the same sense. Religions often make opposite claims. For
example, Christianity says that Jesus is God’s Son, whereas
Islam says that God cannot have a son. But Jesus either is
the Son of God, or he is not. If he is, then Islam could not
be true. If he isn’t, then Christianity could not be true. There
are fundamental differences in these religions. The various
religions could logically all be false, but they could not all
be true.
Start a Christian School
Proof for the Bible
I suggested to Scott that the proof for the resurrection of
Jesus makes the Bible the best option as a revelation from
God. I told him, “If Jesus actually rose from the dead, the
ramifications of that are huge! It would mean that he is who
he said he was (God the Son), that he is the only way to God
as he claimed to be, and that the Bible is God’s Word as he
said it was!”
At this point, Scott asked, “So, are you a Christian?”
I said, “Yes.”
He then said, “Well, doesn’t that make you biased?”
I said, “No. I think I can be more objective about deciding
what religion is true because of the value I place on truth as
correspondence to reality. As an honest truth seeker, I’m a
Christian because I have good reasons to be. That makes me
reasonable, not biased.”
So you see, in his case, it was helpful that I had earlier
defended proper definitions of truth and knowledge. It was
also probably good that I tried to help him discover the
truth for himself instead of just telling him what I believe.
Scott and I talked for just a bit more after that. As I often
do when I get to this part of the conversation, I encour-
aged him to investigate the evidence for the resurrection of
Jesus. We parted on friendly terms, and I was once again
reminded of the vast numbers of unbelievers who are open
to an evangelistic approach of listening and engaging on a
philosophical level. This easy-going approach using guiding
questions can lead to many opportunities to share the good
news of Jesus.
Reprinted by permission of the Christian Research Journal.
Dr. Mark Bird teaches theology, evangelism, and philosophy at
God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he
also directs online studies. He is the author of the book Defend-
ing Your Faith, a twelve-lesson series in apologetics published
by Answers in Genesis.
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