📖 Utetezi wa Imani (Apologetiki) — Sehemu ya 7: Ufufuo na Wenye Mashaka Waliobadilishwa📖 Apologetics — Unit 7: The Resurrection and the Changed Skeptics

Andiko: 1 Wakorintho 15:14Text: 1 Corinthians 15:14

Bawaba ya Kila KituThe Hinge of Everything

Kati ya dini zote duniani, Ukristo ndio pekee unaowapa wakosoaji wake upanga na kusema, haya, hapa ndipo mnapoweza kunipiga hadi nife. Paulo alilisema bila kusitasita: kama Kristo hakufufuka, basi kuhubiri kwetu ni bure na imani yenu nayo ni bure. Hakusema kwamba imani ingeendelea kuchechemea kama falsafa nzuri kama kaburi lingekuwa na mwili; alisema ingekwisha kabisa, na kwamba sisi tunaoihubiri tungefichuliwa kuwa waongo. Mafundisho ya Buddha hayasimami wala kuanguka kwa kutegemea kama mifupa yake iko kaburini, na Uislamu haujengi hoja yake juu ya kaburi tupu. Lakini uzito wote wa Ukristo unaning'inia juu ya tukio moja la kihistoria: kwamba mtu aliyekufa alitoka nje ya kaburi lililotiwa muhuri siku ya tatu. Hili linaifanya imani yetu kuwa imani inayoweza kupimwa kuliko zote duniani, iliyo wazi zaidi kukanushwa. Toa mwili, nawe utakuwa umeshinda mabishano milele. Kwa hiyo hatuna sababu ya kuliogopa swali hili. Na tutembee moja kwa moja hadi kaburini na kuchungulia ndani.Of all the religions on earth, Christianity is the only one that hands its critics a sword and says, here, this is where you may strike me dead. Paul put it without a hedge: if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is empty too. He did not say the faith would limp along as a lovely philosophy if the tomb were full; he said it would be finished, and that we who preach it would be exposed as liars. The teachings of the Buddha do not stand or fall on whether his bones lie in a grave, and Islam does not rest its case on an empty tomb. But the whole weight of Christianity hangs on a single event in history: that a dead man walked out of a sealed grave on the third day. This makes ours the most testable faith in the world, the one most open to disproof. Produce the body and you have won the argument forever. So we need not be afraid of this question. Let us walk straight up to the grave and look inside.

Mambo Yanayopaswa KuelezwaWhat Must Be Explained

Mchunguzi mwaminifu haanzi na hukumu; anaanza na mambo halisi ambayo kila nadharia lazima iyaeleze. Haya ni mambo ambayo hata wanahistoria wengi wenye mashaka wanayakubali. Yesu wa Nazareti aliuawa kwa kusulubiwa na Warumi na hakika alikuwa amekufa. Kaburi lake lilikutwa tupu siku ya tatu. Wafuasi wake walisadiki ghafla, bila kutikisika, kwamba walikuwa wamemwona akiwa hai, wamemgusa, na wamekula pamoja naye. Na ndani ya wiki chache kanisa lililipuka kwa uhai katika Yerusalemu — mji pekee duniani ambamo jambo lote lingeweza kuzimwa mchana mmoja kwa kutembea tu hadi kaburini na kuutoa mwili. Hakuna mwili uliowahi kutolewa. La kushangaza zaidi ni badiliko la kijamii lililofuata. Wayahudi waliokuwa wameshika Sabato ya siku ya saba kwa karne kumi na tano walianza, katika kipindi cha maisha ya kanisa la kwanza kabisa, kuipa siku ya kwanza ya juma umuhimu wa pekee, siku ile aliyofufuka — badiliko lililoota mizizi ndani ya kizazi kimoja au viwili, hata ingawa waamini wengi Wayahudi waliendelea kwa miaka mingi kushiriki maisha ya sinagogi na hekalu pamoja na jambo hilo. Watu waliolelewa kuchukizwa na wazo la Masihi aliyesulubiwa, jambo lililokuwa kinyume kwa maneno yao wenyewe, walianza kumtangaza Masihi aliyesulubiwa kuwa Bwana na Mungu. Kuna jambo lililotokea lililopinda mwelekeo wa historia, na kila nadharia lazima ieleze yote hayo kwa pamoja.An honest investigator does not begin with a verdict; he begins with the facts that any theory must explain. Here are facts that even most skeptical historians grant. Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Roman crucifixion and was certainly dead. His tomb was found empty on the third day. His followers were suddenly and unshakably convinced that they had seen Him alive, touched Him, and eaten with Him. And within a few weeks the church exploded into life in Jerusalem — the one city on earth where the whole thing could have been crushed in an afternoon simply by walking to the tomb and producing a body. No body was ever produced. Stranger still is the sociological shift that followed. Jews who had kept the seventh-day Sabbath for fifteen centuries began, within the lifetime of the earliest church, to give special significance to the first day of the week, the day He rose — a change that took hold within a generation or two, even as many Jewish believers continued for years to participate in synagogue and temple life alongside it. Men raised to recoil at the thought of a crucified Messiah, a contradiction in their own terms, began proclaiming a crucified Messiah as Lord and God. Something happened that bent the course of history, and every theory must account for all of it at once.

Mashahidi WaliositasitaThe Reluctant Witnesses

Kiini cha hoja si waamini waliotaka jambo hili liwe kweli, bali mashahidi ambao hawakutaka. Sheria imejua siku zote kwamba ushuhuda wenye thamani kuliko wote ni ule wa shahidi mpinzani, yule mwenye kila sababu ya kusema hapana. Ufufuo ulizaa mashahidi watatu wa namna hiyo. Kwanza, Mwenye Mashaka. Tomaso alikuwa ametembea na Yesu kwa miaka kadhaa, lakini wenzake waliposema kwamba Bwana amefufuka, alikataa waziwazi kuamini kwa neno lao: nisipoyagusa majeraha, alisema, sitaamini kamwe. Kisha akakutana na Kristo aliyefufuka, na yule mwenye shaka aliyedai uthibitisho akaanguka na kusema, "Bwana wangu na Mungu wangu!" Pili, Adui. Sauli wa Tarso hakuwa mtafutaji; alikuwa mtesaji mkuu wa kanisa, akitoa vitisho, akiwaburuta waamini gerezani, akishika mavazi ya wale waliompiga Stefano kwa mawe. Alikuwa na kila kitu cha kupata kwa kuliangamiza vuguvugu hilo na kila kitu cha kupoteza kwa kujiunga nalo. Lakini katika njia ya Dameski Kristo aliyefufuka alimsimamisha ghafla, na adui akawa mtume ambaye angeteseka na kufa kwa ajili ya jina alilojaribu kulifuta. Tatu, Familia. Yakobo alikuwa ndugu wa Yesu, aliyelelewa katika nyumba ile ile, na Injili zinakiri kwa uaminifu unaoaibisha kwamba wakati wa maisha ya Yesu ndugu zake mwenyewe hawakumwamini. Lakini baada ya ufufuo Yakobo huyo huyo anasimama kama kiongozi wa kanisa la Yerusalemu, na baadaye anakufa shahidi kwa ajili yake — kifo kinachoripotiwa si na vyanzo vya Kikristo peke yake bali pia na mwanahistoria Myahudi Yosefo (Josephus), jambo linalokipa uthibitisho wa nje ulio na nguvu isivyo kawaida kwa kifo cha kishahidi cha karne ya kwanza. Jiulize ingehitaji nini ili kukusadikisha kwamba ndugu yako mwenyewe ndiye Bwana wa utukufu. Yakobo alisadikishwa — kwa kumwona amefufuliwa.The heart of the case is not the believers who wanted it to be true, but the witnesses who did not. The law has always known that the testimony worth most is the hostile witness, the one with every reason to say no. The resurrection produced three of them. First, the Skeptic. Thomas had walked with Jesus for years, yet when the others said the Lord was risen, he flatly refused to believe on their word: unless I touch the wounds, he said, I will not believe. Then he met the risen Christ, and the doubter who demanded proof fell down and said, "My Lord and my God." Second, the Enemy. Saul of Tarsus was no seeker; he was the church's chief persecutor, breathing threats, dragging believers to prison, holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen. He had everything to gain by destroying the movement and everything to lose by joining it. Yet on the Damascus road the risen Christ stopped him in his tracks, and the enemy became the apostle who would suffer and die for the name he had tried to erase. Third, the Family. James was the brother of Jesus, raised in the same house, and the Gospels admit with embarrassing honesty that during Jesus' life His own brothers did not believe in Him. But after the resurrection this same James stands as the leader of the Jerusalem church, and later dies a martyr for Him — a death reported not only by Christian sources but by the Jewish historian Josephus, giving it unusually strong outside corroboration for a first-century martyrdom. Ask yourself what it would take to convince you that your own brother was the Lord of glory. James was convinced — by seeing Him raised.

Hawatakufa kwa Ajili ya Kile Wanachojua Ni UongoThey Will Not Die for What They Know Is a Lie

Sasa na tusisitize pingamizi lililo wazi: watu hufa kwa ajili ya imani za kila aina, basi kifo cha mitume kinathibitisha nini? Hapa lazima tuwe waangalifu na sahihi. Ni kweli kwamba katika kila zama watu wamekufa kwa ajili ya mambo yaliyokuwa ya uongo; mtu atautoa uhai wake kwa ajili ya uongo ikiwa anaamini kwa dhati kwamba ni kweli. Lakini hiyo siyo hali ya mitume. Hawakuwa wafuasi waliodanganywa walio maili elfu moja mbali na tukio; wao ndio wale wale ambao wangejua, bila uwezekano wowote wa kukosea, kama walikuwa wamemwona Bwana aliyefufuka au walikuwa wameuiba mwili wake na kubuni hadithi hiyo. Unaweza kufa kwa ajili ya uongo unaoamini kuwa ni kweli. Hutakufa kwa ajili ya uongo unaojua kuwa ni uongo. Na watu hawa, wakipewa kila nafasi ya kuokoa maisha yao kwa kukana, walikwenda gerezani, kwenye mjeledi, na kwa mnyongaji wakiendelea kusisitiza kile walichokiona kwa macho yao na kukigusa kwa mikono yao. Waongo hufanya mashahidi-wafia-imani dhaifu mara kufa kunapoanza.Now press on the obvious objection: people will die for all sorts of beliefs, so what does the death of the apostles prove? Here we must be careful and exact. It is true that men in every age have died for things that were false; a man will lay down his life for a lie if he sincerely believes it to be true. But that is not the situation of the apostles. They were not deceived followers a thousand miles from the event; they were the very men who would have known, beyond any possibility of mistake, whether they had seen the risen Lord or had stolen His body and invented the tale. You might die for a lie you believe is true. You will not die for a lie you know is a lie. And these men, given every chance to save their lives by recanting, went to prison, to the whip, and to the executioner still insisting on what they had seen with their eyes and touched with their hands. Liars make poor martyrs once the dying starts.

Kuporomoka kwa NjamaThe Collapse of Conspiracies

Charles Colson, aliyesimama karibu na kilele cha mamlaka ya Marekani katika Ikulu ya Rais Nixon, alitoa mfano wenye msaada kutokana na uzoefu mchungu — si uthibitisho wa ufufuo, bali njia ya kupima hisia zetu kuhusu njama. Alisema kwamba watu kumi na wawili kati ya wenye nguvu zaidi duniani hawakuweza kudumisha uongo mdogo hata kwa wiki chache mara maisha yao wenyewe yalipokuwa hatarini; chini ya shinikizo la uchunguzi njama ya Watergate ilisambaratika karibu mara moja, kila mmoja akihangaika kujiokoa. Kisha Colson aliuliza ni jinsi gani wavuvi na watoza ushuru kumi na wawili waliokuwa na hofu wangeweza kudumisha uongo mkubwa zaidi sana kwa miongo kadhaa, katika miaka ya kupigwa na magereza na kuuawa, bila hata mmoja wao kuvunjika ili ajinunulie uhuru kwa kukiri. Mfano huu si ushahidi kwamba ufufuo ulitokea; ni njia ya kupima kama wazo la "wanafunzi walilibuni kisha wakafa kwa ajili ya uongo huo" linaaminika kisaikolojia, kwa kuzingatia tunayoyajua kuhusu jinsi njama za kawaida zinavyoelekea kufumuka chini ya shinikizo. Tukipima kwa njia hiyo, maelezo ya wizi-na-kuficha-ukweli yanaonekana kuwa na uwezekano mdogo zaidi kwa kiasi kikubwa kuliko jibu lingine: kwamba mitume walikuwa wakisema kweli kuhusu kile walichokiona.Charles Colson, who stood near the top of American power in the Nixon White House, offered a helpful analogy from bitter experience — not proof of the resurrection, but a way of testing our intuitions about conspiracies. A dozen of the most powerful men in the world, he said, could not hold a simple lie together for even a few weeks once their own skins were on the line; under the pressure of investigation the conspiracy of Watergate fell apart almost at once, each man scrambling to save himself. Colson then asked how twelve frightened fishermen and tax collectors could have held a far greater lie together for decades, across years of beatings and prisons and executions, with not one of them ever breaking to buy his freedom with a confession. The analogy is not evidence that the resurrection happened; it is a way of testing whether "the disciples made it up and then died for the lie" is psychologically plausible, given what we know about how ordinary conspiracies tend to unravel under pressure. Judged that way, the theft-and-cover-up explanation looks considerably less likely than the alternative: that the apostles were telling the truth about what they had seen.

Wenye Mashaka Walioazimia KuukanushaThe Skeptics Who Set Out to Disprove It

Kuna mtindo katika historia ya swali hili ambao unapaswa kumfanya mwenye shaka mwenye kufikiri asite: wale walioichunguza kwa ukaribu zaidi ushahidi, wakikusudia kuuzika, wana tabia ya kutatanisha ya kubadili upande. Katika karne ya kumi na nane Waingereza wawili wasomi, Gilbert West na Lord Lyttelton, walikubaliana kuchunguza kile walichokiona kuwa nguzo mbili za Ukristo zinazoonekana dhaifu zaidi, yaani ufufuo na kuongoka kwa Paulo, kila mmoja akitarajia kwamba uchunguzi wake ungefichua dai hilo kuwa la uongo. Walifanya kazi kila mmoja peke yake kisha wakalinganisha matokeo. Badala yake, kila mmoja alikuwa amesukumwa na ushahidi kufikia hitimisho kwamba tukio alilolichunguza lilikuwa la kweli — West kuhusu ufufuo, Lyttelton kuhusu kuongoka kwa Paulo — na kila mmoja akachapisha kitabu kinachotetea dai lile lile alilokuwa ameazimia kulipinga. Karne moja na zaidi baadaye, mwandishi aliyetumia jina bandia la Frank Morison aliketi kuandika kitabu cha kuukanusha ufufuo mara moja na kwa wote; kitabu alichokiandika hasa, baada ya kufuata ukweli wa mambo, kilihoji kwamba ufufuo ulitokea, naye akaiita sura yake ya kwanza "kitabu kilichokataa kuandikwa." Katika siku zetu wachunguzi wenye mashaka wamerudia jaribio hilo, wakiketi ili kukanusha na kuinuka wakiwa wamesadikishwa. Ni mwangwi wa kisasa wa Tomaso: akili ya uaminifu inapotazama ushuhuda kwa muda mrefu na kwa makini, moyo hatimaye huinama.There is a pattern in the history of this question that ought to give a thoughtful doubter pause: those who have examined the evidence most closely, intending to bury it, have an unsettling habit of changing sides. In the eighteenth century two learned Englishmen, Gilbert West and Lord Lyttelton, agreed to examine what they considered the two weakest-looking pillars of Christianity, the resurrection and the conversion of Paul, each expecting his own study to expose the claim as false. They worked separately and compared results. Each had instead been driven by the evidence to conclude that the event he examined was genuine — West concerning the resurrection, Lyttelton concerning Paul's conversion — and each published a book defending the very claim he had set out to dispute. A century and more later, a writer using the pen name Frank Morison sat down to write a book disproving the resurrection once and for all; the book he actually wrote, after following the facts, argued that it had happened, and he called its opening chapter "the book that refused to be written." In our own day skeptical investigators have repeated the experiment, sitting down to refute and rising up persuaded. It is the modern echo of Thomas: when an honest mind looks long and hard at the testimony, the heart at last bows down.

Mashahidi Ambao HawakukanaThe Witnesses Who Would Not Recant

Tangu kizazi kile cha kwanza mstari wa mashahidi haujawahi kukatika. Petro, aliyewahi kumkana Bwana wake karibu na moto, kwa mujibu wa taarifa za kale alisulubiwa hatimaye huko Rumi, akiomba atundikwe kichwa chini kwa sababu alijiona hastahili kufa kama Bwana wake alivyokufa. Na karne zilizofuata zimeongeza majina tu. Richard Wurmbrand, Myahudi asiyeamini Mungu aliyemjia Kristo mwaka 1938, alikaa miaka kumi na minne katika magereza ya kikomunisti, sehemu kubwa ya muda huo katika mateso na kifungo cha upweke, akatoka si na uchungu bali akiwaombea watesi wake, na akaanzisha huduma kwa ajili ya kanisa linaloteswa. Hata hivyo, hapa lazima tushike tofauti ya uaminifu, kwa maana ina umuhimu. Mitume ni ushahidi kwa namna ambayo hakuna shahidi-mfia-imani wa baadaye anayeweza kuwa, kwa sababu mitume walikuwa katika nafasi ya kujua wenyewe moja kwa moja kama tukio lilikuwa halisi, na mashahidi-wafia-imani wa baadaye hawakuwa. Wurmbrand hakuliona kaburi tupu. Kile ambacho msururu mrefu wa mashahidi-wafia-imani unathibitisha si tukio lenyewe bali nguvu yake iliyo hai: kwamba karne kumi na tisa baada ya jiwe kuvingirishwa, Kristo aliyefufuka bado ni halisi kwa wanaume na wanawake kiasi kwamba watateseka kwa lolote kuliko kumkana. Mitume wanashuhudia kwamba lilitokea; mashahidi-wafia-imani wanashuhudia kwamba yeye bado yu hai ili kuwafanya watu wa namna hiyo.From that first generation the line of witnesses has never broken. Peter, who once denied his Lord by a fire, was, by the early accounts, crucified at last in Rome, asking to be hung head downward because he counted himself unworthy to die as his Master had. And the centuries since have only added names. Richard Wurmbrand, a Jewish atheist who came to Christ in 1938, spent fourteen years in communist prisons, much of it in torture and solitary confinement, and came out not bitter but praying for his torturers, founding a work for the persecuted church. Here, though, we must keep an honest distinction, for it matters. The apostles are evidence in a way that no later martyr can be, because the apostles were in a position to know firsthand whether the event was real, and the later martyrs were not. Wurmbrand did not see the empty tomb. What the long parade of martyrs proves is not the event itself but its living power: that nineteen centuries after the stone was rolled away, the risen Christ is still so real to men and women that they will suffer anything rather than deny Him. The apostles testify that it happened; the martyrs testify that He is still alive to make such people.

Maelezo Bora Kuliko YoteThe Best Explanation

Weka mambo yote mezani na upime maelezo kwa uaminifu. Je, wanafunzi waliuiba mwili kisha wakafa kwa ajili ya kile walichojua kuwa ni udanganyifu? Tumeona kwamba waongo hawafi namna hiyo. Je, Yesu alizirai tu na kupata fahamu tena katika ubaridi wa kaburi? Mtu aliyepigwa mijeledi hadi mwili kuchanika na kuchomwa hadi moyoni havingirishi jiwe, kuwashinda walinzi, na kuwasadikisha wenye mashaka sugu kwamba yeye ndiye mshindi wa mauti. Je, kutokea kwake kulikuwa njozi tu? Njozi kwa kawaida ni za mtu binafsi na za kipekee kwa mtu anayeziona; nadharia ya njozi inahangaika kueleza, kwa wakati mmoja, kutokea kwake kulikoripotiwa kwa watu mmoja mmoja na kwa makundi pamoja, mapokeo ya kaburi tupu pamoja na kutokea kwake, na kuongoka kwa watu wapinzani kama Sauli na ndugu wa familia wenye mashaka kama Yakobo. Je, yote yalikuwa hekaya iliyokua kadiri miaka ilivyopita? Hekaya zinahitaji vizazi ili kukua, lakini tangazo hili lilihubiriwa Yerusalemu ndani ya wiki chache, wakati mashahidi wapinzani ambao wangeweza kulikanusha walikuwa bado hai. Kila maelezo ya kiasili yanahangaika mahali fulani, na hasa kuhusu wenye mashaka waliobadilishwa. Maelezo rahisi kuliko yote yanayoeleza kaburi tupu, kutokea kwake, maadui walioongoka, kanisa lililolipuka, na ushuhuda usiovunjika ni yale ambayo mashahidi wenyewe walitoa: Amefufuka.Lay all the facts on the table and weigh the explanations honestly. Did the disciples steal the body and then die for what they knew was a fraud? We have seen that liars do not die that way. Did Jesus merely swoon and revive in the cool of the tomb? A man flogged to ribbons and pierced through the heart does not roll back a stone and overpower guards and convince hardened skeptics that He is the conqueror of death. Were the appearances mere hallucinations? Hallucinations are typically private and idiosyncratic to the person having them; the hallucination hypothesis struggles to explain, all at once, appearances reported to individuals and to groups together, the empty-tomb tradition alongside the appearances, and the conversions of hostile figures like Saul and skeptical family members like James. Was it all a legend that grew with the years? Legends need generations to grow, but this proclamation was preached in Jerusalem within weeks, while hostile witnesses who could have refuted it were still alive. Every natural explanation struggles somewhere, and especially on the changed skeptics. The simplest explanation that accounts for the empty tomb, the appearances, the converted enemies, the explosive church, and the unbreakable witness is the one the witnesses themselves gave: He is risen.

Amina ya BabaThe Father's Amen

Ufufuo ni Amina kuu ya Baba iliyotamkwa juu ya madai ya Mwanawe. Kila "MIMI NDIMI" alilotamka Yesu, kila dhambi aliyosamehe, kila ahadi aliyotoa vilining'inia bila kuthibitishwa hadi siku ya tatu; kaburi tupu ni stakabadhi ya mbinguni, sahihi ya Mungu mwenyewe inayothibitisha kwamba deni lililipwa na madai yalikuwa kweli. Hata hivyo, kama ilivyo kwa kila dalili katika kozi hii, ushahidi unatufikisha mlangoni tu. Tomaso alipewa uthibitisho wake akaamini, lakini Bwana aligeuka kutoka kwake kuelekea kwetu kupitia karne nyingi akasema, "Wa heri wale wasioona, wakasadiki." Kaburi tupu halimlazimishi mtu kupiga magoti; linamkaribisha. Linaondoa kila kisingizio cha uaminifu na kumwacha mtafutaji akiwa amesimama pale Tomaso aliposimama zamani, majeraha yakiwa karibu kufikiwa, swali likingoja. Wewe wasema yeye ni nani?The resurrection is the Father's great Amen spoken over the claims of His Son. Every "I AM" Jesus uttered, every sin He forgave, every promise He made hung unproven until the third day; the empty tomb is heaven's receipt, God's own signature certifying that the bill was paid and the claims were true. And yet, as with every clue in this course, the evidence carries us only to the door. Thomas was given his proof and believed, but the Lord turned from him to us across the centuries and said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." The empty tomb does not force a man to his knees; it invites him. It clears away every honest excuse and leaves the seeker standing where Thomas once stood, the wounds within reach, the question waiting. Who do you say that He is?

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