Why I am a Christian:

My primary reasons for my belief in Christianity are: (1a) Overwhelming amounts of objective evidence that Jesus existed and that the Bible is true. (1) Jesus Christ has been the most influential person on the Planet, even 2000 years after He died. Time is based on Him, and we celebrate two holidays a year in His name. And His ministry only lasted 3 years; how do you explain this kind of impression on the world? (2) There are many non-Christian writers that wrote about Jesus and His' followers, and talked about Him being more than human. There were many eyewitness accounts of His death and resurrection. There are prophecies in the Old Testament that predict Jesus' coming. All the Bible prophecies that were to come true have come true so far. (3) Jesus Christ has been the only human figure who has claimed to be God. Buddha was a famous philosopher, but he never claimed to be a god. People worshipped him and thought he was a god despite him telling his followers not to worship him. (4) Almost every near death experience is consistent with the visions that people had in the Bible. Almost everyone that has had a near-death experience have talked about a very bright light (Revelations talks about God being the light of Heaven) talking with them and reviewing their life. Everyone seems to go to paradise (not Heaven). The Bible says that when we die, Christians will go to Paradise and non-Christians will go to be tormented, but we won't be sent to Heaven or Hell until after the Revelations come true. Also, almost everyone that comes back from a near-death experience says that the most important thing in life is love. Which is exactly what the Bible preaches. (5) During my lifetime, I have moved closer to God and away from God. Many times in my life, I did not believe God existed alltogether. Throughout this experience I have noticed that everytime I have been "close" to God, my life has been extremely peaceful and almost in total harmony. And everytime I don't believe in God or fall away from Him, its as if there is dark longing or need that I cannot fill, and there is no peace in life whatsoever.

• Personally, I think if we are searching for God, we should not be searching scientifically, but instead spiritually. We should be looking for evidences which transcend this world, things that we cannot understand (such as the things we call miracles).

• I think that believing in Christianity is independent of intelligence, contrary to what most people believe. You will never find enough proof for Christianity if you are not ever willing to believe. There have been many field studies done to try to make a correlation between intelligence and religion, but all the outcomes are different; most surveys show that there is no correlation whatsoever. I think everyone is affected by his/her prejudices (maybe not consciously), and consequently is biased towards their belief no matter what they read. Many people think the Bible is a myth; many people think the Holocaust is a myth. It is hard for humans to conceive that which they have never seen. If I said I had a friend Joe that could disappear, I don't think anyone believe me, whether it was true or not. I could even give compelling arguments for his case, and people still would not believe. Why? The same reason people laughed when it was discovered that the world was round -- they had their minds made up. (By the way, I searched for "flat earth" on the internet and was shocked to find that there is still a society that believes that the earth is really flat.)

  The Bible says if we search with all our hearts we will find God. I think it is easy for some people to find God, and I think more intelligent people don't believe in God, mainly because they haven't searched long and hard enough for Him. We must search with everything we are given.

  Now it is our preference that decides against Christianity, not arguments. -Friedrich Nietzsche

  The evidence for Christian truth is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient. Too often, Christianity has not been tried and found wanting -- it has been found demanding, and not tried. -John Baillie

• I certainly hope that there is something greater than this life. I mean, here we are on this earth, nobody knows what it means (even despite the fact that there are many that say decisively that God does not exist), nobody knows where we came from. I hope this is not it. I hope there is more to this mystery.

• Whether the Bible is true or not, I will still live a good moral life.

  The highest principles for our aspirations and judgements are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition. -Albert Einstein

• Whether the Bible is true or not, the Bible gives much wisdom and insight for life.

  The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced: Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against society. - Immanuel Kant

• I don't think we as humans are smart enough to absolutely prove whether God exists or not using sensual perception and reason, so why not assume God does exist?

  Do you remember how electrical currents and 'unseen waves' were laughed at? The knowledge about man is still in its infancy. My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.

  Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

  The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books--a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.

  -Albert Einstein

• It is wise to be a Christian.

  He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he can not lose. -Jim Elliot

  I have known ninety-five of the world's great men in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. -W.E. Gladstone

• Christianity is supported by overwhelming amounts of objective evidence. There are many eyewitness accounts by pagans and Christians alike that Jesus Christ walked this earth. This can be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

  Today, no serious historian (even those who are atheists) disputes the fact that Jesus existed. (Copeland)

  Are you willing to believe given enough objective evidence?

  Only when the Christian message is offered in these uncompromising terms does unbelief find itself properly faced with "the offense of the Cross": the watershed decision as to whether to accept the historical evidence of salvation in Christ and reject one's own autonomy, or to rationalize away the facts in the interest of retaining control of one's sinful existence. --Dr. John Warwick Montgomery from his book Where is History Going

  Think about it, our entire basis of time depends on the birth of Jesus. We celebrate Jesus' birthday (Christmas) and Resurrection (Easter) every year. If Jesus did not exist, what great thing happened 2000 years ago to warrant two holidays and the basis of time? Read Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict.

  This is an excerpt from a Jewish Guerilla commander, Flavius Josephus, who turned historian while trying to restore the reputation of his fellow countrymen. Flavius fought the invading Romans in 66-70 AD.

  And there arose about this time [he means Pilate's time as governor, AD 26-36] Jesus, a wise man if indeed one should call him a man. For he was the performer of astonishing deeds, a teacher of those who are happy to receive the truth. He won over many Jews and also many Greeks. He was the Christ. And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross at the instigation of our own leaders, those who had loved him at first did not give up. For he appeared to them on the third day alive again, as the holy prophets had foretold, and had said many other wonderful things about him. And still to this day the race of Christians, so called after him, has not died out. (Antiquities 18.3.3)

• Whether we like it or not, our souls long for a god. The heart shall not rest until it rest in Thee, O Lord our God. -St. Augustine from Confessions

  One is a ghost, floating throught the world without any real contact. Even when one feels nearest to other people, something in one seems obstinately to belong to God, and to refuse to enter into any earthly communion -- at least that is how I should express it if I thought there was a god. It is odd, isn't it? I care passionately for this world and many things and people in it, and yet...what is it all? There must be something more important, one feels, though I don't believe there is. --Bertrand Russell, in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell.

• The authenticity of the Bible. (see Copeland).

  Atheists continually try to pick two verses out of the Bible and say they contradict each other, therefore the Bible is a fallacy. They also say that because some verses are parables and some verses are to be interpreted literally, that we can make the Bible say anything we want. The Bible is an extremely complex book, that it has taken Philosophers and Theologians years to decipher. Are the atheists just as critical of scientists; after all, there are many different scientific theories which contradict each other.

  There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history. - Isaac Newton

  It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. - Nelson Gluick (noted Jewish Archaelogist)

  The New Testament was written by eyewitnesses that lived in the same lifetime and just after Jesus' death.

  We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after 80 A.D. - W. F. Albright, biblical archaeologist.

  The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be as beyond all doubt. - F.F. Bruce

  Theomatics - mathematical proof for the validity of the Bible. The Torah codes.

  This is what you MUST believe if you do not believe the New Testament when it speaks of the miracles and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

  1. It is a carefully orchestrated lie!
  2. The authors suffered extreme hardship for what they KNEW was a lie!
  3. In suffering and dying for a lie, they went against everything Jesus and they themselves taught!
  4. And somehow, these liars, frauds, and deceivers came up with a book containing the world's highest standard morality and loftiest goals!

  An excerpt from Mark Copeland's Executable Outline Series on Christian Apologetics, “The New Testament: Truth or Lie?”

• Bible prophecy.
  • The Old Testament repeatedly talks about the coming of Jesus. In Isaiah, it says that He will send us a clear sign, a child born of a virgin. It also says in Psalm 22:16 that they will pierce His hands and feet. See verses Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 53:7-9, Psalm 22:16-18.
• Why do we have a conscious, and why is it heightened when we have a relationship with God? Why am I compelled to do good when I have a relationship with God? It is certainly not in our nature to do good; we tend to be selfish by nature.

• Near-death experiences. In almost every near death experience, the person realizes that the most important thing in life is love. In approximately 70% of all near death experiences, the person will mention God, and in most cases people who were not faithful become men/women of faith.

• The 2nd law of thermodynamics which states that entropy is always increasing. If a physical law dictates that the amount of disorder in the universe is always increasing, how was life formed? Wouldn't the evolution of life break the physical laws that govern nature?

  Some people believe that life was created by chance or randomness. The probability this could happen is extremely small. As one astrophysicist put it, the practicality of life created by chance is about as possible as a hurricane blowing through a junkyard and creating a Boeing 747.

• The Teleological Argument. Provides evidence for the existence of God by noticing the universal mathematical exactness in the laws of Nature. It then relates this precision to the fact that some Supreme Being, namely God, must have created the laws. There is another view of the argument which takes more of a logical stance on noticing the precise outcome of the laws of Nature or the correlation between many physical entities of Nature. For example, the human hand is a sophisticated structure which was made in a way to interact with other properties of Nature. The hand has purposeness or means to an end. Since the orderliness of the laws of Nature could not exist by chance alone, there must be a Creator.(Daniel, p.261) More simply, because everything seems to have been created, there must be a Creator.

  This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and the comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being...This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God. Isaac Newton in Principles of Natural Philosophy

• Because the peace, joy, and wisdom of living a Christian life is inexplicable.

  Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:6-9

• Given all of the above, why would you not want to be a Christian?