Earlier this week, my ears were plugged listening to What if, a song by Simple Plan, a Canadian Rock Band, when suddenly a very bold thought and question popped up in one corner of my ever-ruminating mind. WHAT IF...? What if all you knew to be true and held dear to your heart and lived by were actually not true?
Since we are in the so-called Easter Season, the 1st "what if" which unsurprisingly, came to me wildly was
What if Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Saviour of Mankind (according to Christians) did not die on the cross of Calvary as has always been believed to be true? What if He just fainted/blacked out/lost consciousness?
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I know! this is huge right? because then the Christian faith would be blown apart since Christianity is based on this very tenet; THAT CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS FOR THE SINS OF MANKIND... Observe my use of the word tenet. WordWeb dictionary, defines a tenet as a religious doctrine that is proclaimed to be true without proof.
I may come off as being cynical but indulge me for a few minutes.
Coming from a medical background, I know that extreme pain can cause a person to loose consciousness. This is called a vasovagal response and this is how it works. When a person is exposed to some form of stimuli (extreme pain in this instance), a reflex controlled by a centre in the brain is initiated and this reflex works to reduce the Cardiac Output (the volume of blood pumped throughout the whole body in a minute), hence blood supply to the brain reduces. The brain in order to protect itself from severe damage from insufficient blood goes to sleep. So, what if this is what actually happened on the cross, causing Christ to lose consciousness and passed off as being dead? Because it has established that Jesus went through extreme pain.
Coupled with this, he might have been dehydrated and he also lost some amount of blood from the nailing and the piercing of his sides. The loss of blood would have contributed to his low cardiac output.
OK OK! so if God the Holy spirit did not bring him back to life, how come it was on the 3rd day he woke up, you may rightly ask? WHAT IF JESUS REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS THE VERY SAME DAY HE WAS LAID IN THE TOMB? Remember he just lost consciousness, he didn't die? Again in medicine, I've being taught that when a person faints, the mere laying of that person on his back flat with his head propped up can result in the person regaining his consciousness without any needed resuscitation. so when Christ was laid down flat in the tomb, he eventually came out of his unconscious state. and devised a way to break out of the tomb a la Prison Break. Let's call this Tomb Break, lol...
From here it might sound a bit funny to believe but indulge my fancy a bit more. so on the 3rd day Christ finally came up with a master plan. He will call out to the guards manning the tomb. He did call out to them, and the guards being unsure had to open the tomb to satisfy their curiosities. They did open, they saw Christ standing erect in the tomb, not dead, and they thinking it was a ghost, also passed out, and Christ walked out a free man!
All these sound preposterous I know, but WHAT IF this is what actually transpired two millennia ago?
Will your belief system change? Will your faith change?
WHAT IF...?
