On November 22, 2022, Joerg Arnu awakened as FBI and Air Force Office of Special Operations agents raided his home near Rachel, Nevada. Using a heavily redacted search warrant signed by a Federal Magistrate, the agents seized 4 computers, cameras and a drone. More than a year later, Arnu’s seized property has not been returned, and Arnu contends that he is out more than $30,000 in equipment and legal fees since the raid.

Arnu’s home lies 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 has shared publicly available information about the facility. Arnu denies that he has ever breached the boundary of the facility and claims that he has worked closely with former Nellis insiders to ensure that no classified information would be disclosed. Despite his precautions, Arnu believes his home and blog were targeted to send a message to everyone curious about Area 51: “Leave it alone!” The government has secrets it does not intend to share.

In contrast, the God of Heaven wants to be known by and share knowledge with His creation. In Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV), “…the LORD says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.”

In Christ, God took on human flesh so that we might know Him. Jesus told his followers: “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” When Philip questioned, “Lord, show us the Father,” “Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone 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 find life change.

Lee Strobel’s investigation is depicted in the 2017 motion picture, The Case for Christ. Strobel, an atheist, was an award-winning journalist for the Chicago Tribune in 1981 when his wife began attending a church nearby. When Lesley Strobel asked her husband to attend with her, Lee determined to investigate the story of the Bible and the claims of Jesus for himself. Over the next 2 years, Strobel used his skills in investigative journalism to evaluate the gospel and historical accounts concerning Jesus. As a result of his investigation, Strobel became a Christian, later becoming a minister and seminary professor. Strobel is currently considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Christian evidences.

Former Oxford University professor Antony Flew was one of the world’s leading religious skeptics, arguing that people should have the “presumption of atheism, that the onus of proof must lie upon the theist.” In 2004, however, Flew reversed this position and stated that because of his “lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads, he believed in the existence of a God.” Flew told the story of his change 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 resulted from “a growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe” and “my own insight that the integrated 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 Flew’s & Strobel’s prove that educated, intelligent people can carefully examine the evidence and arrive at belief in God; faith is not unreasonable. Other’s stories, however, mean little unless they prompt us to make an examination of our own. Please, you owe it to yourself to decide whether the claims of religion are true. If they aren’t, then you’re simply more certain in your unbelief. But if God exists and Jesus is the Savior, that changes everything. Absolutely everything.

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