| Subject: Faith and Fact-Logically Compatible |
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For His Sake
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Date Posted: 01:24:25 12/27/05 Tue
To think all Christians have no "intellectual curiosity" is incorrect. As a matter of fact, because of the evidence of Christianity, many well-known authors have become believers: C.S. Lewis, Lee Strobel, etc...
The Evidence for Christianity cannot be ignored.
Below are 5 proofs, very briefly summarized. If you would like expansion on any, reply with your question.
Preview: Manuscripts, Prophecy, the Resurrection, Science, Personal Testimony
#1 Eye Witness Original Hebrew/Greek Manuscripts. The availability of the manuscripts of the Scriptures are more available than any other English work that is widely accepted by the secular world. For instance: Aristotle-49 copies. Never questioned, yet the original manuscripts are few in number. The New Testament manuscripts available surpass 5500! With this availability, cross referencing is possible, and when done, finds the manuscripts to be extremely accurate. *With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the manuscripts were compared with present day English translations and found to be over 95% accurate from the original copies of the text!
#2 Biblical Prophecy. This evidence cannot be denied, or wrote off as "religious." Check it out for yourself: Christ fulfilled a plethora of prophecies, some written over 6-7 centuries before His coming! Many of these prophecies were non-controllable by Christ, like where He was born, His blood line, His death, and treatment before hand. Peter Stoner, in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) using the modern science of probability, rules coincidence out. The chances of Christ fulfilling 8 prophecies are 1 in 10 to the 17! Later, "Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10 to the 157...the estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 10 to the 79. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident." Historically Christ fulfilled prophecies prophesied years and years before He came. What is the logical conclusion?
#3The Resurrection. Historically, Christ lived, Christ Died, and there was an empty tomb. There are a few theories concerning this: VISION Theory-those who saw Christ after the Resurrection were simply hallucinating (100's hallucinating?). SPIRIT Theory- Only His Spirit Resurrected...basically, He was a ghost (a ghost...really?). SWOON Theory-When He was put in the tomb, He didn't die. Drs. and Science say no way! The Romans were trained killers, the beating He received killed many others who received it, then He was crucified, then abandoned for three days...highly unlikely He was not dead. WRONG TOMB Theory-In the confusion of emotions, the women just visited the wrong tomb. This Theory is easily refutable. If the women had simply gone to the wrong tomb, the Jews could have produced the body and cleared up and crushed to disciples’ claim of His Resurrection. STOLEN BODY Theory-The disciples overpowered the Romans, stole the body, and circulated a lie. Really? 11 of them were tortured and martyred for their faith. Would they willingly die for something they absolutely knew to be untrue? What gain would that give them? Would you die for a dead, false man?
The only logical explanation is Christ rose, incarnate and in Bodily form. If Christ Resurrected, then He proves His deity, and He confirms all things...from the Creation by the Father, to His atonement sacrifice, to the love the Father willingly lavishes on those who choose to accept Christ.
#4 Science/Archeology. The theory of Evolution, the only counter-explanation of Creationism, is a slowly dieing theory, admitted to even by the world of the secularists. The Theory violates numerous laws of Science, including Spontaneous Generation and Angular Momentum. As Dr. Kent Hovind says: "The Evolutionist says 'In the beginning dirt... The Creationist says 'In the beginning God..."
Archeology, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, artifacts discovered proving the existence of King David, etc..., becoming more and more numerous, continue to confirm the Word of God (actually-the Word of God is confirming Archeology!)
#5 Personal Testimony. Look at the life of those who truly seek after Christ name (NOT just random people who are “religious” or think their Christian by going to Church or because they were born in America). Is their not a light in their life? Read books like “Jesus Freak,” and see how many so willingly gave everything for the gift of sonship/daughtership Christ had so freely given them. As mentioned before, the disciples, EYE WITNESSES of all the happenings of Christ, willingly gave their lives (Peter was crucified upside-down). I hope one day, if I am provided with the chance to die for Christ, I will be obedient to the point of death. I can tell you, Christ has changed my life, made it worth living, cleansed my sin, given me purpose and has provided for me over these past few years in ways you would find amazing. But why should I be surprised? He’s simply fulfilling His promises.
In examining the evidence for the existence of God, one is left with a choice: You can deny the evidence (which actually take more faith to do than simply believing in His name, on the premise of the evidence itself!!) or Accept it. Not responding at all is actually responding.
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