Sentilong Ozukum
Last week I was invited to speak at a small Youth Fellowship which comprised of about fifty members. I prayed about it and then I decided I would talk a little about the difference between the Christian faith and the other faiths. I therefore painted Christianity on the canvass of Origin, Meaning, Morality and Destiny and contrasted it with three other major religions Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism At the end I boldly stated that Christianity is exclusively true and that Jesus is the only way to God. However at the end of the service a guy approached me with some kind of hostility.
“I don’t agree with what you just said. How can you say that Christianity is true while the other religions are false?” I was not very comfortable with his question as I was not used to challenge like this before. “Are you a Christian?” I asked. “Yes I am” he replied without any hesitant. “What are your views then? I asked him.
“All religions are the same.” He began sounding very much like my father. “No matter what religion we are following we are all serving the same God. So it is wrong to say that Jesus is the only way to God…”
“Wait!” I interrupted his thoughts and opened my Bible to John 14:16. (I’m the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.) “But Jesus himself said that He is the only way to Heaven.” I told him.
He was not surprised. “Anybody can make such a statement” he began, “If Gandhi or Hitler said those words, would you believe them? In fact I can also say to you ‘I’m the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ Now would you believe me?”
I thought he was joking. But he was not smiling. I really did not like where our conversation was going. I was not prepared for this moment. I tried to be sincere. “Yes I will believe you.” I said. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Yes I will surely believe you if you said those words. But you have to make one more claim that you would die and then rise on the third day. Then I will wait and if you in fact rise from the death on the third say I will surely believe you. Can you do that?”
I watched him as he fumbled for the right words “How… is that… possible?” “That’s precisely what I want to ask you too- How is that possible? Jesus made many claims about himself but all his claims were authenticated by his Resurrection. If Jesus had not resurrected from his death I would not have come here today. I believe that Jesus is the only way to God because He said it. I know my belief is right because he rose from the death. How simple is that?”
He was silent for a moment before he brought on a new charge. “But how can you say that Jesus was resurrected from the death when you and I were not present. Anybody can put to paper that He rose from the death…”
“Wait a minute!” I interrupted again. “Do you mean to say that the resurrection story is a fairy tale invented by the gospel writers?” “I don’t mean to say that but how can I make my mind to believe that Jesus really rose from his death. Can you convince me?”
I scratched my head for a moment and quickly reviewed some of the books I had read on the resurrection of Christ. I then settled on three piece of circumstantial evidence. “Ok! I will give you three evidence which I believe leads us to the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead. Are you ready to listen?” “I’m listening” he said.
So I began. “The first one is that almost all the disciples of Jesus died for their beliefs. Why would the disciples sacrifice their lives if they knew that Jesus had not risen from his death? I mean who on earth would want to die for a lie? But you know the story. The disciples went about the whole world with the good news. They went about without food. They were beaten, tortured, imprisoned and executed in the most torturous ways. These all happened because the disciples had seen, meet and talked with Jesus after the resurrection.”
“The second evidence” I continued, “is the conversion of the skeptics. Thousands of people committed their lives to Christ after the resurrection. The best example would be the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. What caused him to take a 180 degree turn? Well we cannot really imagine the Christian movement without him, don’t we? He himself wrote that he saw the risen Christ and heard Christ appoint him to be one of His followers. So the question is why would Saul the highly educated Pharisee and Christian persecutor changed his name to Paul and joined the Christian movement? The answer is the resurrection of Christ.”
“The third evidence that comes to my mind is the Sunday worship. Tell me why would the Jews change the day of the worship from Saturday to Sunday. We know the early Christians were Jews who were fanatical observer of the Sabbath. The Jews feared breaking the Sabbath. Yet something happened which made these committed Jewish men and women to turn their backs- The Resurrection of Christ. I know of no other historical event which is celebrated 52 times a year…” “I have never thought about these things…” he murmured nervously. “You should have.” I told him.
“Few years ago I was also in the same situation as yours.” I decided to tell him a little about my life. “I was one of those hapless teenagers who struggled with much on the inside but did not know where to turn for answers. For that matter, I did not know if answers to my deepest hungers ever existed. No one who knew me would have ever suspected the depths of emptiness within me. Putting it plainly, life to me just did not make sense. I doubted all that was in the Bible. I doubted the existence of God. Then I started to search. And thank God, I searched in the right places. I have studied a lot of things. I have questioned a lot of things. I have read a lot of books. My conclusion is that the God of the Bible is the only true God and that Jesus of Nazareth is what He claimed to be. He is the Son of God who came down to earth. He was crucified on a Cross. He was resurrected on the third day. And He is coming again. Committing my life to Christ was the most sensible and the best thing that ever happened to my life. I came to Him because I did not know which way to turn. I will remain with Him because there is no other way I wish to turn. I came to Him longing for something I did not have but now I have something I will not trade. I came to Him unsure of the future and now I remain with Him certain of my destiny….”
We were both moved by my words. We prayed together asking for His grace to touch our minds and souls. We exchanged our address and phone numbers. The day that followed I sent him two best selling books The Resurrection Factor by Josh Mc Dowell and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. We talked frequently over the phone. This morning as I was dressing up for College I received a call from him. It was a long time since I had heard from him. “Brother. I have an important thing to tell you.” He sounded very sincere. “What happened?” I asked. “Last night I came across in the newspapers that scientists have discovered the bones of Jesus” I was not surprised. “That’s all rubbish” I told him. “Scientists are not rubbish” he countered me back. “Can we discuss this?” he asked me. “Sure” I replied, “How about this afternoon?” He was most willing. I put down the receiver and put another book in my bag. There are many people for whom the way to their heart is through their mind. And I am glad God has filled many such people in the world.
