Why do we believe what we believe?
“1Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
There are a lot of people who say they do not believe in anything; they take each day as it comes, and they have no hope for anything. Simply waiting to take everything and anything that life throws on their way. And again, there are a lot of people who believe different things, we live in a country where you are free to exercise your religion. Well, I believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe in God the father, the creator of heaven and earth, the son, born out of the virgin to save those who cannot save themselves and the Holy Spirit who is a paraclete of my salvation, helping me in my Christian journey. I believe in the holy trinity.
Why do we Christians believe the gospel message?
We believe it because it is found in Scriptures, which are an intrinsic part of our faith. But how does that prove anything? How do we use the bible to support the bible? The first answer from a typical Christian is that it is the word of God, but we might want to show how come we trust it. I have met students on campus during walk-up evangelism who believe in ancestors or have other varying faiths. only because that is what they grew up being taught to believe they never examined or questioned the object of their faith or their faith. They were never encouraged to do so and the opposite being their truth, they blindly approach religion.
I love it when they ask me why I believe in the bible and what it says. Some ask as a test to see if I know or understand what I believe in, or just to push back in a conversation. I believe the bible because it has said, in the beginning, there was God, he created everything, I see the everything that it talks about; It says he created nature, when I wake up in the morning I can glance at the wonder of creation. The bible says God created men, male and female he created them, I see the two in the world. The bible says God created the sun, the moon, and stars, I see them! The bible says because of sin, death came into the world, I see people dying, I can see what it says is there. Now when it talks about things unseen, the future with Jesus to those who believe, when it talks about judgement and eternal punishment, when it talks about heaven and hell, I have no reasons not to believe it because of its proven historical record.
The bible holds history and historical figures that you can dig and read about in history, it talks about prophets of old, men who walked with God and prophesied of the messiah to come, he came as per their prophecies, they did not even see him but what they prophesied about him happened, that he was going to be born of a virgin and that he was going to die a sinners death to save sinners. Some parts of the bible were written by those who were with Jesus, like a friend would about a person that they spent time with.
Why do we believe the bible, the bible is compelling, more so if you are going to take time and examine the obvious evidence for it. The bible has the gospel message that we hold onto and preach as we see when reading the 15th chapter of Corinthians.
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have [c]fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).
This is our belief and hope in Christ, without his resurrection from the dead, our message is pointless, and we have absolutely no hope. This message we got from the scriptures, and it is the one we preach.
