Evidence for Christianity

By Bob Dutko

 

Christian apologetics (a study of the evidence for Christianity) is important for all believers who hope to defend the faith effectively and prove the reliability of the Bible. By comparing Jesus to other religions using facts, logic and history, you can show that all other religions crumble under intellectual scrutiny except Christianity: The only true religion. There are, of course, many evidences for Christianity, so let us look at one simple example by using a little logic and reasoning.

All religions claim they are the one true faith and certainly Christianity is no different in that it also claims to be the one true faith, so how can we know who is right? First, we have to understand and accept the fact that they cannot all be right because they contradict each other. Some Eastern religions teach that you can become fully “enlightened” through a reincarnation process if you do enough good deeds. Islam teaches you must follow the teachings of the Qu'ran and the Hadiths and accept Muhammad as God's true prophet for the hope that Allah may grant you entrance into paradise. Jesus taught that He was God in the flesh, who came to Earth in human form to die for the sins of mankind, so that “whosoever would believe on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life”.  So who is right?

If we are to approach this logically, we need to see that all religions began with a founder who had a philosophy and then convinced others to follow that philosophy. (Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, etc.) The next logical step is to determine which, if any, of these religious leaders was speaking with the authority of Heaven, the authority of God, the real God, the God who created the Universe. So let us examine the evidence.

Jesus is the only “religious leader” who actually claimed to be God on Earth, in the flesh. Of course, He was the Son of God while in human flesh, and yet also fully God and fully human. (While our finite minds are not yet capable of comprehending how the Son of God can also be fully God and fully human, we must acknowledge the fact that Jesus Himself claimed this to be true, whether we can comprehend this mystery or not.)

So, we first need to determine whether or not Jesus really did, in fact, claim that He was God. In Isaiah 9:6 it is prophesied the Messiah that comes to Earth in the flesh will be called “Mighty God, everlasting Father” and in Isaiah 7:14 the coming Messiah is prophesied to be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. (It is important to remember that while Scripture is God's Word, it is also historical documentation and accounts of events written down by real people in history) Jesus came along hundreds of years later and declared that He was the Messiah prophesied about, that He was indeed “God with us”.

  • He said in John 6:41 that He “came down from Heaven”.
  • He said in John 6:62 that He would ascend to “where He was before”.  
  • He said in John 8:23 that He is “from above”.
  • He said in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one”.  
  • He said in John 8:58 “Before Abraham was born, I am”, using the same “I AM” self-reference God used with Moses at the burning bush.

Remember, in addition to Scripture, these are the actual historically recorded words of Jesus by John, an eyewitness who recorded them within the lifetimes of other eyewitnesses who were in a position to refute John's account if it was not historically accurate. While there certainly were people at that time who rejected the conclusions drawn by the disciples that Jesus was who He claimed to be, there are no writings from that time ever found in archaeology or epigraphy from anyone who disagreed with what the disciples claimed Jesus did and said.

Also, remember, Jesus allowed Himself to be worshiped as recorded in places such as John 9:38 and Matthew 14:33. In the Old Testament we see that God is a jealous God and declares that no one besides God is to be worshiped, so for Jesus to allow Himself to be worshiped establishes that He did in fact consider Himself to be God. He also declared that His was the only true religion in that He said many times that He is the only way to get to Heaven.

The next logical step is to determine whether Jesus was right or wrong about His claims. Jesus backed up His claims by doing things no ordinary human being could do. It is historically recorded by eyewitnesses that Jesus changed the weather with His spoken word, walked on water, changed water into wine, instantly healed the blind, the deaf and paralyzed, created fish and bread to feed thousands, brought the dead back to life and rose from the dead Himself, after which He appeared before 500 brethren over 40 days. (Back then, only men were counted in crowd size estimates, so factoring in women and children, Jesus would have appeared to probably 1,500 to 2,000 people easily.) Again, this is not just Scripture, but actual recorded historical accounts by eyewitnesses. Compare this to every other religious leader and the difference becomes clear. Every other founder of every other religion was just a regular human being with a philosophy who convinced others to follow that philosophy. They possessed no power to defy the laws of physics. Anyone can invent a religion, but not anyone can claim to be God and then back it up with the power to control sickness, disease, the weather, the laws of physics and even death itself.

When Muhammad, Buddha, Confucius, Krishna or any of these other people were in a storm, they could not change the weather; they merely got wet. When they came across blind, deaf or paralyzed people, those people stayed blind, deaf and paralyzed. If they attended a wedding where the wine ran out, water would have to do. If they had only five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 -– 4,990 would have to go hungry. When they came across dead people, those people stayed dead and when they died themselves, they stayed dead.

Remember, if any of these other religions are true, then Jesus, with all of His proofs, would have to be wrong and one of these regular human religious leaders would have to be right. That is something I cannot logically or intellectually accept. Christian apologetics (or defending the faith) is really not that hard when you logically examine the proofs and evidence for Christianity and the reliability of the Bible compared to other religions.