Back on January 31, 2012, 74 Year old David Reid went home to the Lord because of a skiing accident. For most people who read this site, that name doesn’t mean anything. In all honesty, I didn’t know David Reid myself. He didn’t know me, either. I’ve bumped shoulders with plenty of people that knew him, but him and me we never talked.
This is what I know about the guy: he was a professor at Emmaus Bible College. He must’ve taught Hermeneutics because of his catch phrase that he’d use saying “baaad hermeneutics”. You can hear some of his messages online.
But here’s why I am grateful for the guy.
Before I hit the rough struggle with my faith, but close enough to remember, I heard Dave Reid speaking at some conference in New Jersey. It was mostly about hermeneutics. Mostly touching on the Old Testament. But at some point, he established the importance of the resurrection. I don’t even think it was the main point of the teaching session; it was like a logical chain or something like that. The memory is fuzzy even though I remember that face saying it all energetically.
Anyway, that conference would later be the lifeline that would bind me to the importance of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s providence no doubt.
I’m not sure if I’ll be going up to him in eternity. There will probably be a line of folk that have clearer memories and who have been so impacted by his teaching and ministry that they remember it all in vivid detail. I may be embarrassed letting him know “Hey, I don’t remember exactly what you said.” But, I will readily admit to him “Man, it was just enough to throw me a rope when I found myself drowning.”
So a month later, thanks Dave. You don’t know me, but I appreciate how the Lord worked through you. See you later.
A bit of Dave on the Resurrection. You can read the full devotion over there:
The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the keystone of the Christian faith. Christianity stands or falls at this point. In other words, Christianity is ultimately based not only on ethical and religious teachings (as are other world religions), but on an historical event! The foundation of our faith is not just what Jesus taught, but what He did in history to back up His claims. You see, any self-styled religious leader can proclaim certain ethical and noble teachings, and may even dare to say, "I am the good shepherd." Some would go even further and say, "I lay down my life for my sheep," and then actually die for some "good cause." But who can continue these statements as Jesus did (see John 10:14-18) and claim a physical resurrection? "I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." What a claim! The ethical teachings of Jesus are inseparable from His claims about Himself and His power over death. If Jesus Christ did not rise bodily from the dead, then He was a deceiver (not even a good man), and Christianity is a fraud and a farce; Christians are just playing around at religious games!