Our ideas of justice and human rights depend on this one fact
Mark Kelly writes at kainos:
I don’t think most Christians truly understanding the earth-shaking, life-changing meaning of the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. I know many of us who were raised in church haven’t grasped how different our world would be if God had left him to molder in the grave. Most unbelievers certainly don’t understand the degree to which modern democratic civilization — from science, education, and social services to even the very concepts of justice and human rights — grew out of and depends on the teachings of Jesus and Christian tradition. The resurrection is a fact of history and civilized society cannot survive without the truth it represents.
… One of the most important aspects of the resurrection is that without it, one religion would be as true as any other. Who is to say that Baron Samedi, voodoo’s anarchist god of death, should not be worshiped with child sacrifice? Even Jews and Muslims, who would say they worship the same one, true, supreme God as Christians, have no way of proving that their understanding of God is true. Without the resurrection, no one could know who can be trusted to teach us about the nature of God, the meaning of life, and what is true and just. Apart from the resurrection of Jesus, moral values and religious tradition are merely unproven personal opinion.
The resurrection of Jesus was an actual event in history. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we know God has power even over death and evil. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we know Jesus taught the truth about how we are to live before God in an evil world. The resurrection is a fact – proven beyond reasonable doubt – that leads us to the truth about what God is like and what is true and just.
Christians who understand the importance of the resurrection will see their faith in a whole new light. Christians who understand that the resurrection is a fact of history will have greater confidence and more powerful motivation to engage lost souls with good news. And Christians will have new passion for doing justice in an evil world when they understand how much civilized society depends on Christian truth.
Read the full post by clicking here.
Multiply Justice 