While in her 20s, Kirsten Powers vacillated between atheism and agnosticism. Raised as a nominal Christian, she had begun to question the faith of her father, abandoning it entirely in college. Eventually she entered the political world and gained an appointment to work in a US presidential administration. Her circle of friends and coworkers was, as she puts it, “overwhelmingly atheist.” Living a fulfilling professional life with intelligent and engaging friends, Powers gave little thought to what she might be missing.

Eventually Powers began dating a man who believed in Jesus. She candidly let him know that she would never share his spiritual beliefs. But then he asked her a question about faith in Jesus that left her unsettled: “Do you think you can keep an open mind about it?”²

Powers assured him that as a reasonable, rational human being, of course she could keep an open mind. Yet she remembers thinking, What if this is true, and I’m not even willing to consider it?

If we are honest, all of us—skeptics and believers alike —can identify with Powers’s dilemma: Who was Jesus?

Is there a God? Does he matter to us today? How can we know what to believe?

Indeed, when it comes to Christianity’s claims about Christ, the biggest question is simply this: What if it’s true?

² Kirsten Powers, “Fox News’ Highly Reluctant Jesus Follower” from

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/november/fox-news-highly

-reluctant-jesus-follower-kirsten-powers.html.