EASTER FAIL: Clowns At Christian Mag Have Novel ‘Thoughts’ About Crucifixion

No less an authority than the Apostle Paul, who was responsible for the lion’s share of the New Testament, had a lot to say about the faith. But he had one central idea in particular.

Since he was an apostle, it’s probably important us to give consideration to what Paul considered the ‘big idea’ in the very scripture he helped to write:

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” — I Cor 2:2.

The death and resurrection of Christ is the lynchpin in faith. If Christ is not raised, the preaching is useless. (1 Cor 15).

The centrality of that work in energizing everything else in the Christian life and launching a victory that is nothing less than cosmic in its scope and application is described in Colossians, chapter 2:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Then along comes a 21st century theologian to set us all straight in a magazine called ‘Christianity Today‘.

Here’s how it opens:

The Bible doesn’t say Jesus was nailed to a cross.
Telling the story of Christ’s death, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John simply say that Roman soldiers crucified him. They don’t say how. Each of the Gospels include specific detail about the soldiers’ method of dividing Jesus’ clothes—a lottery—but none describe the way the soldiers put him on the cross. There are no nails mentioned in any of the four accounts.
Jeffrey P. Arroyo García, an evangelical Bible scholar who teaches at Gordon College, thinks maybe there weren’t any nails.

Oh yay. Somebody dug up an ‘aKsHuALlY guy’  to cast doubt on the Crucifixion account on Easter Sunday.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Closely reading the Bible, looking at the long historical record of Roman crucifixion, and examining the archaeological evidence, García has come to the conclusion that the Crucifixion might have been done with ropes.
[…] “I basically find it interesting. It could be there were nails, or it could be that there weren’t nails.”

Oh great. Better still.

Our ‘ACKSHUALLY’ guy is also a ‘I’m not saying, I’m just asking questions’ guy.

Because what could be more fun than an argument spent trying to nail Jello to a wall?

Dude did a word study on ancient Roman practices, and he came away with the ‘ropes’ idea. But what about where scripture is clear? He has an answer for that too. Not a great one, but he has an answer.

Going back to the Bible, Gracía said there is one place in the New Testament that mentions nails. In the Gospel of John, the doubting apostle Thomas says he would have to see and touch the “týpon tón ílon,” or “marks of the nails” (20:25), before he would believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Two verses later, the resurrected Jesus says, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side” (v. 27).
[…] Answering the question of whether there were nails may not really matter. But asking it, García thinks, can turn our attention to the Word and the Cross.

Let’s look back at Psalm 22, which was recited by Jesus himself on the cross:

“they have pierced my hands and feet”.

Our options are to believe the conjecture by someone who would suggest to us that the Gospel of John and the Apostle Paul both got it wrong…

Or that the ‘scholar’ got it wrong while they agreed with Psalm 22 and everything we have believed until today.

Back to the big question: Christianity Today COULD have directed their readers to contemplate the reality and relevance of the Resurrection, in which Christ conquered death and Hell for anyone who would trust in Him.

Instead they turned their readers to another fruitless exercise of picking fly sh*t out pepper.

What, did the Devil need a day off?