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Originally Posted by nexteyenate I am an antitheist. I used to be a Christian until I did a little research and discovered Christianity was pretty much a copy of previous, crazier religions. Now, the reason for me posting here: Does anyone have a defense for Christianity? My mom claims there are hundreds of pieces of evidence that prove the bible and Christianity are legit, but my research has turned up nothing. |
yo i was raised in a christian home too, however like most christians today i went off to college and became sort of skeptical because of the things taught in college classrooms. i didnt know anything except what the professors and other atheist/skeptics told me. my faith was failing ( or so i thought ). so i began to research on my own. one of my favorite verses in the bible is Proverbs 18:17 "the first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him". I took the claims of skeptics, atheists relativist etc as truth without examing the evidence for their claims. but after i examined the evidence i was absolutely blown away at the amount of evidence we have for christianity being the truth above all other claims. to my utter amazment i discovered instead of christianity being a ridiculous faith with a grain of evidence requiring a mountain of faith ( which is really delusional, ie. irrational), christianity is actually belief requiring a grain of faith based on a mountain of evidence( which is logical). John 8:28 says " you will know the truth and the truth will make you free". for this i was truly elated. god says he wants us to love him with our hearts as well as our minds ( with our love and intellect ) Matt 22:37 says "love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind". when jesus says in Matt 17:20 that we are to have faith the size of a mustard seed, he wasnt kidding. i have one question for you...what research did you do that proved to be substancial evidence that Jesus is a hoax? i want to know exactly what makes anyone say its a myth. hopefully we can engage in some meaningful dialogue. Please respond. here are 3 small pieces of evidence that prove the bible as true.
1. evidence like fulfilled prophecy(foretelling of the future), which is impossible, is all throughout the bible. there are 27 texts that humans beings claim to be inspired by god, hoever unlike the bible no other religious text in the world has prophecy( not the qur'an of muslims, nor the vedas of the hindus, or the book of mormons etc) , but the bible foretells the future hundreds of times. like the birth of jesus from a virgin in the book of Isaiah 7:14, this was over 600 years before he was born. or the prediction of christs crucifiction in Zecheriah 12:10 (more than 600 yrs. before christ, as well as Psalms 22:16( over 1000 yrs before christ). the prediction of his death is not only evidence for his truth just because it happened, but also it was predicted before the roman style of crucifiction even existed...even before a roman empire even existed!

. literally there are hundreds more. only a living god with intelligence and infinite knowledge can predict the future accurately everytime.
2. archaeological verification. there are over 25,000 archaeological discoveries that verify the turh of the bible like names and places. some examples are sodom and gomorrah. as you probably know the bible alone claims this city was burned to ground by god himself with fire and brimstone Gen 19:24. it sounds ridiculous ( even to me!!!) however in 1989 near the dead sea both cities were discovered covered in a few feet of ash and sulfur. brimstone is made up of pure sulfur. also many people like pilate ( the govenor of christs land at the time) or caiphas have plaques, graves or inscriptions found in the area
3. the resurrection. this is the crux of christianity. the bible claims that the christians faith is based on jesus rising from the dead. without it there is no faith!. How do you explain the origin of the disciples belief that jesus rose form the dead? every disciple seen him die as well as every other person living in jerusalem at that time. because we know jesus is an historical character and his death validated by by historical documents such as talmud, we have to give a cuase for the orgin of his discipes belief that he rose from the dead and were willing to die for that belief. 11 of the 12 suffered horrible bloody deaths simply for saying that jesus rose from the dead. nobody dies for a known lie so it cannot be a myth to someone who SAW him die. Even Flavius Josephus a non-christian roman historian who wrote extensively on jewish history wrote in his book "antiquties" that the disciples of christ said that jesus rose from the dead. this was only weeks after his death. when christ died the disciples were scared of being killed by the jews who killed christ, but after jesus rose from the dead they trusted jesus for their eternal destiny(heaven) and were willing to die for their claim that he was was resurrected by god. even paul who was a killer of christians who claim jesus rose from the dead was miraculously converted saying he too seen christ and christ showed himself to him. in 1 Corithians 15:6 says Jesus appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses. it cant be a myth nor a hallucination because hallucinations are not contagious, so everybody could not "imagine" the same things.