The Evidence for Christianity

The Evidence for Christianity

https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1373-the-evidence-for-christianity

Can Science Identify the Intelligent Designer?

http://www.reasons.org/articles/can-science-identify-the-intelligent-designer

http://evidenceforchristianity.blogspot.com.br/2009/01/8-really-good-reasons-why-christianity.html

http://evidenceforchristianity.blogspot.com.br/2009/01/8-really-good-reasons-why-christianity.html#sthash.dvdZiffN.dpuf

The following are 8 really good reasons why Christianity is true.....

#1) The world around us reveals that God DOES exist. The following short videos were produced by an ex-atheist and ex-evolutionist who is a graduate of Yale Law School. These videos drive atheists and skeptics crazy, but for a more complete treatment of this topic, please read Strobel's excellent book entitled "The Case For A Creator":

http://www.leestrobel.com/Creator.htm

#2) The historical evidence reveals that Jesus Christ really did come to this earth:

http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/historicalev.htm

#3) There is overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ really did physically rise from the dead:

http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/05/resurrection-of-jesus-is-real.html

#4) All of these things about Jesus were prophetically foretold by God in the Bible with specificity:

http://www.xenos.org/teachings/topical/objections/daniel9.htm
(Click "Watch" to view the presentation)

and

http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/07/do-you-know-about-all-messianic.html

#5) There is massive evidence that Jesus is doing miracles in our day:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2575536377261580026&q=Raised+from+the+dead&hl=en

#6) There are thousands of stories of Jesus appearing to people all over the globe:

http://prorege-forum.com/messages/407.html

and

http://www.amightywind.com/fastfood/dreams/040723muslimdreams.htm

#7) Jesus is coming again and the signs of the end times that were foretold in the Bible are coming to pass right in front of our eyes:

http://shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/05/did-you-know-that-there-are-ancient.html

#Cool Credible witnesses have seen the afterlife and have come back and reported to us that it is precisely as the Bible describes:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=648912510964850987&q=hell&hl=en

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ElnQUVkWsQ

The truth is that the afterlife is very real, so make the right choice and give your life to Jesus Christ today:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8149875636555097567&q=Hell+and+Back&hl=en



http://carm.org/why-believe-christianity-over-all-other-religions

In a world of logic, reason and science, why do millions of people still follow a religion that is nearly 2000 years old? How can any faith compete with the collective knowledge and wisdom of modern society? Isn't it time to start demanding that religions either stand up to the rigors of intellectual investigation or be discarded in the name of progress?

Mankind has had greater advances in education and science over the past 100 years than ever before. Once upon a time the horse and buggy were cutting edge technology, but now we fly around in jet aircraft. Our knowledge of physics, astronomy and other sciences has absolutely exploded. So why does anyone still listen to an ancient religion that is thousands of years old?

Everywhere you go on the internet today, and I mean EVERYWHERE, there are debates going on about Christianity, and these debates can get incredibly heated. Some of the best minds and some of the best educated people in the world claim to have the answers. Atheists, skeptics, philosophers, preachers, bloggers and other self-appointed religious experts are constantly battling for the intellectual high ground.

So who is right?

Do logic, reason and modern science have anything to say about religion?

Can religion survive in an era when most of the people are educated and when many people look at religious claims with skepticism?

When skeptics attack most religions, they DO indeed have the intellectual high ground. For when one closely examines such "faiths" as Islam or Hinduism one does find that logic, reason and real, hard evidence are directly contradictory to these religious systems.

However, Christianity is the one faith that is different in this regard. It is our assertion that there is absolutely no conflict between Christianity and the truth.

If you make the decision to actually investigate these matters objectively, you will find that Christianity has a MOUNTAIN of evidence to support it. Those who have actually studied these things with an open mind know the truth.

Dr. Simon Greenleaf (Harvard University - one of the greatest professors of Law in U.S. history) once said: "According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history."

Have you ever spent much time wondering if Christianity is true or not?

Perhaps you should.

We have studied these matters for over 20 years, and we have come to the conclusion that after you have asked all the questions, and after you have done all the research, the evidence does lead to an overwhelming conclusion:

Christianity is true.

But the sad reality is that the vast majority of Christians do not know how to defend the Christian faith. Why? Because the church has done an absolutely MISERABLE job of teaching people about the evidence for Christianity. So when Christians come up against atheists, skeptics and self-appointed, know-it-all "experts" they don't know how to respond to their questions.

We would encourage all of you to investigate these matters for yourself. - See more at: http://evidenceforchristianity.blogspot.com.br/2009/01/8-really-good-reasons-why-christianity.html#sthash.dvdZiffN.dpuf


The best evidence I have that there is a God is this: Could a human being ever dream up a God so UNlike us - so UNselfish and so full of love for us that He would send His only Son to die for us to bring us back to Himself? All of the Greek and pagan gods acted just like humans or worse. But even if someone did dream up that kind of God, wouldn't they then feel compelled to present reasons why we deserved this kind of love and sacrifice? Would any human want to believe that we are not worthy and cannot ever become worthy? Would any human propose that we are helpless to change our sinful hearts? That we cannot produce any goodness of ourselves without God's power? Would a human being have any motive or reason to propose such helplessness and dependence upon God for everything? What gratification would there be in that? It is totally alien to our nature! Of all the religions in the world, only the Biblical true gospel so elevates God and lowers man, yet places an infinite worth on man and the teaches the glorious reality of God stooping to inhabit man and transform him. No human could have EVER dreamed this up! Why would he? No one could experience happiness believing this crazy thing unless God really did fill our hearts with Himself. And that is the greatest proof to me that God exists, and we did not invent Him.

http://www.rationalchristianity.net/only_way.html

How can Christians be so sure they're right and everyone else is wrong? Isn't that arrogant?

Logically, it's not possible for all the major world religions to be valid ways to God. As seen in the verses above, Christianity states that the God of the Bible is the only true God and salvation is only possible by accepting Christ as Savior and Lord. Judaism states that the God of the Torah/Old Testament is the only true God, but that Jesus is not the Messiah, putting it directly at odds with Christianity. Jesus either is the Messiah, or he is not. If he is, Judaism is not a valid way to God; if he is not, Christianity is not a valid way to God. The mutual exclusion only grows when other religions are added: Islam says that Allah is the only true God, and that anyone who says Christ is the Son of God will be condemned (Qur'an, 5:72, 9:30). Furthermore, if religions other than Christianity are valid ways to God, then one of Christianity's basic principles is false; in that case, can it still be said to be a valid, trustworthy religion? (See also 1 Cor 15:14-19.)

No matter what belief system you adopt, you will be saying that your system is right and that the billions of people who don't accept it are wrong. If Islam is correct, the billions of non-Muslims are wrong; if Orthodox Judaism is correct, the billions of Gentiles are wrong. If it is correct to approve of multiple belief systems because they're all valid ways of achieving spiritual enlightenment, the billions of Christians, Jews, Muslims and others who belive in exclusive religions are intolerant and therefore wrong.

How can Christians be sure their religion is the right one? Being born into a Christian family or growing up in a Christian community doesn't make one a Christian; culture and ethnicity don't determine one's relationship with God. Instead, people become Christians because they are convinced of the truth of Christianity and/or have had experiences with God - in short, they have good reasons for believing Christianity to be true. (See the testimonies of people who have become Christians.) Also, Christians are not saying that their personal ideas are true, but that the Christian God exists, and his words are true.

Furthermore, Christianity is unique among religions because it addresses the fact that we can never be good enough to be in the presence of a perfect, holy God. In order to be perfectly good, we would have to be doing good all the time. If we do something wrong, we can't undo it, and we can no longer be considered perfect. Nor can we do more good to make up for our wrongs, for perfection requires doing the most good possible at all times - we can't be more than perfect to make up for when we're less than perfect. Other religions teach that we can somehow do enough good to earn heaven or nirvana, but they don't address the fact that we continually make mistakes. Christianity teaches that our sins were paid for by Jesus' death on the cross, and that by accepting his payment and believing in him we can be forgiven; we don't have to earn our way into heaven, which is a good thing, because we can't do it. Christ is the only way to God, because without the forgiveness that comes through his death and resurrection, there's no way for us to be able to stand before a holy God.

Saying that Christianity is right does not mean that Christians themselves are right about everything, or that they are innately superior to non-Christians. What Christianity teaches is that both Christians and non-Christians "have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23) and need salvation, which comes only by the grace of God, not the individual's actions or merits (Eph 2:8-9, 1 Cor 1:26-31).

Christianity is intolerant of other beliefs

Is refusing to call a belief false always the right thing to do? For instance, is it right to say that racism and Nazism are simply alternate belief systems that we shouldn't pass judgment on, or should we condemn these beliefs as being morally wrong? If someone believes they have the right to rape or kill whomever they please, should we accept their beliefs as an alternate lifestyle, or denounce them? Tolerance is an admirable virtue in many circumstances, but tolerating wrong by refusing to say it's wrong is in itself wrong. If Christianity is true, then there is only one God and salvation comes only through Him, and religions that deny this are not merely alternate forms of spiritual expression, but systems of belief that prevent their adherents from obtaining salvation. If Christ is in fact the only way to God, then to claim that he's not is both false and dangerous. If someone has a fatal disease, telling them that they don't need to seek medical treatment is wrong. If someone can only have salvation by accepting Christ as their Savior, telling them they don't need to accept Christ is even more wrong, no matter how tolerant or well-meaning it may seem to be.

Christianity is exclusive - those outside the church aren't saved

First of all, would a religion that taught that everyone goes to heaven be a good religion? We would all like to think that we and our loved ones will go to heaven. Yet if everyone automatically goes to heaven, this includes evil people as well as good people. Should an unrepentant killer go to heaven? Should someone who enjoys torturing people, or who molests children and feels no guilt, go to heaven? If not, then there are cases when it's morally right for people to be excluded from heaven.

Christianity does not teach that only Christians deserve to go to heaven. Rather, it teaches that no one deserves to go to heaven, because we have all done wrong during our lives (Rom 3:23). We can gain admittance to heaven by repenting of our wrongs, accepting Jesus Christ's death as payment for our wrongs and deciding to follow and worship him as Lord. The principle is that Jesus is the only way to God, not any particular church or denomination (Jn 6:40). Thus, salvation is accessible to everyone and is intended by God for everyone:

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. (Is 45:22)

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone...This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men. (1 Tim 2:1, 3-6)

(See also Is 49:6, 52:10, Rev 5:9.) Indeed, there are people "from every nation, tribe, people and language" who will be saved (Rev 7:9). Thus, far from being exclusive, Christianity is inclusive. Anyone who chooses to accept Christ as Lord and Savior is a Christian and has equal standing with all other Christians before God.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:26-28)

http://www.bethinking.org/bible-jesus/intermediate/the-evidence-for-christianity.htm


The Bible is a catalog of fulfilled prophecies:

http://www.bibleevidences.com/prophecy.htm

   Perhaps the most compelling of evidences demonstrating that the Bible is the word of God is its unswerving ability to accurately predict future events, often in minute details. Specific prophesies are conspicuously absent from the 26 other religious books that claim to be scripture, including the Muslim's Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and Buddhist writings. This in itself should be a major eye-opener to the honest skeptic. God through the prophet Isaiah once challenged the pagan idolaters of that time to "tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods (Isaiah 41:23)."

Only God can 100% accurately foretell the future (omniscient).. it's how He validates the Bible to be true- through prophecies in it that have been proven to be true, 100% of the time...

   (Isaiah 46:9-10)  I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.



Israel's re-birth in 1948 was a miracle (dispersed for 2000 years, no common culture, language, or geography and there were numerous historical attempts to destroy Jews as a people group- by persecutions, pogroms, holocaust, and terror.  Any other people group would have disappeared and been assimilated into extinction; Jews retained their identity,  and came back to Israel- the land God promised them, and resurrected a long-dead language- Hebrew) -- a fulfilled promise from God:



Jeremiah 31:10 (written in 588 BC):

   “Hear the word of the Lord, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’

Jeremiah 29:14 (written in 588 BC):

   I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Ezekiel 11:17  (written between 593-571 BC):

   Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

Ezekiel 34:13 (written between 593-571 BC):

   I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.

Psalm 147:

   2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.

   3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

   4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.

   5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.



Coming Arab coalition war- Israel will win, Damascus will be forever destroyed:

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/does-bible-prophecy-foretell-the-destruction-of-damascus/

http://www.prophecydepot.net/2012/psalm-83-what-it-is-and-what-it-is-not-part-one/

http://www.walkingbyfaith.tv/media/single-media/575/

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2017:1-3&version=NIV

The sequence of wars to come:

http://tinyurl.com/opjpomh

http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_tribulation1.php



Coming Russian-Iranian war- Israel will win:

http://www.wnd.com/2008/09/76484/

http://www.lamblion.us/2008/12/is-ezekiel-38-39-armageddon.html



Fulfilled Tanakh prophecies concerning Yeshua/Jesus, including prophecies of His resurrection:

http://christianity.about.com/od/biblefactsandlists/a/Prophecies-Jesus.htm

http://www.thedevineevidence.com/prophecy_jesus.html

http://www.mayimhayim.org/Festivals/Feast11.htm

http://www.chosenpeople.com/main/holidays-and-festivals/752-prophecies-from-the-hebrew-scriptures-on-the-birth-of-messiah

http://www.chosenpeople.com/main/prophecy/228-seven-messianic-prophecies-fulfilled

http://www.proofthatgodexists.org/main.php

Greg explains how you can respond when a young person asks this question.

http://www.str.org/articles/how-do-you-know-christianity-is-true#.U8weibGO6h4

A friend of mine and someone who is very involved with Stand to Reason told me that she was asked by her son, "Why do we believe Christianity is true?" She had to pause for a minute. The reason she had to pause is that she had all of this information from being exposed to Stand to Reason and she had to sort through and decide what the best way was to communicate to her young son and answer his question.

It is possible to go into all kinds of lines of thinking about the authority of the Bible, about the necessity of the existence of God, about fulfilled prophecy, about the historical Jesus, about discussion of a philosophic nature--there are all kinds of different ways of approaching his question. I got to thinking about that myself, and I thought how I would answer that question from a youngster? What is the simplest, most direct way--without sacrificing the compelling nature of an argument--to answer this question? Why do I believe that Christianity is true?

Not only is it good to have an answer, a simple, direct but useful answer for someone who is younger and perhaps can't negotiate the details of a more philosophic and complex argument. And there happen to be a lot of other people who just aren't interested in that kind of thing. Even if they are adults, they aren't going to sit still long enough to listen to that kind of argument.

It reminded me of a time maybe six years ago when I was doing some speaking about witnessing on airplanes and how I explain the Gospel in a simple way. I gave my answer, I believe Christianity is true because Jesus said it was. Of course more follow up dialogue is important here, and I will show you in just a moment that there are some liabilities here. But there is something really cogent and powerful about this answer because what it does is remove all the responsibility from your shoulders to be the expert and the one who has all the answers. In fact, what it amounts to is an admission that we have to go to an expert to answer questions like this.

If a youngster would ask me a question like that I would say, “What do you do when you have a difficult question about an area you don't have a lot of knowledge of? Well, you come to your parents, right? Why would you come to ask me? Because you don't know something and you think that I might because I've been around longer and I have more knowledge. That is a wise thing to do.”

Of course, the question then is, “Does the person you go to have the qualifications to answer the question well?” That is why it is helpful to defer the question one more step. You can say, “You come to me because you think I know better, and I'll tell you how I solve this. I go to someone else that I think knows better than me. I seek out an expert, someone who has the qualifications to know what he is talking about in a given area--in this case, the area of spiritual truth.”

Simply put, I believe Christianity is true because Jesus said it was. Or to put it more precisely, Jesus said He was true. So I believe Jesus and Jesus' explanation of knowing God and understanding the spiritual realm, accessing the Father and being accepted by Him. Jesus' statement was that He had the truth, and I think Jesus had tremendous credibility. In other words, this is an argument by authority. The simplest way to answer the question is just to appeal to Jesus.

There is a liability that in the minds of many people what Jesus had to teach was open to vast interpretation. This can work against you unless you know how to handle that issue.

What's amazing to me is that most people actually have a respect for Jesus, they are very willing to quote Him when they think something that He said substantiates their own point of view. But when you call up Jesus, they object that that’s just your interpretation and no one can know for sure. Sometimes this is the case of the tail wagging the dog. Jesus isn't right because he agrees with you, you're right because you happen to agree with Him.

The liability in using Jesus as an authority is that you have to have a clear idea of what Jesus taught. You must understand something about the life of Jesus and his teachings in order to defer to Jesus' authority on these things. Most people genuinely look up to Jesus as some sort of spiritual and ethical authority. That is why it always mystifies me that those who quote Jesus almost have never given His life and His teachings a very thorough study. They sometimes end up attributing to Jesus sentiments that were exactly the opposite of what He taught.

If people are willing to quote Jesus as somebody who is an authority, doesn't it seem to make sense to be careful to quote not just Jesus' words, but Jesus' ideas. We can’t just pluck statements that Jesus made out of context to support our point of view. We undergird our point of view by referring back to Jesus as an authority, but that only works if we accurately understand what Jesus had to say. The only way we can do so is by studying the teachings of Jesus in some kind of systematic fashion. It's mystifying to me that so many people who quote Jesus in this fashion have not the slightest idea of what Jesus was all about and what He taught.

When you appeal to Jesus’ authority like that, the rejoinder you might get--and this represents the liability in presenting this kind of argument--is something like this: Who are you to say? That is just your own interpretation. It's an effective parry unless you know how to deal with it because this objection misses the point entirely.

My response is this: I am no one to say. That's the point. I am not speaking about spiritual things on my own authority. I am deferring to Jesus. I am not asking you to listen to my view of the truth. Jesus is the one who is the expert, so let's listen to Him.

What about the issue of it being your own interpretation? That is why we have to look closely at what Jesus said. I've studied Him for twenty some years. I've studied His teachings carefully. That doesn't mean that I understand everything accurately, but it strikes me that one who has given more consideration to the full body of Jesus' teachings in the context of the language, culture, and thinking of the time is more likely to give an accurate interpretation than someone who has given no thought whatsoever to it and is simply plucking sayings out of the sky hoping that it will substantiate his own point of view.

This brings us, by the way, to the goal of interpretation. The goal of interpretation is not to invent ideas that I can put into Jesus' mouth and then call it my interpretation. The goal of interpretation is to figure out what Jesus meant since He is the authority, not I.

This, by the way, is where the argument turns into a liability--not for me, since I've clarified now what we are trying to accomplish with interpretation and who the authority is, but it turns it into a liability for the objector. The reason is because Jesus' teaching is not all that hard. It certainly is not as hard as people make it out to be. It just takes a little attention.

Quite frankly, the real problem is that much of what Jesus taught is not only obvious, but so deeply offensive to the modern mind, that only the most benign and general of His teachings and moral principles can be seized upon without much threat. People who make these kinds of statements never seize on statements of the woes and judgment that will fall on those who reject Him and don't believe Him. Rather, they seize things like "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or, "You must have the faith of a child to enter the Kingdom of God." Or, "The Kingdom of God is within you." All these kind of mysterious, gentle, easy-going ideas that don't make a strong challenge to your moral choices.

Don’t forget the one that is quoted more often than anything other of Jesus' sayings: "Judge not, lest ye be judged." Of course, that is always brought up to get out from underneath the thumb of Jesus. They don't know where it is at or what it means, but it sounds like it gets them out of a fix. “Don't judge me.” That's what Jesus said. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus was among the most judgmental of all people if you look at the corpus of His teachings and His work, but He judged properly and appropriately.

Other than those simple sayings, virtually everything else that Jesus taught is so obviously an indictment that it is avoided, ignored, or dismissed as only your interpretation. The one strong sentiment that those who are non-believers do raise has to do with religious hypocrisy. Almost without exception, that statement of Jesus, rather than being a tool that they can use against Christians, becomes a weapon that God uses against them.

Curiously, people say to you, “Get out of here with your ‘Jesus only’ business. I'm not a sinner. I am not in need of salvation. I haven't done anything really wrong. You religious people, you are the people that Jesus squawked about. He was more on my side, like the people with the prostitutes, and the homosexuals, and all the down and out.” Jesus wasn't on their side. Jesus was against anyone who felt that they didn't need forgiveness because of their own sense of righteousness. Jesus aligned Himself with those who, because their unrighteousness was so obvious to them, were willing to reach out and ask for forgiveness.

How do I know Christianity is true? Jesus said it was. I think Jesus knows what He is talking about. He is the expert, not me. If you don't believe me, just read it. It's all there, plain as day.

The Titles of the Gospels in the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts
https://dacemirror.sci-hub.cc/journal-article/4d6d3d5fff8a55eb6171ec1f933f5731/gathercole2013.pdf

http://geekychristian.com/proof-christianity-is-true/