I was born in December of 1949. Several key events happened that year. After a civil war the People’s Republic of China was established as a Communist country under Mao Zedong and the defeated Republic of China government relocated in Taiwan. NATO began. The Soviets detonated its first atomic bomb (escalating the nuclear arms race). 45 r.p.m. records and Lego plastic bricks were introduced to consumers. Germany split into East and West Germany. A postage stamp cost 3 cents and a gallon of gas cost 26 cents. Harry S. Truman began his 2nd term. The minimum wage jumped from 40 cents to 70 cents. The first credit card, Diner’s Club, was issued. Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees won the World Series.

Have you ever imagined how your life could be different if you were born in another country? What if I had been born in China in the middle of a civil war. Or in some famine stricken, poor country in Africa? My entire family of 18 just spent a day in Dollywood. I rode my first upside down roller coaster loop in the Wild Eagle ride (it loops 4 times) and the Barnstormer scared me to death (it swings back and forth and you end up looking straight down at 80 feet high with your body being lifted up off your seat). I’m officially through with theme parks and roller coasters. What’s on your “bucket list”? That wasn’t on my bucket list but I’m glad its over.

It cost almost $150 for a 2 day pass to Dollywood. The daily family income in the poorest countries in Africa is about $2 per day (about $700 per year) so my family spent at Dollywood over 2 years of family income of those poorest countries. We spent 4 nights in a great cabin (which cost about 7 years of the poorest family incomes in Africa). I say all that not to make me or my family feel guilty. There is nothing wrong with enjoying material blessings. We can use our financial wealth in America to help those poor families all over the world through various non profit agencies and should do so as part of our tithing. It just blows my mind how much we take for granted our wealth that most of us enjoy in America although many live in poverty even in the U.S and we need to help them also. It also blows my mind the see churches spend 80% of the money they collect on buildings and staff instead of helping the poor worldwide, drilling wells, and printing Bibles to save the lost.

Many if not most of us “baby boomers” were brought up in Christian homes and taught Christianity. Atheists in the U.S. would call that “brainwashing” children with lies, but I call it teaching our children about God as Deuteronomy 6 commands. Timothy’s mother and grandmother taught him the Old Testament Scriptures from childhood which led him to become a believer in Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 3:15-17). It’s all just about your worldview: atheist vs Christian. I choose Christian. The one main miracle that proves Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus. Paul told the idol worshippers in Athens in Acts 17:³⁰ So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus is our “proof” that Christianity is the worship of the one true God and of Jesus His Son whom He sent to save us from our sins. John 17:³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” I wish that all atheists would take a closer look at the resurrection of Jesus. I can’t prove that we landed on the moon, but I believe that we did based on credible eyewitness testiony. I believe that Jesus was raised based on the credible eyewitness testimony of those who saw him after he was raised. Even his enemies admitted that the tomb was empty after 3 days or else why would they make up the story that the disciples stole Jesus’ body while the guards were sleeping. But why didn’t they arrest the disciples and find out what the disciples did with the body if they really believed that? Not to mention that the apostles were hiding in a house in fear after Jesus was crucified. What would have given them the courage to risk their lives to steal the body of Jesus? How could they slip past sleeping guards (even if that was true), roll a 2,000 pound stone away and carry the body of Jesus out without waking the guards? Also, those apostles testified to the resurrected Jesus all over the world 30-40 years after he was raised: all of them met a martyr’s death and none of them recanted their testimony. Muslims might die for their faith, believing a lie, but no one will die knowing that what they claim to believe in is a lie.

Jesus made many appearances to credible eyewitnesses in the 40 days after his resurrection and before his ascension. Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:6) that He even appeared to 500 people at one time, most of whom Paul says were still alive when he wrote 1 Corinthians (about 22 years after the resurrection). That’s a pretty bold statement, challenging any doubters to go talk to the witnesses if they doubt the veracity of the resurrection. But the most convincing post resurrection appearance might be to Saul of Tarsus. Saul was torturing, imprisoning, and having Christians killed until Jesus made one final post resurrection appearance to him about 3 years after Jesus ascended to heaven. That immediately convinced Saul that Jesus was the resurrected Son of God and Messiah. He was baptized to “wash away his sins” and became a Christian. He spent the next 30 or so years suffering extreme hardship giving his testimony to the resurrected Jesus and was beheaded by Nero in 66 AD. People have motives to make drastic changes in their beliefs. What motive could Saul have had to give up his power in Judaism to become a suffering Christian? He did not gain power or money by changing: he lost everything by changing.

Doubters propose many theories to explain the empty tomb. Some say the eyewitnesses of the resurrection “swooned” or faked death (the 1965 book The Passover Plot), but the Romans were professional executioners declared him dead (not breaking his legs to hasten his death) and even pierced his heart with a spear to make sure that he was dead. Some say the eyewitnesses were hallucinating when they claimed to see Jesus, but that doesn’t explain the holes in Jesus’ hands and side that Thomas put his hands in. One final proof of the resurrection is the fact that just 50 days after the resurrection the apostles preached the resurrection in the same city (Jerusalem) in which it occurred, and yet no one refuted their claim. No one ever claimed to see a dead body after the resurrection or gave any proof whatsoever that the body had been stolen and disposed of. Imagine if I started saying that someone in our local cemetery here in Huntsville had been raised from the death 50 days ago. It would be easy for people to check that out and expose it as a life.

If you are reading this and have doubts about the resurrection of Jesus, I hope this helps build your faith in the resurrection. God gives us freewill to make our own choices, so I respect those who choose to reject the resurrection. I don’t know of anything else to offer as proof that Jesus is the Son of God than his resurrection. He fulfilled many old testament prophecies but the #1 proof is the resurrection. If you do believe in the resurrection, then follow Peter’s advice. 1 Peter 3:¹⁵ but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect.”