Have you ever been in a witnessing situation and said, “Well, the Bible
says….”? Just then the person you are talking to says, “Yeah, but I don’t
believe the Bible. Science has proven that the Bible is just a collection of
fairy tales mixed in with some good moral teaching, but that’s all.”
What did you do then? If you are like many, if not most Christians, you
probably stuttered, flustered for awhile, said something about the corrupt
school system or tried to tell your personal testimony. Maybe you threw back
something you heard somewhere about The Shroud of Turin or Noah’s Ark claiming
these were incontrovertible proof only to have someone with more actual
knowledge of such “artifacts” shoot you down.
Don’t feel bad. You are not alone. Most of us are not taught to reason
carefully at all, and we are certainly not taught to be rational about our
faith. And today, we face not only atheists and agnostics, but those holding
to cults, Eastern Mysticism, and post-modern New Age philosophies. The
presumption that our great grandparents had of people generally accepting the
truth of the Bible, whether they were living by that truth or not, is gone.
Frankly, reading the secular writings of those times, I wonder if it was even
the dominant perspective then.
We need to be able to establish a reason for our faith and know exactly why we
can trust the Bible. There are three reasons for this: first, so that we can
answer critics; second, to quell honest doubts in the minds of seekers; and
third, to find personal assurance against the attacks of doubt the Enemy sends
our way.
Paul said that we should always be ready to give a defense of the hope that is
within us. That means that when someone argues that Christianity is not The
Truth or they say something a bit more politically correct like “Christianity
certainly teaches a fine moral code which we should all abide by. Whether the
Biblical accounts of historical events are accurate or not is irrelevant to
the moral teaching.”
Either way, this individual is denying the truth of Christianity. Unlike
Buddhism or Islam, the force of Christianity rests not in the teaching of a
prophet or teacher, but in a historical event: The Crucifixion and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that event, the moral teachings, fine as
they are, lack the power and the authority to change lives.
Thomas Jefferson sought to excise the Gospels of the miraculous. So, he took a
copy of the Bible and cut out all the accounts of the miraculous in the
Gospels and collected what was left in what has become known as The Jefferson
Bible. It is a very small book.
There are those who would attack scripture head on directly denying the
validity of scripture, and there are those who would smother it with powerless
praise. In those circumstances, Christians need to be able to say with
boldness, “Yes, the Bible is a book of moral principles, but it is also the
infallible Word of God, and inasmuch as it touches on matters of history and
physical science it is accurate. It can be trusted as well as revered.”
Some people do not come to Christ because they have honest rational doubts
about the reliability of the Bible. They are honest, moral, rational people.
They simply cannot get past the possibility that the scripture is not
factually accurate in terms of its history. After all, if the scripture is in
error over the resurrection, then it may well be in error about the atonement
as well. Doctrine and history are intertwined in scripture. And some people
need reassurance that scripture is accurate when it touches on historical
fact.
In this case, one is not defending scripture against an attack by a skeptic.
Instead, one is helping another person settle rational doubts about the
validity of scripture. This is a person who is much closer to salvation than
their conversation might indicate. Satan is using those reasonable doubts to
keep that person from actually evaluating the claims of Christianity. By
settling those doubts, you take away the smokescreen that Satan has created.
Hearing so many doubts expressed in the media and academia about the veracity
of scripture, it is easy to let those doubts creep into one’s own
consciousness. Even the Christian can begin to wonder, “Why do I believe the
Bible is the Word of God? Can it be trusted in matters of science and history?
Is it true or just a book of good moral teaching?”
When I was a child, my mother taught me to know what I believed and to be able
to establish it without using the Bible. She did this because she knew I would
be going to school, hearing about evolution and other subjects which were at
odds with Christian teaching. “You have to know how to defend your faith
without using the Bible,” She said, “because they don’t believe the Bible.”
But in the process I also grew stronger in my faith because I knew it was
built on objective verifiable fact. When I disagreed with my instructors, I
had their respect because I didn’t just fall back on “because the Bible says
so,” but I was able to use their own materials to challenge their theories.
And every time I did that, I was more convinced than ever of the truth of the
scripture.
The study of apologetics will not only make you a more effective witness for
Christ, it will also strengthen your own faith. In this series we will look at
the following topics:
The Resurrection: He is Risen, as He Said
Dating the New Testament
Evaluating Historical Evidence
The Basics of Argumentation or How to Disagree Rationally without being
Disagreeable.
Understanding the Skeptical Mind Set
The Evidence of Fulfilled Prophecy
The Evidence of Transformed Lives
.