ABSTRACT
Academics often trace the origins of the church back to ancient Jewish and possibly even pagan practices. However, to the devout Christian, the history of the Christian church begins with a miraculous, supernatural event, the resurrection of Jesus. Most Christians mark the actual start of the Christian church with the event known as Pentecost, when God sent the Holy Spirit. Yet if we are to understand the development of the Church, we have to come to grips with the centrality of the resurrection. In the Christian church, Easter, not Christmas, is the most sacred day. Easter is the dynamo that powers the development of the Church and continues to energize it 2000 years after the event. It is the resurrection that makes the Christian religion different from others. The historical veracity of the resurrection is a difficult concept for modern secular minds to grasp, yet to the vast majority of Christians, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is at the center of their faith. The writer of the book of Corinthians also understood that it was difficult to accept yet critical to the faith when he wrote “if Christ be not raised, we are among all men most miserable.” 1 It is the resurrection that gave the first Christians hope.
