I have been a Christian for almost twelve years. When I was younger I rarely questioned the truth of the Bible story, but as I grew older I of course became aware that most people do not believe the Bible is true. As time went by, I investigated the facts, and I believe I have found the answers. This is why I believe the Bible is true.
Last year, I saw a Jay Leno segment on Thanksgiving where he asked people questions to find out how much they knew about Thanksgiving history. A lady of college age correctly answered that the Pilgrims came to America for religious freedom. "Do you know what religion the Pilgrims were?" asked Leno. She thought for a minute, and then tentatively asked, "Atheists?"
It's sometimes funny to see Jay Leno point out how many people can't remember common things we were all supposed to have learned in elementary school, but I found it sad that this woman didn't realize the Pilgrims were from a Protestant denomination of modern Christianity*. She couldn't remember the details, but it seemed plausible to her that the Pilgrims were peaceful atheists trying to escape persecution from the bigoted Christians of England.
I find that this kind of thinking is very typical among most people I know who are not Christians. From their point of view, they remember being in many arguments with intolerant Christians. Many of them have been ridiculed for not accepting the Bible story. It seems to them that Christians have been persecuting atheists, pagans, and people of other religions throughout all history.
Actually, these people have a point. For about 1700 years, many people who call themselves Christians have tried to force their beliefs on others. Sometimes this has been peaceful, but often it has been bloody. It has been said that religion has been responsible for more wars than any other cause in history, and perhaps that is correct. However, it was not always this way.
Christianity started in the first century of our dating system. In the beginning, Christians were not a majority forcing their will on others. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. The first Christians were those who knew Jesus personally. Most of the things we know about Jesus come from the last three or four years of His life. During that time, Jesus preached all throughout the land of Palestine. His teachings attracted a huge following among the common people, but angered the religious authorities of His day. Eventually, the religious leaders and the government decided He was such a threat that they killed Him.
Jesus and His first followers spent many of His last days in hiding. Originally, they thought Jesus was going to take over and become a king, and they would reign alongside Him. When Jesus was captured, all their dreams vanished. Every single one of them ran away. The Bible relates the famous story of Peter, who denied that he knew Jesus in order to avoid punishment. In the same way, each of these men abandoned Jesus to save his own neck.
Now none of that seems notable at all. Tragic, of course, but not notable, except for one thing. Here we see people all over the world today who still believe in Jesus. At that point in history, no one believed in Jesus, so how did anyone come to believe again that Jesus was the Son of God after watching Him die on a cross?
Fifty days after Jesus died, His country was again torn by religious controversy. All of a sudden, His followers had come back and were again preaching He was God. What's more, they claimed He had risen from the dead and that they had seen Him. These men knew full well that the authorities wanted the religion of Jesus stopped, and that they were willing to kill them in order to bring that about. Yet they risked their lives to tell people Jesus was the Son of God and that He had risen from the dead.
If the religion of Jesus were merely a set of teachings on how to live a good life, it could be completely repackaged without mentioning Him. If His first followers had believed in His teachings so much that they didn't want His message to die along with Him, they could have taught people to live the way Jesus taught without saying anything about Him. There would be no need to risk one's life by identifying himself with the movement of Jesus, but the apostles didn't shrink from insisting Jesus was alive and trying to convince people to become His followers.
Let me tell you something: every one of those apostles but one was eventually hunted down and killed for saying that Jesus was alive. The first one, James, was killed not long after Jesus Himself. They kept insisting that people needed to follow Jesus, even when they were imprisoned, beaten, and told by the authorities to quit preaching. They kept insisting that Jesus had miraculously risen from the dead, even though they could have removed all the controversial aspects by simply teaching these "good teachings" without claiming to be followers of Jesus.
I believe there is only one explanation for the behavior of the apostles. They really did see Jesus alive after He was killed, and they knew that His promise of life after death for those who followed Him was true. I encourage you to examine all the possibilities. I have, and there are many, but after careful consideration, I don't think any other possibility is plausible.
The apostles were not the only ones in the first century to believe in Jesus. They attracted thousands of converts to Christianity across their world. How did they do this? Remember that the situation wasn't the way you might think, looking at the last hundred years. Charlemagne in the middle ages led people out into the water and gave them a choice between baptism or the sword. The Spanish Inquisition asked if you were a Roman Catholic and if not chopped off your head. The apostles and early Christians were never in a position to do this. In fact it was exactly the opposite.
The first Christians made a big change in their lives when they changed their religions. Christianity was not popular. Just as people who call themselves Christians often persecute their friends and family members who become atheists or convert to another religion, the first Christians were mocked and disowned when they professed their belief. Parents, husbands, wives, brothers, children, and close friends all turned their backs on them. In their minds, those who converted to Christianity were crazy, dangerous, and traitors to the government.
To many people of the Roman Empire, religion was more of a culture than a belief. Many people didn't actually believe the mythological stories of Zeus and the other gods, but the festivals and rituals were a part of their heritage, not to mention a time for everybody to enjoy themselves. When their friends suddenly started professing a genuine belief in God, and even leaving these worship ceremonies behind, they thought they had gone soft in the head. What's more, Christians professed a belief in the God of the Jews. The Jews had been telling Greeks and Romans off in matters of religion for two hundred years, and there was a lot of bitterness about it. Many people felt that there was no such thing as God, but if there was, it definitely wasn't the Jewish God. Siding with the Jews in matters of religion was like an American in the 1950's siding with the Communists.
Finally, Christianity was a capital crime. Good citizens were expected to worship the emperor and the classic gods; proclaming a new religion was treasonous. Prejudice and intolerance on the part of government officials, egged on by the populace, meant that Christians could expect to be punished in one way or another. If they were lucky, they had their property confiscated and were banished. Others were thrown to lions, crucified, or burned alive. Most of the time, a Christian was given one last opportunity to recant and profess a belief in the classic gods; most of the time, he or she did not.
I have a legitimate question: who in their right mind would give up the life they had been bred for to spend a few short months in hiding, preaching a religion no one wanted to accept, followed by a painful execution? How did the apostles convince even the first person to do this? Perhaps some were swayed by the force of their testimony as they related seeing Jesus work miracles in His life and talk with them after His death, but there was apparently something more than that. Jesus empowered the apostles and many of the first Christians to work miracles. They healed sick people, were miraculously protected from some dangers, and even brought dead people back to life. Unbelieving Jews, Greeks, and Romans who saw people do these things by the power of Jesus were convinced that they were hearing the message of a real God, and they gave their lives to bring His message to those around them.
Again, I'm sure that you can think of some other explanations, but I ask you to carefully consider the possibilities. I have considered them deeply, and I think the evidence clearly indicates that Jesus came back from the dead and empowered His followers to work miracles to prove His message.
I'm constantly amazed that I can always learn more about how history confirms the Bible. Not long ago, I learned of spectacular evidence for some events from the Old Testament. The first two books of the Bible, Genesis and Exodus, relate some of the miraculous deeds God did in ancient Egypt through a man named Joseph and a man named Moses. Through Joseph, God accurately foretold the future in order to save people from disaster, and through Moses, God rescued His people from slavery. Archaelogy has uncovered some actual Egyptian records that record the same events as the Bible -- written by people who did not believe in God.
I wouldn't have time to tell you all the things I've learned through the years, and it might not be best for you, anyway. You need to go do some real research and reading on your own. I don't want you to just accept what I say, just like I don't want you to just accept what noted atheist scholars say. It is up to you to make the effort yourself to find out what is true. Let me assure you that when you look, you'll find countless places where history confirms that the Bible is true.
I know there's a lot of people who go by the name of Christian but seem to have a very poor way of promoting Christianity. Some seem to not realize all they're doing is browbeating non-Christians, without offering any real evidence. If you are not a Christian, you may have had your feelings hurt by someone who wanted you to believe in Christ very badly, but was unable or unwilling to give you what you needed in order for you to come to that belief. I hope you'll be able to move past that and work to determine what is true for yourself.
Christians believe in Jesus for a lot of reasons. Some seem to just have an inner sense that the Gospel is right. Others have been convinced by philosophy or science. Some, like me, have been convinced by history. I hope you'll want to investigate history to see if what I've been telling you is true, and I hope you'll also talk to some other Christians who believe for different reasons to get their point of view as well.
Perhaps you have some objections to what I've presented here. I've heard a lot of them before, and you might be interested in finding out why a particular objection doesn't sway me. Or maybe something I've said piqued your interest and you'd like to get a few details. Feel free to contact me directly, jdavidb@goreadthebible.com, and I'll try to provide you with more info.
I'm convinced that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead, and that He loves us very much, and that He's actively working in the world today to bring us to Him so we can live with Him forever.
*I refer to Pilgrims and Protestants as Christians here so as not to confuse matters, but I should mention that not everyone who calls themselves a Christian really is a Christian.
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