I am a Christian because of the strong evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, because Christianity represents how a divine being would likely interact with people, and because the claims of Christianity align with my life experience.
What Is Christianity?
Christians follow Jesus of Nazareth as the king of the universe and trust that he will save them from their sin. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, they submit to him as the authority over their life. They also believe that he paid the penalty for their sins when he was crucified and that he was resurrected. Christians accept the Bible as God’s written communication.
Faith as Evidence-Based Belief
When somebody decides to follow and trust Jesus, they have exercised faith, which is evidence-based belief. This person has decided that Christianity is likely true, and they have acted on that evaluation.
When people evaluate Christianity (or any worldview), they must determine the likelihood that it is true and determine their willingness to act in faith on that likelihood. This contrasts with blind faith, which is belief despite a lack of evidence.
The Existence of the Divine
The order and beauty of the universe affirm the existence of the divine. In day-to-day life, the existence of order (such as alphabetized books in a library) leads us to assume the existence of an intelligent orderer. Similarly, with beauty, the existence of a beautiful painting leads us to assume the existence of a painter. On the scale of the universe, the staggering amount of order (like the existence of life) and beauty (like a majestic mountain range) implies the existence of a divine creator.
The existence of morality in our world also affirms the existence of the divine. People treat certain moral actions as objectively right or objectively wrong, and this standard can only exist if the divine also does.
Whatever the nature of this divinity, its existence means that miracles, like the resurrection, are possible.
The Start of Christianity and Its Spread
Billions of people claim to believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Can the origin of this belief and its relative dominance of the world be explained in a way other than Christianity being true?
There is general consensus among non-Christian historians that Jesus of Nazareth existed in Israel around 2,000 years ago and was crucified. Within a few years of his crucifixion, a group of people said he had risen from the dead and was God incarnate.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why did so many people think he did? Non-religious scholars offer a few ideas. Perhaps Jesus never actually died. However, Roman soldiers were excellent at executions, and a post-crucifixion, bloodied Jesus would not inspire people to believe that he had risen from the dead. Perhaps his followers stole the body and lied about it; however, Jesus’ tomb was guarded, and there was little motive to lie.
Could Jesus’ followers have hallucinated? Likely not. The variety of Jesus’ appearances to multiple people and in multiple places argues against this, and it does not account for his empty tomb. A non-miraculous explanation for a supposed resurrection would require both group hallucinations and events that account for Jesus’ empty tomb.
How did Christianity spread across the Mediterranean and eventually dominate Western history? Its spread is evidence for its truth, albeit weak. Yes, God could be providing the fuel behind its success, but the spread of Christianity could also be accounted for if the religion provided a compelling worldview and incubated in a historical and cultural environment that was conducive to its spread (like during the Pax Romana, where Christians could travel safely, converse in the common language of Greek, and enjoy an empire that was initially tolerant).
Christianity’s Description of the Divine
Christianity offers a compelling description of the character of God and humanity’s relationship to Him. Assuming that the divine does exist in some form, what might it be like? This God would be unimaginably powerful as the creator and would be personal (as opposed to being a nebulous life force that has no intent to create or govern something).
If humans disobeyed God, their relationship to him would be fractured. After the fracturing of that relationship, humans would not be able to repair the relationship because of their inferiority; it would be entirely up to God to forgive them.
Assuming that God wants to forgive, how could God punish evil while also showing mercy to evildoers? This is the teaching of Christianity, that God, through the crucifixion of Jesus, transferred the punishment of humanity’s disobedience onto Jesus, to forgive evil and uphold justice. I have yet to come across another belief system that can reconcile God forgiving and judging with the coherence and beauty that Christianity does.
Personal Experience
I have experienced that life is best lived in submission to Jesus. Practically, living with the attributes of Jesus, like grace and patience, is both beneficial to me and society as a whole, and maintaining a trust in God provides a comfort during suffering. Plus, the development of consistent redemptive themes across the Bible, a book written by around forty authors in wildly different historical contexts, rings with a divine beauty.
This combination of subjective personal experience, along with the evidentiary weight of the historical resurrection narrative and Christianity’s description of God makes me believe that, if God has chosen to form a relationship with humans, it would likely be through Jesus.
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