Transcript

There are many important passages in scripture, but there's one particular passage that is the foundation for the entire Christian faith.

Now, you might be thinking, Can there really be a most important passage of scripture?

Well, there can, if this part of scripture provides the foundation for the entire Christian faith.

Here's how I'd put it.

One reason we trust scripture is because it has apostolic authority, and we trust the apostles because they have Christ's authority, and we trust Christ's authority because he demonstrated his divine nature through miracles, in particular, his resurrection from the dead.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, then there's no reason to be a Christian.

Paul says that your faith is in vain.

But if Christ did rise from the dead, then we can trust his teaching about the church that he established, including its declarations about things like the canon of scripture.

But we can't say Jesus rose from the dead just because the Bible says so, because by that logic, every supposed holy book that claims a miracle would have to be believed.

Instead, we need to make an historical argument for Christ's resurrection.

One common argument goes like this.

If you look at the New Testament and other 1st-century documents merely as human writings and not as scripture, you can at least know basic facts about Jesus, like that He died on a cross during the reign of Pontius Pilate, and that shortly after His death, His disciples sincerely believed He had risen bodily from the dead.

The founders of other religions, like Muhammad or Buddha, are said to have performed miracles, but those accounts were written long after, in some cases, centuries after they died, and can be explained as legends.

However, the earliest writings about Jesus Christ, written just decades after he died, shows that his followers believed he had risen from the dead.

This was the very catalyst of their faith, and it was not a legend propagated by people who never knew Jesus.

The earliest witness is found in Saint Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 15, where Paul preserves parts of an ancient creed that he himself received from others.

1 Corinthians was written sometime in the '50s, but scholars have dated this creed in verses 3 through 8 to within five years of the crucifixion.

In that passage, it says this, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 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.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

And the early dating of this creed in this part of scripture shows that the resurrection was not a legend that developed long after the time of the original eyewitnesses of Jesus.