RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–Challenged by an unbeliever to prove Christianity is true, most Christians would refuse. “You can’t prove Christianity is true,” we say. “You have to take it on faith.”
But what if you could prove Christianity is true? Would it make you more confident in giving a reason for the hope that is in you? (1 Peter 3:15) Would you be more likely to take a stand for truth and justice if you knew your faith was the only one that can be proven to be true? Do you realize what’s at stake if we can’t prove Christianity is true?
Most Christians believe what our skeptical society has taught us — that religion and morals are matters of personal opinion and no one can say what is true for anyone else.
But if that’s true, there is no such thing as an evil religion. A religion that requires child sacrifice would be as true as any other. And if morals are a matter of personal opinion, nothing is wrong or unjust. Society will have to apologize to the “criminally insane” people who were punished for doing what they believed was right for them
The truth is religion and morals cannot be matters of personal opinion. They must be matters of fact that can be proven, or there is no way to create a society that is just and good. If no one can say what is true for others, then our world’s slide into moral chaos cannot be stopped — except by tyrants who contain the anarchy by brute force.
A NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Understanding that Christianity can be proven to be true would help set off a revolution that would once again establish America as “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
The first step toward that revolution is realizing what we mean by “proof.” Skeptics pretend that religious and moral truth is personal opinion because it can’t be proven beyond all doubt. But the fact is that nothing can ever be proven beyond all doubt — and there are many facts of daily life that we accept as proven simply because we have enough evidence to know we can depend on them. No one can prove beyond all doubt that the sun will rise tomorrow, but don’t all of us know that, God willing, it will?
In real life, as in a courtroom, “proof” is proof beyond reasonable doubt, not proof beyond all doubt. And there are two good reasons to believe Christianity has been proven true.
First, scientists have been realizing for the better part of a century now that the physical world is too complex and finely tuned to have come into being by accident. For example, something as basic to life as the cell never could have evolved because it is a collection of complex machines made of molecules. Those molecule machines never would have evolved because their parts by themselves serve no survival purpose — and only features that serve a survival purpose develop by evolution. The cell — and many other complex aspects of our world — had to come into being just as they are, and that could have happened only if they were designed by an intelligence far beyond ours. Science leads us to the conclusion that Creator God is real.
Second, Christianity is the only religious faith based on a historical fact that proves it is true beyond a reasonable doubt. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead validates His teaching about what God is like and how He expects us to live. Though many skeptics reject the resurrection as a myth, it is in fact far better documented than many other events in ancient history that people take for granted. None of the arguments skeptics offer can explain away the fact of the empty tomb. Skeptics reject the resurrection not for lack of evidence but because admitting it happened would require them to live a life that honors Christ, instead of living to satisfy their own appetites and ambitions.
The skeptic is supremely confident in his belief that he can live his life any way he wants and never needs to give serious consideration to the truth of Christianity. The fact, however, is that the scientific evidence for intelligent design and the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus prove beyond reasonable doubt that Christianity is true. Christians are the ones who should be confident about their faith. We have been deceived into thinking that the skeptic’s worldview is based on science and history when the opposite is true!
DESCENT INTO CHAOS AND TYRANNY
The belief that religion and morals are matters of personal opinion is driving our society into moral chaos. When right and wrong are merely matters of personal opinion, people do what they want, not what others tell them to do. No society can stand once it decides there is no standard of morality or justice that applies to everyone. The idea of human rights is nonsense if we are all just animals in an accidental universe.
Do you understand what is at stake? Civilized society is disintegrating, and Christians are the only ones who can stop it because we alone can prove to the world what is right and just. But Christians are afraid to take public stands for truth and justice because they have been deceived into thinking their Christian faith is nothing more than personal opinion.
The Supreme Court says laws against sodomy are unconstitutional because each person decides for himself who he is sexually and each one has a right to express that identity freely. If that is true, laws that prohibit having sex with children and animals also will have to be voided because some people believe that is who they are. If we are male and female by accident and not by God’s creation, then no one has the right to tell us what sexual behavior is right or wrong.
That’s just one example. Each issue of the newspaper brings us other examples of what is happening to our world because people believe no one can prove what is right or wrong in religion or morals.
If Christians don’t take possession of the truth and stand publicly for God’s way, all we have to look forward to is increasing chaos — and the tyrant who is waiting to bring worldwide anarchy under control.
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Mark Kelly is the author of “Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The end of Christian apologetics,” available only at http://kainospress.com/pbrd.html.
