I am a firm believer that one can come to faith as a Christian
by examining the evidence (used by God) that is readily available to them. I believe in this mainly because I can attest
to this in my own life. The reason I hold
to my Christian faith is because it’s true, not because of my personal
preference or comfort.
The great thing about the evidential approach to Christian
apologetics for me is that it “flows” into other areas of my life. Allow me to share a recent example to
illustrate my point.
For several years I’ve been riding my bike to work for the
purposes of getting additional exercise, saving on vehicle expenses, and a nice
upfront parking spot at my place of employment.
But I have to confess, up until a few weeks ago, I did not wear a
helmet! I simply thought that it wasn’t
necessary as I’ve been riding a bike for 30+ years and I honestly didn’t think
I needed it because I was capable of preventing myself from injury.
So what changed my mind?
After attending a service at my home church, I was approached by someone
who had seen me riding through town without my helmet. She strongly encouraged me to get a helmet
and even offered to give me one of her spares.
What motivated her to do this?
This woman had a very close friend who actually died in a
bicycle accident. He was not wearing a
helmet.
At the same moment she was sharing this with me, my friend,
who is a physician, approached the conversation to share his testimony. He shared that one of his patients, a young
boy, is paralyzed for life because he was involved in a bicycle accident and
was not wearing a helmet.
As I reflected on this moment, I found it ironic that I’ve
been convinced of the existence of God based on the overwhelming evidence that
is available but I’ve failed to acknowledge the evidence to determine if I
should be wearing my bike helmet for safety purposes. However, the personal testimony I received
and the statistics that are easily accessible online have convinced me that
wearing a helmet is the obvious decision for me to make.
I also believe this example speaks to how many atheists,
agnostics, and disinterested people treat the overwhelming evidence for
Christianity. Even though they have
access to resources and people willing to share their testimony, they choose to
live for their own personal preference instead of asking “What is true?” My prayer is that we as Christians can
collectively learn how to effectively share what we know to be true to those
who are willing to listen.
God Bless,
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