Cavity Wars

I noticed a post on FB by someone who mentioned sitting in church on Sunday and being, I don't know, amazed that the Bible was used to prove the stories in the Bible. Also, the phrase, "What are cults coming to these days"? was used. After listening to our pastors sermon on Easter and Andy Stanley on Easter, as well, I wondered what she was getting at. I wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. Hard to tell on a FB post. But, I guess I wondered if she thought that was the only evidence for Christ. Granted, the New Testament was written by men who were EYE WITNESSES to what they wrote about. And there was more than one who wrote as an eye witness. In a court of law, that would be evidence enough of the truth. Think about it. These guys were with Jesus for three years. They saw all the miracles he did, healing, feeding, water to wine, and raising people from the dead. And YET!, when they went to the tomb on Easter Sunday, they expected to find a body. They were surprised it wasn't there! Then over 500 people were witnesses to seeing Jesus after that. What kind of lunatic continues in a lie like that and, as a result, is beaten, persecuted, rejected and in many cases, killed? Think about this. Most of us have had love ones pass away. How many of us have been comforted by the thought that someday, when we die, we will see them again. "At least they are out of pain and in a better place". I am sure most of us have heard that or said it. But what do we base that assumption on? The fact that Christ DID rise from the dead and conquer death. If you don't believe that is true, then you might as well forget seeing your loved ones again because Christianity is where that hope comes from. If you don't accept that Christ died and was raised from the dead, you might as well throw out a lot of what you believe. And if you think that Christ is just a made up story, you are wrong again. Christ was a historical figure, well documented in the literature of the time. You might argue that you don't believe he was the son of God, but you cannot argue he didn't exist. C.S.Lewis wrote a book called, "The Case for Christianity". He was a secular man who did not believe in God but after studying scripture, he was convinced there had to be a God. He said, "Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity. And really who could? His story reminds me of my own father's story, a man who was a minister for Christ for 40 plus years. Dad didn't always believe in Christ. In fact he was an atheist. Now I know a lot of people say they are atheists just to get the "Jesus Freaks" off their backs, but Dad would do his best to convert you to atheism. However, one day he picked up the Bible and said he was going to prove it was wrong. Now my Dad was no dummy. He was one of the best weather forecasters in the Navy at the time and actually wrote a thesis on forecasting the weather in the Sea of Japan. He said after reading the Bible, he couldn't in all honesty, deny it's truth without denying that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was. Either it was wrong and he was not very bright, or it was true and he was still as intelligent as he thought he was. C.S. Lewis came to the same conclusion. And C.S. Lewis was no dummy either. There have been other writers who have looked at all the evidence, in consideration of legality, if Christ had to be proven in court, and concluded the evidence was overwhelming. There is one more argument for believing in Christ. This is probably the weakest argument but it actually has a name, Pascal's Wager. Basically it allows that if there are two choices it only makes sense to pick the choice with the best outcome. So the argument would be, if Christianity is true, and you don't believe, the outcome will be very bad. So choose Christianity. It has the best outcome. You could probably restate it such that if I believe in Christ, and am wrong, I will still have lived a good life, based on some very good moral teaching. If I am right and you are wrong, the outcome isn't so great for you. Well, I ramble on but I look at what we know as fact according to history and eye witness accounts, then look at the world around me and wonder how anyone couldn't believe.