The rise of skepticism relied somewhat upon the supposition that while “your truth was good for you, then my truth was good for me.” Some Christians might counter with the notion that “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” But the skeptic would say he didn’t believe in the Bible and what it said. His truth was based upon reason and what he could understand in his own mind.</p>
If you are a skeptic, then very reasonable examples exist for why you should believe in God. They are not from the Bible, but from recorded history. They involve three numbers: 5000, 500, and 1. Even if you do not deem my examples reasonable, I have one more construct for your consideration that perhaps you won’t be able to shake off that easily.
5000
When I teach university students and they submit their papers for grading, I’m hopeful they’ve met the assignment requirements and included four or five sources to back up the assertions they make in their three to five-page papers. These sources are the proof needed to buttress the facts and arguments they present in their papers. I always look first for those reference sources. They show me the research my students pursued to build upon what we already know about their subjects.
When I was editor of the professional journal of the U.S. Air Force, I would review three to five thousand-word scholarly essays for publication in that quarterly. An editorial panel would assist my publication decisions by peer-reviewing their submissions and part of that review would be to assess the thirty to fifty references our authors would include to buttress the facts and arguments in their papers. I always looked first for those reference sources. They showed me the research my authors pursued and, in many ways, showed me the depth of their research not just by how many sources they had listed but the quality of the works they chose to reference for support.
No subject in the world has been researched more than the existence of Jesus Christ. Over five thousand documented pieces of evidence exist that verify His reality and the veracity of the Biblical account of His life, death, burial, and resurrection. And these are references from Greek historians, and Roman historians, and pagan historians, and Jewish historians, and yes, Christian historians. Care with the history does not permit me to cite all five thousand references here, but allow me to present a very small sample.
One historian was Josephus, with whom many are familiar. He grew up in a priestly family in first-century Palestine and wrote only decades after Jesus’ death. Jesus’ known associates, such as Jesus’ brother James, were his contemporaries. The historical and cultural context was second nature to Josephus. “If any Jewish writer were ever in a position to know about the non-existence of Jesus, it would have been Josephus. His implicit affirmation of the existence of Jesus has been, and still is, the most significant obstacle for those who argue that the extra-Biblical evidence is not probative on this point,” according to theologian and educator Robert Van Voorst.
Another was the former Roman Senator turned historian, Tacitus. He referred to Christ, his execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work, Annals (written ca. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44. His is one of the earliest non-Christian references to the origins of Christianity, the execution of Christ described in the canonical gospels, and the presence and persecution of Christians in 1st-century Rome.
Scholars generally consider Tacitus’ reference to the execution of Jesus by Pontius Pilate to be both authentic, and of historical value as an independent Roman source. Scholars state that it is now “firmly established” that Tacitus provides a non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Historian Ronald Mellor has stated that the Annals is “Tacitus’s crowning achievement” which represents the “pinnacle of Roman historical writing”. Scholars view it as establishing three separate facts about Rome around AD 60: a) that there were a sizable number of Christians in Rome at the time, b) that it was possible to distinguish between Christians and Jews in Rome, and c) that at the time pagans made a connection between Christianity in Rome and its origin in Roman Judea. And Tacitus was careful enough not to report real executions of nonexistent people.[1]
So, dear reader, you may choose to ignore the evidence in history, but as Charles Spurgeon put it, “If Jesus was anything, then Jesus was everything.” To me, Jesus was at least “anything.” So to me, that makes Him everything. But if you’re still not convinced enough to believe, please consider the second number.
500
As I cited above, Tacitus documented the persecutions of Christians in Rome. Under Nero, Christianity was being blamed for Rome’s decline. (Does that sound eerily familiar to things being said in some segments of our culture today?) Christians were rounded up and led to the Coliseum and, perhaps before being thrown to the lions, were given the opportunity to recant their faith.
Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t the human survival instinct be strong enough in those Christians who see lions sizing them up, having just feasted on their Christian brothers and sisters, that they would be willing to die such a death for a lie? Isn’t it reasonable to suggest that they would not willingly give up their lives for something they didn’t really believe was real? The answer should be obvious.
It is reported that some five hundred Christians died this way. My sense is that they believed in the existence of Jesus enough to lay down their lives for their faith. Isn’t it reasonable to conclude they knew what they were doing . . . and where they were going?
But if you’re still not convinced enough to believe, please consider the third number.
1
You know, the Romans could have solved all of this for us. And it’s not that they didn’t try. With all of their legions, and all of their control, and all of their power, all they had to do to prevent this entire dilemma, was to find and produce the one body of a crucified, dead, and buried Jesus Christ.
And for the Roman governor Pilate, whose wife had already warned him about condemning Jesus to death, this matter had become personal. That’s why he signed up for the full program. Throughout those three days, they had sealed the tomb, and they had posted a guard echelon whose orders were to guard a dead man. How hard could it be?
The religious leaders who had delivered Him over to be executed, knew that a bodily resurrection would mean that Jesus was more than spirit, more than a hoax, and more than some hallucination. All they had to see as evidence was the body of a dead Jesus Christ, and they would be vindicated.
But, they could not. Not with all the superpower of Rome, and not with all of the referent and positional authority of the Temple, could they produce the body.
That’s because this one body wasn’t there. It was nowhere to be found. Are you willing to follow the evidence to where it leads? Do you just want to know the truth? If so, one of your possible conclusions has to be that Jesus was who He said He was.
Why It’s Reasonable to Live as if God Exists
I can’t prove to you with absolute certainty that God exists. I don’t know what I can say to you that will make you believe, but that isn’t my business. That’s between you, Mr. Skeptic, and God. This is where faith comes in.
And even though the Oxford Dictionary defines faith as “belief without evidence,” or “belief in spite of the evidence,” I have presented to you, in this Easter series post, some evidence that Jesus Christ, God’s only son, exists. Are you willing to follow the evidence to where it will lead? Even if it leads you to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ?
It’s OK to have doubts. Some of those closest to Jesus had doubts. But if you’re only interested in the truth, and if you’re interested in finding out if God truly exists, then I’m going to ask you to do a couple of things.
The first is to pray that God might prepare you to discover if He exists. That prayer goes something like this: “God, I only want to know the truth. I only want to know if you exist. Prepare me to receive this answer. I only want to know the truth.” That’s all. It’s a fairly profound, yet simple prayer. The Bible says that if anyone lacks wisdom about God, he should ask for it, and God will give it to him regardless of who he is. You must believe what you find out, but you will receive that wisdom. I’ve never known God to turn away someone so willing to know the truth. Just ask Him.
And then I would have you consider the second thing, which is just grappling with a series of questions. Isn’t it reasonable to conclude that you should live as if God exists? If God doesn’t exist, then I am among those who are the biggest fools in the history of mankind, and you will have lost nothing. If God exists, and you have lived as if He exists, then you have everything to gain, and again, nothing to lose. But if God exists and you live as if He doesn’t, you will lose absolutely everything.
What is “everything?” The answer to this question may be the key to your entire pursuit of truth. “Everything,” my dear friend, is something you can discover after you have determined God exists and you are going to live your life as if He exists. We can’t expect you to understand things that are spiritually discerned, until you accept His reality. That realization will change you. You’ll have to trust me on this.
Isn’t it reasonable for you to live your life as if God exists? Why not follow the evidence to where it leads, even if it leads to the foot of the cross? Why not ask Him to prepare you for the answer?
What a great week to consider these questions and pursue the truth.
Thanks for reading.
[1] My very great thanks to Lawrence Mykytiuk, “Did Jesus Exist? Searching for Evidence Beyond the Bible”, Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2015. Via Biblicalarchaeology.org.