On December 7, 2013, I wrote a brief article on the purported discovery of the actual year when the Buddha is believed to have died. My point in that article was to draw our attention to the fact that, regardless of when he died, he’s still dead! There is no resurrection in Buddhism. Keep reading...

On December 7, 2013, I wrote a brief article on the purported discovery of the actual year when the Buddha is believed to have died. My point in that article was to draw our attention to the fact that, regardless of when he died, he’s still dead! There is no resurrection in Buddhism.

A week after publishing that article, in the December 14, 2013 edition of The Oklahoman, I ran across another bit of information that I find intriguing. The report out of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is that “a golden urn containing what are considered to be remnants of Buddha’s body” was stolen from its shrine near the capital. A government spokesman said “the relics have enormous religious and cultural significance for Cambodians.” Well, I guess so! Once again we are reminded that Buddhists are not in the least bothered by the fact that their esteemed leader is still dead. They happily remain Buddhists notwithstanding the decay to which the body of their leader was subjected.

We Christians, on the other hand, would respond quite differently were it capable of proof that the “remnants” of Jesus’ body are contained in a golden urn somewhere in the world. No such proof is forthcoming, of course, because God raised our Lord and Savior from the dead! His body is now glorified and in heaven, at the right hand of the Father, where he remains until the day of his return.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).