Yesterday at my work I was able to share the Gospel with a coworker. It was simply an awesome experience that had me higher than the the Empire State Building (who needs drugs?). She was in the perfect position: questioning and receptive to anything. It’s also a dangerous time because she’s receptive to ANYTHING. I’m praying that our conversation is just one of many.
But she said something gave me pause: the Bible contains some looney tunes.
As a non-Christian, she gave some much needed perspective to a church kid (me). The Bible contains many details that, to this atheistic anti-religious culture, are hard to believe. For example, she mentioned the virgin birth. Whaaaaa? That’s not scientifically possible.
I grew up in the church, so I’m used to the miracles in the Bible. I don’t bat an eye. But this was a real hurdle for her to jump over.
Then it hit me: she didn’t have to accept the virgin birth, Jonah’s big fish, Judgement Day, Joshua’s still sun... any of it.
All she had to do was accept the Resurrection.
HOLD UP!
Now, before you burn me to the stake, hold up. I’m not saying that those events didn’t happen. I’m also not saying that, if she does accept the good news, she won’t eventually believe those events as a natural extension of believing the Bible is the Word of God.
I’m saying that, as of now, all the other miracles in the Bible aren’t beneficial to me at the moment. Instead of scrambling to defend how every miracle could have happened, I simply have to jump to the Resurrection.
It’s a bottom up approach. You start with the most foundational miracle, and if you can show that believing it is logical and rational, the rest will follow (think Dominoes).
If my coworker accepts the Resurrection, what else must she believe?
- God exists
- God is extremely powerful* and omniscient
- God intervenes in and cares about human events
- Miracles are real and can happen and have happened
Going back to the four miracles I mentioned earlier, are they that much of a stretch now? Now that you’ve accepted the four points above, accepting the four miracles (and all the others in the Bible) aren’t as hard.
So when she mentioned all the crazy miracles in the Bible, I instantly knew that systematically explaining everything from the Creation to Eutychas’ resurrection would be unfruitful. I only need to convince her of the most important miracle (which, not so incidentally, is almost the easiest miracle to defend). The rest will follow if she accepts it.
Summary
The Bible is hard to believe sometimes. I know this, and you can bet your grandma my friend knew it, too. But everything goes back to the Resurrection. If the Resurrection happened, several mind-blowing things follow.
- Everything Jesus said is validated. He claimed to be God? Yessir, no doubt now. He claimed to be the Messiah? Definitely.
- The Bible is validated as the Word of God. It was written over thousands of years, with Jesus approving the Old Testament and His disciples (with the power of Jesus Himself) approved the New Testament.
- We are saved and can have hope that Jesus is coming back for us.
- We will live for eternity in Heaven with God.
My next post will expand on why the Resurrection is so important for apologetics and polemics (challenging other faiths). If the Resurrection happened, it’s game over for every other religion.
*I am going to stop using the term “omnipotent” because you get the smart alecks that ask, “Can God sin?” Or “can God create a square circle?” And so on and so forth. There are answers to those things, but the conversation just gets bogged down. I’m going to say “extremely powerful” instead or something like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment