Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Question: How do we know Christianity is the "right" religion?

Another fantastic question!

Solve this problem: 2+2=?

I bet you said 4 (or at least I hope so!). But how can that be?! There are so many other numbers to choose from...tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions, etc. Out of almost an infinite amount of numbers, how can we select this one number to be right?

Well, the answer is because 4 is right!

One day a lady sat in my office and told me that we couldn't be sure 4 was the right answer. So I took 2 pens and laid them on the desk. I then took 2 more pens and laid them next to the other 2 and I asked her how many were there. She answered correctly, of course. See, we can absolutely know that this line of reasoning works. Even if you call it by another name/symbol (cuatro, quatre, etc.) the substance does not change - 4 pens. This is beyond dispute.

And the truth of the matter is that we don't make truth, we just discover it. We did not make 2+2=4, we discovered it. We don't make God true, we discover that He is. We don't make the Bible true, we discover that it is. And in the same way we can exclude all other numbers other than "4" from our simple equation(no matter how beautiful or appealing they are), we can exclude all other "truth" claims that go against the truth we have discovered.

So how do we know that Christianity is the truth? Simply by testing the claims.

We look at science and see if creation could have possibly started on its own. The answer is a resounding no (Law of Bio genesis, 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, etc.). This reveals there is some "Entity" or "Being" out there who is extremely smart, unbelievably powerful, logical, and moral.

We look at the Scriptures to see if they are historically accurate, if the predictions made within them have actually come to pass, etc. The answer is yes. In fact, predictions made hundreds (and even thousands) of years before the actual event have proved true to the letter - which is an utter impossibility from a naturalist point of view. So the Scripture reveals the nature of this Being, in addition to the basic fact that He is involved in His creation.

We can also begin to look into the other "faiths" that claim truth. Evolution, as mentioned above, is self-defeating because the theory contradicts the very Laws upon which science is built. Mormons are built on prophecies that have proven false and historical claims that have been proven erroneous beyond question. Eastern religions are built on logical impossibilities. Jehovah's Witnesses stand on a foundation of embarrassing prophecies that have fallen flat time and time again. And on and on the list goes.

77 is not the answer to 2+2, and neither is 5, 500, 621, 998, or 1,431. The answer is 4 whether we like it or not.

Ultimately, the Lord commands us to seek after Truth. We are not to believe something just because our parents or teachers told us so. We must look into things and do our own searching. The beautiful part is that all truth will point the same direction - to Christ.

One more thought, faith is not blindly believing something. That is stupidy. Faith is putting your trust where the evidence is already pointing. 2+2=4. God exists. He has revealed Himself in the Person of Christ. Christ lived, died, and rose again. He is coming back!