Have you ever wondered why you are a Christian?
If you have not, then please take a few moments off to consider an answer to this question. This is a significant question, for your answer should be credible.
Let’s consider some answers to this question:
I Don’t Know
‘I don’t know why I am a Christian. I have not thought about that.’
‘But why haven’t you thought about it?’
‘I don’t know, I did not think about it.’
If you seriously confess that you do not know why you are Christian, then it certainly is the most honest admission of ignorance. Your heart is not calloused. This is a good starting point, provided you get on the right track as soon as possible.
I Don’t Care
‘I don’t care why I am a Christian. I am a busy person and I do not have the time to think about these trivial matters.’
If you don’t care about your Christianity, you are quite possibly living dangerously. The danger is that you MAY not even be a Christian to begin with.
You are neither giving a right or a wrong answer when you say that you do not care as to why you are a Christian. The answer that you do not care is nonsensical, for it seems that you do not possess the ability to think.
Significantly, by stating that you do not care about your faith, you have judged your relationship with God to be a trivial aspect of your life and you have buried God into insignificance. This is a sin against God. You have not accorded God HIS rightful preeminent place in your life. When we deliberately sin against God, we are living dangerously.
1 Peter 3:15 mandates us to offer the reason for our hope in Christ. If we do not care about our hope in Christ, we disobey this mandate and hence we sin against God.
It’s ok if you do not know why you are a Christian. But it is not ok if you do not care as to why you are a Christian.
In response to the question, why are you a Christian, many Christians offer these reasons:
I Believe The Bible
“I am a Christian because I believe the Bible.”
You may say that you are a Christian because you have read the Bible and believe its content. But a Muslim says that he has read the Quran and believes its content. A Mormon would say the same about his Scripture.
What makes your belief in the Bible unique or better than that of the Muslim or the Mormon?
You may say that the Bible is God’s word, but isn’t that what a Muslim or a Mormon say too? How do you know that the Bible is God’s Word? You cannot say that the Bible is God’s word because the Bible says so, for that is an invalid (circular) argument.
I am My Father’s Son
“I am a Christian because my parents are Christians.”
Alternately you may say that you are a Christian because you were raised in a Christian home. This answer may sound correct, but it is not correct. Why?
If you are a Christian because your parents are, then by the same logic, a Muslim born in a Muslim home or an atheist born into an atheistic household would be justified to be a Muslim or an atheist, respectively.
If our religious identity is predicated on the religious identity of our parents, then our parents seem to determine our religion. If parents determine the child’s religion, then parents are of a greater value than the truthfulness of God.
So this is another wrong answer. Our response to the one true and the living God, not our parents, should determine our religion.
I Experienced God
“God drew me closer to HIM, hence I am Christian.”
An alternate rendering of this reason is to say that you became a Christian when your friend introduced you to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while you were living a godless life. Christ then spoke to you and hence you are Christian.
This sounds like a correct answer, but your answer could be disputed. Non-Christians, with the exception of certain worldviews e.g. pantheism, do not believe that Christ is God. So they would not believe your testimony. Moreover, there are similar testimonies in other worldviews about God speaking to man e.g. Islam.
In other words, what makes your testimony better or more truthful than the testimony of your non-Christian friend? If the reason to your Christianity is as stated above, then your testimony, in itself, is neither bulletproof nor more truthful than the testimony of your non-Christian friend.
Surprised?
None of the above can convince your non-Christian friend from the perspective of the credibility of Christianity or bringing him/her closer to Christ.
How then could you establish credibility for your faith with your answer that would bring a non-Christian closer to Christ?
Christianity Is True
“I am a Christian because Christianity is true.”
If Christianity is not true, then your experience of God and your testimony are false. If Christianity is not true, then your parents led you into a false religion. If Christianity is not true, then the Bible you read is a false document.
Every reason you may offer for your Christianity is predicated on the fact that Christianity is true. If you cannot posit reasonable evidences for the truthfulness of Christianity, then you would be unable to offer a sound reason for your hope in Christ.
When we claim Christianity’s truthfulness, we are positing objective truth i.e. Christianity is true whether anyone believes or not. While we posit objective truth, we negate subjective truth-claims i.e. Christianity is true for you and Buddhism is true for me. Therefore, if Christianity is true, all other religious worldviews are false.
Reasonable evidences can be posited for Christianity’s truth-claims from the domains of history, philosophy, science and logic. The scope of this short essay is not to present these evidences but merely to assert the presence of very reasonable evidences for the objective truth-claims of Christianity.
These are public domain websites that offer the much needed evidences:
Dr. William Lane Craig’s www.reasonablefaith.org
Dr. John Lennox’s http://www.johnlennox.org/
J. Warner Wallace’s http://coldcasechristianity.com/
Greg Koukl’s www.str.org
Dr. Frank Turek’s http://crossexamined.org/
Dr. Timothy McGrew’s http://historicalapologetics.org/
Dr. Edward Feser’s http://edwardfeser.blogspot.in/
Christian Apologetics Alliance’s http://christianapologeticsalliance.com/
Dr. Ravi Zacharias’ www.rzim.org
Southern Evangelical Seminary’s Veritas Player http://subsplash.com/veritasplayer/app#!/ses-apologetics-app
Are you aware of these evidences? If not, please dig deep to know why Christianity is true.
Endnote:
I was inspired to write this short essay after hearing Brett Kunkle’s podcast, Why I am A Christian?”
This article was originally posted at http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2016/02/why-are-you-christian-why-am-i-christian.html
Because reason.
Because logic.
Because evidence.
Because love.
All compel rationality into a thoroughgoing Trinitarian metaphysic.
Hmmmmm…. never did so for me…. in fact, just the opposite…. Admittedly, the influence of the Messianic and Apostolic mind was significant in this regard.
In fact, none of the above are relevant with respect to why I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ – rather they seem to reflect just the opposite of the culture of the Kingdom of God – which Paul sums up pretty well –
Our faith is not to be based in the wisdom of mens’ words (reason/logic) but in the power of God… (well, now that is some definite “evidence”…:-)
G.L.25,
Reason, as a creation of God, testifies of Him. In various ways. Different creations testify in different ways — and different folks find compelling evidence in areas for/of Him which are different than the areas in which another person will find compelling evidence for/of Him. Paul and John and others appeal to evidence and connecting-the-dots. Several times in fact. In Scripture, culpability is even tied to willful rejection of reason’s work. For me reason, love, and grace weigh heavily in this whole affair. I’m sorry if my journey has been weighted differently along different lines than yours. It’s peculiar that that bothers you. Whether we start from within Scripture and work outward into the rest of reality, or, whether we start “out there” and follow the testimony of His various creations, we end up within the singular meta-narrative which you’re referring to through your lens, and me through my lens. There are no lenses, nor sight, but that He has fashioned reality so.
_____________
LHRMSCBrown
GL25,
If you see this comment then: I’ll reply another time as CAA just ate three comments in a row.
Seen – did get the others related to the trin
BUT I think there was another here that I did not get…
GL25,
See the edit above, and this:
God is far wider than either you or I in isolation. I listened to a woman who had been [….“r” and then “a” and then “p” and then “e” and then “d”….] as a child by her father tell of how the whole concept of “Father” drove her from Christianity. She found it repulsive. Later, it was very, very different vectors which spoke to her, which became her proverbial lens through which to spy His infinite beauty. Whereas, for others, that is reversed. And that’s okay. Because God is big enough, and high enough, and deep enough, and wide enough. Easily so, in fact.
SCB
I am good with God being far wider than either of us.
I struggle with human reason circumventing God’s revealed Word….
“For us, there is one God – the Father”
Greg
GL25.,
We agree then that Monotheism is the only rational, and true, conclusion. Scripture says the creation of God testifies of Him and of course our capacity to reason is a creation of God. Why then did you imply that the very fact of reason does not testify of Him? Do you ever weigh various lines of evidence? If you do, why then did you imply that evidence plays no role in your understanding of God and Creation?
SCB
I am not even going to say that your reasoning does not make sense – it simply is the smallest and most irrelevant portion of the oikonomia of God – in which we are informed
Our faith is NOT based in the wisdom of men’s word (their reasoning) BUT in the power of God….
This is simply what the text states….true or false, well founded or not…. but I buy it – maybe because I have been blessed.
GL25.,
You claimed reason and evidence played no role. Scripture contradicts that hard line you’ve drawn. No one is denying other vectors in-play. But you denied those two as players.
GL25,
Secondly:
As for glory-stealing, which might be your concern here, *can* any X in fact steal glory from “Being Itself“? Lucifer lied and said he could and we could. But in the end that’s a logical impossibility. Just to be at all is to testify of one’s own inability to self-account which is, of course, a thorn in the side of the metaphysical naturalist ;-}
GL25,
I’ll try to chop it up… it’s been eaten three times….
Part 1:
Regarding for glory-stealing, which might be your concern here, *can* any X in fact steal glory from “Being Itself”?
GL25,
Part 2 perhaps:
Lucifer lied and said he could and we could. But in the end that’s a logical impossibility.
GL25,
Part 3 perhaps:
Just to be at all is to testify of one’s own inability to self-account which is, of course, a thorn in the side of the metaphysical naturalist ;-}
GL25,
Part 4 ?
You claimed earlier that reason and evidence played no role. Yet — Scripture contradicts that hard line you’ve drawn.
SCB – Sorry for any lack of clarity – evidence DID play a huge role – the power of God being manifest is the evidence for my faith (= being convinced of what I cannot see).
As Jesus clearly stated – if you believe not me because my words – believe me because of the works….
Amen!
I take issue with human reason – not because of the use of reason as a concept or capability – but because it is often fallacious – esp. when it is used with respect to the Creator…. more like little rats all on the same little wheels….
Most important – the imparted faith – there needs to be an imparted faith that self-exists below all the other. I have not mentioned that before. No reason or evidence – it is Spirit wrought.
God-wrought? What isn’t God-wrought? Even our free will is fashioned, decreed, and brought into existence by God. You seem to think it is possible that a contingent X really can steal glory from God and in fact self-account. But why? That’s a logical impossibility.
SCB
Pretty sure the bacon and eggs you made for yourself this AM were not “God-wrought”….
🙂
Well, we must follow through:
Body. Mind. Brain. Free Will. Volition. Legs. Trees. Options / “Y’s” in proverbial roads. Birds. Cosmos. Etc. ~~~
Scrambled eggs and toast…:-)
GL25,
Part 5 ?
No one is denying other vectors in-play. But you denied those two as players — not in your journey but in reality period. Perhaps this to clarify: I’ve yet to embrace a logical absurdity in my embrace of the Christian metaphysic, whereas, such absurdities force me to abandon metaphysical naturalism.
….Done…. :-0