[6 minute read]
[From the book: “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist” by Geisler and Turek]. crossexamined.org
To substantiate that Christianity is true, we need only examine four questions:
Does Truth Exist? Does God Exist? Are Miracles Possible? Is the New Testament Historically Reliable?
Does Truth Exist?
RR Tactic
When people make claims that are contrary to Christianity, you can often detect flaws in those claims by using “The Road Runner Tactic.”
The RR Tactic shows that many claims against Christianity are logically self-defeating. It turns a claim on itself to see if the claim meets its own standard.
For example, if someone says, “There is no truth!” then you should turn the claim on itself by asking, “It that true?”
Notice: The claim doesn’t meet its own standard- “there is no truth!” is actually a truth claim. It claims to be true that there is no truth! It’s like saying “I can’t speak a word in English!” It violates the law of non-contradiction, so it can’t be true.
Relativism is self-defeating.
Relativism is the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.
Some Say, “All Truth is Relative!”
Is that a relative truth?
No, it’s an absolute truth. In fact, there are no relative truths. All truth is absolute. Someone might say, “I feel warm right now, but people in Alaska feel cold. That’s a relative truth.” No, it’s not. If it’s really true that you feel warm, then it’s absolutely true for all people, at all times, in all places that you feel warm right now. It doesn’t matter what the people in Alaska feel.
Since you’re the referent, it’s true regardless of what others are feeling.
Some Say, “All Truth Comes from Science!”
Does that truth come from science? No, the claim is self-defeating because it’s not a scientific truth- it’s a philosophical claim. Science requires philosophy. You can’t prove the rules of science or the tools of science (such as laws of logic, the law of causality, or the reliability of observation) by running some kind of experiment. You have to assume those things are true in order to do the experiment!
Moreover, the data one gets from science needs to be interpreted. Data doesn’t interpret itself. In fact, science doesn’t say anything- scientists do. If scientists philosophically rule out intelligent causes before they look at the evidence, is it any wonder they always interpret the data to arrive at a natural cause?
Most Important Question
This is one of the most important questions you can ask someone who isn’t a Christian: “If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?”
If the person hesitates or answers “NO,” you probably won’t make much progress offering evidence. That person doesn’t want Christianity to be true, so no amount of evidence will convince him or her.
Does God Exist?
Evidence For God
Let’s take a look a just three of many arguments for the existence of God. We know God by His effects. When we see effects such as the universe, design, or objective morality, we reason back to a cause.
Three of the major effects of God are: the beginning of the universe (the cosmological argument), the fine-tuning of the universe and the design of life (the teleological argument), and the existence of objective moral values and obligations (the moral argument).
Cosmological Argument
The scientific evidence shows that space, time and matter exploded into being out of literally nothing.
The impossibility of an infinite regress of time also shows that time had a beginning.
If there were an infinite number of days before today, then today would never had gotten here. Since today is here, there were only a finite number of days before today, which means that time had a beginning.
Since space, time and matter had a beginning, then the cause must be something beyond space, time and matter. In other words, there must be a spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, personal and intelligent cause beyond the universe that brought the universe into existence. These are some of the attributes of a theistic God. (which means that God is a personal being with a sustaining, loving relationship with his human creations)
Teleological Argument
Teleology is the branch of causality that explains something by its purpose or goal, as opposed to its cause.
Several physical aspects of the universe (such as the expansion rate, gravitational force, the electromagnetic force) are highly fine-tuned for life to exist here on earth.
If any one of them were different by a infinitesimal amount (such as one part in 10 to the 50th power), life would not exist.
In other words, the Big Bang was not a scattered explosion of pre-existing material, but a highly fine-tuned, guided creation event that continues to be guided to this day.
Moral Argument
If there is one action that is objectively morally wrong- such as torturing babies for fun, or murdering 6 million people in the Holocaust- then God exists. Why?
Because only an unchanging moral being whose nature is the standard of Goodness can provide unchanging moral laws and obligations that are binding on human beings. Without the objective standard known as God’s nature, everything would be just a matter of human opinion.
Hitler, Stalin, child murderers, pedophiles, rapists, cannibals, etc., would not be morally any different that Mother Teresa.
Are Miracles Possible?
Evidence For The Greatest Miracle
What’s the greatest miracle in the Bible?
The greatest miracle in the Bible is the very first verse, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). If that verse is true, then every other miracle in the Bible is certainly possible. Even atheists admit the data for the greatest miracle: that the universe had a beginning.
If God exists, then miracles are possible. The God that created natural laws can certainly overpower them. In fact, natural laws are just descriptions of what normally happens when no one intervenes. But if an outside agent intervenes, then natural laws can be overpowered. Gravity will keep a rock on the ground, unless an agent intervenes and picks it up.
Do Miracles Happen Today?
Atheists say no. But how do they know that? Does that mean miracles couldn’t have happened in the past? We’re actually living in a miracle right now. The universe is a grand miracle! The scientific and philosophical evidence points to the fact that the universe was created out of nothing.
But even if there haven’t been any miracles since Jesus and the apostles, Christianity is still true. It doesn’t depend on modern day miracles.
The central purpose of miracles in the Bible is to confirm that someone who says that they have new revelation is really getting it from God. The miracle confirms the message. The sign confirms the sermon.
Since God is not providing us with new revelation today, there may be no need for miracle today. Of course, God can do a miracle any time He wants. But the central purpose for miracles may have passed with the closing of the canon; God’s Word is complete.
And even if miracles do occur today, you shouldn’t expect to see many of them. Why? Because miracles must be rare to get our attention. If resurrections, for example, occurred all the time, Christ’s resurrection would mean nothing to us. It wouldn’t confirm the unique essential claim that Jesus is God.
Miracles Are Rare in the Bible
In fact, even in the Bible miracles are relatively rare. There are approximately 250 occurrences of miracles in the Bible.
From Abraham to the apostles is about 2,000 years. If you were to spread those miracles out evenly, there would be one miracle every eight years (and even less frequent for miracles done before crowds). Of course, miracles did not occur every eight years- they occurred in bunches. The main point is that miracles are still rare, even in the Bible. Most of the events in the Bible were natural, regular events like they are today, which enabled miracles to stand out when they occurred.
Is The New Testament Historically Reliable?
Historical Truth
There are several reasons for believing that the New Testament writers told the truth. The documents were written early by eyewitnesses who included embarrassing details that they never would have invented. There’s also evidence from archeology and non-Christian writers that corroborate their claims.
However, Christianity would be true even if the New Testament was never written. How so? Because Christianity did not originate in a book. Christianity originated with an event- the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
While we wouldn’t know much about Christianity if the reports of the Resurrection had never been written, the Resurrection preceded the reports. There were thousands of Christians before a line of the New Testament had been written. Indeed, Paul became a Christian before he wrote a word of the New Testament. So did Matthew, John, James, Peter, etc. Why? Not because they had read a book, but because they had witnessed the resurrected Jesus.
And these people had no motive to make the story up. In fact, they had every motive to say it wasn’t true! All of the New Testament writers (except Luke), were observant Jews who would pay dearly for proclaiming the Resurrection. Why would people who thought they were God’s chosen people for 2000 years invent a Resurrection story that would get them excommunicated from the “chosen people” club, and then beaten, tortured and murdered?
Answer: They wouldn’t. They were believers in Yahweh who never expected a resurrected Messiah. Yet they proclaimed it, altered their lives and religion because of it, despite the fact that doing any of that would likely get them killed.
What About Alleged Bible Errors?
Some people point out apparent contradictions and differences in the Gospels which supposedly invalidate them as reliable historical sources for the life of Jesus. In reality, however, these supposed “contradictions” actually indicate authenticity as genuine eyewitnesses would record slightly differing accounts of the same events.
Genuine eyewitnesses of any event usually agree on the central facts of the story and diverge over the details. All of the New Testament writers agree on the central fact that Jesus rose from the dead, but they didn’t collude to smooth out every detail. So even if one could find real contradictions in the details, that wouldn’t mean Christianity is false. Indeed, if Jesus rose from the dead then Christianity is true!
IF THE ANSWER IS YES TO THESE FOUR QUESTIONS, THEN WE HAVE A GOOD REASON TO BELIEVE THE ENTIRE BIBLE IS TRUE.
For all the details, get the book “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist” by Geisler and Turek. Go to crossexamined.org for great articles and the CrossExamined YouTube Channel for hundreds of short Q & A videos.
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