Why an Ancient Faith Could Be Relevant in a Modern World

Who am I?

I am a product.

I am a result. A single instance of the infinite possibilities that contributed to my being here at this time, in this place, with these opportunities, and these obstacles.

And so are you.

We are products of the modern world. We have been mixed, stirred, shaped, molded, wrapped and delivered by it.

I’m a product of the combined influences of the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Protestant work-ethic, modern science, the American Revolution, European immigration, American-style independence, the American Civil War, and two World Wars, the sexual revolution of the 60s, the atomic age, the space age, the digital revolution, entertainment media, modern advertising, and the internet. And every keystroke I’m typing is being recorded in “the cloud.”

Who am I?

I’m a product of all this, someone who drives home from his keyboard, pixel and data-oriented job in his internal combustion-powered vehicle, sending and receiving data via invisible waves, and who once in a while, like one day last week, wonders…

Is Christianity relevant?

Do you ever wonder? Do you ever doubt?

All this talk about repenting and believing the good news of the Kingdom…

Is Christianity — the teaching by and about Jesus — just one more minor ingredient in the cocktail that created the modern me? An ingredient, the addition or withdrawal of which is of little or no consequence?

It depends…

…on one thing.

Is Jesus risen?

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” — 1 Corinthians 15:14

If Not

If Easter is a fake, then faith in Jesus, in fact in any God at all, is just so much data that should be deleted, and the Apostle Paul advises us, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” — 1 Corinthians 15:32