“Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
This verse is simple enough, but why should you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Even more importantly, why should I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins? How can I believe that Jesus is God? We are taught that we must have faith, but our faith is not blind and based on nothing factual. God has provided reasons to believe in the Bible, which are supported by history, science, and reason.
If Christianity is real, then every Christian should be able to answer the question: Why do you believe?
Here’s your guinea pig replying lol. I believe for a multitude of reasons, but if we want to get to the real reason I believe, it is due to God’s effectual calling. Faith itself is a gift from the Lord, I could not have cultivated it on my own. Without this calling I would not believe. Keeping this in mind, as we Presbyterians like to point out often to Calvinist objectors, God uses means. The crucifixion of Christ is one of the most documented events in human history, by secular and religious scholars alike. All atheist scholars (except reddit neckbeards) agree that Christ really was real, and for the most part agree He was crucified by Pontius Pilate at the demand of the Jews. The Quran affirms Christ as a prophet, though denying His divine nature, and other false religions (Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness) also recognize Him as God. The “Jews” of today despise Him for “posing” as God, because He doesn’t fit what they wanted Him to be: a warrior king that slaughters the enemies of Israel, yet they still agree He is real and has an unprecedented amount of influence on history. This combined with the “recent discovery of Jesus’ body under the pyramids” which was foretold by Jesus himself in the bible, saying scoffers would claim to find Him but He would be gone, are reasons to believe that God uses to effectually call the saints to Himself. There are obviouslt many more modern reasons but that one comes to mind often. The last reason I’ll list for believing is Pascal’s wager, which states “either God is real, you follow Him, lead a good life, then spend eternity with Him, or He isn’t real, you follow Him, lead a good life, and are no worse off when you die.” This obviously shouldn’t be the principle reason for believing, but it certainly is a supporting argument.
I agree that without God’s effectual calling that I would not be able to believe. I also believe that God has provided a lot of evidence that is observable, or can be experienced, that can bolster one’s faith once they are called. I think God uses this evidence through the witness of believers to effectually call non-believers to faith as well.