For many Christians today, it seems that the world is getting darker all the time. Not just in statistics like dropping church attendance, but in the growing secularism of many of our systems, the growing acceptance of immoral behavior in our leaders, the growing wealth disparity and other signs of a greed-dominated culture, and so on. In many cases, people still describe themselves as spiritual even when they stop associating with any specific religion, so the need is there, it just isn’t being met by Christianity.
Of course, there are many theories, books, and pundits that try to explain these observations, for most part focusing on the social, psychological, and sometimes even spiritual, trends of the last century or so. However, I’ve also noticed, really highlighted by the Covid pandemic, how different many of our beliefs and practices are from the early church.
For example, people have pointed out things like the increased organization and politicization that resulted from Constantine, the influence of Greek thinking in leaders such as Augustine, and the effects of science on our views of the supernatural. I’m not yet sure how important these specific influences are, but one clear difference, maybe a result of things like these, is our perspective on resurrection.
We still claim to believe and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but even solemn church services are often overshadowed by the focus on a basically secular spring festival. And our reflections generally stop with considering Jesus’ resurrection alone, rather than celebrating it as a precursor to our future personal resurrections.
Most of us grew up with these perspectives and it’s easy to miss how different this seems from the way people seem to think two thousand years ago.
The gospels all make Jesus’ resurrection the centerpiece, of course, and Paul presents it as the cornerstone of the Christian faith in 1 Corinthians 15. However, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t just reflected in the gospels and Paul’s writings, it was a central part of preaching the gospel. From Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:32), to Paul’s sermon to the pagans on Mars Hill (Acts 17:31), the resurrection of Jesus was a key point.
But beyond proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection, individual personal resurrection was also central to the faith. After all, the eternal life that is so often described in Scripture starts with that. Again, when Paul focuses on Christ’s resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he links the reality of Jesus’ resurrection to our own, including the further reality of future life in the world to come. Similarly, Jesus linked these when He described eternal life in John 11.
In other words, resurrection was central to the faith, to the extent that if we have hope in only this life, we are to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19). Scripture makes clear that Jesus’ resurrection is a defining part of the faith that both sets Christianity apart from all other religions, and gives us the eternal perspective to understand many other teachings.
This seems the case, not only in Scripture, but from what I can tell, the early church echoed this emphasis in various ways. The underlying hope of resurrection and eternity was undoubtedly reflected in the use of “maranatha” as a common greeting. Maranatha meant “come, Lord”, and demonstrated the desire for Jesus to return and inaugurate that change.
In addition, many stories of early Christian martyrdom showed a lack of fear that often puzzled their persecutors. And the way that Christians ministered to people around them during plagues was also noticed by those outside the faith. Scholars who have looked for the reasons for such behavior often conclude that it stemmed from the believer’s faith in eternity. In other words, their belief in resurrection wasn’t just an intellectual assent, it shaped the ways they lived and died.
The question isn’t whether we believe it, but how that belief, for those who do hold to it, affects one’s life – how we live and how we treat others.
When considering the way we talk about resurrection today, the focus seems to be on Jesus’ resurrection with little to no mention of personal resurrection. It’s true that some branches of Christianity talk about eternal life for evangelistic purposes, but it’s rare for that reality to impact lives today. In fact, it’s pretty common to focus on life in this world and minimize the idea of eternity.
So then, instead of living a life in view of our personal resurrection, we live life as if this is all there is and largely ignore resurrection except for the yearly holiday.
This is much different than the first few centuries of the church.
Given this observation, it seems natural to wonder what’s changed since the early church, and whether that change impacts the mission of the church today. Is it possible that deemphasizing resurrection, and also eternal life in many cases, leads believers to live more self-focused lives since, for all practical purposes, we think that this life is all that matters?
Even if this possibility has any truth to it, there’s still much more going on. But the difference in resurrection perspectives does seem pretty big between now and the ancient church, and it’s hard to believe that a change in something so central to the faith could not have some impact.
Exploring Antioch 