr '05 10:32>
Originally posted by no1marauderThere is the fact of the Lord's Day. For thousands of years the Hebrew people had held their sabbath doctrine. Then we find a group of early Christians who were Jews changing the day of worship from the seventh to the first day! What could account for their abandoning something to which they held to so tenaciously? Nothing other than such a monumental event as the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which took place on the first day of the week; His appearance to his disciples on the first day of the week; and the outpouring of His Spirit on the church at Pentecost on the first day of the week. So we read that it was on the first day of the week that the disciples of Jesus Christ met to worship Him.
Please actually present some evidence, rather than saying somebody else believed it to be true.
There is the fact of Easter. This was aa replacement of the Jewish festival of the Passover. Why did the Jews who held the Passover to be the most significant event in the history of their nation abandon it in favour of the celebration of Easter, which was a festival among the Christains? The greeting was: "Christ is risen!" And the response: "Christ is risen indeed!" What other fact than the resurrection of Christ can explain the existance of the festival of Easter, which traces back to the time of the early church?
There is the fact of the Christian sacraments, which point not only to the death and suffering of Christ but also to His resurrection and power. These can be traced back to the very time of the death of Jesus Christ.
There is the fact of Christian art. In the catacombs of Rome, from the time of the persecution, we find carved into the walls representations of the resurrection of Christ as a paart of the earliest beliefs of hte Christians.
There is the fact of Christian hymnody. In the earliest days of the Christian church, hymns were sung of the resurrected Jesus Christ.
Then there is the undeniable fact of the Christian Church. Many people don't make the connection between the Church and the Resurrection, but all scholars have. The Christian church is five times larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. More than one billion three hundred million people this day profess to worship Jesus Christ as the living and risen Son of God. How did such an institution come into existance? As someone said: "The Grand Canyon was not formed by an Indian dragging a stick." Neither was an institution the size of the Christian Church brought to pass by the daydreams of idle dreamers in days gone by. It is known by all historians that the church can be traced back to the city of Jerusalem in A.D. 30, the time of the death and resurrection of Christ.