Some Reasons to Believe

                                   Some Reasons to Believe

All of Jesus' disciples, except one, were basically good and decent men before they ever met Jesus. They were hardworking fishermen who obviously took good care of their families. Matthew 4:18-22 (KJB). The tax collector Matthew had obviously become sick of his own greed because when Jesus called him to follow Him, he left all of that money on a table and immediately got up and followed Jesus. Luke 5:27-28 (KJB). Jesus recognized Nathanael who came to follow Him as having "no guile." John 1:44 (KJB). Jesus knew that Nathanael was a decent and honest man. Yet, every one of Jesus' disciples, except Judas Iscariot, knew as soon as they had met Him that they needed Jesus. They recognized themselves as sinners in need of a perfect man who could lead them to become acceptable with God. Luke 5:1-11 (KJB). No doubt God can save even the evilest humans. He saved Saul of Tarsus. But the majority of humans saved by grace are basically good and decent people before they ever repent and trust in Christ to save them from their sins. The reason for this is that honest people tend to be honest with themselves, and that means when they hear the gospel, they recognize themselves as being sinners before God who need a Savior. For this reason, salvation by grace can run in families for generations. But cruel and dishonest people often actually believe that they are basically good people, and that believe gives them too much pride to ever realize that they are sinners in need of a Savior. Most of the women who followed Jesus were also good and decent persons before they met Jesus. Luke 10:38-42 (KJB). But Jesus had cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene. Mark 16:9 (KJB). 

Everyone knows that a deluded person devoted to some cult can make up false stories about miracles that they claim that their false teachers have performed. But everyone also knows that no group of decent and honest people will conspire together to make up false stories about miracles performed by their preacher or Sunday school teacher. The followers of Jesus, who were mostly good and honest people, would never have conspired together to make up false stories about the miracles that they saw Jesus perform. They would certainly have never made up a story that Jesus rose from the dead and stick to that story even to being put to death for it.