“Accessible, thoughtful, and rich with gospel clarity.”
Mike Hood’s The If That Changes Everything is a clear, compelling, and deeply hopeful exploration of why the resurrection matters for real life. In a world crowded with competing worldviews and rising skepticism, Hood offers a refreshing blend of sharp apologetics and pastoral warmth. He shows that if Jesus truly rose from the dead, then we are not accidents of physics but people “known completely and loved immensely,” and that the resurrection uniquely explains both the historical evidence and the deepest longings of the human heart.
Hood contrasts the Christian vision of love and meaning with the bleakness of materialism and highlights the uniqueness of Jesus’ claims in a world full of spiritual noise. His explanation of why Jesus provides a “fixed point” for evaluating truth is especially helpful. The apologetic sections are vivid and memorable, including his illustration of the hallucination theory as the statistical equivalent of rolling hundreds sided dice and getting double sixes twelve times in a row. He also shows that belief in the resurrection was present from the very beginning of Christianity, not a later invention.
Hood’s discussion of science and miracles is balanced and thoughtful, reminding readers that science describes what normally happens but cannot rule out God acting in extraordinary ways. The pastoral tone of the book is one of its greatest strengths. Hood emphasizes that Christian hope is never a weapon but a source of comfort, courage, and healing, and his reflections on the nail scarred hands of the risen Christ are especially moving.
Accessible, thoughtful, and rich with gospel clarity, The If That Changes Everything is an excellent resource for churches, small groups, skeptics, and believers alike.
