How do you feel it changed the world (as you say, if true)? This is more my question about the Resurrection. We can speculate all day about the historical reliability of various texts, etc., and it can be fun. 
But what’s it supposed to mean, anyway? Paul noted I believe, take away the Resurrection and Christianity fails. Why? If God hadn’t decided to go that way, what would change? What’s the importance?
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Good question @John_Dalton.
Does this start to make sense of it? Why the Resurrection Changes Everything
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Maybe a bit 
My summary:
- Paul says it matters.
- We’re making a mistake if it isn’t true.
- Paul says it was for our “justification”.
It’s a sign of God’s approval of Christ’s death.
None of these reasons strike me as especially meaningful.
- It gives assurance and hope of the afterlife.
This occurred to me, and even if I’m not exactly overwhelmed by it, I understand it more. At the end of the day, whatever I think about it, if you as a Christian tell me that assurance is valuable to you, I can hardly tell you you’re wrong. Having said that it doesn’t seem to me that the Resurrection would be really essential in its importance to achieve that end. There should be other ways of getting that message across. But I could be wrong about that. Maybe it was an essential element for Christianity to spread. On the other other hand, that spread hasn’t been universal. It’s not convincing to many. And the element could be equally effective even if Christianity is false.
My quick answer. It’s not so much that he couldn’t have decided to go another way. The if and why behind that decision is above our human ability to answer.
But given that’s the way he decided to go. The resurrection is the ultimate proof he is God. If he’s not God, well then to paraphrase Paul, Christian’s are a bunch of silly fools for following Jesus.
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It goes farther than this @John_Dalton. Many of them, and even some of us, have given up quite a bit to follow Jesus. We know people who have risked their lives, and even lost their lives. This is not only to share the Gospel with people, but also to do truly good things that you also would admire. If the Resurrection is a false hope, then they are making a bad trade. We are too.
The Resurrection is evidence that God can raise us from the dead, physically and literally, and we take his promise that he will one day do just this. This was evidence that early Christians looked to when they faced death.
I often point @patrick (and others to this video by Stanley Hauerwaus, one of the greatest living theologians:
He is a pacifist, and wants to pursue a type of goodness that could only be possible if the Resurrection is true. The only way it is possible rationally to pursue goodness of this sort, it seems, is if there is a good God that can redeem even ultimate sacrifices.
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