Description Few people have been more sincere than I in trying-- without success--to find meaning, truth, and purpose in life.
At the university I noticed a small group of people--eight students and two faculty members--who seemed different.
They seemed to know what they believed and why.
I wanted what I saw.
Two weeks later, while I was sitting with some of them in the student union, the conversation turned to God.
That bothered me, because I thought it was not intellectual.
And yet I was curious.
Leaning back in my chair, I said to one of the students, Tell me, what has made you so different from others? She looked me in the eye with a little smile and said, Jesus Christ My response revealed my bias and my ignorance.
Oh, for heaven's sake, I said.
Don't give me that garbage about religion She replied, I didn't say 'religion.
' I said 'Jesus Christ.
' My new friends challenged me to examine the claims of Christ.
I thought most Christians were idiots.
But these people were persistent.
Finally, I accepted their challenge, but I did so out of pride, to refute them.
One of the claims I researched was Christ's resurrection.
And after more than one thousand hours of study, I concluded that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was either one of the most vicious hoaxes ever foisted upon human minds or the most fantastic fact of history.
Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet, claimed to be the Christ prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures.
He was arrested, judged a political criminal, and crucified.
Three days after his death and burial, some women went to his tomb and found his body gone.
His disciples claimed that God had raised him from the dead and that he had appeared to them and to many others at various times before ascending into heaven.
In my attempt to refute Christianity, I made some startling observations.
Until then, I'd had no idea there was so much historical, literary, and legal testimony supporting the factuality of Christ's resurrection.
But the more I inv.
Good News Publishers In search of truth (pack of 25), paperback/crossway bibles
