Ehrman characterizes his opponent in a debate as saying that Pilate was a sensitive and wise ruler who cared about the feelings of the Jews. I have a feeling that Ehrman is exaggerating the position of his opponent but I cannot prove it. Pilate, if he was sensitive to Jewish sensibilities, was this way out of care for his own position, not because he actually cared about the Jews.
I cannot prove this, but Ehrman is a solid scholar and between his well-informed position and my own knowledge, I will have to agree with Ehrman that Pilate did not take down the bodies of Jesus and the two terrorists out of love and concern for the Jews. I believe he did it so as to curry favor with the Jewish leaders. However, I do believe that he did in fact order the taking down of the bodies on the eve of the Passover, as the gospel writers tell us he did and I have no reason to believe they are lying.
I believe the eye witnesses to the events, not the speculations of Bart Ehrman, writing two thousand years later. He may be right about Pilate, but his bias is not allowing him to see the obvious, which is that the writers of the gospels could not have made a bogus claim about when the bodies were taken down.
This makes no sense! Ehrman is certainly wrong about this one. On your third question, that is a definite no. I have no objectionable content that shows the New Testament is not reliable! Buy Now: DVD. Buy Now: MP3. Buy Now: Book Kindle ePub. The wife of Pontius Pilate sends a message to him asking him not to have anything to do with Jesus, because she has had a terrible dream and suffered much because of him.
She says that Jesus is innocent Matthew From that verse, tradition and literature have developed a great story of conversion. Origen, one of the Greek Fathers of the Church, taught that Procula Claudia became a Christian after the Resurrection because of that dream. The English mystery novelist, Dorothy L. Pilate tells her that he will have to condemn Jesus to death.
While Jesus is hanging on the cross, at about the ninth hour, Sayers includes a scene in which Pilate asks Claudia to describe the dream that troubled her so. She tells him that she was on a ship and that she heard a cry; the skies became dark and the Aegean rough. They crucified him. He suffered under Pontius Pilate. She feels a little dizzy; she and her husband are glad to be leaving Jerusalem.
Like Dorothy L. But where Sayer's wife of Pilate hears different languages and voices; von le Fort's version of the dream has Claudia traveling through time from the catacombs, to a Roman basilica church, to Gothic cathedrals "the massive halls began to stand upright, as though they hovered weightlessly in the sky, freed from all the laws of stone" in which the choirs sang the words, and then to even more unrecognizable--to her--buildings with "strange draperies".
She hears Renaissance polyphony with the words woven in different strands of sound. Her vision is of the Church through the ages proclaiming the Nicene Creed at Mass. Stop him before the deed is done; even though he should complain about your interference.
That is our second point. May God bless it; although I cannot preach upon it as I wish, the Spirit of God can put power into it. He would hear only a few, but he would hear her; and yet even her warning was in vain. What was the reason? First, self-interest was involved in the matter, and that is a powerful factor. Pilate was afraid of losing his governorship. The Jews would be angry if he did not obey their cruel bidding; they might complain to Tiberius, and he would lose his lucrative position.
Alas, such things as these are holding some of you captives to sin at this moment. You cannot afford to be true and right, for it would cost too much. You know the will of the Lord; you know what is right; but you renounce Christ by putting him off, and by remaining in the ways of sin so that you may gain its wages.
You count the cost, and think that it is too high. You resolve to gain the world, even though you lose your soul! What then? You will go to hell rich! This is a sorry result! Do you see anything desirable in such an attainment? Oh that you would consider your ways and listen to the voice of wisdom! A man with legions at his beck and call, and yet afraid of a Jewish mob, — afraid to let one poor prisoner go whom he knew to be innocent; afraid because he knew his conduct would not bear inspection!
He was, morally, a coward! Multitudes of people go to hell because they do not have the courage to fight their way to heaven. They could not bear to tear themselves away from old companions, and stir up remarks and sarcasm among ungodly wits, and so they keep their companions and perish with them. Yet while there was cowardice in Pilate, there was presumption too.
He who was afraid of man and afraid to do right, yet dared to incur the guilt of innocent blood. Oh, the daring of Pilate in the sight of God to commit murder like this and disclaim it. There is a strange mingling of cowardliness and courage about many men; they are afraid of a man, but not afraid of the eternal God who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
This is why men are not saved, even when the best of means are used, because they are presumptuous, and dare to defy the Lord. Besides this, Pilate was double-minded : he had a heart and a heart. He had a heart after what was right, for he sought to release Jesus; but he had another heart after what was gainful, for he would not run the risk of losing his post by incurring the displeasure of the Jews. We have plenty around us who are double-minded.
Such are here this morning; but where were they last night? How will you be affected tomorrow by a lewd speech or a lascivious song?
Many men run two ways; they seem earnest about their souls, but they are far more eager after gain or pleasure. It is a strange perversity of man that he should tear himself in two. We have heard of tyrants tying men to wild horses and dragging them asunder, but these people do this with themselves.
They have too much conscience to neglect the Sabbath, and to forego attendance at the house of prayer; too much conscience to be utterly irreligious, to be honestly infidel; and yet at the same time they do not have enough conscience to keep them from being hypocrites. They dare not run risks, and yet, meanwhile, they run the awful risk of being driven for ever from the presence of God to the place where hope can never come.
Oh that my words were shot as from a large cannon! Oh that they would hurl a cannon-shot at indecision! This Pilate was guilty beyond all excuse.
Observe that the message which he received was most distinct. It was suggested by a dream; but there is nothing dreamy about it.
Oh, my dear friends, am I addressing any here who are purposing to do some very sinful thing, but have recently received a warning from God? I would add one more caution.
I implore you by the blessed God, and by the bleeding Saviour, and as you love yourself, and as you love her from whom the warning may have come to you, stop, and restrain your hand!
Do not do this abominable thing! You know better. The warning is not given to you in some mysterious and obscure way; but it comes point blank to you in unmistakable terms. God has sent conscience to you, and he has enlightened that conscience, so that it speaks very plain English to you.
Do you hear me? Will you regard the heaven-sent expostulation? Oh, that you would stand still for a while and hear what God shall speak while he invites you to yield yourself to Christ today. It may be now or never with you, as it was with Pilate that day. He had the evil thing which he was about to do fully described to him, and therefore if he ventured on it, his presumption would be great.
Read the twenty-fourth verse. The arrows stuck in him! He could not shake them off! Sometimes God makes a man see sin as sin , and makes him see the blackness of it; and if he then perseveres in it, he becomes doubly guilty, and pulls down upon himself a doom intolerable beyond that of Sodom of old. Besides that, Pilate was sinning not only after distinct warning, and a warning which emphasised the blackness of the sin, but he was sinning after his conscience had been touched and moved through his affections.
She stands in your way; she stretches out her arms, with tears she declares that she will block your road to perdition. Will you force your way to ruin over her prostrate form? She kneels! She grasps your knees, she begs you not to be lost.
Are you so brutal as to trample on her love? Your little child entreats you; will you disregard her tears? It is hard for me to talk to you like this. It will not be a piece of mere imagination if I conceive that at the last great day, when Jesus sits upon the judgment seat, and Pilate stands there to be judged for the deeds done in the body, that his wife will be a swift witness against him to condemn him.
I can imagine that at the last great day there will be many such scenes as that, when those who loved us best will bring the most weighty evidences against us, if we are still in our sins.
When all must speak the truth, what can you say except that your husband was tenderly and earnestly warned by you and yet consigned the Saviour to his enemies? Oh, my ungodly hearers, my soul goes out after you. May God grant that you may not reject your own salvation, but may turn to Christ and find eternal redemption in him.
This deeply interesting report for the past year may be had from Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster, or any bookseller, for 6d. Post free for seven stamps. Charles H.
Spurgeon, Spirit of the Psalms Psalm 5 1 Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear My voice ascending high; To thee will I direct my prayer, To thee lift up mine eye.
Make every path of duty straight, And plain before my face. Isaac Watts, Man Fallen — Mourning Over Transgressors 1 Arise, my tenderest thoughts, arise, To torrents melt my streaming eyes; And thou, my heart, with anguish feel Those evils which thou canst not heal. And snatch the firebrands from the flame. Philip Doddridge, Spurgeon Sermons These sermons from Charles Spurgeon are a series that is for reference and not necessarily a position of Answers in Genesis.
Spurgeon did not entirely agree with six days of creation and dives into subjects that are beyond the AiG focus e. Arminianism, modes of baptism, and so on. Used by Answers in Genesis by permission of the copyright owner. The modernized edition of the material published in these sermons may not be reproduced or distributed by any electronic means without express written permission of the copyright owner.
A limited license is hereby granted for the non-commercial printing and distribution of the material in hard copy form, provided this is done without charge to the recipient and the copyright information remains intact. Any charge or cost for distribution of the material is expressly forbidden under the terms of this limited license and automatically voids such permission. You may not prepare, manufacture, copy, use, promote, distribute, or sell a derivative work of the copyrighted work without the express written permission of the copyright owner.
Privacy Policy.
0コメント