Defending Christianity
1. Reasons to reject truth
     a. Ignorance - Romans 1:18-23.
     b. Pride - John 5:40-44.
     c. Moral issues - John 3:19-20
 “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning; consequently [I] assumed that it had none,   and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who   finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics, he is also   concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or   why his friends should not seize political power and govern in the way that they find most advantageous   to themselves...For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.” Aldous Huxley, an atheist

2. Blind Faith vs. Intelligent Faith
     a. Matthew 22:37 - Our faith should incorporate our intellect.
     b. Map illustration.
3. What about tolerance and open mindedness?
     a. Truth is singular
     b. 2+2=4
4. Tests of Scripture.
     a. Bibliographical - How many copies and how close to the original.
 
Author  Book   Date Written   Earliest copies Time Gap # of copies
Plato          400 BC AD 900 1,300 yrs.  7
Pliny Secundus   Natural Hist.  AD 61-113  AD 850 750 yrs.  7
Herodotus  History  480-425 BC  AD 900  1,350 yrs.  8
Thucydides  History   460-400 BC AD 900  1,300 yrs.  8
Ceasar  Gallic Wars  100-44 BC  AD 900  1,000 yrs.  10
Tacitus   Annals  AD 100  AD 1100  1,000 yrs.   20
Demosthenes  300 BC  AD 1100  1,400 yrs.  200
Homer  Iliad  800 BC  400 BC  400 yrs.  643
New Testament 
 
 		 AD 50-100 
AD 114 (fragment) 
 AD 200 (books) 
 AD 250 (Most of NT) 
 AD 325 (Complete NT) . 		 +50 yrs. 
100 yrs.
150 yrs.
225 yrs		 5366
 

          1. How is age determined?
               a. Materials used. b. Letter size and form. c. Punctuation.
               d. Text divisions. e. Ornamentation.  f. The color of the ink.
               g. The texture and color of parchment.
     b. Internal evidence - Does it contradict itself?
     c. External evidence - Does it fit with history?
          1. Eyewitness accounts - 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1-3; Luke 1:1-3; Acts 1:1-3;
               1 Corinthians 15:6-8; John 20:30-31; Acts 10:39-42; 1 Peter 5:1; Acts 1:9
          2. Non-Biblical historians.
               a. Tacitus - verified the death and resurrection of Jesus.
                b. Suetonius - verifies Acts 18:2.
               c. Josephus - verifies James 1:1 (James is the brother of Jesus); John the      Baptist’s ministry and martyrdom.
               d. Thallus - verifies the earthquake and darkness during the crucifixion.
     d. Science and Archeology.
          1. 2,000 years before Columbus discovered that the Earth was round, not flat, Isaiah said that God sits on the circle of the Earth. - Isaiah 40:22
          2. The Hittites: A people group mentioned often in the OT, was laughed at by archeologists because they said the Hittites never existed.
                Then in 1906 Hugo Winckler discovered the remains of the Hittite capitol.
5. Who is Jesus?
 “Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of supermagnet, to pull up out of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left? It is from his birth that most of the human race dates its calendars, it is by his name that millions curse and in his name that millions pray.” - Jaroslav Pelikan

 a. Liar?
  “The hypothesis of imposture is so revolting to moral as well as common sense, that is mere statement is its condemnation...[N]o scholar of any decency and self-respect would now dare to profess it openly. How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience could an impostor - that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man - have invented, and consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and successfully carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and sublimity, and sacrificed his own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of his people and ages?” - Philip Schaff

 b. Lunatic?
  “A measure of your insanity is the size of the gap between what you think you are and what you really are. If I think I am the greatest philosopher in America, I am only an arrogant fool; if I think I am Napoleon, I am probably over the edge; if I think I am a butterfly, I am fully embarked from the sunny shores of sanity. But if I think I am God, I am even more insane because the gap between anything finite and the infinite God is even greater than the gap between any two finite things, even a man and a butterfly.” -Peter Kreeft

 c. Lord?
  “In the nineteenth century Charles Bradlaugh, a prominent atheist, challenged a Christian man to debate the validity of the claims of Christianity. The Christian, Hugh Price Hughes, was an active soul-winner who worked among the poor in the slums of London. Hughes told Bradlaugh he would agree to the debate on one condition. Hughes said, ’I propose to you that we bring some concrete evidences of the validity of our beliefs in the form of men and women who have been redeemed from the lives of sin and shame by the influence of our teaching. I will bring 100 such men and women, and I challenge you to do the same.’ Hughes then said that if Bradlaugh couldn’t bring 100, then he could bring 50; if he couldn’t bring 50, then he could bring 20. He finally whittled the number down to one. All Bradlaugh had to do was to find one person whose life was improved by atheism and Hughes - who would bring 100 people improved by Christ - would agree to debate him. Bradlaugh withdrew!” - Kennedy