"I'd Rather Not Be Golfing..."

"If Jesus didn't raise himself from the dead on the third day, I'm off to the golf course."

I've heard the nuts and bolts of that view shared by three different evangelical pastors in the last couple of months. At the heart of it, it sounds pretty faithful and pious, doesn't it?

"Jesus' resurrection is so central to my faith, that if he didn't raise from the dead the way Scripture says he did, then nothing else matters..."

But there are troublesome streams of thought that go along with that. Foremost, it says if my Christianity is historically invalidated, then the life I've lived in faith is a lie, the service I've done for my neighbors is worthless, and I'm off to serve myself [go golf].

Really? Your relationship with Christ is so one-dimensional that a piece of historic evidence would completely crush all of it? Faith in God? Call to service? If Jesus didn't rise from the grave, you'd be at strip clubs and smoking reefer? [my words, here]

I only asked these questions of the first pastor who shared his convictions. He was so upset that I would ask - and suggest a personal relationship with Christ might not be totally shattered [wounded, yes] upon proof of a dead-and-buried Jesus - that I not only lost credibility in the discussion, I lost credibity in his eyes as a Christian.

Now don't get me wrong here: I believe in a resurrected Christ. I believe that resurrection is central to my salvation. It is central to my faith.

But I also believe that the wisdom of God is foolishness to mankind. I believe my wisdom is foolishness to God.

More importantly, I believe I experience, daily, an undeniable relationship with the creator of the universe.

If I live to 126, married to my wife for 100 years, and on our 100th anniversary she looks me in the eye and says, "Peter, I have to confess something. My name isn't Jennifer. But I've loved you my whole life, and everything we've experienced together has been true." I won't suddenly believe my marriage was a lie. Because I know the one I love.

And I know the God I love, and that God knows me.

This is all hypothetical, because I don't believe a historian, archaeologist or geneticist will ever prove that Christ is not risen. I don't think it would even be possible. But if it were possible, then my faith falls back, not to the arguments I've heard or the theologies I've learned and believed, but to the experience I have known and the relationship I have engaged in... to the One I have loved.

If the wisdom of mankind makes Jesus Christ seem a fool, I will follow the fool.

But by all means, the disillusioned faithful can enjoy those 18 holes. Better make them last, and lookout for the sandtrap on number 9.


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please read more about my thoughts on the evolution of Christianity at www.EmergingChristian.com