The great day is finally here: Easter, the most important day of the Christian calendar. More important even than Christmas.
What happened on this day?
Was Jesus’ resurrection a real, historical event?
How does the Church celebrate this day?
Is Easter a pagan holiday?
Here are 8 things you need to know.
1. What happened on Easter?
Among other things:
- The women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.
- They saw angels, who told them he wasn’t there.
- They went to tell the apostles, who initially didn’t believe them.
- Peter and the beloved disciple rushed to see the tomb and found it empty.
- Mary Magdalen, in particular, had an encounter with the risen Christ.
- So did the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
- So did Peter.
- So did all the apostles except Thomas (who would have one later).
- Jesus had risen from the dead!
To read about the events in the New Testament, you can use these links:
2. Was Jesus’ Resurrection a real, historical event or something else?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
639 The mystery of Christ’s resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness.
In about A.D. 56 St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians:
“I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. . .”
The Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus.
> that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness.
One source that has a lot of stuff we know isn’t true is not “historically verified”. There is no such thing in regards to the story of Jesus.
@salvage
Evidence?
Classy of you, though, to post your snide comments on Easter Sunday. Real classy.
Jesus is not mentioned anywhere other than the Bible.
In the story of Jesus there is nothing original, evey thing he said / did / had happen happened to other mythological figures.
His whole story makes very little sense in any real-world context.
Facts are only “snide” if you don’t like them.
@salvage
” Jesus is not mentioned anywhere other than the Bible.”
That certainly would have come as a shock to the rabbis who wrote of and against Him, to Flavius Josephus, and to the many extra-biblical writings written within living memory about Him. Is your reading really that selective?
How about giving us a few examples to support your second sentence? And try not to be shocked when they get blasted out of the water.
As for your last sentence, if you are trying to prove your lack of manners and maturity, you are succeeding.
No, they wrote about Christians, not Christ, no one from the time Jesus is said to have been around doing miracle wrote about him. There is nothing from that era that shows any proof of Jesus ever being. The Gospels came decades later and then historians started noting the slow rise of the new Jewish cult.
Your god “sacrificed” itself to itself so it wouldn’t be angry with its creation for being exactly as it made it / knew it was going to be.
Your god came to Earth but only revealed itself to a sliver of the population for a fraction of time in a tiny geographic area. Its religion only came to a place of power some 300 years later after several bloody civil wars. It was further spread to Europe and the Americas via more genocidal wars.
Is that what your god meant when it talked about the meek inheriting the Earth?
Your god’s message was so muddled and confused that it has spawned countless sects. It’s strange that your god is such a poor communicator that it’s followers have killed each other over the message.
There have been approximately 4,000 gods that mankind has worshipped over the last 10,000 years and yet yours is the real one? Strange that it offers no more evidence than all those other fake gods.
I know you don’t like facts that disagree with your religion but that doesn’t stop them from being facts.
I look forward to your “blasting”.
Oh as for manners, you love and worship a god that is going to throw me into Hell to be tortured forever for not thinking as you do. That’s pretty rude wouldn’t you say?
@salvage
Talk about someone not liking facts that disagree with him…
Try actually reading Flavius Josephus and the rabbis and stop putting your ignorance on parade.
Of course, his last paragraph shows he will not take the responsibility for his own rudeness, just tries to deflect it away.
@salvage
“Now about this time arises Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he should be called a man. For he was a doer of marvelous deeds, a teacher of men who receive the truth with pleasure; and he won over to himself many Jews….He was the Christ.”
Flavius Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews”, quoted in volume 1 of Warren Carroll’s “History of Christendom”, page 296.
Dr. Carroll continues with more quotes about Jesus from Josephus’ “The Jewish War”. Both of Josephus’ works were written in the First Century, well within living memory of Jesus.
@salvage
And he offered zero examples to back up his second sentence.
Once again, Josephus and those rabbis did not live when Jesus is said to have lived. They wrote about Christians not Jesus and his story. No one wrote about that until decades later.
So you don’t love and worship a god that will throw people into Hell for not thinking as you do?
No, that passage is well known as a forgery, written centuries after by Christians who understood that is was odd that their god seemed to have been ignored.
And once again, he witnessed nothing, we have no witness accounts outside the Bible and that is not an historical source.
I have made several points about the story of Jesus not making any sense and you have ignored them all.
If Jesus was the one true god why hasn’t the whole world ever embraced him? Why is your god never found in places where people don’t believe in it? For instance why did your god ignore all of the Americas and Far East and most of Africa? It seems that your god can only go as far as armies that believe in it can go.
You’ll ignore these points as well and think that means you “blew me out of the water”.
@salvage
So I quoted Josephus writing about Jesus, and salvage says Josephus did not write about Jesus. Then, he claims that the passage is a forgery–for which he offers no evidence. In other words, anything which contradicts his view must be ignored.
We are dealing with someone whose ignorance is willful.
It is a forgery, it’s a well know fact that you can confirm yourself with a simple Google and reading but you won’t.
And again, he was not an eye witness, there are no eye witnesses, there is only the Bible and we know that it contains many things that are simply not true.
You also continue to ignore all my other points, why is that?
@salvage
“…and we know that it contains many things that are simply not true.”
And, still, ZERO evidence provided.
Your god said it made the universe in six days, this is off by a magnitude of billions of years.
Your god said it made animals as they are now, this simply is not true, all life on this planet evolved from simpler forms over a gradual period.
The Bible tells the story of your god getting angry and covering the whole world with water but told one family to build an boat and load it with animals. This is obviously not true.
There is much more of course.
Do you even notice that you ignore all the points I’ve made? You do know that by not answering them you are tacitly admitting their accuracy?
@salvage
The subject was Jesus. I missed the things the Bible says about Jesus that are not true.
@salvage
Since I have addressed many of the points he has made, what does his claim that I have ignored all his points say about his reading comprehension skills?
Oh.
So all the stuff that obviously isn’t true isn’t true unless it’s about Jesus than it’s all true?
No, you haven’t.
I’ll show you:
The story of Jesus makes no sense because it is your god “sacrificing” itself to itself so it wouldn’t be angry with its own creation for behaving exactly as it knew it was going to behave.
Please tell me why I am wrong.
You won’t of course, theists never do. You ignore all the glaring flaws of your beliefs because you want them to be true, it’s far more comforting than reality.
See it’s this sort of thing that moves theism into the realm of delusion.
I will not tell you why you are wrong and I encourage my fellow commenters not to either, since no matter what answer any of us gives, you will reject it. You are not looking for honest answers or discussion. You are simply a troll looking to stir up trouble. I have noticed your presence on several Catholic websites I visit and you do this exact thing everywhere you post. I encourage all my fellow readers to ignore this “salvage”, whoever he/she is. Goodbye, salvage!
And that’s why the story of Jesus is not only true but makes perfect sense!
Do you notice that you won’t shut me up by showing me how wrong I am?
That really suggests you have no answers but can’t admit it.
It is okay to say you don’t know but theists never seem to want to say that.
I wonder why?
He proved your point, Elizabeth. And mine.
No, that’s still not answering any of my questions or points.
It’s so strange, the stuff I believe in I believe in because I can prove it or at least it makes sense so when people tell me I’m wrong I can defend my points.
Of course sometimes I find out I’m wrong.
Which is a good thing because that’s the only way to get right.
So can you tell me why Jesus came back to life only to vanish like a dead person would? And why his religion needed war to spread from Italy to Europe and the Americas?
Yes, he sure did prove our point. Which is why I advise all our fellow readers to ignore him. When he realizes we will not play ball, he will go away. Or if he persists and takes over Jimmy’s combox , he may get himself banned like he did over at the Curt Jester blog.