Dr. Jim Eckman CRITICAL QUESTIONS FOR CHRISTIANS I. How can there be only one true religion? All major religions are equally valid and basically teach the same thing. Each religion sees part of spiritual truth, but none can see the whole truth. Religious belief is too culturally and historically conditioned to be truth. It is arrogant to insist your religion is right and then convert others to it. But, Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship with the living God based on the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. It is His life, death and resurrection that provide forgiveness and salvation. God s grace does not come to people who outperform others but to those who admit failure to perform and acknowledge that they need a Savior. Humans are not accepted by God because of their performance, virtue, or wisdom, but because of Christ s 1
work on their behalf. Most religions and worldviews argue that your spiritual status depends on your religious attainment, but not Christianity. II. Why does a good God allow so much suffering/evil? Evil and suffering are not evidence against God. Evil and suffering may actually be evidence for God. The problem of tragedy, suffering and injustice is a problem for every worldview. If you abandon a belief in God, it does not make the problem of evil easier to handle. The suffering of God and the redemption and resurrection that He offers. III. Why does Christianity seek to restrict my personal freedom? 2
In our Postmodern world, freedom is defined as libertinism or absolute autonomy a freedom with no boundaries and no restrictions. Freedom is not the absence of confinement or constraint. In fact, confinement and constraint may actually be a means to liberation. Freedom is not the absence of restrictions but actually finding the right ones. True human freedom is found in loving relationships. We only become ourselves truly when we are in a mutual, unselfish, other-centered relationship. Freedom is finding the limitations and constraints that fit our nature and actually liberate us. In genuine biblical Christianity, we find that in a radical manner God actually adjusted to us in the incarnation and in the atonement on the cross. On the cross, He submitted to our condition as sinners and died in our place to forgive us and free us! John 8:32, 36. IV. Why has Christianity produced so much injustice and suffering in the world? Three specific items usually surface to inform this charge: 1. The glaring character flaws of Christians. 3
2. War, injustice and violence have been associated with the history of the church. 3. The presence of smug, self-righteous, dangerous fanatics in the church. A few final thoughts: Jesus Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) condemns forthrightly the selfrighteous, religious fanatic and calls for an internal righteousness as the antidote. The major forces of justice and righteousness in history have been Christians (e.g., Christians in the 1 th st and 2 nd century; William Carey in the 18 century; William Wilberforce in the 19 century; Dr. King in the 20 ). See Alvin J. Schmidt, Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization and the works of Rodney Stark. th th V. How can a loving God send people to Hell? A God of judgment simply cannot exist. 4
A God of judgment cannot be a God of love. A loving God would not allow hell. VI. Why is Christianity so clearly the enemy of reason and science? The question centers on the proposition that science, especially evolutionary biology, has made belief in God unnecessary and obsolete. Richard Dawkins: Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. Dawkins also argues that you cannot be an intelligent scientific thinker and still hold religious beliefs (see his book, The God Delusion.) Science has proved that miracles are impossible. Basically, there is an irreconcilable conflict between science and Christianity. 5
Evolution disproves the Bible. VII. Why should I take the Bible literally? We cannot trust the Bible historically. This is especially true of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). The claim: The Gospels are a historically unreliable collection of legends. They are not a trustworthy account of Jesus life; they are not dependable history. They were written long after Jesus death and these four are only a few of the scores of texts written to support the hierarchy of the church. The other gospels (Gnostic ones especially) were suppressed by the church hierarchy in the mid-300s (e.g., Dan Brown's view). 1. The canonical Gospels were written between 20 and 60 years after Jesus death, burial and resurrection. 2. The content is far too counterproductive for the Gospels to be legend. 3. The literary form of the Gospels is too detailed to be legend. 6
We really cannot justify the Bible culturally either. For example, why would we trust a book that justifies slavery? But, this is a classic case of the need to understand the historical and cultural distance between the Greco- Roman world and our own. When we think of slavery, we think of chattel, racial slavery in the pre-civil War South. But, in the first century, there was not a great deal of difference between the slave and the average free person. Slaves were not marked by race, speech or clothing. They were not segregated from the rest of society in any manner. Slaves made the same wage as free laborers, and were not usually poor. They could own property and buy their own freedom. Few were slaves for life; the typical period of enslavement was between 10 and 15 years. The same critical question occurs when one reads biblical passages on gender roles in marriage or on sexuality (e.g., homosexuality, bestiality, adultery, etc.). VIII. Where did the Bible come from? 1 st Claim: The Bible (the canon of Scripture) was the product of church councils in the 4 th century, largely under the influence of Caesar Constantine. 7
2 nd Claim: There were many other books circulating that the church arbitrarily rejected because they interfered with church doctrine and presuppositions. 3 rd Claim: Since the NT writers were illiterate and backward, how could they have written the NT? 1. 2. 3. 8
Finally, remember that the ground rules for acceptance of the 27 books of the NT canon were: 1. Written by an apostle 2. Someone connected to an apostle. 3. Based on eyewitness and verifiable testimony. IX. Why does the Bible contain so many seeming errors and contradictions? The claim here is that the Bible contains many errors and even more contradictions. If true, then we cannot trust what the Bible says about Jesus, about history or about God s character and nature. But, are the perceived contradictions really contradictions? Do different emphases about historical events in Jesus life, for example, really equal contradictions? Does diversity in the accounts of an event equal disagreement about the event, or just differences in what to emphasize? If there is diversity and there are differences but not disagreement, then there are no contradictions. This is what we want to test in this section. A different purpose for each of the 4 Gospels: Matthew Mark 9
Luke John Test Case #1: Differing accounts of the crucifixion Test Case #2: The Virgin Birth of Jesus Test Case #3: Did Jesus does miracles or performs signs? 10
Conclusion: X. Since we do not have the original books of the Bible, how do we know it is trustworthy? The claim of the critic is that, since we do not have the original text of the Gospels, or of the Apostle Paul s epistles, or of any other OT or NT writer, the copies that we have are not trustworthy. Since the books of the Bible were copied by hand, mistakes were made and probably verses were added by the copiers. The result is that we really do not have a trustworthy Bible. These copiers were human and humans make errors intentionally and unintentionally. But, the only way people know of any ancient literature is by way of copies, not originals. The Bible is the most attested work coming out of the ancient world. 11
How were the Old Testament books copied? Did this process preserve the accuracy of the OT text? How were the New Testament books copied? We have more copies of the Christian Scriptures than we do of any other Ancient text. Jesus and the Bible: 12
XI. Who decided the beliefs that make up Christianity? The Claim: In the late 19 th and into the early 20 th century, the claim emerged that original 1st-century Christianity was, in some parts of the Mediterranean world, actually heretical and much more attune to Gnostic beliefs. But it was only in the 3 rd and into the 4 th centuries that the church exercised its growing power to snuff out all these early beliefs, declaring that Gnosticism was a heresy and only orthodox Christianity was the truth. The Council of Nicea in AD 325 is most crucial for this view, for, they argue, Caesar Constantine forced all these false teachings to be condemned by the church council. Christianity is therefore muddled, manmade and manufactured. Hence, Christianity in the early centuries was so diverse that no one can actually claim to have the truth. [This view has been popularized by Dan Brown in his books.] 1. Two key Responses: 2. NT texts that reveal extremely defined understandings about Jesus, His identity, His mission, and His purpose for the church: 13
Concluding Points: 1. 2. 3. A timeline of Christianity, AD 33-300s: AD 33 AD 40s-60s AD 60s-90s AD 90s-130s AD 130s-200s 14
AD 200s-300s XII. How do we know that Jesus rose from the dead? The Claim: Without an empty tomb, Christianity is baseless and inept: Our Savior is dead and the Christian faith has taught a lie. But the NT Bible, all of the early apostles and throughout all of Church History have taught that Jesus is resurrected from the dead. It is one of the most documented facts coming out of the ancient world. So, some critics claim the tomb was empty but there is an explanation for that, short of the resurrection. Others teach that the early church was simply deluded in believing in the resurrection. The antisupernatural bias makes believing in the resurrection very difficult, but they must somehow explain it nonetheless. Explanations for the resurrection: 1. Delusional disciples: 2. Fabricated Stories: 15
A more reasonable explanation: Suggested Books for Further Study 1. Truth Matters: Confident Faith in a Confusing World by Andreas Kostenberger, Darrell Bock and Josh Chatraw 2. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller. 3. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth behind Alternative Christianities by Darrell L. Bock 4. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. 5. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. 6. The Inspiration and Canonicity of Scripture by R. Laird Harris. 16