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Is Christianity True?

Mar 14th 2009Jeremy MyersEvangelism & Mission

As much as possible, I have always tried to observe and interact with people of many different religions and faith backgrounds. My current job affords me this opportunity much more than ever before.

A question I keep coming back to is “How do we know that Christianity is right and other faiths are wrong?” When I pose this question to various people of Christianity, I generally get one of four answers (if I am not immediately condemned for asking such a question). They are:

  1. I’ve experienced God and so I know it’s true.
  2. Christianity results in more substantial life change than other faiths. In other words, Christians live better lives, so it must be true.  
  3. The Bible, which Christianity is based on, doesn’t have the errors and contradictions that are present in the “Holy books” of other faiths. It doesn’t contradict itself, nor does it contradict the facts of history and science (considering evolution is a theory). Therefore, the Bible can be trusted as true revelation from God.
  4. God answers prayer and provides signs and wonders, which proves Christianity is true. This includes things like prophecy and healing.

Here is the curious thing: As I interact with people of other religions, and through the course of conversation find out why they hold their beliefs, I find that nearly all people of all religions have these same four basic arguments for why their beliefs are true. Some throw in a few other explanations (I just grew up with it… It’s the oldest religion… We have a great tradition.), but generally, these are the four I hear.

Personally, I think only one of these answers has much merit, but none of these four are the top reason I believe the Christian faith is uniquely true.

So before I tell you what my primary reason is, I am curious what you think. What do you think of the four reasons above? Are they compelling? Why or why not? Are there others you frequently hear? Why do you think that Christianity is (or is not) true?

18 Comments »

18 Responses to “Is Christianity True?”

  1. Kirk on 14 Mar 2009 at 1:22 pm #

    The 4 reasons above are what I here all the time as well.
    Number 4 is the only one that could really be considered legitimate in my opinion, yet other people from other religions claim the same thing as you said.

    There are many reasons I believe Christianity (believing in Jesus for eternal life) is true.

    The method of salvation doesn’t involve any human effort. Simply believing Jesus can give you eternal life (though you are full of sin and undeserving of any such grace).

    in every other faith, works play at least some part in determining your eternal destiny

  2. Josh Meier on 14 Mar 2009 at 5:07 pm #

    To me it appears that #1 and #4 are pretty similar, experience based statements…

    I would have to agree with the above post that Christianity is the only faith that offers something so “other”, as in not of human origin, as grace. Every other concept of attaining salvation/eternal life/forgiveness of sin seems so natural that to me, it appears that they must be natural.

  3. Stephen on 14 Mar 2009 at 5:26 pm #

    I like knowing that Jesus is true.

    Whether ‘Christianity’ as I/You/Others know it is true, may be debatable. (I think there are many forms of ‘Christianity’ out there…unfortunately).

    My faith doesn’t hang on the religion of ‘X’ (no matter what ‘X’ may be for me/others). My faith rest in the person, life, death, crucifixion and ultimate resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

    Good insights. Looking forward to reading more soon.

  4. MarkR on 14 Mar 2009 at 8:04 pm #

    There are MANY good books on this and the answers are very simple. The evidence is overwhelming in favor of Judeo Christian historicity. Whether that leads someone to faith in Christ is another question. We are living in a time when all truth is being questioned. Unfortunately most people are UNWILLING to investigate the truth claims of anything. It has become very chic for people to claim that their religion is truthful but their understanding of truth is scatterbrained and logic and evidence play NO role in their claims. Talking to people in this mindset about evidence is similar to speaking two different languages. The contemporary NEED to be tolerant and not the traditional usage of the word (accepting that someone else’s view be heard) we have a new definition which is framed as being only able to say that their claim is as valid as any other. Truth is excised in post modern thought and language loses its meaning. Every claim begins with certain neccessary pre-suppositions and a primary one is that TRUTH and EVIDENCE exist. Without those pre-suppositions one is left with NOTHING but incessant chatter and emotion laden harangues. An example of much of this would the book of Mormon which has absolutely ZERO evidence of any history which has been recorded or evidence archeologically- yet many Christians would be hard pressed to argue this with a Mormon because they know so little of the evidence for their own faith. Martin Luther stated that apologetics was the hand-maid of the gospel- and it is so very unfortunate that we have a gospel seemingly unhinged from its mate. — I would recommend books by Josh McDowell and John Warwick Montgomery as starters on the quest to know and understand the valuable evidence that exists for Christianity as well as Judaism.

  5. Jeremy Myers on 14 Mar 2009 at 8:52 pm #

    Kirk,

    It’s interesting you mention number 4, because that is originally what this post was going to be about…and then it evolved into what you see. TIME magazine recently did a series of articles on faith and healing. It is quite an interesting study. I will try to post some more about this later.

  6. Jeremy Myers on 14 Mar 2009 at 8:53 pm #

    Josh,

    You are right…1 and 4 are quite similar. Thanks for the input!

  7. Jeremy Myers on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:04 pm #

    Stephen,

    Good to hear from you! We miss you guys!

    I completely agree with you about the definition of Christianity and whether that particular definition is true or not. Excellent insight and clarification. Say hello to everyone at Mosaic!

  8. Jeremy Myers on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:09 pm #

    Mark,

    I have read over 30 books on Christian apologetics, including the ones you mentioned in your comment.

    Don’t misunderstand my post. I am not doubting the truth of “Christianity” (or as Stephen pointed out…the truth about Jesus Christ), but only how we assert and defend that truth.

  9. MarkR on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:50 pm #

    Jeremy,

    That’s my point. We (meaning a large portion of Christianity) dont know that truth. I must say I was pretty surprised by your response. I understand your article here to mean just what you said and I am stating the facts as I see them regarding the gospel. It hasn’t changed in all the years of Christian belief. We assert it by first knowing it. Most believers I know dont know it. Also, we have to realize the world we live in and quit allowing ourselves to be beat up by the intellectuially dishonest. My post wasn’t about persuading you, it was about what we are up against. I am certainly not claiming to know it all, but I felt I answered the question. Your question is “How do we know Christianity is right and other faiths are wrong?” isn’t it? I would say that of the choices you gave #1 and #2 #4(partially) are totally out of the realm of objectivity. They could be made by anyone in any faith. That leaves #3 as the only viable option. Anyway, sorry if I struck a nerve- the amount of books one has read is irrelevant-only the truth one has garnered –Another thing you say in your article is “None of these four are the top reason I believe Christianity is true”. Where you came up with the idea I was challenging your belief that Christianity is true baffles me. My point was that the only truly effective way is objective reality- not subjective emotion. I think my time on this blog is over sadly. I am angered by this.

  10. George Castillo on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:32 pm #

    The resurrection. It is the fact that Jesus rose bodily from the dead and presented Himself to witnesses that all of Scripture hangs on. Jesus either rose from the dead or He didn’t. If He didn’t, then the Bible is nonsense and Christianity is just another choice on the religious smorgasbord. On the other hand, if He did, then every person, skeptic or otherwise, needs to seriously consider the claims of Christ.

    I think that John the Apostle understood this when he penned his gospel. As John records Jesus’ ministry, he makes it clear that Jesus did many signs, including His resurrection of Lazarus as well as that of Himself, but that “these were written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life, even in His name (Jn. 20:31)”. Jesus’ demonstrable power over death is the ultimate attestation to the truth of Christianity.

  11. Josh Meier on 15 Mar 2009 at 12:06 am #

    “Most believers I know don’t know it.”???????? How this works I don’t know…

    #3 is claimed by other faiths as well. Overwhelming evidence is fine in the courtroom when you are trying to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt. It doesn’t prove truth however…

    The question wasn’t how do we know the bible is true (what I think you mean by “Judeo-Christian historicity”), because certain claims the bible makes are beyond questions of historicity.

    The question is how do we know Christianity is true…in other words…the Gospel (to use Larry Moyer’s most concise definition, “Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead”). The Virgin Birth is not provable on the basis of historicity… the historicity of the rest of the bible makes it more reasonable to believe it. They are inferred from the text, but historicity of other (secondary?) events cannot and do not definitively prove truth.

    In other words, the fact that it is the most reasonable choice, does not in and of itself make that choice truth.

    I’m interested to see what Jeremy’s reasoning is here…

  12. Koffijah on 15 Mar 2009 at 4:33 am #

    Sometimes I feel like we try to prove Christianity is true as if God himself was dead. We look down our nose at the subjective reasons people believe because we have more objective arguments we have come to understand. We ignore the fact that most of us “Objectivity Snobs” did not BECOME Christians after considering objective reasons, but after experiencing subjective events. However, over time, we were cemented in our faith after thinking about it objectively.

    The same is true for people in other religions… their reasons for believing in their religions in the first place are mostly subjective (or regional/cultural) too. So, we tend to think that the only thing that will bump them over to our faith is an objective reasoning approach they have never considered since they only have believed for subjective reasons. I think this may be true some of the time and it is worthwhile making an objective appeal.

    But remember the last thing Jesus said in Matthew? “I am with you always…” If Jesus is with us, and if that is really TRUE, then we can assume he is with us to do something, not just observe us. He is not dead. He is not just a theory. He is alive and active. And if that is the case, then I think God’s actions will and SHOULD influence people to believe in him.

    I know without a doubt my grandpa lived. Why? I might explain objectively that if he had not lived then I wouldn’t be here. (Which would be completely legitimate and true.) But long before I ever considered the objective truth of that statement I would have said with passion that my grandpa once lived because I KNEW him. It was my very experience with my grandpa that makes his existence the most relevant to me. Now, if I want someone else to meet and know my grandpa–well, it is too late. He is dead. But if we introduce people to Jesus… shouldn’t we think that Jesus will somehow interact with them UNLESS he is NOT really alive?

    But we have this sneaking feeling that God will not do any personal revealing anytime we tell someone about him. So, because we can’t know that God will give someone an experience with him or not, we go to our more dependable and reliable objective reasons for believing in God. Because God is not reliable we do not depend on him.

    I think it would do us well, though, to remember that Jesus called his disciples to be witnesses. Not lawyers. Not judges. Not jurors. But witnesses. What do witnesses do? Testify to what they have seen and heard. Testify to their experience. And it is up to people to decide if the witness is credible or not.

  13. Koffijah on 15 Mar 2009 at 4:34 am #

    The burden of proof for God lies with God. I am called just to be a witness.

  14. Jeremy Myers on 15 Mar 2009 at 8:46 am #

    Mark,

    Thanks for the clarification. I understand what you are saying now, and agree with you. Of course, I am not sure where the fault lies. We cannot expect all Christians to read all these books and study apologetics. Nor can we expect pastors to be able to teach all this stuff to the people in the church.

    I guess it’s a process of learning and defending…

  15. Is Christianity True? (Part 2) | TILL HE COMES Blog on 15 Mar 2009 at 3:52 pm #

    [...] blame my good friend Stephen Hammond and what he pointed out in the comments of the previous post. Thank for the insight, Stephen! You always make me [...]

  16. yipeng on 15 Mar 2009 at 7:50 pm #

    I find this slightly stumbling… what do I base my faith upon other than these 4? Glad we are witnesses….

  17. Is Christianity True? (Part 3) | TILL HE COMES Blog on 17 Mar 2009 at 3:17 pm #

    [...] a previous post, I stated that in general, Christians would give four different [...]

  18. Brian on 25 Mar 2009 at 1:02 am #

    I would especially agree with #3 & #4, but in addition to this, the more I study the Bible, and the more I live in this world, the more I see that the Bible describes this world so incredibly accurately. It tells me I’m a sinner, and that we live in a corrupt world of people that are in desperate need of a Savior. I know this is true deep down in my soul. Jesus’ promise of life to all who believe in Him (John 3:16, etc.) is the way it has to be, because no one is worthy of heaven. I have a lot of questions, but when a religion tells me that I have to be good enough, that is a red flag to me that it is not from God. There are many more things I think the Bible hits right on the head, but you get the picture.

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