Christianity

Matthew 28:6

New International Version (NIV)

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

You know what drives me nuts? Crazy Christians. Of course, you might be thinking, "Well Gabrielle, you spend hours writing about Jesus and reading the Bible every day. You are the definition of a crazy Christian." Alright, you have a point there. In that sense, I am a crazy Christian. I love God, I love going to church, and I love the Bible. However, that's not really crazy to me.

What is crazy to me though, is claiming to believe something that you know nothing about.  Please allow me to explain. In high school, I remember having class with an agnostic and a Christian who would regularly discuss their beliefs. On several occasions, I remember my agnostic classmate asking my Christian classmate why she's Christian. Each time, my Christian class mate would say, "Because I believe that Jesus died on the cross to save my sins." Thus, my agnostic classmate would ask my Christian classmate why in the world she would believe that. The only thing my Christian classmate could respond with was, "Because I'm right."

I'm sure you can tell based on this conversation alone how strong this girl's faith was, and I applaud her for that. Nonetheless, I don't think that sort of discussion gives Christians any kind of credibility as far as their beliefs go. Christians need to know why they believe what they believe for multiple reasons: to strengthen their own relationship with God, to bring others to Christ, to reduce the chances of experiencing doubt. Knowing why you are a Christian is terribly important.

To help Christians understand why they are Christian, I could go on to discuss the Kalam Cosmological Argument in which something (as in the universe) cannot come from nothing, so there must be a being of some sort greater than the universe to create it. I could also go on to discuss Occam's Razor, explaining that the simpler explanation of the universe being created by something (or someone) is far more likely than it just happening on its own. Still, believing in God doesn't make a person Christian, for many, many religions believe in some sort of god. I could go on to describe the Bible and how archaeologists have evidence that prophecies dealing with the nations (such as the destruction of Edom and its capital city of Petra) were written down many years before they were fulfilled, proving that they were not falsified documents but the actual Word of God. Once again though, the Bible isn't really what makes Christians Christian (for the Jewish Tanakh is, in essence, the same as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.)

Since neither God nor the Bible sets Christians apart from other religions, I feel that it is appropriate to throw out a few facts about Jesus. I'd rather not waste time trying to prove the existence of Jesus Christ, considering the abundance of nonbiblical evidence proving his existence, but if you can't take my word for it, feel free to look it up. There is more evidence that Jesus Christ walked the earth than Julius Caesar. Instead, I would like to point out that out of all the many people who have claimed to be the Messiah throughout history, Jesus Christ is the only one whom people still follow and worship 2,000 years later.  Also, Jesus is the only Messiah who has fulfilled EVERY messianic prophecy of the Old Testament (see Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, or view a full list here.) In addition to this, hundreds of people admitted to seeing Jesus after he had already died, verifying that he rose from the dead. I could go on all day, but I think you get the point.

When Christians are unsure of why they believe what they believe, Christianity as a whole looks crazy. Plenty of evidence proving our faith exists, we just have to make the effort to look into it.  C.S. Lewis, a former atheist, set out to prove Christianity false and ended up becoming a believer himself. After his religious transformation, Lewis said, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."  Simply believing in God because "it feels right" is great, but there comes a point where we must dig deep into our faith and make sure we fully grasp what we are believing.

Therefore, inform yourself with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and walk confidently knowing that our God is very real and very alive.

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