The Beauty Of The Resurrection
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It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. All right, this week on Live in the Bream, we are welcoming someone back who I'm so excited. We have multiple things to talk about, but let me remind you who he is. A New Testament scholar. He's a pastor of apologetics and cultural engagement at Prestonwood Baptist Church. He's a pastor of apologetics and cultural engagement at Prestonwood Baptist Church.

He has co-authored numerous books. We're going to talk about one of them. He's the president of the Christian Thinkers Society. And his whole goal is to give you intellectually informed reasons for what you believe if you're a Christian. And so, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, welcome back. Shannon, you call me Jeremiah, please. And it's so great to be back with you. Thank you for having me.

Okay, listen, because we are going to be talking at the same time. It is Easter time. I first want to talk about Body of Proof, which is your study about the resurrection of Jesus. You went digging for proof. You were in Israel. I want to get to all that. But I want to mention what else we're going to talk about is a big gathering that you have coming up on April 13th about adoption, about foster care, about caring for women in crisis pregnancies because...

So much has been made of the pro-life wing out there that U.S. advocates want people to continue pregnancies that are unexpected or difficult, but you just want that baby born and then you don't care. So we're going to talk about the conference that is about making sure that the pro-life world out there picks up on the rest of life and how you can show up and meet people in need and

Not just be in word talking about what you're against, but what you're for and having action to that. So we will talk about that next. But I want to start with body of proof because, listen, apologetics is your thing. So you want to be out there talking to people about why they can believe in things like Easter, which to many people sounds ridiculous.

But you've got this body of proof. There's a Bible study with it. There's a video component. You went to Israel to literally dig around and figure out what there was to tell us about the resurrection. So why? How do you convince something that this is something that actually happened? There is historical and other proof for it.

Shannon, that is such a great question. And the cool thing about studying the resurrection of Jesus is it's the same way we study anything from history. I don't have to go into some kind of religious Christian trance to talk about the historicity of the empty tomb and the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus. And,

Shannon, you're exactly right. I was amazed and little did I know what a God thing filming the Bible of the body's proof Bible study would be. We went with two drones, four cameras and Shannon, you're in media. You've been in media your whole life. You know how hard it is to secure permissions to film in some of these very sacred spots. We have unprecedented footage inside the church of the Holy Sepulcher. And I don't mean just inside the church, but

facility inside the very resurrection tomb of Jesus Christ himself, which is all first century. The archaeology is phenomenal. Shannon, I went to Lazarus's tomb. Some of your audience may or may not be familiar with this story in John chapter 11, but just two miles away from the city center of Jerusalem. And by the way, Shannon, just modern times, half of our crew is Jewish, so they couldn't go on this portion because

Bethany is now in West Bank, even though it's two miles from the city center of Jerusalem. We went to the very tomb of Lazarus where Jesus called out in John 11, "Lazarus, come forth." I went down into the tomb and Shannon, I struggled from some claustrophobia. Same. I went all the way down and there was no air and I was sweating and out of breath, but I still hollered out, "Lazarus, come forth." And we got it all on film. But my point in doing that is here's what to answer your question.

Christianity is based in the historical fact, Shannon, that Jesus Christ was resurrected on April 5th, A.D. 33. We even know the very day that it happened from the historical record, from all of the evidence. And what I wanted to do is in about three hours of reading, take you by the hand to 11 different sites of those resurrection appearances, but then show you the hope of the resurrection. Here's the awesome thing about it, Shannon.

every shred of evidence for Jesus's resurrection is a shred of evidence for your and my eventual resurrection someday. And so that's why Peter said we can have a living hope. That's first Peter one, three, not because I feel like being hopeful today. My hope is based in a fact. And according to first Peter one, three, that fact is based in the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so I give seven bodies of proof.

to evidence the resurrection of Jesus from the archaeology. And here's the one liner for you, Shannon. Do you realize that I have to appeal to Roman emperors for the same level of evidence that I have for Jesus's death and resurrection? There's nothing like that in comparison in any other religion. I mean, really, because, you know,

History has documentation that this person walked the earth. His followers, you know, they could have abandoned the story at any point about the resurrection and everything else and save themselves in the process from earthly death. But there really is stuff. If people say, all right, I think the Bible is a good book. I

I think it's interesting, maybe some good stories, or I don't give it any authority at all about anything. There are things outside of the Bible that speak to Christ's time on this planet. Absolutely. And as a historian, so Shannon, I went to Oxford. I did a 93,000 word thesis on the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus.

Shannon, the man who decided whether or not I got my PhD at Bill Telford, looked at me when I began my defense. And you know this, you're an attorney. He said, now, Jeremiah, I want to get one thing straight. Do you actually believe the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact? And he paused.

He said, "Or is that just imaginative storytelling?" And I said, "Oh, Professor Telford, the evidence leads me to believe that Jesus physically bodily rose from the grave." This is the guy examining me. He said, "Oh, I don't see it that way. Let's start your viva voce, wood living voice." Oh, that's a good start.

Yeah. So we started and he later passed me with commendation and recommended my book for publication. And as you know, Shannon, my wife and I are, you know, we've been married 20 years. We have five kids and three of them are triplets. So my kids go screensaver on me really fast. You know what I mean by screensaver? Like if dad didn't say it in two minutes, it gets boring. So I took that motif to taking, you know, what was a doctoral education to a

and to a book and to a Bible study series on why we can trust in the evidence for the historical resurrection of Jesus. And here's what's at stake, Shannon. There are 300 passages in the New Testament that talk about the truth of the resurrection. The promise that your audience is given with more frequency than any other promise in the Bible is the promise of John 14, 19. Jesus said,

Because I live, you will live also. And so there is hope. And listen, Paul also reminds us what's at stake. He said, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, if this is all a joke, people should feel sorry for us. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 19. And then he goes on and said, our sins aren't forgiven. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 17. So as C.S. Lewis said, to preach Christianity is to preach the resurrection. And Shannon, why I'm so grateful you're having this conversation with me, my prayer and my hope is that more pastors,

will preach more frequently on the truth of the resurrection because there's so much evidence and even more evidence. Like you said, I've been to the digs. I'm astounded that Jewish atheist archaeologists will use five books on their digs in Jerusalem and around the land of Israel. And Shannon, I'm sure you're familiar with these five books. Are you ready to hear them? Matthew,

Mark, Luke, John, the book of Acts and Flavius Josephus. So if the atheist Jewish archeologists will use these books because they are reliable, man, Christians, we should use them too. They're historical documents.

And then that's the blessing then of learning it, going to it, because every shred of evidence of Jesus's resurrection is evidence that I will raise with him. And listen, Shannon, you know this. We live in a society that's given up hope, that's given into despair. And the resurrection promises us that when we believe it, 1 Corinthians 15, 58, I'll quote it, be strong, be immovable.

always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. What does that mean? Everything I do for God matters. It lasts forever because of the resurrection. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment.

And listen, you take people through step by step. You have a beautiful backdrop.

in these special sacred sites in Israel. And yes, having traveled there, I know that it's really difficult, as you said early on, to get permission to take people there. So what a beautiful illustration. You do talk about in the study that

part of, um, one of your topics is that the resurrection makes sense of suffering. And you talk about, you know, we are in a time where people, I mean, goodness, the shock waves of COVID are still washing over people, lost people. They loved anxiety, fear, um, watching their kids struggle, losing their businesses or their jobs. I mean, um,

And we're really divided politically and on so many cultural hot topics. I mean, people are suffering in a lot of different ways out there. So how does the resurrection tie to that? Yeah, this is here. This is anecdotal, but I hope it answers your question. I didn't even mean to do this. But when I wrote the body of proof Bible study that you have, I use the word hope.

143 times in the Bible study. And I didn't even mean to do that because Shannon, the resurrection of Jesus always comes back to hope. Hebrew says we have a hope that never dies. We have a new hope, a better hope. Roman says because of the resurrection, we have a hope that doesn't disappoint. First Peter 1:3 says we have a living hope.

And Romans 8.18 is a key passage. And I just want to say it again for the benefit of your audience. Romans 8.18, Paul, who suffered so much. And again, remember, he was hostile to Christianity. He was the original gangster of Jerusalem who was trying to kill as many Christians as he could. He was out shutting it down. And he was anti-women. He was anti-Gentile. He didn't believe the gospel was for everybody. And he had an experience on another road, kind of like the road to Emmaus, this one, the road to Damascus.

where he saw Jesus alive and it changed his worldview so much. And in Romans 8, 18, Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this world cannot compare to the glory that is to be revealed in us someday. What a power passage that Paul could say, you know what? I see all of my difficulty and despair through the truth and the lens and the light of the resurrection. Suffering doesn't make sense without the resurrection, Shannon, but faith,

through the resurrection, I know that I have hope to live another day. I have hope to put one foot in front of the other. And that's my prayer. I hope and I truly do pray, Shannon, that everyone, I know you have an international audience. I'm praying that everyone listening to this right now, you may have given up hope. You're like the disciples. If you open up Luke 24, verse

Cleopas is on the road to Emmaus and he had given up on Christianity. Verse 21 said, "I had hoped Jesus was the Messiah, but he just got killed. He can't be the Messiah." And Shannon, they didn't realize that Jesus, the resurrected Christ was walking with them on that road to Emmaus. And it was only at a meal scene when Jesus breaks the bread in their home. And he begins to thank God for the bread that they say, "Were not our hearts burning within us?"

When we saw Jesus open the truth of scripture to us, that's what I pray for everyone listening today. I want your heart to burn with the hope and the truth of the resurrection that you're not alone. And you may not even realize what you're going through right now. You may feel like you're on a road alone, but Jesus is walking with you. And Jesus is not behind us in a tomb. Listen, I've been to the tomb.

He's not there. He is before us on a throne and he is there with his arms wide open. And one of the passages, if you don't mind me, I know I've been sharing a lot of passages on this, but Romans 5, 8, anytime I wonder if God loves me, what does Romans 5, 8 tell me to do? But God demonstrated his love for me.

and that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me on the cross. So this special Easter time, if you need a reminder that God loves you, look to the cross and know that the force of the Greek of that text is he is still demonstrating his love for you.

through what Jesus endured on the cross. And that is a message that we need today so desperately that God doesn't hold me, hold my sin over me. He loved me enough to take my sin, even when I didn't love him, when I hated him and to go to the cross in my place. And then he proved that he had victory over the ugliest thing of all death,

He never wanted to be separated with us and he conquers death on our behalf. And that's the beauty and the hope of how, and that's why it's number one in my body of proof that Jesus's resurrection is the only way that we make sense of suffering in our lives.

Well, and in that we have so much to learn from Christ and knowing that even though he tells us, listen, life is going to be difficult, but I've overcome and he truly has in every way possible that we need hope and people desperately need hope right now. And you're, I want to talk about this chosen conference that you have, because this is about meeting people where they are in crisis. Many times it's Saturday, April 13th coming up. You can give us some more details, but

but speakers include city robertson huff uh... governor greg abbott is going to be part of their course pat oppressed with senior pastor jack graham and so many others are going to be there and and it's really being called sort of

a crisis point. We know that in this country, there are hundreds of thousands of children who go into foster care, who need adoption. There are women in crisis pregnancies who see absolutely no hope, no way forward. And they're frightened. And this conference is all about the church actually stepping up

and serving these people and helping these people, making sure that churches are... And I love a church that we go to a lot more in Nashville, Church of the City Franklin. They have a whole framework set up, not only for families who want to take in children, want to help in these situations,

But also they have teams of people who then support those families. So if you say, like, I can't take on a foster child, that's my schedule and my station in life. I'm not called to that. But I can make meals. I can do laundry. I can run errands. And so you guys are convening this to say, this is a massive problem. How does the church step in and help? And I love that you keep spotlighting this first.

James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress." So tell us what you're going to do at this conference and why it's so important. You're never more like Jesus than when you meet people at their greatest point of need. That's James 1:27. We're hosting an emergency summit Saturday, April 13, all day at the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. This isn't just for Baptists. This isn't just for Christians. This, everybody is invited, but we are

staunchly pro-life and that we believe we should care for everyone from the womb to the tomb and Shannon no one covered Roe v. Wade and the overturn of Roe v. Wade better than you but you so you obviously also understand the great criticism against the church is that we don't care about pregnant moms we don't care about babies after they're born well that's just simply not true and so number one we're going to raise awareness

Shannon, I've learned so much prepping for this conference. I didn't realize 400,000, the greatest unreached people group right now in the United States are children, Shannon. 400,000 American citizens are children under the age of 18 who are currently in the foster care system. 400,000.

20,000 nationwide. 100,000 of those are available for adoption and just waiting for a family right now. 20,000 kids a year age out of the foster system every year. This is a huge problem. And listen, we can't handle it all, but all of us can do something. So we want to raise awareness at the conference. Secondly, we want to encourage. Shannon, I can't tell you how many people I've met, by the way, even at Fox News.

who have been interviewing me and they're sitting off camera like, Jeremiah, you didn't know this, but I'm adopted or my dad's adopted or my mom's adopted. We want to encourage families who are adopted. We want to encourage families who have experienced foster care or who want, who can help educate us

Also, any pastor who wants to come, we're going to comp for free. We've actually, we have so many sponsors. We have 50 partners of every kind of adoption pro-life agency you can imagine. Shannon, we're even going to sponsor, you know how costly it is to adopt a child. We're going to sponsor an adoption at this conference. Some wonderful blessed family is going to walk out of there with a check to sponsor a family, to sponsor an adoption. So,

It's all day long. And I realize not everyone can come to Dallas on April 13th, but that's why you can stream it. So if you go to Prestonwood.org slash chosen, that's Prestonwood.org slash chosen. You can even sign up to stream the conference. Well, you're you'll hear for these great speakers. You're going to be equipped. You're going to be resourced. You're going to be you're going to have awareness raised about what you can do about it. And here's what I want to say. You know, the message of Jesus from Mark nine says,

He said that the kingdom of God is like a child. It's like receiving a child. Jesus brought dignity and humanity back to children and back to women, especially as well. And at Prestonwood, we just believe that every child is a wanted child. There is no such thing as an unwanted child.

and an unneeded child. And so we want to encourage people, and it is galvanizing. We're having people sign up right and left. So I appreciate you raising awareness about this. We want to be part of the solution and not just talk about the doomsday problems all the time. So pastors who come will actually be

learn how to do like what your church is doing in Franklin, what our church is doing here. Pastors just need to be equipped. So we want pastors to come and we're going to essentially give you an adoption foster care ministry in a box. It doesn't cost anything, but we want to equip you with the tools and resource you with the mechanism to go do

Because listen, you know, the most dangerous words, remember what Ronald Reagan said is, I'm the government, I'm here to help. Like we can't rely on the government for this. The church, we are the greatest force for good on planet Earth. We're the most organized syndicate there is. So people just need to be made aware of it and equipped. And that's what we're going to do at the Chosen Conference. And I'm so grateful you're helping us raise awareness for it. Yeah, I mean, but that's what we're called to do is like get in the trenches and serve people. Like you said, just meet them where they are. We've all had moments of being desperately in need.

And every family or every individual is going to have those moments in life. And so if we can say like, yeah, we do believe as the church that we're supposed to, you know, be sacrificial in our giving and opening our hearts and opening our homes and to show up and to say to you, like, let me just give you a soft place to land. Let me let me help you through this. I mean, I mean,

Yeah, and encourage you and make you feel like you can take on these things. You can be equipped. You can be out there helping others. And it really is at essence what the church is called to do. I was rereading the story of Jesus just days ago with washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper and how in that time and in that culture, that was what the lowliest person in the house did. And they sort of were like, "No, no, I couldn't let you do that."

But the whole thing he was showing us was to say, oh, yeah, I'm going to wash your feet. And I now expect you to go and do this for everybody else. So, you know, Saturday, April 13th, the Prestonwood Baptist. Again, you've given us the information for people who want to just dial in and see how they can be a blessing and a servant and help others and give and really put.

meat on that bone of saying, yeah, we are for life at all of its stages and all of the ways that it shows up in need. So Dr. Jeremiah Johnston, Jeremiah to us, we thank you for the Bible study and the fascinating body of proof that we can study and keep us updated on how this conference goes as well. Thanks for giving us all the information. And again, pastors, you're going to work with them to get them there so they can take part if that's something they can do as well. So God bless you guys.

Shannon, thank you. You're the best. Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. From the Fox News Podcasts Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcasts.com.