The Very Essence of Christianity Dear Friend, Psalm 16:10 says, “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Psalm 16:10 ESV Death is a reality that every person must face. It plagues all of mankind, no matter how rich or poor, smart or dumb you are. You cannot cheat death or pay for eternal life. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos must confront the reality of death, just as much as the poorest person in India. Because death seems so final, and it universally impacts everyone, we struggle to believe what Psalm 16:10 says. We believe that it is only poetry, and the author can’t literally mean what he said. And yet, this verse points to the one who truly did defeat death. In our post-Truth, modern, skeptical minds the resurrection of Jesus Christ sounds crazy. The funny thing is the resurrection sounded just as crazy to Jesus’ contemporaries as it does to us today. Everyone knows that dead people stay dead people. We play around with the idea of resurrection, but it’s normally in a sick and twisted way. The Walking Dead is still a popular show, reflecting our twisted imaginations around zombies and monsters. Our culture seems to laugh at the idea that the dead could walk again, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential to our faith. The early churches that were born and grew under the mighty power of the Holy Spirit struggled to survive in a pagan world. They were severely persecuted and hated by both Jews and Gentiles for the gospel. Families were torn apart, businesses were ruined, and thousands of men, women, and children died for Jesus Christ. Not only were the external persecutions extreme, but internal divisions and arguments divided the churches. Several of the letters Paul wrote in our New Testament were attempts to clarify, correct, rebuke, and restore these wayward churches. Arguably one of the most deadly lies that were spread throughout the Church in Corinth dealt with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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