Why Should I Believe in Jesus?
Why Should I Believe in Jesus?
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Short Answer Version There are many good reasons to believe. We will look at them in several general categories of “Why” that apply to this question. They include Benefits Offered, Needs Met, Evidence Provided, Positive Outcomes, and other similar topics. After reading about them below, if you wish to delve deeper, you will find a large number of menu items at the bottom of this page. There are so many good reasons and answers to why you should believe in Jesus, that they are impossible to count. But they are possible to experience with just a little faith. Long Answer Version First Category: Benefit Offered. The reasons to believe in Jesus start with these: -His promises to believers The benefits of salvation also include many other blessings, like lifelong help from God, and royalty as a child of the most royal King. You will have an improved sense of identity and belonging that will lift your spirits. New and great value is placed on you. You become a partaker of God's nature so to speak. When you spend time with Him, His nature rubs off on you somewhat. Innumerable believers have attributed their high level of success to Him. You are given availability to peace that passes all understanding. You are given a future and a hope. There is an immense sense of freedom that comes. I could list a hundred more benefits, but I'll confine it to these: You are set free from sin and emotional bondage. Your past sins are cleansed off of you, and your future sins are paid for. You can feel cleansed from present sins as well by confessing them to God, when you realize they have occurred, and turning back to Him. Perhaps the most powerful reasons for believing are that He always loves you for who you are, and also sees your potential to grow more into your better self. He provides spiritual power for you to overcome temptation, side with Him in spiritual light against the influences of spiritual darkness, turn away from harmful thinking patterns, experience fredom spiritually and emotionally, and be healed of past hurts. Perhaps the most powerful reasons for believing are that He always loves you for who you are, and also sees your potential to grow more into your better self. I believe God is not limited to time, seeing that He created it. Therefore, He can see The Future You right now. He sees you living in the realization of your great potential during this lifetime, and shining with even greater potential eternally in His kingdom. I have heard many people tell about miraculous things that Jesus did in their lives. If I were to name the large number of wonderful things He has done so far in my life, it would bewilder you. I realize it is intriguing to hear the juicy details of such a claim, but I would prefer to keep your mind on the main point. It is that YOU can experience many positive and miraculous experiences in your own life when you believe in Jesus and put your trust in Him. You will not experience them all in the beginning, but with time you will look back on your life and see He was there all along doing incredible things for you, starting with one of the greatest miracles of all: you becoming born again from His Spirit. You get a new nature growing within you, kind of like a seed. It is full of joy, love, and peace. You can tap into all these things by seeking to be close to God, trusting Him, and living in His ways. The popularity of self-improvement books, seminars, websites and videos indicate people, even those who are "comfortable in their own skin", want to become better. Believing in Jesus is the best way possible to improve yourself. He can help you change your life for the positive in a better and more powerful way than any human teacher can. One thing to remember is that God gives spiritual tools to those who believe in Jesus. So after you choose to believe in Him, use your tools! If you don't use them, they won't help you. You can grow in the use of those tools, including faith, believing prayer, trust in God, teaming up with His Holy Spirit in you, and operating with confidence and authority to use your God-given talents and giftings. The Bible itself is a powerful spiritual tool, and is full of insight on how to use specific tools God gives. There are many other benefits of becoming saved that I could list, but it is better for you to experience them yourself. He is calling you in a gentle way to come to Him and be saved. Second Category: Needs Met I have found that the various sources of evidence for Jesus, as convincing as they are, have not been as impressive as the many ways He proved Himself to me personally. He met my needs, and not only when I first believed. As new needs arose, He met those too, and I can say that in His timing He fulfilled my true needs above and beyond anything I could have expected before I first believed. After you are in a strong relationship with Him, I would be surprised if He does not prove Himself to your heart over and over. There is no greater evidence for Jesus than when He makes Himself real to you. It is undeniable. Even though every believer experiences God's presence and His evidence differently, we all have the same promises from scripture to tap into. Pray that God will reveal the answers to His promises of relationship with Him. The many accounts of answered prayer in the name of Jesus are prevalent wherever He is believed in to meet needs. Many thousands of incidents considered miraculous have taken place and associated with Jesus. I have been the recipient of too many to count. The list of need-meeting evidence of Jesus continues to increase every day. What are your needs today? Are you aware of what they truly are? Start asking God to meet your true needs now. Once you are saved, watch Him work on your behalf to meet those needs and more that you never realized. You may not see it happen immediately, but you will see it happen when you find you no longer have needs you once had. Use wisdom when praying for God to meet your needs. Refrain from stipulating how your needs must be met. For example, if your need is loneliness, pray for healing of loneliness, not a hot date. When I was a single and lonely man, I had to be healed of the related depression and strong impulses to try prematurely to solve my own problems, rather than depend on God. I knew, I would not be a good match for any woman in my current state. I decided to go to a special place once a week, spending an hour praying for my future spouse. I prayed that God would prepare her for me and prepare me for her. I did this faithfully for about a year. When the day arrived that she was ready for me and I was ready for her, God brought her into my life in a miraculous way. She turned out to be the hottest date I could imagine! We have been happily married for decades and have risen two wonderful daughters. Over the course of time a person's needs change with the season. God provided for my needs in many incredible ways in each season, whether it was an easy or difficult season to make my way through. Financially, He blessed me beyond my expectations time and again. Positive outcomes are the result of our good God meeting needs. We might not have realized it when we had a particular need, but a positive outcome by God reveals what the true need was. Should you become a lifelong believer, you will look back on many God-given positive outcomes. You will see He was good at meeting the desires you thought were needs, but also the needs that He knew were the true, deep needs.
Third Category: Evidence Provided If you are hesitant to experience the evidence found in relationship with God, consider the next best thing, finding the perspective of good Christians as to the benefits they have experienced from their relationships to Him. No human alive on earth today is perfect. However, some are better representatives of Christianity than others. I have known several non-Christians who attended churches, Bible studies, and home worship groups, for the purpose of learning about Jesus and observing the people who love Him. I knew one, who came for a year before accepting Jesus into his heart. But he kept coming back because of the people and "that something different" about them. Many times I have heard of a person saying to a believer, "I want what you have." But this only comes from getting to know believers. You might have heard the expression that something is "better caught than taught". That is definitely true about knowing Jesus and seeing His Holy Spirit alive in people you know. Look for people like that, without expecting them to be non-sinners, non-hypocritical, or non-judgmental. Expect them to be fallible human beings that care a lot about Jesus. Be forgiving with them if it seems they are ever being difficult. See what happens. Believers in Jesus, might be able to tell you first-hand accounts of miracles God has performed in their lives. Ask them. Perhaps the events might prove credible. I have met hundreds who have told me their personal stories involving God working in mercy and love to do what is considered impossible by many people. These incidents are treasured memories to those who received or witnessed them.
Overwhelming External Evidence There is more evidence from external sources for why you should believe in Jesus than any of us could absorb in a lifetime. Some of them are so well known and easily taken for granted, that people don't grasp the evidence-value they hold. To start, you are probably aware that He is such a significant figure in history that our calendar starts with Him. That should give us a clue as to His positive impact on the world. Starting with only 12 believers, now more than 2.7 billion people consider themselves followers of Jesus as He is depicted in the Bible. Jesus currently has more followers than any other human being has ever had, by far. If you believe God does not exist, you might want to consider how far in the minority you are. About 79% of the world's population believe in a Most High God and claim to follow his ways. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations I have met a large number of people who are shocked to hear that the vast majority of people believe God exists. Why are they shocked? Because throughout their lives, they have been exposed mostly to people who are unbelievers or are negative about the God they imagine might exist. Those who identify as athiests, believing God does not exist, are in an extremely small minority. 99.7% of people living outside China or Russia believe in God or have not shut the door to believing. About 3% of the world's population are atheists. Of that 89% live in China or Russia. That amounts to 2.68% of the earth's population. In Russia, only 13% of the 36 million people are athiests. In China, the percentage not believing in a religion is 67%. That leaves up to 462.6 million possible believers in China. By simple subtraction it leaves about 0.32% of the the world's population other than in China and Russia self-identified as athiests. All of these statistics indicate a relatively infinitesimal percentage of athiests in the world. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism (Wikipedia's statistics appear well-documented as of the date posted.) Similarly, very few people outside China and Russia, can be counted as agnostics. An agnostic is a person who holds that it is unknown whether God exists, at least to them personally. Although agnosticism is a well-known stance, there are so few agnostics in the world, that a trustworthy record of their numbers does not exist. Ironically, the few that do exist seem to have a very large voice, especially in certain influential circles. I have experienced an elevated presence of agnosticism among professors in secular universities, their students, and influencers in secular media industries. When small groups like this have wide-scale influence, it seems they are not so small. Of course, a truth is not determined by how many people believe it. However, the facts indicate belief in the Most High God is by far, the most prevalent of intelligent choices. It indicates most people find belief in God credible. Another compelling, yet widely overlooked piece of evidence is this: The book that tells Jesus' life story is the book that has sold the most copies of all time, namely the Holy Bible. This should indicate that many people read it and give it great value. The Bible demonstrates God's existence thousands of times in various ways. It portrays the life of Jesus from many human witnesses. It tells His habits, His unique oratory acumen, His sense of humor, His sarcasm against deceptive evil-doers, His friendship, His empathy, His compassionate emotions (crying, lamenting, healing the lepers), and many other intimate and intricate personal details. Nearly everything we see that indicates a strong anti-Jesus sentiment in modern western culture, is ironically evidence of Jesus. Why? Because if Jesus wasn't real, nobody would be so militantly trying to discredit and disrespect Him! If Jesus wasn't real, there would be no Easter Bunny to subtly obscure the real meaning of Easter, or Santa Claus to rob Christmas of its main character. All Saints Day would not be superceded in our culture by Halloween as a holiday. The Evidence of Impact on Other Religions Several major world religions made a place for Jesus in their set of beliefs after Christianity became popular. It is not necessarily the Jesus portrayed in the Bible, but it indicates Jesus had an impact. Hinduism became inclusive of Jesus by changing His theological persona to fit with existing Hindu theology and religion. Hindus accept Jesus as a real being, who existed on earth as an avatar of divine origin and meaning. They have great respect for Jesus in this context, though it is obviously far from the biblical Christian way of thinking. Islam depicts Jesus as their coming messiah and a great prophet. Again, it is not the Jesus of the biblical Trinity, but a lesser Jesus contrived humanly, just as the Quran's stories of His birth were creatively altered from the original accounts. However, Islam recognizes Jesus was born of a virgin, performed miracles, had twelve disciples, and was raised into heaven. Perhaps Mohammed had a great respect for Jesus and understood a form of Christianity, but wanted to create a religion for his special culture. To me it is sad Mohammed left out the very center of the good news that Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and give eternal life to each person who believes in Him as their personal Savior. I point out the differences not to engender strife, but to underline the impact of Jesus on the world, even on the second and third largest religious groups. Let's take a quick detour, and return momentarily to show mathematically, how the majority of people on earth, believe Jesus exists. I am not naive to the negative aspects, in which satan can manipulate counterfeit teachings, to lead people away from the truth, and can even stir up jihadists to persecute Christians in mass numbers. However, not enough Christians see the future positives, in which God may have moved in other religions, to include some endearing aspects about Jesus. It is not out-of-the-question, when I look at this as potentially God, providing an opportunity to impact the adherents of these religions, bringing them closer to openness about a truer understanding of our Savior. However, not enough Christians see the positives, in which God may have moved in other religions, to include some endearing aspects about Jesus. It is not out-of-the-question, when I look at this as potentially, God providing an opportunity to impact the adherents of these religions, bringing them closer to openness, about a truer understanding of our Savior. If we add to our previously stated numerical population evidence, the inclusion of people with a positive view of Jesus in other religions, we could add 3.2 billion to the 2.4 billion I mentioned for Jesus followers, summing to 5.6 billion. In other words, that is a lot of people who believe that Jesus exists. It is the majority of people on earth. Would a person be blind not to admit that Jesus has made a big splash in history and world culture?
I must show some respect to the major world religions, knowing that some of the ways of including Jesus involved sincerity for different mindsets to embrace Jesus as they saw Him fitting with their cultures. Of course, they were remiss in stripping out the central and crucial messages of salvation by faith in Jesus, His atoning work on the cross, and His resurrection. Evidence in Historical Documentation of the Existence of Jesus Much history-related evidence points to the reality of Jesus. An example of an historical proof is that of Flavius Josephus, the non-believing historian of the first century. The part most considered to validate the historicity of Jesus is when he wrote: "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified;" - Josephus Antiquities 20.9.1 This was written about James the brother of Jesus on His mother's side. James wrote the book of James in the New Testament. This passage is the earliest non-Christian historical documentation of Jesus "called Christ" appearing authentic to scholars. It is considered to have been written in 93-94 AD. Josephus also recorded other accounts coinciding with the New Testament. For example, here is his account of King Herod and John the Baptist, both contemporaries of Jesus and New Testament figures: "Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God as a just punishment of what Herod had done against John, who was called the Baptist. For Herod had killed this good man, who had commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, righteousness towards one another and piety towards God. For only thus, in John's opinion, would the baptism he administered be acceptable to God, namely, if they used it to obtain not pardon for some sins but rather the cleansing of their bodies, inasmuch as it was taken for granted that their souls had already been purified by justice. Now many people came in crowds to him, for they were greatly moved by his words. Herod, who feared that the great influence John had over the masses might put them into his power and enable him to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise), thought it best to put him to death. In this way, he might prevent any mischief John might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly John was sent as a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Machaerus, the castle I already mentioned, and was put to death. Now the Jews thought that the destruction of his army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure with him." - Josephus Antiquities 18.116-119 These accounts by Josephus correlate historically with Bible passages. Josephus added insight about the political aspects and Herod's suspicious temper. These additions, are from Josephus's own interpretation of the occurences. They may have been true, while not not reflecting the biblical insight about John's imprisonment and death. However, they support the New Testament accounts that John the Baptist was truly an historical figure, a preacher of righteousness, imprisoned, and put to death in the time frame biblically depicted. Original disciples of Jesus were still alive at the time Josephus wrote. Personally, I am sure New Testament writers like Luke, an historian himself and a doctor, are just as credible, and wrote their history earlier than Josephus. Mathew, Mark, and John wrote first hand accounts. Bible writers James and Jude are traditionally considered the half-brothers of Jesus because Jesus was born by a virgin impregnated miraculously by God, the Holy Spirit. Josephus was the earliest and most respected non-Christian historian validating the presence of Jesus, his followers, and his influence on earth. More historians, archeologists, and scholars later added creedence to the historicity of Jesus. The Evidence of Apologetics Since the time of Jesus until now, much has been learned and written showing evidence and persuasive cases for becoming a born again Christian by believing in Jesus as your Savior. In fact, a whole genre of writing is devoted to it, and is called "Christian apologetics". It has no relation to our word "apology" in modern terms. "Apology", in ancient times, meant a case to support a fact. For example, a lawyer's case on behalf of his client was called an apology. If you do a search for "Christian Apologetics" in your favorite book-sales website, you should find many to choose from of the popular variety, and a number that border on scholarly apologetics. More serious scholarly books are found in the libraries and bookstores of Christian theological seminaries and universities. In books on apologetics, you will find a seemingly endless array of evidence and persuasive ideas leading an engaged reader toward acceptance of Jesus. What Are Not Good Reasons for Believing ? So many good reasons exist to believe in Jesus. We can focus on all of them. In fact, that is what I am hoping people will try to do. Even though there are less than good reasons to believe in Jesus, sometimes God's grace can cut through to show us that even though a decision to believe might seem foolish or negative, it wasn't all bad if it worked! For instance, my most immediate reason for believing in Jesus, was so that I could play guitar when the Christian band took a break. It was at Corona Del Mar beach in Southern California. I was in my own band at sixteen years old, named Pegasus, and the band members had been invited to go to a concert at the beach. The band we saw was named Agape, an evangelistic Christian hard rock group. When they took a break, I had an idea. Talking to my band members, I told them I could ask the band's manager if we could jam during the intermission if they were interested. They agreed. Some other people were listening on the beach as we talked. One was a singer we'd never met, and he volunteered as well. So I approached the manager, and asked if we could jam with the group's instruments. He asked me if I had asked Jesus into my heart. At that split second, I said Yes! Simultaneously I was asking Jesus into my heart. Were my motives pure? Three days before, I had attended a young person's ''Christian Party'' at a home near the park I frequented. When I entered, there were perhaps twenty five young people sitting around chatting, mostly about Jesus. The place had a sweet feeling in the air. The lady who lived there asked me, ''Have you received Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior? The room quieted. I responded with something like, ''I didn't know I could do that''. Then people started telling me about Jesus. I felt like the focal point of their activities for the rest of the night, and some of it was quite unpleasant as people started arguing with me. As the party came to a close, one of the young men asked if I needed a ride home. I was thankful because I had walked there. We got in his Volkswagen Beetle and drove the two miles to my place. Before I got out, he handed me a small pamphlet and asked me to read it. I thanked him for the ride, went inside and read the pamphlet. It was called ''This Was Your Life.'' It was quite gripping, and at the end it quoted Jesus saying, ''Behold I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.'' At that moment, I felt Jesus as an intense energy beaming into my chest, as if to say ''I am at the door of your heart. Will you let me in? It was a little scary. For selfish reasons, I ignored it and went to bed. So three days later at the beach, it felt like I was being asked the same question that had recently been asked twice before. This time I said yes, and I meant it, but my decision was in the split second when I had time to respond. The manager asked me to make sure we sing about Jesus. So my group, along with the volunteer vocalist, took the instruments and played extemporaneously for about fifteen minutes, singing about Jesus. Then the band was done with their break. They came back and played their next set. At the end, their manager got up and gave an exhilarated message about accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior. He then asked everyone to bow their heads and pray as he led us through the prayer to become saved. This time, I took my time and sincerely asked Jesus into my heart for good. I saw a short vision of the face of Jesus as I did. When the prayer was over, I knew I was born again. Then as I talked to my band members, I found out one of them, our bass player, had also became a believer. He had come to the party three days before as well, if I recall correctly, but arrived after I left. Both of us are still born again and walking with Jesus after all the decades. I think God used my passion for guitar and the fun of playing in front of people, to finish the process He started the previous Wednesday night. It had been subtly returning to my mind for three days. I'm certain God's motives were pure. I'm just not so sure about mine, but on the beach in Coronal Del Mar, my sins were forgiven and washed away. I was a new person. Getting back to the question of this sub section, ''What Are Not Good Reasons for Believing?'', the answer is this. Any reason, no matter how questionable, that results in starting a life long loving relationship with Jesus as Savior, is a good reason. When it comes to telling people why they should believe in Jesus as their Savior, it is pointless to resort to negativity, such as scaring them about Hell, brow beating them, imposing peer pressure, arguing with them out of anger, hard sales tactics, or threatening to cut off their allowance (if they are your kids). The gospel of Jesus Christ is 100% positive. We will soil it if we resort to anything less. _____________________________ If, as a result of this website, you decided to believe in Jesus as your Savior, please click here for next steps. _____________________________ |