Have you ever had someone tell you that you’re nuts for believing in Jesus? I mean, has anyone ever told you that you have lost your mind, that you are actually insane, because you trust in Jesus as Savior and follow him as Lord? That’s nothing new, you know.

• One of the most influential Scottish philosophers in history, David Hume, 1700’s, “Examine the religious principles which have, [like Christianity] prevailed in the world. You will scarcely be persuaded that they are other than sick men’s dreams.”
• One of the most influential French philosophers in history, Voltaire, 1700’s, “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd… religion that has ever infected the world.”
• One of the most influential German philosophers in history, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1800’s, “In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.”
• One of the most influential English philosophers in history, Bertrand Russell, 1900’s, “Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence. It will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines”
• One of the most influential American philosophers in history, Daniel Dennett, 2000’s, “…there is no polite way of asking somebody: have you considered the possibility that your entire life has been devoted to a delusion? But that’s a good question to ask. Of course we should ask that question and of course it’s going to offend people. Tough.”

Of course, these modern thinkers were not the first to say that the Christian gospel is irrational and foolish. The apostle Paul in particular mentions repeatedly in the New Testament that plenty of people in his day thought the gospel he preached was lunacy and he himself was a lunatic.

We find ourselves today looking at a particularly pungent example of a highly cultured and powerful man telling Paul he’s a madman for what he’s believing and teaching.  We are in Acts 26, listening to Paul’s testimony before King Herod Agrippa II. Today in particular we are noticing the sudden and extreme outburst of the Roman governor Festus. He thinks Paul has allowed his extensive education to drive him crazy. I guess the real question for us is, are we crazy too? We believe the same things Paul believed. In fact, he’s one of our chief teachers, showing us how to think and live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Have we also gone nuts?