Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth. ~John 17:17
In His high priestly prayer, Jesus asserts that God’s Word is true. Is it possible for open-minded individuals to intellectually conclude that Christianity is true? After Jesus’ death, the New Testament portrays the Apostles as dejected and demoralized. Only a few weeks later, these same dejected and demoralized Apostles are proclaiming the gospel at much peril to themselves. How can this be explained? There is only one possible explanation: they had an encounter with the risen Christ. In the earliest days of Christianity, Paul was the chief persecutor of the church. How is it that he could completely reverse course to become its most ardent evangelist? This can only be explained by the fact that he encountered the resurrected Christ. Paul tells us precisely what happened in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says that the disciples and over 500 people saw the resurrected Christ. In this passage, he even says that some of these witnesses were still alive. In essence, he is saying, “go check it out for yourself.” Obviously, Paul believed what he was saying was true. Theologian N.T. Wright concludes, “ “Therefore, the historian, whether that historian is a secularist, a Muslim, a Christian, whatever–the historian has to say, ‘How do we explain the fact this movement spread like wildfire with Jesus as the Messiah, even though Jesus had been crucified?’ The answer has to be, ‘It can only be because He was raised from the dead.’”[1]
Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son on a mission to rescue fallen humanity. On dark days when we are filled with doubts, help us to remember the obvious truth that Jesus has risen. Amen.
[1]John Ankerberg and Dillon Burrough, The Main Event, Was Jesus Really Resurrected?, Ankerberg Theological Research Institute; accessed online:[ http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/historical-Jesus/the-Jesus-family-tomb/the-Jesus-family-tomb-resurrection-case.htm], June 14, 2010.