“1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
Interesting that according to this account, it wasn’t merely Doubting Thomas who had some trouble accepting that Jesus had been resurrected. The Book of Acts claims he stayed with the apostles for 40 days and gave them “many convincing proofs that he was alive.” Why would they need “many convincing proofs” if they were willing to believe from the start? They knew Jesus, and yet, according to this account, it took quite a lot of convincing for them to believe in Jesus’ resurrection even though he was standing right there in front of them.
The fundamentalists claim the Bible is literally true and inerrant, so they can’t very well dismiss this account. Yet they claim we have to believe Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected or we’ll be punished. They tell us we simply have to take it on faith. But The Book of Acts tells us not even the apostles were willing to take it on faith. And Paul didn’t believe it either until he had his own vision of Jesus.
I’m not trying to attack anyone’s faith here. Belief in Jesus is fine with me. I’m casting aspersions at fundamentalists who insist that their assertions must be accepted by everybody. I think faith, or the lack thereof is a deeply personal thing. I don’t think it’s at all strange that humans would have a variety of beliefs, and I don’t think this is a problem so long as we’re willing to live and let live.
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