A Personal Testimony

Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

When I was sixteen years old, I went to a liberal church on Campbell Ave. I asked my pastor about the resurrection of Jesus. He didn’t believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. He believed that Jesus hadn’t died but just got to feeling better as He rested in the tomb. That is called by scholars as the “Swoon Theory.” Many pastors of modernistic churches believe that lie. In the book of Revelation, Jesus says that He was dead. Who are you going to believe? A liberal scholar or Jesus? The Apostle Paul said that belief in the resurrection of Jesus was necessary for salvation: Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Besides the gospel accounts, the resurrection of Jesus was clearly preached and taught in the book of Acts and the New Testament Epistles. Here are a few examples among many that we could bring up:

• Acts 2:23-24 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
• Acts 3:15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
• Acts 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
• Acts 5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
• Romans 6:3-5 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
• Hebrews 13:20-21 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
• 1 Peter 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

My mom and dad let me change churches. What hope do modernistic pastors and their churches have? I am thankful that when I was sixteen, God led me to a Gospel Preaching Baptist Church that sang about and preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ! --Ron