The Bible tells the tale of the apostle Paul’s conversion to Christianity (Acts 9:1-19). He was once taken into custody by the government due to his religious convictions. He shared his faith in Jesus and how he was called by Jesus to share the gospel with people everywhere during his trial (Acts 26). Festus, the Roman governor, eventually declared that Paul must be insane since he found Paul’s justification to be absurd. How did Paul respond?
Paul’s claim for the gospel
“I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words,” Paul responded coolly and respectfully (Acts 26:25). Paul argues that the gospel is both reasonable and true.
These days, many continue to question the veracity of the Christian faith, the veracity of the claims made about Jesus Christ, and whether He actually existed and underwent the prophecy and death described in the Bible. Many others may not give a damn about the veracity of these claims, preferring to believe that Christianity is absurd, illogical, and nonsensical. Paul, however, asserts both rationality and truth. He says this, but why? How is he able to say such a thing?
It would take a book to go over every element of the solution, but allow me to provide a synopsis.
Why is the Christian faith true?
It is based on historical events
An important argument for the Christian faith, is that it is based on historical events. People have met Jesus, have heard His teaching, and have seen all that happened to Him. They have seen that He died and that He was buried. A few days later, He appeared again as a person of flesh and blood to His friends. They recognized Him. He was there again, He spoke to them and ate with them (e.g. Luke 24:36-49). There were many witnesses of these events. A few decades later, Paul could still say: there are many witnesses, hundreds of them, and if you wish, you can still talk to them and ask them what they saw (1 Corinthians 15:6-7). The witnesses and those who were the first recipients of their testimony, have reported all of this in what we now have as the Bible.
God had spoken before
A second point of contention is that individuals had heard from God for many generations before to the birth of Jesus. God revealed to them His intention to send a Messiah—someone who would atone for humankind’s crimes. The process of discovering this took thousands of years. These people have written down what God has shown them. Following the events of Jesus, people began to realize that all of God’s previous prophecies were realized in Jesus—in His life, death, and resurrection. This gives the argument for Jesus’ veracity a lot more weight. The entire tale makes sense. Have you come to this realization yet?
Nevertheless it is the most staggering story ever told. If true, the claims are stupendous and mind-blowing. The Christian faith also tells us that all people are opposed to God and do not want to believe Him or obey Him. This is why they do not want to accept the truth about what God did through Jesus. They are in fact blind to it, cannot see it. They are groping around in the dark to find God. This fails because they are all the time looking in the wrong place and in the wrong way. This brings us to the next major objection to the Christian faith: people claim it is irrational and unreasonable. What does this mean and why does Paul deny this objection? How can we explain that the Christian faith is rational?
The following of these two articles will address this:
