Selfless

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Rational Proofs of the Truth of Christianity

Secularists claim that they rely on science and reason to support their beliefs.

Many vocal secularists claim that Christians rely on blind faith and believe things contrary to science and reason. This is a gross misunderstanding of the underpinnings of Christian belief. The fact is SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE AGREE!

Christianity is a faith. We openly admit this fact. However, it is not a blind faith. It is a faith based on hard evidence. God has revealed Himself to humanity and has given us persuasive rational proofs.

Here's a quick checklist of reasons to believe in the truth of the Bible:

1) Experimental science arose in Christian Europe and nowhere else on earth. It is painfully ironic that secularists use the findings of experimental science to base their misguided attacks against the Christian faith.

I've pointed out in several articles that the Bible alone among holy books of the world's faiths gives the philosophical basis for the inductive principle.

The inductive principle is also called the regularity principle and is the idea that the universe is consistent and based on physical laws that give predictable results from experiments. The inductive principle is derived from the Bible.

The Bible reveals God as a lawgiver who gave moral laws to mankind and God has also ordered the physical universe by consistent physical laws. This consistency is in essence the regularity principle.

Plato thought the universe was random. The Hindus believe the universe is "Maya" meaning illusion. No one wants to do experiments in a random universe or a universe that is an illusion.

All of the founders of major branches of science (such as Newton, Bacon and Pascal) were Bible believing Christians or men reared in a Christian culture who operated from a Christian worldview.

2) Where Christianity has become the dominant religion, radical changes for better social justice have occurred. When Rome under Constantine adopted Christianity they immediately reformed the prisons to keep female inmates separate from male inmates.

Many other reforms followed later including the abolition of gladiator games at the insistence of Christian clergy.

In the medieval period Christian Europe was the first continent to abolish slavery. The lapses in social justice such as the Spanish inquisition occurred in defiance of Christian teaching, not because of it.

In the USA vices such as dueling, abortion and slavery were abolished under Christian leadership in the 19th century.

3) The Bible contains predictive prophecies that were fulfilled in history and some are being fulfilled in our own time.

D. James Kennedy, a prominent Florida pastor, says that Jesus fulfilled no less than 333 predictive Bib16CAle prophecies during his life, death and resurrection from the dead. No other religious figure or philosopher or political leader has anything that remotely approaches this level of supernatural witness.

These hundreds of prophecies were written in the Old Testament by Hebrew prophets centuries before Christ was born. In addition to the prophecies fulfilled in Christ are more than a thousand other Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled in history or are being fulfilled in our own time.

Take out a fifty dollar bill and look at the watermarks on the paper that prove it is genuine. Predictive prophecies are like the watermarks on the Bible proving it is divinely inspired.

Most holy books of other faiths have no predictive prophecies at all and the few that do are nowhere near the Bible's amazing record of fulfillment of prophecy!

4) Miracles performed in the name of Jesus prove the Bible true. The many examples of miracles that Jesus performed are too numerous to mention here. These miracles gave witness to the fact that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel.

After the ascension of Christ the Bible records the many miracles performed by the apostles in Jesus' name. Down through history, even to the present, miracles continue to be performed in Jesus' name.

In a previous article I've given the example of Ralph Anderson being radically and instantly healed of severe cerebral palsy at a Christian healing service. There are many other examples of miraculous healings too numerous to mention.

5) UFO abductions have been stopped in the name of Jesus.

UFOs are not metal spaceships from other star systems. Many of even the secular researchers are beginning to see that UFOs come not from another physical location but from another dimension. Christian UFO researchers believe UFOs come from the realm of spirit and are demonic.

There are many testimonies of attempted UFO abductions that have been stopped by the person calling out the name of Jesus. (See Charisma magazine April 2001 page 46.) There are many recent books that explain UFOs from a Christian perspective.

6) The secular alternative to Christianity appears to be irrational. A document called the Humanist Manifesto signed by prominent secularists in 1933 says there are no moral absolutes. Secularism provides no basis for morality.

Postmodernism is the embrace of moral relativism. Secularism has no real basis for purpose or meaning of life.

Secularists claim that death brings the cessation of consciousness. This has led to the radical philosophical pessimism of Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Sartre said that a human being is "a useless passion."

About 90% of America's schoolkids attend public schools where evolution with its implicit atheism is taught. This has caused a secularization of American society. The situation in Europe is similar.

Western civilization is largely secularized. Secularism is a faith.

Secularism is faith in the ability of random collisions of atoms to form complex molecules that then collide and randomly form just the right proteins, DNA, RNA and every other biochemical and then coalesce to form a living cell and then multicellular life and then intelligent life.

Mathematicians who run probability analyses of the above scenario tell us that for random collisions of atoms to form the proteins necessary for a living cell could not happen randomly in a trillion years if all the universe were primordial soup! Secularism is belief (faith) that this could happen contrary to the plain facts of science.

7) There is increasing scientific evidence showing that the earth is much younger than secularists claim. The recent find of dried blood and other soft tissue remnants in dinosaur bones shows that these bones cannot possibly be millions of years old as traditionally claimed.

The decay of the earth's magnetic field occurs at a distinct measurable rate with no practical means of replenishment. This means that if the earth were millions of years old it's magnetic field would have dissipated eons ago.

Scientists now know the rate at which salt and other minerals accumulate in the oceans. If the earth were even one million years old the oceans would be super saturated with salt and other minerals. The oceans are in fact nowhere near the saturation point.

The earth is young. (See www.answersingenesis.org.) The Bible's timeline of an earth merely thousands of years old is accurate. The Bible can be trusted as a historical document and can be trusted for moral and spiritual guidance as well.

Christianity is a reasonable faith based on reasonable evidence. Christianity's rationality is in contrast to the secular, evolution based faith that is now imposing its culture of death. I urge you to make a decision for Christ today!

We put our faith in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. God sent Jesus to suffer the penalty that we deserved for our sins. We receive forgiveness when we turn to God through Christ and ask for forgiveness of sins.

Bill Nugent has written many articles on Christianity, philosophy and science. He has also written books that give Bible based teaching on sanctification and that caution against the error of legalism. His books are available at his website http://www.gracelawandsonship.com.