This is a rather huge question. It is huge on the part of my fellow Christians who have been ordered to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us. Just in case you were wondering that comes from the text in 1Pet. 3:15, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,…” Why should someone consider Jesus and the Bible above any other mode of religiosity? Are there, or are there not 1,000 flavors to choose from? It’s no wonder why so many people choose one denomination over another. We view this overwhelming diversity of distinctives from one denomination to the next as a menu from which to choose based on our likes and dislikes. What church can I go to that won’t make me change too much? What line of thinking resonates with me the most? Are these fair questions? I’m sure they have run through our heads at one point or another right? It ran through my head for sure. The question however should be how can I come to know God? We should be prepared to do whatever it takes to know Him regardless of how much or little we have to change about our lives and thinking… This is huge for followers of Christ because souls hang in the balance. This is also a huge question for those who have yet to make a decision. On the other side of this life is an unknown that presents many possibilities each with no time limit. Heaven or Hell? What would it be like to be a citizen of Paradise for all of the forseeable future and beyond? What would it be like to be a citizen of Hell for eternity? Those questions should make you uncomfortable because we are discussing eternity as finite people. It is not enough for believers in Christ to give a testimony of what Jesus has done for me. That has been our approach for fifty years and it has given us some pretty dismal results. Why has Christianity been overlooked? I think it is because we have not asked ourselves the hard questions and come up with answers that bring us closer to making a choice for or against Christ. What I am about to propose to you is not a formula that proves Christianity in a tangible sense. At the end of the day you and I still come to the issue of faith because we cannot know to the nth degree. There is a realm of discovery for all of us at the time of death. It is up to you to consider all of the ancient writings that seem to give us a handle on the things of God. I ran across a piece that Ravi Zacharias did and it really is a great representation of the things we must consider so as not to enter into eternity blindly, or because we think we get to make it up as we go… So, why Christ and why the Bible?
First, I would say that I believe truth as a category does exist. Second, I would say that it is possible in a majority of claims of philosophical and historical statements to verify the truthfulness of those affirmations. I believe we must consider the nature of existential realities as well as those of philosophical realities. I have heard it said that, “Existentialism came into being as a response to the unpaid bills of philosophy.” Philosophy became so cerebral and the prospect of existentialism came in and sort of threw out the rationalistic way of interpreting things. This is a definition of existentialism…
Existentialism– noun. A philosophical movement centered on individual existence: A philosophical movement begun in the 19th century that denies that the universe has any intrinsic meaning or purpose. It requires people to take responsibility for their own actions and shape their own destinies.
We are trying to find the bridge between the mind and the heart. If you take the Bible as the question: Why the Bible and why not any other system of thought? You start with the scriptures and make some observations, “here are 66 books by nearly 40 authors, and written over 1500 years. There are books of :
History
Philosophical Thinking
Theological Thinking
Systematic Thinking
If the Bible made several assertions one after the other that you found to be false, either historically, or philosophically, or in the existential realm and you go further and further and if you see that kind of systemic failure and contradiction then you have reason to believe that, “I cannot really trust this document because it is not in keeping with the way I see history and reality.”
When you look at the scriptures, and by the way, the Bible is a very distinctive piece of literature compared to any other piece of religious scripture. Any Muslim will tell you that his book, the Quran, is word for word-perfect. It is a perfect revelation of Allah in the eye of the Muslim. They will affirm that again and again. That is why no translation will ever do justice. In their estimation of the Quran it is the perfect expression of Allah himself as dictated to Muhammad who recited it.
The Bible as we know it doesn’t affirm that verbal perfection. Are we really saying that no one word would have been better than another word in this volume of material? But, when you take the scriptures disclosed over 1500 years, 40 authors, 66 books and you see the prophetic schema, (Schema– noun, a. A diagram or plan showing the basic outline of something., b. An organizational or conceptual pattern in the mind.), all the way down to the person of Christ it begins to make sense. Let me give you an example:
Consider the book of Daniel. It was written in the late 500’s before Christ. When you study the book of Daniel you begin to see specifics of a fantastic prophesy. He talks about a massive empire that will come into being, and how it will be divided into 4, and that it will be guided by a “strident, strong he-goat from the west who will be marching several nations under foot. It shall be suddenly cut off and his kingdom will be divided into 4; those 4 become 2 and the 2 become 1… (Daniel 8:5-14+)
When you take the book of Daniel written in the late 500’s and put it pro forma, (Pro Forma- adj. Provided in advance: In order to serve as a model, e.g. of a later version of a document.),onto Alexander the Great in the 300’s before Christ you see the stridency of Alexander suddenly cut off in his 20’s. 4 kingdoms emerge given to his 4 generals, and those 4 come into 2, the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires. They are shown in history as uniting into 1 kingdom known as the Roman empire. Centuries before to be so specific in prophecy.
If you go to the book of Zechariah, prophecy describes the crucifixion of Christ. “They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and weep as a mother weeps for her only son…” Zechariah 12:10
Further, if you go to the prophecy of Isaiah you will see how the Christ is going to suffer. Immediately you see the supernatural and you take the miraculous element, you take the historic element, and if you look into the scriptures you will see that there is an authenticity to it, and it all points to one, perfect, person. The person of Christ.
Bruce Metzger, who is a scholar from Princeton said, “After you take the 20,000 lines in the New Testament, it is safe for any scholar to say that there is at least a 99.6% accuracy.” No ancient document, none, has the kind of documentary support the Bible has. There are over 5,000 documents in existence. In a 1988 Time Magazine article, Richard Ostling said, “One thing we cannot deny the Christians is the documentation available across the centuries.” Nothing in ancient literature matches it, not Homer, nor Aeschylus, or the Gallic Wars of Caesar.
In summation, when you have this kind of documentation, this kind of accuracy, that kind of person in the person of Christ, I think you have pretty compelling evidence to see why we need to take Christ seriously…
Beyond Mere Evidence 