RELIGION Q&A: Is Easter still relevant today?

Does the Christian celebration of Easter have any relevance in an increasingly secular Australian society?
Does technology, reason and science relegate faith to feel-good tradition, marked by superstition or blind faith?

With Easter celebrated at the weekend, we asked three Geraldton church leaders to grapple with some tough questions.

OUR PANEL

• Justin Bianchini

Roman Catholic Bishop of Geraldton. Has been a Catholic cleric for the past 48 years. His training for the priesthood included seven years of study in theology and philosophy.

• Gary Nelson
Anglican Bishop of the North West Diocese.
Has qualifications in both theology and mathematics.

Was a mathematics teacher before entering the ministry.

• Ashok Jalalabadi
Bible college lecturer and a pastor at Sun City Christian Centre. Also a qualified physics/mathematics teacher.

Was a Hindu before he converted to Christianity.

Q: The Easter story. Historical fact or just a nice, feel-good legend?
JB: There is no doubt that Jesus Christ is an historical person. Likewise his crucifixion and death. What of his resurrection? Millions of Christians down through 2000 years believe this too is historically real. Surely that has great weight. Furthermore, my firm opinion is that the influence for good that this one person has had on a limitless number of people, and the hope he has given us, demands belief in his resurrection.
GN: The Easter story leaves little room for a nice, feel-good legend — there’s conspiracy, anger, torture; plus an innocent man suffering a horrible death. Serious historians have no substantial doubts about the general shape of Jesus’ life and death. But the key issues are: What do we make of the Easter events? Will these events change my attitudes and behaviour? Do they give us a real hope for the future?

AJ: Historical fact. Many people have investigated the circumstances in detail and found them to be perfectly consistent and true. E.g., Frank Morison, a writer who set out to disprove the facts and ended up confirming them in his book “Who Moved the Stone?”

Q: In today’s modern age, how is it possible to believe in miracles like God becoming man (in Jesus Christ) and rising from the dead? Surely that’s unscientific and irrational?
JB: Science can only deal with the physical and material. There is more to reality. I, like so many, believe in a supremely intelligent being — God as Creator of both the physical universe as well as the world of the spiritual.
There is no problem then for us accepting that this God could take to himself human nature in the person of Jesus Christ. Likewise God, the author of life, is capable of raising Jesus from the dead and, in him, ourselves as well.
GN: If God is an all-powerful, knowing being, then miracles logically follow. As John Dickson says, British, European and American scholars regard the resurrection as having “an irreducible historical core … that cannot be explained away as pious legend or wholesale deceit”.
As well, many world-renowned scientists are Christians (Francis Collins, John Lennox, Nobel Prize winner Bill Phillips, Professor Clark). I see no reason to doubt Jesus’ is “God become man”, nor his resurrection.

AJ: Scientific and rational evidence is not the only basis of belief. In fact, increasingly, the physical sciences are heading towards almost philosophical arguments to explain the mysteries of the universe. E.g., the Higgs Boson particle, which has been referred to as the “God” particle.

Q: Christians portray their God as a God of love. How can a God of love allow His Son to suffer a cruel, tortuous death so that His anger can be appeased?
JB: My understanding of God’s plan for the world is this. God sent his Son to reconcile us to himself and one another. To do this, Jesus had to combat evil and sin which cause divisions. In the battle, evil got the upper hand temporarily and crushed Jesus on the cross. God the Father raised him to life though on the third day. Because of this Jesus conquered sin, evil and death and is able to offer us life — unending life. Cruelty and Jesus’ suffering and death comes from evil and sin, not from God our loving Father.
GN: Love doesn’t avoid tough decisions. But the God of the Bible isn’t simply a “God of love”. God is also holy, righteous and just.
He is rightly angered by our rebellious, evil thoughts, words and deeds; by injustice and harmful behaviour. Wrong can’t be swept under the carpet — for we expect people convicted to be punished.
If Jesus — who has done nothing wrong — is the only person able to stand in our place, experiencing the full God’s righteous anger, then I am extremely thankful. Perhaps we need to rethink what it means to be a loving, but just God; and the depth of God’s love to save us from the judgment we deserve.

AJ: The cruel death of Christ on the cross was specifically because God loved us so much that He was prepared to go to such lengths to demonstrate that love. Christ died that cruel death so that each sinful human being did not have to.

Q: Jesus claimed He was the only way to God. How can that be true when there is a plethora of world religions? Don’t all religions lead to God?
JB: God’s Spirit permeates everything and everybody in the world. All religions contain teachings, rules of life and sacred rites that aim to draw a person’s deepest yearnings and restlessness towards their Creator.
Our Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. Christianity is the only religion which holds that God took flesh — became one of us. God’s Son shared our humanity so we could share his divinity.
GN: Jesus’ claim is either right or wrong. If we can’t trust his word at this point, why should we believe anything he says? Faith without a reliable object is simply wishful thinking. Would you trust a bridge built on the basis of 2+2=7? So how can all religions lead to God, when they hold contrary beliefs? Jesus said, ‘the truth will set you free’.
Weigh up the truth claims of each religion — what’s logical and consistent? What explains life as we experience it? Which provide a real hope? For me, Jesus is the truth that’s worth living for.

AJ: Religion is man looking for God, a process doomed to failure, so no religion actually leads to the true God. Christianity is God revealing Himself to man in His Son Jesus Christ and desiring a personal relationship with each human being.

Q: Why should the Bible’s claims about the events of Easter be taken seriously?
JB: The original followers of Jesus were the greatest sceptics and had given up all hope, yet the experience of Jesus convinced them he was risen and alive. The experience was so powerful it changed their lives and gave them courage to do things that were otherwise impossible.
Likewise the belief, goodness, generosity and the heroism displayed by Christians down through the centuries is more than enough evidence for me to take seriously the Easter event.
GN: If the Bible is God’s message to us, then we need to take its claims seriously. But if it’s not, we can ignore it. I am confident the Bible is a reliable historical document. Consider the four Gospels — examples of first century biography based on eye-witness accounts. They were intended to be read as real incidents about the bios’ subject. The Bible has been shown to be accurately transmitted; and referred to in other ancient documents.
AJ: Truth at that level must surely impact our daily lives. Believing that Jesus died and rose again leads to other truths — that God has a definite plan for each one of us and that Jesus will return in the future to judge every human being.