'Ask Them Yourself'

A man is on trial for his life, standing in front of a king who could end the case with a single word. He doesn't beg. He doesn't try to win people over emotionally. He does something almost nobody facing execution does — he hands over evidence, and dares anyone listening to go check it themselves. That's the apostle Paul, testifying before King Agrippa in Acts 26, and that's worth pausing on for a second: when was the last time you saw someone defend what they believed by handing over names and an invitation to verify, instead of just making an emotional appeal? Those are the people who are reaching the non-Christians who are looking for good answers to their questions.

Paul's actual case, laid out to Agrippa, has two parts. First, he says none of this is new — the prophets and Moses had already said the Messiah would suffer and rise, generations before Paul was born (Acts 26:22–23). Second, and more specific: years before this trial, Paul had already put the resurrection claim in writing to a church in Corinth. Christ died, was buried, was raised on the third day, and was seen — not by one person having a private experience, but by Cephas, then the Twelve, then more than five hundred people at once, most of them, Paul adds, still alive as he's writing (1 Corinthians 15:3–8). That detail only makes sense as an invitation. Go find them. Ask them yourself.

Many Christians struggle with the idea that our faith could survive that kind of scrutiny. Somewhere along the way, a lot of us began to think that good questions people asked were impediments to their believing. Paul didn't think so. He built his defense the way you'd build a legal case, because he wasn't afraid of what a serious look would find. That's not weakness. That's confidence in something built to hold weight. The next time someone you love asks you a genuinely hard question about what you believe, you don't have to reach for a feeling to hand them. You're allowed to say: here's what actually happened, and here's how you could check it yourself.

What's the hardest question about your faith you've struggled to answer? Talk with Christians who have studied and given reflective responses to that question. Check out the evidence.

Blessings,

Jonathan