During worship last Sunday, a particular song’s lyrics provoked an uncomfortable thought. The words of the song are as follows, “You are good, You are good, and Your love endures today.” Although I was glad to hear my views of God expressed with such a nice melody, thoughts of recent headlines prevented me from enjoying the worship.
Chelsea King, a pretty high school girl, was recently raped and murdered while on an after school jog. Thousands had been killed and tens of thousands of lives were ruined when earthquakes rocked Haiti, Chili, and China. Meanwhile, Europe was tossed into complete disarray when, of all things, an Icelandic volcano erupted shutting down most of the continent’s airports and stranding thousands of passengers (leaving many of them financially ruined). As the song continued, drowning out the lyrics were the imagined voices of my skeptical friends and family asking, “If God is so good and loving, why?”
Years ago, events and questions like those mentioned above, if thought about too long, would have weakened if not destroyed my faith. But today, understanding the implications of a key Christian claim has helped me not only face these types of objections without fear but has freed me to explore them with confidence.
Unlike other philosophies and religions, we find at the heart of Christianity’s teaching something unusual – a historical claim. Whereas most world religions acquired their influence primarily through the persuasiveness of their founders, Christianity’s initial influence stemmed solely from the truthfulness of the historical claim that Jesus of Nazareth rose from dead.
So how does this fact prevent doubt both in God and in the legitimacy of the Christian worldview? Simply put, if Jesus rose from the dead, then it is to his teachings where we must go in order to find the true explanation of why things are the way they are. Because of the resurrection, we now have an individual whose philosophical assertions supersede all others due to the fact that his authority is not grounded in the persuasiveness of his words or his personal charisma but in time and in history.
How so? Consider a person who predicts his death and subsequent resurrection, and it actually happens as he or she predicts. It is this person who has been able to objectively prove that his or her metaphysical teachings are legitimate. This is exactly what we find in the biography of Jesus Christ.[1]
Case in point, while we may not fully understand the presence of evil, two possible explanations not available to us are that God does not exist or that He is not good. Why not? Because Jesus credits his rising to the power of a good God.[2] Therefore, due to his authority established by the resurrection event, we cannot because of disturbing current events today deny God’s existence or goodness. Moreover, to better understand catastrophes such as those cited above we need to look to whatever knowledge Jesus provides on like matters.
In addition to understanding evil, trusting in the authority of Christ over our own speculation gets us infinitely closer to the truth when contemplating other philosophical questions such as life’s meaning, the afterlife, and moral responsibility.
Granted, this conclusion begs the obvious question: Did Jesus Christ really rise from the dead? More interestingly, how can we be sure given the fact that we are separated from the actual event by more than 2000 years? In part 2, we will explore the historical facts for the resurrection.
[1] John 2: 19
[2] John 10: 15-18
