None of us was alive when Jesus walked the earth. If the life of faith were like a court of law, the case for his very existence would b weak: the only surviving disinterested testimony is in the writings of the imperial historiographer Flavius Josephus. And even this is simply a passing reference to what a nuisance the first Christians were. All the rest of the testimony about Jesus has come from within the early Christian community. In a court, this kind of testimony would be seen as less than useful -- kind of like an alibi provided by a close family member. We must admit that we are biased: we want these events to be true.
But this is not a court of law. And faith is not about that kind of evidence. Faith is not certified by the events of the past, though it is nourished by them. It is certified by events in the present. Although we are the stewards of an ancient and majestic tradition, each believer can only receive this tradition in light of is or her own experience. I cannot tell you what to believe.
All I can do is tell you what God has done in my life, and listen to what God has done in yours. That is, after all, exactly what the biblical writers do: they explain the action of God in their own times in their own world, so that we will be able to look for it in our own. It will not be the same since they are two different worlds. But their search informs our search as we reach out to God.
Most importantly, we cannot prove that God is active in our lives. We can only give testimony and pray the those who have ears to hear will hear.
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