Grave Consequences

They're at it again. Who? The grave robbers. Whose grave are they robbing? It's the grave of Jesus. They are robbing it of His body? No, they can't do that, since it isn't there. That has been known for nearly two thousand years. As recorded in God's inspired Word, the angel explained it: "He is not here, for He is risen as He said" (Matt. 28,6). So how can they rob His grave? They try to rob it of its significance to the world. And why would they want to do that? Good question. In order to understand that you would have to examine the dark and perverse nature of unbelief. It, of course, is Satan who would not want the human race to know that Jesus is the only way of its salvation, and therefore he tries to rob the empty grave of its significance by using whatever means he can to imply that Jesus did not really rise bodily from the tomb. To put it briefly: If he can fool people into believing that Jesus bones might still be in the grave, he can prevent them from joining their Savior in heaven.

So now he is at it again. It so happens that about sixteen years ago there was a construction boom in Jerusalem, during which time burial caves were unearthed. Some stone boxes of bones, called ossuaries, were taken from a crypt and have been in storage for these sixteen years. They had names on them like "Jesus," "Joseph," "Mary." Archeologists, however, did not assume that these were bones from Jesus' family, because these names were very common at that time. But after sixteen years, enter the filmmakers. When they got wind of these boxes of bones, they couldn't resist the temptation to let their imagination run wild—especially when they could capitalize on a religious subject for financial gain. Hence, their production of the recent documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus." One might hesitate to call it a "documentary." Even the chairman of a committee, which is inclined to be skeptical about the Christian faith, said of this film that it "is all about bad assumptions." That is a pretty accurate appraisal, though somewhat understated. It could be said that it is all about unbelief. And, by the way, this is not unbelief's final chapter. Stay tuned.

A Family Torn

For quite some time now we have known that the Episcopal Church is in trouble. What has happened to a church on Whidbey Island in the state of Washington is a microcosm of the state of affairs in the Anglican-Episcopal communion. The church on Whidbey Island now has two distinct congregations; one that has stayed with the U.S. Episcopal Church and the other is aligned with a conservative bishop in the Anglican Communion.

The cause for the rift is the deeply held difference over the ordination of a gay Episcopal bishop. A news service item relates that ''while the two groups worship on the same property, their former closeness is gone, replaced by hard feelings. Decades-long friendships have been strained or lost." The two groups use the same facility, but they stagger their services. "With the Anglicans in the main sanctuary and the Episcopalians usually in a small chapel out back."

Many in the Episcopal Church have grown lax in their adherence to Scripture, trying to "balance the authority of Scripture with reason, experience and tradition," This has led to the division among them as to how to deal with such matters as ordaining gay clergy.

We can sympathize with the rector who opposed the action of his church body when he said, "If you can't refer to Scripture, to the faith the church has taught for 20 centuries... then what are you left with?" The answer is evident: they are left with a divided house, a family tom. And that, sadly, is the story also for much of Protestantism.

Worth Noting

While some liberal religious leaders dawdle over what to do about same-sex unions and the like, giving a poor testimony where one would expect a clear witness, it has taken a military man and a woman magazine publisher to call the "gay" life what it is. To his credit, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, called same-sex acts "immoral" and likened them to adultery. It is heartening to know that there are still such men as the general who call a spade a spade and put to shame those religious leaders who have lost any credibility because of their departure from Holy Scripture.

In another instance of recent note the "gay" movement was given a severe blow when a lesbian publisher renounced her past life style and said she had recently experienced the power of change once she had believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Charlene Cothran had been the publisher of "Venus," a magazine primarily for homosexual African Americans, and she was a supporter of gay and lesbian causes. She now intends to use her magazine in an entirely different way, as expressed in its new mission statement: "to encourage, educate and assist those who desire to leave a life of homosexuality. Our ultimate mission is to win souls for Christ; and to do so by showing love to all God's people. We believe that homosexuality is outside the will of God." Our thanks to the general and the publisher for their testimony.

Paul Madson is a retired pastor living in North Mankato, Minnesota.