Reaching the Skeptic

By Larry Rosenbaum

Fifty years ago, most Americans believed that the Bible is God’s Word. When Christians would show unsaved people the plan of salvation out of the Bible, many would respond by receiving Christ as their savior.

Today, things have changed. Often, when we show someone passages from the Bible, he responds “Why should I believe the Bible?” When we share our testimony of what Jesus has done for us, he may respond, “I get inner peace from yoga (or some other religious practice).”

Today, many people are skeptical of the claims of Christianity. We need to answer their objections, and give them solid reasons for believing in the Bible and in Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 3:15, we are told, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” The Greek word for answer is “apologia,” from which we gget the term “apologetics.” The word “apologetics” does not mean apologizing for our faith, but rather giving an intelligent defense of our faith.

Christianity is the only religion for which there is convincing evidence of its truthfulness. Mormons point to an inner experience, a “burning in the bosom.” Muslims point to the visions of their founder Mohammed. Hindus and Buddhists have mystical experiences. But none of these religions can offer proof beyond these subjective experiences.

There are a number of arguments we can use. One of the tracts we use (Who is this Man?) presents C.S.Lewis’s argument that “a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic…or else he would be the Devil of Hell….Either this man was and is the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse.”

Another argument deals with evidence for the resurrection of Christ. This argument deals with legal evidence–the testimonies and reliability of eyewitnesses. People are sentenced to prison every day based solely on the testimony of eyewitnesses. Analyzing various possible explanations of the evidence leads to the most likely conclusion–that he did in fact rise from the dead.

A third argument deals with Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The Bible is the only book that predicts the future with perfect accuracy. It was this evidence that confirmed my faith in Jesus Christ as a new believer. Jesus fulfilled about 300 Old Testament prophesies during his lifetime. Many of them are quite specific. Peter Stoner computed the probability of just eight of these prophesies being fulfilled by chance as 1 in 10 with 17 zeros after it! In other words, it is quite impossible that these prophecies were accidentally fulfilled.

I cannot go into these arguments in detail in this newsletter, but I encourage you to do some reading on the subject. Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell or The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel are both good books to start with. Both are available at your Christian bookstore or at Christianbook.com, 800-247-4784.

There are also many excellent web sites that have good answers for almost any question a person might have about Christianity as well as information about  every cult and religion. Three sites I recommend: www.carm.org; www.apologeticsindex.org, www.tektonics.org.

While we should be familiar with the evidence for Christianity, we must remember that people are usually not saved by convincing arguments alone. The passage in 1 Peter 3:15 I quoted earlier continues “but do this with gentleness  and respect, keeping a clear conscience.” We must  be  gentle  with  those we are witnessing to, show respect for them, and back up our words with godly deeds.

When the wise men visited Herod in Matthew 2, they asked him where the Christ would be born. He asked the Jewish priests and teachers, who told him “Bethlehem,” based upon Micah 5. Herod believed that the Bible’s prophecy in Micah 5 was true, but his response was to kill every male child in Bethlehem. Many people, even after they know that Christianity is true, choose to reject Jesus. Still, we should let them know that there is solid and convincing evidence for the truth of Christianity.

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