In today’s world, many feel fed up with the Christianity they grew up with. Sometimes unanswered questions and a lack of love in the church can easily lead to disappointment and a sense of betrayal. The resulting wave of questions can become overwhelming. Is Christianity just something sold to us like another product, appealing to our emotions and demanding that we conform to its rules? Why does it so often seem irrationally emotional or unrelentingly tyrannical?
Is Christianity a Fake?
Eventually, we might reach a point where the scales fall from our eyes and “reality,” in all its stark and harsh edges, hits us. The cornerstones that once supported an enchanted idea of goodness and beauty are now exposed for what they really are—sharp points that cut us. Bitterness and unbelief overwhelm us, and we wrestle with how something supposedly so good can suddenly turn so ugly. Little by little, faith is whittled away until one day we wake up and realize we don’t believe anymore. Has Christianity, like some shady used car salesman, sold us a counterfeit, a dummy?
The problem is that some Christian churches, and Christians themselves, have failed to listen, teach, answer, and love according to the one thing that is rock solid—God’s story of salvation given to us in the Bible. All too often, the building blocks of faith are built upon the wrong foundation: being good, spiritual experience, or the promise that God will solve all our problems. Once any of these so-called pillars begins to crumble, so too does our faith.
The Story With Staying Power
Faith that rests upon the salvation proclaimed in the Bible will have moments of doubt but perseveres, because it is a reasonable trust in God’s truthfulness and faithfulness. Jesus’ gospel, the saving message of faith in Christ Jesus as a free gift from God, does not rely on a giant leap of faith, is not rooted in spiritual experience, and can stand up to the accusations made by scientists and atheists. There is good evidence that supports the resurrection being a true event. This story is the narrative with true power, because it is the one that brings you into it to save you from the tyranny of death. God’s story is the place for the spiritually tired, the questioning, and the doubting. God’s story also has a church—it is the place where we can bring our questions and doubts and drink the very water of life and are fed the bread of communion with God. It is where God himself feeds our faith when it is weak and weary.
God is not a God who lies. If he did, he would not be worth believing in and following. He would not be worth all the Christians who died for their faith over the past centuries. The greatest attestation to the truth of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was witnessed by over five hundred people (Num. 23:19; Rom. 3:9; Titus 1:2).
The comfort of our faith ultimately rests upon the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection that saved the world from its trajectory towards death. If this is a lie, then our faith is truly unreal. God calls us to come, to accept his great forgiveness and love in Christ. This call comes from the Word of God, alive and powerful by the Holy Spirit, who does what nothing else can do—transforms hearts to love and live in a new way. God’s truth does not disappoint but is, in fact, far greater than we can imagine.
