{"id":175,"date":"2016-03-29T13:08:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T20:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fourinthegarden.com\/?p=175"},"modified":"2016-07-05T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T04:24:00","slug":"resurrection-is-reconnection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/resurrection-is-reconnection\/","title":{"rendered":"Resurrection is Reconnection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus’ Resurrection<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What Christians celebrate at Easter is the resurrection of Jesus. His resurrection demonstrates God’s power over death. But God already demonstrated that power when Jesus raised people from the dead, such as Lazarus. If God’s power over death had been established, then why did Jesus need to rise from the dead?<\/p>\n

Defining Death<\/h3>\n

First, let’s start with a new definition: Death is separation. When a person dies, they are separated from their body. Also, they are separated from their loved ones, which is a type of death or loss experienced by both parties, the deceased and those left behind. The soul continues for the deceased, but without a body.<\/p>\n

Why Resurrect?<\/h3>\n

When Jesus died, He could have gone straight to heaven. In that case, He would have continued His existence as a spirit, just as God the Father is a spirit. Why resurrect at all? Why come back for your body? Why not shed this frail, mortal body and be done with it? Why not remain a spirit and be free from the confines and limitations of a physical body?\u00a0For the rest of this article, visit http:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/articles.html<\/a> and download the article listed at the top of the page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus’ Resurrection What Christians celebrate at Easter is the resurrection of Jesus. His resurrection demonstrates God’s power over death. But God already demonstrated that power when Jesus raised people from the dead, such as Lazarus. If God’s power over death had been established, then why did Jesus need to rise from the dead? Defining Death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-2P","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":336,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-silent-tomb-an-easter-reflection-on-the-coronavirus\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":0},"title":"The Silent Tomb: An Easter reflection on the coronavirus","date":"April 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I had wondered about the significance of the coronavirus peak happening around Easter. What came to mind was Christ\u2019s tomb. A tomb is dark and silent and empty, except for the dead. With social distancing measures in place, we\u2019ve been forced into solitude. We\u2019ve been stripped of our outer lives\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christ"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-simplicity-of-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":1},"title":"The Simplicity of Death","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"To understand death, we can observe nature as in the lifespan of insects or the hierarchy of the food chain. Death is an integral part of the cycle of life. Death is necessary, inevitable, and unavoidable. I doubt that insects or animals contemplate their mortality as humans do. Yet, what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/good-enough-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":2},"title":"Good Enough for God","date":"January 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you good enough for God? How good must one be to please God? How do you know if God is pleased with you? Does going to church earn us points with God? By the way, going to church isn't one of the Ten Commandments. We are commanded to keep\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Righteousness"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":286,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/the-purpose-of-pain\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":3},"title":"The Purpose of Pain","date":"October 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve noticed a growing trend in our society marked by an aversion to pain. I suspect this trend is due to the easy availability of drugs that mask pain. It seems as if pain is another malady to be conquered by science, along with cancer and heart disease. But pain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":345,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/where-god-dwells\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":4},"title":"Where God Dwells","date":"November 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Where does God dwell? The scriptures teach us that God dwells in heaven, his holy habitation (Deuteronomy 26:15), but aren\u2019t we also taught that God is everywhere? Being in a place isn\u2019t the same as abiding there. God may be everywhere, but he doesn\u2019t abide everywhere. Abide means to remain,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christ"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/a-beautiful-ache\/","url_meta":{"origin":175,"position":5},"title":"A Beautiful Ache","date":"October 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In continuing my theme on God's love, I asked myself, \"What situation most profoundly impacted me with a deeper understanding of God's love?\" The event that comes to mind was an unusual and memorable experience. It happened during a private time of silent reflection. In my mind's eye, I saw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Love"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}