WHY BELIEVE IN JESUS?

A skeptic asked me:

·       If it was proved that your religion isn’t true, would you still remain a Christian?

My answer might surprise you. I answered “no!” But then I replied:

·       You are simply not aware of the volume of evidence – both personal (subjective) and objective – that I have for more convictions.

However, it sounds that I am placing reason and evidence above my devotion to Christ. No really! For one thing, truth is inseparable from God. God is truth, and so if the truth doesn’t agree with my convictions, then my convictions are not of God.

For another thing, the Bible, in many ways, instructs us to only accept claims on the basis of enough supporting evidence. Relying upon the Mosaic principle of multiple witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30; John 8:17), Jesus instructed:

·       “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” (Matthew 18:15-16; ESV; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Hebrews 12:28)

Similarly, the Jews at the Berean synagogue didn’t receive Paul’s preaching until they searched the Word of God for evidential verification. About these skeptics, Scripture testified:

·       Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

They were commended because they didn’t simple accept Paul’s preaching but sought to determine if it conformed to the truth of Scripture.

However, does this principle also pertain to our relationship with our Savior? Jesus claimed that it did. He even counseled against blind faith:

·       If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37-38)

Nor should we believe in Jesus without the evidential support. Elsewhere, Jesus again counseled against an evidence-less faith:

·       If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. (John 5:31-33)

Jesus then recapped other forms of supportive evidences including the testimony of the Father and of Scripture and His miracles.

Scripture never asks us to take a leap into the darkness but to take a step into the light of evidences – reasons for the faith.

Here’s why this is so important:

1.    Many believe that the Faith is just about a blind leap. Consequently, many Christians run away from the mind instead of making use of it to defend the Faith (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3). Nor do they meditate on the Word day and night to glean the reasons in support of the Faith.

2.    Skeptics criticize the Faith as mindless and without solid reasons to believe. We need to show them otherwise so they will not reject the Faith.

3.    There is a joy, satisfaction, and confidence that we derive by seeing that our minds are telling us the same things that our heart is telling us. Consequently, we become eager to evangelize and to shed the light, and there is great joy in doing this.

MY SUGGESTION: Devote yourselves to Scripture. In them, there are abundant reasons to believe.