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Hey, everybody. On this most holy day of the year, I wanted to share an episode I did about why I'm a Christian, why I believe what I believe the gospel in four words, three words, two words, one word. Jesus took my place, him for me. Substitutionary atonement and grace. I go through a rational, logical argument why you should believe that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, why he died and rose again. Share this episode with your friends. Spend a lot of time and energy on it. Some of you might remember a similar episode last year and email us your questions freedomarliekirk.com there's no advertisers on this episode, so please go to charliekirk.com support if you want to support us. Happy Easter, everybody. He has risen. Share this with your friends so that they too may believe. Enjoy. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

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I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa.

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We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. He is risen. What does that even mean? He is risen. I'm doing this podcast on Easter Sunday to communicate to everyone who's listening, obviously, but to Christians, to non believers, atheists, people in the secular world. I think we as Christians, and yes, I am a Christian, I'm a proud Christian. We don't talk about why we believe what we believe enough. And exactly what does Easter mean and the gift that it is to every single person in the world. I mean no offense by anything I'm going to talk about in this podcast at all. But I'm going to give you a very rational, analytical, fact driven, compelling case of why you should believe in Christianity. I'm going to start with talking about the spiritual side and the argument for an existence of the Almighty. And then I'm going to get pretty granular. I'm going to get pretty technical, going to talk about the one thing that the entire Christian faith hinges on, and that's the thing that we're celebrating today on Easter Sunday, which is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was killed, executed for three days, rose from the dead. So we as Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God. We believe that Jesus was the Fulfilling of a promise and a fulfilling of the covenant. If you're familiar with the composition of the Bible, it is the greatest book ever to exist in the history of the world, the most important book ever to exist in the history of the world. And I believe it is the Word of God, not just a piece of literature. It has 66 books and 35 authors. For my Catholic friends out there, they have a higher number than that. And we have a lot of respect for the Catholic faith and tradition. And we had a great conversation with Michael Knowles in a previous podcast. But in the beginning portion of the Bible, we call it the Old Testament, as Christians talks a lot about God promising that a messiah will come and save the Jewish people and the people of the world. Specifically, you can go to Isaiah 53, which is some of the most explicit imagery of the Messiah coming like a root out of dry ground. And you could go through Ezekiel, you can go through Daniel. And a lot of the prophecy of the Old Testament through the major and minor prophets talked about that there would be a Messiah that would come to save the people of Israel, God's chosen people, but also save the people of the world. And for those of you that just might dismiss this podcast as being, oh, this is just another religious talk, bear with me. Just let the podcast run and listen to it. Even if you don't think you'll be convinced, which hopefully I'll be able to convince some people. And if there's Christians listening to this podcast, I hope I can strengthen you in your faith and fasten you in your faith throughout this podcast. But even if you don't think you'll be convinced, you as an informed citizen of America should know all of these things. You should know the arguments for and against the authenticity of Jesus Christ, the execution and so on and so forth of Jesus and so on and so forth. So we believe that Jesus Christ was a gift from God. That when Jesus was brought into this world, it was the fulfilling of the covenant, fulfilling of the promise, and a new covenant was made. Now, we as Christians, first, you have to realize that accepting a gift can be really hard. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life. Yes, he was a teacher. Yes, he was a rabbi, and he was a carpenter, too. That's a little fast fact for you around the Easter dinner table. Yes, Jesus was all of those things, but he was also a sacrifice. A sacrifice and a gift that we do not deserve. We did not earn, we did not work for it. And we won't even act well enough to get even close to it. So Everyone listening to this podcast, I'm sure many of you have looked up to the stars or looked up to the moon. And sometimes you just ask very simple philosophical questions. Who am I? What happens when I die? How should I act? How should society be organized? Does God exist? Is love something more than just a chemical reaction? Why are we here? What matters? Well, we as Christians actually have answers for every single one of those questions. I won't be able to answer all those questions in this podcast today on Easter Sunday, but I am going to get to the most important question that any human being can ask themselves. And we have answers. Those questions in the Holy Bible. We have an answer to the question of who you are. Does God exist? What is love? How should society be organized? How should I act? We have answers to all those questions, but the one that is more important than any other, the one that is the top of the tributary that flows to every other question, the question of who is Jesus Christ? Was Jesus Christ just a rebellious Jew that kind of overstepped his bounds and was killed by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governing authority at the time, because of the orders of the Sanhedrin and the ruling class, if you will, of the Jewish intelligentsia? Or was Jesus Christ something more than that? Was he a magic man that maybe had a above average connection? Was he a Messiah? Yes, but he was more than that. We as Christians believe that he is the Son of God. So you can be the Son of God and also a Messiah, but it's possible to say that you're the Messiah but not also be the Son of God. Big distinction there. And this is a lot of the reason why Jesus stirred up, quote, unquote, so much trouble while he was doing his witness and his testimony throughout Judea and Samaria. So now if you say, who is Jesus Christ? I say he's the Son of God and the Resurrected fulfilled promise as the Son of God. But even more than that, the entire, quote, unquote, case for Christianity, the apologist Lee Strobel talks about this better than almost anyone else. And his own personal faith journey was around him as an atheist and a Chicago Tribune legal award winning reporter trying to disprove Christianity. And he zeroed in on the entire question, as, if I can disprove the Resurrection, I can disprove Christianity. Easter Sunday, everybody. Our whole faith, the faith of over a billion people worldwide, hinges on this day. This is the most important day in Christianity and the most important day in the history of the world. Whether or not a miracle working individual who was wrongly Executed, rose from the dead or not. The gospel in four words. Three words, two words and one word. We as Christians believe that, yes, Jesus took my place. Four words, three words. Him for me. Two words, substitutionary atonement. One word, grace. So that when Jesus came here and died for our sins was something that we didn't work for. It's something you have to surrender and accept. I'll get more into that in just one second. But why would. But Charlie, you're so rational. I love listening your podcast because you're so fact driven. We get a lot of those emails, we get a lot of that feedback. And I could just hear right now people saying, oh, here goes Charlie, into that hocus pocus mysticism mythology. I think Charlie's out on a reservation here and convincing himself of something that isn't true. But let me make the case for you. Humor me. Give me a couple minutes. We of course have the four Gospels. The first three gospels are called synoptic Gospels. They were written roughly in the order of Mark, Matthew, then Luke, then John. But it's debated whether or not Matthew or Mark came first. I can tell you and make the case for Christianity by using the three E's. And we'll go one by one. First and foremost, we have to dispel this myth that, well, maybe Jesus didn't actually die. Maybe Jesus was wounded, put inside of a tomb and then he came out afterwards. But between independent scholars, there is no dispute that Jesus actually died. Did you know that we have five ancient non biblical sources from Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian and even the Jewish Talmud that does not dispute the fact that Jesus was executed, that Jesus died. This dispels the idea that Jesus was just wounded in the Bible. It tells us Christians that Christianity must be an investigative faith, that the more we look into it, the more we are going to find that this is true. In John 10:30, Jesus Christ said that I and the Father are one. What Jesus was really saying is that I am the divine. This is what caused so much backlash and eventually led to the execution of Jesus Christ. The next E, if you will. If we accept that. Okay, Charlie, got it. Jesus was executed. And to go even a step back just to understand some of the nonsense that is taught about Christianity, there is a Jesus truther movement that even questions whether or not Jesus Christ existed at all whatsoever. This is total balderdash and nonsense. We have multiple ancient sources. Just to put this into perspective, not only do we have Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian and the Talmud independent outside of the Bible, but we have the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that were written by Jews, mind you, that had no reason to go out of their way to try to defend the veracity and the authenticity of the story of Jesus Christ. So this idea that Jesus didn't exist, some people believe it even true. Committed atheists say, okay, I'll give you Jesus existed. But to give you some context for how much ancient sources we have to corroborate the story of Jesus Christ. Do you believe Alexander the Great existed? Do you believe Alexander the Great did what you're taught in school? Well, did you know that the first biography of Alexander the Great was not written until 400 years after his death? Yet we accept the teach. Yeah, Alexander the Great, young ruling king, he was taught by Aristotle, didn't, didn't really take his teachings. And 400 years later we write the book yet with Jesus Christ. This is the next e early, we have early accounts that Jesus rose from the dead. This dispels the whole idea that it was a legend and mythology and it grew over time. Within one to three years after the execution and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul converted to Christianity who wrote the majority of the New Testament. Paul then went to Jerusalem and met with Peter and James who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. We'll get to eyewitnesses in just one second. The reports are early. Some skeptical scholars say, well, Jesus wasn't actually buried. You know, they used to let people on crosses just be eaten by the crows. They just let them to just stay on the cross. By the way, a crucifixion was the most brutal, public awful way of killing somebody of that era. But even the enemies of Jesus Christ during the time admitted that he was put in the tomb. Why? Well, because the Pharisees and the members of the Sanhedrin, they didn't say that oh, the tomb was never full filled with anyone. Instead they said, oh, the disciples probably stole the body. So even the early accounts when they tried to discredit the resurrection, they said no, no, no, no, the tomb had somebody in it, but the disciples came and stole it. But it's important to remember the disciples didn't have the means to even go and do this. It was a heavily guarded tomb by the modern day equivalent of the Roman secret service was protecting this tomb. You're trying to tell me that former fishermen in the middle of the night challenged the Roman secret service and rolled away a multi ton rock, stole Jesus without any of the Roman soldiers able to tell about it? I don't think so another theory out there is that the Roman soldiers were paid off well. The disciples were notoriously poor and also the Roman soldiers were super well compensated but by Pontius Pilate. And they were not motivated and incentivized to try to allow the narrative of a stolen Jesus or a resurrected Jesus to continue. This goes to the next E which I think is the most compelling of them all, which is eyewitnesses. Now who are the, who is the first person to see Jesus Christ alive? According to the Bible, who are the first people to see Jesus Christ alive? It was women. Now if I was trying to create something that wasn't true back then, would I use women as a way to try to create a narrative? Of course not. Women were widely discredited in a court of law equivalent back in Jesus time. Women were not taken seriously. Women were considered to be secondary in society. It was a highly misogynistic or chauvinistic way of structuring society back then. So if I was trying to falsify a narrative to say that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, I wouldn't use women witnesses at all. I would stay away from women witnesses. Those were the first eyewitnesses of Jesus. Did you know according to biblical and non biblical accounts in the four Gospels, Jesus Christ was seen by by over 550 people over a dozen times. By men, by women, in daytime and nighttime, all across Judea and Samaria. There is no rhyme or reason to the people that saw Jesus after he was killed, the resurrected Jesus. So if I was trying to create a conspiracy, it would be really hard to get 550 people to agree that especially men and women and daytime and nighttime. Nine ancient sources corroborate the different eyewitnesses that said the they saw Jesus. Now a skeptic would say, Charlie, people believe silly stuff all the time. Yeah, maybe they saw Jesus, but maybe they really wanted to use this as a way to enrich themselves, as a way to get power. That argument might stand with some footing if the new founded religion of Christianity was met with wealth and power, prestige and royalty. Instead, early Christians were persecuted and murdered for what they believed. Even worse than that, the individuals that believed it most fervently, that were spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, the disciples, almost all of them died a brutal death. So it's one thing to believe a lie, but who would willingly die for a lie? Who would willingly go to the very last breath and and be given a chance to denounce something they knew was a falsehood? We also know in 1st Corinthians 15:3, the immediate creed of the early Christians, where they recited over and over again, jesus Christ died for our sins, and he was risen from the dead early. The eyewitnesses that said they believed in Jesus and they saw Jesus rise from the dead suffered a brutal and horrible demise. Why would anyone die for something that you know is a lie? So when you talk about ancient sources, see, we don't debate the authenticity of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, or the autobiography of Alexander the Great. We don't debate Homer's work, the Odyssey. We might debate the contents, but we don't debate that's what they wrote. We don't debate that that's what Homer was actually the one that said these things or believed these things. When it comes to the Bible, we have by far the most independently corroborated and authenticated sources of any considered ancient document to exist. Early eyewitnesses. The resurrection Was Jesus who he said he was. Well, he definitely did something that no other historical figure ever did in the history of the world. He rose from the dead. And not only that, we had eyewitnesses. We have eyewitnesses that went on the record to go and prove it. So now another skeptic argument is, well, Charlie, the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we can't really trust it. We can't really trust when it was written and how it was written. And I have a lot of respect for Joe Rogan, but Joe Rogan miscategorized the Bible in one of his podcasts where he said, well, it was written hundreds of years after Jesus life. That's just not true. The letters that Paul wrote were in the early church as soon as a decade or two decades after the death of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Matthew and mark were written 30 or 40 years after the death of Jesus Christ. So that would basically be like somebody writing today a book about Ronald Reagan. They would get a lot right about Ronald Reagan if they were in their 20s, if they served the administration under Ronald Reagan. So just that adds some very important context. So that's just a small picture of the evidence that we have of just the resurrection. And I went through some of the skeptical arguments, but it gets to something deeper than that. That's about the resurrection. But for some people listening to this podcast, I hope that was instructive. I hope that was informative. But the other question is, well, Charlie, how could I believe in that if I don't even believe in God? And I commonly say I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. So I come from the belief that there is a God. And then I ask myself, when has God reveal themselves before in the world and where do we have firm documentation of that revelation of himself? And that's why I believe the Bible. And then I also ask myself the question, what makes Christianity different than all these other religions in the world? And I'm sure many of you have that question because when it comes to religion, you have to have origin, meaning, morality and destiny. Those are the four things you have to have. And people say, well, Christianity is similar to Buddhism, Christianity is similar all these other world religions. I'm going to tell you how Christianity is different. Christianity is different because every other religion in the world is about what you do to grow closer to God. In Buddhism, it is the multi levels of enlightenment as you try to get up to the Buddha. In Islam, it is following the commandments that are put forward, whether it be praying five times a day or honoring Halal, whether it be implementing Sharia law in certain practices of Islam. In Hinduism, it's all about performing good enough in this life so that in the next life I can get to a better caste, essentially a spiritual caste system. What's so different about Christianity is of course God gives us specific ways of how we should act. Jesus was explicitly clear about how you should treat the least of these and you should tell the truth and the type of thoughts that you should have and not have. God is explicitly clear of that in the Bible. But it's not a tally card for you to accept Jesus Christ. I'm a sinner broken by sin. And if you're listening to this podcast right now, you're also a sinner. Have you guys felt like you're not enough at times? Have you guys felt like you're just barely keeping it all together? Trust me, we've all been there. Are you feeling that? Man, how many more times do I just have to search for that next high? Whether that be drinking alcohol or doing drugs or going after other nefarious activities. And it just, you might have come to the conclusion recently. Man, this is not making me happy or fulfilled. The more I choose to do this stuff, the more I suffer. You choose to sin? You choose to suffer. Well, there's a gift waiting for you. A real thing that happened in the world. Not a hocus pocus Rapunzel story, but something that actually happened. When you go to Jerusalem, you can literally go and walk the mountain of olives where Jesus Christ walked. You can literally go to the church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was buried. You can go walk the stations of the cross. This is a real thing I'm talking about. And yes, Jesus represents metaphorically things as well, but there was actual blood spilled for you. And I'm sure some of you say, oh, Charlie, I can get to that religion thing later. I've never really heard of a great response to that other than, you're wrong. No one knows when their time is, especially during this time where we see such unpredictable amount of death happening around all of us. But even beyond that, it's either you have to come to, to the internal decision that I am not the most important thing ever to exist in the history of the world, that I'm not enough. And I could tell you this, and this is more just a personal testimony. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you get less angry. Things start to actually make sense. There's a harmony to the world. There's a rhythm that begins to be apparent to you. People say, charlie, how do you stay so still when these leftist comes and scream in your face? And the honest truth of it is there's a stillness when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Of course, I still lose my temper at times. Everybody does. You're going to sin, but you're going to then revert back to the salvation that you have within you, which is Jesus Christ. So here's what we believe as Christians. Every single person listening to this podcast can accept Jesus Christ right here and now. And maybe some of you aren't ready to do that yet. That's fine. I just recommend, then just read the Bible for five minutes. If you think you're better than the Bible, you're not. It's the most important, most instructive, most informative book ever to exist in the history of the world. Just read the Bible for five minutes a night and then ask yourself the question, how could these authors be so committed that this is true and I could be on the opposite side of it? Maybe there's something that's in it that's true. But the most important question about Christianity for all of this, for skeptics out there, is would you believe it if it was true? Now, the obvious answer should be, yeah, of course. Really? You would change your life right now if I could show it to you that it was true? That's the most important question. Most people have been talked out of Christianity because most people have never been talked into Christianity. My great friend Frank Turek says that a lot on his podcast Cross Examined. And we're Going to have him on our podcast sometime soon. For every skeptic question you have about Christianity, there are really good answers about it. But I think a lot of the reasons why people don't accept Christianity is outside of the technical, rational, historical, archaeological mountain of evidence set out there. Quite honestly, it's people that don't want to change their own specific lifestyle and get on their knees and just say, I've been really screwing this whole parade up. I surrender. Help me. And what Jesus did when he died on the cross for us, is he allowed us to say, I'm never going to get there. See, Jesus took a symbol of death and public mockery and has turned it into a symbol of a gateway to eternity. How's that for the greatest irony of Middle Eastern Roman Jewish rule totally changing a symbol. That was the cross, which was meant to be nothing more than a symbol of the greatest shame of a criminal. When you put someone up on that cross that never committed a crime and didn't sin ever, and you turn that into a gateway to acceptance and righteousness. So what does happen when you die? Well, on Good Friday, we are told, and we learn that salvation can be given to you in a moment's notice if you truly accept Jesus Christ as God and as king, a king over a dominion, building his kingdom. Next to Jesus on the cross was a bad guy, and that thief next to Jesus lived an immoral life, and Jesus granted him acceptance into eternity. So the stakes are pretty high with all this. And I can assure you and guarantee you that when you strip down all the earthly ambitions and dust around us, because everything, if you're an atheist or a secularist, and I don't mean this by any offense at all whatsoever, comes down to nothing more than a specific subset of chemical composition and dust. That's all it is, Love. Your chemicals got really excited and moved faster than any other time. Oh, you think that there's a higher purpose and meaning? No, you don't. But for those of us Christians, we believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, generous, gracious, good God that has given you a gift that's right on the table. And I encourage and I pray that every single person listening to this podcast takes that gift. It's a gift we don't deserve. A gift of the ultimate sacrifice, of suffering, not just in the moment of the crucifixion, but the unburdening of all the sins, all the mistakes that you've ever made and the mistakes you're going to make tomorrow because you're going to continually and repeatedly sin. It's changed my life. I've seen Christianity transform people from alcoholic, self centered, angry, bitter people into loving, generous, gracious, compassionate, Christ following servants. The gift is there for the taking. He has risen. Jesus was executed. It spread early throughout Judea and Samaria. 550 eyewitnesses saw Jesus Christ after he was resurrected from the grave. He took your place. Him for me. Substitutionary atonement and grace. The argument hinges on whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. I know he did. That's why today is a day of celebration, of revival, of resurrection. And for those of you that are unsettled about the greatest questions that human beings ask themselves, there's a book for that. There's a path for that. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Only those that go through Jesus Christ can get to the Father. And according to the Bible, those who don't, it says it does not end very well for those individuals that do not make that decision. So accept the good news. He has risen. God bless you guys. God bless our country. This is why I believe what I believe. It's also what informs my politics. It's what informs my base philosophy. Our country was founded by a group of people that believe this, that Christianity is true and that Easter is the most important day in the history of the world. That the resurrection of the Christ is something that must be celebrated and told to every individual all across the world. Jesus is king. Jesus is the Savior of the world. It's a gift for the taking. I encourage you to do it. Thank you guys so much. Have a wonderful Easter. God bless you. God bless our country. Stay safe. We'll be back to you soon. Thanks so much. For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.