Christ IS Risen. What a thought for an Emergent.

Yesterday was the greatest day of the Year. Easter Sunday. The single day of the year that gives hope to every other day. I woke up way to early to go to the SONrise service at my little reformed southern baptist fundamental traditional church where I am the only college aged student.

I had a thought. Wow. I said as I pondered to myself, shivering as I sat outside watching the moon go down. (We have a beautiful Church right on the water, however it faces the east...beautiful Sunsets, empty Sunrises)

The idea of a SONrise is pretty emergent. It's just the sort of brain-thought that Rob Bell should make a video of. A play on words, the Sun Rises, get it..The SON Rises...as he talks to us as if were in the second grade and unable to understand complex theology such as substitutionary atonement.

Well I laughed. Us Southern Baptists' have done this here thing for a long time. +1 Creativity for the SBC.

Anyways, on to the point. I am not Emergent so I do indeed have a few.

As we finished our amazing breakfast buffet after the service, I ran upstairs to hone my chalk and creativity skills on the "paint on" chalk board, when a Youth asked if she could help. I said yes, and I wrote the Bold Words "He Is Risen"

I told her she can write "He is Risen Indeed..." on the other side.

She then asked a question, in which I have never thought of the answer, nor pondered the statement.

Why is it "He IS Risen, and not He HAS Risen?"

Such a question did not require me holding a conversation, meeting with and among other scholars, or setting up a stool in a round. I knew the answer immediately.

He is Still Risen. He is Still Alive. He Has Risen can only refer to Lazarus who is dead.

The statement He Is Risen, can never be up for discussion. He is, and will always be Risen. Forever.

The Statement He IS Risen is very boldly a statement of Fact. It is not something that can be pondered, questioned, examined, or inquired. He simply IS.

There is no conversation on what is is. We Know. Our Faith rests upon that Statement of Three words. He IS Risen.

Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15:19
"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

Which of course begs a question.

How can the Emergent Church stand on wavering thoughts, when the "everything" of Christianity rests on a word so absolute, so fact filled as IS.

Without that IS, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, performed many miracles, died on a cross for the sins of mankind, and it all means nothing.

Without Easter there is no Messiah, There is no Joy in Christmas, nor Hope in the Future.

But because He IS Risen...There Is.

Marcus Pittman
www.transplantministries.com
www.oomaoo.com