That gospel is the good news we all need. God stepping into our world, and defeating death through the atoning death of Jesus and his miraculous, non-mythic resurrection, which happened in time and space. It is a bodily resurrection that we will also know, if we are in Christ. May you be given power and joy as you share the resurrection news with those around you.

“We did not follow cleverly devised myths … but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16-17).

I have just written a piece on Carl Jung (1875-1961) and his importance for our modern, unbelieving culture. I encourage you to find it on the truthXchange website and read it, because some evangelical thinkers are finding Jung spiritually useful. I want you, dear readers to realize that Jung replaced the message of the Bible with pagan myths. One of Jung’s disciples, Joseph Campbell, wrote The Power of Myth and the public TV series of the same name. One of Campbell’s disciples is the heretical Bishop John Shelby Spong of New Jersey, who wrote two books on the resurrection of Jesus and gives Campbell credit for persuading him to deny the physical resurrection. Spong’s spiritual father was Campbell and his spiritual grandfather was none other than Carl Jung.

“Father” Campbell and “grandfather” Jung are dead, and Spong (at 85) is nearing his death as well, having suffered a stroke in 2016. But Jesus is alive, not as a myth but as an historical and physical reality. What use were their myths when Jung and Campbell died? Will myth help Spong when his time comes?

The Apostle Paul has strong words to say about myths: “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths” (1 Tim. 4:7), and the Apostle Peter agreed: “We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16-17). Peter and John both saw the empty tomb and the empty grave clothes. What they saw proved in an instant that Jesus was alive. The body had not been stolen, but had passed through the grave clothes and left them undisturbed in the shape of his body and head.

Paul also saw the resurrected Christ and was commissioned by him to spread the good news of the risen Lord to the Gentiles. Paul saw that news “bearing fruit and growing in the whole world.”

That gospel is the good news we all need. God stepping into our world, and defeating death through the atoning death of Jesus and his miraculous, non-mythic resurrection, which happened in time and space. It is a bodily resurrection that we will also know, if we are in Christ. May you be given power and joy as you share the resurrection news with those around you.

He Is Risen Indeed!

Dr. Peter Jones is scholar in residence at Westminster Seminary California and associate pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, Calif. He is director of truthXchange, a communications center aimed at equipping the Christian community to recognize and effectively respond to the rise of paganism. Used with permission.