Help My Unbelief Considering the case against Christ

Transcription

1 LORD Help My Unbelief Considering the case against Christ John Young

2 Text copyright John Young 2012 The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Published by The Bible Reading Fellowship 15 The Chambers, Vineyard Abingdon OX14 3FE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) Website: BRF is a Registered Charity ISBN First published All rights reserved Acknowledgments Unless otherwise stated, scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society, and are used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, a member of the Hachette Livre Group UK. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number Scripture quotations from The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicised Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, are used by permission. All rights reserved. Extracts from the Authorised Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown s Patentee, Cambridge University Press. Note: Every effort has been made to verify sources of material quoted. Any further information would be gratefully received by the publishers and would be updated in future reprints. The paper used in the production of this publication was supplied by mills that source their raw materials from sustainably managed forests. Soy-based inks were used in its printing and the laminate film is biodegradable. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed in Singapore by Craft Print International Ltd

3 Contents 11 Please start here Seven witness statements...19 Part 1: Questions mainly about church and society 13 In brief Christianity isn t cool (by Rob Paterson) Eight modern witnesses A word about doubt Those hypocritical Christians! Faith into action The credit side...64 Part 2: Questions about science and faith 10 How can you be a scientist and a Christian? Apes or angels? Charles Darwin and all that The both/and of Christianity and science Common ground A short chapter about a long climb The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: (a critique by John Polkinghorne) Part 3: Questions about the Bible 16 Witness statements about the Bible You can t believe the Bible today What about the South Sea Scrolls? Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code: (a reflection by David Wilkinson)...154

4 20 Are the Gospels reliable? (by Richard Bauckham) Archaeology and its implications Too violent, too old, too sexist, too contradictory Further witness statements about the Bible Part 4: Questions about suffering 24 Witness statements about suffering Why does God allow suffering? Two more witnesses and a brief reflection Living with cancer (by Bob Holman) Thought for the Day (by Giles Fraser) Part 5: Questions about Jesus 29 Was Jesus invented? Recent witnesses to Jesus Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad: what s the difference? Dead men don t rise The heart of the matter Five into one won t go A brief look at a big subject Part 6: Prove it! Does God exist? 36 This amazing universe Evidence from personal experience Evidence from history Where now? Notes...293

5 1 Please start here We often skip the first few pages of books those sections with boring titles like Preface and Introduction. This can be unwise, because authors often give important clues to the way we should approach the book on our lap or at our bedside. So I hope you will read these introductory comments. Meet the authors Throughout this book we ll be acting as witnesses for the defence in the case against Christ. But are we credible witnesses? To help you decide, we ll begin by telling you a bit about ourselves. John Young John is married to Isabel; they have two daughters and four grandchildren. He s had a variety of jobs paperboy, postman, hospital porter, farmhand, factory worker, soldier (National Service), teacher, lecturer, occasional broadcaster and journalist, author, vicar. John s early ambition to be a professional footballer remains unfulfilled thus far, though he does organise and play football after church on Sundays. 9

6 He has a love hate relationship with writing (it s hard work!) but, to his surprise, he s written over 30 books/booklets, with sales of more than half a million copies. His work has been translated into several languages, including Chinese and Russian. John worked for two Archbishops of York and was for many years a member of the General Synod of the Church of England. Today he s a Canon Emeritus of York Minster. He has preached in some of Britain s great cathedrals, including St Paul s, where the entire back row got up and walked out. (He likes to think they were tourists who had a bus to catch, but ) He s done a bit of broadcasting on BBC Radio 2, Radio 4 and the World Service. A personal highlight was when Radio 4 selected for its Pick of the Week a modern parable that he had written and presented (see page 119). Arising from his work as a broadcaster and co-founder of York Courses, John has interviewed a number of eminent Christians, including Archbishop Rowan Williams, Professor Sir John Houghton (climatologist) and Revd Dr John Polkinghorne (mathematical physicist). These conversations are available on CD from www. yorkcourses.co.uk. John is the main architect of this book. But he has friends in high places! So he s been able to draw on the expertise of other people in particular, Professor David Wilkinson, who worked closely with John on a previous edition of this book. In addition, Dr John Polkinghorne, former Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University, has contributed a critique of Richard Dawkins influential book The God Delusion. And Professor Richard Bauckham, Emeritus Professor of St Andrew s University, has written a chapter on the reliability of the Gospels. In this he gives accurate information about the so-called Apocryphal Gospels, beloved of the American author Dan Brown. 10

7 David Wilkinson David inhabits three worlds in his professional life: He s a Methodist minister. He s an academic with two PhDs. One of these is in theology; the other is in theoretical astrophysics, for which he studied the formation of stars, galaxies and the universe itself. Working in Britain, in a culture which believes that science is a problem for the Christian faith, he encountered a number of challenges. But they were always fruitful rather than destructive, both for his faith and for his science. David is Principal of St John s College in Durham University. He s an excellent communicator. David is in great demand, as evidenced by his numerous appearances on BBC Radio, including Pause for Thought and Thought for the Day. He s written several books, including Alone in the Universe?; God, Time and Stephen Hawking; Thinking Clearly about God and Science; and Christian Eschatology and the Physical Universe. John Polkinghorne John has enjoyed an eminent academic career. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a former Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University s Cavendish Laboratory. In his late 40s, John s life took a new direction when he became a student again, this time at theological college. He was ordained as a minister in the Church of England in John returned to academic life in 1988 when he was appointed President of Queens College Cambridge. He has served on various committees, including the BMA Medical Ethics Committee and the Human Genetics Commission. In 1997 John was knighted or, put more formally, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize for his contributions to research at the 11

8 interface between science and religion. Among his many books on this subject are The Way the World Is; Quarks, Chaos and Christianity; Science and Religion in Quest of Truth and From Physicist to Priest: an Autobiography. (In a CD conversation with John Young he speaks on science and Christian faith: Richard Bauckham Richard was Professor of New Testament Studies in the University of St Andrews until 2007, when he took early retirement and moved back to Cambridge to concentrate on research and writing. Richard has written numerous books, including Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: the Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, which won the prestigious Michael Ramsey prize in (A shorter version entitled The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony is available as a Grove booklet.) Richard is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Bob Holman and Giles Fraser Bob and Giles have also kindly given me permission to include articles that they wrote for publication (in Bob s case) and for broadcasting (Giles). I ll introduce them at the appropriate point in the text, as well as Rob Paterson, who wrote Chapter 4. About this book About people I ve met I enjoy reading. But I enjoy talking and listening as well, and many of the ideas in this book have come from numerous conversations. My work and social life bring me into contact with many young people as well as middle-aged and elderly people from all walks of life. Some share my Christian faith; many don t. So over the years I ve encountered a variety of arguments against Christianity. Some 12

9 of these are trivial and easy to dismiss; other objections are serious and challenging. Along the way I ve also met a large number of clever, inspiring people who are active Christians, and I ll introduce you to some of them as you read on. What is it that convinces such people of the truth of Christianity? This book is an attempt to answer that question. It is written in the knowledge that many important objections continue to be raised against the Christian faith. It is written in the conviction that, despite these objections, Christianity is true. About you, the reader This paperback is based on an earlier book entitled The Case Against Christ. Some chapters are fairly similar in all editions, but this book has been totally reworked and contains a substantial amount of new material. I hope that atheists and agnostics will read it, especially if they ve always assumed that Christianity is a fairytale. The fact that many clever, well-balanced people are active Christians doesn t prove that the Christian faith is true. But it does suggest that it is worth investigating. That s all I ask. Most people who read this book won t be convinced atheists. It s more likely that they ll be halfway to faith interested in, but unconvinced about, Christianity. I once stood where they stand, and understand their concerns from the inside. Drawing on previous experience, this new book will also be read by many Christians who are sensitive to three facts: First: attacks are increasingly made on their faith by people who hold contrary views. Second: they sometimes lack the information needed to cope with such attacks. Third: Christianity is often regarded with a good-natured indifference. This can be harder to cope with than outright hostility. 13

10 Objections to Christianity are not new, of course. One of the earliest problems for Christians was the accusation that they were cannibals! This was because they spoke of feeding on Christ in Holy Communion. Centuries later (in 1736), Bishop Joseph Butler complained (in The Analogy of Religion) that many persons assume that the Christian faith is fictitious suitable only for mirth and ridicule. What goes around comes around! Atheism is in the air today, so we re all challenged to think through what we believe and why. I hope this book will give believers a greater confidence in their faith and in their God. About the title In the Gospels (Mark 9:24) Jesus meets a man who s in a tough situation. He s keenly aware that he needs God s help and, when he meets Jesus, he blurts out a memorable phrase: Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. That s where the title of this book comes from. As I ve just said, I sometimes meet people who are sympathetic to, but unsure about, Christianity. They are halfway to faith. I m also aware that some believers find that their personal faith comes and goes; they oscillate between faith and unbelief. To be candid, I recognise this from my own personal experience. Like many people down the centuries, I too know what it is to pray, Lord help my unbelief. So we sometimes need to go back to consider the foundations strong foundations, I believe on which Christianity is built. About life in the modern world What is the purpose of life? This age-old question was raised on the Letters page of a newspaper. In reply, a Newcastle United fan replied with: Newcastle 2 Sunderland 1. Is life about anything more meaningful? The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre said, There is no purpose no goal for mankind 14

11 the world seems ugly, bad and without hope. There, that s the cry of despair of an old man who will die in despair. 1 Was he right? Most of the time, we re too busy to spend long on such deep questions. But from time to time something happens to make us think hard. A friend dies, or someone close to us falls ill. Or something wonderful happens we fall in love or become parents and we find ourselves wondering At such times, questions crowd in. Questions such as: can we really find meaning, truth and love and perhaps God, too at the centre of our universe? Or do we live in a cold, uncaring world, which grinds relentlessly on, reducing us all to rubble and dust in the end? Shakespeare (in Macbeth) raised this question with characteristic poetic force. Is life a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing? 2 Or? A car sticker put the same question rather more amusingly: Is the Hokey Cokey really what it s all about? Until recently, many commentators thought that such questions would become less potent with the passing decades. They believed that, for most people in the West, faith in God and interest in religion would drift away on a tide of secularism and indifference. But they ve revised their opinion. To everyone s surprise, religion has shot to centre stage in the 21st century. Sometimes religion is in the news for the worst of reasons: religious fanaticism can lead to unspeakable violence. At the same time, there are good reasons for this resurgence of interest. We live at a time of vigorous debate about the meaning of life. Articulate, militant atheists of whom there are many write articles and books and make television programmes. They try to persuade us that their bleak creed is the only truth and that religion, in whatever form, is false and misleading. This book is an attempt to put the other side of this argument. It s an attempt to act as counsel for the defence in the case against Christ. This debate is not merely of academic interest. Research evidence suggests that religious faith often has a positive impact on people s 15

12 lives, leading to better health and greater happiness. The truth or otherwise of Christianity deserves our attention. About the Christian gospel Do we live in a world with or without meaning? Do we live for a few decades, only to fall off the edge into oblivion? Will empty nothingness have the last word? Or have we been loved into existence by a gracious, forgiving God whose gift to us is eternal life? The Christian faith doesn t have glib and easy answers to life s deep questions, but it does claim to shed light upon them. No, our world did not happen by courtesy of mindless chance; we have been loved into existence. No, we do not live in a cold, uncaring universe. Yes, we can find God, meaning, truth and love at the centre of our world. This is the Christian gospel the good news. The even better news is that this is not wishful thinking. The gospel is rooted in history, focused in Jesus and verified in the experience of countless people in every generation and from every culture and personality type. The best news of all is that these great qualities meaning, truth and love can be found not only at the centre of our universe but also at the heart and centre of our personal, individual lives. And because God is love, they will last throughout eternity. These are the convictions that underlie this book, which I ll attempt to set out for your examination. About the tone of this book Visit the section of a bookshop labelled Religion and you ll find a varied selection. Some of these books are very good. Others adopt a strident tone as they peddle the merits of religion or atheism. I hope the tone of this book won t be like that. Yes, I am a convinced believer in a loving God. But I readily concede that I can t prove this with a QED flourish. 16

13 In the final analysis, ours is an act of faith, as are the views of atheists (militant or not) and agnostics. There are no watertight guarantees. There s no writing in the sky that says, God does or does not exist. We have to work things out for ourselves on the basis of clues that life, history and the universe we inhabit offer us. Faith is vital and inescapable. Indeed, acts of faith are fundamental to every human life. It s on the basis of faith that we make key decisions: choose a career, take a job, marry or don t marry, choose our lifestyle and philosophy of life, take up this important moral position rather than that I believe there are sound reasons for choosing the Christian way of living, and I ll attempt to set them out with conviction and vigour. But I hope, too, that each page will be shot through with the humility appropriate to these great ultimate questions. About my faith Perhaps faith works differently for different people. But this is how it works for me I don t carry a fully worked-out creed around in my head though, if pressed, I do have a thought-through set of beliefs. Alongside these beliefs are several unresolved questions and loose ends. For faith involves living with questions we can t answer, as well as some that we can. This doesn t mean that faith is blind. In the light of God s love revealed to us in Jesus Christ, Christians live with these unanswered questions. And in the course of this book, to the best of my ability, I ll set out some of the answers that we do possess. These come to a focus in Jesus, who is God s great Yes! While I m getting on with daily life, all this (the bits I ve sorted out in my own mind and the unresolved questions) boils down to a few important spanners in my tool-kit for life. I have a settled conviction that: Jesus is alive God is love 17

14 I call this a tool-kit because, for me at least, these convictions are very practical. I sense that I am accompanied through life by an unseen Presence. I identify this Presence as the risen Lord who said, I am with you always (Matthew 28:20). This brings comfort and strength. It also brings challenges. Sometimes he kicks me on the shins and says, Look outwards at this hurting, broken and divided world which I love and died for. I am calling you together with a host of others to love it, to serve it and to witness to it, in my strength and in my name. Does it always work? The honest answer is No! But this doesn t worry me overmuch. The New Testament has about it the ring of truth. One key aspect is its honesty in reporting the many failures of the first disciples. These were the people to whom the risen Lord gave the responsibility of carrying his message into the world. It was risky for the Gospel writers to tell their stories so honestly, warts and all. Risky, but hugely encouraging. Jesus Christ invites everyone to join the dance, whatever our experience of life, and whatever our successes or failures might be. 18

15 2 Seven witness statements It s necessary to think through the different challenges raised against Christianity in every generation, and I offer this book as a contribution to the ongoing debate. To this end we ll consider many questions, debate many issues and develop many arguments. But throughout I ve kept one short sentence in mind a statement by Martin Buber, a great Jewish teacher of the 20th century. Concerning belief in God, he asserted, There are no evidences; there are only witnesses. 3 Strictly speaking, this isn t true. Certainly there are no knockdown, totally watertight arguments that prove the existence of God. But there are sound reasons for belief, based on accurate, detailed information. However, most of these reasons come to us in human shape. It s people who befriend us, teach us, love us, convince us and nurture us. It s our fellow human beings who share their beliefs, convictions and experiences with us, and point us to their source of strength and inspiration. I ve been greatly privileged to meet, and to read books by, many such witnesses: impressive men, women and young people who ring true. In what follows I ll draw on them frequently. In one sense, this book is as much about them as it is about the truths they ve shared with me. For this reason, stories from people s lives are a key element in this book. At various points I ll offer the experience of witnesses, 19

16 which will, I hope, help you to assess the reality or otherwise of their Christian faith. A famous actor David Suchet, a fine stage actor, is best known for portraying Agatha Christie s fictional detective Hercule Poirot on television. His brother, John, is also well known as a newscaster and musicologist. Their father was Jewish but their upbringing was not religious. In 1986, while staying in a hotel, David picked up a Bible and read Paul s letter to the Romans. Chapter 8 made an immense impact upon him, and he underwent a conversion experience to Christianity which continues to sustain his life. That great New Testament chapter ends with a ringing affirmation of God s love, when the apostle says: I am convinced that neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (vv ) An English king The Oscar-winning film The King s Speech revealed King George VI struggling with his stammer. The King s annual Christmas broadcast on the wireless was a huge personal challenge. In 1939, three months into World War II, he ended his Christmas broadcast with an affirmation of his own personal faith, when he quoted the following paragraph: I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown. And he replied, Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way. (Minnie Haskins) 20

17 A great poet At The Downs School in June 1933, the poet W.H. Auden experienced what he later described as a vision of agape (agape is the most common New Testament word for love ). While sitting with three fellow teachers at the school, he suddenly found that he loved them for themselves; that their existence had infinite value for him. This experience, he said, influenced his decision to return to the Anglican Church in W.H. Auden also noted that it is a sin to succumb to cynicism. We have to love our crooked neighbour with our own crooked heart. 4 A well-known BBC correspondent John Simpson is World Affairs Editor at the BBC. For the last 40 years he has travelled widely and reported world events on radio and television. He s been in the thick of many wars. In a television broadcast on Armistice Day 2010, John commented, I ve found that my faith as an Anglican has been profoundly helpful. In 2003 he narrowly escaped death when he and his television crew were hit by friendly fire in Iraq. Fifteen people were killed, including Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed, the local interpreter he d hired. Despite years of experience, John was extremely distressed and suffered survivor guilt. He knew that if he hadn t hired Kamaran, the interpreter would still be alive. He wanted to remember him and kept Kamaran s photo on display. But as the months passed, he felt the need to find some peace about it all. In the end, this peace came from his faith: It was just sitting in church and talking to my vicar about it that eventually made me come to terms with what was happening. And the vicar in particular was very anxious to say I remember the gesture God holds Kamaran to him as much now as before. 21

18 A record-breaking author Because the Harry Potter books deal in magic, J.K. Rowling has been accused of promoting witchcraft. In response she has asserted, I don t believe in magic I believe in God. She refers to her own Christian faith and membership of a church in Scotland into which her daughter, Jessica, was baptised. However, she also makes no secret of the fact that she does struggle with her faith: I live in a state of spiritual flux. When launching the seventh and final book in the series, she said that the two Bible verses on the graves in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are the thematic core of the whole story (Matthew 6:21 and 1 Corinthians 15:26). 5 A prisoner on death row Juan Melendez campaigns against the death penalty in the USA. He has good reason to do so, for he spent 18 years on death row. He lived in a small cell, 2 by 3 metres. Whenever he was moved out of his cell, he was handcuffed and shackled. He was alone 24/7, apart from four hours of exercise a week with other prisoners in the yard, and very occasional visitors. Not surprisingly, under these extreme conditions some of his fellow prisoners committed suicide. Juan contemplated this himself, especially when he lost yet another appeal, despite several new witnesses testifying that the real killer had confessed to the murder. Juan said: My faith was very important to my survival I was not religious before I went to death row. As a child I went to church every Sunday with my mother and my brothers, but when I emigrated to the United States when I was about 18, I left my faith behind. My mother s faith also inspired me while I was on death row. She prayed three rosaries every day on her knees for all those years. She never gave up hope and she always told me to have faith in God. She believed in miracles. She believed I would be set free. 6 22

19 Juan Melendez was released on 3 January years, eight months and one day after he was falsely convicted and sentenced to death. An eminent scientist Until recently, Francis Collins held the highly prestigious post of Head of the Human Genome Project. This involved working at the cutting edge of the study of DNA, the code of life. He is a leading scientist with an international reputation. Francis was brought up in a home where faith in God was not important, and he carried this easy indifference to religious questions into his adult life. When he was practising as a young doctor, it was his patients who challenged him to think hard about questions of life and death. He was impressed by the resilience and fortitude of believers as death approached. Then one of his patients challenged him directly to think hard about life, God and meaning. So Francis started to read Christian books, and this prompted him to question his atheistic creed. In particular he confronted the question: where does our sense of right and wrong come from? In his fine book The Language of God, he describes his journey from atheism to Christian faith. So here is the central question In this modern era of cosmology, evolution and the human genome, is there still the possibility of a richly satisfying harmony between the scientific and spiritual worldviews? I answer with a resounding yes! In my view, there is no conflict in being a rigorous scientist and a person who believes in a God who takes a personal interest in each one of us. In the summer of 2000, Francis stood in the White House with US President Bill Clinton. They broadcast to the world an astounding fact: the script carrying all the instructions needed for building a human being had been decoded. 23

20 The President declared, Today we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, and the wonder of God s most divine and sacred gift. Francis Collins followed with these words: It s a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realise that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God. 7 24

21 To purchase this book, visit Orderform Ref Title Price Qty Total POSTAGE AND PACKING CHARGES Order value UK Europe Surface Air Mail 7.00 & under Over FREE prices on request Postage and packing Donation Total Name Account Number Address Postcode Telephone Number Payment by: q Cheque q Mastercard q Visa q Postal Order q Maestro Card no Valid from Expires Issue no. Security code* *Last 3 digits on the reverse of the card. *Essential in order to process your order Shaded boxes for Maestro use only Signature Date All orders must be accompanied by the appropriate payment. Please send your completed order form to: BRF, 15 The Chambers, Vineyard, Abingdon OX14 3FE Tel / Fax enquiries@brf.org.uk q Please send me further information about BRF publications. Available from your local Christian bookshop. BRF is a Registered Charity