THINK ABOUT THIS: The Two Facts That Change Everything

It’s a complicated world out there and it’s getting more so every day, thanks in great part to steady advances in science and technology and the practical applications thereof in daily life. And as our lives become steadily more complicated, it becomes all the more important that we be able to recognize and prioritize what we know.

If you work on the Hill, you quickly learn that some facts are more important than others.

It’s an easily forgotten reality – Every fact is not equally important, some are more vital to achieving and ensuring your happiness, security or understanding than other facts.

Example: If you live in a big city, you don’t have to have a car, but you do have to have food. This priority ordering of facts immediately raises a crucial question: What are the most important facts?

Two Most VIP Facts:

I suggest there are two that top the list: First, the universe in which we live had a beginning. Second, the tomb of Jesus was empty. Let’s take them in succession. Science has compiled an impressive case for the Big Bang, the instant in the distant past when the universe — matter, space and time — popped into existence.

Before that instant, there was nothing, no space, no matter, no time. No energy. No forces. Nothing, as in Aristotle’s definition of nothing as “what rocks think about.” But we know we cannot create something out of nothing.

We also know that all things with a beginning have a cause. To cause the existence of time, space and matter requires an entity that is beyond time, space and matter. That is, an entity that is immortal, eternal, super intelligent, purposeful, and all-powerful. Does that sound like we’re describing God?

Hmmm, Sounds Like God:

Well, yes, it sounds like a theistic God, but that alone doesn’t validate Christianity. Thus, the second most important fact is the empty tomb that must be explained. Jesus said repeatedly that He would be arrested, tried, flogged, crucified, and then be resurrected on the third day.

Virtually everybody on both sides of the issue in the scholarly circles that focus on these matters agrees the tomb was empty when Mary Magdalene and the other women approached on the morning of the third day. So, if the Resurrection claim is false, who got the dead body of Jesus?

His Friends Or His Enemies?

If it was Jesus’ enemies, they would have rolled His rotting corpse down Jerusalem’s Main Street when the disciples began publicly claiming Jesus was resurrected. That would have been the end of Christianity and all history that followed would have been profoundly different.

If Jesus’ friends somehow stole His body, how do we explain this? The tomb was guarded by a unit of the Roman Legion, the 16-man Kustodian. Think the Green Berets, Army Rangers or Navy SEALS of the Roman Legion. Highly trained, disciplined, professional killers.

How could the disciples, who had no known military experience or capabilities and who had fled in terror when Jesus was arrested, suddenly have found the courage, skill and resources to overcome a group of the best soldiers in the world? To say that is improbable is an understatement.

Here’s a third possibility: All that stuff about Jesus being buried in a rich man’s tomb was made up. The reality is that instead of burying them, the Romans simply dumped crucified bodies in a field outside the city walls of Jerusalem where they became food for the vultures.

That means the body was in a location known to at least some of the Roman soldiers who conducted the crucifixion. Trust me, the Romans crucified a lot of people and they knew how to complete the task.

What’s Most Probable?

Again, when the disciples began proclaiming Jesus to be the risen savior and the only way to Heaven, the Roman authorities would have stepped forward with proof that Jesus was dead, not alive. But that didn’t happen. Thus, we are left with the most probable explanation for the empty tomb being that Jesus was indeed resurrected, just as He said He would be.

So, logic says there must be a creating God to explain how the universe came to be, and the most probable explanation for the empty tomb is that Jesus was indeed resurrected. If these are indeed true facts, then they change everything, they are vastly more important than anything else.

What will you do with them in your life?

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Still Not Convinced?

Check out this short video from Dr. Frank Turek of cross-examined.org, who provides four facts that he argues make it clear that God exists and Christianity is true.