THE LIMITS OF PROOFS AND EVEN OF MIRACLES

When a militant atheist feels like he has been backed against the wall, he pulls out his trump-card – “Well, prove that God exists.”

Don’t be tempted by the bait. You will never be able to provide the militant with a proof that he will accept. You might even ask him, “What type of evidence would you find satisfying?”

He might respond, “If God exists, I want him to appear to me right now.” However, not even such a miraculous appearance will make any difference. The late author and scholar, C.S. Lewis, recounts an interesting story:

·       One person…claimed to have seen a ghost. It was a woman; and the interesting thing is that she disbelieved in the immortality of the soul before seeing the ghost and still disbelieves after having seen it. She thinks it was a hallucination. (God in the Dock, “Miracles,” 25)

From this, Lewis concluded that “seeing is not believing.” Why not?

·       Whatever experiences we may have, we shall not regard them as miraculous if we already hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural…We can always say we have been the victims of an illusion; if we disbelieve in the supernatural this is what we always shall say. (25)

Lewis took this principle a step further:

·       If the modern materialist saw with his own eyes the heavens rolled up and the great white throne appearing, if he had the sensation of being himself hurled into the Lake of Fire, he would continue forever, in that lake itself, to regard this experience as an illusion and to find the explanation of it in psycho-analysis, or cerebral pathology. (25)

However, the resistance to the facts of our direct sensory perception is even worse than this. Years ago at a family get-together, we – all of us were either agnostic or atheistic --      stood spell-bound for an hour at the sight of our two little girl-cousins doing the Ouiji Board. The girls were spooked by this Board, and it required a lot of adult persuasion and reassurances to get them to perform. Here are the facts about which we all agreed:

1.    Even blindfolded, the disk scurried around the Board spelling out adult words with adult thoughts and personalities. None of us suspected any deception on the part of the girls.

2.    The girls came up with answers that they were naturally incapable of knowing.

3.    None of us suspected that what we were viewing was illusory or the product of an hallucination. We were all seeing and hearing the same things, even for an hour.

Over the years, I have asked my skeptical family what they had concluded from what they had seen. None had a natural explanation or would try to ascribe what they had seen to an hallucination. However, what they had seen made no impact on their worldview. As Lewis had stated, “Seeing is not believing,” even if no alternative explanation is available.

I don’t think that we can clearly comprehend humanity’s hatred of the facts. Nor can we fathom the depth of our own aversion to the light of truth. However, this is the uniform revelation of Scripture. Jesus also pronounced this very verdict against humanity:

·       And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19-20; ESV)

For many reasons, it is important for us to grasp this truth. For one thing, we need to understand from what depths we have been rescued. For another thing, we need to understand the world. They are really not whom they seem to be. Apart from the grace of God, they are lovers of darkness and have been taken captive by what they love:

·       And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

Originally, we were not pawns of Satan. Instead, we had been “captured.”

Because we had been enemies of the truth (Romans 5:8-10), more was needed besides proper argumentation and even love to secure our freedom. God had to grant us a new heart and mind so that we could receive the truth, “come to [our] senses,” and escape our bondage.

If we fail to grasp the fact that this is a supernatural battle, we will become very frustrated with the skeptic and even with our own evangelistic efforts. However, when we are able to perceive the great extent and dimensions of the battle, we realize on Whom we must rely.

Consequently, the primarily battle for the mind is not waged against flesh and blood but against the devil himself:

·       Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:11-12)

But this doesn’t mean that we are just innocent pawns in a cosmic battle. Instead, we have willingly and culpably given ourselves over to the powers of darkness:

·       Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

Why have they given themselves over to the darkness? Because of “their hardness of heart!” We have rejected God and have devoted ourselves to our own desires. As a result of this, God has given us over to the blinding influence of these desires (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). And so, only the Lord can rescue us.

This means that we have to be patient and gentle with the skeptic.

APOLOGETICS: PROVIDING REASONS TO BELIEVE

How important is apologetics. According to the late defender of the Christian faith, C.S. Lewis, it’s very important:

·       Nearly everyone I know who has embraced Christianity in adult life has been influenced by what seemed to him to be at least probable arguments for Theism…Even quite uneducated people who have been Christians all their lives not infrequently appeal to some simplified form of the Argument from Design. (God in the Dock, 173)

This doesn’t mean that we are saved through a good argument. Instead, Lewis’ observations testify to the fact that God uses evidences to save and to build His Church. In fact, the Bible records many instances of this:

·       He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

The Apostles had abandoned their faith and needed these proofs, and so do we.

APOLOGETICS: A MODERN ENLIGHTENMENT ABERRATION?

In “The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context,” Myron B. Penner writes that our apologetics is a “modern” aberration, an unfortunate outgrowth of the rationalistic Enlightenment:

• The modern apologetic enterprise so many Christians engage in is a bankrupt venture, a kind of false messiah, and considers what this might mean for Christian witness and discourse.

Penner even argues that our rationalistic apologetic efforts fail to even represent Christianity:

• So it is that many attempts to articulate the reasonableness of Christian faith in our context paradoxically end up doing something different than defending genuine Christianity. 

Well, what does genuine Christianity look like? How do we decide this issue? From Scripture! Jesus was all about rational, evidentially-based apologetics. He even instructed His followers to NOT believe Him if His words weren’t backed by the evidence. He then cited the supporting evidence – Scripture, miracles, and the testimonies of John the Baptist and of the Father (John 5:31-37).

Apologetics takes what is certain and uses it to prove what is less certain – Jesus’ own testimony. This might sound unbiblical. After all, how could we regard Jesus’ testimony as uncertain? Without evidential support, it was to be regarded as uncertain. In this, Jesus was merely echoing the Old Testament assertion that everything had to be established by two or more witnesses (Deut. 19:15).

Seeking evidential confirmation might seem like the rationalism of the Enlightenment, but it is also very Scriptural. Jesus routinely quoted Scripture in support of His own teaching, invoking the certain to prove what was regarded by His audience as uncertain.

When asked about divorce, He didn’t simply give His opinion, He engaged in apologetics by citing the Scriptural evidence:

• He [Jesus] answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female [Gen. 1:26-27], and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ [Gen. 2:24]!  So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

The Bible is imprinted with apologetics. The Bereans were not satisfied with what they had heard from Paul. They checked it against Scripture, and Scripture commends them for exercising apologetic discernment (Acts 17:10).

Meanwhile, Paul would enter into the synagogues and rationally reason with them from Scripture:

• Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. (Acts 17:2-4)

• And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. (Acts 18:4)

Was Paul’s tactics a reflection of “genuine Christianity?” Apparently so! Many were persuaded through his “enlightenment” tactics.

While some of Penner’s brethren argue that Jesus’ ministry was all about proclamation and not rational proofs, Jesus wouldn’t have agreed with this. Instead, He was always ready to provide rational reasons for their faith:

• "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.” (John 14:28-29) 

Jesus never directed His followers to, “Just believe.” After his imprisonment, John the Baptist was experiencing a crisis of faith. He therefore sent his disciples to Jesus to ascertain if He was truly the Messiah. Jesus could simply have answered them, “Just tell John that being my disciple has nothing to do with rational, evidential proofs but of just having faith.” Instead, He directed them to the evidences:

• Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised…” (Matthew 11:4-5) 

This raises another issue. Penner is convinced that our apologetic efforts are bankrupt in terms of winning others to the Lord. However, this is only a secondary aspect of apologetics. First of all, we need to know why we believe. John needed to know, and he was given reasons for his faith. The Apostles also needed to know. Following the Crucifixion, they had abandoned their faith and were hiding. What then turned them around to the point that they were willing to die for this faith that they had now rejected? Apologetics – the evidences, proofs, the reasons to believe:

• After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

We too experience trials and doubts and need evidential reassurance about what we have believed.

It can even be argued that the entire biblical message is underpinned by apologetics – the reasons to believe. Moses explained to the Israelites that they had no reason to not follow God. They had seen the evidence of His love and deliverance from Egypt:

• Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. (Deuteronomy 4:33-36)

All of Peter’s sermons were apologetic in nature. They not only stated what to believe but also why to believe. In his first sermon, upon the creation of the Church, Peter had to explain that speaking in tongues was not a product of drunkenness but of what Scripture had precisely promised. Peter first cited the evidence from Joel’s prophecy:

• "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” (Acts 2:17-21)

The rest of Peter’s sermon consisted of the Scriptural evidence Peter brought forth in  defense of the Gospel.

Enlightenment rationalism? Perhaps, but it is Scripture nevertheless. And it has served me well! As someone who always second-guessed himself, battered by one doubt after another, I needed the confidence and stability that only knowing the truth could give me. This confidence came only through a careful examination of the evidence.

There is a joy in believing. However, it only came slowly as God led me to examine the reasons for my wobbling faith. I can only thank God that He has been my tutor and not Penner and the hordes of postmodern thinkers.

The Miracle of Salvation and why the World Refuses it

We apologists must never forget that salvation is a Divine and supernatural gift. Forgetting this will lead to frustration and ruffled feelings.

My brothers are both atheists, although they sometimes call themselves “agnostics.” We can agree about many things – family matters, people, the injustice in the world. We can even evaluate evidences together. We were together able to agree about funeral arrangements for dad, the need to cut down the old tree that seemed to be leaning threateningly towards the house of our childhood, and the need for various house repairs.

However, when it comes to evaluating the evidences for the existence of God, we encounter irresolvable and monumental differences. While I see the evidences for God all around me and even within me, they remain unimpressed. While I see uttering compelling evidences, they see a complete absence of evidence. How can we explain this disconnect?

Interestingly, this is the very disconnect to which the Bible frequently eludes:

• The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)

Elsewhere, Paul writes that although we all have incontestable evidences of God, we reject them:

• The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20) 

According to Paul, the evidence is so clear that we can have no rational excuse for not believing in God. Therefore, the problem of disbelief is not about a lack of evidence but rather a hatred of the evidence. We hate the light because it reveals what we are all about (John 3:19-20).

This truth is highly offensive. It informs us that we don’t believe because we don’t want to believe – that we have access to the light but hate the light. This revelation contradicts our entire worldview and self-concept. We have a lot invested in the belief that we are good and deserving people who really want the truth. However, the Biblical revelation tells us the exact opposite.

We must not underestimate the importance of self-image. In both the movie and the play, Les Miserables, Lieutenant Javier strongly identified justice - law and its enforcement. He saw himself as a pillar of truth and righteousness. He therefore relentlessly pursued the parole-breaker Jean Val Jean. However, an understanding of grace was completely foreign to his worldview and self-concept. Therefore, when confronted by grace, his worldview was so shaken that he committed suicide rather than attempting to embrace it into his self-righteous self-concept.

Judas was somewhat different. He wasn’t a law-keeper but a thief. Nevertheless, he too refused to receive grace and forgiveness. After he had betrayed Jesus, he knew he betrayed a righteous man. Instead of receiving the grace that he had witnessed at Jesus’ side for the previous three years, he was determined to atone for his own sins and kill himself.

Why did not Judas cry out for forgiveness? Why did he take matters into his own hand? Why was he willing to pay such a high price for his sins, when salvation was only a confession away? He hated the light and rejected it.

Years ago, I would take my Sunday School classes into nursing homes to sing and pray for the residents. I marveled at the fact that so few of the elderly were willing to attend our gathering. Some even had no one to visit them. Wouldn’t the company of my young students have been a welcome comfort to them? What did they have to loose? It would cost them nothing! Why were they depriving themselves? For years, they had hated the light and could no longer tolerate it.

I still marvel at these things. Although the Bible prepares us for the fact that humanity hates the light and also those who bear that light (John 15:18-20; 16:1-2), we still ask ourselves, “What did I do wrong. There must be some reason that the world hates us. There must be some reason why I can’t get through to them.”

Blind Faith, Beleaguered Life

Many Christians are missing-in-action. They flee any argumentation – any controversy, conflict - because they are not prepared for it. They don’t know how to defend the faith (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3).

Why not? For one thing these fideistic Christians do not believe that there is a rational and evidential basis for the faith. They will claim that Christianity is a matter of faith and not fact – a leap into the darkness.

Interestingly, in this they are unwitting bed-fellows with the secularists and atheists who argue that the Christian faith must remain in the churches, because public discourse should be a matter of facts, evidences, and rationality instead of the myths of faith.

The fideistic Christian will cite Hebrews to support their position:

• Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1; NKJV)

From this, they will argue that the “evidence for Christianity is merely a matter of blind faith, unsupported by facts. Indeed, there are times that we must walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” where we can’t see where we’re going, where our only hope is in our Savior.

Abraham had found himself in this situation on many occasions. Paul wrote:

• [Abraham] who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. (Romans 4:18-19)

Faith in the promise of God was his only “evidence” that Sarah would bear him a child. The evidence of nature would not support Abraham’s confidence in this matter. Physically speaking, Sarah no longer had the ability to bear children.

However, Abraham was not bereft of solid evidence supporting his faith in God. By this point in his life, he had seen, on many occasions, God work miraculously on his behalf. He had even met and dinned with Him (Gen. 18, 19). He knew God, and this belief was supported by the events of his life. Therefore, although faith didn’t come easily to him, Abraham had a sound basis for his faith in God. Therefore Hebrews reads:

• By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Abraham didn’t know how God would make good on His promise to bless the world through Isaac, but he “reasoned” that He most definitely would! Based on what did Abraham so reason? On the evidence! What evidence? The evidence of his experiences and encounters with God! Abraham had an evidential foundation for his faith, even as he was walking through the darkness illuminated by faith alone. But his faith wasn’t alone! Reason was holding its hand. Indeed, we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), but this can be a faith rich in evidential support! It has reasons to believe.

What are the consequences of a blind faith that lacks evidences and proofs? Many:

1. No confidence or assurance! They have no more reason to place their faith in the Koran than in the Bible.

2. Marginalization. They will not be able to answer anyone who questions them about their faith (1 Peter 3:15).

3. Evangelism. They will not be able to explain to anyone why they should trust in Christ. The Muslim or Buddhist will understandably ask, “Why should I give up my faith for yours?”

Instead, the Bible says much about the evidences and proofs that support the faith. Here are just a few verses:

1. Testimonial Evidence. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

2. Fulfilled Prophecies. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. (John 14:29)

3. Miracles. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

For many years, I was tortured by my skepticism – my weakness of faith. However, through studying the supporting evidences, the Lord has given me a confidence and a joy in believing that I had never had. To Him be the glory!