I’m sure it’s the little boy still hiding in my 57-year-old paralyzed body, but I enjoy trying to pull off a good April Fools Day joke on Mary. In our thirty-two years of marriage, I probably have a 75% success rate.

It can be a real challenge to carry out a successful April fools joke with ALS because I can’t speak so I have to attempt to fool her via email or using my computer’s (no inflection) robot voice (the only “voice” I’ve had for the last twenty years).

As I’m sure you know, April Fools Day and Easter (the day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead) fall on the same day this year. The two have not fallen on the same day since 1956.

Are Christians fools for believing that Christ was literally raised from the dead?

Atheists, agnostics and those of other faiths, believe it is foolish to believe that a man who had been dead for three days would rise up and walk out of His tomb.

Lee Strobel (author of “The Case For Christ“) put it this way:

“When I was an atheist and legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, I would have smirked at the fact that Easter this year falls on April Fools’ Day. Because back then, I thought that anyone would have to be a fool to believe that Jesus literally rose from the dead.”

Lee Strobel is now a Christian Apologist, an Associate Pastor of a large church in The Woodlands, Texas, and a best-selling author. His latest book, “The Case For Miracles” came out on March 27th.

Back when Lee was an atheist, he became furious when his wife told him that she had become a Christian. He set out to prove that Christianity was the biggest hoax in history. He began his research by rightly determining that the foundation of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ.

As an award-winning investigative journalist and a Yale-educated attorney, he reasoned, that he was more than qualified to expose this hoax. Lee spent two years researching historical documents and interviewing experts on the resurrection for the book he planned to title “The Case Against Christ.”

After completing his exhaustive research, Lee made a commitment to follow Christ and titled his best-selling book, “The Case For Christ.”

“A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading” C.S. Lewis

Way back when I was young and knew everything, I considered myself to be an agnostic. I really didn’t have an interest in anything that had to do with “religion” so, without even knowing the definition of the word, It seemed like a safe and non-offensive thing to be so I chose that label for myself.

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.” (Proverbs 12:15)

For the record, the definition of agnostic is: a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (such as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the non-existence of God or a god.

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God…” (Psalm 14:1)

But, Lee Strobel, C.S. Lewis and so many others have demonstrated that “ultimate reality,” like the resurrection of Christ, is not “unknowable.”

“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:26-27)

We’re all fools in the eyes of someone; either in the eyes of man, or in the eyes of God.

It’s not a great selling point, and it’s a very humbling thing to do, but a follower of Christ is one who chooses to be a fool in the eyes of an unbelieving world. Yes, Christians know that we are viewed as fools in the eyes of an unbelieving world. The Bible told us about this too:

“We are fools for Christ’s sake…we are without honor…when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things…”
(1 Corinthians 4:10-14)

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Seriously, this Easter, I really hope that atheists, agnostics, and all those who have dismissed the resurrection of Christ would take a new look at this event that has reshaped history and transformed millions upon millions of hearts and minds in every corner of the world.

Placing your hope in Christ is truly Unshakable Hope. It’s hope for this life, and for the next.

“…if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11)

Please watch this three minute video by Lee Strobel