Is the Christian faith superstition or truth?

March 13, 2026, falls on a Friday. So did February 13 of this year. So will November 13.

Most years produce one or two Friday the 13ths. Having three such Fridays in one year is relatively rare, occurring forty-four times per four-hundred-year cycle and only when the year begins on a Thursday. In such years, Friday the 13ths always fall in February, March, and November.

The fear of such days is called “paraskevidekatriaphobia,” derived from the Greek for Friday (Paraskevi), thirteen (dekatreis), and fear (phobia). According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, an estimated seventeen to twenty-one million people in the US are afflicted with this phobia.

This makes Friday the 13^th the most feared day and date in history. Some people avoid following their normal routines, taking flights, or even getting out of bed. Some estimate that $800 to $900 million in business is lost on the day.

Some speculate that such fear originated in the Bible: thirteen guests attended the Last Supper, including Jesus and his twelve disciples. The next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified.

Patrick Mahomes’ underwear

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wears the same pair of red underwear on every NFL game day. He first wore the undergarment during a successful first season in 2017 and continues to do so, believing it brings him good luck.

Some baseball players refuse to step on the out-of-bounds line when running on or off the field. Some basketball players dribble the ball a set number of times before shooting free throws. They are not unusual in this regard.

According to a 2024 study, “very few people show a complete lack of belief in superstitions and practice none.” Psychologists explain that superstitions persist in our scientifically advanced age because they can alleviate stress, bring emotional comfort, and reinforce themselves if we believe they are true and act accordingly.

In this sense, superstitions can be like horoscopes: when we believe what they claim, we then act in ways that become self-fulfilling prophecies. If your horoscope tells you that you’ll meet an interesting person today, for example, you may be more likely to be interested in people and thus fulfill its prediction. If it warns you against making major decisions, you take its advice, and nothing untoward happens to you, you might assume that your horoscope was correct.

But correlation is not necessarily causation unless we confuse the two.

Driving around the donut shop

A similar phenomenon can be observed with regard to religious faith.

For example, we can pray for God to act in specific ways and then interpret what happens as his answers (the so-called “Gideon’s fleece” strategy of Judges 6). A rather pejorative illustration tells of the man who asked God to open a parking spot in front of the donut shop if he was to stop there on his way to work. Sure enough, on the man’s eighth trip around the shop, one “miraculously” appeared.

Some skeptics claim that all faith functions in a similar way.

The philosopher Antony Flew popularized a principle called “falsification”: if a truth claim cannot be proven wrong, it cannot be proven right. If nothing can dissuade us from our beliefs, they are just that—mere beliefs. To be considered actual truth claims, they must be capable of being proven false.

It is just here that Christianity can claim an advantage over other world religions.

Hindus believe in reincarnation, but they have no way to prove that their belief is based in fact. Muslims claim that the Qur’an was given by Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, but they have no empirical way to test their thesis.

Christianity, however, stands or falls on an actual event in history that can be empirically tested. Paul was specific and clear: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Accordingly, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

In other words, if it could be proven beyond all doubt that Jesus was not raised from the grave on Easter Sunday, our faith would be falsified, and our preaching would be useless. The good news is that the evidence from history, archaeology, ancient manuscripts, and logic is clear and conclusive: “He has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6).

Our faith is therefore not superstition but truth. And sharing it with others is not imposing our subjective opinions but giving the world the hope it needs most.

“By it I see everything else”

Friday the 13^th has long been special to my family because my father was born on Friday, July 13, 1924. If he had not been born, I would obviously not have been born.

In a similar fashion, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, I would have no reason to believe that I will one day be raised from the dead. When I die, I will have no agency by which to determine what happens next. My life beyond this life is entirely dependent on forces beyond my capacity or control.

When I wonder about that day or otherwise question the beliefs of my faith, my mind returns to the empty tomb. The fact of the resurrection means that Jesus was and is the divine Son of God, his words conveyed in Scripture are the word of God, and his promises are sure.

CS Lewis, the former atheist turned brilliant Oxford apologist, testified:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

When we “see everything else” in our world in light of Easter, we find peace that transcends our pain and hope that heals our hearts.

This is the promise, and the invitation, of God.

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While the Trump Administration’s focus remains largely on the war in Iran, the president took some time earlier this week to address the situation with Cuba as well. Hinting that they may be next in line for regime change, he stated, “It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn’t matter because they’re really, they’re down to, as I say, fumes.”

Trump went on to add, “They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis.” As I discussed in the News Worth Knowing section of this week’s Focus, those comments came after he’d previously mused, “They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco [Rubio] over there, and we’ll see how that works out.”

As we’ve seen with Iran, Russia and Ukraine, Venezuela, and in a host of other conflicts, wanting to make a deal and being willing to give up what it would take to get a deal are rarely the same. And while the president is correct that Cuba is struggling in almost every way, it’s still unclear what any such negotiations would entail.

Cuba does not have a clear successor who could take over, like in Venezuela. They also don’t have the same kind of economic or natural resources that could prove appealing. Instead, it’s likely that any concessions of interest to the administration would center around the country’s relationships with Russia and China.

A report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies found that there are likely multiple sites on the island that China is currently using to spy on the United States. Russia is also thought to utilize Cuba and other Latin American countries like Nicaragua for similar purposes. Reducing our neighbor nation’s ties to these countries would be difficult, but it would also fit well within the administration’s foreign policy focus on the Western hemisphere.

Yet, until a deal is reached, it’s the people in Cuba who will continue to suffer, and it’s crucial that we don’t lose sight of their plight as we consider the broader negotiations between governments.

“You can tell something isn’t right”

While the toppling of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro—and, more specifically, the cessation of free oil to Cuba—was, in many ways, the tipping point for the Cuban people, many were in dire straits well before then.

Cuba is one of only two Latin American nations currently in a recession, with Haiti the other. 89 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty, and even their government admits that most live on one meal a day, if that. Moreover, a mosquito-borne illness—easily treated with acetaminophen like Tylenol—has proved difficult to contain and has led to 55 deaths since November due to a shortage of medicine.

A nationwide blackout was triggered recently after the Antonio Guitera thermoelectric plant, the island’s largest power station, failed. Even when the plant was functioning, though, the aforementioned fuel shortages meant many went without power. Power cuts of up to twenty hours are common, while the lack of fuel makes getting to work, transporting food, or simply getting around too great a struggle for most.

And, as Jaob Lesniewski, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) regional codirector for Cuba, described, it gets worse the farther you get from the capital:

When you arrive in Havana, you can tell something isn’t right. But it’s nothing compared to what you begin to see as you travel farther east. Entire cities look like ghost towns. There are factories, schools, and hospitals that once functioned but now stand empty and severely deteriorated.

As is often the case, however, God is already at work through his people in ways that are making a genuine difference in the lives of those in need.

“Christian churches have become essential spaces”

Hernán Restrepo has an excellent article in Christianity Today about the work believers are doing in Cuba. In it, he describes how Christians are using whatever means are at their disposal to help those around them. Whether it’s providing food, clothing, hygiene products, or simply comfort, God’s people are giving from what little they have to be his hands and feet to the people the Lord has placed around them.

Moreover, even the government has started to recognize the value of getting help from believers. Ministries like MCC have met remarkably little resistance as they’ve brought in shipping containers of humanitarian relief. Instead, their greatest problems have come from getting that aid to the people once it arrives.

The oil embargo has made it difficult to use trucks to distribute the supplies, and the churches with whom they work are often forced to rely on “underfed horses” and carts instead. Still, they’re doing what they can, and it’s still often far more than the people receive from the government.

As Mayra Espino, a sociologist and researcher in Cuba, points out:

In a country where the state can no longer provide basic services like health care and education, Christian churches have become essential spaces for society—not only to receive humanitarian aid or spiritual comfort, but also to build community.

And it’s been that way for quite a while.

In 2008, for example, Cuba was devastated by four hurricanes in a single year. Espino notes that Christians earned a newfound respect after local churches helped repair the roofs of their non-Christian neighbors before fixing their own. It was a gesture of care that was not soon forgotten, in part because Cuban believers have continued to demonstrate that kind of concern in the years since.

And, in so doing, they offer an important example for believers everywhere.

“The gospel is relational”

Sometimes it can be easy to look at the gravity of the needs around us and feel overwhelmed. And that’s alright. Many of those needs are truly overwhelming and, to put it a bit cynically, there’s a reason Jesus told his disciples that they would always have the poor with them (Matthew 26:11).

But the lesson we should learn from our brothers and sisters in Cuba is that we don’t have to meet every need in order to make a tangible difference. Moreover, seldom will you be called to meet those needs alone.

Cuban believers, at their best, make a difference in their communities by working together. They try to model the kind of fellowship Luke describes at the end of Acts 2, where the believers devoted themselves to the study of God’s word, to sharing meals, to prayer, and to providing for the needs of those around to the extent that it was within their capacity to do so (Acts 2:42–46).

And the result is often the same today as it was two thousand years ago: “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

As Pastor Carlos Alamino of Proclaim Cuba described when he and his son were guests on the Denison Forum Podcast, “The gospel is relational . . . So if we are able to provide for a person, if we’re able to meet their needs, their hearts are going to be ready to receive the gospel.”

And the key is that they are not doing it alone. Carlos went on to describe how “if I close my eyes and I touch any part of the island, we have somebody there that we can call and do ministry with.”

Can you imagine how much more we could accomplish for God’s kingdom in America if we could say the same? Can you imagine how much more you could accomplish just in your city or your town if you could point to any part of your community and know that your finger would fall on someone you could “do ministry with”?

The best place to start toward that goal is to make sure you are willing to be that someone in your community.

While your role in the Body of Christ is essential, you can’t play that role well if you’re trying to do it by yourself. So don’t try. Instead, take some time today to ask God where he would like you to serve, then pray for people to serve with you in that capacity.

Let’s start right now.

• Note: If you would like to find out more about what God is doing in Cuba and how you can help, I encourage you to visit ProclaimCuba.org. There are a number of organizations doing God’s work on the island, and they’re a great place to start learning more.

Quote of the day: 

“If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done. God will use anybody if you’re available.”—Rick Warren

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A reflection on cultural engagement and personal transformation

NOTE: Iran has apparently conducted a significant cyberattack against a US company, a first since the war began. As more is known, I will provide an update on the war and a biblical response in an article on our website later this morning.

If you live where I live, you waited for the rain to end yesterday for hours on end. But it could be worse: people in the Northern Territory of Australia are being warned to stay out of rain-fueled rivers in their area because, as one official put it, “There are crocs absolutely everywhere.”

Social media in the region is filled with images and videos of crocodiles floating down streets and galloping across roads. Residents are being told to “assume any waterway may contain a crocodile.”

There’s your devotional thought for the day.

If you pay much attention to secular culture, you might feel the same way about the moral issues of our time. It seems you cannot watch a television show without meeting LGBTQ characters normalizing LGBTQ ideology. Advocates for “reproductive healthcare” (abortion) are active on every platform. Non-evangelicals view evangelicals in decidedly negative ways.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “There are crocs absolutely everywhere” →