Editor, Manteca Bulletin

As Sunday draws near and perhaps billions of people around the world celebrate Easter, I wonder what people think if faith isn’t part of their life. I’m not the smartest guy around, but I do notice things that make me think deeply – and I cannot help but notice things that make sense align with faith and acknowledge Someone outside of ourselves in life, itself. I love the freedoms our country exists to provide and protect … and many of us are unified and diversified in many churches following Jesus Christ. Within the context of freedom comes leadership outside of Manteca forming a “freethinkers and atheists” group. Everyone has a right to believe what they want to think. For me I think it takes more faith NOT to believe in God than it does TO believe in God. If I were to discount the possibility of there being a God, I think I’d choose the title agnostic instead of atheist, because it seems wiser to say “I don’t know if God exists” instead of “there is no god.”  

My convictions on theory come from within, first, in what the Bible calls the image of God from which all humanity is created. I sense within wonders in life that do not make sense if all of life was random. I notice things like love, emotion and morality that could not have evolved randomly, along with everything else, if I were taught to believe that. History that dates itself on a person 2000 years ago is supported by history that goes further back than that, and if you want to avoid quoting the Bible, I believe you can support every principle within the Bible to words and lives of people throughout history.

The resurrection was recently debated among the freethinkers and atheists. Regarding the resurrection, consider this evidence:  Something that glaringly stands out proving the reality of the resurrection is the historical fact of lives changed ONLY after the resurrection. Men and women who scattered when Jesus was arrested and crucified were radically changed AFTER he resurrected. Disciples and followers of Christ turned on a dime, after He rose from the dead. Many died martyr deaths. Who would die for a lie? Judas committed suicide because he knew he had lied. But the remaining group of early believers who took flight on Friday did an “about face” after Sunday morning. Then, most of them led lives to their death not by committing suicide, but by being unable to recant their faith due to the resurrection. If you want to set aside the Bible to quote, fine. I believe you could shred the Bible and provide evidence of every apostle’s existence, change of life and testimony from literature from that era – all influenced by the resurrection.

My main point is this … the resurrection of a person celebrated on Easter is the only reason we have Christianity today. The claim that the resurrection is absurd is dishonest. Dishonest. Without the resurrection, every disciple 2,000 years ago would have called themselves freethinkers – and people wouldn’t be trying to form new clubs in Manteca.  

Jim Todd

Pastor of Outreach

Crossroads Grace 

Community Church