On November 22, 2022, Joerg Arnu woke up to agents from the FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Operations raiding his home near Rachel, Nevada. Using a heavily redacted search warrant signed by a federal magistrate, agents seized 4 computers, cameras and a drone. More than a year later, Arnu’s seized property has not been returned, and Arnu claims to have lost more than $30,000 in equipment and legal fees since the raid.

Arnu’s home sits near the gates of the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake, a sensitive and closely guarded section of Nellis Air Force Base, better known as “Area 51.” Since 1999, Arnu has published a blog called Dreamland Resort (“Dreamland” is a nickname for the Air Force base.) and shared publicly available information about the installation. Arnu denies ever crossing the boundaries of the facility and claims to have worked closely with former Nellis insiders to ensure that no classified information would be leaked. Despite his precautions, Arnu believes his home and blog were targeted to send a message to anyone curious about Area 51: “Leave him alone!” The government has secrets it does not intend to share.

On the other hand, the God of Heaven wants to be known and share his knowledge with his creation. In Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV), “…the Lord said: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the strong boast of his strength, nor let the rich boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this: that they have understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness and justice and righteousness on earth, for in them I delight.

In Christ, God took on human flesh so that we could know him. Jesus said to his disciples: “If you truly know me, you will also know my Father. Now you know him and you have seen him. When Philippe questioned him, “Lord, show us the Father” “Jesus replied: “Don’t you know me, Philippe, even after having been among you for so long? Everyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

God wants us to know Him and invites us to investigate. Those who accept the invitation often see a change in their lives.

Lee Strobel’s investigation is depicted in the 2017 film, The Case for Christ. Strobel, an atheist, was an award-winning reporter for the Chicago Tribune in 1981, when his wife began attending a nearby church. When Lesley Strobel asked her husband to accompany her, Lee decided to investigate the Bible story and the claims of Jesus himself. Over the next two years, Strobel used his investigative journalism skills to evaluate the gospel and historical accounts concerning Jesus. As a result of his investigation, Strobel became a Christian, later becoming a pastor and seminary professor. Strobel is currently considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Christian evidence.

Antony Flew, a former professor at Oxford University, was one of the world’s leading religious skeptics, arguing that people should have the right “presumption of atheism, according to which the burden of proof must lie with the theist.” In 2004, however, Flew reversed this position and stated that due to his “lifelong commitment to going where the evidence leads, he believed in the existence of a God.” Flew told the story of his transition from atheist to deist in his 2007 book, “There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.” Interviewed by Benjamin Wiker, Flew said his change was a result of “a growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other renowned scientists that there must be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe” And “My own idea that the embedded complexity of life itself – which is far more complex than the physical Universe – can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source. »

Stories like those of Flew and Strobel prove that educated, intelligent people can carefully examine the evidence and come to believe in God; faith is not unreasonable. However, other people’s stories are meaningless unless they inspire us to examine our own. Please, you owe it to yourself to decide whether the religion’s claims are true. If not, then you are simply more sure of your disbelief. But if God exists and Jesus is the Savior, that changes everything. Absolutely everything.

So here is your challenge: investigate God for yourself. You might start with Strobel’s book, The Case for Faith.