One Truth That
Sets Us Free

This week’s eNewsletter feature
was written by Rev. Raymond Hylton,
FPCE senior pastor.

Greetings!

As a pastor, over the years I have talked to scores of people wrestling with issues of faith and doubt. Left unexplored and unresolved, these doubts pack the power to deconstruct one’s faith.

For some, one of the most difficult areas of Christianity to accept concerns the truth claims of Jesus. Was Jesus a historical or a fictional person? Did he say and do the things the Gospels claim, or did his followers invent and insert their own words into his mouth, tell their own tales of his heroic actions? 

And then the biggest obstacle of all — while there may have been a person named Jesus who was crucified and killed on a Roman cross, where is the hard evidence that this Jesus rose from the dead three days later? After all, many zealous, well-intentioned people lived similar lives, but no one claims they rose from the dead.

Without Googling the answer, do you remember who won the World Series in baseball last year? I was interested when it happened last autumn, but just this week, I tried to remember who won. I could not recall the 2020 MLB Champions. I tried and tried to think of it, but couldn’t. If the Resurrection is a historical fact like the outcome of any year’s World Series, we can forget about it, the facts get slippery.