Today's Scripture Reading (February 22, 2021): 1 Corinthians 15
On January 6, 2021, some American citizens
illegally entered the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Amazingly,
many of them didn't disguise themselves in any way. They proudly took pictures
of themselves as they violated American law and proudly threatened the lives of
prominent politicians who were hiding in undisclosed locations in the building.
The images they bravely, or maybe stupidly, published on their social media
pages. The question is, why would they do that? As the police began to arrest
the perpetrators, admissions of guilt complete with photographs seemed to be
published everywhere on the internet, making their task just a little easier.
The answer is that they likely
didn't realize that they were doing anything wrong. The President of the United
States, Donald Trump, had invited them to be there. Besides, they knew exactly
what was going to happen. The all-knowing Q, this is starting to sound like a
Star Trek episode, had decreed that Donald Trump was going to return for his
second term as President. And Donald Trump was never going to prosecute his
supporters.
One of the supporters of the Capital
building invasion explained precisely what she believed was going to happen. On
inauguration day, the television screens would all go black. At that moment,
the military would take control of Washington. And, when the dust settled, they
would place Donald Trump back on his throne. When that didn't happen, there was
a shock that reverberated throughout the Q community. But, by that time, it was
too late for a do-over. In the aftermath of inauguration day, at least some of Q's
followers left the movement. For those who seemed too proud to leave, they
simply changed the prophecy.
Paul is writing to the Corinthian
Church about the promise of the resurrection. Paul believed that the resurrection
of the church in the future could be depended on because Jesus Christ had been
resurrected from the dead. And if they wanted to know if the resurrection of
Jesus was real, all they had to do was look at the lives of the Apostles. If
the resurrection is "fake news," why would they risk their lives to
tell the story. If the resurrection was fake, then the intelligent thing to do in
the light of persecution was to leave the moment or change the prophecy or the
teaching.
The change of behavior in the
followers of Christ is still one of the critical pieces of evidence of the
truth of the resurrection of Jesus. The followers began to celebrate "The
Lord's Day" (Sunday) because Jesus really was raised from the dead. They
suffered persecution because Jesus really was raised from the dead. And many of
them would be executed because they refused to leave the movement or change the
prophecy. And all of this was possible because Jesus really was raised from the
dead.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 16
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