I was asked a very simple question that I felt a need to answer. That question is this; “How can I know that the Christian God is the true God? There are a lot of religions in the world, so how do I know what I believe is right?” I am going to try and keep this as simple as I possibly can. I know that I am leaving room for more questions, and that is fine. Feel free to ask me all the questions you would like and I will give you all the answers I can.
The first response to a question about God is usually responded to with something trivial and superficial. The response is normally one word, “faith”. Just have faith. Just believe. Well that doesn’t cut it for me. Telling me to just believe is telling me that you don’t know, or that you don’t care. It could possibly be both. I do not believe in blind faith. You have to have a reason to trust. There are people that will disagree with me on this, and that is fine. However, without a sound foundation to base your faith upon you will never be stable in what you believe. You will have major hurdles of doubt to overcome, and in trying times you will find yourself questioning God.
I have no doubt whatsoever that God is real. When I say God I am speaking of the One True God. The God I serve as a Christian, the God of Israel and of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I believe in the God that spoke all of creation into being. I can keep going, but I think you have the point. Before I go any further I need you to know that I believe in the trinity of God. God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one in the same while being separate individuals. I am not going to get into that topic of the Trinity right now, but I do want to make that known. You cannot effectively claim to be a Christian and reject any one member of the Trinity as being God.
Yes, there are a lot of religions in the world. Throughout time people have worshipped many different things. However, the gods worshipped have come to nothing. They have proven to be nothing more than idols made by the hands of man. The many gods of the Egyptians and the Greeks were nothing more than statues and fairy tales.
There was a time in my life, before I was convinced that God is indeed the true God, that I thought the different religions of the world all pointed in the same direction. I had the assumption that people had a different name and a different view of God no matter whom it was they served. I made no distinction between Buddha, Allah, Jesus, or Zeus for that matter. I assumed that there were as many different names and ideas about God as there are languages in the world. I was wrong in a big way in my religious thinking. I was trying to accept everyone. I didn’t want to say that anyone else was wrong. I also didn’t want to be wrong myself. In my mind an umbrella of religions had to be the answer. I had never researched or read any of the other religious teachings, so this view seemed comfortable. Only someone that doesn’t understand the world’s religions would make the claim that they all basically teach the same thing. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age, Scientology, and Christianity do not teach the same thing or anything close. (By the way, Buddhism doesn’t even claim that there is a god).
I am a rational person. When I decided to find the truth about God, I didn’t just pick up a Bible and believe what I read. My thought was this, if the God of this book is not true, then what it says doesn’t matter. I would not find any proof of God within a book that was written as His own witness. I needed a rational way to discover the truth about God that would lead me to the Bible if this was truly God’s Word.
There are a lot of ways to claim that God, or a god or gods exist. To look around and see all that has been created is proof enough that life did not just appear. If you dig even deeper into life we find complexities that boggle the mind of the greatest thinkers. It was only a short time ago that we discovered DNA. Before this, we only know of atoms, electrons, protons, etc. We did not have the knowledge of DNA. There is no possible way life just happened. There is too much order in place. The order of everything we know on this planet from the ocean tide to the way trees make oxygen point to an intelligent designer. If we look outside of our own atmosphere we find solar systems and galaxies that stretch beyond our knowledge. These stars, planets, and moons function together with a majestic order that can do nothing but display a creator. We can even look to ourselves and see that a creator had to be involved. Our intelligence, our body and the way it works, the fact that we have a conscience; it all points to a god. With everything that points to a creator, there is only one thing that points to the One True God as being the Creator of all things. Even the Apostle Paul tells us that men are without excuse about the knowledge of God. However, creation is limited in what can be revealed about God.
What changed my view of world religions is rather simple. Jesus claimed to have risen from the dead. No other religious figure can make this claim. Buddha is still in his burial spot. So is Muhammad, Confucius, and every other religious teacher and prophet from the past. The only empty tomb is the tomb of Jesus. Don’t assume that I took this as face value at first. I needed proof. It isn’t that I am a doubter; I am just someone that needs concrete evidence. I needed the kind of evidence that would stand up in court if need be.
Believing that a man rose from the dead was not easy to accept for me. Dead people just don’t come back to life, especially after three days. Certainly a man couldn’t survive after enduring what Jesus did. He was beaten to the point that he was unrecognizable. Jesus was beaten with whips that literally ripped the skin from his body. People punched Him, spat on Him, kicked Him, and abused him in every way imaginable. After that was over with Jesus was made to carry His own cross up a hill. Then He was nailed to the cross to die in the hot sun. How can a beaten and abused man, a man exhausted beyond my imagination, a man that was certainly dehydrated, survive being nailed to a cross? How could he survive being stabbed with a spear? The answer, He could not and did not survive. Even if there was an ounce of life left in Jesus when He was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb, there is no way He would have lived for three days after enduring all He had. You have to remember, the medical technology of today didn’t exist 2000 years ago. There was no way to maintain a person in a critical situation. To be in critical condition 2000 years ago would have meant you were just waiting to die.
How do I know that the resurrection story is real? How do I know that Jesus was a real man? How do I know that the Biblical accounts are true? These are all great questions. The answer to every one of these questions can be found is history. There is not a single historian that will tell you that Jesus was a myth. Jesus was a very real person. His life can be accounted for. The death of Jesus was recorded. There are historians such as Josephus, historians that were not proven to be Christians at all that recorded facts about the life of Christ. If you would like some of the books written by Josephus and other historians let me know and I will tell you where to find them. At the very least I will give you a few excerpts of their writings. I can assure you that Jesus was and is a very real person.
The Church of today is a huge witness of Jesus and that He is truly God. The church of today would not exist if Jesus was not who He claimed to be. When we take a look at the lives of the Apostles, men that walked and talked with Jesus every day for three years, we find men whose lives were completely changed by the resurrection of Jesus. At the crucifixion of Christ the Apostles were cowards. There is no polite way to say it. Not a single man that had called Jesus a friend, master, teacher, or Rabbi rushed to Jesus’ side during His abuse or crucifixion. Peter and the others were yellowbellied chickens. Peter even denied knowing Jesus. He denied knowing Jesus with the strongest words and language he could think of. After the resurrection of Christ the Apostles became different people. They lost all fear. These men had no doubt whatsoever that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be. Peter, the same man that denied Jesus publically was now preaching and leading people to Jesus. Peter was beaten and jailed and still preached. The Apostles and other disciples were persecuted and killed for following Jesus. If Jesus was a fake, would these men have died for a lie? Would you die for a lie? I wouldn’t.
If Jesus did not live a sinless life, die on a cross, and rise again on the third day then our faith is based on nothing. This would mean the Bible isn’t true. This would mean that everything we know about God is a lie.
Here is one more proof that God is really God. The God I serve, the Creator of all, Jesus, He is not a distant God. We were not created and abandoned. Even in our rejection of God, He seeks us out. We do not call out to God first; it is God that reaches out to us. God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus, through the Bible, and through salvation.
There are a few books I would like to encourage you to read that will elaborate on this topic in much greater detail. Take the time to get a copy of “A Case For Faith” by Lee Strobel. Also get Lee Strobel’s book “A Case For Christ”. Both of these books take a look at God through the eyes of a doubter. Lee looks at the topics of faith and God through the eyes of a journalist. The books are nothing short of amazing. One more book to read that will show you that God is intimate and loves you is “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren.
The first response to a question about God is usually responded to with something trivial and superficial. The response is normally one word, “faith”. Just have faith. Just believe. Well that doesn’t cut it for me. Telling me to just believe is telling me that you don’t know, or that you don’t care. It could possibly be both. I do not believe in blind faith. You have to have a reason to trust. There are people that will disagree with me on this, and that is fine. However, without a sound foundation to base your faith upon you will never be stable in what you believe. You will have major hurdles of doubt to overcome, and in trying times you will find yourself questioning God.
I have no doubt whatsoever that God is real. When I say God I am speaking of the One True God. The God I serve as a Christian, the God of Israel and of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I believe in the God that spoke all of creation into being. I can keep going, but I think you have the point. Before I go any further I need you to know that I believe in the trinity of God. God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one in the same while being separate individuals. I am not going to get into that topic of the Trinity right now, but I do want to make that known. You cannot effectively claim to be a Christian and reject any one member of the Trinity as being God.
Yes, there are a lot of religions in the world. Throughout time people have worshipped many different things. However, the gods worshipped have come to nothing. They have proven to be nothing more than idols made by the hands of man. The many gods of the Egyptians and the Greeks were nothing more than statues and fairy tales.
There was a time in my life, before I was convinced that God is indeed the true God, that I thought the different religions of the world all pointed in the same direction. I had the assumption that people had a different name and a different view of God no matter whom it was they served. I made no distinction between Buddha, Allah, Jesus, or Zeus for that matter. I assumed that there were as many different names and ideas about God as there are languages in the world. I was wrong in a big way in my religious thinking. I was trying to accept everyone. I didn’t want to say that anyone else was wrong. I also didn’t want to be wrong myself. In my mind an umbrella of religions had to be the answer. I had never researched or read any of the other religious teachings, so this view seemed comfortable. Only someone that doesn’t understand the world’s religions would make the claim that they all basically teach the same thing. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age, Scientology, and Christianity do not teach the same thing or anything close. (By the way, Buddhism doesn’t even claim that there is a god).
I am a rational person. When I decided to find the truth about God, I didn’t just pick up a Bible and believe what I read. My thought was this, if the God of this book is not true, then what it says doesn’t matter. I would not find any proof of God within a book that was written as His own witness. I needed a rational way to discover the truth about God that would lead me to the Bible if this was truly God’s Word.
There are a lot of ways to claim that God, or a god or gods exist. To look around and see all that has been created is proof enough that life did not just appear. If you dig even deeper into life we find complexities that boggle the mind of the greatest thinkers. It was only a short time ago that we discovered DNA. Before this, we only know of atoms, electrons, protons, etc. We did not have the knowledge of DNA. There is no possible way life just happened. There is too much order in place. The order of everything we know on this planet from the ocean tide to the way trees make oxygen point to an intelligent designer. If we look outside of our own atmosphere we find solar systems and galaxies that stretch beyond our knowledge. These stars, planets, and moons function together with a majestic order that can do nothing but display a creator. We can even look to ourselves and see that a creator had to be involved. Our intelligence, our body and the way it works, the fact that we have a conscience; it all points to a god. With everything that points to a creator, there is only one thing that points to the One True God as being the Creator of all things. Even the Apostle Paul tells us that men are without excuse about the knowledge of God. However, creation is limited in what can be revealed about God.
What changed my view of world religions is rather simple. Jesus claimed to have risen from the dead. No other religious figure can make this claim. Buddha is still in his burial spot. So is Muhammad, Confucius, and every other religious teacher and prophet from the past. The only empty tomb is the tomb of Jesus. Don’t assume that I took this as face value at first. I needed proof. It isn’t that I am a doubter; I am just someone that needs concrete evidence. I needed the kind of evidence that would stand up in court if need be.
Believing that a man rose from the dead was not easy to accept for me. Dead people just don’t come back to life, especially after three days. Certainly a man couldn’t survive after enduring what Jesus did. He was beaten to the point that he was unrecognizable. Jesus was beaten with whips that literally ripped the skin from his body. People punched Him, spat on Him, kicked Him, and abused him in every way imaginable. After that was over with Jesus was made to carry His own cross up a hill. Then He was nailed to the cross to die in the hot sun. How can a beaten and abused man, a man exhausted beyond my imagination, a man that was certainly dehydrated, survive being nailed to a cross? How could he survive being stabbed with a spear? The answer, He could not and did not survive. Even if there was an ounce of life left in Jesus when He was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb, there is no way He would have lived for three days after enduring all He had. You have to remember, the medical technology of today didn’t exist 2000 years ago. There was no way to maintain a person in a critical situation. To be in critical condition 2000 years ago would have meant you were just waiting to die.
How do I know that the resurrection story is real? How do I know that Jesus was a real man? How do I know that the Biblical accounts are true? These are all great questions. The answer to every one of these questions can be found is history. There is not a single historian that will tell you that Jesus was a myth. Jesus was a very real person. His life can be accounted for. The death of Jesus was recorded. There are historians such as Josephus, historians that were not proven to be Christians at all that recorded facts about the life of Christ. If you would like some of the books written by Josephus and other historians let me know and I will tell you where to find them. At the very least I will give you a few excerpts of their writings. I can assure you that Jesus was and is a very real person.
The Church of today is a huge witness of Jesus and that He is truly God. The church of today would not exist if Jesus was not who He claimed to be. When we take a look at the lives of the Apostles, men that walked and talked with Jesus every day for three years, we find men whose lives were completely changed by the resurrection of Jesus. At the crucifixion of Christ the Apostles were cowards. There is no polite way to say it. Not a single man that had called Jesus a friend, master, teacher, or Rabbi rushed to Jesus’ side during His abuse or crucifixion. Peter and the others were yellowbellied chickens. Peter even denied knowing Jesus. He denied knowing Jesus with the strongest words and language he could think of. After the resurrection of Christ the Apostles became different people. They lost all fear. These men had no doubt whatsoever that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be. Peter, the same man that denied Jesus publically was now preaching and leading people to Jesus. Peter was beaten and jailed and still preached. The Apostles and other disciples were persecuted and killed for following Jesus. If Jesus was a fake, would these men have died for a lie? Would you die for a lie? I wouldn’t.
If Jesus did not live a sinless life, die on a cross, and rise again on the third day then our faith is based on nothing. This would mean the Bible isn’t true. This would mean that everything we know about God is a lie.
Here is one more proof that God is really God. The God I serve, the Creator of all, Jesus, He is not a distant God. We were not created and abandoned. Even in our rejection of God, He seeks us out. We do not call out to God first; it is God that reaches out to us. God has revealed Himself to us through Jesus, through the Bible, and through salvation.
There are a few books I would like to encourage you to read that will elaborate on this topic in much greater detail. Take the time to get a copy of “A Case For Faith” by Lee Strobel. Also get Lee Strobel’s book “A Case For Christ”. Both of these books take a look at God through the eyes of a doubter. Lee looks at the topics of faith and God through the eyes of a journalist. The books are nothing short of amazing. One more book to read that will show you that God is intimate and loves you is “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren.
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