What if Christianity is False?

Easter this year falls on, you guessed it, April Fools Day.  So what if Christianity is false? What if when you die you get a cosmic FOOLED YOU!  Can you know for certain your eternal destiny? To put it bluntly, is Jesus God or Have You Been FOOLed?    Whether you’re on a quest for truth or have nagging doubts about your faith, this 5-week series asks the bedrock bottom questions of faith and reason that demand real answers.

1 APRIL 1 DID CHRIST RISE FROM THE DEAD?  

2 APRIL 8 IS THERE REALLY A GOD?

3 APRIL 15 IS THE BIBLE GOD’S WORD?

4 APRIL 22 WHY DO THE INNOCENT SUFFER?

5 APRIL 29 DO SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE AGREE?

EASTER SUNDAY: DID CHRIST RISE FROM THE DEAD?  

No one wants to be seen as a fool. A nice word for that is gullible. Did you know if you say gullible really slow it sounds like the word orange? Fell for that one before? The reality is at some time or another we've been tricked, or lied to, or took someone else's word for it, or just acted in ignorance and it turned into a very expensive life lesson. My first lesson like that for me was in my early adult years in Atlanta, Georgia. I was looking for a job in the Jobs section of the paper and replied to a job that went something like this:

MANAGERS WANTED
Looking for bright, young talent with people skills.
Will train in all levels of business. In 6 months
you can be a manager making 6 figures. No
experience necessary. Positions are limited.
Apply today.

Well, I jumped on that opportunity! I showed up in my white shirt, tie, and cleanly pressed dockers ready to make an impression. The interview process started with me in a room with 50 people. After a 15 minute introduction to the company, they divided the room in half and sent the other 25 to another room to finish the orientation/training. Later in the day they told us they were only going to accept 25 people and I was in the group they selected! Come back tomorrow for your first day on the job. The next day I arrived and I was put in a car with 4 other people and we drove to a suburb outside Atlanta. I was given a box of colognes and perfumes (knockoff versions of the designer brands) and told to go business to business and sell. This was learning the business from the ground up! Well, after 4 hours of peddling cheap perfumes I returned home and never went back. I had wasted two days of my life. I felt so gullible and misled but I did learn a valuable lesson.

But what if the stakes are higher? What if you get it wrong there's no lesson learned, no second chance? What if you spend your whole life believing a lie? What if it means the difference between an eternity with God in Heaven or separated from Him in Hell? The Apostle Paul said you just have to ask one simple yes or no answer question to get to the core, central claim of Christianity. This question reduces the reality and truthfulness of the Gospel and person of Jesus Christ to validating or discrediting one historical claim: Did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? Paul said if he wasn't resurrected nothing else he said or did matters. But if he did, everything he said and did is all that matters.

So did Jesus Christ defeat death and is alive today? Easter Sunday we will address this question by looking at the evidence and considering some of the most popular alternative explanations. No one wants fooled. We want to know the truth. Is the person of Jesus Christ and his claims to Godness the biggest April Fools joke in the history of mankind or is he the greatest God who became a man that ever lived and lives today?