The words "He is risen!" are an ancient Easter greeting among Christians. "He is risen indeed!" is the traditional reply. The proposition is, of course, true. But that does not save the greeting from the danger of being hijacked by those who would reinterpret it to mean something other than what it meant to the historical Christians who first uttered the words. For the whole tradition of Protestant Liberalism, stemming from the Enlightenment assumptions represented by Lessing's big, ugly "ditch" and subsequent dualizations gone to seed in precious moments sentiments about the "Christ of faith," utterly emasculated from the hard historical facts of the "Jesus of history," have left contemporary Christians vulnerable to wolves in sheep's clothing -- wolves who sound like warm, caring 'pastoral' types, but who no longer believe in miracles like the historical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. But if He is risen at all, believe me, this is what the whole Catholic and Christian tradition affirms: He rose in space and time -- like an earthquake. Not to believe this is to abdicate one's faith and embrace some other religion, even if it should have all the superficial furnishings and appearances of Christianity.Google "empty tomb" and you get some interesting and often very good (mostly evangelical Protestant) links on the subject:
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