Houdini and the Resurrection of Christ

By John Orlando

The Yahoo Headline read Houdini Poisoned? Kin Wants Exhumation http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/houdini_exhumation. An excerpt from this yahoo story written on March 27, 2007 states, “Eighty-one years after Houdini died on Halloween 1926, his great-nephew wants to exhume the magician's body to determine if enemies poisoned him for debunking their bogus claims of contact with the dead…His death shocked the entire nation, if not the world. Now, maybe it's time to take a second look," George Hardeen said.”

We are in that time of year when Christians celebrate the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and I found this story about Houdini interesting. The story itself does not say anything about the bodily resurrection of Christ, but the story nevertheless brought some thoughts to mind about the resurrection.

Every year around this time, two things are an absolute certainty: 1) tax day on April 15, and 2) the skeptics from the liberal media, a la Newsweek, Time, etc., will come out with theories (that usually have long been refuted) to try and explain away the bodily resurrection of Christ.

Why? Probably many reasons, but ultimately it is due to the fact that if Christ really is risen from the grave, then that means that His identity would be proved, His message and exclusive claims would be validated, and all other contrary belief systems/religions/philosophies would be disqualified. So, when He says that He is “the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to Father except through Him,” or, when the Scripture says that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved..." (Acts 4:12), or that “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him…" (John 3:36), it is no longer a question of whether or not those things are true. If Christ is risen they most certainly are true, and in light of that God now “commands all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30) You see, we can no longer keep Jesus on the shelf along side all of the other possible worldviews. There is only one true worldview, and the Lord of that worldview demands nothing less than our repentance and submission to Him as Lord and Savior. Nor can we keep Him on the shelf of “I’ll deal with Him later” because the call to repentance is not a wishy-washy, take it or leave it “proposition” spoken by an impotent heavenly bystander in the drama of redemption. Rather, it is the divine command issued forth from the Sovereign Lord and King of the universe who does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth (Dan 4:35), and who says that “now is the day of salvation.” (1 Cor 6:2). You see, a command is not something that is given for your consideration. It is given for your immediate compliance, and the Lord will not be mocked. If you wish to tarry, you do so in direct disobedience to the command, and you do so at your own peril.

The question then is no longer “who do you say that Christ is?” He has already demonstrated by “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) that He is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who humbled Himself, took on human flesh, and being fully God and fully man obeyed the law of God perfectly, then died on the cross to bear the wrath of God and pay the penalty for sin, and who rose on the third day and now calls us to repentance and submission to His Lordship. So, it is no longer a question of His identity. Rather the question is, “Since Jesus Christ is the risen and exalted Lord of heaven and earth, what will I do in response to the call of the Gospel and His command to repent?”

That to me is the main reason we see skeptics, and those of the false religions, try with all of their intellectual might to overturn the most significant historical fact in human history: the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. They realize that the resurrection of Christ lies at the very heart of Christianity; if it is removed, then Christianity crumbles, and as the apostle Paul said, our preaching is empty, our faith is futile, and those of us who have placed our hope in a Jesus that did not rise are the most pitiful of all creatures (1 Cor 15:14-18). They also realize that if Christ did rise from the dead, then theirs is the preaching that is useless and the faith that is futile, because theirs is the position that has been demonstrated to be manifestly false. If Christ is indeed risen, then Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Secular Humanism, Atheism, Agnosticism, and every other “ism” or religion that denies the bodily resurrection of Christ is by definition false.

So how does this all relate to story about Houdini being exhumed? Well, for starters, there is a body that can be exhumed in the case of Houdini. His tomb contains his remains. In the case of Jesus though, there is nothing to exhume! You can go to His tomb, but as the angel told the women that went to anoint His dead body, “He is not here; He is risen just as He said…” (Matt 28:6). Of course, that has not stopped various skeptics from nevertheless attempting to produce the body of Jesus, the most recent example coming from the film called the Family Tomb of Jesus, which was produced by Hollywood director James Cameron. These links contain refutations of their false claims made:
Alpha and Omega Ministries:
Pt 1: http://www.aomin.org/index.php?blogid=1&archive=2007-02&catid=21
Pt 2: http://www.aomin.org/index.php?catid=21&blogid=1
John Ankerberg:
http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/historical-Jesus/the-Jesus-family-tomb/the-Jesus-family-tomb.htm
Gary Habermas:
http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus/losttombofjesus_response.htm

So, the tomb of Jesus is empty, and in light of the insurmountable fallacies of the naturalistic theories, the only valid explanation is that Jesus rose from the dead (see this link for articles: http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_category/Jesus-Christ/Resurrection/). There are other points of interest though with this story about Houdini and the resurrection of Christ:

1. Houdini, pictured to the right, was a great magician known for his incredible feats of escape, but there are two things that Houdini, like the rest of humanity could not escape or make disappear: our bondage to sin and our guilt before God both for original and actual sin, and the wages of that sin: death, whether spiritual, physical, and eternal (eternal having to do with being consigned to hell for eternity).

2. The yahoo article mentions that Houdini’s death at the time shocked the entire nation, if not the world. While Houdini’s death may have been shocking when it happened, it nevertheless pales in comparison to the impact that the death of Jesus Christ of Nazareth has had on the world for over 2,000 years. The popular poem One Solitary Life states, “[Twenty-one] long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

3. The suspected culprits in the poisoning of Houdini were the spiritualists that Houdini had personally seen fit to refute. These spiritualists would hold séances and claim to communicate with the dead, and Houdini sought to prove that they were using nothing more than sleight of hand to deceive their audience. Houdini proved his point, and discredited these spiritualists. However, in light of the resurrection of Christ and the fact that there is life after death, I wonder what Houdini, the spiritualists that he discredited, and every human being in history for that matter that has died apart from union with Christ would say if they did communicate with us? I would venture to guess that the only thing they would say, with the utmost urgency, is, “Repent!!! Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today!!!” There would be no discussion, no inquiries as to the state of one’s finances or the physical health of loved ones, just the one desperate plea to turn to Christ and escape the wrath of God that is being poured out for sin.

I’m sure there are other things to be said. For me, the story of Houdini’s exhumation coupled with the resurrection of Christ highlights once again two significant truths that we must keep in mind, not just during Easter, but everyday of our lives:

1. Our need everyday to rest in the One who died for us, and rose for our justification.

2. The urgent need to preach the Gospel to every creature. Life is short, eternity is
forever, and Jesus Christ, the risen, sovereign Lord of lords and King of kings commands us to turn from our sins and receive Him as Lord and Savior.