A prayer by a Scottish preacher applies to Americans, too – "O Lord, may we always be right, for Thou knowest we will never change our minds." That prayer reminds us there can be a Grand- Canyon-sized difference between what people believe is right and what really is right. As late U. S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." The human tendency to equate opinion with fact is not a new one. The apostle Thomas missed out on a post- resurrection appearance by Jesus to the other disciples. That appearance, and a subsequent one a week later when Thomas was present, is recorded in John 20:19ff. At one point Thomas tells the other apostles, after they had related Christ’s appearance to him, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and put my hands into His side, I will not believe." Fair or not, these statements have caused the moniker "Doubting Thomas" to stick to him like velcro. To be fair to Thomas, the next week he did feel those prints with his hands – at Jesus’ own invitation – and having done so, acknowledged Jesus in verse 28 as "my Lord and my God!" The difference in Thomas and many people in today’s relativistic, truth-o-phobic, Bible-o-phobic culture, is that he was willing to change his mind based on fact.
Thomas reminds us the resurrection proves difficult for many people to accept. Not that there is no proof or evidence. The New Testament is filled with the first hand testimony of eye-witnesses who declared they saw Him after He was dead and buried. The apostle Paul points to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the king-pin upon which the whole of Christianity hangs. In 1 Corinthians 15:3ff he says these three events were "delivered to you first of all" or "as of first importance." In this passage Paul points first to Peter (v 5a), then the twelve (v 5b), then to over five hundred brethren who saw Jesus "at once"(vs 6), then again by James and all the apostles (vs 7), and last of all to himself. That adds up to hundreds of first-hand, on-the-scene, eye-witnesses claiming Christ was raised from the dead! No wonder then, later (at vs 12) the apostle thunders, "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Whether they were doubting Christ was raised or doubting the resurrection in general is of little matter to Paul – he is challenging readers to understand that simply saying, "I don’t believe in the resurrection" does not change the facts. To deny Jesus’ resurrection or that we will all be raised is a choice anyone is free to make, but not without dismissing piles of testimony to the contrary!
In the thought-provoking song "These Things Did Thomas Count As Real" (1984), Thomas H. Troeger said about our ancient brother "Doubting" Thomas – "The vision of his skeptic mind Was keen enough to make him blind To any unexpected act Too large for his small world of fact. His reasoned certainties denied That one could live when one had died, Until his fingers read like Braille The markings of the spear and nails" (verses 2, 3). The resurrection of Jesus (and our future resurrection) was indeed a large, unexpected act! But whether it is true or false does not depend on what goes on in the small world of fact (opinion) between our ears. We must follow where the evidence leads. You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Somebody is right about all this stuff, and somebody is wrong. We know what the Bible says, we know what a skeptical world says, and we know what the evidence says. Now, what do you say?
by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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