Years ago, I promised to show an adult Sunday School class I taught that there was an unbroken line of reason from “Do I exist?” to “Jesus loves you and died for your sins.” I’ve always wanted to put that down on paper, and here is my meager attempt:
Do I exist? Philosopher, Rene Descartes, wondered what he knew for sure, so he spent a week in a mountain retreat looking for reasons to doubt all he knew. By the end of his time there, he was convinced he knew nothing absolutely except that someone was doubting. In other words, he knew for certain he existed, but nothing more. We can know we exist, but can absolutely prove nothing else.
How did my existence come about? Since I know I didn’t create myself, I had to come from somewhere or someone else. My mind is a very complex thing, so a being with a mind more complicated than mine must have created it. My mind is also very organized, self-reflective, and personal. The entity that created it must at least have the same qualities. What we would be looking for, then, would be a metaphysical being – a being because it would have to think and be self-aware as I am, and metaphysical because it would need to have existed outside the universe.
I perceive the universe around me. Truth is consistent; falsehoods are inconsistent. So, since my understanding of the universe tells me it appears to be consistent, it must be very much as I perceive it, rather than my being, say, simply a brain in a vat. There is a chance I am a brain in a vat, but the probabilities are extremely small. Since we can safely say there is a being who brought about both me and the universe I perceive, we now have a Creator who is greater than the human and the universe it created.
A question then arises, “Could it be that the Creator might have communicated with its creation, maybe to let us know more about itself or how to take care of what it created?” What way could such a being communicate with its creation that would be preserved for centuries upon centuries for all to learn from it? Written documents would be good, especially if this communication needed to be preserved in the most accurate form, able to be repeated over long periods of time, and in a plethora of cultures.
There are several major organized philosophies centered around belief in metaphysical beings. We call them religions. One or more of these could be what we’re looking for. But how could we weed out those who are mistaken or untrustworthy?
Astrophysicist, Dr. Hugh Ross, faced this conundrum and sorted through the various writings of the world’s major religions. He found that only the Bible contained the correct description of the universe around us and saw that as a good test for which of these major religious writings is the one from the Creator.
In this blog over the years, we have looked at reasons to believe the Bible is reliable and accurate: the New Testament, for instance, has the greatest manuscript authority by far of any other ancient writings. It predicts events yet to happen when written, the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 a.d, for instance. The entire Bible is a collection of 66 ancient documents written by more than 40 authors over a period of 1500 years. It agrees throughout. This is powerful evidence that while the Bible was written by men, it is not a man-made book.
The Bible instructs us on how to live, how to treat one another, and what God wants of us. It also tells us much more about the God who created us and the universe in which we live. It tells us of His love for us to the point He was willing to humble Himself greatly and join His creation as a man, to die in our place to settle our debt and allow us to spend eternity with Him in holiness. In short, Jesus loves you and died for your sins.
Why is this important?
Ours is a reasonable faith. We, as Christians, rest on logic, reason, and the world around us to come to the conclusions we do. God has not asked us to believe in some dream or some illusion. He has given us a faith that is comparable to the universe around us in our perception of reality.
We need not fear reasonable discussion in the marketplace of ideas. Christianity can stand above the best of them in what we believe and why we believe it.
1 Peter 3:13-15 (NASB) And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and ereverence;
Believers Armed and Dangerous 