Why I am a follower of Jesus: Difference between revisions
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|'''''Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.''''<ref>C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (HarperOne, 1994), 102.</ref> | |||
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I was raised in a Christian home and grew up going to church. However, as a teenager in my final year in high school, I stepped out of the church and stopped attending. We had changed churches and, my friends from high school were more important to me than trying to make friends with a group of clique-y teenagers who weren't welcoming to a new kid who had started to attend their church. | I was raised in a Christian home and grew up going to church. However, as a teenager in my final year in high school, I stepped out of the church and stopped attending. We had changed churches and, my friends from high school were more important to me than trying to make friends with a group of clique-y teenagers who weren't welcoming to a new kid who had started to attend their church. | ||
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There are many similarities between investigating cold cases and investigating the claims of Christianity. Cold-case homicides are events from the distant past for which there is often little or no forensic evidence. These kinds of cases are sometimes solved on the basis of eyewitness testimony, even though many years have passed between the point of the crime and the point of the investigation. While there may not be any surviving eyewitnesses to the actual murder, there are often witnesses available who can help puzzle together the events leading up to the crime or the behavior of a suspect following the crime. These witnesses can be evaluated in a number of ways to confirm their reliability. In the end, a strong “circumstantial” case can usually be made by collecting witness statements and verifying these observations with what little forensic evidence is available. By taking this approach, I have arrested and successfully prosecuted a number of cold-case suspects who thought they had gotten away with murder. | |||
Christianity makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little or no forensic evidence. Like cold cases, the truth about what happened can be discovered by examining the statements of eyewitnesses and comparing them with what little additional evidence is accessible to us. If the eyewitnesses can be evaluated (and their statements can be verified by what we have available), an equally strong circumstantial case can be made for the claims of the New Testament. But are there any reliable eyewitness statements in existence to corroborate in the first place? This became the most important question I had to answer in my personal investigation of Christianity. Were the gospel narratives eyewitness accounts, or were they only moralistic mythologies? Were the Gospels reliable, or were they filled with untrustworthy, supernatural absurdities? The most important questions I could ask about Christianity just so happened to fall within my area of expertise. | |||
James Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2013). | |||
Revision as of 16:15, 14 April 2020
| Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important.'[1] |
I was raised in a Christian home and grew up going to church. However, as a teenager in my final year in high school, I stepped out of the church and stopped attending. We had changed churches and, my friends from high school were more important to me than trying to make friends with a group of clique-y teenagers who weren't welcoming to a new kid who had started to attend their church.
What eventually brought me back?
The story of Jesus is not worthy of attention except for one thing... an event which, if true, is a complete game changer. It is the one thing that makes Jesus completely different from any prior or subsequent prophet.
The resurrection.
Christianity does not exist because of the Bible. In fact, the Christian Bible did not exist until the fourth century A.D.
The one who saw this has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he speaks the truth, and he has testified so that you also can believe.
Common English Bible (Nashville, TN: Common English Bible, 2011), Jn 19:35.
There are many similarities between investigating cold cases and investigating the claims of Christianity. Cold-case homicides are events from the distant past for which there is often little or no forensic evidence. These kinds of cases are sometimes solved on the basis of eyewitness testimony, even though many years have passed between the point of the crime and the point of the investigation. While there may not be any surviving eyewitnesses to the actual murder, there are often witnesses available who can help puzzle together the events leading up to the crime or the behavior of a suspect following the crime. These witnesses can be evaluated in a number of ways to confirm their reliability. In the end, a strong “circumstantial” case can usually be made by collecting witness statements and verifying these observations with what little forensic evidence is available. By taking this approach, I have arrested and successfully prosecuted a number of cold-case suspects who thought they had gotten away with murder.
Christianity makes a claim about an event from the distant past for which there is little or no forensic evidence. Like cold cases, the truth about what happened can be discovered by examining the statements of eyewitnesses and comparing them with what little additional evidence is accessible to us. If the eyewitnesses can be evaluated (and their statements can be verified by what we have available), an equally strong circumstantial case can be made for the claims of the New Testament. But are there any reliable eyewitness statements in existence to corroborate in the first place? This became the most important question I had to answer in my personal investigation of Christianity. Were the gospel narratives eyewitness accounts, or were they only moralistic mythologies? Were the Gospels reliable, or were they filled with untrustworthy, supernatural absurdities? The most important questions I could ask about Christianity just so happened to fall within my area of expertise.
James Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2013).
Footnotes
- ↑ C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (HarperOne, 1994), 102.