It is not unusual for someone to tell me that they find it difficult to believe that Christ actually arose from the dead. They may go on to say something about their having a scientific outlook and thus it’s difficult to take this story of the resurrection just on faith.
I usually agree that this story of Jesus’ resurrection is pretty unbelievable. In our experience dead people just don’t rise. I go on to say that after I examine all the evidence for the resurrection, I find it even harder to not believe it. A leap of faith is still necessary, but it is not an unreasonable leap.
I usually go on to say that faith is equally necessary in science. Take the Big Bang theory for example. This is the theory that all the present universe was contained in a tiny speck about 15 billion years ago. The speck was so small that it had no measurable height or width. Talk about unbelievable! Of course, the cosmologist would agree that on the surface it does seem pretty hard to believe but not after you start examining the evidence. The evidence we have gathered so far (and the scientists just found some more) makes this the most reasonable theory about the beginning of the universe. Of course, the scientist would also agree that this cannot be absolutely proven. A leap of faith is still necessary, but it is the most reasonable leap we can make.
The Resurrection of Christ and the Big Bang theory are both pretty unbelievable, but also, given the evidence, pretty reasonable. Why don’t you take a look at the evidence? Maybe you too can believe.
©C. David Hess