Even Caesar Confirmed the Resurrection

After Christ’s Resurrection, a Roman Emperor issued a decree for people to stop stealing bodies from Judah’s sepulchers. Without realizing it, he was confirming Christ’s Resurrection! The Nazareth Inscription is a powerful piece of extrabiblical evidence that Christ’s Resurrection was already being proclaimed shortly after He was raised.

The inscription is on a marble tablet written in Greek. Since the discovery was published in 1930, no scholar has produced evidence to disprove its authenticity. It’s an abridged decree by either Tiberius (14-37 AD) or Claudius (41–54 AD), pronouncing the death penalty in Israel for anyone caught robbing bodies from tombs. (Normally, grave robbers stole valuables, not bodies!) It refers specifically to “sepulcher sealing tombs,” a special type used in Israel.

This “Decree of Caesar” is known as an imperial rescript, having the force of law. Rescripts frequently dealt with unusual legal, religious, or political issues arising in a specific region. The text fits both the style and structure of other rescripts of Claudius. Matthew records one of the first responses to reports of Jesus’ Resurrection. The Jewish authorities invented a lie that the disciples had stolen the body (Matt. 28:13). Their goal was to spread an alternative story explaining why the body was missing and the tomb was empty. The Nazareth Inscription is very likely the Roman response to that very same problem.

In his dialogue with a nonbelieving Jew, Justin Martyr (AD 100–165) also refers to these early attempts to explain away the empty tomb of Jesus: “Yet you not only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I said before you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.”

The Nazareth Inscription forces skeptics to deal more deeply with the two major competing views of events: believing in the Resurrection of Christ or believing that His disciples stole His body from the tomb to perpetrate a great religious fraud. The account of Christ’s Resurrection was first circulated by the Apostles themselves, according to Scripture, and it was not a later invention by Christians of the post-apostolic period. The inscription is excellent evidence confirming this truth, and it brings to mind Paul’s statement, “If Christ is not risen … your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). (Henry B. Smith, Answers in Genesis, April 1, 2015)  www.makinglifecount.net www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com  

Do You See What Actually Happened There?

The following comes from my book, MORE Amazing Stories & Daily Devotionals

The Archbishop of Paris was preaching to a large congregation in Notre Dame cathedral. He told the story of three rebellious young men who wandered into the cathedral one day. Two of the men made a bet with the third man that he would not make a fake confession to the priest. He accepted the bet and went to the priest for confession, making up a story about a sin he had committed.

When he finished, the priest said, “Go to the crucifix over there, kneel down before it, and repeat three times, ‘All this you did for me and I don’t really care.’” The young man knelt before the crucifix, looked up at the face of Jesus on the cross and said, “All this you did for me, and I …”

He choked up and tried again. “All this you did ...” He couldn’t go any further. His heart broke and he started sobbing. For the first time in his life, he understood what Jesus had done for him by sacrificing His life. The archbishop finished his sermon by saying, “You might think I made up this story, but it’s true. I was that young man!”

What should we see when we look at the cross? We see Jesus taking our sins upon Himself. “He Himself bore our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:14). We see Him opening the door into heaven “so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus didn’t have to die for us, but He did, so that we could spend eternity with Him. 

People who look at the cross and walk away unchanged do not see what happened there. Do you see it? Do you see what actually happened at the cross? Most people don’t see it. I hope you do. www.makinglifecount.net www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com