Resurrection is GO!

I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to decide what subject to write
about first—there are just so many things I want to tackle. In the
end, though, there really was only one thing I could start with. I
almost went with a discussion of why anyone should trust anything the
Bible says. After all, if the Bible is just a book of fairytales…well
then what’s the point of being a Christian, eh?

But there is one topic that towers above all others as the most
compelling to me, a topic that “bestrides the rest like a Colossus.” It
really must be my starting point, for it is the true foundation
of all faith in Jesus. And for me personally, it is the one thing that
keeps me coming back to Jesus. It’s what I hang my faith on, it’s what
I cling to throughout the many storms of doubt and discouragement that
naturally come my way. It’s the reason I call myself the skeptical Believer
and not just the Skeptic.

It is the Resurrection of Jesus.

The actual, literal, physical resurrection of a man, a
flesh-and-blood man from Nazareth, from the dead.

Yes, I realize this is the 21st Century. This is the age of robots on
Mars, nanotechnology, brain surgery, and Twinkies that’ll outlast
Twitter—but I still believe in this strange, crazy thing that happened
2000 years ago. I actually base my entire life on this fact. When all
else fails, when my doubts drown out my belief and my faith scatters
like the wind, this is the one thing I have always held on to. There
have been many times in my life when I was this close to
throwing in the towel and becoming a staunch materialist (i.e., matter
is all there is; what you can see, feel, touch and measure is the only
reality) or giving up on God as an aloof and unworthy deity who didn’t
really give a rat’s tail about us. But this odd, unshakable certainty
of mine in this strange, incredible thing called the Resurrection just
will not die (see what I did there? I’m very punny.) It lives on for
one simple reason:

I can not explain it away.

I’ve looked at if from every conceivable angle, and no matter which way
I view it, the only possible conclusion I am able to draw is that it
really happened. The Resurrection has become the crux and the
cornerstone of my faith. And I think it’s vitally important that this
be the case for you as well if you follow Him, because when you get
down to it, if Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, then your
faith is a joke. If Jesus’ bones still lie buried in a tomb somewhere
or eaten by wild dogs, or if He was a completely fictional character
like the boys at Southpark like to say (and I’m not bagging on that
show—those guys have some of the sharpest wit in the creative industry
today), then you are following just another man-made religious system.
Your faith isn’t in anything real. You are living a lie.

Face it—if there's no resurrection for Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God…sheer fabrications, if
there's no resurrection.
If Christ weren't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in
the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those who died hoping in
Christ and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If
all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years,
we're a pretty sorry lot. (1 Cor 15:14-19 The Message translation)

Leave it to Paul to get down to brass tacks. This week I’m going to detail
why our faith in this event is not smoke and mirrors, why the
passage above doesn’t end there, and why Christ really was
raised. From the dead.

In short, Resurrection is GO! Enjoy the rest of the ride at The Skeptical Believer.

--The Skeptical Believer
Truth poorly defended loses not its truthfulness;
likewise Falsehood aptly defended loses not its falsity.