Power Over Death

"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" 1 Corinthians 15:14

I thought since Easter will soon be upon us, I would write a piece on the resurrection of Jesus.

The one event I will always remember as a young child growing up in a staunch conservative Catholic family of fourteen is the Stations of the Cross which we attended every Lenten season. My parents would haul the entire bunch of us in our station wagon to the local Catholic Church where we would fill up the entire pew. Like everything else in life everyone knew the Dias' were arriving – this time at church. What do I remember about the Stations of the Cross? They were boring….

As we squirmed our way into the pews, our parents would grab our arms in vain attempts to settle us down. We would be kicking each other hurling insults at each other in soft whispers (or what we thought were whispers.) Parishioners would stare at us with disdainful and derisive looks in their eyes. I could sometimes envision them reaching from their pews and choking me. I remember looking at those huge stained glass windows that were evenly spaced around the church each one showing a particular experience in Christ's journey to Golgotha, the place he was to be crucified. We sat and fidgeted as we awaited the arrival of the priest. The priest would enter the church from the back slowly swaying the thurible suspended from chains as the distinct smell of incense would permeate the sanctuary. He was followed by two altar boys who carried his white robes in their hands. The incense was a pleasant aroma. I would glance at each stained glass window, and occasionally my eyes would stop and gaze at one and I would fixate on it more intently like Station 11 where Jesus was nailed to the cross. But what did it all mean?

I remember as a child hearing the strange chants that were sung during the service.

At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
all His bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has passed

I never questioned my faith at that age – it just was. We were Catholics. Jesus suffered, died and was buried for our sins, but okay so what! As I grew older, my mind became more inquisitive. Who was this man who defied a Roman empire? And what did all of it mean? I was not satisfied with just saying it was so. I needed to know if this man was who he truly said he was, and what was the proof.

This is what I discovered.

The Torture

Crucifixion is a terrifying and excruciating way to die. During Roman times, it was reserved for the slave, rebels, or pirates. Jesus was first flogged with at least thirty-nine lashes with a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them. The whip would cause deep bruises or contusions which would break open the flesh more with each lash. The lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and the ripped flesh would lay bare and the victim was left open to exposure. Hypovolemic shock would set in from the loss of large amounts of blood. Most people would not have survived the flogging.

After the flogging, Jesus had to carry the cross to Golgotha where he was nailed. The Romans used spikes, five to seven inches long and drove these nails into the wrist. Contrary to the popular paintings of the Renaissance period, the nails were not nailed in the hands. The hands were not strong enough to support the weight of the human body. The nails were driven into the place where the median nerve runs in the wrist. This would be like taking a pair of pliers and squeezing and crushing the nerve. Imagine hitting the funny bone in your elbow and multiplying that pain 100 fold. Jesus was then hoisted up as the crossbar was attached to the vertical stake, and then nails were driven through his feet.

Crucifixion is a slow and painful death. The victim dies of asphyxiation. The stresses on the muscles and diaphragm put the chest into an inhaled position. For Jesus to exhale, he had to somehow lift up his weakened body to release the tension in his muscles and then exhale. He would have to continue to do this with each breath scraping his bloodied back against the back of the cross. The splinters of the cross would become embedded into his already torn flesh. This could only go on for so long before complete exhaustion takes hold, and he could no longer breathe. The hypovolemic shock would have caused a sustained heart rate that would have contributed to heart failure resulting in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart. This is called a pericardial effusion. Fluid would also have collected around the lungs called pleural effusion. Needless to say, I cannot imagine a more painful and excruciating death than Crucifixtion.

The Evidence

1. The Medical Evidence – In Luke 22:44 in the garden of Gethsemane, The Bible states, "His sweat was like drops of blood". This is a medical condition called, "hematidrosis." Hematidrosis causes the release of chemicals in the capillaries during high degrees of stress. In John 19:33, the Bible states that the soldiers were going to break his legs. This would have been done to speed up his death. They confirmed his death when they thrust a spear into his right side. In John 19:34, the Bible states, "But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out." This negated the reason for breaking the legs. The piercing of Jesus' side is important because it describes the pericardial effusion and pleural effusion effects described above. The fluid excreted as a result of the thrusting of the spears into the side of Jesus would have appeared to be both blood and water. Knowledge of medicine was extremely limited during Roman times, but they were experts at killing. The medical evidence of the crucifixion is consistent with today's medical knowledge.
   
2. The Apostles – The apostles were not brave men. After the crucifixion, the apostles were lost souls. Jesus had died and they did not know what to do. They even questioned their own beliefs. Was he truly the messiah? After his death they dispersed. Peter even denied he knew Jesus. After the resurrection, the apostles regrouped and committed their lives to preaching the gospel. The apostles were now willing to die because they had witnessed the resurrection. Most if not all eventually died for their beliefs except for John who was exiled to the Island of Patmos where he wrote "Revelation." How they all died is not completely known, but what is known is that they all had a profound conversion from timorous and weak individuals to indomitable and courageous individuals. This was the power of the gospel.
   
3. The prophecy – The most compelling evidence of the crucifixion is found in Isaiah 53:3-9. Isaiah was written in the second half of the eighth century B.C. more than seven hundred years before Jesus' death. Yet in Isaiah 53, it foreshadows both the suffering and death of Jesus.
   

    He was despised and rejected by men,
       a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
       Like one from whom men hide their faces
       he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

  Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

 
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and 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 her shearers is silent,
       so he did not open his mouth.

 
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
       And who can speak of his descendants?
       For he was cut off from the land of the living;
       for the transgression of my people he was stricken. ^[b]

 
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,
       though he had done no violence,
       nor was any deceit in his mouth.

 

The resurrection of Christ is the most important event in history. It is more important that the birth of Jesus. Had the resurrection not occurred, Christendom would have faded into obscurity. As children we are taught to believe because our parents believe. But, as we grow older, our minds are able to understand and analyze more. The evidence of the resurrection is compelling. Paul said his faith would have been in vain if the resurrection were not true. Was the resurrection some sort of chicanery by clever individuals? If the resurrection were indeed some sort of fabrication, then the greatest hoax has been perpetrated on mankind. Skeptics will continue to deny the resurrection, but the evidence is there. The apostles, the prophecies, the medical evidence all point to the veracity of the Bible's claim – Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. So, the next question would be what do we do about it?

Sources: The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel

Archaeology of the New Testament John McRay

Bernie Ward, the Blowhard of the left

I wasn't going to blog about this, but after listening to KGO last night, I couldn't resist.
I usually listen to conservative talk radio, but on occasion, I will listen to KGO radio even though it usually hosts personalities from the left or left leaning. The only political talk show personality on KGO who is not left leaning is Dr. Bill Wattenberg.
Bernie Ward commonly referred to as "The lion of the left" is an ex-Priest. He was one of the most abrasive and radical hosts at KGO radio. He does not tolerate anyone's views but his own. In addition to his own nightly show, Bernie also hosted a radio show called, "God talk" which was nothing but a bunch of sacrilegious bunk. I heard the most moronic of people call into his shows. Bernie also had his own version of the gospels, because what he taught was sure not scriptural.
Bernie Ward, a corpulent obese and obstreperous blowhard enjoyed his strident diatribes against the Bush administration, the conservative and especially the fundamental Christian. He even started his own church on his show "God Talk" thinking it droll and called it, "the Church of the Holy Donut." His views on eschatology included his belief that hell didn't exist, and he was intolerant of anyone else who had a different eschatological view than his. Ward had his own distorted view of the Bible. Spurred on by his vainglory of his background as a priest, Bernie would incessantly tout about how much he knew of the Bible while everyone else knew nothing. He taught theology at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, CA. but his theology was the most bizarre of any theology I had ever heard. Reverend Wright's Trinity United might have been less radical. He didn't allow callers who were Bible adherents and knowledgeable to cite the Bible as proof that Bernie was wrong, instead these Bible-thumpers as he would call them would have to paraphrase, and then he would tail off into one of his rants and then hang up on them. Everything was relative according to Bernie's theology. Bad was only what you thought bad was and good was only what you thought good was. What God said was irrevelant. Do what feels good. If you were an atheist, you were going to heaven. It didn't matter who you were unless you were a fundamental Christian, then you were damned to Bernie's non-existent hell. Bernie's knowledge of the Bible was nescient to say the least.
Bernie would rant against the Iraq war with the same passion he railed against the fundamental Christian. Bernie also railed against the pedophilia in the Catholic Church.
Bernie Ward was recently charged with sending child porn via the internet, a crime punishable by five years in prison per image. It was actually hard for me to believe since Bernie was involved in a lot of Catholic charities. I did not think he was a predator. Several things did not add up. There was supposed to only be a couple of images that were sent across the Internet. Child predators would have many more than just a couple of images on their computers. Bernie Ward said it was for research on a book he was doing on hypocrisy (probably his). So where was the manuscript? Bernie Ward is the epitome of hypocrisy. It took the police several years before they actually charged him. Why did they wait so long? And why did child protective services allow Bernie Ward to keep custody of his children? Television stations even discovered chat transcripts in which he even talked about sexual acts with his children. Of course, that was just pure fantasy. He never did perform sexual acts on his children, but what father would even talk that way about his children. And, CPS let him keep his children.

Bernie's initial reaction to the allegations was to create a website, and try to get hired back on KGO, and at the same time raise funds for his defense. This was the height of arrogance on Bernie's part to create a website for the sole purpose of continuing his rants while trying to bring his flock together to support him. As details leaked out, I presume he decided that was not a good idea, and the website went down.
Today, however, several months after Bernie was fired from KGO, we find out more information, and now the Internet porn charges are beginning to make more sense. We discover that Bernie actually stated in writing that he sent between 15 and 150 images over the internet. We also discover that other priests had concerns about Bernie. At the high school where he taught, channel 7 has confirmed two alleged sexual misconducts while he was a priest. Rossane Schwab spoke of a beach outing where Bernie made sexual advances towards her. Click on Bernie Ward to check out the lurid details and other incidences.
So now we know who this man really is.
KGO had a comment section on their piece about Bernie Ward, and this is where it gets interesting. There were the typical rational comments on how some were appalled, etc, but there were also a slew of liberals whose comments were unbelievable. There was a barrage of comments on how his arrest was a conspiracy and a setup by the Bush administration, and that the Bush Administration wanted to silence him. I have news for you liberals out there – Bernie is not that important. Some would call in the talk show on Gene Burn's show or Karel's show about the conspiracy too, and at least the hosts did tell them it wasn't true. Then there were those comments about how people were torn up inside, and that Bernie represented a part of their life, and they were just so upset over it. Some called in the talk shows with teary eyes. You could almost see the lachrymose eyes. Others wrote comments about how their bubble had been burst, what were they going to do now? I listen to talk radio. These liberals are just nuts. Do they not have a life? These are talk show hosts. They are entertaining, some are informative, some are better than others. Most conservative talk show hosts are better than the liberal talk show hosts although I have heard entertaining liberal talk show hosts. I remember when Cynthia Oti, the financial KGO radio host, died in a plane crash, Alaska airline flight 261 from Mexico to California. I was somewhat saddened. This was a true tragedy, but I was also able to put it in perspective. She was not a family member; she was a radio talk show host. Liberals are just nuts. They don't know these people. The talk show host is doing his/her job, and he/she only hears a voice on the other end. Conservatives do not react this way. If you liberals really wanted to show your concern or support, and if you are believers, pray for his family and pray for him that he may seek true guidance from God.

Melanie Morgan knew him well, a former conservative talk show host from KSFO whom I respect says the following about Bernie:

The way he treated his family, for one thing, screaming at his children in public for seemingly minor misbehaviors on the many occasions he brought them to KGO/KSFO radio functions, and to our home.

It's not about personal responsibility. liberals don't seem to worry about the victims, Bernie's family, his children, the children in the pictures, the parents of the children. It's all about Bernie. This is the liberal mindset. They will blame anything and everything on the Bush administration even a child pornographer. It's not Bernie, he is a part of the liberal family, it must be the Bush administration. It's a sad state of affairs. I posted some of the comments below from the KGO website. These were mostly on the first page of the comment section.

....... I still can't believe this has happened. I cannot wrap my mind around this.... I have listened to Bernie for the last 18 years.,, and feel he is part of my family...
I don't know what to say.

- Crystal

 

My bubble has burst. I am crushed that Bernie Ward has fallen.He, like the other liberal talk show hosts have been my idols.Had it not been for them the past 7 years I doin't know that I would have survived this corrupt Bush administration.
My prayers go out to the Ward family and I hope and pray they can move past this and go on with theri lives. I hope Bernie can survive prison.
God bless them all.

- Marcus Vittitow

 

This reeks of a set up. Bernie was dealing with a powerful entity the catholic church. He angered a lot of pedophiles in the church hierarchy. So they pretty much had to "get him". Unfortunately Bernie helped them although inadvertently. It is tragic in more ways than one. A voice has now been silenced that was making the public aware of the evil that infests the catholic church. That evil is strong and Bernie underestimated it. Hopefully he will be able to write a book on this with the proceeds going to a legal fund for church abused children. Best of luck Bernie. Your presence at KGO will be missed and has changed my listening habits to say the least. Steve

Our family has listened to Bernie for years. None of us are without fault. We hope this situation resolves itself in a speedy manor so he can get back to what he does best. I hope KGO brings him back when this is all over. Still a fan!

I wrote in my weblog this morning that the bush Administration has won. the charges are irrelevant. the effect is dare not ever criticize the Federal government, or it will destroy you.

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