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Thank you--I appreciate your explaining this so well. We want to remember Christ's sacrifice, but after Good Friday, Easter comes! Know God: For Further Research Perhaps you don't believe. What happens if you’re wrong? So, where do you think you'll go, when you die? To find out, visit http://www.eaglesnesthome.com/where.htm  View the Jesus film for free in many languages (including Native North American), here: http://www.jesuswho.org/english/video.htm  View a debate on the Resurrection, between William Lane Craig and Bart D. Ehrman, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faovmhzfo30&feature=related  View Gary Habermas debates, http://www.garyhabermas.com/video/video.htm.  Read an interview with former atheist debater Antony Flew, http://www.biola.edu/antonyflew/  View videos, such as Strobel interviewing Hanegraaff on Eyewitness Evidence for the Bible, http://www.leestrobel.com/videoserver/video.php?clip=strobelT1075  More evidence for the Reliability of the New Testament, by Josh McDowell, http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html  Beliefs essential for Salvation, http://www.wesleyantheology.com/the-minimum-one-must-believe-to-be-saved.html C. S. Lewis left his childhood Christian faith to spend years as a determined atheist. After finally admitting God existed, Lewis gave in and knelt in prayer to become what he described later as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” (C.S. Lewis’s Journey to Faith, http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/discipleship/C.S._Lewis_Faith_Journey_Robert_Stewart.aspx ) "My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. Just how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? … Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist—in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless—I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality—namely my idea of justice—was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pages 45-46) “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a dead world.” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, page 93). In Christ’s Love, Melissa Morgan, http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eaglesnest

I hear what you're saying but I don't agree. It is Christ dying on the cross that is our salvation, his Resurrection is proof that we never die and are going to exist throughout eternity either as someone who accepted Christ or as someone who didn't. Being absolute proof of His Resurrection, an empty cross is proof that we are eternal but not proof that it is Christ who is our Salvation. It is both a warning and a promise, but it isn't His moment of conquest over Satan.

Those who had died in Grace prior to His crucifixion were seen walking about Jerusalem before He was even in the tomb, not after He had risen, which shows He had already conquered Satan and Death at that point. An empty cross was a Roman threat, and an empty cross would often be erected where the enemy could see it to make clear what would happen to those who didn't surrender. When a captured enemy was crucified on it, the time for surrender was past and everyone taken prisoner could look forward to crucifixion or slavery. If it proves anything, an empty cross proves that some people will go along to get along and carefully avoid offending anyone. A crucifix is a crystal clear statement of what our salvation cost Jesus Christ and that He loves us so much He was willing to pay that price to save us.

I honor my King by displaying His moment of triumph over Satan, not by displaying a Roman death threat.