1. Introduction

2. God Exists

A. Cause and Effect

3. Absolutes Truth Exists

A. Absolute Morality

4. Why Theism is True / Miracles are possible

5. Which Form of Theism is true? Ways to Test

6. Historical Reliability of the Bible

A. The Gospels

B. The Old Testament

7. Prophecy

A Historical Events

B. Messianic Prophecies

8. The Resurrection

A. The Empty Tomb

9. Conclusion

I am a Christian... not because I was brought up that way… or because I am trying to get to heaven… or because it makes me a better person. I am a Christian because Christianity is true. Since it is true, it is only logical to follow its teachings. Yet around me I see others reject Christianity on the basis that it is not logical. They say that such things as belief in God, miracles, and the Bible’s accuracy are not logical; so they reject them. My purpose in writing this paper is to show why these beliefs are logical and are worthy of consideration.

Christianity is centered on a belief in God. However, approximately 3% of Americans are atheists, and this figure is much higher in many other industrialized countries. Also a large number of intellectuals who have a significant impact on the education system and government are atheists. Although some intelligent and influential thinkers have held this view, I reject it. I believe that God’s existence is evidenced through the fact that the universe exists. The scientific Law of Cause and Effect along with the Laws of Thermodynamics illustrate this very clearly. These laws are common knowledge; all of science stands on them. Our actions every day affirm their validity. Think about it, every cause has an effect, and we are effects. If you go looking back to find your cause, you will find that your cause had a cause, and so on. And since the Second Law of Thermodynamics states, in essence, that the universe is losing usable energy, you will reach a beginning. No matter what model of the universe you hold to, you must go back to the beginning; and when there you must ask, “What caused the universe?” There is no answer but another cause, a cause outside the universe, or a First Cause. Here we must stop, for outside the universe, the Law of Cause and Effect (being temporal, and time being an aspect of our universe) has no hold; therefore the First Cause is also uncaused. Now the fact that the Law of Cause and Effect ceases beyond the universe has caused some to claim that the cause of our universe is an incoherent concept. However, such a claim requires that a cause must come before its effect, ignoring the philosophical concept of simultaneous causation. This principle shows that the first moment of time was also the moment of the universe coming into being. So we see that the Law of Cause and Effect provides sound proof that God exists.

Most people believe in God. Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. all claim that there is a God(s) and that his existence should affect our lives. More generally theism, deism, panthiesm, and polytheism all claim to be true, but which is right? Some people say that all are correct; but this statement can’t be true, because different religions are contradictory. If one religion like Christianity claims to be exclusively true, then they can not all be true. It is also common to claim that even if all religions can’t be true, truth is relative to the individual. That way Christianity is true for me, Islam is true for another, and so on. But I wish to defend Christianity, which claims to be absolutely and exclusively true. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” So can there be any absolute moral truth, like Jesus claims?

The idea of relative truth is very popular, even among Christians. A poll done in 2000 reveals that 44% of born again adults and 9% of born again teenagers believe in absolute moral truth. But, first of all, what is the definition of truth? Webster defines truth as “the state of being the case: fact,” or “the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY.” What is true is true, it is fact, it is actuality. Reality is true and does not depend on our opinions. So to say that “what is true for you is not true for me” (as some do) about reality is absurd. However, reality is often hard to ascertain, especially what is real beyond what we can observe with our senses. Some people might claim that nothing is real beyond our senses. But this is not true because, as I have shown, God is real but he is also beyond our senses. However, I think that those who say that truth is relative or that there are no absolutes really mean that moral truth is relative and moral absolutes do not exist. But Christianity claims absolute moral truths, even to the point of claiming to declare the truth, excluding all other religions. Instead of examining all the many different non-Christian beliefs, I will provide proof of Christianity, therefore invalidating all other possible religions and beliefs, and proving that its claims to moral absolutes are valid because it is truth.

As I mentioned before, there are many philosophies about God: polytheism, pantheism, deism, and theism. Which one is true? I believe that Christianity (theism) is true. But what makes it truer than the others? The chief distinction of theism is that its followers believe in a personal God who works miracles. Many people believe that miracles can’t happen, a position that only atheists can hold consistently. Of course, a deist will disagree. They claim that God would not choose to work miracles; hence, they don‘t occur. But Christians claim that God has and does work miracles. In fact, the whole religion rests on a miracle, the resurrection of Jesus. And so the question of whether miracles exist is not philosophical, but historical. If God has not done the miracles attributed to him in the past, then what makes us think that he does them now, or that he does them ever? So we see that theism is testable, based on real world occurrences.

So the question is, does theism stand up to the test? As mentioned, followers of theistic religions are the most numerous in the world, but different theistic religions have contradictory claims. Which one is right? How can we test a religion? Many people claim that religions are based on faith and to test them would destroy faith, thus destroying the religion. But I think that this view destroys any real impact the faith has on your life. It reduces all religions to voluntary beliefs that can be used to become a better person. Obviously the religions themselves do not claim this. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss all such claims; but since Christianity claims to be exclusively true, proving it will falsify any other claim. So how do we test a religion? I can think of several ways, and I am going to explore the credibility of Christianity through three of them: the reliability of the Bible, the resurection of Jesus, and prophecy.

The Bible is one of the most controversial and persecuted books in history. It has been burned in ancient times, banned in modern ones. It has survived the Romans, the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Communists for close to 2,000 years. Today it is the world’s most popular book, a perennial bestseller. But can a book which has been through so much persecution come out unscathed? Fundamentalist Christians claim that it has, that today’s Bible reads the same as the original manuscripts. I don’t want to explore that. I only wish to establish the Bible’s historical reliability. Why is this important? Well, the events that founded Christianity as a distinct religion took place around 2,000 years ago, and the Bible is the only detailed account of these happenings that we have. So in order to analyze these events, we must be sure our record is reliable.

The life of Jesus was recorded by numerous authors. They recount a marvelous story of miracles and supernatural events. Some are included in the Bible; others are rejected by Christians as heretical. Which ones, if any, are true? These authors were followers of the religion they wrote about, and this makes them biased. Can they be trusted? Concerning the life of Jesus, however, there is no unbiased position. You believe or you don’t; either way is slanted toward that belief. Secular historians have little to say about Jesus but what they do confirms what is probably our most reliable record, the four Gospels in the Bible. One hundred percent of all current archaeological evidence firmly supports the accuracy of these Gospels. Sir William Ramsay, one of the greatest archaeologists of his time, was once a great skeptic of the New Testament. But after 15 years of intensive study he concluded that, “Luke (one of the four gospel authors) is a historian of the first rank - this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.” Based on this conviction, he converted to Christianity. The other heretical Gospels are contradictory and were written long after Jesus’ life, problems which do not plague the Biblical Gospels. Beside this, we also have approximately 5,700 copies of ancient New Testament manuscripts, far more than any other ancient writing. For a comparison consider the Iliad, which is the most numerous non-biblical book with 643 known copies. Many of the New Testament manuscripts are dated to a time when there would have been eyewitnesses still alive. The wealth of manuscripts ensures that the New Testament has survived, in the words of scholars Norman Geisler and William Nix, in a “form that is 99.5% pure.”

The Old Testament is much more controversial than the New. Mostly because: the writings are much older, the miracles described seem even more incredible than those in the New Testament, and the book of Genesis. I only wish to defend the textual accuracy of the books because my purpose is to show the fulfilled prophecy in the Bible, a worthless evidence if the text was tampered with. One of the first things to consider is the importance of this issue to the ancient Jews. The rules concerning the copying of the scriptures were very strict. The scribes who did the copying counted every letter several times and followed too many other rules to list here. They believed that they were transcribing the very words of God. In many cases to break the laws that they recorded meant death, so they needed the utmost precision.

Another strong evidence for the accuracy the Old Testament is the wealth of archaeological information that it contains. Time and time again digs in the Middle East turn up more confirmation of Biblical statements. I am reminded of how prior to 1876 the Hittites were a lost civilization, except for their prominent role in the Bible. Then A. H. Sayce found inscriptions carved on rocks in Turkey which he guessed were Hittite. They were, and now so much is known about the Hittites that you could earn a Ph.D. in Hittite studies.

Truly the scribes’ rules were sufficient to insure accuracy, and the archaeological evidence is in support. But how can we be sure that Old Testament survived the constant upheaval of Palestine without being altered? I don’t believe we can, at least until the time when the Dead Sea Scrolls were written. They are one of the most important archaeological finds ever, and about 1/3 of the scrolls are of the Old Testament. Dated before the time of Christ they contain at least a part of every book of the Old Testament. Inspection of Isaiah chapter 53, an important prophecy concerning Jesus, reveals that it has remained unchanged since before Christianity began. So we can conclude that the Old Testament is textually accurate and a reliable historical record.

Another powerful evidence for the Bible and Christianity is fulfilled prophecy. Dozens of books have been written on the subject, and it easily shows that the Bible is divinely inspired by God. Who else could have predicted events that would happen hundreds to thousands of years later? I want to examine the prophecies concerning Jesus and prophecies in the Old Testament concerning historical events.

The Old Testament has a large section devoted to prophecy. There are 17 books devoted to prophecy, but there are many other prophecies given in the other books. These books are considered prophetical because they have a 100% accuracy rate. The Bible sets its own criteria for prophecy in Deut. 18:22: "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." So for a prophecy to even be in the Bible it has to be 100% accurate.

Let’s look briefly at some of the more spectacular prophecies in the Old Testament. In 606 to 607 B.C. the Jews were conquered by Neuchadnezzer, the king of the Babylonian Empire, and led into exile. The prophet Jeremiah predicted in the first year of Nebuchadnezzer’s reign, prior to his conquest of Judea, that this would happen; and he also specified that the exile would last 70 years. The Jews returned in 537 B.C. just as predicted. The reason the Jews returned was because Cyrus, the king of the Medes and the Persians, conquered the Babylonians. He also let the Jews rebuild their capital Jerusalem and their Temple. This was prophesied in great detail around 700 B.C. by the prophet Isaiah, even to the point of prophesying Cyrus’ name. Isaiah also prophesied that the Jews would be exiled a second time, and once again their land would be restored. This prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 A.D. when Israel became a nation. In 550 B.C. the prophet Daniel accurately prophesied 400 hundred years of history, predicting the rise of Alexander the Great and many other rulers in the Middle East. He even predicted the rise of the Roman Empire. I believe that this is more than enough to establish that the Bible is the Word of God.

Although I think that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is enough to prove his deity, another proof is the many prophecies concerning his life. Take Isaiah 53, the chapters I mentioned earlier. The Dead Sea Scrolls verify that this was written before the life of Jesus. In fact, Isaiah lived around 700 years before Jesus’ birth. The passage contains such an accurate description that even a cursory knowledge of Jesus’ life suffices to understand its significance.

“He was despised and rejected by men,” Is. 53:3

“But he was pierced for our transgressions.” Is. 53:5

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth,” Is. 53:7 (an accurate description of Jesus at his trial)

“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” Is. 53:9 (Jesus was buried after his death in a rich follower’s tomb)

There is much more in this passage alone, but I want to move on to Psalm 22. Psalm 22:7-8 says: “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’” Compare that with Mark 15:31: “In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.’ Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” Historians and doctors can tell us how brutal a death by crucifixion was, but so can Psalm 22.

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” Ps. 22:14

“My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;” Ps. 22:15

“…they have pierced my hands and my feet.” Ps. 22:16

“They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” Ps. 22:18 (describing how the Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ clothing)

I could quote verses that predict the place of Jesus’ birth (Micah 5:2), the timing of his birth (Daniel 9:25-26), the price of his betrayal (Zechariah 11:12-13), and his lineage (2 Samuel 7:11-16), and more. But I believe I have shown enough to prove my point.

Now assuming that the Bible is textually and historically accurate, as well as divinely inspired (which I believe to have shown to be a reasonable assumption), I will proceed to show why I believe historical events to be convincing proof of Christianity. Christianity is all about Jesus, who was an apparently insignificant carpenter-turned-religious teacher who was executed by the Romans, who in turn were under pressure by religious authorities offended by his teachings. Unfortunately for those religious authorities, despite the persecution they leveled against Jesus‘ followers, after his death his followers didn’t just go home. They branched out, converting thousands and spreading what is today the world’s largest religion. The Bible tells that after Jesus’ death the early Christians were crushed and went into hiding. But something happened that made them come out, defy the religious authorities to their faces, and renew the preaching of Jesus boldly and publicly. What was it that they preached? Acts 4:2 says that the religious leaders were “…greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” Could this have really happened?

Let us examine the evidence that I consider the most powerful proof of Christianity. Has Jesus truly risen from the dead? The Bible says so, but it might be a contrived tale by the followers of Christ. What is undeniable is that the tomb where Jesus was buried is empty. If it was not, the early enemies of Christianity could have simply opened the tomb and the whole idea of the resurrection would have been discredited. But the tomb is empty and the body must be somewhere. Those who killed Jesus claimed that his disciples had stolen the body. But there are many factors that contradict this explanation.

First of all, tradition holds that 10 out of the 11 faithful disciples died bloody deaths, would they have died for a lie? Also the Bible lists over 500 eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after he died. This was written at a time when they would be still alive for anyone who wanted verification. Another problem, and what I consider the conclusive one, is that the Bible tells us that the religious leaders had a Roman guard placed over the tomb of Jesus. They had heard of Jesus’ prophesy about his resurrection and they wanted to be sure that his disciples did not steal the body (precisely what they claimed later on). And yet the body disappeared from under the noses of the best-trained army of the ancient world. The guard probably consisted of 16 soldiers, with at least 4 on watch at all times. History tells us that the penalty for a Roman sleeping on watch was death. There was also a two-ton rock rolled over the tomb’s entrance. Besides this, there was no motivation for the disciples to steal the body. After all, they themselves tell in the Gospels how they were in hiding before the resurrection and met even the actual event with disbelief. So it is entirely reasonable to assume that Jesus did as he predicted and rose from the dead. This validates his claim to be the Son of God, and therefore the basic tenets of Christianity are secure.

I believe that I have shown that Christianity is true. Its truth invalidates any other way to know God, who we know exists by the fact that we exist. I hope to have shown that God interacts with us through historically verifiable miracles, like the resurrection of Jesus, and that the Bible is a historically reliable book, further proved to be inspired by God by the amazing prophecies it contains. I hope to have shown that belief in Christianity is a logical belief, but why should you believe? There are many reasons: God’s promised rewards, a fulfilling life, and so on. But I think the strongest reason is that Christianity is true; and as Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free.”

American Religious Identification Survey December 19, 2001 Professor Barry A. Kosmin & Professor Egon Mayer April 21, 2006

http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_studies/aris.pdf#search='American%20R eligious%20Identification%20Survey

Archaeology and the Old Testament 14 July 2002 ,Pat Zukeran, April 27, 2006

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arch-ot.html

God & Causation: Temporal Requirements for Causes to Exist (Book Notes: Arguing for Atheism) November 26, 2005 Austin Cline April 19, 2006

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/220578.htm

Ham, Ken, Hodge, Kerby, Lisle, McKeever, Menton, Mortenson, Purdom, Riddle

“War of the Worldviews” Answers in Genesis, 2005

Muncaster, Ralph O. “Examine the Evidence: Exploring the Case for Christianity” Harvest House Publishers 2004

Morris, Henry M., “The Biblical Basis for Modern Science” Revised and Updated

Master Books 1984, 2002

Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls FAQ May 3, 2006

http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/resources/FAQ.shtml#aboutJesus

Sarfati, Jonathan “If God created the universe, then who created God?” TJ 12:1(1998)

20–22

http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v12/i1/universe.asp

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.