It surprises people when I admit that Christianity could be false. Doesn’t this admission show a monumental lack of faith? Actually, just the opposite. Stay with me for a minute.
If Christianity does not rise to the level of being true or false, then it has been completely removed from the cognitive realm. To put it bluntly, if something can’t be false, then it can’t be true either. We are no longer talking about something real and rational investigation becomes impossible.
Please don’t mishear me, I think there are very good reasons to believe Christianity is actually true and best explains reality. But Christianity is the kind of thing that could be false. It’s at this point in my talk when people tend to get nervous (along with those who invited me in to speak!).
Let the Best Ideas Win
My point is simply this: In a culture that relativizes (everybody has their own truth) and then privatizes (my spiritual truth is personal and therefore off-limits) religious belief, we must reintroduce Christianity to our culture with its very public truth claims and let the best ideas win.
To use a football analogy, we have to take the red practice jersey off of Christianity so it can take some hits. But don’t just take my word for it, listen to the Apostle Paul:
“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” – 1 Cor. 15:13-17
Christianity is unique among all the world’s religions because it is testable.
Even If Christianity Doesn’t Make You Feel Better…
Nancy Pearcey puts her finger on the problem: “When Christians are willing to reduce religion to non-cognitive categories, unconnected to questions of truth or evidence, then we have already lost the battle.” When it comes to Christianity, the most important question we need to help people ask is not will it work for them or help them feel better, but rather is it true?
If you found this post helpful, you would enjoy “Why Does Truth Matter?”
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