Evidence

Amidst my ponderings of the continued ebb (just ebb, no flow) of Christianity's moral and cultural influence in the United States especially in light of Election 2012, I kept hearing folks quoting G. K. Chesterton in various contexts. He said in his usual blunt manner,

"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting;
it has been found difficult and not tried."

Makes sense. When I can scratch any itch in 50 million different ways and when my government will not hold me culpable for my bad decisions but will continue to provide me the sticks for my itch scratching, why should I consider a religion that appears to have run its course? Many folks still consider Jesus a pretty decent philosopher for his day, but did he really intend for Paul to go so far as to have wives submit to husbands? This is the 21st century, after all. And what did Jesus mean anyway when he suggested plucking our eyes over lust? Really? So rather than pursue and investigate, we're content to pluck passages from their contexts rather than our eyes.* Christianity is labeled ridiculous, and its adherents are painted as uneducated, flat-earth, science-damning hillbillies. It's much easier to dismiss someone with the sweep of an insult that to examine their arguments.

But here's the problem: the Bible is true.

Because of the easy dismissals and primary-colored caricatures, few today wade into the deep waters of biblical claims to investigate for themselves. Biblical study is unsettling. It's difficult. And like Augustine near 1700 years ago, the agony one encounters as he comes face to face with the truth becomes unbearable for he must answer the question "If it is true, shall I live the rest of my life in the delusion of my own will, or shall I pursue the One who has created me for his good purpose and given all that I might be restored in relationship to him?"

So let me throw out a few reasons you might consider that point to the cornerstone truth that, yes, Jesus Christ is your Savior, your God, and your King.

1) THE TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES. Matthew and John, two of the gospel** writers, were among the twelve of Jesus closest followers, and they recorded the relevant happenings of Jesus' life and ministry. The earliest extra-biblical testimonies credit these writings as those of these men despite the attempts of modern scholars to push the writings beyond the time of these men. Mark, while not a disciple of Christ, became a close assistant first to Paul and Barnabas and ultimately to Peter in Rome. If anybody knew Jesus, it was Peter. Lastly, as Paul emphasized the importance of the resurrection of Jesus to the church at Corinth, Greece, he indicated that there were 500 folks who saw the risen Jesus at one time and many of them were still alive to corroborate the account.

2) INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING. Luke was not a disciple of Jesus during his earthly ministry and perhaps never saw him. He was a physician by trade and from the manner and style of his writing, he was a well-educated man. In his bio of Christ, he scoured the testimonies of those still alive, he separated the wheat from the chaff, and attempted to present the most accurate account he could to a friend of his, Theophilus, that he might have certainty about the things he was taught (Luke 1:1-4). In the book of Acts, the book immediately following the four gospels, he provides one of the most geographically detailed accounts of the Mediterranean region and of first century seafaring in his account of the spread of the early church.

3) FULFILLED PROPHECY. To Blaise Pascal, this was the most compelling aspect of the entire Bible. No other religion so audaciously hangs its existence on things to come. It was a keynote to Israel that God had actually spoken through specific men.

Isaiah 45:21 - "Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me."
Isaiah 48:3 - "The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass."
Isaiah 48:5 - "I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’"

Because prophetic fulfillment is one of the most compelling aspects of the entire Bible as the previous verses show that God intended it to be so, scholars have gone through the contortions of a Chinese acrobat to move the writings of the Bible all centuries later than the Bible itself indicates. They believe that because prophecy ranks with the supernatural, it cannot be. Therefore what had to have happened is religious leaders took the events of the day, events that had taken place, and they wrote prophetic stories to make it look like they had been fulfilled, that God loves his people, and that he can see the end from the beginning. The gymnastics required to neuter prophecies pales in comparison with the lies required to post-write prophecies. Any child knows the difficulty of maintaining a single lie. Now imagine trying to maintain the thousand of fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled prophecies. Such deception cannot be historically substantiated.

As one reads through the gospel of Matthew, you can't help but notice his emphasis on the sheer number of prophecies that Jesus Christ's advent fulfilled, a few he could have tried to fulfill to try and make people believe he was the Christ (i.e. riding into Jerusalem on a donkey) but most he had no control over (his place of his birth, the means of his death, and the events surrounding that event to name a paltry few).

The evidence for the veracity of the Bible is overwhelming. But will we take the time to read and assess what it says for ourselves? As Chesterton notes, few are willing to wade in past the preconceptions and challenges to glean the truth. Perhaps today you might consider taking a challenge from the very lips of God, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). As Augustine discovered, it's a life-altering consideration.

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* I have to do it because some will take me out of context. I am NOT advocating eye-plucking for those struggling with lust. Hyperbole, people. Jesus had figures of speech mastered.

** Many do not know any longer what a "gospel" is. The word means good news. What have become known as the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible. Even "New" Testament is something of a misnomer. Rather than Old and New, consider them the first and second Testaments, or as we would say, Part I and Part II of the book. The gospels are in essence biographies of Jesus life. Some are more chronological than others, but all tell of the historical events of Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection.