By Dan Jones
This past Saturday at 11:00 a.m. on Kinship Christian Radio, the topic on “Up for Debate with Julie Roys” was whether Christians should abandon apologetics.
On Sunday, I heard Pastor Maurice Staley preach on Ol’ Doubting Thomas.
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25 (NIV)
I mean, here’s Thomas, in the presence of all the other disciples, flatly stating he is NOT going to believe it unless he sees it.
These are people he’s spent three years with, wandering around from village to village –seeing Jesus perform miracles and listening to all He has said.
Those telling him this news are people he has sat down and eaten with time and time again. These are people he has every reason to know and to trust.
But nope.
Ol’ Doubting Thomas is going to be stubborn and adamant and dig his heals in because, well, all these other people, all these other witnesses, just can’t be right.
Right?
And, as I read that statement made by Thomas, it occurs to me things really haven’t changed much at all in 2,000 years.
Those who still refuse to believe still demand physical proof that they can see and touch or they will stubbornly refuse to believe.
Please note here that “refuse” is an active verb.
Refusing to believe requires a conscious effort to maintain one’s disbelief.
In the case of Jesus Christ, refusing to believe requires one to consciously ignore the witness of 2.2 billion Christians. Nearly one-third of all living human beings on the planet profess belief in Jesus Christ. Kind of sounds like a “great cloud” of witnesses, doesn’t it?
Refusing to believe requires one to ignore that the life and death of Jesus Christ has had more impact on the world than any other event in all the world’s history.
As Y-Jesus.com points out, more books have been written about Jesus Christ than any other subject in all of history.
His teachings have influenced the very underpinnings of modern democracy.
His Sermon on the Mount utterly changed the world’s concepts of ethics and morals.
Colleges, universities, hospitals, great institutions of learning and philanthropy and human compassion beyond number have been founded, funded, and maintained for centuries by His followers.
His teachings on women utterly changed society, elevating them in stature and worth more so than in any other belief system.
The abolition of slavery, an institution which existed for millennium, can be directly traced to His teachings and the efforts of many who valiantly championed the cause of freedom in His name.
As referenced by christnow.com in a posting entitled “12 Ways Jesus Changed the World,” His teachings elevated the rights and worth of the individual in society when for thousands of years, common people were considered less than human.
The role of the assemblage of His people (the church) was forever altered and changes in the role of the church in society transformed human culture forever.
Education owes a great deal to Jesus Christ in that most of the great literature of Greece and Rome would have been lost, had not monks preserved it through the middle ages. It was the desire to make the words of Jesus Christ available to the common man that lead to the development of the printing press. The Gutenberg Bible is widely seen as the most significant event in the past 500 years because it made truth and knowledge available to the masses. The current information age owes its beginnings to the Gutenberg Bible.
Even the free enterprise system, which lead to the demise of the feudal system and its pervasive poverty, owes it origins to the Protestant work ethic and the teachings of Jesus Christ applied to economics.
Modern science also owes its origins to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The great scientists of the past were set upon discovering and documenting God’s glory as revealed in His creation. The knowledge gained in doing so has elevated virtually every aspect of human life on earth.
For many, many centuries the subject of the most glorious and highest forms of both art and music had their expression in the worship and glorification of Jesus Christ and God the Father.
And the bottom line of all of this is the love of Jesus Christ. His love for us expressed on that cross has changed the hearts, minds, souls, and lives of literally billions of people. Countless scores have laid down their lives understanding that,
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)
So, you see, we can no more abandon talking about how Jesus Christ has changed the world than Ole Doubting Thomas could help from proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” when the LORD Jesus was standing right in front of him with those holes in His hands and His side.
He’s right in front of us saying, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27 NIV)
Today’s Praise
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 (ESV)