Bill's Blotter: 

           "It doesn't matter what you believe."   That's what one often hears when the topic of discussion is religion.  "All religion is subjective.  If you find something that works for you; something that makes you feel good--then go for it!  All that really matters is that you are sincere." 

           That's the world's view. 

           Christianity takes that very same statement about belief and turns it on its ear.  "It doesn't matter what you believe: your belief can't turn a lie into the truth!"  Christianity says that all religions are not the same.  Christianity says that all religions, save it, are false.  It dares to say that because; unlike most "belief systems" Christianity is not based on a theory, but on a specific historical event: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            The Resurrection is recorded in all four of the New Testament Gospels.  Matthew and John were written by Apostles.  Mark was "dictated", if you will, by Peter: another Apostle.  Luke, a doctor and non-Apostle, compiled his Gospel after interviewing a number of eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus.

            The point is all four Gospels are based on the testimony of witnesses to the life, ministry and Resurrection of Jesus.   You may want to take a look, too, at I Corinthians 15:3-8.  Pay particular attention to verse 6: 

³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance^[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

 ⁵and that he appeared to Peter,^[b] and then to the Twelve.

 ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,

⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  

         The danger of basing a faith on eyewitness testimony is that those eyewitnesses can be questioned.  As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. 15, most of the 500 men who saw the Risen Christ were still alive at the time of his writing. 
            People in Paul's day weren't any more likely to believe in Resurrection than skeptics are today: they knew that dead people stayed dead.  NOBODY came back to life after three days.   But you can't discount the testimony of several hundred eyewitnesses.  The impossible really happened: Jesus rose from the grave. 

           Eyewitness testimony is not the only reason for belief in the Resurrection: there is also the physical evidence.  Now, this Blotter is getting long, so we'll talk about that next time.  

            Until then....  

          Bill