God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him

I wrote this 3 years ago around Easter. I meant to post it yesterday, but couldn't access it on my phone for some reason, so here it is, a day late, but it's still close enough to Easter. Plus, it's true no matter what time of year it is.

These words were made famous by Friedrich Nietzsche*, but I am sure he was not the first to think or utter them. Close to 2000 years ago there were many with these words on their minds and mouths. Some were screaming them in total joy; others were whispering them in disbelief, shock, and horror, and still others were weeping them in mourning, but, just like Nietzsche*, all were wrong.

2000 years ago in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, a common punishment of the time, for heresy. There was something different about this death. Jesus was killed for claiming to be God, but the fact was that He was the Son of God, Jesus was God, God was dead, and all the forces of darkness and evil were thrilled, but they were wrong.

While Jesus died as a sacrifice for us. He did not stay dead, and no one killed Him. There has been controversy since He was crucified about who killed Him. Some blame the Jews, others blame the Romans, and Satan took pride in thinking he had slain his arch enemy, but the fact, again, is that no one killed God. He went willingly to the cross and laid himself out to die because He loves us, and in that one ultimate sacrifice, He saved us all eternally.

So when Nietzsche* says, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him," he, along with everyone else who ever has or ever will think or speak these words, is wrong.

God died (in an act of ultimate sacfricial love). He rose from the dead and remains alive today. He laid down His own life. No one took it from Him.

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" -- 1 Corinthians 15:54b-55

*For all you philosophical people out there, I know that Nietzsche was not necessarily talking about the physical and literal death of God, but about the symbolic death of God through the death and dissolving of religion and morals. While this is somewhat true, true religion, that which God accepts and is in, is not what Nietzsche or most people view it has. It has nothing to do with ritual or tradition.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -- James 1:27

This type of religion is not dead because the author and creator of it is not dead.

Happy Easter!