Christianity is a faith. We openly admit this fact. However, it is not a blind faith. It is a faith based on hard evidence. God has revealed Himself to humanity and has given us persuasive rational proofs. The New Testament in Acts 1:3 says that Jesus proved that He had risen from the dead by "many convincing proofs" (NAS).

Here's a quick checklist of reasons to believe in the God of the Bible:

1. Experimental science arose in Christian Europe and nowhere else on earth. It is painfully ironic that secularists use the findings of science to base their misguided attacks against the Christian faith. I've pointed out in several DTF articles that the Bible alone among holy books of the world's faiths gives the philosophical basis for the inductive principle.

   The inductive principle (also called the regularity principle) is the idea that the universe is consistent and based on physical laws that give predictable results from experiments. The Bible reveals God as a lawgiver who gave moral laws to mankind and God has also ordered the physical universe by consistent physical laws.

   Plato thought the universe was random. The Hindus believe the universe is "Maya" meaning illusion. No one wants to do experiments in a random universe or a universe that is an illusion. All of the founders of the major branches of science were Bible believing Christians or men reared in a Christian culture who operated from a Christian worldview. This includes the pioneering scientists Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Blaise Pascal.

2. Where Christianity has become the dominant religion, radical changes for better social justice have occurred. When Rome under Constantine adopted Christianity they immediately reformed the prisons to keep female inmates separate from male inmates. Many other reforms followed later including the abolition of gladiator games at the insistence of Christian clergy.

   In the medieval period Christian Europe was the first continent to abolish slavery. The lapses in social justice such as the Spanish inquisition occurred in defiance of Christian teaching not because of it. In the USA vices such as dueling, abortion and slavery were abolished under Christian leadership in the 19th century. Missionaries worked to abolish widow burning in India.

3. The Bible contains predictive prophecies that were fulfilled in history and some are being fulfilled in our own time. The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, who was a prominent Florida pastor, said that Jesus fulfilled over 300 predictive Bible prophecies during his life, death and resurrection from the dead. No other religious figure or philosopher or political leader has anything that remotely approaches this level of supernatural witness. These hundreds of prophecies were written in the Old Testament by Hebrew prophets centuries before Christ was born.

   In addition to the prophecies fulfilled in Christ, there are more than two thousand other Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled in history or are being fulfilled in our own time. Most holy books of other faiths have no predictive prophecies at all and the few that do are nowhere near the Bible's amazing record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy! Predictive prophecies are like God's signature on the Bible proving it is divinely inspired.

4. Miracles performed in the name of Jesus prove the Bible true. The many examples of miracles that Jesus performed are too numerous to mention here. These miracles gave witness to the fact that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel. The miracles of Jesus are recorded in four eyewitness accounts which are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. After the ascension of Christ, the Bible records the many miracles performed by the apostles in Jesus's name.

   Down through history even to the present day, miracles continue to be performed in Jesus's name. In a previous DTF article I've given the example of Ralph Anderson being radically and instantly healed of severe cerebral palsy at a Christian healing service. There are many other examples of miraculous healings too numerous to mention.

5. UFO abductions have been stopped in the name of Jesus. UFOs are not metal spaceships from other star systems. UFO researchers are beginning to see that UFOs come not from another physical location but from another dimension. Christian UFO researchers believe UFOs come from the realm of spirit and are demonic. There are many testimonies of attempted UFO abductions that have been stopped by the person calling upon the name of Jesus. (See Charisma magazine, April 2001, page 46.) There are many recent books that explain UFOs from a Christian perspective.
6. The secular alternative to Christianity appears to be pessimistic and anti-progressive. A document called the Humanist Manifesto, signed by prominent secularists in 1933, says there are no moral absolutes. Secularism provides no basis for morality because it claims that humans are merely soulless apelike creatures that evolved from animals. Postmodernism is the embrace of moral relativism. Secularists claim that the death of a person brings the cessation of consciousness and therefore there is no future for any person. This has led to the radical philosophical pessimism of Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Sartre said that a human being is "a useless passion."
7. The secular alternative to Christianity is a faith that is contrary to science. Secularism is faith in the ability of random collisions of atoms to form complex molecules such as proteins, DNA and RNA and that these molecules randomly coalesce to form a living cell and then multicellular life and then intelligent life. Just the DNA of a simple bacteria contains over 500,000 base pairs that have to be arranged in precise sequence. DNA contains the information for the design of life.

As science and technology continue to advance they show that living things are far more complex than previously thought. This is proof that there had to be a Creator.

Christianity is a reasonable faith based on reasonable evidence. Christianity's rationality is in contrast to the secular faith that is now imposing its culture of death on the world. I urge you to make a decision for Christ today! Faith is a relationship word. Faith means to rely upon the ability of another. We rely on Jesus Christ who died for our sins. God sent Jesus to suffer the penalty that we deserved for our sins. We receive forgiveness when we turn to God through Christ.   

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2010 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given

DEFENDING THE FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world. The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel. All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given. To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button. *Security: Write the characters in the image above (Case sensitive)