Archangel Archangel Michael Orthodox Church the Volume 17 Issue 3 May 2016 Christ is Risen? Prove it! During the Paschal Season, we enjoy a renewed sense of spirituality and relationship with our Risen Lord. As we continue to celebrate this all-important Resurrection Feast – the very core of our Christian Faith – we re- member the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Church in Corinth: “…if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrec- tion of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 st Cor. 15:14; 20-22). Yet what about those who claim that our faith is in vain? What about those who do renounce Christ’s Resur- rection from the dead? And what about ourselves, when that tiny voice gnaws at us and causes us to question our belief in Jesus’ Resurrection? How do we answer? Can we prove that our Lord rose from the dead? Is there some scientific data, some mathematical theorem or a computer program to give us this proof? The answer of course is no. Despite 2,000 years of Christian devotion, belief must still rely on faith and vice versa. And what is faith? It is an irrational belief in an illogical truth which goes against everything our “world” makes known to us. No wonder so many people today refuse to actively practice the Christian Faith. It is extremely hard to believe in something that cannot be logically proven, especially when the whole world is trying so hard to disprove it in the first place. God is Love – yet the world hates. God is Truth – but the world lies. God is the Way – the world gives us alter- nate routes. God is Light – the world pulls down a shade. For everything God gives to us, the world makes a counter-offer. And in the face of all this, many faithful find it hard to believe. They become “Doubting Thomases” amidst the murky darkness of sinfulness which the world promotes. Even to those who believe firmly in Christ’s Holy Resurrection, the world attempts to distort and reduce its celebration to “chocolate rab- bits and eggs!” Yet maybe in all of this disbelief and lack of proof, there is a remnant of proof which continues to exist. Maybe by the very fact that the Church has survived all these years, there is proof. Something had to keep it going. Some belief system had to make those early Christians stand up for the faith, even though they were persecuted and put to the sword. Here is an incident which happened in Russia in the early 1920’s, during the height of the persecution of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Communists had been slaughtering countless millions of Christian believers. Bishops, priests and lay per- sons were being routinely rounded up and summarily executed because of their Faith. Many disappeared with- out a trace, buried in unmarked mass graves throughout Russia. In this way the Bolsheviks hoped to destroy (Continued on page 2)
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May 2016 1
Archangel Archangel Michael Orthodox Church
the
Volume 17 Issue 3 May 2016
Christ is Risen? Prove it! During the Paschal Season, we enjoy a renewed sense of spirituality and relationship with our Risen Lord. As
we continue to celebrate this all-important Resurrection Feast – the very core of our Christian Faith – we re-
member the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Church in Corinth: “…if Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first
fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrec-
tion of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1st Cor. 15:14; 20-22).
Yet what about those who claim that our faith is in vain? What about those who do renounce Christ’s Resur-
rection from the dead? And what about ourselves, when that tiny voice gnaws at us and causes us to question
our belief in Jesus’ Resurrection? How do we answer? Can we prove that our Lord rose from the dead? Is there
some scientific data, some mathematical theorem or a computer program to give us this proof?
The answer of course is no. Despite 2,000 years of Christian devotion, belief must still rely on faith and vice
versa. And what is faith? It is an irrational belief in an illogical truth which goes against everything our
“world” makes known to us.
No wonder so many people today refuse to actively practice the Christian Faith. It is extremely hard to believe
in something that cannot be logically proven, especially when the whole world is trying so hard to disprove it
in the first place.
God is Love – yet the world hates. God is Truth – but the world lies. God is the Way – the world gives us alter-
nate routes. God is Light – the world pulls down a shade. For everything God gives to us, the world makes a
counter-offer. And in the face of all this, many faithful find it hard to believe. They become “Doubting
Thomases” amidst the murky darkness of sinfulness which the world promotes. Even to those who believe
firmly in Christ’s Holy Resurrection, the world attempts to distort and reduce its celebration to “chocolate rab-
bits and eggs!”
Yet maybe in all of this disbelief and lack of proof, there is a remnant of proof which continues to exist.
Maybe by the very fact that the Church has survived all these years, there is proof. Something had to keep it
going. Some belief system had to make those early Christians stand up for the faith, even though they were
persecuted and put to the sword.
Here is an incident which happened in Russia in the early 1920’s, during the height of the persecution of the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
The Communists had been slaughtering countless millions of Christian believers. Bishops, priests and lay per-
sons were being routinely rounded up and summarily executed because of their Faith. Many disappeared with-
out a trace, buried in unmarked mass graves throughout Russia. In this way the Bolsheviks hoped to destroy