Questions on Christianity

Salvation is the renovation of our soul so it becomes like God.  Problems that occur in our lives, such as in our marriages and in our relationships with other Christians (some of which we have discussed in the past several blogs), are opportunities for this renovation to occur.  If we avoid these opportunities and instead choose that which benefits us here on earth, we are, as Jesus says, forfeiting our soul to gain the whole world (Mark 8:36).

Why do we call ourselves Christians and choose that which benefits ourselves but harms others?  The answer is that it is easier to conform to the existing world than it is to follow the teaching of Jesus and change ourselves.  Those who say religion is “the opium of the masses” obviously do not understand this point because God always calls upon people to do what is more difficult than they would prefer to do. [1]  All the martyrs of faith are eloquent testaments to that fact.  It is easier to blame our DNA, our culture, or others for our problems and remain the person we currently are than to embark upon the changes we know we should make.

The Bible says we are to be the salt of the earth.  It does not take much salt to have an impact on how food tastes.  Christians do not need to be a majority in the world to have a major impact on it.  “. . .But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men” (Matthew 5:13).  And that is exactly what has happened with Christianity.  Christianity has seen its influence lessen and the fault is ours because we have accepted a gospel that is limited to our belief system or a few actions instead of involving the renovation of our entire soul.

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[1]   David Elton Trueblood, General Philosophy (New York:  Harper & Row, 1963), p. 219.

In the last blog, we saw that Paul tells us we are to judge fellow Christians who do not follow Christ’s teachings.  This is an awesome responsibility.  It demands that we exercise judgment with sensitivity to human nature and our own flaws.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:1-2 ESV)

It also demands that we understand exactly what God requires of us.  A problem with Christianity is that we have established a whole list of do’s and don’ts which are not necessarily taught by the Bible.  That the Bible has restrictions on our behavior is without question but many want to expand on that list because of their own weakness and flaws.  As Swindoll states “. . .many opt for legalism lest they be tempted to live irresponsibility”. [1]  Others are so self centered they think the rest of the world is like them and should live like them.  As a result, they attempt to force their life style on others and they have no compulsion about using the Bible to do so.

Once again Christians must learn to read and understand the entire Bible and not just parts of it.  While the Bible places restrictions on our behavior, it also teaches that we are free and we are to use that freedom.

. . .For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? (1 Corinthians 10:29 ESV)

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. .  (Galatians 5:13 ESV)

Christians have so many rules and as a result Christianity has become very restrictive.  The Bible has much to say about our freedom but we want to imprison ourselves.  Jesus stated that all the law and prophets were fulfilled in just two concepts:  love God and love our fellow humans (Luke 10:25-28).  In fact when Jesus made this statement, he was responding to someone who asked him how to obtain eternal life.  What would it be like if our doctrinal statements and list of do’s and don’ts were reduced to these two concepts?   God obviously knows of the human tendency to twist his word and that is why he gave us more than these two commandments, but God wants our soul to become so like his that these are the only two guidelines we would ever need.  The Tao Te Ching expresses this concept so well:

When the greatness of the Tao is present

action arises from one’s own heart

When the greatness of the Tao is absent

action comes from the rules

of “kindness” and “justice”

If you need you need rules to be kind and just,

if you act virtuous

this is a sure sign that virture is absent [2]

If we need rules and the threat of punishment to guide our actions, that is a sure sign our soul is not God-like.

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[1]   Charles R. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening (Dallas:  Word Publishing, 1996), p. 50.

[2]   Jonathan Star, translator, Tao Te Ching (New York:  Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001), p. 31.

This is the third blog on examples of why non Christians have little interest in investigating Christianity.  One reason is because Christians are seen as being very judgmental of others who fail to live up to their standards.  Dan Merchant in his book Lord Save Us from Your Followers asks various people for what Christians are known and the answers he generally receives are not positive—Christians are seen as intolerant, self-centered, grasping for worldly power rather than helping others. [1]  Then we have the Westboro Baptist church that spews hate even though Jesus tells us we are to love enemies.  Is this the attitude toward others the Bible tells us we should have?

The apostle Paul tells us how we are to deal with those, both inside and outside Christianity, who do not following Jesus’ teachings.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13 ESV)

It seems that we Christians have this all backwards.  We so often criticize the world for its beliefs and actions all the while saying very little about the problems that occur within our own church.  The harshest words Jesus expressed were directed at the religious leaders of his day, not the “sinners”.

(In the next blog we will discuss how the Bible tells us to deal with fellow Christians who do not follow Biblical teachings.  In this blog, I want to concentrate on how we treat those who are not Christians.)

One of the criticisms of Jesus was that he spent time with sinners instead of those who upheld the Old Testament law (Matthew 9:10-13).  If Jesus was very judgmental with those who were labeled sinners, I doubt if they would want to spend time with Jesus.  It is obvious that Jesus did not gloss over their sins but he talked to them about their failures in such a fashion so as not to alienate them.  As Paul tells us, we should not judge non Christians.  Our purpose is to so live our lives that others outside the church will want what we have (Matthew 5:14-16) and the only way they can see how we live our lives is to associate with them.

Instead of trying to convert the world to our way of thinking, we should, as Paul Marshall advises, preach the gospel constantly and only if absolutely necessary should we use words. [2]  Instead of memorizing the Four Spiritual Laws or some denomination’s plan of salvation, we should learn who God is and help the needy.  If Christians said nothing for about five years and concentrated on loving God and loving their neighbor, I dare say there would be a much greater interest in Christianity than there is today.

People care little about a belief system; there are multitudes of belief systems in this world.  What will impress someone is a transformed life and, as we have emphasized in this blog, that is exactly what Christianity is—the transformation, the renovation, of our soul, not just a set of beliefs.

How we deal with or treat someone is an expression of what we are like, what our soul is like.  The Tao Te Ching expresses this concept as:

Those who are good he treats with goodness

Those who are bad he also treats with goodness

because the nature of his being is good.

Those who are truthful he treats with truth

Those who are not truthful he also treats with truth

because the nature of his being is truthful [3]

How we treat those who are not Christians is an indication of what our soul is like.  If we are hateful, intolerant, and self-centered it is because our soul is hateful, intolerant, and self-centered.  If our soul is hateful, intolerant, and self-centered, will God want our company or we his?

If the world is not interested in what Christianity has to offer, it is because our soul is not like God.  Mahatma Ghandhi was very impressed with Christ and his teachings.  His problem was with Christians who he said were so unlike Christ.  How can we claim to be Christians if our soul unlike Christ?

In the next blog, we will describe how we Christians should deal with those fellow Christians with whom we have disagreements.

[1]   Dan Merchant.  Lord Save Us from Your Followers.  Nashville, TN:  Thomas Nelson.

[2]   Paul Marshall,  Heaven Is Not My Home (Nashville:  Word Publishing, 1998) pp. 207-208.

[3]   Jonathan Star, translator, Tao Te Ching (New York:  Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001), p. 62.

This is the second blog on examples of why non Christians have little interest in investigating Christianity.

These days we constantly read about Christians filing lawsuits against other Christians.  Liberal and conservative wings of a denomination file lawsuits over church property.  Christians sue each other over alleged slander.  Faculty and former faculty of a Christian university file lawsuits against the university management.

Why are Christians taking their disputes to secular courts for resolution?  It is very plain the Bible forbids such actions.  In 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 Paul uses strong language in taking the Corinthians for task for bringing their differences to secular courts.  Paul’s argument is that in the afterlife Christians will judge the world and angels.  This life is to be a preparation for the next.  So how can we prepare to judge the world and angels unless we start practicing here on earth?  Paul wonders why we are not able to find individuals in the church who are qualified to judge such matters.

Instead of learning how to resolve our own problems, we take our disputes to the secular courts because our sinful self wants its own way, our sinful self wants a bit more wealth, or our sinful self wants its bruised ego healed.  It is obvious we are more concerned about our ego or material possessions than about living the new life God has planned for us.  The result is that we ignore what God says.  If we ignore what God says, how can we claim to be Christians?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:15-17 how we are to handle disputes with fellow Christians.  If a Christian brother sins against us, we are to first discuss that problem with our brother.  If the brother will not listen, we are to take one or two other Christians with us to convince our brother of his error.  If the brother still will not listen, we are to bring the issue to the attention of the church.  If the brother will not listen to the entire church, then we are to treat him as an outcast.

This is a good system because it requires that we ensure we have a legitimate complaint because we must convince other Christians of the validity of our position before we publicly confront a fellow Christian with whom we have a dispute.

Imagine if Christians never took each other to court to resolve their differences but resolved the problems they faced within the Christian community.  Imagine the inquisitiveness of the world when they saw that Christians would rather be wronged (suffer financially, suffer the loss of a right) rather than take a fellow Christian to court (Matthew 5:40 and I Corinthians 6:7).

Jesus tells us Christians are the light of the world and we are to so live our lives so others “may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”. (Matthew 5:16)  Are lawsuits between Christians an example of the good works Jesus was talking about?  They are not but instead, as Paul tells us, they are a signal of defeat for Christianity (1 Corinthians 6:6).

Part of the reason Christians file lawsuits against other Christians is because they see Christianity just as a belief system.  All they need to do is to believe in Jesus and his death for their sins and they will be saved.  Implementing Jesus’ teachings is not important.  They do not see Christianity as a new life we must live, as the necessary renovation of our sinful soul.  If we want Christianity to have an impact on this world, that must change.

In the next blog, we will examine the reputation Christians have of being very judgmental.

In the next three blogs, we will go through three examples of why those who are not Christians have little or no motivation to investigate the claims of Christ.  The first example is divorce.

There is no question the Bible forbids divorce except for infidelity (Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:3-9, and 1 Corinthians 7:10-11).  The problem is the divorce rate for Christians is approximately the same as for the general population.  If Christianity is just a matter of belief and not a new life, then it is not surprising that Christianity will not make a difference in the marriages of its believers—one does not need to implement a belief system, one only has to believe.  But the Bible teaches Christianity is about a new life, a new way of living and this new life includes our marriages.  If God has the power to change lives, the divorce rate for Christian should be much lower.

Now imagine instead that the divorce rate for Christians was five percent or better yet one percent.  Such a situation would prompt the non Christians to ask questions about our beliefs.  Such a situation would cause many to begin to investigate the claims of Christ.  But if the divorce rate is the same regardless if one is a Christian or not, then the evidence is that Christianity does little or nothing to help couples improve their marriages.

So why is the divorce rate for Christians the same as non-Christians?  That keeping a marriage together these days can be tough is obvious, whether one is a Christian or not, but God does not give us an out if times are hard.  We, though God’s grace, should work through the difficult problems we face in our marriage.  Our problem is that our sinful self wants its own way, wants its own enjoyment, and to that end we ignore what God says; we ignore the new life God wants for us.  The result is not only are the lives of our children impoverished but we also fail to contribute to the transformation of the world.

This is not to condemn all those who are divorced.  It takes two to make a marriage work.  We all have a free will.  If one partner is set upon obtaining a divorce or if one partner is unfaithful, there is little the other can do to change that fact.  Also, God does not expect us to remain in an abusive situation.  God has no problem with self defense.  Sometimes the best self defense is to remove ourselves from a dangerous situation.  But in all these situations, there is someone who is not living their life according to Biblical teachings and that is the basic problem.

In the next blog, we will look at lawsuits between Christians.

The reason the resurrection of Jesus is so important in Christianity is because it teaches we must be resurrected to a new life.  We are to die to our old nature but be alive to God.  What is this new life?

Alfred North Whitehead suggests that our “most precious instrument of progress [is] the impractical ethics of Christianity” which are a standard to test the defects of human society. [1]  This is not too far removed from Jesus’ concept of Christians being the salt of the earth.  However, by accepting a doctrine of salvation that involves only a belief system or a few actions we Christians have limited the transformation God has planned for our individual lives and we have missed an opportunity to transform the world.  The Christian community has become so wrapped up in the hereafter that they have forgotten God placed us on this earth for a reason: To change our soul to be like him and in the process to change the world in which we live.  And we should be fulfilling this purpose.

That God expects Christians to have an impact on this world is without question (Matthew 5:14-16).  However, as Alfred North Whitehead notes, since the end of the Middle Ages Christianity “became an instrument of conservation instead of an instrument of progress”, [2] abandoned this world to the devil and concentrated on heaven, [3] and as a result is in a period of decay which is demonstrated by the fact that it no longer directs the patterns of life of this world. [4]  Why is this so?  Most people have no motivation to investigate the claims of Christ unless they see something in someone’s life that impresses them.  Lee Strobel had heard of God and Christ and had not spent much time investigating because it seemed to him that God was just a product of wishful thinking.  He thought, from his cursory look, that Jesus was just another man and saw no reason to look further.  It was only when his wife became a Christian and he saw her transformed life that he began to investigate. [5]  The philosophers David Elton Trueblood and Bertrand Russell both state that reasons of the heart come before any use of logic. [6]  There must be a curiosity, a “want to”, there must be something that will motivate someone to spend the time to investigate a subject before one will gather the information necessary to make a decision.

So why are not people clamoring to know more about Christianity today?  Mahatma Gandhi was an admirer of Christ and applied many of the principles taught by Christ but he refused to become a Christian because so many Christians were so unlike Christ. [8]   The problem is that we as Christians do not acknowledge the central nature of the new life in our belief system.  We ignore what the Bible tells us about how we should live our lives; we have become more like the world than the world like us.

Let us imagine what it would be like if Christians actually believed that a new life was essential for our salvation.  We will use three examples:  Divorce, lawsuits between Christians, and the judgmental nature of Christians.  We will discuss these in the next three blogs.

[1]   Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas (New York:  The Free Press, 1961), p. 17.

[2]   Whitehead, p. 18.

[3]   Whitehead, p. 32.

[4]   Whitehead, p. 160.

[5]   Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), pp. 13-14.

[6]   See David Elton Trueblood, Philosophy of Religion (New York:  Harper & Row, 1957), p. 21 and Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (New York:  W. W. Norton & Company, 1929), p. 13.

[7]   Dibin Samuel, “Mahatma Gandhi and Christianity”, Christianity Today, http://inchristiantoday.com/articledir/print.html?id=2837.

When most Christians discuss salvation, they place the greatest emphasis on the death of Christ for our sins—the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ that satisfied God’s need for justice.  Jesus took the punishment for our sins enabling us to be reconciled to God.

However, the Bible teaches another important aspect of salvation is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If this event is so important for our salvation, why is there not a doctrine of the resurrection explaining its significance?  Most doctrinal statements mention the resurrection along with Jesus’ death and give no further explanation as to why the resurrection is important.  James A. Fowler back in 2001 issued a call for a resurrection theology. [1]  I have not seen any attempts to address this issue.  Why?

The Bible emphasizes the importance of the resurrection in regards to our salvation as the following passages show:

1.         Romans 10:5-11 states that belief in Jesus resurrection is necessary for salvation.

2.         1 Corinthians 15:1-4 is an original confessional of the Christian faith.  The part of the confessional dealing with the death and burial of Jesus is in the past tense.  The part dealing with his resurrection is in the perfect tense which is a past event with present consequences.  Why does the Bible treat these two events differently?

3.         1 Corinthians 15:12-18 states that if Jesus was not raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins.

4.         1 Peter 3:21-22 states we are saved by the resurrection of Jesus.

As we have repeatedly said in this blog, we must deal with what the entire Bible says and not just pick certain passages to form our theology.  God put the above verses in the Bible for a reason and we must determine what that reason is.

Explanations for the Purpose of the Resurrection

Some say the resurrection is a guarantee of the believer’s resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).  If Jesus was raised from the dead, then we can see our resurrection is a possibility.  While this is true, it does not address why the resurrection is important for our salvation.

Some say the resurrection validates the person and message of Jesus.  Romans 1:1-6 makes this point.  The problem is that it is a firmly established fact our ability to know what is true diminishes the further we are away from an event in space and time (see the post of March 14, 2011 entitled “Proofs for Christ’s Resurrection”).  God made us finite; he knows we cannot have definitive proof for the resurrection.  So why would God validate his message to us using a method that is not available to us?

Why is it so important to God that we believe in an historical event such as Christ’s death and resurrection?  What we believe about these events does not make them true or false.  The only reason God would want us to believe in these events is because of the effect they would have on our lives.

The reason Christ’s resurrection is important for our salvation is because salvation is more than the forgiveness of our sins; it is the renovation of our soul.  Christ dying for our sins removed the penalty but God has bigger plans for us than to merely forgive our sins.  God purpose for us is to make of us a new creation, to renovate our soul so it becomes like him.  Because of Jesus’ death for our sins, we are now to be dead to sin.  Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are now to be alive to God (Romans 6-8-14).  And being alive to God involves more than our belief system, it encompasses our entire soul.

If salvation is just a matter of belief, then the resurrection simply validates the message of Jesus and guarantees our resurrection.  The problem with this view is the Bible teaches the resurrection is necessary for our salvation and those who believe we obtain salvation through belief do not have an explanation for this.  That is why they have not developed a resurrection theology.  The view of salvation being the renovation of our soul explains why the resurrection is necessary.  Salvation is more than the forgiveness of our sins; it is the change of our soul so it becomes more like God.  Since we are sinful creatures, it involves us becoming a new person; it requires we become a new creation; it requires we be resurrected to a new life.  Christ is our example.  He died for our sins but he did more than secure our forgiveness, he was raised to a new life and he wants us to experience that new life as well.

We now know why the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 refers to the death and burial of Jesus is in the past tense while his resurrection is in the perfect tense which is a past event with present consequences.  Jesus death took care of our sins and there is nothing more that needs to be done about our sins (Hebrews 10:17-18).  Jesus’ resurrection, which is also a historical event, has a present consequence which is the new life God wants us to live.  The work that Jesus did is more than to just forgive our sins, he rose to enable us, in the present, to be a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17).  He is actively helping us achieve this new life (Hebrews 7:25).  The passage of 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 makes little sense if we believe salvation is solely by belief but makes perfect sense if we believe salvation is the renovation of our soul.

In the next few blogs, we will discuss the practical side of salvation—what the renovation of our soul means in our daily lives.

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[1]    James A. Fowler, “A Call for Resurrection Theology”, http://www.christinyou.net/pages/restheol.html, 2001.

In the past few blogs, we have raised three questions about the doctrine of salvation.

1.         The majority of people who have ever lived have never heard of Jesus.  How can a loving and just God condemn them to hell?

2.         The reality of the human condition is that certainty in regards to historical events is not absolute.  That includes the resurrection of Jesus.  How can God condemn people to hell for not believing in something they for which they cannot obtain certain proof?

3.         There are over 70 verses in the New Testament which state salvation is obtained through means other than belief in Jesus.  If we believe the entire Bible is inspired by God, there must have been a reason He included those passages.

I firmly believe God is not trying to confuse us or mislead us about so important a topic as our eternal salvation so there must be a resolution to these questions we have encountered.  To resolve the questions about salvation, let us first list the elements of the doctrine of salvation to ensure we understand our subject matter.  Most Christians believe that:

1.         There is a supreme being (God) who has a standard for humans.

2.         We humans have a sinful nature.  We do not live up to God’s standard.  In fact we have rebelled against that standard and against God.  This rebellion (sin) results in human death and the punishment of eternal separation from God (hell).

3.         Through the work of Jesus (his death and resurrection for our sins), God views humans as if they have met his standard.  This is called justification.  This is also God’s grace:  Granting humans something they do not deserve.

4.         This justification will occur only if we have trust and confidence in Jesus; if we believe or have faith that he existed, died for our sins, and rose again.

Elements one, two, and three are without dispute.  These are solidly based on what the entire Bible has to say about the subject.  However, we need to discuss element four.

In the past two blogs, we have seen that two aspects of the human condition (our lack of knowledge and our difficulty in knowing what is true) raise major questions about the Christian doctrine of salvation.  However, Christians will argue that at times God’s ways will be difficult to understand (Isaiah 55:8-9).  It is to be expected that finite, material humans would have difficulty understanding an infinite, spiritual, omniscient, and omnipotent being.  Christians maintain that even though our logic tells us one thing, we must believe the Bible if the Bible tells us something else.  The Bible is the inspired word of God and it makes sense to trust the one who created the universe over any other source, including our own finite logic.  What we will do in this blog is to put aside the questions we have raised and determine what the entire Bible has to say about salvation.

What the Bible says about salvation is a lengthy subject so in this blog I will only summarize my conclusions.  I do not expect you to take my word for what I say so I am including the Biblical backup for my conclusions under a page entitled “What the Bible Says about Salvation” listed in the blog heading.

Our current understanding of the doctrine of salvation is so connected with Jesus that we neglect to consider how people were saved before Jesus came to this world.  Understanding how God dealt with humans over time will provide more insight into God’s plan of salvation.  God’s dealing with the people of the Old Testament period teaches us that:

*   God wants us to worship only him – Joshua 24:19-20

*   The original sin was a disobedience to God’s command, not a failure to believe in God – Genesis 3

*   God seemed to be very concerned about the behavior of people.  God grieved over making man because of his wickedness and wickedness implies a failure to meet God’s standard of conduct – Genesis 6:5-6

*   God punishes sin so atonement for sin is necessary.  This atonement was through sacrifices – Leviticus 17:11

*   God considered conduct more important than sacrifices  which were established by God for the forgiveness of sins and which Christians teach foreshadowed Christ’s death and shedding of his blood for our sins – Isaiah 1:11-17

*   God rewards people according to what their deeds deserve and this judgment involves people’s motivations and one’s pattern of behavior (persistence) – Ezekiel 33:12-16

Throughout the Old Testament, God consistently places the highest priority on obedience to his commands.  There is no place in the Old Testament where God places obedience subordinate to beliefs or sacrifices.  Why is this so?

However, it must be noted that belief is an essential component of the system of sacrifices and the code of conduct prescribed by God.  The children of Israel would need to believe that God existed, that God had a code of conduct for them, and that a sacrifice would result in atonement for their sins when they failed to live up to God’s code of conduct.  If they did not believe, they would not live by God’s code of conduct nor offer sacrifices.  By the same token, if they did believe but did not live by God’s code of conduct or offer the prescribed sacrifices, God threatened and did inflict punishment.

The New Testament’s teachings about salvation parallel that of the Old Testament with one exception:  belief in Jesus.  When the Gospels and Epistles talk about how we obtain salvation, they include the following:

*   Repentance of our sins or humility – Luke 18:11-14, 2 Corinthians 7:10

*   Belief in Jesus – John 3:18, Acts 4:12

*   Belief in God – John 5:24, Acts 10:34-35

*   Our conduct or actions – Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6-10

*   Our pattern of behavior or persistence – Matthew 10:22, Hebrews 10:26-27

*   Our talents or the use of what is given us – Luke 16:9-11

There is no dispute the Bible teaches that salvation is through belief or faith in Jesus’ death for our sins.  However, there are over 70 verses in the New Testament that state salvation is through other avenues listed above.  If belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven, why did God include these verses in the Bible?  Either we must ignore these passages (that is essentially telling God we know better than he does) or we must deal with the issues they raise.  If we ignore these passages, what is to prevent us from ignoring any other part of the Bible with which we disagree or have a problem?  If we start down that road, we might as well ignore the entire Bible.  God put all these statement in the Bible for a reason.  It is up to us to determine what that reason is.  And that is what we will start to do in our next blog.

The fact of Christ’s resurrection is central to the Christian faith.  Paul tells us without the resurrection our faith is pointless (I Corinthians 15:14).  On such a critical tenant of our faith, how can we be certain it actually happened?

It is an indisputable fact that we have a greater possibility of success in knowing the truth of what occurs today and in our presence than the truth of events that occur further from our time and presence.  This is because events that occur today and in our community can be verified by personally visiting the site and by talking to our neighbors, whose veracity we know, to determine what they saw or experienced.  We can handle the evidence and experiment with it to determine exactly what happened.

Events that occurred in the past are more difficult to verify because time erases or degrades the physical evidence and people who experienced the event die or their memory fades.  Events that occur away from our community mean we must travel to where the event occurred and that can take some time or we must depend upon people who witnessed the event and we most likely know nothing about the veracity of those individuals.

The human condition is like living in a fog.  Objects and events that are close to us are easily seen but as we try to observe those objects and events that are further away, they become obscured in the mists.

So how do we discover the truth of historical events?  Gary R. Habermas states we believe those historical events that have been subjected to detailed research and have withstood the challenges and criticism of others.  While new information might necessitate a reevaluation of a particular event, we cannot withhold judgment just because such a reevaluation is possible.  Without new data, we consider a particular event that has been well researched as certain or at least probable. [1]

Habermas’ solution makes sense.  We will never be able to prove everything in life with mathematical precision, but there is an alternative between the two extremes of having absolute proof or utilizing unsupported assertions or guesses.  It is a well-established fact that given our limitations (God did make us finite) we must rely on probability to discover the truth of events that occur away from our space and time.  Some events or truths are more probable than others and it is those events we believe and those truths we hold.

Determining the validity of an historical event such as Christ’s resurrection is essentially an appeal to authority. To believe in an historical event is to believe the experiences of the person(s) reporting the event constitute an honest, reliable, and objective account of the event.  To Christians, this means believing the record contained in the Bible is accurate.  In this short blog, there is no way I can prove the accuracy of the Bible and validity of Jesus’ resurrection other than to point to others who have.  Examples of books I have read include:  When Skeptics Ask by Norman Geisler and Ron Brooks, The Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf, The Historical Jesus by Gary Habermas, Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison, The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Is the Bible True? by Jeffery L. Sheler, and A Lawyer Examines the Bible by Irwin H. Linton.

But even with the wealth of evidence concerning the resurrection of Christ we have from the sources listed above, we must consider a statement made by Laplace:  The more extraordinary the claim, the greater the probability of error or falsehood in the one making the claim. [2]  Now virtually everyone agrees the resurrection of anyone from the dead is a very extraordinary event.  So if we Christians make an extraordinary claim, we must have extraordinary evidence to back it up if we expect other to believe us.  The world has seen enough of snake oil salesman, hucksters, politicians, and assorted con men to know one cannot believe everything one hears.  Our position should be that we will not reject extraordinary events (such as the resurrection) as impossible but we must require a high degree of proof before we accept them or we will believe the extravagant claims of every charlatan around.

The degree of proof each individual requires is different.  Each of us has a different background.  Because of our life experiences, some are more trusting and others trust no one; some accept new ideas readily and others resist any new ideas.  While there are substantial arguments for Christ rising from the dead, there are some individuals who find it difficult to believe in the resurrection of Jesus because of the violation of the laws of nature it entails.  To them it is easier to explain away all the evidence for Christianity than it is to believe in such an extraordinary event.  These individuals have a valid point.  One does not observe violations of the laws of nature on a daily, weekly, or even annual basis.  In fact vast majority of us will never see such an event in our entire lives.  Documenting and assembling proof for these violations of the laws of nature is even more improbable.  Additionally, we are looking at these events after 2000 years.  We are looking at these events from the perspective of our own culture which is considerably different from the culture of Jesus’ time.  This distance complicates our attempt to determine the truthfulness of these events.  While there is considerable evidence for the validity of Jesus’ resurrection, reasonable people can disagree because of the extraordinary character of this event.

Christian doctrine asserts God requires us to believe in the extraordinary event of Christ’s resurrection.  Now if reasonable people can disagree about the evidence for Christ’s resurrection, how can God send people to hell who have doubts?  God knows we are limited in our ability to know the truth of historical events; he made us this way.

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[1]   Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus (Joplin, MO:  College Press Publishiing Company, 1996), p. 263.

[2]   Simon Greenleaf, The Testimony of the Evangelists (Grand Rapids, MI:  Kregel Classics, 1995), pp. 55-56.