3 Why I am (still) a Christian: The Irrefutable Proof for Christianity

Introduction

In my first blog post, I established that I am a Christian because the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God of Christianity demands in His self-attesting Bible that I must have faith in Jesus Christ. In my second blog post, I wrote that I am NOT a Christian because the Traditional Proofs convinced me.

Why? The Traditional Proofs set human beings in the judgment seat over God. God never proves His existence; He proclaims it. They assume sinful unbelievers have intellects unmarred by sin, that reason is somehow neutral. At best, the Traditional Proofs only prove the possibility that a "god" exists. They do not verify the Trinitarian God, who exists as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, nor do they prove Jesus Christ's deity.

Does This Mean God Doesn’t Exist?

Does this let the unbeliever off the hook? Does the failure of the Traditional Proofs mean that the God of the Bible doesn't exist? Does it allow for people to deny or question His existence? Are Atheists justified in their assertion that God does not exist or Agnostics to say they just don't know? Does this mean religion is up for grabs? That all religions stand on equal ground and that it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you believe in something or not? Does this mean that the only thing we can know for sure is what the logicians and scientists tell us? Are they the only reliable truth-tellers of our world?

To each of these questions, I answer a resounding "Not at all!" The self-existing Trinitarian God of the Bible exists, and I can prove it. It is a beautiful proof, and it is based entirely on the authority of the self-attesting Bible, which is where I started in the first place.

What is this Proof?

Apart from the self-existing God who revealed Himself through the self-attesting Bible, you cannot prove anything.

This proof is different from the Traditional Proofs because it shows that the Trinitarian God of the Bible necessarily exists. If He does not exist as He revealed Himself in the Bible, then there is no basis for logic, rationality, science, ethics, faith, or meaning.

This proof excludes all other "gods" from all other religions and the distortions of the orthodox Christian faith by Gnostics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Neo-Orthodox, Liberals, or any other "faith" that does not begin with the sole authority of the self-attesting Bible. Why? Because every other religion or faith has the Bible and something else. True Christianity begins and ends with Sola Scripture (The Bible alone). Every other worldview, philosophy, or religion does not.

Put On Your Thinking Cap

Before you continue, I must warn the reader that you are going to have to think and think hard. Thinking can be like exercising. We can get lazy and when challenged, want to quit. I encourage you to persevere through the end. It will be worth your time and effort.

Those who are not used to being challenged intellectually may be shaking their heads at this point and saying, "that's no proof at all." I'm glad you are saying that because you prove the proof when you doubt that it is no proof at all.

Doubting Proves The Proof

You see, doubt is only possible if there is Truth. So I ask you, dear skeptic, "What is Truth?" And, more than that, "How will you know Truth when you encounter it?" On what basis of Truth will you refute the proof that “Apart from the God of the Bible, you cannot prove anything”?

You have a serious problem on your hand. To deny this proof is to acknowledge Truth. To recognize Truth means you have assumed something that you haven’t proved, which is the existence of Truth itself. Without Truth, you cannot prove that my proof is false.

What Truth will you appeal to prove me wrong? Yourself? Your reason? Do you believe that not only do you know the Truth, but you are the Truth? If you are the source of the Truth, then you must be Truth itself. But that is absurd. You are not the Truth, and apart from the Truth revealed in the Bible, you have no way of knowing what Truth is.

Apart from Biblical Christianity, you cannot prove “proof.”

Jesus Is the Truth

The self-attesting Son of God and son of man, Jesus Christ, claims to be the Truth. He says in John 14:6:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

He claims that the Bible is the Truth:

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

The Bible claims to be "the word of Truth":

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

Biblical Christianity alone can answer the difficult philosophical and theological questions of life. The Bible says that in Christ are:

Hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3

Apart from the God of the Bible, you cannot prove anything false.

The Necessity of an Objective Standard

To show that this proof is wrong, you have to have an objective standard of Truth, which you do not. But I have an objective standard of Truth. It proves all other worldviews, philosophies, theologies, and beliefs are wrong.

If someone denies or contradicts the Truth of God revealed in the Bible, they cannot prove anything because there is no objective standard; all is relativity.

The Meaninglessness of Atheism

Atheists cannot prove anything because atheism is meaningless. If atheists attempted to open their mouth to refute this proof, they would prove the proof because the basis of refutation assumes Truth, Meaning, Logic, Rationality, and so on. In other words, atheism must accept the Biblical Christian worldview to refute the Christian worldview. Atheism must borrow Truth, Meaning, Logic, Rationality, and so on from the Christian worldview in order to refute Christianity because atheism is completely bankrupt. Atheism cannot have Truth, Meaning, Logic, Rationality because it is founded upon absolutely nothing.

Without assuming Biblical Christianity, atheism cannot prove anything.

This goes for the humanist, the agnostic, and every other worldview, philosophy, or religion.

The Absolute Adequacy of Biblical Christianity

Reality

As a Bible-believing Christian, I can account for reality because the Bible states:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

Logic and Reason

I can account for reason and logic because the Christian God of the Bible reveals that He is reasonable:

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Isaiah 1:18

Those who believe there is nothing beyond the material universe cannot explain the immaterial laws of logic or man's rationality. The Bible can and does. God made human beings in His image, so I can account for why human beings are reasonable and rational creatures:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

The Foundation of Science

As a Bible-believing Christian, I can tell you why and how science is possible. Foolish Christians think that science and faith are mutually exclusive. Biblical Christians know that science is not possible unless the God of the Bible exists. Otherwise, there is no way to explain nature's uniformity, that is "consistent cause and effect."

David Hume showed that, as an atheist, there is no reason (there's that word again) to assume that consistent cause and effect will necessarily happen in the future just because something happened in the past. As a Bible-believing Christian, I can tell you why specific results follow particular causes, why there are "laws" of physics, why observation and repeatability are possible. It is because of the God of the Bible who:

works all things according to the counsel of his will. Ephesians 1:11

Apart from Biblical Christianity, science is impossible.

Life, Motion, and Being

Only the Christian worldview can account for Life, Motion, and Being which pretty much covers the most important philosophical questions:

In Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Apart from the God of the Bible, you cannot prove life, motion, or existence.

The Solution to the One and the Many

Apart from the Trinitarian God of the Bible, there is no way to reconcile the philosophical problem of the one and the many. Philosophers cannot explain how we can have particular facts and universal laws, how we can have a uni (one) verse (many), or how a specific object like "ball" can have an abstract characteristic such as "blue."

Only Biblical Christianity can explain all the mysteries surrounding unity and diversity because the Originator of all is both Three and One. We know this because God revealed this to us in the Bible, for example:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6:2

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew 3:16-17

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 1 Peter 1:2

Apart from the Trinitarian God of the Bible, you cannot prove particulars and universals or whether a relationship exists between them.

No Christ, No Moral Law

Finally, there is no way to explain morality apart from the God of the Bible. If all there is in this universe is material, and human beings evolved in a random chance universe, how do you account for ethics, morality, and law?

You can't, but I can. Speaking about right and wrong and good and evil is nonsense in a materialistic, atheistic evolutionary world. The best they can do is have faith in a religion of "survival of the fittest" that results in a political system where "might makes right."

I can explain right and wrong because God revealed in the Bible that He is the standard of good and evil.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

A legal system built upon human wisdom is foundationless, arbitrary, and ever-changing. Just compare the Ten Commandments to the 300,000+ Federal laws there are in the United States alone.

Apart from the God of the Bible, you cannot prove good and evil or right or wrong.

Salvation Through the Spirit of God

This proof will not convert my reader to Christianity. If you turn to Christianity, it will be because God has breathed His life into your soul and brought you forth from spiritual death. The last thing I want to show that this proof proves is, that apart from Him, you have no hope of forgiveness of sins, eternal life, or salvation in Christ.

How To Be Saved

If God has opened your eyes, repent before Him, trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Bible is:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Romans 10:13

This includes you!

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Note:

I am particularly indebted to Augustine, Dr. Cornelius Van Til, and Dr. Greg Bahnsen for showing us from Scripture the necessity of trusting in the self-existing Christ of Scripture.

The Cure to the Original Lie

We are living in a time when the Bible is under attack. What is sad is that this attack isn't only from those outside the Church. The onslaught is also from those inside the Church. For example, one popular pastor wrote a book recently claiming that the Bible has "a multitude of errors, contradictions, and historical inaccuracies, as well as morally offensive material." It's difficult to imagine a Christian, let alone a pastor, would write such nonsense.

There is only one test for Truth in all the world, and that is the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3:16+17, God proclaims He inspired all Scripture and that the Bible is,

Profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Bible is the only self-attesting Book in the world that claims to be the self-revelation of the self-existing Trinitarian God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible does not need any outside authority to verify its authenticity or its authority. If anyone uses another standard to authenticate the Bible, that standard has more authority than the Bible. There is only one Authorative Standard, and that is the Bible itself. It has no errors, contradictions, and historical inaccuracies, nor morally offensive material. Anyone who judges God's Book is claiming to be greater than God.

You can trust the Bible as being the very words of God. It is error-free in the original documents, and God has preserved the Bible's integrity throughout time and transmission. Any mistakes in later copies are so inconsequential that we can be confident that all God wanted to communicate to us is reliable and authentic. Besides, these mistakes are easily detectable, given that the Bible has more reliable copies than any other ancient writing.

As for contradictions, it is far easier to claim there are any than providing any credible evidence to prove it. People who argue such things already assume some, and they see them whether they exist or not. We know beforehand there aren't any, so it is a waste of time to look for them.

People who claim the Bible is historically inaccurate assume they have perfect knowledge of history. How can they possibly know that any proof outside the Bible is more reliable than the Bible itself? They would have to be God to know such things.

I write all these things to you just in case the Original Lie tempts you. What was that lie? It is found in Genesis 3:1 when Satan said to Eve,

Did God really say…?

All deception comes down to this one lie. Satan and his minions continue to use it to this very day. Anyone who propagates the Original Lie is in league with the devil whether they realize it or not.

There is no other standard known to man than the written words of God contained in Scripture. This does not mean we shut off our minds when we read the Bible. Because God chose to communicate through the medium of written words, this means that we must engage all our mental faculties and all tools necessary to get at what God meant when He had His words written. This means, at times, Biblical interpretation takes work. Most of the time, the Bible is clear as a bell as to what God intends to communicate. There are only a few instances in Scripture when it takes a little more work to understand.

Why is the Bible necessary to keep us from deception and disobedience? It is because we live in a fallen world, and we are fallen. This means that sometimes it is difficult to know what is true and what is false. If we look to anything else other than the Bible, we cannot know whether what we think, believe, feel, or experience is true or not.

We see this principle all the time in the world. The north star does not change. If it is cloudy out, we can take out a compass and use the north pole's magnetism to point us in the right direction. Machines continually need to be calibrated for accuracy. The measure that we use is the standard. We have universal means to measure distance, weight, time, energy, and a whole host of other things. We even have standards in abstract subjects such as science and logic. But even these are possible only because the Christian Triune God has communicated about Himself through the Bible.

Not only that, the Bible communicates that the self-existing Triune God makes all measurement possible because He is the Ultimate Standard. The Bible is true because God is the Truth. Logic is only possible because God is the God of reason. Science is possible because God holds the universe together and orders all things. We know what is right and wrong because God revealed His character through His Law. I could go on, but I think I made my point.

We can avoid being deceived and deceiving ourselves by calibrating what we believe, think, feel, and experience according to the Bible. We can know who God is and what He is like by reading His words. We can understand what we can and cannot do by studying His Law. We can know if something we are doing is sinful by comparing it to what He revealed about Himself in the Scriptures. In short, God has given us everything we need to know Him, what He is like, what He requires of us, and how He wants us to live by studying and obeying everything we read in His authoritative word.

Those who believe the Bible is a flawed book deceive themselves. They bought the Original Lie, 'Did God really say…?" If the Bible has "a multitude of errors, contradictions, and historical inaccuracies, as well as morally offensive material," we get to pick and choose what we like and what we don't enjoy, much like a person filling his plate while passing through a salad bar. You don't like something, move on. How can we know whether what we are reading is a lie, an error, a mistake, a contradiction, an inaccuracy, etc.? When this happens, Man becomes the measure of all things and not God.

Why am I taking so much time writing about the Bible? Because I know what it is like to deceive myself. I thought I could defy God's word and not be judged. And I suffered the consequences, not only me but other people who know and love me. I do not intend to make the same mistake twice. I hope you won't as well.

Because of that, I read and study the Bible daily. I read every word as if God is speaking directly to me because He is. From its pages I learn about the Trinity, Father God, Jesus Christ His only Son, the promised Holy Spirit, the nature of the Church, and so much more.

Do I take the Bible literally? I do, especially when the literary context demands that the words be taken literally. God speaks through a myriad of literary techniques such as metaphor, similes, stories, parables, prophecy, and so on. When I come across different types of literature, I let the Bible speak for itself, and I look for clues in the text that signal not only what God is speaking but also how He is speaking. I use the Bible to study the Bible. I always study in context and use Scripture to interpret Scripture. I also use history and original languages to help me understand the Bible. But never are these tools used to judge the Bible. They are always tools to help me know what God is communicating in the Bible.

And most importantly, if I ever come across anything in the Bible that is contrary to what I think, believe, feel, or experience, I know I have to change and not the Bible. Any time anyone changes the Bible to conform to their lifestyle, their sin, or their preconceived beliefs or experiences, they are deceived. They have fallen prey to the Original Lie, "Did God really say…? God's Spirit will never do anything or speak anything subjectively contrary to the authority of Scripture.

We know that we are saved because the Bible tells us that "all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved." To believe anything less than what God has revealed in the Bible is to accept the Original Lie.

Bias, Presuppositions, and Intellectual Honesty

The Unbiased Illusion

I was listening to someone recently who claimed he wasn't biased. He believed he was objective and not influenced by anything but logic, reason, and science. He said this in the context of why he supported his particular candidate for president. He couldn't understand how people could be so stupid as to vote for the other candidate. 

Sound familiar?

His Facebook page is filled with memes that make fun of the other side. He has articles that definitively prove that his stance on whatever was correct. What was interesting was all the views he expressed were precisely in line with his party affiliation. He dismissed any challenges calling his view into question.

What bothered me was that he was completely unaware of his own biases. I do not find this person to be unique. Most people I encounter these days are heavily influenced by information that is anything but objective. Nowadays, "Fake news" is defined as whatever the opposition is reporting. 

Aids to Bias

This is a serious problem with the advancement of algorithms that track and feed us according to our online behavior. Documentaries such as Social Dilemma reveal the dark side of social media that provides people only the information they want to see.

The truth is everyone has a bias. We all have things that we presuppose to be true. A presupposition is something that is tacitly assumed to be valid from the outset. Everyone lives by faith, even the most ardent scientist. How can this be? The scientist believes many things before he or she even starts an experiment. Would you like some examples?

“A presupposition is something that is tacitly assumed to be valid from the outset.”

The Illusion of Objective Science

Science is based upon observation. By observation, I mean things that can be experienced by the senses, especially sight, though smell, taste, sound, and touch can and do play a significant role. Let's take sight, for example.

What exactly are you "seeing" when you see an object? Light hits the retina. The retina converts the information into electrical impulses that are sent along the optical nerve. The occipital lobe then converts the signals. The brain then takes this data and interprets it according to how the brain is hardwired and shaped through experience.  Once the information is "seen," the person has to analyze the information further to make sense of it.

Newborn babies or blind people who recently received their sight have to grow in their understanding of the sense data they are "seeing." In my example, we've come a long way from light hitting the retina to a person understanding the data. I haven't even touched on what exactly is light, and whether it is absorbed, reflected, or generated by objects in and of themselves. 

As you can see, something as familiar as "seeing" is based upon a multitude of presuppositions. How do we know we are "seeing" the object as it exists after the information has gone through processes in nature and our brain? This is just one assumption the scientist has to have to do science.

I could go on about the uniformity of nature and how the philosopher David Hume called the very foundations of science into question. On what basis do we know that events in the past will consistently perform the same way in the future? Hume says we don't know. Science has to assume that they do; otherwise, how can we do science? In other words, the scientist has to accept a set of presuppositions to do science. So even the scientist lives by faith. And if this is true of the revered scientist, how much more for the rest of us mortals.

I started this post talking about a person who believed he was objective in all his views. If something as precise as science has presuppositions, think about how many assumptions someone must have to hold a particular political viewpoint. Indeed, everyone truly lives by faith. Will a person be honest about their presuppositions or be intellectually dishonest by denying he has any?

There is only one way out of this labyrinth. It is to be intentional and honest about your presupposition. One of the most critical tasks we have as human beings is to dis-cover our presuppositional bias. What do you hold to be true? What do you take for granted to assert that any of your views are correct? Have you ever examined your presuppositional assumptions? 

How To Discover Your Presuppositions

The late Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias boils down the most critical questions to origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. How you answer these questions will help you identify your bias, presuppositions, and what you take for granted in your thinking.

Origins deal with the question of from where do we come? Some say matter always existed. Others say that God created us. Did we evolve over millions of years? Or were we created by God as talked about in the book of Genesis? What about the Big Bang? How you answer the question of origins will help determine the presuppositions you hold to make sense out of life. As you answer this question, you can discover why you think the way you do.

The next question that will help you identify your presuppositional foundation is the question of meaning. What is the meaning of life? Is it to get rich, help others, serve God, win, and propagate children? Perhaps you do not believe there is any ultimate meaning in life. That in itself is a presupposition by which you interpret reality, assuming there is any such thing as "reality." Perhaps "life is but a dream" as suggested in the childhood song, Row Row Row Your Boat.

Another question that will help you identify your assumptions of life is the question of morality. What is right, and what is wrong? What standard do you use to determine either one? That standard is your presupposition. Some use the Bible; others use intuition; still, others say that "might makes right." There are many ways to answer this question. How you determine what is moral and immoral will help you understand yourself better. 

The last question that Ravi Zacharias identifies is the question of destiny. This question completes the loop. Where did we come from is the question of origins. What is the meaning of life is the question of truth. What is right and wrong is the question of morality. Destiny answers the question of where we are headed. Do you think we are continually in the evolutionary process of getting better? Do you believe there are heaven and hell? Do you think we are, as the song says, "Dust in the Wind," that we are headed anywhere, that we are molecules falling through space with no final destination? 

These questions not only help you identify your presuppositional basis, but they also help predict how you will think on a multitude of issues. Those who assume God's existence, that we are created in the image of God, and that life begins with conception will be against abortion. Others who believe that human happiness is the ultimate meaning of life may think that a woman's right to choose is more important than giving up a career to raise a child. Many presuppositional factors will weigh in on how you answer abortion or any other problem for that matter.

Being Honest

The point of this post is to call people to intellectual honesty concerning their presuppositions. It is dishonest to say that you have no bias, that all your views are based on science, that you are correct in everything, or that you see everything clearly and everyone else is just wrong. I implore you to have the intellectual decency to admit that you have a bias just like everyone else. I challenge you to take time to think through what your presuppositional foundation is. 

There are benefits to this intellectual honesty. You will be able to evaluate news sources better. It's not enough to have someone else tell you something is "Fake news." Imagine not only being able to spot where a news story is factually wrong, but also to understand the news source's bias. For example, a liberal feminist will report the news differently from a fundamentalist Christian or a conservative Trump supporter. Why?

Intentional Presuppositional Honesty

I have intentionally chosen my presuppositional basis. What is it? I hold that the Bible is the only authoritative standard to answer origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. Biblical authors claim their message to be from God around 1,900 times. The Bible declares "God said" or "Thus saith the Lord" over 4,000 times. The Bible is the only self-attesting book in existence. There is no way around its claim to be the word of God. Isn't this circular reasoning? Or course it is. But it is intellectually honest reasoning. God Himself attests that the Bible is His word. 

An intellectually honest person will admit that all other theories or philosophies beg the question as well. For science, truth is only that which you can empirically verify. Of course, that statement itself cannot be empirically verified, thereby showing that science's very foundation is self-begging and self-defeating. To believe that government or popular vote determines truth is untenable, especially considering that governments and populations have committed horrible atrocities in the past. How would we even know that an event is an atrocity unless we had a standard outside of ourselves to determine that it is atrocious or not? This kind of reasoning is circular as well. “We know something is an atrocity because we know it is wrong.”

It is impossible to account for logic, reason, or science apart from God as He revealed Himself in the Bible. Without Him, you cannot prove anything. Otherwise, we are left in a meaningless universe devoid of meaning. We are "Dust in the Wind," and dust cannot account for anything, not even itself. 

The Bible reveals that God is the only self-existing Being who exists in Unity and Complexity. He reveals Himself as the Author of life (origins), the Definer of the meaning of life (meaning), the Law Giver (morality), and the Giver of eternal life (destiny). These questions cannot be adequately answered apart from Scripture.

Apart from Scripture, there is no way we can know our origins. If we are naked apes that evolved from stardust, there is no way to account for meaning. Molecules in motion have no sense. When morality is not rooted in God's character, it is subject to the whims of humanity, and those whims turn out bloody, as history repeatedly shows. The Bible tells us where we are headed, either to heaven or to hell.

Paul says in Colossians 2:8 that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus Christ. In Him is where intellectual honesty starts and where it ends. I choose Him as my presupposition foundation. How about you?