"Listen to him (Jesus).  'Love your neighbor' was spoken by a man whose neighbors tried to kill him.  The challenge to leave family for the gospel was issued by one who kissed his mother goodbye in the doorway.  'Pray for those who persecute you' came from the lips that would soon be begging God to forgive his murderers.  'I am with you always' are the words of a God who in one instant did the impossible to make it all possible for you and me.  It all happened in a moment . . . a most remarkable moment.  The Word became flesh."  
(Taken from God Came Near, page 27.  © Copyright 1987 by Max Lucado;   Published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc., Sisters, Ore. Used by permission.)

C hristianity lives or dies on the question of whether Jesus rose from the dead—without that, it's just a nice fairy tale.  The Bible itself states it bluntly:

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  —the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:14--New Testament )

So finding out whether or not Jesus' resurrection is true is of the greatest importance.  If it's not, then you don't need to waste your time on a fairy tale.  But if it's true, it is absolutely the most important thing in your life.  Because if Jesus was raised from the dead, then He was (and is) exactly Who He said He was—the Son of the Living God . . . God in a human body . . . "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being" ... the Word made flesh.  And that fact would make the whole "God story," along with the Bible, true.  And that would mean that our destiny on earth and forever depends on one thing—what are we going to do with Jesus?  

If you read the New Testament stories of Jesus, it's obvious that He is the Son of God and the Jewish Messiah (Christ)/Savior.  Jesus Himself said it many times in many ways, and He proved it over and over with miracles and by fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah/Savior.  In fact, His claim to be Son of God is precisely what got Him killed by the Jewish religious leaders.  What you must decide is if the Bible is telling the real story.  There's ample, solid evidence for that—no blind faith required, but belief based on truth.  After being a skeptic for most of my life, I'm absolutely convinced that it does.  (See my Resources section for several excellent books on the solid evidence for Jesus' resurrection and on the accuracy of the Bible—the most accurate ancient document that man has.  Especially good is The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel.)

HOWEVER—and this is critical—very possibly the first thing you need is a desire to find out if the Jesus story is true—and I doubt you'll have any desire to do that unless you think Jesus and God are People you'd actually like to know.   If you've gotten the impression (like I had) that They are critical, wrathful, demanding, and generally disgusted with us humans, then you won't want to get close enough to know Them.  (I was never so happy to be so wrong about something in my life.)  So if you haven't looked at the following sections of this web site, you definitely should do that first before diving into the question of whether or not Jesus was Who He said He was.  For me, I  had to see that He was very GOOD before I could even begin to see that He was REAL.  But once I saw how good He was, you couldn't stop me from searching until I found out if this almost unbelievable love story—about ME—was true or not.

• In the Footsteps of Jesus  book excerpt section

• Jesus ... Yesterday, Today, Forever  book excerpt section

• My Story
• A  GOOD  God
  

Finding out if the "Jesus story" is true is worth every bit of frustration, confusion, and time you may encounter on the way (besides—He makes sure that every bit of that effort goes toward helping you find Him, even if it doesn't look like it at the time).  Because when you do find Him, it will be like waking up from a dream and beginning to really live—to understand and enjoy life for the first time.  Jesus wasn't kidding about saying we'd be "born again" or "born of the spirit"—that's a perfect description of what happens when you suddenly begin to experience—with all your senses and with all of your spirit—the real life He's wanted for you all along.  I used to think that "born again" idea was just another set of pretty words or symbolism or even just more "fairy tale" stuff—until it happened to me.  Now, it takes my breath away every day of my life.

Here's something to think about:  Christianity is not a  "religion"—something that gives you a list of things you have to do to work your way to heaven.   The God that Christians follow says that total, complete perfection is what it takes to make it to heaven ... and we humans know that not one of us can achieve that.  But Jesus says (paraphrased), "Don't worry—I've done the work for you, for free ... and if you come with Me, you'll get in on My credit—My perfect life."  That's why Jesus said, 

"I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  (John 14:6)

What a controversial statement!  How it starts arguments and divides people.   But at its basic level, what an easy thing for any human to do ... just make a choice to intimately know and follow God's Son, Who wants to GIVE to you.  It's not a task, or a project ... it's about a Person—Jesus, Who claims to be the Son of the Living God.  And could it be possible that in this most important of issues that there is indeed only one right answer ... only one "way"?  That would make things easier, wouldn't it?  (A compassionate God just might give us one perfect answer instead of lots of options so it would be easy to get it right—and really live an exciting, enjoyable life no matter what our circumstances are.  With Him—living life His way—we would be undefeatable by the junk life throws at us and then indestructible through eternity.)  Ah—this is definitely something you'll have to investigate.  I have one request—in your search, try looking for evidence that the Jesus story could be true instead of just looking for evidence against it.  In other words, be fair and don't just consider one "side."  Most of the Jewish religious leaders in Jesus' day missed their own Messiah because they forgot to consider that this Jesus, an "uneducated blue-collar worker from way out in the sticks," just might actually be Who He claimed to be.   And I missed Him for years, too, because I only looked at—and argued for—reasons not to believe Jesus and the Bible instead of investigating the reasons to believe Him.

Remember that there are plenty of examples in the world in which there is only one right way or "answer" to something—so the idea of "one answer" isn't just some isolated, "intolerant religious attitude."  For example, if a computer password is eight characters long, getting seven characters right is very close to correct—but only the completely correct password will "get you in."  The world of math and science are also full of these kinds of examples of precision.  (And as a lifelong science lover/student and daughter of a science teacher, I'm astounded at how many of the truths found in God's story are mirrored in science.  Science supports God's story beautifully.)

I'll give you some of the best resources that you can look into (my favorite in this area is The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel)—because this is something I can't "make" you believe (I couldn't even make myself believe it).  This is between you and God.  The only thing you have to do is truly search.  He promises that if you really search for truth, He'll come and find you.  It doesn't matter if you've bad-mouthed Him, cussed Him, worshipped everything except Him, lied about Him, ridiculed Him, ignored Him, or even hated Him.  (Believe me—I'd done some of this myself and He just showered me with love and attention when I finally asked Him to help me.)  This is the Person Who knows ALL of this about you and desperately loves you anyway—and thinks you're worth literally everything He has to give to let you know this.  He's God—He doesn't have insecurity or ego problems; He can handle ALL the tough questions; and He won't get mad or impatient with you for asking.  He wants you to know Him.

If you read the "My Story" section of this web site, you'll see the following steps that my mind had to go through to come to a no-turning-back knowledge that Jesus and God are as real as They are good.  (But it won't make as much sense if you don't read the whole story).  And God Himself had to take me by the hand and lead me to "stumble across" just the right things (and at just the right times) to answer all my questions.  By myself, I just floundered in information—but as soon as I gave up and finally asked for His help, He gave it.  

Not everyone has the same questions I had, but this is how God answered mine.

From "My Story":

When I stumbled across C.S. Lewis (a former atheist) in his Mere Christianity book, God answered my philosophical and scientific questions in precisely the order and style in which my analytic, science-loving mind works.  Then He hit me with the final blow—using Josh McDowell's More Than a Carpenter book (which had been sitting unread in my own bookshelf for three years.) and The Case For Christ, by Lee Strobel.  In these two books, also written by former atheists who set out to disprove Christianity, He showed me (with massive supporting sources) that the New Testament is by far the most accurate ancient historical document in existence and would hold up as eyewitness testimony in any court.  He showed me how carefully the Old Testament has been copied and preserved by the Jewish people since its beginning.  (They always count each character to make sure they don't make any mistakes.)  And finally—this was the big one—McDowell's and Strobel's books made me realize that Jesus' disciples would not have gone on to do what they did—risking their lives to tell people about Jesus—if Jesus wasn't resurrected.  In other words, they wouldn't have been willing to die awful deaths for something they KNEW was a lie—and if anyone was in the right place to know if Jesus was really resurrected, they were.  When I read that, these conclusions blazed through my head (and chills ran down my back):

1. If the New Testament is accurate (copied and translated correctly) and its testimonies are true, then Jesus really was resurrected.

2. If Jesus really was resurrected, then He really was Who He said He was—the Son of God!  (What an awesome statement that is.  And what an astounding dream come true for me and everyone else, since God is the author of the greatest love story ever told—His love for us.)

3. If Jesus really was Who He said He was, then the whole thing—God, the Old Testament, and this Jesus Who loves me so much that He died to come get me back...Who loves me like I love my own children...Who sees the best in me even when I'm yelling at Him or not really believing in His existence—is real.  (And what an unpleasant jolt I got when I realized I'd never completely believed that God and Jesus were real; I did not really know that about myself.  Wanting to believe it and really believing it are two wonderfully different things.)

4. ...Then all types of fear were replaced with joy and excitement about my future, because I now know that God has a great plan for my life, which He sees as important.  I get to spend the rest of my life serving (and being served by, as Jesus said it) the person Who loves me the most, even though He knows me the best.  And when I die, that just means I finally get to give my laughing, loving Jesus an eternal hug.

 Once I saw Jesus, I could get to know Him.  And when I got to know Him—I could truly fall in love with Him.  He's the easiest Person in the world to love.  And now that I love Him and finally understand how He feels about me, trusting is easy—so doing what He says is something I want to do.  

Now I know why I'd never had a relationship with God; it's so obvious that I don't know how I could have missed it for 36 years—You can't have a relationship with someone unless you KNOW him.