Post by Josh on Jan 29, 2007 17:40:46 GMT -8
You must ask yourself, honestly, at least some time in your life whether the claims of Christianity are, in fact, true. What I mean by true is more than in the patently subjective sense (as some in our culture might say, true for you), but not also in the completely objective sense either.
This side of eternity we can't ever be absolutely rationally certain of the claims of Christianity, but I do think we can be reasonably rationally certain of them (Christian claims are warranted beliefs) and, at times, absolutely certain in our subjective experience of faith.
How can we be reasonably, rationally certain? How can Christianity be demonstrated to be a warranted belief system?
I want to point the seeker toward a few firm foundations of the Christian faith, to the heart of the question at hand: is Christianity true in more than just a subjective sense?
There are many trails of investigation a seeker might pursue, but these are the ones I have found to be the most fruitful- the subjects which provide the most compelling rational arguments for belief in the Lordship of Jesus Christ:
1) Easter Sunday- investigate the accounts of what happened on the most influential day in human history. In addition to immersing yourself in the documents that claim to bear record of that day (the Gospels primarily), especially try to come up with a good alternate explanation- particularly a good naturalist (some might say materialist) explanation of Easter. I believe you will find, as I have, that no explanation of the facts works better than the explanation you will find when you put the Gospel pieces together. There are some excellent books on this subject, in particularly, I would highly recommend the book The Meaning of Jesus, a debate between Marcus Borg and NT Wright, which deals with the Resurrection among a great many other themes, as a great place to start.
more soon....
2) Old Testament Prophecies
3) The implications of Big Bang Cosmology and Origin of Life research
4) Arguments for the Existence of God
This side of eternity we can't ever be absolutely rationally certain of the claims of Christianity, but I do think we can be reasonably rationally certain of them (Christian claims are warranted beliefs) and, at times, absolutely certain in our subjective experience of faith.
How can we be reasonably, rationally certain? How can Christianity be demonstrated to be a warranted belief system?
I want to point the seeker toward a few firm foundations of the Christian faith, to the heart of the question at hand: is Christianity true in more than just a subjective sense?
There are many trails of investigation a seeker might pursue, but these are the ones I have found to be the most fruitful- the subjects which provide the most compelling rational arguments for belief in the Lordship of Jesus Christ:
1) Easter Sunday- investigate the accounts of what happened on the most influential day in human history. In addition to immersing yourself in the documents that claim to bear record of that day (the Gospels primarily), especially try to come up with a good alternate explanation- particularly a good naturalist (some might say materialist) explanation of Easter. I believe you will find, as I have, that no explanation of the facts works better than the explanation you will find when you put the Gospel pieces together. There are some excellent books on this subject, in particularly, I would highly recommend the book The Meaning of Jesus, a debate between Marcus Borg and NT Wright, which deals with the Resurrection among a great many other themes, as a great place to start.
more soon....
2) Old Testament Prophecies
3) The implications of Big Bang Cosmology and Origin of Life research
4) Arguments for the Existence of God