You are a theologian.
You have an opinion of God that you believe, and you live by your beliefs.
Even atheists are theologians. They may not believe in God, which is their choice, but they have to wrestle with the facts of history. History includes Jesus of Nazareth.
What you believe about Jesus of Nazareth plays into your personal theology. Bible-believing Christians believe that Jesus is God, born of a virgin as 100% man, but also somehow 100% God.
We all have to wrestle with the facts of history—atheist theologians especially have to grapple with Jesus of Nazareth and Christians’ claims.
Former atheist Lee Strobel interviewed Hugh Hefner, who said, “If one had any real evidence that, indeed, Jesus did return from the dead, then that is the beginning of a dropping of a series of dominoes that takes us to all kinds of wonderful things. It assures an afterlife and all kinds of things that we would all hope are true.”
He gets it.
Here are the facts Strobel presents in A Case For the Resurrection, many of which are from our 1 Corinthians 15 text:
Fact #1—Christ died by crucifixion.
Fact #2—Jesus’ disciples believed he rose.
Fact #3—Paul convert to Christianity after killing Christians.
Fact #4—James the skeptic brother of Jesus was converted.
Fact #5—Jesus tomb is empty
So, even secular theologians who have created their own “no-God” theology have to do something with these facts, all of which have been verified by the vast majority of credible secular historians. They have their answers, but they don’t compare to the Bible’s answers.
Jesus came as a human baby to live and die for our sin, and his resurrection was the victorious triumph over sin and death. Those of us who believe that have a sure hope of victory in and through him.
I’m still trying to figure out what’s so hard to believe about that!
Merry Christmas. –Pastor Ryan