If These Things Might Be True

​This post is intended for non-Christians, former Christians who have fallen away, or those of you who have friends or loved ones that fall into one of those groups and are looking for a way to reach out to them.  I would ask that you suspend all your doubts or negative views of Christianity for a moment and thoughtfully consider the proposition I am about to make.
 
Picture living forever in a place with no pain, no sadness, and no death.  A place where you are united with all those you love.  A place where you can realize your full potential.  If it was possible that such a place existed, is that something worth believing?  Or are you so very certain that such a place is impossible that you are willing to forego the opportunity to live in eternal joy and fulfillment and instead welcome the belief that all of your hopes, dreams, desires, and memories are merely meaningless constructs that will be forever extinguished the moment you die?
 
If you are at least willing to entertain the idea that such a place could exist, would you want to know how to get there?  If I told you that there was only one way to get there, would you want to know that way?  Or would you be so offended that there is just one way instead of multiple ways that you would abandon the idea of living forever in paradise and instead embrace a future of eternal nothingness?
 
If you are willing to accept the possibility that there is only one way to get to this wonderful place, would you be willing to follow that path?  Well that depends, you might say.  What exactly do I have to do?  My response would be, if the destination is as I described – eternal life in paradise – is there anything you wouldn’t do?
 
If I told you that you had to believe in a god, would you be willing to do it?  Perhaps the idea of a god just seems so ridiculous to you in our modern world.  If you were to create a god, what kind of god would you create?  Would it be a god that gave you free will to make your own choices, even if it meant choosing to not believe in him?  Would it be a god who knew everything and shared that knowledge by giving you rules to prevent you from hurting yourself and hurting others?  Would it be a god who even when you broke those rules or turned away from him completely, gave you a way to restore your relationship with him?  And what if that way was not some terrible price that you had to pay, but instead a price that was paid for you – a god that would sacrifice his own son to restore your place in the kingdom of God?  And what if this Son of God would make the sacrifice willingly because he too loved you so much that he would suffer in your place?  Is this not a god worth believing in?  Is this philosophy not superior to a cold fatalism of logic without hope?  Is this religion not superior to an egocentric hedonism that pursues pleasure without honor?  If the story of our universe was a movie, would not this be much more moving and stirring than anything else that could be imagined?
 
If all you had to do to live forever in paradise was to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died to give you your place in this glorious kingdom of God, could you find it in yourself to do it?  This belief is all that it takes.  It does not require any immediate action or change on your part.  If God wants you to act or change, he will work in your heart to bring about those changes and he will help you every step of the way.  The only thing he wants is for you to believe in him.  To believe that he loves you and for you to love him in return.
 
Or perhaps you think that this is all too much to ask.  If it is, then you are free to not believe in any of this.  But if there is a chance these things might be true and the cost of believing is so little, isn’t it worth believing?