Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20041010.htm

ANSWERING OTHERS WITH REASONS FOR OUR FAITH
Part II: Handling Questions Most Often Asked By Christianity's Critics
D. Answering Questions About The Logical Credibility Of Christianity

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

As do many other Protestant believers, we hold that, for a belief to be true, it must also fit our human logic: Martin Luther stated this truth as he stood before the Diet of Worms and claimed that "Unless he were proved wrong on the basis of scripture and sound reason . . . he was bound fast by his conscience to the Word of God . . . He could not and would not recant," James Atkinson, The Great Light: Luther and Reformation, p. 67.

For that reason, it is very important that we Christians be able to defend the logical credibility of our faith.

However, a number of questions have been raised by critics of Christianity that question the logic of Christian beliefs, and Josh McDowell, in his work, A Ready Defense, p. 8, lists some of the major questions on this issue; I paraphrase them for our purposes as follows:

"Isn't belief in the Trinity a belief in Three Gods and not One God as Christianity claims -- are Christians not thus illogically claiming 'three equals one'?" "Then there are all those hypocrites in the Church -- how can Christianity be true if it has so many hypocrites in it?" "Is Christianity not merely a psychological crutch, an opiate of the masses as Karl Mark asserted? How can the Christian faith be true if so many people use it as a crutch instead of responsibly facing life's trials on their own?" "Then, how can Christianity be true if you can not prove it scientifically?"



Since 1 Peter 3:15 commands us to give an apologetic to every one who asks us a LOGICAL reason for our faith, we must have LOGICAL answers to give to each of these questions. Thus, we view each one from Scripture and extra biblical evidence . . .



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "Some think Christianity is false as it holds God is a Trinity, making 'three illogically equal one'! Others claim the presence of hypocrites in Christianity show it is a false religion while others say Christianity is just a psychological crutch! Some claim the faith can not be proved scientifically so it must be false! How, then, do I answer folk who question the logical credibility of Christianity?!"
  1. As we before stated in this series, we defend our Christian faith, using Scripture in alignment with true* statements by apologists.
    1. Answering: "Isn't it illogical to hold to the Trinity?":
      1. The Christian faith does not claim that "three gods equal one god," for it holds that God is Three in Persons, but One in Essence or that entity (for lack of a better word) of which God consists:
        1. Both the Old Testament at Deuteronomy 6:4 and the New Testament at Ephesians 4:5 assert God is One in Essence.
        2. Yet, both the Old Testament at Psa. 110:1 (Father and Son) and 104:30 (Father and Spirit) distinguish the Three Persons as does the New Testament (all Three) at Matt. 3:16-17 and 28:19!
      2. Since"person hood" is not "essence" by definition, though the Trinity belief is difficult for us to fathom, it is not illogical, for we Christians claim God is Three in a different way than God is One.
      3. To illustrate how we can hold to the logically workable though mentally unfathomable Trinity doctrine, we note physicists face this same hardship in how they understand subatomic particles:
        1. Dr. John W. Montgomery (How Do We Know There Is A God?, p. 14-15 as cited by Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, p. 411) writes that theoretical physicists say subatomic particles have "wave properties ( W), particle properties (P) and quantum properties (h) . . . Though these characteristics are in many respect incompatible . . . physicists 'explain' . . . an electron as PWh . . . to give proper weight to all the relevant data." Ibid.
        2. If physicists have trouble fathoming so as adequately to describe subatomic particles, yet we do not doubt their integrity in the process, why disbelieve the Trinity because it is hard to fathom?
    2. Answering: "As it has hypocrites, is Christianity false?":
      1. Jesus Christ Himself warned His immediate followers to heed the words of the Pharisees but not their deeds since they preached what was true but did not heed their own words, Matthew 23:2-3.
      2. Though calling the Pharisees hypocrites, Jesus upheld the words of Moses they taught, so a faith can not be judged by all its followers!
    3. Answering: "Is Christianity just a psychological crutch?":
      1. As McDowell points out (Ibid., p. 419), every human being uses a crutch of a world view to function in light of life's uncertainties!
      2. Christianity just offers the only right crutch, cf. Matthew 7:13-14!
    4. Answering: "How can Christianity be true if not proved by science?":
      1. First, to prove something via the "scientific method," the party making the test must be able to repeat an event, Ibid., p. 422.
      2. As man can not repeat history, "the scientific method . . . isn't adequate for proving . . . many questions about a person or event in history," including the historical validity of Christianity, Ibid., 423.
      3. Yet, in comparing Christianity to other historical issues, as the Encyclopaedia Britannica observes, it is highly credible, for "'even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds by several authors at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries.'" (Ency. Brit., 15th ed., 1974 as cited by McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, p. 87)
      4. Then, Paul and Matthew left themselves open to being discredited in history on a key issue of the Christian faith only to stay credible:
        1. In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul wrote, challenging those who then denied the resurrection that over 250 witnesses were then still living who had seen Christ's risen body at one time!
        2. Then, Matthew wrote in Matthew 28:11-14 that the Jewish authorities still claimed the disciples had stolen Jesus' body, a claim that, if true, would lead the authorities to torture these men to produce His body and discredit the faith that so bothered them! The fact that Matthew wrote the Jews still held to that story challenged his readers either to discredit his claim or to see the authorities were errant in denying Jesus' resurrection!
        3. Yet, Matthew's Gospel and Paul's 13 epistles have stayed in the Bible, historically indicating the credibility of their claims!
Application: (1) As Scripture and extra biblical facts show the logical credibility of Christianity, may we (2) trust in Christ for salvation (John 3:16). (3) Then, as 1 Peter 3:15 urges, may we answer accordingly all who ask if our faith is logically credible.

Lesson: Each of the questions that challenge the logical credibility of the Christian faith have answers from Scripture and extra biblical sources that only add to the support of the validity of the Christian faith!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 In 1959, a month after I had accepted Christ as my Savior at age eleven, I was privileged to travel to Rome, Italy with my parents who were bringing us home to the United States for furlough from their ministry as missionaries in Nigeria, West Africa.

The most moving site for me was the Christian catacombs. These are immense underground caverns carved out by believers during the days when Rome's emperors persecuted them under 10 major persecutions.

I was amazed to see niches sometimes stacked seven high carved into the walls on either side of long underground, earthen halls where sometimes bones of deceased believers still lay. I could tell from the area covered that many people had been buried there.

Not knowing at the time what it all meant, I asked my Mother, "Who is all buried here, and why?" To my astonishment, she replied: "These were Christians like us who died rather than recanting their faith in Christ, and many of them were fed to the lions in the coliseum here at Rome! Since they were badly persecuted, fellow believers secretly buried them here to avoid further unnecessary persecution."

In the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, volume One, page 761, the estimated number of burials in the catacombs around the city of Rome are between 1.75 and 4 million "within ten generations." (Ibid.) In fact, the Christian catacombs around the city of Rome extend for more than 350 meters, " . . . and so surround the city that they act as a cushion against earthquakes." (Ibid.)

I thus reason as follows: if between 1,750,000 and 4,000,000 believers over a period of ten consecutive generations of Christians, meaning that every day, for ten generations , approximately 750 men, women and children of all walks and strata in society were willing to hold to a public confession of Christ only to die by some of the most vicious kinds of deaths known in history, there has to be something more to the Christian faith than just some illogical beliefs!



So, when someone questions if the Biblical Christian faith is illogical and thus errant, we can recall facts like the existence of the catacombs at Rome! Armed with evidence like this, let alone the testimony of our OWN transformation in Christ, let us answer every person who asks us a LOGICAL reason for our faith!