I had the opportunity to read several apologetic books and I was sometimes surprised by the arguments brought forward to defend the Christian faith. Some books argue that the disciples told the truth because they were ready to die for their faith. But even followers of sect leaders die for their faith.

Another argument is that there’re many manuscripts and copies of scripture available to support that the bible is reliable. This can be in itself a very weak and futile argument. If I have thousands copies of a book, the only thing I can do with these is to verify if there’re some discrepancies among the copies. But I cannot verify if what the author originally said was true. For instance, if many religious books confirm that a religious leader said that the earth is flat, they will be telling the truth but the truth in itself is a lie.

I once asked myself, how can we be sure if the apostles did not concoct together to invent a story about Jesus? The Pharisees claimed that the disciples stole Jesus’ body and made up a story about His resurrection. How do we refute these?

We should not be naive to believe that only Christians have proofs to support their faith. Many religions claim that they have historical evidence, that they perform miracles, that they have been changed by their holy books, saw angels, got revelations etc. The teachings in the bible are in themselves unique in genre. I have seen no books in the world which exposed so clearly man’s sinful nature. It would have been humanly impossible for the disciples to describe so perfectly man’s nature. I cannot argue with what the bible said about my sinful nature. If the disciples invented stories about what a fictitious Jesus taught, they should have won multiple Oscars today! Well, this appreciation is based on experience and I cannot consider it as a defense for many other religions can claim the same. Experience cannot decide whether a religion is true or not.

If we examine what has been taught in the holy books of other religions and find evidence after cross-checking with independent sources, we might be tempted to believe that that religion must be the truth. For instance, the apostles claimed that there was an earthquake, that the veil of the temple was torn, that saints were resurrected and were walking in Jerusalem. Could not all these be verified by the enemies and contemporaries of Jesus? For sure, the independent sources will agree with what happened.

However, I became cautious to use independent sources as a basis of defense for the Christian faith. The reason behind is that even if independent sources tell the truth, that cannot make the God of that religion true. Any religion can bring tangible evidence which can be supported by history. If the devil disguised and performed miracles, both the religion and independent sources will acknowledge the miracle but that would not make the devil God.

In my opinion, the most solid defenses to the Christian are Jesus’ divinity and the prophesies made about Him. The prophecies made about Jesus many centuries before and which have been fulfilled consist a very solid defense for the Christian faith. Jesus accomplished meticulously what was prophesied about Him. These prophesies can stand by themselves and the time at which they were written and fulfilled consist a solid proof. These prophesies are not comparable to Nostradamus’ predictions. The biblical prophesies have precisely been targeted on one man by different prophets who lived at different times.

Since it can be proved through the prophesies that Jesus is divine, then all what has been said about Him must be true. By induction, this evidence will also render naught the validity of other religions since Jesus claimed that He is the Only way to God and is God Himself.

If the apostles wanted to twist or invent a story about Jesus, I’m quite certain that they would have invented stories more credible about Jesus. If they did invent it, how come it was prophesied?

Jesus’ statements were very radical. If you were not following Him, you were against Him. He made claims that would lead the hearers to believe that He was supreme:

“Love your family more than me, I’m the way, the truth, the life. Eat my flesh and drink my blood. I’m the vine, you are the branches. Destroy this temple and in 3 days I’ll build it again. I’m the Good Shepherd. Before Abraham was I am. I’m the light of the world. You’ll die in your sin if you do not believe who I am.”

If Jesus is God, everything written about Him must be true. If someone has solid evidence which can refute that Jesus is God, then the bible is false. The divinity of Jesus is central to Christianity. If Jesus was not God then all His teachings did not have much value, His death would not have any power and there would have been no reason for us to worship Him. His words would have been the words of ordinary mortal man like Gandhi.

Which way?

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This document discusses about Jesus’ claims to be God and other declarations He Made on Himself

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Gone?

In this post-modern world we are living, people have acquired a vast amount of knowledge but failed to acquire the same degree of wisdom.

For generations people believed that the earth was flat, that the earth was the centre of the universe or similar theories. Even nowadays some people still believe that human beings are descendants of apes! People believe in the “Theory of evolution” even though it has not been proved. The great Aristotle thought that the earth did not move, that a heavier object would knock the floor first and had many other flawed beliefs. But people like Galileo came and challenged Aristotle’s philosophy.

Ptolemaic beliefs still exist in this so-called post-modern era. The question is why do people believe in what they believe. Some will naively argue that it is because it forms part of their culture. I perfectly understand that 1000 years ago people did not have the Internet or Encyclopedias so they did not have many belief systems to choose. It did not even come to their mind to question. Should I believe in something because it is what my ancestors passed on to me? Should I cherish, protect some long established cultures and traditions even if common sense is punching me hard on my left brain?
Should we kill our conscience or intellect to keep our common sense from complaining? How many times we hear people say, “I was born in this belief system and I’ll die with it”. Even worse, I also heard some elders say that they know that their belief systems are wrong but still want to remain in it. Is not it a tragedy? Where is sanity?

Some will sacrifice the truth for the sake of unity. This is what we see in politics or religions. Why have people stopped to question what they are taught? Don’t we have such a pool of knowledge around? Yes we do, but few seek for wisdom. Wisdom helps us to filter flawed knowledge from constructive knowledge. Knowledge is information, wisdom is the ability to judge whether this information is true. Wisdom says “How, why, why not, really?, who said that, when, to whom, where” to the knowledge you bring. Wisdom tests if the knowledge is flawed. Knowledge which pass the test are absolute truths. But where to get this wisdom?

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you;embrace her, and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.” Proverbs 4:7-9

I believe in such a thing called “Absolute Truth”. If a belief is not entirely true, it is false. If a belief is not entirely false, it is still false.

No to blind faith!