Dear Peter,

Thanks for asking these questions. It is important for a Christian to know not just what he believes but why he believes it. First Peter 3:15 says “…being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:” So we can see there must be answers or else God would not have told us in His Word to be ready to give them.  I’ll take your questions one at a time and give both Biblical references and I will also find answers from other sources.

How do you know there is a supernatural God?

Webster defines Supernatural as “Being beyond or exceeding the powers or laws of nature; miraculous.” So let us first look to the Bible to see if God is indeed supernatural. The first verse to back this up is Genesis 1:1  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Here we find God doing something that has never happened since creation. God created something from nothing. In all of science and human nature to date no one has been able to create something from nothing. In 2Kings 6, we have a story of Elisha the prophet (a man of God) causing an ax head to float (not something you see everyday). Another good indication of  a supernatural God is changed lives. I plan to mention this again in the other sections but I thought it might bee good to name a few people that from the Bible, Saul of Tarsus who later became Paul the Apostle, Jonah, Naaman the Syrian, and even the disciples themselves. All of these testify to the fact that there is a God who is supernatural. If you still have doubts I recommend you read Job 38-41. God states very clearly who He is and the power He has.

For non-Christian Friends who don’t trust the Bible I think would use some of the same argument just with out using the Bible. We can still point to creation as proof that God exists. The placement of the earth is a good example. If the earth were just a little closer or farther from the sun it would not be able to support life. The same is true of Earth’s size. Just a little larger or smaller and there would be no way for us to live. This is just one of many things in the world around us that points to something more than chance putting us where we are. Also, to say that something as incredibly complex as the human eye just happened is a statistical nightmare. The focusing muscles in the eye move almost 100,000 times a day and the retina contains 137 million light-sensitive cells.

“To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

It’s amazing to think this came from the man known as “The Father of Evolution”. But if the eye did not come about by means of natural selection. Then perhaps it was not natural but supernatural, pointing to a supernatural God. Some of these facts come from The Evidence Bible compiled by Ray Comfort.

Another area to consider when looking for proof of God is personal testimony. There are many instances of answered prayer, people who have seen angels or been saved from certain death, and let’s not forget the lives that have been transformed by the working of God. A good book on this subject is The Mighty Hand of God/ Hand on the Helm by Carter.  And don’t forget, we both can testify that God has changed our lives. Sometimes just sharing what God has done for us is all it takes.

How do you know that there is truth that applies to everyone?

The Bible in many places gives us a glimpse of God’s standard for truth. The first absolute truth would be that there is a God.  This is going to apply to everyone even if they don’t want to believe. Here are some other verses that point to absolutes:

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever.

Jesus does not change and this would also hold true to anything he said also.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

There is only one way to God, this is through Jesus Christ.

John 17:17 Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.

The Ten Commandments are a good example of absolute truth. One day every one will be judged (Hebrews 9:27) and they will all be judged according to God’s law. (James 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all.) The other side of the stone is that God has provided a way of escape to everyone that is no less true. (Romans 10:13 for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.) The word “whosoever” is all-inclusive it means anyone and everyone.

I’m sure you have heard the statement, “There are no absolutes”. Or to phrase it like your question, “There is no truth that applies to everyone”. These statements themselves are absolute statements and meant to apply to everyone. So in the interest of logic they must be rejected as not possible.

You can quickly narrow down your subject to moral absolutes by mentioning a few common truths that are accepted by everyone, everywhere. Up, down, left, right these are things we find common throughout the world. Even though there are different languages, people, and cultures these remain constant. Another example is mathematics; two plus two will always equal four. It will not be any different if I travel to a primitive tribe in Africa. The Sciences, like physics, or the laws of gravity, they are the same for all things on earth. We can quickly conclude by these examples that in life there are truths that apply to everyone. We must work inside these boundaries or face the consequences. If you try to defy gravity and jump off the Sears Tower after gravity has taken its course you will meet with another absolute called death.

The transition from the absolutes of science and math to the realm of morals is met with much hostility these days. But I find it logical to believe since there are truths that apply to us in the physical realm it is safe to assume there are truths in the moral and spiritual realm as well. We can see this throughout the histories of the world. Even though they are from different times and places they had many things in common. For a more complete listing I suggest you read Mere Christianity or The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. Just for am example I will mention courage. Courage is something you will find applauded in all walks of life no matter where in the world you happen to be. Though you may hear the judgment of a person exercising courage condemned you never hear the courage itself being belittled. And you also don’t find the opposite being applauded. If someone runs away from hardship because they are a cowered, this is not looked on as something good. Once again, you may find judgment playing a role in surrendering to a foe greater than yourself but there is always a line drawn between the courageous and the cowards. This gives hint to something beyond ourselves that applies to everyone whether we like it or not.

How do you know the Bible is reliable?

The authenticity of the Bible for us as believers is in the fact that it is the Word of God, (2 Timothy 3:16 Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.) Now you may ask, “Is it all true?” To that I would reply with this verse, Psalms 119:160 “The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.” Here we find that not only is it all true but that it will continue to be applicable. There are other verses where Jesus is found quoting from scripture verifying its authority. And then we find fulfilled prophesy like the captivity of Judah and the order of world empires from Daniel.

The answer for skeptics takes a little longer and if you tried telling them the Bible is reliable because it says so you will be accused of circular reasoning. So instead a good path to take is to give the Bible the same tests as we would other literature to determine its authenticity and reliability.

I will deal first with just the New Testament.

A good first question could be, “is what we have today the same thing that was written by the original authors.” Since we do not have any of the original manuscripts (and this is the case with all ancient writings) we must look to the date of the oldest manuscripts we have. The normal “rule of thumb” is that the closer to the original date the less changes there will be. And then the second thing to consider is how many manuscripts do you have. This is important because the more you have the easier you will be able to spot differences and mistakes made during the copying. You can find a more complete list in A Ready Defense by Josh McDowell. But just to make my point I will give you a few of the facts. Caesar’s Gallic Wars was written between 58-50 BC and the first of only 10 copies is dated 900AD. That means almost 1,000 years and yet no one would question weather it’s true or not. In contrast the New Testament was written between 40-100 AD and the earliest copy is no more than 85 years after the fact in 125AD. And the number of copies is truly staggering at 24,633. The number two book in all of ancient Greek and Latin literature is Homer’s Iliad written in 900BC. The earliest copy dates to 400BC (500 years) and there are only 643 copies total.

 Now that we have determined that the New Testament is indeed what the original authors wrote we could ask the second question. And building upon the evidence we can use scripture to help back up our findings.  Can we trust the people who wrote the Bible to tell the truth?  The rule here is, the closer the writer is to the event both in time and distance the more accurate the writings. As far as the gospels are concerned they were either written by eye witnesses (the strongest testimony) as in the case of Matthew, Mark (he was writing Peter’s account first hand) and John, or from eye witness testimony, or from eye witness accounts as was Luke’s case (Luke 1:1-2). There are many other things I could go into like the way some of the writers called out to their audience to affirm their statements (Acts 2:22,36 Acts 26,26). Or that the disciples started their ministry in Jerusalem, the place above all places where if they were telling a lie it would be instantly known. So all in all we have done everything necessary to prove the New Testament reliable

The last thing I would mention and you can look up in the book, A Ready Defense, which I mentioned earlier. Is that there is much archaeological evidence that the things written in the New Testament are true. There have been many times when scholars thought the Bible in error but were later proven wrong. However there has never been a discovery made that contradicted the Bible. That’s something you don’t here very often.

Now on to the Old Testament.

Concerning the Old Testament, we do not have the nearly as many manuscripts as we do with the New Testament.  And until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found the old manuscript was dated at 900AD the Old Testament was completed around 400BC and this caused a 1,300-year gap. So at first glance the Old Testament does not seem any more reliable that most ancient literature. But what appears on the surface is not always true. The Old Testament can be trusted and known to be reliable because it is unique from all other books in the way it was copied through the centuries. The transcribing of the books of the Old Testament was done with the utmost care and precision. Here are some of the rules followed as described by Samuel Davidson in Hebrew Text of the Old Testament.

1) A synagogue roll must be written on the skin of clean animals, 2) prepared for the particular use of the synagogue by a Jew. 3) These must be fastened together with strings taken from clean animals. 4) Every skin must contain a certain number of columns, equal throughout the entire codex. 5) The length of each column must not extend over less than 48 or more than 60 lines; and the breath must consist of thirty letters. 6) The whole copy must be first lined; and if three words are written without a line it is worthless. 7) The ink should be black, neither red nor green, nor any other colour, and be prepared according to a definite recipe. 8) An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least deviate. 9) No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him… 10) Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene; 11) Between every new parashah, or section, the breath of nine consonants; 12) between every book three lines. 13) The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line; but the rest need not do so. 14) Besides this, the copyist must sit in full Jewish dress; 15) wash his whole body, 16) not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink, 17) and should a king address him while writing that name, he must take no notice of him.

Wow, is that not amazing? The lengths the Jewish people went to make sure the scriptures were copied down correctly and there were no mistakes. They did such a good job that when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and dated to 1,000 years before the oldest manuscript previously known of, the book of Isaiah was found to be 95 percent identical and even the five percent was mostly slips of the pen and variations in spelling. I get this information from Archer Gleason’s Survey of the Old Testament. When the copy was finished it was considered equal in authority to the manuscript being copied from. And so then the old copy would be set aside and deemed unfit for use. This explains why there are not as many copies.

As we addition to the way the Bible has been preserved through the years we can look to fulfilled prophecy. Some of the best examples are the cities of Tyre (Ezekiel 26) and Sidon (Ezekiel 28). The first was destroyed and the other still continues today. Who but God could have predicted this would happen and also give so many details. To get the full story look in A Ready Defense pages 59-64.

So then we have proved both the New and Old Testament to be accurate. Both of them, if judged with the same standards as the rest of ancient literature, are found to be some of the best authenticated works anywhere.

How do you know that Jesus was the Son of God and rose from the dead?

The Bible is very clear that Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead.

His Disciples proclaimed he was the Son of God:

Matthew 14:33 And they that were in the boat worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John 20:31 but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.

Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.

And even his enemies:

Matthew 27:54 Now the centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Martha said he was:

John 11:27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I have believed that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, even he that cometh into the world.

And Thomas, who doubted that Jesus was raised from the dead, when he was confronted with the risen Jesus, said:

John 20:28 Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Here we do not find a direct reference to Jesus being the Son of God but instead it if affirming Jesus’ deity. This is just a further point I thought to make while we were on the subject. Because the true claim being made when we talk about Jesus being the “Son of God” is the deity of Christ. We can all claim to be sons of God. But only Jesus is equal with God. Let us look at a few passages where he makes this claim.

John 10:30 I and the Father are one.

John 8:19 ... if ye knew me, ye would know my Father also.

John 5:23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him.

The Bible is also clear that the resurrection is a fact:

1Corinthians 15:3-8 For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also.

Matthew 28:6 He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Mark 16:6 And he saith unto them, Be not amazed: ye seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who hath been crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold, the place where they laid him!

Luke 24:5-6 and as they were affrighted and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

Romans 6:9 knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over him.

1Corinthians 6:14 and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up as through his power.

1Corinthians 15:20 But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.

Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead),

Ephesians 1:20 which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

So now, how do we answer critics who question the deity of Jesus and His resurrection? To answer this question we still have to use the Bible simply because there is not very much written about Jesus except using this source. However because we have already established the authenticity of the Bible as a historic document we can at least use it as source material from which to draw conclusions.

One of the most spectacular evidences of Jesus deity is the fulfillment of prophecy. There are 60 prophecies and 270 ramifications in the Old Testament; all must be fulfilled by the true Messiah (Christ). According to the book More than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. The chance of a single person meeting all these requirements is only 1 in 10 to the 157th power (that’s a 10 with 157 zeros after it).  Josh McDowell likes to refer to this as Jesus’ “address”. Just as our address separates us from the other 6 billion people in this world so these prophecies separate Jesus from all other people ever born. Now to the objection that some of these prophecies might have been added later, we can reply that the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) was translated about 200BC. This makes it clear that all these prophecies were at least 200 years old before Jesus was born. For one person to fulfill just 8 prophecies it would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. To make it a little more understandable how absurd it is to say this happened by chance, let me use an illustration from Mr. McDowell’s book. We take that many Silver dollars and spread them over the state of Texas. It would cover the state two feet deep. Mark one of the dollars and stir them all up real good. Then blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wants but he must pick up one dollar and say this is the one. What chance would he have? That same chance the prophets would have of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. These prophets were either guided by the wisdom of God took some big chances. This does not prove that Jesus was for sure the Son of God but it does tell you that Jesus was unique from all other people on this earth in a very special way.

A good line of argument to use is brought up by C. S Lewis. He writes: “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ that is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would be either a lunatic- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.” Lewis also adds: “You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” This is from the book Mere Christianity. A more complete look into these three options can be found in More than a Carpenter and A Ready Defense By Josh McDowell

Now on to the resurrection. I am just going to hit on a few of the objections to the resurrections and the answers to these questions. I am using for my main source here Evidence for the Resurrection by Josh McDowell.

One objection would be that Jesus never really died in the first place but instead just fainted and everyone thought he was dead. But if this were the case then a weak and exhausted Jesus would have had to free himself from the grave clothes, move a two ton stone over power the roman guards and still be fit enough to convince His disciples that he had triumphed over the grave and was truly God.

Maybe the disciples stole the body? This would mean that the same men who were cowering in fear while Jesus was being tried and crucified now mustered the courage to face a roman guard and steal the body. This seems highly unlikely. And there is no chance the Jewish or Roman authorities took the body. Or if they did why did they not produce it when the disciples started talking about Jesus being raised from the dead?

Could it be that the disciples went to the wrong tomb? I grant it could be a possibility for the disciples to have ended up at the wrong tomb. But I don’t think it possible for everyone to arrive at the wrong place. This would mean that the women went to the wrong place and then the disciples did not pick up on the face, also the guards were stationed incorrectly, and last of all the authorities forgot where Jesus was buried too. Because they did not later produce the body. No I don’t think this could be the answer. 

Possibly the greatest proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Comes from His disciples. Their lives changed after the resurrection. Before that day this was a cowardly group of men who fled when Jesus was captured. What changed them into the dynamic preachers we read about in the book of Acts? What caused them to begin spreading the news that Jesus had risen from the dead. There was no prestige, wealth, social status or benefits at all. In fact all suffered hardship and pain and most died for their belief. They were stoned, beaten, crucified, boiled in oil for their faith. The only possible explanation is that Jesus really did come back to life and appear to them.

One objections to this claim is, “Many people believe in a lie, even enough to die for it.” Yes, Many people have believed a lie and even died for it. But they thought it was the truth! The disciples more than anyone else knew the facts of the death of Jesus. Crucifixion was quite deadly and what’s more some of them help bury him. It would take something more than just a story to change these men’s minds enough to support the dedication they gave their cause.

I will end with just a few quotes.

“I claim to be a historian. My approach to the Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history…”
E. M. Blaiklock
Professor of Classics
Auckland University

“Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historical incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.”
Brooke, Foss Wescott
English scholar

How do you know there is a heaven and a hell?

Jesus taught about heaven and hell:

Matthew 4:17 From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:30 And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell.

Matthew 10:28 And be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.

Paul teaches of Heaven:

Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ:

And almost the whole book of Revelation takes place in heaven but also mentions hell a number of times.

These verses make it obvious for someone who believes in the Bible that there are both places and there will be people sent to both heaven and hell.

As for proving the existence of heaven and hell without the Bible, I would recommend several books. Beyond death’s Door by Maurice Rawlings is a book of “life after death experiences“. Rawlings is a doctor who had a patient die and comeback to life several times while trying to save his life. The man would relate, while conscious, the terrible things he was seeing while dead and would ask the doctor to not stop the life saving measures. This sparked Rawlings curiosity and he began interviewing people who were clinically dead but had come back to life. He found people had experiences both heavenly and hellish.

The other book is Voices From the Edge of Eternity by John Myer. This book contains the last words of dying people and gives insight into the last thoughts and sight of people who were about to pass over to the other side. Again some are positive and some terrifying.

The history of heaven (or at least a place of peace and rest of some sort or another) is amazing because it can be found universally throughout the world. The concept of hell is does not seem to be as widely publicized. But I think this is more from a desire people have that wants to reject the thought of consequences for actions. We as humans are very good at justifying our actions and if there is a choice between a good or bad place. We are all going to want to believe we have been good enough to arrive in heaven.

How do you know all Religions aren’t ultimately the same?

The basic difference between Christianity and all other religions is our relationship to Jesus. Many people today might say that it does not matter what you believe as long as you believe something.  This is really a ridicules thing to say and has little credibility. What truly matters is the trustworthiness of the object you are trusting.  Here is an example. Let’s say a friend invites me for a ride in his airplane. I may believe the plane is safe, but if it hardly runs and he does not have a pilots license then no matter how much I believe, that belief is not well founded. Christianity and Jesus himself says that he is the only way to salvation:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Paul agrees:

1Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

The Bible also has this to say about Jesus:

Act 4:12 And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.

The Bible also makes it clear that God wants all people to worship Him alone:

Exodus 20:3-5 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

Proverbs 16:25 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.

One last interesting point in which Christianity differs is its dependence on Jesus Christ. In all other religions there is a set of rules and guidelines that are pleasing to God. These religions were founded by men like Buddha, Confucius, Mohammad or others. If you were to take away these men from the religion you would still have the foundation of the religion intact. But if you take Jesus Christ away from Christianity then you have nothing. The entire basis for Christianity is in the person of Jesus and the belief that He is the Son of God and rose from the dead.

Well Peter, I hope this helps you some. Remember though that these answers are not exhaustive. That’s why there are many books out there on these subjects. If you can’t get to a bookstore maybe you could just check out these websites www.josh.org or www.godandscience.org. This will at least give you a start on other questions you might have. However, never hesitate to write me or give me a call if you have more questions.

 In Christ,