Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Monday, June 6, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 59
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: The main preoccupation of Docetism was denying the physical incarnation of Jesus. Docetism isn’t worried about the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus so long as their stand remained the fact that the physical incarnation of Jesus was a mere phantasm and hence nonexistent in the first place, including all other stories that followed the incarnation.
The earlier claims from the originators of the Docetism theory that the Gospel narratives concerning the physical resurrection appearances were basically motivated by anti-Docetism is false. The Gospel narratives on the resurrection predated Docetism. Docetism was a heresy that arrived sometime later in the 1st century, whereas the Gospel resurrection narratives go back to the earliest materials in the New Testament.
The facts clearly indicate that the Gospel resurrection narratives could not have been a response to Docetism. It’s rather Docetism that was originally a response to the physical stories of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Docetism sought to draw attention to itself, literarily begging for recognition on the strength of the power of the Gospels that existed before they started spewing out their own man invented heresies in the first place.
The Gospel narratives on the life of Jesus Christ were written by different men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Hence, God, whose wisdom is far beyond the depths of the imaginations of men’s wisdom, knowledge, thinking and foresight, ensured that though the Gospels were written earlier, they had the depth of divine wisdom and sufficiency to respond to any question and heresies of man, as well as those yet to be invented by fallen man.
Food for thought: The Gospels were not written in enticing words of man’s wisdom or in excellency of speech, but written according to the wisdom of God, in demonstration of God’s Spirit and Power.
Declaration: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2Tim.3:16)
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
