I’ve been asked how I can believe in the Christian story. I’m an intelligent, thoughtful person who has explored deeply the depths of doubt, and who also believes that evolution and the Big Bang are reasonable explanations for how we came to be as we are. So, how then can I believe in God and virgin births and a human/divine messiah? After all, we have evidence held up to scientific scrutiny supporting evolution and the Big Bang. We have no such evidence supporting Christianity, only stories and belief.
How then, can I believe in Christianity? It’s very simple. I love and therefore believe in the story. I absolutely can’t know the objective truth of it. Was Jesus God? I can’t know that. I can only believe the story. As the story goes, God created everything, loves everything and loves each of us. God knows our greatest desire is to be with God, so God became human to be with us. God lived with us as the human being, Jesus of Nazareth. All separation between us and God is gone. That is a beautiful story. The objective (and unknowable) truth of the story is irrelevant to me.
That also means I don’t have a need for the story to be true for anyone else. The fact that others don’t believe Jesus was God doesn’t threaten my faith, nor must my faith be threatening to others. It may not be true, and I’m okay with that. The Christian story is a story that makes sense of my life. I believe it. Believing has made all the difference.
The Lord bless you and keep you, Brad
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