On the 26th of February 2019, set against the background of Michael Stipe’s straining vocals in “Losing my religion,” a Grammy winning song by now-defunct American band R.E.M, popular South African radio presenter Eusebius McKaiser boldly asked: “How many of you are losing your religion?” His question was prompted by the scandalous “resurrection” that a local Johannesburg pastor had allegedly performed a few days earlier.
The video showing this “resurrection” had gone viral on social media and resurrection challengers sprang up mocking the whole affair, television and radio news shows were dissecting the event and even the state President commented on the alleged “resurrection”. McKaiser, who identifies himself in the same podcast as “way too rational to be a believer or to be an atheist,” does not merely stop at dissecting the event but saw this episode as grounds to challenge Christians with an even bigger question: If you say this Johannesburg “resurrection” is not true then, “on what basis do you believe the resurrection of Christ? Dare to tell me the difference.” McKaiser goes on to raise the stakes of the debate by saying “If you cannot tell me the difference, then lose your religion.”
Throughout the podcast callers add their opinions to the debate. Strikingly only a few Christians called in as the majority of the callers were opposed to Christianity. Some of the callers against Christianity can be making comments like: “religion has robbed people of thinking,” and “people believe because they want to believe”. In this dialogue, those opposed to Christianity clearly see the Johannesburg “resurrection” and the resurrection of Jesus as analogous. You cannot say one is fake and the other is true, so their argument goes.
What is more disheartening is the arguments of the Christians who call into the program. The first offers an insipid but not entirely unhelpful argument that the resurrection is true because it is recorded in the Holy Bible. McKaiser simply swats this argument away by stating that the argument of this Christian caller was as mythical as his favourite Enid Blyton, The Faraway Tree, set in a mythological world where wizards and witches cast spells. The other Christian caller perhaps having heard how easily dismissed the earlier had been, goes for a subjective argument, from personal experience: “I know God is alive and I have seen him in my life.” To which McKaiser simply asks the caller when last he had seen or spoken to God.
The fact that the grounds for Christianity, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is questioned must cause us not to respond with silence but thoughtful engagement.
There is the issue of the Johannesburg “resurrection” that must be looked into by Christians so that there is a clarity on what Bible believing Christians across Africa say about these acts. The fact that the grounds for Christianity, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is questioned because of this alleged “resurrection” must cause us not to respond with silence but thoughtful engagement.
What is also disheartening is the thinking of those opposed to Christianity, as heard in the podcast, claiming that Christianity is irrational and that those who believe in Christianity only do so because they have suspended their intellectual capabilities or let their emotions carry them to a untenable belief. But what the Bible teaches through Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that it is the cornerstone of Christianity, the tenet on which belief in Jesus rises or falls. The resurrection event of Jesus is true, and if it were not true then faith in Christ would be founded on nothing.
The fact that the resurrection of Jesus is this significant to the Christian church should cause us to not only celebrate it, but also to instruct believers and train them to defend the gospel in well thought out, rational ways.
The fact that the resurrection of Jesus is this significant to the Christian church should cause us to not only celebrate it, but also to instruct believers and train them to defend the gospel in well thought out, rational ways.
Gone are the days when the only argument you needed in Africa to validate belief in Christ was as simple as “the pastor says the Bible says so, so it is so.” Intellectual enquiry has become increasingly sophisticated and therefore our instruction and training must match it. The advent and popularity of talk radios and social media, have meant that ideas and thoughts are heard far more than in the last two decades. If the church was to once more take seriously the role of teaching and training believers to defend the gospel, the result would not only be that believers would be more and more confident of their faith in Jesus but also they will be able to dispel false assertions about Jesus and the gospel.
My argument is not that every believer should become an apologist, but rather that every Christian should become confident of both the historical validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its importance to the Christian faith; able to teach it to others and also able to defend it if needs be.
African Christians think of Easter and Christmas differently. Easter is the weekend we dedicate time to be with our church family and most probably with a few other churches camped out in a school out of town for an amazing weekend of worshipping God. While Christmas is time to go home, home being the rural home or wherever the family home happens to be, to be with the biological family.
Even wise family elders know that you do not schedule a wedding or an important family meeting at Easter. Seeing that Easter is so highly prioritised, church leaders should prioritise teaching and training on the meaning and importance of Easter for our faith. I pray that the past weekend buttressed your confidence in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as you were taught about it and trained to defend it as the pillar on which our salvation and God’s gospel is grounded.
