What If?

The United States Navy A-4 Skyhawk jet streaked through the hazy humid sky at nearly 600 miles per hour.  It banked hard left leaving a vapor trail spiraling off it’s delta-wing tips as it maneuvered to attack.  The pilot nudged the nose over and slightly adjusted course for a bombing run over Hanoi, Vietnam.  He had one thought, “Hit the power plant hard and get out fast!”  Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the pilot, a hidden threat lay camouflaged in the dense jungle foliage two thousand feet below.  It was ready to strike with rocketing fury.  The peril had been hastily relocated by the Vietnamese Communists (Viet Cong) under the cover of darkness several nights before.  Now, the lethal weapon had acquired a signal on the fast moving A-4.  Sickeningly, the surface-to-air missile locked-on just as the A-4 zipped overhead.  A boiling explosion of thrust erupted behind the fins of the sleek supersonic projectile.  Capable of speeds over Mach 3, the deadly missile launched the gap to the A-4 in mere seconds.  With little warning to maneuver defensively, the pilot shuttered as the hurtling missile slammed into the right wing.  Debris flashed through the sky, a violent twisting tornadic fireball of metal.  The pilot instinctively reached for the ejection handle and radioed “I’m hit!”  He pulled the handle and suddenly felt the abrupt force as the seat rocketed into the wind stream.  In a dizzying array of forces, the pilot slammed into the tumbling wreckage of the dying aircraft.  The results of the impact broke both arms and his right knee and left him spinning into the dark tunnel of unconsciousness.  Fortunately, his parachute automatically deployed slowing his acceleration towards earth.  The pull of gravity continued waging war with his limp body as he drifted aimlessly towards unknown dangers below.

Water slapped the pilot’s face as his lungs vied for air.  His brain slowly reeled him back to consciousness as his body thrashed and began struggling to survive.  At the abysmal edge of drowning, he clinched his life vest activation cord with his teeth and yanked it.  Averting the immediate crisis, the pilot then realized the shocking pain racking his entire body.  His  physical circumstances, alone,  threatened to drown him in raging despair.

With haunting trepidation, the awareness of his exact location dawned upon him with sickening certainty.  He was floating in the middle of Truc Bach Lake.  Unable to swim, he knew there was no escape.  Bobbing like a cork awaiting the enemy to grab the bait, his capture was imminent.  It wouldn’t take long, he conceded, for he was in the middle of a lake that rests in the middle of the city of Hanoi.  His fate was sealed.

It was October 26, 1967 when Lieutenant Commander John McCain became a prisoner of war.  Under torturous conditions that stretched the limits of mind and body, John McCain survived over five years of internment.  He was released in 1972, and the rest of his story is widely known.

While I was reading about McCain’s prisoner of war experience, one particular interrogation stood out to me.  It grabbed my attention, not because of brutality or sadistic torture methods, but because of the topic of the questions.  There was one Vietnamese interrogator that was very interested in American customs.  Specifically, the young Vietnamese wanted McCain to explain the significance of Easter.  Of course, McCain offered up the description of Christ’s Passion.  The young interrogator eyed McCain with suspicious disdain as McCain described Christ’s resurrection.  Then the interrogator barked incredulously, “You say He was dead three days.  He came back to life?”

McCain nodded.

The interrogator left the room for a minute and then returned with an outraged demeanor.  He yelled angrily, “McCain, the officer here say you tell nothing but lies!  Go back to your room.”(1)

As always, thoughts started rolling around in my head like a raft tossed about in a storm driven sea.  What if?  What if the resurrection of Christ was a lie?  What would that mean?  What significance does the resurrection have for us?  As Christians, what would we lose?  What if?

Interestingly, the Apostle Paul asked the same “what if” question in First Corinthians.

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Kapow!  Without Christ’s resurrection, our faith is useless.  Ouch!  Right from the start, we take a big hit.  As Christians, we would lose all of our present and future hope.  It would be utterly futile to participate in any religious activities because they would hold no meaning.  Church would have no value.  All religious activities from baptism to communion would be nothing more than empty gestures.  If Christ had not risen from the dead, all preaching would be pointless.  All sermons would be full of hot air - just men or women talking to hear themselves talk.  Every Christian message presented everywhere would mean absolutely nothing.  Every Christian book ever written or read would be better used to start a fire.  This article would not be worth my time or yours.  Every Christian song and every Gospel tract would be considered null and void.  They would be nothing more than meaningless words promoting empty promises.  

At first glance, the resurrection seems to be only part of the story of Jesus Christ.  So what’s the big deal?  If we only assume that the resurrection was a lie, then we still have Christ’s virgin birth, His earthly ministry including His teachings and many miracles, and His crucifixion for our sins.  However, without His resurrection, believing all of those other things would be for nought.  Without the resurrection, the power and glory of Christ as the Son of God would not be reflected.  Even our salvation would be woefully inadequate and dismissed.  Jesus nailed to the cross demonstrated His love for us, but it was the resurrection that authenticates that His sacrifice was worthy to cover all of our sins for all time.  Without His resurrection, we would still be in our sins. 

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That little nugget simply means that if we still believe there is a God, then we will have to recount to Him every evil thing we’ve done and every sin we’ve hidden in the closet of our lives.  Then we will be held accountable and pay the price ourselves.  Yikes!

Furthermore, without the resurrection, Paul writes that the apostles of Christ are nothing but hypocritical deceivers.  Their teachings are pockmarked with holes, which identifies them as false witnesses.

“More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Finally, without the resurrection, all of our loved ones that have perished before us are simply lost, gone forever.  Our grandparents, parents, siblings, spouses, children, and friends whom we’ve hoped to see again someday will never be seen again.  They have passed into oblivion.  If it is actually true that our Savior did not rise again on the third day, then everyone we have known will never be more than memories for us until we finally decay into the earth ourselves.

“Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

At this point, we, as Christians, should find ourselves struggling to comprehend this “what if” scenario.  With no resurrection, utter despair and darkness seems to unfold and collapse upon us.  In the next verse, the Apostle Paul punctuates that exact sentiment with an exclamation point.

“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:19‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I read a headline the other day entitled, “Seminary President Admits to Not Believing in Christ’s Resurrection”.  It matters little where or who it was.  It matters much more that the President of a prominent educational institution that primarily educates students in Scripture, Theology, and Biblical studies to prepare them for Christian ministry does not believe in a fundamentally important tenet of Christianity.  Despite how many letters precede or follow their names, resurrection unbelievers are people to be most pitied.

How important is the resurrection of Christ?  It is the pinnacle and climatic ending to God’s great plan of redemption for us through His Son’s earthly ministry.  Every event in the life of Jesus on earth has critical importance and are inextricably linked together as a whole.  Taking one event away leaves gaping chasms that cannot be crossed within Scripture.  Irreconcilable differences emerge within the Word of God as a result.  For example, the virgin birth was necessary in order for Christ to be who He was in order to do what He did for us upon the cross.  To accept one part of His story as truth and another part as fiction, is to disconnect the transmission from the engine or to remove the wheels from the vehicle.  Every part is needed or we don’t move.  To believe otherwise is to fall prey to the evil one who not only roams about as a lion but also masquerades as an angel of light.

Without Christ’s victory over death, our loss, as believers, is staggering. The resurrection is vitally important, and, to us Christians, it should mean everything because it declares that our victorious story in Him and through Him is just beginning.

What if there was no resurrection?  Forget it!  It’s no longer a legitimate question or concern.

The Word of God is truth and stands in power just as our Lord and Savior stands outside an empty tomb.  The stone has been undeniably rolled away!

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Have a happy and glorious Easter.  Our risen Savior is alive!

(1) Faith of My Fathers by John McCain with Mark Salter (Random House, 1999)

Joint Personnel Recovery Center declassified reports, 1971-72