Yearly Archives: 2021

Last Chance to Give This Year

Before we enter the New Year, would you give a donation to help us lead people to Jesus in the hardest to reach nations on earth?

There are only a few days left this year.

Quick question: Would you rather give your money to God or to Uncle Sam? Did you know there are often significant tax advantages when giving to a non-profit organization like King Ministries?

Would you seriously consider sowing a generous End-of-the-Year seed for missions?

Often WHEN you give is as important as WHAT you give. By giving today you will accomplish three things:

You will help us finish strong! Our next BIG outreach is coming soon and we need thousands of dollars right now in order to make it happen.
You will schedule a season of supernatural blessing in your life as you move into the New Year. Remember, what you make happen for others, God makes happen for you.
You save on your tax return for this past year.

* We will send you an official United States IRS tax-deductible receipt for any donations given before the end of the year.

* In Canada we have been approved by the Canada Revenue Agency to give tax-deductible receipts for any gift given to King Ministries Canada.

Your generous gift RIGHT NOW will make it possible for us to lead thousands more to Jesus in the year to come and it will allow you to receive an extra tax deduction.

You can give by clicking on one of these buttons:

In the USA, send a check to:
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Please be sure to postmark your gift by December 31.

Please make a donation today. Anything gift you give, large or small, will help us meet our year-end goals and will be used to bring salvation to those who need it the most.

Your financial help is crucial during this holiday season as we prepare to do Gospel Crusades in the coming year. Thank you for your faithful giving!

Wishing You an Happy New Year,

Evangelist Daniel King

P.S. If you would like your end of year giving to be credited in the current year, your gift needs to be received in one of the following ways:

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Any donations received or postmarked after December 31 will be attributed to the New Year.

When You Give, We Go!

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What is an Evangelist?

What is an evangelist? What does a Biblical evangelist do? What character in the Bible is a good example for the evangelist to follow? All these questions and more are answered in today’s podcast.

Join Daniel King’s online School of Mass Evangelism by clicking here: https://www.danielkingministries.com/evangelism

Please subscribe to The Evangelism Podcast today with your host Evangelism Coach Daniel King.

Transcript:

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
What is an evangelist? What does an evangelist do? What character in the Bible is a good example for the evangelist to follow all these questions and more are answered in today’s podcast.

Evangelism Podcast Host (00:15):
Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be safe. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host missionary and evangelist Daniel King.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:51):
Hello, this is Daniel King, and I’m excited about telling people about Jesus. Are you called by God to be an evangelist? Do you want to lead million of people to Jesus? Do you desire to be trained in the practical side of building a ministry? I don’t know if you know this, but I have an online school of mass evangelism and I’ve taken all of my teachings, my videos, a lot of my raw writings, even several books that I haven’t even published yet. And I’ve put all this material into an online school, designed to train people who are called to be mass evangelist. You know, there’s several different types of evangelism. You have personal one on, on one evangelism. And I really believe in that. I think every single evangelist should be good at sharing the gospel one-on-one with people, but then there’s some people who are called to preach to masses of people, thousands and thousands of people.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:58):
And there’s not very much training material available for those who are called to mass evangelism. And so in today’s podcast episode, I want to take you behind the scenes into one of the sessions that I have recorded in my school of mass evangelism. By the way, if you wanna enroll in the school, you can find it at Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism, that’s Daniel King ministries.com/evangelism. You can also find links to the school at our ministry website, king ministries.com. And there’s lots of great material in there for anybody who’s called to be an, but on today’s podcast. I’m gonna take you behind the scenes to one of the sessions where I deal with the question, what is an evangelist? And I’m gonna look at the biblical meaning of the evangelist all the different times in the Bible that the evangelist has mentioned. And I’m also going to look at Philip, the evangelist, the only person in the whole Bible, who is specifically called an evangelist, and we’re gonna find out what we can learn from his story. So join me today and let’s find out what is an evangelist?

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:23):
What is an evangelist? The word evangelist actually comes from the Greek word Angus, which comes from the root word Ang Elon, which is the word for gospel ends. So this word Ang Gallion comes from the Greek word onus. And so you might be familiar with the word S we have it in Spanish, and you may have heard of the city of Los Angeles. It comes from that word. Los Angeles means the angels. The word onus means angel or messenger. And so the rule root word of the evangelist is a messenger. Someone who brings a message and the picture in the Greek is of a person who is a runner, and he’s been in a big battle and their side has won a great victory against the in. And so the king calls this runner and says to him, I want you to run back to our home city.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:27):
And I want you to tell the people that are anxiously waiting, the outcome is about, I want you to tell them that we have won a great victory. And so this guy starts running just as fast as he can. He’s he’s running. He is the marathon runner and, and he gets back to their home city and he’s just breathing as hard as can be. And they’re like, what’s what happened? Did we win? Did we lose? You know, are we all gonna die? Are we gonna be taken into slavery? You know what happened? Everyone’s there around him, anxiously waiting. He’s trying to catch his breath. And then he shouts out the good news. He says, Hey, we won the victory.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (05:03):
And so that is the picture of the evangelist. The evangelist is someone who comes and says, Hey, guess what? The enemy has been defeated. Satan has no more power anymore. We have won the victory. And so that is the picture of the evangelist. And so the word evangelist is mentioned three times in the Bible. I wanna look at these three times that the evangelist has mentioned the first passage, which I know you’re familiar with is Ephesians chapter four, verse 11. And this is the, the verse that talks about the fivefold ministry gifts. It says it was Jesus who gave some to be apostles, some, to be prophets, some, to be evangelists, praise the Lord, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:08):
And so you’ll notice here in this passage, you’ve got five ministry gifts. You got the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teacher. And, and so the, the evangelistic gift is, is one of the, the fivefold ministry gifts. And of course there are other ministry gifts besides these five, in other parts of Paul’s writings, he talks about the gifts of administration gifts of encouragement, just different gifts that are available. But the evangelist, I think is one of those key gifts that are definitely needed in the body of Christ. And unfortunately, the evangelistic gift right now is weak in the body of Christ. And I don’t know quite why that is, but you know, like back in the forties and fifth, these here in America, we had some really great evangelist that was during the voice of healing movement.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:03):
You had people like, Oral Roberts, like RW Schambach like AA Allen, like William Branham that were traveling around bridge. And they really flowed really strong in the evangelist gift, but it seems like we’ve entered a new period where now probably the strongest gift is the, the role of the pastor, the, the, the pastor of a church. And I think that it’s good that the pastor is strong, but I think that the evangelistic gift also needs to be strong in the body of Christ. The second place where the evangelist is has mentioned is second Timothy chapter four, verse five.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:46):
This is Paul giving advice to a spiritual son, Timothy. He says, but you keep your head in all situations and do her hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. And so here, Paul is giving Timothy advice. He says, do the work of evangelist. Now at this time, Paul was actually a pastor. He was the pastor of the church in Ephesus was, was probably would be considered a megachurch back in those days. Mary mother of Jesus had moved to ESUs. Many of the apostles made their home there. There are probably 20,000 believers in Ephesus and, and Tim was serving as their pastor. And so even though he’s a pastor, Paul specifically tells him do the work of an evangelist. And so this tells me that every single one of the ministry gifts should do the work of an evangelist.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:42):
We found that there is a, the gift or the office of the evangelist, but there’s also something that every single believer is called to do. And we find that command in the great commission, mark 16, 15 says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That command is not just given to a select few it’s given to every disciple of Jesus. How many of your disciples of Jesus? That means that you’re called to do the work of an evangelist. Now, one thing you’re going to discover when we’re down in the nation of Haiti, is that doing the work of an evangelist involves lots of work. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>, it’s gonna be hot. You’re gonna be sweaty. You’re gonna get tired. We’re, we’re gonna work you as hard as we can, cuz we’re only there for one week and we want to make it hard for people to go to hell from Haiti that week that we’re there.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:32):
Amen. We don’t want a single person in Haiti to go to. And so we’re gonna work you as hard as we possibly can. You’re gonna wake up early, pray hard, work, hard minister, hard, go to bed late, and we’re gonna have a little bit of fun while we’re doing it. And so it’s gonna be great but just just know that it it’s hard work. And so sometimes when people look at the Evangel and think, oh, you know, it’s it, they’re the ones that it up in front of a big crowd. And they preach the people, you know, he preaches for 45 minutes. How hard could that be? But really doing that is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s probably only about 10% of the work. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes of what it means to be an evangelist.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:13):
And, and so all the, that gets the people there, that’s hard work doing all the, the team coordination and all that stuff. That’s hard work. And then probably one of the, the biggest works that the Evangel has to do is to raise money in, in order to do it really honestly, anybody can preach is not hard to preach. What’s hard is paying for the platform that you’re preaching on. And, and so I think that that’s an area that we all need to grow on, grow in is, is raising money and, and getting peop other people involved and having the money in to be able to do the ministry that God has called us to do. And so we’ll be talking about that some more later on today. So Paul tells Timothy to do the work of the evangelist and then in acts chapter 21, verse eight, the last time that an evangelist is mentioned is specifically calling Philip an evangelist X 21 verse eight says leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip, the evangelist, one of seven, he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:31):
And so of all the people in the Bible only Philip is specifically called and to evangelist. He worked in this ministry as an evangelist. Now the fact that the word for evangelist is only mentioned three times is not meant to demean the office of the evangelist. The title of Bishop is only used three times. Deacon is found twice and amazingly given the current prominence of the position in the body of Christ, the word pastor only occurs one time in the entire Bible. Do you know where it’s found? We just read it a minute ago in Ephesians, the, the that’s the only play is the word pastor has found now that the concept of being a shepherd to people is found in more places, but the word pastors only found once. And so the root word for evangelist is Ang Gallion, which is the Greek word for gospel.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:26):
And this word is actually used 74 times in the new Testament. And then the, the verb form is used in additional 52 times. And so Jesus is actually the first evangelist in the new Testament. Since it says that he went about preaching the good news, the Ang Gallion of the gospel. And so he preached the good news. Therefore he functioned in this office as an evangelist and even the angels went, they proclaimed that Jesus had been born. They proclaimed good news. That was great joy to all the people. And so if that word, good news again is the word Ang Gallion. And even the early church was full of evangelists. And in acts eight four, it says that they preached the word wherever they went. So they went about preaching. God’s word, evangelists are in rare supply, but we need more evangelists. I, I think sometimes the evangelistic gift has been misunderstood in the body of Christ.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:22):
Some people think that the evangelist is just an itinerant preacher, either. You’re a pastor and you got a place where you preach every week, or if you not a pastor, then they call you an evangelist and you to, as you’re, you’re a traveler. And so it is true that the evangelist is called to travel, but not every traveling minister functions in the office, some people they travel and they preach, and their primary focus is on helping people to have healthy marriages. Well, that’s a good message. That’s a good thing to preach. Having a healthy marriage is something the body of Christ needs, but someone who primarily preaches on marriages, isn’t an evangelist. Some people travel and teach on finances and, and teach about seed faith and, and giving and that type of thing. And so a lot of them call themselves evangelists, but they’re not true evangelists.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:13):
The office of the evangelists, the primary focus of the, the office of the evangelist is to get lost people saved. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, that is the focus of the evangelist. And that should be your focus if, if you’re called to be in evangelist evangelists are not just preachers looking for a meeting sometimes at a pastor’s conference, you know at Ram they’ve got the, the, the great winter Bible seminar. And, and so sometimes, you know, all the pastors come and, and they try to stay away from the evangelists cuz they think the evangelists are just coming and trying to look for, for a meeting. But the true evangelist is not just looking for a meeting. The true evangelist is looking for a lost soul. And then some people have gotten confused about the evangelist because they, they think that any TV, preacher is an evangelist.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:05):
In fact, they call them televangelist. And when you hear the word televangelist, you get this picture of someone with a lick back hair and I got this gold suit on and they said, send me your money, send me your money now. You know? And, and, and so a lot of people go on TV and say, we’re reaching the world, but they’re not really reaching the world. They’re just asking people for money. And unfortunately that’s given a bad name to the evangelist, but I think that it’s time for the evangelist gift to rise back up in the body of Christ. We need more evangelists and, and, and so the evangelist is one who preaches the good news. What is an evangelist? The evangelist leads the loss to Christ. The evangelist, equips equips, the saints for evangelism. The evangelist reaches out to both individuals and multitudes evangelists preach the simple gospel.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:59):
They don’t preach the latest, greatest brand new flavor of the week. Sometimes people are always looking for the brand new message, something that no one’s ever heard before, but really the evangelist focuses on the simple gospel. What gospel it’s that we’re all sinners. Jesus died for our sin, Jesus rose from the dead and everyone who calls on Jesus can be saved from their sin. And that’s very basic. And, and, and there’s a lot of different ways of saying that, but the more simple it is, the easier it is for lost people to understand and to come to Christ. Another sign of the evangelist is signs and wonders. Healing. Miracles. Evangelists are a shining light in the midst of a dark world. They’re like spiritual obstetricians who give birth to new believers. They are the advertising agency of God’s kingdom. The evangelists are like the elite Navy seals who are the first to head into enemy territory.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:56):
They’re like shock troops on the front lines of the battle for lost souls. They are farmers who are focused on plowing ground sewing seeds and reaping a harvest. And so if you can imagine the, the battles that the United States has fought like for example we invaded Iraq in the, the first Gulf war. The Navy seals went in under cover of night. They were the first ones to land and they had specific missions to fulfill. They, they had to go in, blow up certain things, attack certain areas get, take over some of the radar sites. I mean they, and they snuck in and, and they were the first, they were the elite they’d been trained. And so that is the job of the evangelist. The evangelist doesn’t sit around where it’s comfortable. The evangelist is often the first one to go into an area before the apostle, before the pastor, before there’s any churches there, the evangelist is the one who goes in and, and makes an impact before anybody else can come.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:01):
And, and he’s like the, he opens the door for the gospel to start breaking forth in an area. I all right. Let’s look at the office of the evangelist in the new Testament. And so the only person in the new Testament who specifically called an evangelist is Philip. And so let’s look at the life of Philip. The first time he’s mentioned is in acts chapter six versus is one through seven. It says in those days when the number of disciples was increasing the Greason Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables, brothers choose seven men from amongst you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:55):
We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word, this proposal, please, the whole group. They chose Steven, a man full of faith and of the holy spirit, also Philip, and then six other people or five other people. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the apostles, the, the 11 apostles plus the replacement for Judas, the 12 apostles, they were so busy preaching the word that they’re also trying to feed all the widows, feed all the people, the hungry. And so apparently one group of widows wasn’t getting the food they should have been getting. And the apostles they decided, you know, we need to be focused on studying God’s word, preaching, God’s word. And they said, we need some people that would be willing to serve.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:48):
And so they looked around and found people that were full of holy spirit that were willing, that were full of wisdom. And so Philip met all of these requirements. Philip was full of the holy spirit. He was full of wisdom and he was willing to be used by God and noticed that his ministry started with him being a servant. He, he just found a plea place to serve, just bringing food to the widows. And I think this is where a lot of ministries get started. In fact, every healthy ministry, this is where they get started. And I think it’s very important to continually keep that heart of a servant throughout ministry and, and be willing to do whatever it takes to get the, a job done. A lot of people wanna be, you know, the, the big man on stage, but really God is looking for people who are willing to reach out to the cripple who are willing to help serve the food, willing to clean the toilets.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:49):
And God’s looking for that type of person. Apparently Philip was that type of person. So that’s where his ministry got started. And then the next time we see Philip at work is in acts chapter eight. Verse one on that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jeru and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. So acts one eight, Jesus gave the promise, but you shall receive power after the holy spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses onto me and Jerusalem Juda Samaria into the uttermost ends of the earth. So Jesus gave them the specific command and acts one eight, and it takes all, all the way until acts eight, chapter one chapter eight, verse one for that command to start to be fulfilled up until acts chapter eight. All of the disciples are in Jerusalem.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:39):
Everybody that’s getting saved is in Jerusalem. They stand in Jerusalem, but suddenly this great persecution breaks out and people begin to scatter all, all over. So they go to Judea, they go to Samaria and then eventually we’ll see that they end up at the uttermost ends of the earth. And so godly men buried Stephen and mourn deeply for him. You remember that he was, he was stoned, but Saul began to destroy the church going from house to house. He dragged off men and women and put them in prison. Then verse four, those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs, he did, they all paid close attention to what he said with shrieks evil spirits came outta many in many paralytics and cripples were healed.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:29):
So there was great joy in that city. So it says that Philip went down to Samaria. Samaria was full of Samaritans, who didn’t really get along with Jews now in John chapter four, Jesus ministered to the Samaritan woman and the whole village there got saved and, and, and were excited about Jesus. And so apparently there were some that heard about Jesus, but Jesus had given the command go to Samaria. Well, no one had gone until Philip went there. And so Philip goes down. He starts preaching among the Samaritans and look at what he did. He proclaimed crime there. And so the work of the evangelist is to proclaim Christ, to preach Jesus. That is the primary message of the evangelist. There’s many different things that people can preach on. You can preach on faith. You can preach on marriage. You can preach on finances.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:26):
You can preach on seven reasons why Jesus is coming soon, you know, but really the, the, the focus of the evangelist is preaching Christ. Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all man onto me. And so it says that when the crowns heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs, he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. And so here we have two different characteristics of the evangelistic ministry. First of all, is multitudes. And second is miracles. And so I believe anytime someone is operating in an Evangel, you’re gonna see multitudes and you’re gonna see miracles. And so I’m believing that we’re gonna see both when we’re in the nation of Haiti, we’re gonna see multitudes of people coming, and we’re gonna see great miracles. And it’s because there’s a specific anointing on the evangelist to do that to see miracles happen.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:25):
I think that God uses miracles in order to draw people to, to hear the good news. Marilyn Hickey told me that miracles are the dinner bell that draw people to the banqueting table of heaven. And then notice, it says with shrieks, evil spirits came outta many, many paralytics and cripples were healed. And, and so the evangelistic gift is also given to confront demonic powers. And so he counts demons, outta many people. And then it says there was great joy in that city. And, and so this is another characteristic of the evangelistic. Many industry is it brings great joy. We were in the nation of India doing a big evangelistic event. And we were out in this rural area where there are lots of farmers and many of the farmers were extremely poor. They didn’t have anything. And I read that many of these farmers, they would go into debt in order to buy sea eat and they plant their seed.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:28):
And then if there was any problem with the harvest, if it rained too early, or it didn’t rain at all, or if rats came and ate their harvest they wouldn’t have money to pay back the debt. And, and so the, they would be hounded by these, these debt collectors who would come and, and, and say, Hey, you gotta pay back their debt. And so a bunch of these farmers were committing suicide because they couldn’t pay back their debt. In fact, in, in that area, like over 2000 people had committed suicide over the last 10 year period. And, and so when we came the first night we started preaching and the people just sat there and stared at us like a, a cow looking at a new gate. I mean, he’s just looking at, I mean, they didn’t break a smile. They didn’t clap with us during the songs.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (26:16):
They didn’t sing. Like there were no miracles the first night nothing happened. And so second night, same thing, third night, same thing. Like, I would pray for the, and say, please come and tell me what Jesus has done for you. And, and no one would come and, and I’d preach again and pray again, and nothing was happening. And, and so finally by the third night, one guy came up, he says I was sitting way in the back and I was blind. And on the first night I, I saw a light and, and then I was able to see, and he says, and, and so I didn’t want to come up on the first. I wanna see whether it was really real. So he says, I waited two nights to see whether my miracle was real, but I, I wanna tell everyone now that I can see Jesus says, heal me.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:02):
I’m like, why don’t you come up the first night would, it really helped, helped me out. I was feeling lonely up there. And, and so this guy comes up and, and gives his testimony. And then another person comes up and gives her, and then another person and another person. And so by the, the final night, the fifth night of the crusade we had great joy that filled that place through a mirror, uncles taking place all over the place like popcorn, just God was touching people and, and the people got up and they started to celebrate. They started to dance. We were singing songs. Everyone was clapping. They were laughing. And it was the joy of the Lord that filled that place. And so it was just like in the book of acts, it says, great joy filled the city and are gonna see that in the nation of Haiti, we’re gonna see the city filled with great joy, hallelujah, verse nine.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:52):
It says now for some time a man named Simon had practiced Sourcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samara. He boasted that he was someone great. And all the people both high and low gave him their attention explained this man is the power. No one as the great power, they followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip, as he preached the good news, the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women, Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. And so there is real miracles and there’s counterfeit miracles. And, and in the nation of Haiti voodoo is one of the primary religions. Some of the people are Christians. Some of the people practice a form of voodoo.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (28:40):
Some people combine Christianity and voodoo and, and counter practice both. But last time that we were there, we set up a big barrel and we invited all the people to bring all their voodoo idols and fetishes and different things that they used to worship. And they threw ’em into the barrels. And then we lit them on fire and, and, and burned all of those things up. And so you kind of see this happening with this sun, him in the sourcer, same thing where he’s amazed at the mayor and says, Hey, I want this. And so he goes, he believes he’s baptized. And when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them. And they, that they might receive the holy spirit because the holy spirit had not yet come upon.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:23):
Any of them, they’d simply been baptized in the name of the Lord, Jesus, then Peter and John placed their hands on them. And they received the holy spirit. And so I think this is a real important point. After Philip went, there, began to preach. He was the evangelist. He was breaking the ground up. Then when God began to move, the apostles came from Jerusalem. And so Peter and John come and, and began praying for people to be filled with a holy spirit. And so one of the number one questions that evangelist get I’ve, I’ve heard it a million times is what do you do about follow up? And it’s always very question, well, what do you do about follow? You, get all these people saved and then you leave. And what do you do about follow? Well, I think that the biblical model is right here, that the, the evangelist goes, he preaches the gospel, multitudes miracles, people get saved, but he works in teamwork with other giftings in the body of Christ.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (30:22):
And so along behind the evangelist comes the prophet, the pastor, the teacher, the apostle, these other evangelist gifts to help in discipling the people. And so I always do everything I possibly can to do about, to do follow up. I mean, we don’t want any spiritual abortions, people to that get saved and then follow away. We wanna follow up on them. But it’s not something that the evangelist is called to do alone. It is for every ministry gift to, to be involved in, in the follow up of the new believers. And so that’s why in Haiti, we’re gonna work very closely with the local believers. We’re gonna be doing training for the local pastors be because we wanted ha something in them that helps with following up on the people that that get say. And, and so we’re not in this by ourselves, we’re working with other churches, other pastors, as many people as we can in Haiti, we’ve invited all the pastors of Porter princes to come together for our pastors training seminar.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (31:23):
And so I believe that they are the ones that are primarily responsible for the, the follow up of the new believers verse 18. When Simon saw that the spirit was given at the length on of the apostles hands, he offered them money and said, give me also this abilities that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the holy spirit. Peter answered may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no partner share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God repent of this willingness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. If I see that you’re full of bitterness and captive to sin, then Simon answered pray to the Lord for me. So that nothing you have said may happen to me when testified in proclaim the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:10):
And so we see that because of what Philip went, did that now the gospel can spread to that entire region and all the Samaritan villages hear the good news. And so it’s very interesting that this source or Simon tries to buy the gift of God with money and with the focus of some ministers on money. I think that today there would be some ministers that would take it, say, yeah, give me a, gimme a thousand dollars and I’ll lay hands on. You I’ll pray for you. But Peter and John, they shut it down immediately. They say, you know, and they’re, they’re disgusted with him and say, you have no part or share in this ministry because your heart’s not right before God. And so the evangelist is not motivated by money. He’s motivated by souls. He’s motivated going after people and in rescuing people from hell, then verse 26.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:02):
Now an angel, the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out and on his way, he met an Ethiopian Munich, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem, the worship, and on his way, home was sitting in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet, the spirit told Philip go to that chariot and stay near it. And so in the thinking of this time, Ethiopia was on the ends of the earth. It was the very edge here in this chapter. We, we see the fulfillment of the act chapter one, verse eight. First, the gospel goes from Jerusalem into Judea, then onto Samaria. And now it’s going to an Ethiopian Munich, the uttermost ends of the earth.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:57):
And so the writer of the book of acts, which is Luke, he puts it here specifically to show the fulfillment of this prophecy that Jesus gave in acts one eight. And so this Ethiopian unit, he goes to the temple or to Jerusalem to worship. And so history tells us that the queen of Sheba, you remember the story came to meet Solomon. And she went back. And when she went back, she took some Jews with her back to Ethiopia. And, and so apparently there were still people there still Jews that worshiped yawe the, the God of Israel. And so he came to worship, but when he came to the temple, there was a problem because in Leviticus, it tells us, first of all, that no foreigner is, is allowed to worship in the temple. And second in Leviticus, it tells us that no one who is MAED is allowed to worship in the temple.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (34:52):
And so this man is a UNIC and he is MAED, he’s got this serious injury. And so because of this, he has to stand outside the temple area. He came all the way Jerusalem, but you can tell he’s very curious. And, and he, he, he buys the book of Isaiah, which back then would’ve been the equivalent of two or three years wages. I mean, so, you know, you can imagine spending a huge amount, be like buying a book for 50, 60, $70,000. He’s spending on, on this book of Isaiah and he’s in his cherry driving back home. And he’s curious. And so he’s reading, he wants to know everything he can about God. And so God specifically gives Philip the evangelist, an instruction, go down to the desert road. Now here, Philip is he’s ministering in Samaria and there’s multitudes of people getting saved. And suddenly God speaks to him and says, go down to the desert road.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (35:46):
Now, this is a very surprising instruction to give to someone who’s ministering to the multitudes, because you know, Philip’s thinking, God, the desert, there’s not many people that go on the desert road. It’s hot out there. There’s why, why am I going down to the desert road? You know, I’m here. I have a ministry right here. I mean, surely it would be better for me to stay here in this area, ministering to these multitudes and go, but the evangelist is called to the multitudes, but then also the evangelist is called to individuals. And so you’ll see someone who operates in the evangelistic gift operating in both of these arenas. Sometimes they will minister to multitudes of people, but then they should equally be willing to minister one on one to people when God gives them the instruction to do that. And so I would say that if you’re not willing to minister to the one, then God will never put you on the platform ministering to thousands.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (36:44):
And if you’re on the platform ministering to thousands, but you’re not willing to minister to the one, you, you really shouldn’t be up there. And so the important thing is to be obedient to God. Amen. So verse 30 Philip ran up to the cherry and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you’re reading? Philip asked? How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The UN was reading the passage of scripture. He was like a sheep to the slaughter and his land before the sheer silent. So he did not open his mouth and his humiliation. He was deprived of justice who can speak of his descendants for his life was taken from the earth. The unit ask Philip, tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (37:23):
Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him that good news about Jesus. And so here, once again, we see the evangelist sharing the message of Jesus Christ. And so he starts writing that passage of scripture. And so I, it doesn’t matter where an evangelist starts, his message. He’s gonna end up talking about Jesus, even if an evangelist gets up and is preaching about marriage or, or something like that, the true evangelist will bring it all back to Jesus and talk about Jesus. And so that’s the primary message of the evangelist. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the UN said, look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized? And so suddenly this Munich has this revelation. He’s hearing about Jesus and see in the old covenant, he was a foreigner and he was MAED. He wasn’t allowed to worship, but under the new covenant, none of that matters anymore.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (38:22):
And so he sees the water and he says, why shouldn’t I be baptized? Is anything stopping me from being baptized? And Phillip says, no. And so immediately he gives orders to stop the chair. The both Phillip and the unit went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the unit did not see him again, but went on his way, rejoicing. And so earlier we see the city of Samaria, rejoicing, great joy, Philip, the city. And now when the individual get saved, we see the individual rejoicing, Philip, however, appeared at AOSIS and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea in Caesarea is where we see him later in acts chapter 21 and he’s ministering there. And so the evangelist he comes in he obeys God.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (39:17):
He ministers to the Ethiopian unit and then Philip disappears. The spirit catches him away. We call this Philip flying, he fly and I keep asking God and say, God, I spend so much money on airlines. Why don’t you just take me to where I’m supposed to preach <laugh> but he appears it in, in another town. He immediately starts preaching in the hospital there. And he appears in a town that’s about 40 miles from the desert road where he was, he was ministering here to the Ethiopian unit. And, and so a lot of people have criticized the evangelists. They say, the evangelist just blows him, blows up. It blows out. But that’s essentially what Philip does here. That model is biblical. The evangelist here, he, he comes, he ministers and then immediately the spirit catches him away and he goes to another place. And, and, and so I think the evangelist is, is, is a special ambassador for the kingdom of Ghana.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (40:10):
He goes into a place ministers and then the next week he’s somewhere else ministering. And so God sends the evangelist different places to, to right where he’s needed. And the amazing thing is, is that the Ethiopian unit, he goes back to Ethiopia and he was a significant official, he was the treasurer of all the treasury. And so he had a lot of influence there. He began telling people about Jesus and now Ethiopia historically is a Christian nation. And there are millions of people who are Christians today in Ethiopia because of this Ethiopian unit. And so if you can reach this one person, Phil, the Evangel reach this one person, and because of him, the entire nation of Ethiopia got saved. And so there you have a, of the evangelistic ministry. And one more thing I’d like to point out in acts 21. It says that he had four daughters, they were all virgins and they all prophesy.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (41:08):
And so the evangelist he takes good care of his family. He doesn’t abandon them. He takes good care of his family. They’re virgins, which means they’re not running around sleeping with every guy that comes come, you know, they’re the virgins. And they prophesy. They, they work with their father in the ministry. And so I’m a big believer that God does not just call individuals. He calls families and the, the anointing that is on one member of the family comes upon every member of that family. And so I think this is very important in, in your marriage that you don’t do it alone, but that your spouse is right there with you. My, my wife and I we minister together and we love ministering together. And now we have two kids. We got three year old boy, Caleb, and a one year old girl, Katie grace, and, and you know, I want them to be amazing ministers and, and just like the four daughters of Philip to that prophesy. All right, let’s pray dearly father. I thank you for the, the gift of the evangelist for the body of Christ. Lord, I pray that each person here who’s called to be an evangelist would begin walking in the fullness of that gift. And, and father, I pray that even those that aren’t called to be an evangelist would begin to do the work of an evangelist and that they would see many people get saved through them in Jesus name. I pray amen.

Evangelism Coach Daniel King (42:34):
Thank you for listening to the evangelism podcast today. Our ministry is supported by people like you, who help us go to the nations to preach the gospel. Our goal is every soul. It only costs us an average of about $1 for every person. We’re able to tell about Jesus. And so could you do favor, go to my website, king ministries.com and become a partner with us for as little as $1 a month, you can start to partner with king ministries and help us lead at least one person to Jesus every single month. Imagine for $1, you can start a party in heaven and every single month. So right now go to king ministries.com and partner with us and help us to preach the gospel to those who need to hear the gospel. The most, the least reach people in the world. Also, I’d like to ask you to go to apple podcast and give the evangelism podcast a five star review. Your positive review will help other people find this podcast who are excited about evangelism. Thank you so much. And God bless you

Evangelism Podcast Host (43:54):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit king ministries.com. Again, that’s king ministries.com.

Teenager Saved in Mzuzu, Malawi

What Happens at a Gospel Festival?

1. A Young Man Sees An Advertisement for a Gospel Festival and Decides to Attend

2. Evangelist Daniel King Preaches About How Jesus Christ Can Save People From Sin

3. The Young Man Raises His Hand and Says “Yes! I Want Jesus to Save Me.”

4. A Counselor Prays with the Young Man and Gives Him a Book About Jesus

5. A Decision Card is Filled Out and Given to a Local Church for Follow Up

Watch the video to see this powerful testimony unfold:

Help Us Lead People to Jesus

This story is One in a Million! The goal of King Ministries is to lead one million people to Jesus every year. We can not accomplish this goal without your help. Would you give a monthly gift to help us rescue people from hell? Even a gift of $1 a month would be a huge help.

Over the course of our twenty years of ministry, we have found it takes an average cost of $1 for every person we have lead to Jesus. In order to do large evangelistic outreaches, we need to rent a platform, sound system, and advertise the event. Plus we give away thousands of free books and Bibles to help disciple the new believers.

The Bible says that all of heaven rejoices when one sinner gets saved, so for only $1 a month, you can be responsible for starting a party in heaven every single month. Click here to become a monthly partner with us today.

Suicidal Man Makes a Decision to Follow Jesus

Mauricio gave his life to Jesus at one of our crusades in Costa Rica. As I prayed for him, I noticed that he had a bandage over his left eye and that entire side of his face drooped toward the floor. He explained to me that he has been living far away from God. His life became so desperate that he decided to commit suicide. He put a pistol to his chin and pulled the trigger. The bullet passed through his jaw, shattered his cheekbone, and exited through his eye socket. But, by the mercy of God, his life was spared. I told him that Satan had tried to take his life, but that God had saved him. I explained that God has a purpose for his life and I encouraged him to follow God with all his heart.

The following night, this man gave his life to Jesus! Many more in the audience also prayed for salvation. All of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents.

Help Us Lead People to Jesus

The Story of Elena Maria Romero

Elena Maria Romero remembers the day she fell out of a tree as a nine-year-old girl. She can also recall the stabbing pain that shot up her back, and the consequent chronic pain she experienced for the next twenty-four years. When she heard about the Jesus Festival in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, she gathered her husband and small daughters and travelled from her home in San Pedro to the state capital to attend.

Anxious for relief from the debilitating pain that prevented her from lifting anything high, even her children, she watched the singers and dancers and speakers from her position on the soccer field. Elena Maria listened intently to the preaching, and prayed aloud with thousands of others that Jesus was her Savior and King. She asked Jesus to take away her back pain, and make her well again. As the pain left her body, and she began to stretch and twist and bend her back without pain, she grabbed the hand of her little girl and rushed toward the platform. With tears in her eyes, Elena Maria testified that Jesus had made her whole, and to prove it, lifted her little girl high in her arms, and danced and praised the One who had healed her.

Watch her dance in this video.

Help Us Lead People to Jesus

Giving Tuesday – Can You Help Us Lead People to Jesus?

Everyone loves Thanksgiving…and Black Friday…and Cyber Monday…but my new favorite day is #GivingTuesday. Giving Tuesday is the day people choose to be generous by giving to their favorite charity.

As you pray about who you will give to this year, would you please include our ministry in your giving? My focus is on leading people to Jesus. There are millions of people around the world that need Jesus. I love rescuing people from hell and giving them a ticket to heaven.

The greatest treasure in heaven is a person who has chosen to love God. Souls are the only investment that will matter 10,000 years from now.

Can you give $10, $100, or $1000 today to help us lead people to Jesus at our next Gospel Festival?

To give, click here.

Your Missionary,

Daniel King

Happy Thanksgiving from Evangelist Daniel King

What are you thankful for today? I am thankful for friends and family, breath and health, food and provision, purpose and passion. I am thankful that you are in my life!

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.” (Phil. 1:3-4)

The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation after their first harvest in 1621. 53 Pilgrims and 93 Native Americans attended the First Thanksgiving and the feast lasted for three days (supposedly because that’s how long it took them to finish eating the leftover turkey). H. U. Westermayer wrote, “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.”

Here are some thoughts about thankfulness:

It is not happy people that are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy.

Thankfulness consists of being more aware of what you have, than what you don’t.

What if everything you are thankful for remained, and everything you forgot to say thank-you for disappeared? What if you only got to keep the things you said “thank-you” for? Do you say “thank-you” often enough?

Thanksgiving should be far more then a day of celebration, it should be a lifestyle. Let’s go from thanksgiving to thanksliving. Robert Caspar Lintner said, “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.”

Larry Ollison says, “Thankfulness is expressed in words, but measured with actions.”

Cicero, the Roman philosopher said, “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” Thomas Fuller disagreed, “Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices.”

We should all remember Psalm 118:29, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

ABOUT DANIEL KING

Evangelist Daniel King, D.Min is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. He has visited over seventy nations preaching good news and he has led over two million people in a salvation prayer. To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!

Do Atheists Believe in One Fewer God than Christianity?

Every society believes in the supernatural. Ancient Egypt worshiped Isis, Ra, Anubis, and Horus. Hindus bow before Shiva, Krishna, Vishnu, Kali, and believe in three hundred million other gods. The Buddha sought enlightenment as a mechanism for dealing with human suffering. The Greeks believed in Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Prometheus, and Apollo. The Norsemen served Odin. The Germanic people worshiped Thor, the god of thunder. In the East, people worship their ancestors. The Mayans worshiped Kukulcan, Chac, Kinich Ahau, and Yum Cimil.

Atheists like to say, “I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” They point to the existence of many different gods as proof that no god exists. But the fact that for thousands of years humans have believed in supernatural entities is actually powerful proof that there is deep need inside of humans that is searching for something greater than ourselves. Humans search for God because they know He exists and that they need Him.

Saying that someone is an atheist just because he doesn’t believe in all gods is like saying everybody is single because no one is married to everybody. The word “atheist” means “no god.” That means if I believe in one God, I’m not an atheist. Just because the math problem “What is 1+1?” has millions of wrong answers does not mean the question does not have one right answer.

A monotheist believes in one God. A polytheist believes in many gods. An atheist believes in no gods. To point out that a monotheist is not a polytheist does not make him an atheist.

Besides, the Bible tells us there are other gods. The Ten Commandments say, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Christians believe there is One Supreme God who created the universe. But we also believe there is a “god of this world” known as Satan who actively works to deceive people. I don’t disbelieve in Thor, Odin, Zeus, and Baal. I think they are manifestations of demonic powers that are masquerading as the one true God.

1) All of human history shows that humans have an inward sense of God’s existence.

2) It is probable that that this sense of the divine (Latin: senses divinitatis) was given to humans by One who is higher than humankind.

3) Therefore, God exists.

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About the Author: Dr. Daniel King is a missionary evangelist who has traveled to over seventy nations in his quest for souls. His goal is to lead 1,000,000 people to Jesus every year through massive Gospel Festivals, distribution of literature, and leadership training. Because of his experience and research on evangelism, he is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in mass evangelism. As an evangelist, he has a deep interest in using apologetics to convince skeptics that God is real.

Are Atheists Fools?

The life of an atheist is sad because it is going nowhere. Once there was an atheist who died and was buried. On his tombstone was written, “Here lies an atheist – All dressed up and no place to go.” When atheist Christopher Hitchens died, I tweeted, “Either Hitchens knows that he was wrong, or he does not know that he was right.” Of course, I was attacked viciously by the atheist Twitter community.

In some ways I have great respect for atheists. They believe strongly in evidence. They are skeptical. They reject non-scientific mumbo jumbo and the claims of pseudo-science. They reject superstition. They are willing to change their minds as evidence changes. Even if they have not found the right answers, at least they are asking life’s big questions.

At the same time, I deeply pity atheists. They value evidence above all else, but they cannot see the overwhelming evidence for God’s existence. It is intellectually dishonest to deny God’s existence since all creation shouts, “God is THERE!” As G. K. Chesterton wrote in one of his Father Brown mysteries: “What we all dread most,” said the priest, in a low voice, “Is a maze with no centre. That is why atheism is only a nightmare.” Others have echoed Chesterton. Daniel Kolenda wrote, “The devil loves atheists, although he is not one himself.” Or as the Usual Suspects movie puts it, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

But there is hope, even for the hardcore atheist. Perhaps the patron saint of the atheist is “doubting” Thomas. He demanded verifiable proof of Jesus’ resurrection.

Now Thomas…one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord. So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29).

Jesus offers Thomas the chance to test the resurrection with his own finger, but Jesus says it is better to believe without proof. In the same way, God is willing to offer proof to the atheist who sincerely searches for it, but those who believe without seeing will be even more blessed.

True wisdom for life begins with the acknowledgment of God’s existence. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). Ultimately, God is discovered by those who look for Him. As Jesus said to the two blind men who were seeking healing, “According to your faith be it done onto you” (Matthew 9:29). Your faith determines whether you ever see God.

There is an old saying: “Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” The Bible says, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), and that “Today, if you will hear his voice” (Hebrews 3:7), you can be saved. Whatever you have been believing about God, today is a day for faith, today is a day to be daring. You’ve read some of the evidence. You’ve examined some of the proof. Today you can choose to believe that God exists, that God created you, that God loves you, and that God is a close as a simple prayer.

Perhaps you are tempted to put off making a decision. That’s now how it works. You are must choose your own adventure. To not choose is just to keep choosing the story you’ve been telling yourself, or the one that you believe because others have told you it must be true. The Bible promises that eventually, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2.10-11). No matter how you choose today, someday everyone be presented with irrefutable proof of God’s existence when he or she stands in front of the throne of God Almighty. But, by then it will be too late to choose, too late to dare, for that is the end of your story.

But, today is not too late. Your adventure waits. Call on Jesus, the Son of God, and He will save you and set your story on a whole new course. God is THERE. God does CARE. Will you DARE to choose to follow Him?

If so, say this simple prayer. The prayer itself will not save you, it is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ that you will be saved. Repeating this prayer is a way for you to tell God that you are trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation:

Dear God in Heaven, I believe You exist and I need You in my life. Thank you for caring for me. I believe Jesus is the Son of God and I believe He died on a cross for my sins and that He rose from the dead. Today, I dare to put my faith and trust in Jesus. I repent of all the things I have done wrong and for my unbelief. Please forgive me and give me a brand new start. Jesus, I make you the Lord of my life. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

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Enroll in the Proof God is Real School of Apologetics: https://www.danielkingministries.com/proof

What Happens when You Choose to Follow Jesus?

There are several things that happen when you choose to follow Jesus:

1. You are saved from sin. God’s Word promises, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). The problem of evil in the world will in a measure be solved, because you are choosing to let God deal with the problem of sin in you. As Romans 8.1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

2. You will have peace with God. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Romans 5:1). This means that the missing link, the gaping hole, will finally be filled. Instead of an ache in the center of your being, instead of feeling lost, or adrift, or purposeless, you will have peace, and, in Jesus you will have a friend to take all your worries to.

3. You become a new person. Paul says: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5.17). You may have been born a sinner, but when you put your faith in Jesus, you are “born again” as a saint and a child of God. This doesn’t mean that you are perfect, or that you can judge others, it means that you are free to choose God’s adventure for you.

3. You can be sure that you will go to heaven. Heaven is the eternal home of God’s people. No matter the problems that evil can bring into this world or your life, it can never change God’s love for you or separate you from him. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Get your copy of Proof God is Real: https://amzn.to/3kIEOyA

Buy a Study Guide for Proof God is Real: https://amzn.to/3ozDlfq

Enroll in the Proof God is Real School of Apologetics: https://www.danielkingministries.com/proof

Is there a God Shaped Hole in Your Life?

The God-shaped hole

There is a great gap, a chasm, between God and humanity. When God created Adam and Eve, He walked and talked with them every day. But, when they sinned, the link between God and man was broken. Because of this there is a God-shaped hole in every human heart. The biblical book of Ecclesiastes refers to this when it says that God “has set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). As St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Others throughout history have alluded to the same experience that Augustine writes of. John Calvin, the French Protestant reformer, called this feeling the “senses divinitatis” (sense of divinity). He writes,

There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity. This we take to be beyond controversy. To prevent anyone from taking refuge in the pretense of ignorance, God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine majesty …Men of sound judgment will alway be sure that a sense of divinity which can never be effaced is engraved upon men’s minds. Indeed, the perversity of the impious, who though they struggle furiously are unable to extricate themselves from the fear of God, is abundant testimony that this conviction, namely, that there is some God, is naturally inborn in all, and is fixed deep within, as it were in the very marrow.

Pascal wrote: “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator.” He wrote further that

There was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace. This he tried in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words by God Himself.

C. S. Lewis’ also wrote about a “God-shaped vacuum” in his book “Screwtape Letters,” and Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, said, “There is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill.” The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) wrote of the hopeless reality of life without God:

That man is the product of causes which had no previsions of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extension in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitable be buried under the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.”

Bertrand Russell also wrote that, “The centre of me is always and eternally a terrible pain—a curious wild pain—a searching for something beyond what the world contains.”

All down the millennia, humans have tried to fill in this hole. Some try to fill it with sex, but after dozens of partners, they find themselves still searching for love. Others think they can fill it with philosophy and intellectualism, but after a lifetime of learning, they still feel unsatisfied. Others try to fill the hole with pleasure, only to find that fine foods and wines turn to ashes in their mouths. Some seek fame, only to be disappointed with the fleeting glory. Still others seek meaning in sports, but at the end of life, their bodies are broken down and they are unable to compete with younger athletes. Others turn to the highs of drugs and alcohol only to be disappointed by a hangover the next morning. Sadly, others think that the self-annihilation of suicide is the solution. Others turn to religion in order to find a measure of solace.

Atheists often point to the multiplicity of religions as evidence that there is no true religion. But the existence of many different religions only proves how truly there is a hole inside humans that continually seeks God. We can deny the feeling, run away from it, try to ignore it—but there it is. When we are hungry, there is a feeling in the pit of our stomachs that prompts us to seek food. In the same way, the hole in our souls makes us hungry for our Creator. As C.S. Lewis wrote:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly desires satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly desires were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

Humans desire purpose and meaning. So, there must be a means for this desire to be fulfilled. Humans have an innate sense of the divine. So, there must be a Divinity to satisfy it. Humans have a God-shaped hole in side of them, so there must be a God who can fill it.

The loggerhead sea turtle returns to lay its eggs on the same beach where it was born. The turtle travels thousands of miles in the oceans of the world, but it always finds its way home using an internal GPS system that uses the Earth’s magnetic field. In a similar way, each human has an internal GPS system that points towards heaven.

This difference between what we experience in life, and what we believe we should be experiencing, is the real “missing link” in human history. Jesus Christ came from heaven to earth to restore that link, and create a new way for man and God to be connected once again. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He became the bridge between God and man, between heaven and earth. He is the only way to God, the only way to heaven. As he said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Understanding the gap

As mentioned earlier in the chapter, sin is what opened the gap between man and God. Adam and Eve chose an adventure for themselves and humanity: sin. The consequences of their choice have affected humanity ever since. The problem with sin is that it always has consequences. The Bible says, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Later, it warns, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). For some people the consequences of sin catch up immediately, and for others it takes longer for the price to be revealed. But ultimately, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.

This problem of sin is universal. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Earlier in the same chapter Paul tells us, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Every person has made mistakes and fallen short of his or her own standards of what is good and right, let alone God’s standards. Look around at our world: crime, racism, bigotry, hate, and war continue to increase despite humanity’s best efforts to overcome them.

For a time, there was optimism that science held the answers that humanity is seeking. The Enlightenment exalted human reason and hoped that human wisdom would lead to peace and happiness for the whole world. This hope was brutally shattered by World War I and II and the subsequent Cold War between the United States and the Communist World. The same science that promised to cure disease also taught us how to kill more efficiently. Philosophies that promised hope for those trapped in poverty ended up enslaving millions of people. Our best efforts have not solved the problem of evil.

Part of the reason is that humanity has to go beyond asking, “Why is there evil in the world?” to asking, “Why is there evil in me?” Despite my best efforts, why do I mess up sometimes? I want to love my wife, but sometimes I lose my temper. I want to obey the law, but sometimes I get a speeding ticket. Why is it so hard to do what is right? I know the difference between right and wrong, but sometimes my own selfishness, lust, and pride compel me act in ways that are detrimental to my long-term happiness. The Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) wrote, “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart.” The problem of evil is addressed not by trying to fix evil, but by addressing the problem of sin.

Addressing the problem of sin can be tricky. Sin is deceptive—like the weavers in the fairy tale who convince the emperor that only hopelessly stupid people won’t admire the wonderful clothes they have dressed him in. The emperor, not wanting to be hopelessly stupid, and his court, wanting to maintain favor with the emperor, admire the work of the weavers. The only problem is, the weavers haven’t woven any clothes, and the emperor is walking around naked. Only when a child blurts out the truth, does everyone begin to acknowledge the problem. In the same way, sin blinds people to the problem of sin One reason apologetics with non-believers is so difficult is because sin keeps them from seeing God or acknowledging their need of Him. The only way to remove this blindfold of sin is to put one’s faith in God’s child, Jesus Christ.

Jesus paid the price to redeem us from sin

The only way to fill the hole in your heart is to meet the Creator your heart longs for. Right now, that hole is filled with sin. It might be filled with lust, pride, addiction, hate, fear, or pain. The only thing that can remove the sin and fill the hole is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Once you meet Jesus, He will fill your heart and your sin will disappear.

This is the miracle of Christianity. God became man and came to earth to live here among his creations. Jesus, the Son of God, was born to the Virgin Mary and walked the dusty streets of Israel. He lived a perfect life and then He gave His life on the cross to pay the price for the sins of humanity. We deserve to die because of our sins, but Christ died in our place. Jesus’ death paid the price for our sins and His resurrection proves that God accepted His death as payment for our sins. As the Bible says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). This is good news because it means we can be saved from your sins. We can choose a new adventure. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

I know of an old man in Africa. Once, he was walking down a road and carrying a heavy sack of rice. He had recently been saved and he was telling everyone he knew about what had happened when Jesus came into his life. On his way, he met an educated foreigner who was an atheist. The unbeliever said to the old man, “How can you know you are saved? Nobody can ever really know such a thing.” The man threw down the sack of rice and replied, “How do I know I’m not carrying the bag of rice? I’m not looking at it.” The atheist said, “You feel less weight on your back.” The old man explained, “That’s exactly how I know I’m saved. I no longer feel the heavy burden of my sin.”

Will You Dare to Follow Christ?

Joshua 24:15 “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

As a child, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books. If you read them too, you will remember that, at crucial points in the story, the books gave the reader a choice concerning how the hero or heroine will respond. How you choose sends them off on one adventure or another. The same is true in your spiritual walk. God has designed your story so that you have the opportunity to choose your own adventure.

In Deuteronomy 30:19 God explains the choice this way, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” So, after reading this far, it’s up to you as the reader to make a decision. Is God real? Is the Bible true? Is Jesus the Son of God? Do you believe the message of the Bible? Or do you choose not to believe? You get to choose the direction your story takes. But be careful: this decision is bigger than a simple life and death issue (if that could be called simple). Your decision is a question of eternal life and eternal death.

Will you choose the way of life that leads to heaven, or will you choose to walk away from God and eventually end up in hell?

One of my atheist friends asked me, “How do I choose to believe if I do not believe? The reason I do not believe is not because I don’t want to believe, it is because I can’t believe.” I answered him by saying, “If you feel you cannot believe, ask the God you do not believe in to give you the faith to believe. If you ask, I am confident He will reveal Himself to you.” Jesus once said to a man, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The man responded, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). This man acknowledged that at the same time that he believed, he was also struggling with unbelief. Doubt and problems with belief are not insurmountable problems to God. The key is to not allow your lack of belief or faith to keep you from going to God.

There is a proverb that says “Lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways, acknowledge [God], and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). This means that when we are struggling with unbelief, we have two choices: we can trust our doubts, or we can take that unbelief to God—acknowledging it to Him. If we choose to trust in our unbelief, we will never start believing. But if we take our unbelief to God, He can show us the way to Him.

If you have doubts, or are having difficulty believing, God is on your side. He is not against those who do not believe. As it says in John 3:17: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” The only question that remains is: Will you dare to follow Christ?

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What is Pascal’s Wager?

I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life. — Deuteronomy 30:19

Imagine a conversation between a Christian and an atheist. The Christian begins by asking, “Do you believe in God?”

The Atheist replies, “I don’t believe there is a god.”

The Christian says, “But, what if you are wrong? If you are wrong, you will spend all of eternity burning in hell. But, if there is a God and you choose to follow him, then you will spend all of eternity in heaven enjoying yourself forever. Are you willing to take a risk on being wrong?”

The atheist shrugs and says, “Yeah, I am willing to take the risk because if I become a Christian, I would have to stop drinking, and smoking, and having sex with my girlfriend. I think today’s pleasure outweighs a potential of infinite pleasure in eternity. Besides, if there is a hell, all my friends are going to hell and I want to party with them!”

“Are you a gambling man?” The Christian replies. “Wouldn’t you rather bet on Jesus and increase your chances of winning?”

The atheist says, “I don’t believe in god and I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I’m not going to lose out on having fun here on earth on the off chance that there is a god.”

The Christian replies, “Do you believe in gravity? It is there whether you believe or not. Even if you say you don’t believe in gravity, you will still fall if you jump off a building.”

“The existence of gravity can be empirically verified,” explains the atheist, “I just don’t see any evidence that god is real.”

“So, you are willing to risk an eternity of pain in hell if you are wrong?” asks the Christian.

“I just don’t see the need to purchase fire insurance for a fire that is probably not real,” shrugs the atheist.

The Christian has the final word, “I would rather have insurance and not need it than need it and not have it.”

The above conversation, which I actually had, lays out a dilemma that is known as Pascal’s Wager.

Pascal’s Wager

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was an intellectual giant and his inquisitive mind delved into many different disciplines. He was a brilliant scientist, mathematician, inventor, and philosopher. He developed mathematical theorems on geometry and probability theory that are still used today by economists and social scientists and he invented a mechanical calculator. He studied the properties of vacuums and is known for his logic and reasoning. Yet, despite his brilliance, Pascal’s life was not an easy one. His mother died when he was three years old and he was sick for most of his adult life. He also had a gambling problem.

At the age of thirty-one, Pascal had a supernatural conversion experience. On November 23, 1654, he was reading John’s Gospel, chapter 17, and while he was doing so he had an encounter with the living God. He wrote an account of how he got saved on a piece of paper and had the paper sown into the lining of his coat so that he would always remember the event. This is what he wrote:

From about half past ten at night to about half an hour after midnight,

FIRE

“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,” not of philosophers and scholars

Certitude, heartfelt joy, peace.

God of Jesus Christ.

The world forgotten, everything except God.

“O righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You” (John 17:25)

Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.

After his salvation experience, Pascal wrote his Pensées, a series of thoughts about God and philosophy that were gathered up and published after his death. In this work, Pascal proposed the idea that is known as “Pascal’s Wager.”

Because of his gambling days and his work on probability theory, Pascal was deeply interested in making bets. In the wager, he bets that it makes more sense to be a Christian than it does to be an atheist. This is what he wrote:

Let us then examine this point, and say, “God is, or He is not” But to which side shall we incline?[…] A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up. What will you wager? […]Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional […] Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager them without hesitation that He is. “That is very fine. Yes, I must wager; but I may perhaps wager too much.”—Let us see. Since there is an equal risk of gain and of loss, if you had only to gain two lives, instead of one, you might still wager. But if there were three lives to gain, you would have to play (since you are under the necessity of playing), and you would be imprudent, when you are forced to play, not to chance your life to gain three at a game where there is an equal risk of loss and gain. But there is an eternity of life and happiness. And this being so, if there were an infinity of chances, of which one only would be for you, you would still be right in wagering one to win two, and you would act stupidly, being obliged to play, by refusing to stake one life against three at a game in which out of an infinity of chances there is one for you, if there were an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain. But there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. It is all divided; wherever the infinite is and there is not an infinity of chances of loss against that of gain, there is no time to hesitate, you must give all. And thus, when one is forced to play, he must renounce reason to preserve his life, rather than risk it for infinite gain, as likely to happen as the loss of nothingness.

Admittedly, Pascal’s language is a little difficult to process—it is the language of a philosopher and of probability. More simply, the elements of his bet are as follows:

Premise A: God may or may not be real.

Premise B: If God is real and the Bible is true, then I risk an eternity of life and happiness if I do not serve Him. (More than that I also risk an eternity of infinite misery in hell.)

Premise C: If God is not real and I live as if He is, I only lose a finite amount of happiness here on this earth.

Conclusion: Therefore, since the infinities of heaven and happiness and of hell and torment outweigh the finiteness of life on earth, I will wager there is a God, and live my life accordingly.

Let’s consider the four possibilities the wager allows for:

Bet 1. If there is a God, and you choose to follow Him, then you will maximize your chance of receiving eternal life, you will make God happy, you will benefit from answered prayers, you will feel God’s love in this life, you will be rewarded in the next, and you will be able to help others find salvation.

Bet 2. If there is no God, and you choose to live as if there is a God, then you still get all the benefits of religion, including an ethical system that produces life satisfaction and happiness, and the satisfaction of belonging to a group. However, you do lose the time spent sitting in church and various types of pleasure, and do not live as free as you could have.

Bet 3. If there is no God, and you chose to live as if there is no God, then you will not waste time in useless religious ceremonies, you will control your life, and you get to do activities that the church thinks are sinful with no eternal consequences. In other words, you can drink alcohol, use cuss words, and have sex with whomever you choose and not incur any eternal consequences.

Bet 4. If there is a God, and you choose to live as if there is not a God, then you lose the opportunity to live in heaven for eternity, you make God sad, you fail to live up to the ideals of your Creator, you miss out on the benefits of answered prayer, you miss out on God’s love, you will regret how you spent your life here on earth, and you will never find meaning in your life because you are searching in the wrong places.

Four possible outcomes, but only two choices–either believe God exists or do not believe God exists. Thus, if (1) you choose to believe in God and God does in fact exist, you gain infinitely. If (2) you choose to believe in God and He does not exist, your gains and losses are even. If (3) you choose to believe God does not exist and He does not exist, again, your gains and losses are even. If (4) you choose not to believe in God, and God does exist, you lose everything. Based on these alternatives, according to Pascal, it would be foolish for you not to believe in God.

Pascal’s bet makes a lot of sense to me. A Christian singer, Marcos Witt, told a secular news anchor, “I choose to bet my life on God’s existence. You can bet your life on anything you want to, but I’m betting that God is real, the Bible is true, and there is life after death.” Betting on God is the only rational way to bet. Christian Hip Hop artist, Lecrae, observed, “If I’m wrong about God, I wasted my life. If you are wrong about God, you wasted your eternity.”

Problems with Pascal’s Wager.

Some flaws with Pascal’s wager have been proposed:

1. The Christian God and eternity are not the only options. Pascal’s Wager works equally well when applied to Mormonism, Islam or any other theistic faith. This introduces the problem of which religion should one make a bet on? In examining this problem, Michael Rota concludes, “Practice the religion that seems to you, on careful examination and reflection, most likely to be true.” When Christianity is held up against every other religion, it emerges as the most likely to be true.

2. Belief in God could be faked. It has been proposed that Pascal’s Wager leaves open the idea that God can be fooled by pretend belief. The solution to this flaw is that God is all-knowing, and therefore He knows if you believe with sincerity or not. However, Christian faith is not merely intellectual, but it practically changes how a person lives. Believing in Jesus includes the choice to love, be kind, be generous, have patience, extend forgiveness, be repentant and much more. To fake belief in God would mean doing all these things, but somehow being fake about them too. Such an experiment would be exhausting to fake believers.

Daring to believe

Jesus once said to a man, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The man responded, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). This man acknowledged that at the same time that he believed, he was also struggling with unbelief. Doubt and problems with belief are not insurmountable problems to God. The key is to not allow your lack of belief or faith to keep you from going to God. There is a proverb that says “Lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways, acknowledge [God], and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). This means that when we are struggling with unbelief, we have two choices: we can trust our doubts, or we can take that unbelief to God—acknowledging it to Him. If we choose to trust in our unbelief, we will never start believing. But if we take our unbelief to God, He can show us the way to Him.

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Will You Take a Leap of Faith?

Once there was a man holding onto a rope dangling off the edge of a tall cliff. He cried out, “Help! Please! Can someone help me?” Suddenly, he heard the voice of God say, “Let go, and I will catch you.” The man, looking down, saw nothing but jagged rocks hundreds of feet below. He considered God’s offer for a few moments and then shouted, “Is anyone else up there?”

The point of the story is that believing in God ultimately requires a leap of faith. The Danish theologian and existentialist philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard wrote about taking a “leap of faith” into the arms of a loving God. This “leap” is not just mental assent to doctrines for which there is no proof, rather, it is the final step in response to a series of evidences for God’s existence.

Even though this leap of faith can be scary and nerve wracking, it is not a leap into a dark abyss but a step into the light. When I married my wife, Jessica, I had never been married before. I knew I was interested in her, even intrigued by her, but I had no concept of what it meant to be married to a girl. Getting married was a real leap into the unknown, but it was one of the best things I ever did. In the same way, when we decide to put our faith in God, it is a leap into a relationship with the One who created you and the universe.

But you must “pull the trigger” to know how wonderful and good the relationship can be. When my son learned to ride his bike, I carefully explained to him how a bike worked and how to stay balanced. He mentally understood how to ride a bike, but at some point, he had to put his foot on the peddle and push off into the unknown. In the same way, at some point the believer must choose to put his or her faith in God. One tiny step is all it takes, but you must take it.

Believing in God comes down to faith. There is enough evidence for God’s existence to justify a person in his or her belief in God. Nonetheless, the very nature of faith requires the unknown. Faith is alive. It is not static. It is existential. Faith is what gets a person across the gap between all the evidence and confident certainty. If you feel you do not have enough faith to believe, it might be helpful to heed the words of the father whose son needed a miracle and said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

The Christian life isn’t just a moment of faith, but a whole lifetime of faith-filled moments. The more I have said, “Yes” to God, the more faith I have to say, “Yes” to Him again. For every leap of faith that life’s moments have brought me, I have always found God on the other side of my faith. Because God has proved Himself faithful to me time and again, when I am faced with new challenges to my faith, I say:

Yes, I DARE to Believe!

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Does Doubt Prove God is Real?

It is not wrong to have doubts about God’s existence. The truth is that everyone deals with doubts from time to time. But even while experiencing doubt, one can still have faith in God. It is wonderful that you doubt. The capacity that you doubt is the equivalent capacity that you have for faith. If there is no doubt, there is no place for faith to work in your life. If you do not have doubt and uncertainty, then there is no purpose for faith. For example, you can’t experience great pleasure unless there has been great pain. In the same way, you cannot experience faith until you have struggled with doubt. René Descartes actually used his doubts as an argument for God. Here is how he argued his point:

Premise A: I am doubting and the more I doubt, the more sure I am doubting.

Premise B: If I am doubting, I am thinking since doubting is a form of thinking.

Premise C: But my doubt is an imperfect form of thinking since it lacks certitude.

Premise D: But if I know my thoughts are imperfect, then it means I must be aware of the perfect since I cannot judge something is imperfect unless I know the perfect which it is not.

Premise E: My imperfect mind cannot be the cause of the idea of perfection that I have and by which I judge things to be imperfect.

Premise F: Only a perfect mind is an adequate cause for the idea of perfection.

Conclusion: Therefore, a perfect Mind must exist as the cause of my perfect idea. This perfect mind is God.

Faith doesn’t run away from doubt, but towards it. Faith takes courage and bravery. Living what you already know does not take any courage—there is no adventure or risk involved. When you go into the unknown, it is scary, it is suspenseful. Faith is having courage to go into the unknown. The tension between faith and doubt is where life is lived. It is where the ultimate is possible. As an unknown author wrote, “Reason can bring us to the precipice, but only faith can make us leap and fly.”

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Is Christianity a Reasonable Faith?

There is much in the Christian faith that appears unreasonable: a baby born to a virgin, a man comes back from the dead, a giant flood covers the whole earth, an angel shuts the mouths of lions. All these miraculous events stand contrary to observed phenomena. But, the faith of the Bible is not antithetical to reason. Christian faith is not willing to believe something despite evidence to the contrary, rather faith in Christ is built on the foundation of who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He continues to do in the lives of those who believe in Him. If one allows for the evidence and experience that there is a God who can do miracles—as the Bible clearly shows—then Christian faith is reasonable.

Reason and faith are often presented as opponents, especially by atheists. But Christians know that reason is not opposed to faith. Saint Augustine wrote, “I believe in order to understand.” He also frequently quoted a version of Isaiah 7:9, “Unless you believe, you cannot understand.” Augustine said, “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”

Anselm also applied reason to questions of faith. He believed faith was the beginning of knowledge, and that, once someone accepts a truth by faith, they can learn more about it through reason. As a result, one’s faith becomes greater as one applies reason to what one believes. He said, “Nor do I seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand. For this, too, I believe, that, unless I first believe, I shall not understand.”

Aquinas argued God can be known through both faith and reason. Truth about God is known through two ways: natural revelation and supernatural revelation. Reason discovers what can be known about God from the natural world; faith discovers what can be known about God supernaturally (through the Bible, through miracles, through prayer and the like). Rather than being opponents, for Aquinas faith and reason are allies.

Both faith and reason can lead to God. However, in matters of faith and reason, one must follow either Plato or Aristotle. Either one begins with faith by receiving “a word from on high,” or one begins with reason which is “a word from within.” When using faith, a person begins with what God has chosen to reveal and then works their way down from “on high” in order to understand themselves and their world here below. This deductive approach was used by Anselm. When using reason to understand God, a person begins with what is seen with the eyes here “below” and works their way up to understand who God is. This inductive approach was used by Aquinas. In the inductive approach, reason leads to faith; in the deductive approach faith leads to reason. In neither are faith and reason opposed.

According to John Locke, to believe something, apart from reason, is an insult to our Maker, the One who created reason. Galileo wrote, “I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.” The Bible commands Christians to, “Love the Lord your God…with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). Thus, the Christian should strive to use, understand, and improve his faculty of reasoning. God wants us to be rational. Reason is not contrary to faith, rather it should be complementary to faith.

Faith is bigger than reason

Most humans do not believe because of reason, they believe because of emotion, feelings, intuitions, prejudices, and impressions. They believe because of what is in their hearts. When the Bible talks about the heart, it isn’t referring to the physical organ that pumps blood, but to the center and essence of a person. The Apostle Paul reminds us that it is “with the heart that one believes” (Romans 10.10). Because of what is in a Christian’s heart, she believes in God. Because of what is in an atheist’s heart he does not believe in God. This makes it hard to reason either the Christian or the atheist out of their deeply held beliefs. As Jonathan Swift, the Irish author and satirist pointed out, “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.” Blaise Pascal wrote,

The heart has its reasons which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and also itself naturally, according as it gives itself to them; and it hardens itself against one or the other at its will. You have rejected the one, and kept the other. Is it by reason that you love yourself? It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then, is faith; God felt by the heart, not by reason.

Faith could be called a “sixth sense.” The idea of a sixth sense is a sense that operates beyond our five senses of sight, touch, touch, hearing, and smell. Even so, faith does not go against reason, faith goes beyond reason. By using faith, we sense things in the spiritual realm. When we sense a truth by faith, we do not need to experience it with our other senses to know it is real. This truth can be demonstrated by how we use our other senses. When you see a building off in the distance, you do not doubt it’s existence until you are close enough to touch or taste or smell it. No, you believe the building is there even when only one sense confirms that it is real. When you smell a delicious BBQ, you don’t need to see the meat roasting before you will believe that someone is cooking a steak.

Faith is similar to the title deed to a property you have never seen. Once the title of a property belongs to you, the property also belongs to you. You can say with assurance, “I own this land” even though you have never seen it. Recently I purchased a plane ticket. When I bought the ticket, I did not demand to see the plane I would be riding in. I had faith the plane would be at the airport when the time arrived for me to leave on my trip. The ticket represented the promise of the airline. Faith is like that ticket; it is the substance that guarantees God’s promises will come true. Faith is your ticket to heaven.

We should “live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Ultimate proof of God’s existence comes from faith. One must use the proper instrument for the object of study. To study the stars, one would not use a microscope. To study an amoeba, one would not use a telescope. The proper instrument for the study of God is faith. Faith is the telescope we look through in order to see God.

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What is Faith?

Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.” — Mark 11:22

Atheists often ridicule Christians for their faith. Atheists ask, “Is faith a reliable guide to truth?” They answer by saying, “No!” This is because atheists define “religious faith” as “believing without evidence” or “pretending to know things you don’t know.” Richard Dawkins wrote: “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.” Or, as Mark Twain said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”

Atheists ask, “If there are ten million gods, and the worshippers of all of the god’s all claim faith as their reason for believing, how can your claim that your faith is unique?” They say the main problem with faith is that it can be used to believe literally anything. What good is faith if it can lead to any conclusion? However, the atheist’s definition of faith and the biblical definition of faith are different. When the atheist speaks of faith, he is talking about “wishful thinking,” a faith that chooses to believe in something in spite of contrary evidence. But the faith spoken of in the Bible is belief based on solid evidence.

Biblical faith is based on evidence

Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to the people of Israel through physical manifestations. To set them free, He sent plagues on the Egyptians and He parted the Red Sea. He provided for them in the desert by sending them manna every day for forty years and by causing fresh water to flow from rocks. He appeared to them in a cloud and as a pillar of fire. When they arrived in the Promised Land, He gave them victory by bringing down the rock walls of Jericho. The Israelites had tangible evidence of God’s existence.

In the New Testament, Jesus offers many tangible proofs of His deity.

When John the Baptist was thrown into prison, he wondered if Jesus really was the Messiah he had thought him to be. Jesus did not tell John’s disciples go back to John the Baptist and tell him, “Just have faith,” instead Jesus told them to talk about the miracles they were witnessing: “Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:4-5).
When the Pharisees questioned if Jesus has the authority to forgive sins, Jesus proved his deity by healing the paralyzed man (Matthew 9:2-8).
When Jesus rose from the dead He revealed Himself to the disciples, He ate food with them, and He invited doubting Thomas to touch the holes in His hands. “When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence” (Luke 24:40-43).
After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to over five hundred people, giving those who had seen him die, proof that he was indeed alive again: “To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

The Bible does not teach “blind faith.” The Greek word tekmērion translated in Acts 1:3 as “many convincing proofs” is a word used in court to refer to “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” In other words, in the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension, Jesus proved that he had risen from the dead. Jim Burkett asks, “Was it the resurrection that caused the disciples to have faith or was it faith that caused the disciples to believe in the resurrection?” The answer is that the faith of the disciples was based on their experience that Jesus actually rose from the dead. As the Apostle John wrote: “That…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you” (1 John 1.1-3). The early church saw Jesus alive and this fact became the foundation for their faith. Christianity is a factual faith.

It is true that, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6), but this faith is based on the “evidence of things we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Have you ever read a detective story or watched a criminal investigation series on TV? By carefully examining a crime scene, the sleuth or investigator reconstructs what happened during the crime. Tiny clues provide evidence of events not seen. Faith is the same: from the things which can be seen it provides absolute proof of things we cannot see. The Apostle Paul explains:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools… (Romans 1:20-22).

In this passage, Paul says those who do not believe in God are without excuse because of the overwhelming evidence of creation. Paul calls atheists “fools” because they choose to ignore the evidence of the things which can be seen. For those who are willing to look, there is more than enough evidence for God’s existence. God has left a bread trail of crumbs that lead directly to the Bread of Life.

Faith based on experience

Not only is Biblical faith based on evidence, it is also based on experience. For example, when I sit down in a chair, I have faith the chair is strong enough to hold me. However, this belief is not blind faith or wishful thinking, instead it is based on a lifetime of experience. In my dining room, there is a chair that I have sat in hundreds of times. Today’s trust in my chair is based on yesterday’s experience when that chair did not collapse when I sat down. In the same way, Christians have faith in God because of His faithfulness.

We all live by faith in our everyday lives. When I get on an airplane, I put my faith in the pilot to fly me to my destination. When I purchase food from the supermarket, I have faith it will nourish me. When I go to work, I have faith my wife is not running off to sleep with another man. My faith in these various areas is based on past experience. Atheists would say that believing that the sun will rise tomorrow or having faith that a seat can hold your weight would better be called “trust” or “confidence” because it is based on evidence and experience. In this, Christians concur. Our faith in God is trust and confidence in Him that is based on both evidence and experience. Christians do not have a blind faith that rejects evidence, but a wide-eyed faith that sees and acknowledges the evidence for God.

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How Can I Know Truth?

According to one apologist, there are three tests for truth:

The first test for truth is logical consistency. Are there any contradictions? Logical consistency means the truth must be logical, it must make sense. An object cannot be both A and not-A at the same time. Truth must be internally consistent. A fact is either true or it is not true. Aristotle wrote, “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true; so that he who says of anything that it is, or that it is not, will say either what is true or what is false.” For example, a door can either be open or closed. It cannot be both open and closed at the same time. If a door is open, then it is not closed and if it is closed, it is not open. If one person believes a door is open and another person believes the door is closed, one of them is wrong. Two or more contradictory statements cannot both be true.

The second test for truth is empirical adequacy. Is there any proof? A worldview should be supported by evidence when it is tested. The truth must pertain in a meaningful way to reality. One’s beliefs should reflect the way the universe actually is. We can know a truth is true if it matches reality. A truth cannot become truth just because someone believes it is true. I may believe I have gasoline in my car, but this belief cannot make my car run if the gasoline tank is empty. Even if I start a political movement and convince lots of people that my car is full of gas, people’s belief that the car is full of gas does not make it so.

The third test for truth is experiential relevance. Does it works in real life? In a pragmatic way, truth should work in our everyday lives. This is a major reason why I am a Christian, because out of all the religions Christianity does the best job of describing the way the world actually works and it describes humans as they really are.

Does the existence of objective truth proves the existence of God?

Saint Augustine argued for the existence of God from unchanging, objective, universal truth. Here is how his argument went:

Premise A: There are timeless and unchanging truths.

Premise B: There must be a cause for these truths.

Premise C: This cause must be equal to, lesser than, or greater than our minds.

Premise D: This cause cannot be equal to our minds, since these truths are independent of our minds (our minds are subject to them).

Premise E: These truths cannot be lesser than our minds, since our minds are subject to them.

Premise F: These truths must be greater than our changeable minds.

Premise G Whatever is superior to the changeable is itself unchangeable.

Conclusion: Therefore, there is an unchanging Mind, which is the source of unchanging truth.

The existence of God is an objective truth that either is or is not. Either there is a God or there is not a God. The truth of God’s existence must be an objective truth or it is no truth at all.

Paul puts a great deal of emphasis on the truth of Christ’s resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19. For Paul, Christ’s resurrection was an objective truth. It was not a matter subject to interpretation. It either happened or it did not happen. Either Jesus is the Savior of all humankind, or He is just a religious teacher who lived two thousand years ago.

On my blog, I have presented various proofs for the existence of God and for the resurrection of Christ. Now, it is your job to decide if these things I have discussed are true or not true.

Jesus is Truth Personified

Truth is important to God. Because truth is important to Him, He does not lie (Hebrews 6:18), His Word is called truth (John 17:17), the Holy Spirit is called the “spirit of truth” (John 14:17) and Jesus is “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The philosophers of today may deny that there is truth, or if there is truth, they may deny that it can be known. But Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Ultimately, to know Jesus is to know the truth.

Will you DARE to believe in Him?

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Is Science the Ultimate Source of Truth?

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) described theology as “the queen of the sciences.” In his day, all scientific study was subordinated to the theologian’s higher research into the nature of God. The temporal natural world was of a lower order than the eternal and supernatural. Theology was queen because it sought to discover ultimate truth.

But today, theology has been dethroned, and there is a consensus among scientists that science and theology should not mix. For the “new atheists” the reason they should not mix is that the two are directly opposed. Sam Harris writes, “The conflict between religion and science is unavoidable. The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science.” Christopher Hitchens wrote, “All attempts to reconcile faith with science and reason are consigned to failure and ridicule.” Richard Dawkins said, “I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise […] It subverts science and saps the intellect.” Atheists generally look to science as the source of ultimate truth.

The conflict between science and religion is due to a misunderstanding of the realms they explore and roles they play. Some atheists believe religion is mainly an attempt to explain the unexplainable in nature. From this they argue that the more science explains, the less there is for religion to explain. For example, some atheists believe religion was originally invented by cavemen to explain thunder and lightning. Now that science has discovered the natural explanations for these natural phenomena, religion has one less thing to explain. But such perspective only acknowledges a natural world that can be scientifically observed. If human knowledge was limited to what was observable scientifically, then the atheists could be correct. But, theology and its cousin philosophy remain important because human experience and knowledge is larger than science. Science can answer questions about how, but only philosophy and theology can answer the questions of why.

Science is good at answering the “how” questions. The scientific method forms a hypothesis and then tests the hypothesis through experimentation. The results of the experiment are analyzed. If the evidence shows the hypothesis is falsifiable, then a new hypothesis must be formed and tested. The near religious belief in science and its methods that many atheists and others hold is called scientism or logical positivism. This perspective claims that if something cannot be proved in the laboratory, it should not be believed. The problem with such thinking is that it fails to acknowledge the limitations of science for covering areas of knowledge that cannot be scientifically examined—such as history, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy, and religious experience.

For example, it is impossible to do experiments in the laboratory to prove historical events. Using science, one cannot prove that George Washington was the first president of the United States or that Ronald Reagan was the 40th. One cannot prove that Julius Caesar or Shakespeare ever lived. One cannot prove scientifically that Jesus rose from the dead. The facts of His existence or His resurrection are not a repeatable experiment.

There are many things that humans know that can never be scientifically tested. Science can measure the saliva transfer that happens during a kiss, but not the love of two individuals. Science can predict the exact time of the sunset, but it cannot explain why it is beautiful. Science can unwrap the DNA helix, but it cannot tell us why we are here on this earth. Science can discover ever more effective ways for us to kill people, but science has no ability to tell us why we should not kill. Science is good at answering the question of how, but it often doesn’t have an answer for why.

Answering the question of why is the role of religion. Galileo (1564-1642), the scientist, astronomer, and theologian wrote: “The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.” Isaac Newton, the scientist and mathematician, said, “Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion.” Science can explain natural things, but it cannot explain the supernatural. It can explain the observable, but not what is unseen. It can explain the human body, but it cannot perform experiments on the human spirit. For this reason, science has not disproven miracles. In fact, it is impossible for science to disprove miracles. Science deals exclusively with the natural world and does not acknowledge a supernatural world. A miracle, by definition, is something that does not happen naturally. Because human experience is larger than science, science cannot be the source of ultimate truth. Believing that science has the answers to all life’s questions may seem comforting, but as Carl Sagan, an atheist and scientist said, “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is then to persist in delusion however satisfying or reassuring.” To insist that science is the source of ultimate truth is to persist in a delusion.

Ultimately, there should be no conflict between theology and science. Both are concerned with seeking truth. Albert Einstein said, “A legitimate conflict between science and religion cannot exist. Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Certainly, science has been a great blessing to society. Because of scientific progress the world enjoys electricity, motorized transport, and cell phones. Science has cured tuberculosis, given us vaccines, and extended our life spans. But for all the good things that science has achieved, it has also enabled great evil. From gunpowder, to land mines, to atomic bombs, to unmanned drones, science has continually invented more efficient ways of killing other humans. Crimes, like identity theft and many forms of fraud are enabled by the technologies created from science. Science doesn’t have the power to set the world free from evil. Truth, not science, is the remedy for error.

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What is Truth?

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. — John 8:32

Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor presiding over the trial of Jesus, asked the question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Philosophers throughout time have asked and debated the same question. Perhaps you have asked yourself this question too?

What is truth?

Philosophically, there are two different approaches to the idea of truth. The first approach proposes that truth-with-a-capital-T exists, the other approach denies there is such a thing as ultimate truth.

The first type of truth is objective truth. An objective truth is a fact that is true for everyone everywhere at all times. Plato, the Greek philosopher, suggested the idea of universal truth. For something to be true, it must correspond to reality. For it to be universally true, it must take in the whole universe and be true in all dimensions of time and space.

An example of universal truth would be mathematics. The logic of mathematics requires that 2+2=4. There is no time in history that 2+2 did not equal 4. If I have two apples and then I add two more apples, I will have four apples. When I add two apples to two apples, it is impossible for me to have three apples or five apples. If an objective truth is true, it must be true for everyone at all times. This logic works no matter what is being added—apples or oranges—and it doesn’t matter where in the universe or when in history the addition is being done. Even if people didn’t exist to do math, the answer to the question will always be 4. An objective truth refers to something that is true regardless of beliefs. A child who is learning addition might believe that 2+2=5. But no amount of belief makes that answer true.

An objective truth does not change regardless of different perspectives. For example, a car wreck may have many different perspectives, but there is only one truth about what happened. One witness to a car wreck may say a car ran a red light and another witness may say the light was green. While both witnesses have a perspective, there is really only one objective truth. Either the light was green or it was red.

Because of absolute objective truth, there can be no such thing as a round square, a male woman, or a good murder. Objectivity refers to point-of-view and what is true despite the different points of view that may be represented. Objective truth is stable and unchanging. Where truth is stable and unchanging, the opposite of truth is error.

The second type of truth is subjective truth which is a fact that is true for only one person or one group of people. Those who believe truth is subjective believe ultimate truth does not exist. Instead they propose that truth is relative rather than absolute. Subjectivity, like objectivity, refers to point of view.

A subjective truth is based on a person’s feelings, perspective, or opinion. For example, I think vanilla ice cream is superior to chocolate ice cream but my wife disagrees with me. My opinion about ice cream is a subjective truth because it depends upon what a subject (me) thinks and not on what the objective is (the ice cream). The fact that ice cream is a cold dessert made from milk and sugar is an objective truth, but the idea that one ice cream tastes better than another type of ice cream is a subjective truth.

Because subjective truth is based on opinion, a fact may be true in one culture but not in another culture. For example, in Western culture, it is a shared belief that it is rude to be more than five minutes late to a meeting. But, in many other cultures it is acceptable to arrive an hour late to a meeting, or even later. So the claim that it is rude to be five minutes late to a meeting is only subjectively true since it does not apply in all contexts or to all people.

According to J. Warner Wallace “objective” truth is rooted in the nature of the object under consideration and transcends the opinions of any subject considering this object, and “subjective” truth is rooted in the opinions and beliefs of the subjects who hold them and vary from person to person. To say “Jim’s car is a Hyundai” is an objective truth because a personal opinion will not change this fact. To say, “A Hyundai is the best kind of car” is a subjective truth because we may disagree on what make a car a good car. Wallace points out that “1+1=2” is an objective truth statement; “Math is fun” is a subjective claim.”

Relativism philosophically builds on the concept of subjectivity. Relativism is “the belief that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.” To the relativist, as society and culture changes, truth also changes. For example, in American culture, living together before marriage used to be frowned upon as a bad thing, but now so many people live together before they get married that most people no longer think it is wrong. Because of examples like this, relativists claim that truth is not stable, and that absolute truth does not exist. So when it comes to Christianity those who adopt a relativist approach to truth might say something like, “Christianity may be true for you, but it is not true for me.”

The problem with relativism

However, when relativists say that no belief is true for everyone, they are making a statement that they believe is true for everyone. Their position ironically refutes itself since they are making a universal claim that no universal claim is true. Post-modern relativism has a hard time establishing its truth claims because it frequently contradicts itself. For example, the claim, “everything is meaningless” is itself assumed to be a meaningful statement. Relativism abounds with these kinds of statements:

• “There is no truth.” This statement is obviously claiming to be a true statement.
• “There are no absolutes.” This statement makes an absolute claim.
• “All truth is relative.” If this is the case, this statement is also relative.
• “You can’t know anything for sure.” Including if this statement is true.
• “Everything is meaningless.” If that is true, this statement is meaningless.

Statements like these demonstrate relativism’s weakness as a belief system. Relativists are like the people Paul mentions in Romans 1:22: “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” Truth exists, even if no one knows it, believes it, or accepts it. Truth does not depend upon majority opinion. At one time, most people in the world believed the sun revolved around the earth, but just because people believed this, it did not make it true. William Penn wrote, “Right is right, even if everyone is against it. And wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.” Truth is not created, it is discovered.

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How Does God Respond to Suffering?

The good news is that God does not leave the people he created alone in the midst of pain and suffering. God is the answer to the problem of evil. The existence of evil should not turn us away from God; instead, it should make us turn toward him. And it should do so for several reasons.

Firstly, God is the greatest victim of evil. Even though suffering is bad, God chose to experience it Himself. God came and experienced our suffering with us when Jesus came to earth. Dorothy Sayers wrote:

“For whatever reason God chose to make man as He is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and courage to take His own medicine […]. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it well worthwhile.”

God does not prevent suffering, but He is with people and for people in their suffering.

Secondly, since God has given humans free choice, it becomes our responsibility to stop evil in this world. One day, I got upset with God and shook my fist at him and said, “The world needs you. Can’t you see the hurting, the dying, the poor, and the lost? The world needs you!” God spoke back to me in a quiet whisper, “Daniel, the world needs you.” Part of God’s answer to the pain in this world is for people to help alleviate that pain. That’s why I’m an evangelist, and why the ministry I lead has given away 270,000 meals to the children of Belize, dug water wells for villages in India, and works to convince people to live their lives by faith in Jesus. By living godly lives, we can cure some of the evil in this world.

Thirdly, while we may not be able to solve all evils in this life, the problem of evil will be solved completely in the next life. God’s viewpoint is eternal, to Him, evil is but a small blip on the timeline of forever. Evil may be a problem for us, but evil is not a problem for God, because He knows the ultimate end of evil and the sad end of every evil doer: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5.10 NIV).

Finally, God will ultimately bring good out of every situation. Romans 8:28 says,“All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Even as we suffer, God is working to bring about ultimate good. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” From our finite position it might be difficult to see all the good that God is doing, but the truth is that God is at work, and He knows how to turn our suffering into rejoicing.

Yes, God cares!

Christians know that a good God exists. Christians aren’t Christians because they are good, they are Christians because they are honest about the existence of evil. Evil will continue to grip the heart of humankind until we have an encounter with God’s goodness. Popular culture dishonestly claims that people are basically good. Christians, however, acknowledge the truth: God is good and sinful people are desperately in need of Him to save them from the terrible consequences of their endlessly selfish choices.

Consider this: If God did not care for people, He would not save them. God saves people from sin through his Son, Jesus Christ who died on the cross. Therefore: God CARES!

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The Existence of Evil Proves That God Exists

While the existence of evil is a serious problem, it is an even more serious problem for atheists because the existence of evil is only further evidence for God’s existence. For atheists evil is a problem because their worldview doesn’t really allow it exist. They don’t believe in God and they certainly do not believe in the devil. As one militant online atheist typed, “I don’t believe in your sky daddy or your hole hobbit.” But without God, the terms “good” and “evil” in the mouth of an atheist are subjective, relative terms, not moral absolutes.

For the atheist, there is only personal good, or societal good, or an action that is good for the species; but there is no objective foundation or standard for concepts of good and evil. Norman Geisler wrote, “Atheism cannot rationally offer a definition of evil without appealing to an ultimate standard of good.” C.S. Lewis wrote, “My argument against God was this universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

Like Lewis, atheists know that good and evil exist; but they are not honest about what makes something good or evil. They point to evils—like the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials—and pronounce a judgement of “guilty” upon “evil” Christians. Now, I acknowledge that Christians have made many terrible mistakes in the past, but I dispute the honesty of atheists to judge them. Lewis was an honest atheist who realized that evil, rather than being a problem for God’s existence, actually proved a good God is there.

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If There is a God, Why Does Evil Exist in the World?

In the Christian worldview, God is good and He created everything to be good. “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God is not the author of evil, rather evil is simply a corruption of God’s perfect plan. Saint Augustine, one of the Early Church Fathers, argued that evil is a lack of good. Nothing is evil in itself; it is simply the absence of what is good. Good is normal, evil is an abnormality. For example, cancer is caused by cells that misbehave. Rape is a perversion of a normal, good, God-created impulse to procreate. God made everything to be good, and it only becomes bad when it is misused or corrupted. God made gravity, and it is good—it keeps us on planet earth and keeps planet earth in its orbit. But when someone falls into the Grand Canyon, as happens almost every year, the goodness of gravity certainly seems evil.

All evil in the world can be traced back to sin. Sin is an abnormality. When God created the world, He gave humans dominion over all of creation (Genesis 1:28). But, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, brought sin into the world. They did this by disobeying God, who, after giving them the whole world, told them of only one thing they were not to do: “…of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Genesis 2.17). Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, and it was through them that sin entered the world. With sin came death, disease, and natural tragedy. Sin corrupted God’s perfect creation.

There are two categories of evil: general evil and specific evil. General evil is the result of general sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they introduced a foreign abnormal element into God’s perfectly functioning universe. It was like throwing sand into the gas tank of a car: the car might continue to run for a while, but eventually the gears will start to grind and the car engine will come to a halt. In the same way, since sin was introduced into the world, the world continues to run but now there are problems like earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and species that are going extinct. Romans 8:20-22 explains,

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Paul’s idea of creation groaning is like the sound of sand grinding in the gears of a car. When we look at creation, it is obvious there are imperfections. Earthquakes, tornados, and hurricanes cause enormous destruction. Because of sin, the further we get from the moment of Creation, the more grinding we see and hear in the world. In fact, Jesus taught that in the last days we would see increased war, pestilence, famine, and earthquakes (Matthew 24:11).

The second category of evil, specific evil, is caused by specific sinful actions of specific sinful individuals. Often poverty is caused by people making poor choices—some people are greedy and grasp at too much; other people act foolishly and end up in want. Obesity is caused by eating too much food—an example of the sin of gluttony. Car wrecks are often caused by someone breaking the law by choosing to speed. War can be caused by greed, hate, and pride. On 9/11 when two planes flew into the World Trade Center, the loss of thousands of lives was the result of the evil choices of the hijackers.

Free-Will is the reason evil exists

God did not cause Adam and Eve to sin. He simply allowed them to have free choice which led to sin. Adam and Eve sinned of their own free-will. For free will to exist, choice must also be allowed to exist. The choice that Adam and Eve were given was the choice to obey God or to disobey God. Adam and Eve needed to have the option of disobeying God or they would not have been truly free. The exercise of his freedom to choose brought sin, pain, suffering, and death into the world. God knew he was taking a risk by making humans free; but, if he didn’t make us free, we would also not be human.

The existence of free-will makes evil necessary. Alvin Plantinga wrote,

A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all. Now God can create free creatures, but He can’t cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they aren’t significantly free after all; they do not do what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can’t give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good.

A world without the possibility of evil, is a world without free-will. A world where free will exists, means the option to choose between something that will have good consequences and something that will have evil consequences. It is a tragedy when people choose evil, but the good of free-will supersedes the tragedy of evil.

We all agree it is a tragedy when a drunk driver hits another car, killing its innocent passengers. We could stop the evil of drunkenness and its consequences from ever happening by outlawing all drinking of alcohol. The United States tried this during Prohibition but gave up the experiment after thirteen years of chasing down bootleggers and moonshiners who illegally provided alcohol to the thirsty public. Perhaps if America had adopted the policy that Singapore has of dealing with drug dealers (executing them) Prohibition would have been more successful. Executing someone for getting drunk would likely go a long way to preventing drunk driving from ever killing another man, woman, or child. But, as a society, we have decided that it is better for people to have the freedom to drink than it is to stop the evil of drunk driving and its sometimes terrible consequences.

God made a similar decision in creating humanity. He decided it is more important for humans to have free will than it is to stop evil from existing. He has the power to stop all evil from occurring, but in order to do so, He would have to remove our free will. God could have created people to be robots, programming them never do anything evil. But a robot has no free choice and experiences no rewards for doing what it is programed to do. When a robot puts a screw in a car, the robot does not earn wages from the company. It is simply doing what it is programed to do. Human robots who did the good they were programmed to do, would not feel rewarded by doing good. C. S. Lewis wrote,

Why, then, did God give [people] free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other […]. And for that, they must be free. Of course, God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk.

Some might say that God could create a world with both free will and an absence of evil, but this is logically impossible. God can do anything, but God cannot do what is logically impossible to do. It would be like creating a square circle or declaring that 2+2=5. Creating a world with both free-choice and no consequences from making bad decisions is impossible. So, God chose the best possible option which involved giving humans free-choice, even though He knew this free-choice could and would lead to sin, pain, suffering and all sorts of evil.

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Does Evil Prove God Does NOT Exist?

Premise A: If a good God does not exist, evil also does not exist.

Premise B: Evil exists

Conclusion: Therefore, a good God exists.

The preceding chapters have provided several proofs for the existence of God, but I can understand not being ready to trust in God if all you know about Him is that He exists. I know that my next-door neighbors exist, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to let them take care of my children. Before I let someone do that, I want to know that I can trust them with the most precious things in my life. So, if God exists, the question must be asked, “What sort of God is He?”

With seven billion people on a planet that is part of a star system that is one among billions in the universe, someone might wonder: Is He the sort of God to care about individual people? Does He see my pain and understand my sorrow? Does He know what brings me joy and shake His head at my pet peeves? Does He listen when I pray at night and watch over me as I go about my day? Is He willing to do things to help me when I need help? When I’m are sick, or sorrowful, or disappointed, or going through a dark time in life, is God there for me? Will He be waiting for me when I die? Psalms 8:3-4 asks the same questions, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” So many questions, and at the core of them, just one question: Does God care about me?

Christians answers this question with a confident, “Yes, God does care.” According to the Bible, God is all-powerful (omnipotent), all-knowing (omniscient), and all-good (omni-benevolent). Christians believe that every good thing that a person can experience can be traced back to God. But human experience proves another truth: evil exists.

It is undeniable that there is evil in this world. There are natural evils like tornados, earthquakes, hurricane, tidal waves, and floods. There are physical diseases and conditions like cancer, strokes, Alzheimer’s, birth defects, genetic disorders. There is also evil caused by humans. Some human-caused evil is unintentional, such as pain caused by car wrecks and medical mistakes; other human-caused evil is intentional like theft, murder, slander, and rape. Every human being goes through times of emotional pain and physical suffering. During these times, there is a tendency for people to wonder if God is real and to question if He cares about their pain.

The existence of evil is one of the main objections to the Christian God. A commentator on Reddit asked, “Does it make sense to believe that an all-powerful, infinitely loving and merciful deity is out there who refuses to stop genocide, cancer, child sexual abuse, and starvation?” Another person wrote, “What causes a little girl to get a tumor in her brain? And don’t give me the god-works-in-mysterious-ways copout.” George Barna, the Christian pollster, conducted a nationwide survey asking the question, “If you could ask God one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask? The most popular response—it was proposed by 17% of the respondents—was “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?”

Atheists and the problem of evil

Atheists often use the problem of evil to argue there is no God. In his essay “God and Evil,” H.J. McCloskey wrote, “Evil is a problem, for the theist, in that a contradiction is involved in the fact of evil on the one hand and belief in the omnipotence and omniscience of God on the other.” David Hume phrased the problem this way: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

Various thinkers have tried to resolve this dilemma by denying different characteristics of the God of the Bible. After his son died of a rare and painful disease, Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, denies the validity of God’s omnipotence. While God knows about your pain and wants to help you through your pain, Kushner came to believe that God is unable to alleviate your pain. He portrays God as a “kind-hearted wimp.” Others have denied the omni-benevolence of God. Alan Carter proposes the possibility of an evil God and suggests that God is not as good as we think He is and that He is just playing a trick on us.

Another way to dodge the problem of evil is to deny that evil exists. This is the approach of some forms of Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, some New Age religions, and mind-science sects like Christian Science. Rather than saying that God is not all-powerful, or all-knowing, or all-good, this approach says that evil is not real because it is just a problem of perception. Good and evil and right and wrong exist in the mind and do not have objective reality.

A final way to reconcile the nature of God with the existence of evil is to demonstrate that it is possible for God to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good and for evil to exist at the same time. This is the Christian understanding of the dilemma.

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How Do We Know Jesus Rose from the Dead?

Atheists and non-believers object to the resurrection by asserting that dead people do not rise from the dead. Because dead people do not rise from the dead, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. This objection is based on a worldview that rejects the supernatural. But if one’s worldview rejects the possibility of miracles, the existence of God, and that facts of Christianity, then one must come up with an alternate explanation to account for the historical evidence of the resurrection. There is a set of “minimal facts” about the resurrection of Jesus that almost all scholars, both believers and unbelievers, agree on and that must be explained. These facts are as follows:

1. Jesus died by crucifixion and was buried.

2. Jesus’ tomb was empty, and his body was missing.

3. The disciples had actual experiences of what they thought were real appearances of a risen Jesus and they genuinely believed He had risen from the dead.

4. The lives of the disciples were completely changed by their experience of a risen Jesus to the point that they were willing to give their lives for their new-found faith.

5. The tradition of Christ’s resurrection was communicated very early.

6. Men like James, the unbelieving brother of Jesus, and Paul, the persecutor of believers, became believers because of meeting what they thought was the resurrected Jesus.

Let’s consider five explanations of the empty tomb of Jesus and how they are supported by the facts.

1. The Swoon Theory. This theory proposes that Jesus did not really die on the cross; he only passed out and was later revived. This theory is problematic for a few reasons. First, the Romans knew how to kill people. People crucified by the Romans did not survive. Second, even if Jesus could have lived through the crucifixion, there is no way he could have escaped the tomb in his weakened condition. When the Jews buried their dead, they wound them up in strips of cloth, binding their hands and feet. The difficulty of getting free of his graveclothes would have been extraordinary for any man, and much more so for Jesus who had been crucified. Of course, if He had managed to do so, in the mouth of the tomb where he was buried was an enormous stone, and beyond it was a guard of Roman soldiers. It would have been impossible for Jesus to move the stone or sneak past the guards. Third, even if Jesus had survived the crucifixion and managed to escape the tomb, His body would have been in such a horrible state that no one would have mistaken Him for being resurrected. The people who saw Jesus reported He had a glorified, resurrected body, not a body recovering from a crippling ordeal.

2. The Conspiracy Theory. In this scenario, the resurrection is a deception perpetrated by some disciples who stole Jesus body. Some objections to this theory are that, first, if it was a conspiracy, how did the disciples steal the body? It was being guarded by Roman soldiers. The guards knew their lives would be forfeited if they failed in their assignment to guard the body. Second, as mentioned above, the disciples all gave their lives for their belief in the risen Christ. People may lie for personal profit, but few people continue the lie when their lives are on the line.

3. The Hallucination Theory. This hypothesis suggests the disciples hallucinated about a resurrected Jesus. Jesus was still dead and still in the tomb; their belief in His resurrection was simply the product of their overactive imaginations. Problems to this hypothesis include, first, that there was little precedent for thinking that someone could come back from the dead. The Pharisees believed there would be a general resurrection at the end of time, but no one imagined that an individual would resurrect. Second, some of the people who witnessed the resurrected Christ were not his disciples before the resurrection. They only became disciples because of witnessing his resurrection. Third, the reports of Christ’s resurrection are not of the type that can be produced by a hallucination. Hallucinations are always individual occurrences, but Jesus was often seen by groups of people, and in one instance, over five hundred people saw Jesus at one time.

4. The Legend Theory. By this theory, the account of Jesus resurrection is a legend, a myth that grew up over a long period of time. The primary objection to this theory is simply that the written record does not bear it out. The time between the death of Jesus and the written records of his resurrection are short. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians within twenty years of Jesus’ resurrection. The witnesses to the resurrection that he mentions were still alive and available for anyone to interview. Paul’s words are written too soon to be myth. He regards the resurrection as a verifiable historical fact.

5. The Truth. Jesus really rose from the dead. The evidence rules out all natural options that explain away the resurrection, leaving only the supernatural to account for the resurrection that so convinced the first Christians. As Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes famously said, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” As N.T. Wright says, “The proposal that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead possesses unrivaled power to explain the historical data at the heart of early Christianity.”

Some people dismiss the story of Jesus as nothing but a fairy tale, or a myth, but I like what C.S. Lewis said after J.R.R. Tolkien witnessed to him. He wrote, “The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.” The implications of the historical evidence are enormous. They are that Jesus rose from the dead, that Jesus is the God He says He is, and that what the Bible says about God, creation, sin, judgment, eternity, and heaven and hell are true. Two more implications of the resurrection are:

That, yes, indeed, God CARES for you. And that because of this you have a choice to make.

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Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Premise A: People do not rise from the dead

Premise B: God could rise from the dead

Premise C: Jesus rose from the dead

Conclusion: Therefore, Jesus is God.

I love a popular hymn that Christians sing:

I serve a risen Savior, he’s in the world today;

I know that he is living, whatever men may say.

I see his hand of mercy, I feel his voice of cheer;

And just the time I need him, he’s always near.

He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today…

This song celebrates the central fact of Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. According to Paul, Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection of Christ. He writes, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:14). If He was simply a first century teacher whose bones rot away in the grave, then there is no harm in ignoring His teaching. If Jesus did not come back from the dead, there is no point in talking about the atonement, or eschatology, or ecclesiology, or any of the other subjects that theologians love to debate. But if Jesus did rise from the dead, the implications are enormous. A resurrected Jesus is proof that He is who He claimed to be. A resurrected Jesus is proof the Bible is true. A resurrected Jesus is proof that His teachings must be taken seriously

Throughout history, there have been many founders of different religions–like Buddha, Moses, Mohammad, Confucius and Joseph Smith. Jesus is unique in history as a religious leader because of the claim that He would rise from the dead. All the other religious leaders have died and stayed dead. Buddha, Moses, Mohammad, Confucius and Joseph Smith are all dead. But Christianity claims Jesus is alive. How can we know if Jesus really rose from the dead? Let’s look at the evidence.

Evidence that Jesus rose from the dead

The resurrection of Jesus is not a repeatable experiment. One cannot scientifically kill Jesus again and observe the resurrection in the laboratory. The resurrection of Jesus was a one-time event that must be judged through the lens of historical reports. It is in this arena that there is a great deal of evidence for the resurrection.

1. Jesus was crucified. All four Gospel agree on this fact as well as the writings of Paul and the book of Acts. Non-Christian sources also agree. The crucifixion is recorded by Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian, Mara Bar-Serapion, and by the Talmud. But was it a cruci-fiction or crucifixion? One of the Jesus Seminar scholars who is highly skeptical of the life of Jesus, John Dominic Crossan, writes, “That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can be.” E.M. Blaiklock, professor of Classics at Auckland University said, “I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history.”

2. Jesus’ disciples absolutely believed that Jesus rose from the dead. During the trial that preceded the crucifixion, the disciples of Jesus were so afraid they ran away and hid themselves from the Jewish leaders. It was fear that caused Peter to deny Jesus three times. But after the resurrection, the disciples became fearless and preached about Jesus in the Temple courts, to the horror of the Jewish leaders. What caused such a dramatic change? The disciples had seen a risen Jesus with their own eyes.

So convinced were the disciples that Jesus was alive they were willing to give their own lives because of their belief. The disciples suffered humiliation, torture, imprisonment, and martyrdom for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. Of the eleven disciples who witnessed the resurrection, all but one (John), was martyred for his faith. When threatened with death, none of the them recanted or denied their beliefs. It is hard to believe they would have given their lives for the sake of a lie.

Eyewitness testimony proves Jesus rose from the dead. The resurrected Jesus was seen by a variety of individuals and groups. Jesus showed himself alive with many “infallible proofs” over a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), to the eleven disciples hiding behind closed doors (John 20:19-23, 26-29; Mark 16:4-8; Luke 24:36-52), to some of his disciples who had returned to their fishing nets after the crucifixion (John 21:1-14), to Peter (1 Corinthians 15:5), to five hundred of his followers at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6), to James (1 Corinthians 15:7), to a group of disciples at the time of his ascension into heaven (Luke 24:50), and to Paul at his conversion (Acts 9:5; 1 Corinthians 15:8). That there was so much eye-witness testimony gives the strongest credit to the fact of the resurrection. No court would dismiss the evidence of hundreds of people.

3. Great skeptics became great believers. James and Jude, the brothers of Jesus, and Saul, who was to become the Apostle Paul, are three examples of people who did not believe in Jesus before the proof of His resurrection. All were radically changed by the clear belief that Jesus rose from the dead. For James and Jesus’ other brothers, it must have been a bit of a trial to have such a special brother. What is obvious from Scripture is that James and his brothers did not initially believe Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God. That changed after the resurrection. James became the important figure of the church in Jerusalem. He was later killed for his belief. He and his brother Jude each contributed a book to the New Testament.

Saul had no reason to become a Christian. He came from a well-regarded family in a wealthy city. He was trained by one of the greatest rabbis in Jewish history, Gamaliel. He was so zealous for the law of Moses and his Jewish traditions that he went around killing Christians. At the rate he was going, he was destined to become one of the religious leaders of Judaism. Yet, he threw away all of it—his reputation, his wealth, his status, and his position—in order to join his enemies, the Christians because of his encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Because of his new faith in Jesus, he was willing to travel thousands of miles in horrible conditions to preach the Gospel, be stoned, beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and ultimately to be executed. He willingly suffered hardship, torture and persecution so that he could proclaim that Jesus rose from the dead.

4. The tomb was empty. Jesus was publicly crucified and placed inside the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin. Roman soldiers were posted at the tomb with strict instructions to prevent anyone from taking the body. Three days later, the tomb was empty. The disciples were accused of stealing the body, but it is a fact that the body was not in the tomb. The Jewish leaders could have instantly quashed the sect of Christianity by producing Christ’s body. The fact they did not is proof that His body was gone.

5. The first witnesses were women. Women were considered unreliable witnesses in the first century Jewish society so if someone was making up a story about Christ’s resurrection, they would not have made up a story about women finding him first. But this is in fact what the Gospel’s record—that women were the first ones to see the empty tomb and to see the resurrected Savior. The men did not at first believe them and went to the tomb themselves. What they saw—an empty tomb—only confirmed the testimony of the women.

6. Only Christ’s resurrection from the dead can account for the rapid growth of the early church. While Christianity is prominent today, Jesus was an obscure religious teacher in a forgotten corner of the Roman Empire. Yet he started a movement that changed the empire and the world. The reason for the impact of Christianity is that Jesus rose from the dead.

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Jesus’ Impact Proves He is God

No one in all of history has had as much impact as Jesus. Napoleon, the conqueror of Europe, said, “I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”

H.G. Wells, the original science-fiction writer and historian, said, “I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette wrote, “As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by His effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet.”

Philip Schaff observed, “Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science and learning, He shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of school, He spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”

J.B. Phillips said this about Jesus, “God may thunder His commands from Mount Sinai and men may fear, yet remain at heart exactly as they were before. But let a man once see his God down in the arena as a Man–suffering, tempted, sweating, and agonized, finally dying a criminal’s death–and he is a hard man indeed who is untouched.”

Famous and influential people have acknowledged Jesus as the most famous and influential man in history, but the truth is that Jesus claimed to be far more than a man. He claimed to be God.

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Was Jesus a Liar, a Lunatic, or Lord?

Premise A: Jesus claimed to be God

Premise B: Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is what He claimed to be: God

Premise C: Jesus is not a liar or a lunatic

Conclusion: Therefore, Jesus is God

Jesus is either bad, mad, or God. C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, proposes the liar, lunatic, or Lord trilemma. Lewis wrote: “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Was Jesus a Liar? Jesus claimed to be God and even acted like He was God. Is it possible that Jesus made up the story about being God in order to gain attention, power, or money? If it was for any of these reasons, He must have been disappointed in the result. From all we know, while He was not a poor beggar, He was not wealthy. While He was popular for a short time, He was crucified with hardly anyone to mourn his death. The attention that His claims got Him eventually led to His execution. If He had simply renounced His claims of divinity, He would never have been crucified. Most people who are lying stop the dishonesty when their life hangs in the balance. For centuries, even those who are not Christians have recognized the beauty and power of Jesus’ teaching. Gandhi, the father of modern India, said, “To me, [Jesus] was one of the greatest teachers humanity has ever had.” It would be a strange ethical teacher who built his reputation on a foundation of lies. Jesus cannot be both a chronic liar and a great moral teacher.

Was Jesus a Lunatic? Admittedly, some of the things Jesus said sound a little crazy. There are crazy people in the world and sometimes they say similarly crazy things. Perhaps you’ve heard the joke about the two inmates in the psychiatric hospital: Once there was a man in a lunatic asylum who claimed to be Moses reincarnated. The psychologist came into his cell and asked him, “Why do you think you are Moses?” The man explained, “I know I’m Moses incarnated because that’s what God said.” From the next cell came the voice of another inmate who said, “I never said that.” A sane person knows he or she is not creator of the universe, but Jesus claimed to be exactly that.

Evidence against him being crazy rests in the miracles that Jesus performed. A lunatic may claim to be able to heal the sick, but Jesus actually healed the sick. A lunatic might claim to be able to rise from the dead, but only true divinity can come back from the grave. As his moral teaching prove that Jesus is no liar, they also prove that He was not insane.

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, was a deist who accepted Christ’s moral teaching but rejected his miracles. Jefferson used scissors to cut all the supernatural accounts out of the Gospels, but he kept all the teachings of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was a great teacher, but if his teachings are taken seriously, his claims of divinity seriously must be taken just as seriously. Jesus cannot be both a great moral teacher and a lunatic.

Jesus is Lord. The trilemma is solved. Jesus is not a liar. Jesus is not crazy. The only option left of the three is that He is Lord. He is who He claimed to be: the Creator of the Universe, the Son of God. The ultimate proof that Jesus is who He claimed to be is the fact that He rose from the dead. The fact that Jesus claimed to be God and actually provided proof that He is God by rising from the dead once again shows me that: God CARES!

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Did Jesus Claim to be God?

In a Hindu context, it would not be notable for someone to claim to be a god because the Hindus have millions of gods in their pantheon. Likewise, the Greeks and the Romans worshiped many different gods, and the Roman emperors were worshiped as deities. But, Jesus was a Jew and He spoke in the context of a Jewish culture. The foundation of the Jewish religion is monotheism: “Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6.4). Jews worshipped only one God. So, for Jesus to claim to be God was extraordinary. His claim instantly subjected Him to the closet scrutiny of the Jewish religious leaders. Did He in fact claim to be God?

1. Jesus used God’s name to speak of Himself. When Moses saw God in a burning bush, he asked, “Who are you?” God answered, “I AM who I AM.” Jesus used the same terminology when He said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).

He also said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he is dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), “I am the living bread” (John 6:51), “I am the door” (John 10:9), “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:11), “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), and “I am the Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 1:7-8).

In using this terminology, it was clear to his listeners that He was equating himself with YWHW, God, as he revealed himself of the Old Testament. To His Jewish listeners, this was blasphemy. For Jesus to call Himself, “I AM” was the ultimate in hubris. The use of God’s name to describe Himself is proof that Jesus considered Himself to be God.

2. Jesus called Himself the “Son of Man.” Eighty times throughout the Gospels, Jesus refers to Himself as “the Son of Man.” When casual Bible readers hear this term they equate it with Jesus claiming humanity. But, the use of this term must be understood in the context of a vision that the Old Testament prophet Daniel saw:

I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.

Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

In Daniel’s vision, the “Son of Man” is much more than a man. He is the One before whom the whole world bows to worship. When Jesus said of his coming again, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27), He is clearly referencing this vision. When Jesus called Himself “Son of Man,” His listeners knew He was equating Himself with Almighty God.

3. Jesus called Himself the “Son of God.” When Jesus heard His friend Lazarus was sick, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). When the religious Jews heard Jesus use the term “Son of God” in speaking of Himself, they immediately knew He was claiming much more than to be a son of God. The Jews would not kill someone for claiming to be a son of God. But Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and therefore divine. It was for this reason they wanted to kill Him. They said, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7).

4. Jesus claimed to be one with God the Father. Jesus told his disciples, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7). In the next verse, Jesus says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” At another time, when He was speaking in the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). When the religious Jews heard Him say this, it is obvious that they understood Him to be claiming to be God because they immediately tried to kill Him: “The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God’” (John 10:33).

5. Jesus claimed to have ultimate authority. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). How could Jesus claim all authority unless he was also claiming to be God?

6. Jesus allowed others to worship him. The first of the Ten Commandments states: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Accordingly, the worst heresy for a Jew to teach was the worship of anyone other than the One True God. Yet, Jesus accepted the worship of His disciples. When Peter, responding to Jesus question of “Who do you say that I am,” said, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God,” Jesus did not stop him as any good Jew was instantly bound to do. Instead He says to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16.15-17).

Thomas doubted that Jesus rose from the dead and he demanded proof. He said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20.25). Eight days later, Jesus suddenly appeared where the disciples were gathered. Jesus offered His hands for Thomas to examine. Thomas responded by crying out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Thomas worshipped Jesus and Jesus did not rebuke him or tell him he was worshipping the wrong person, instead, Jesus accepts the worship as His rightful due.

7. Jesus claimed to be the Alpha and the Omega. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is revealed to the Apostle John in all His glory:

In the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. (Revelation 1:13-16)

John writes, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away…” (Revelation 20:11). The figure on the throne says to John, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 21:6). When Jesus claims to be the Alpha and the Omega, He is claiming to be the A to the Z and everything in between, the beginning to the end, the One who created the world, and the One who judges the world at the end. In John’s vision, Jesus is awe inspiring and deserving of all glory, and honor, and praise.

Jesus acted like God.

Not only did Jesus claim to be God with His words, He also acted in ways that only God could act.

1. Jesus forgave sins, an act only God can do. Jesus said, “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). By claiming the ability to forgive sins, Jesus was claiming to be God. Once when a paralyzed man was brought to him, Jesus said to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” The religious Jews who heard him said to themselves, “Why does this man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” Jesus who understood their thoughts, replied to them, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” Then he healed the sick man as proof of his power to forgive sins (Mark 2.5-11).

2. Jesus controlled nature. He caused a storm to be stilled by saying, “Peace be still” (Mark 4:39). When was the last time a mere man could control the wind and the waves with his words?

3. Jesus raised the dead. He raised Lazarus from the dead by saying, “Come forth” (John 11:43). You try that at the next funeral you attend. People will think you are crazy. But they wouldn’t think so anymore if the dead person sat up.

4. Jesus promised to do what only God can do. He claimed that he would return to judge the world (Matthew 25:31-32).

The Biblical evidence is clear, not only did Jesus claim to be God, He also acted like God. But, even if someone claims to be God, while it’s possible that the claim could be true, it’s also very possible they could be lying or they might even be crazy. Which one was Jesus? Let’s take a look at these three options.

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Did Jesus Really Exist?

Premise A: If Jesus existed, there would be historical records to support this.

Premise B: The Gospels and other historical records of Jesus life exist.

Conclusion: Therefore, Jesus existed.

Was Jesus a real person? Did He really live in Israel approximately two thousand years ago? How do we know what Jesus really said and did? Lee Strobel was an investigative journalist before he became a Christian. Instead of looking for scientific proof of God’s existence, he decided to approach the question of Jesus’ existence the same way an investigative journalist approaches as news story. His search was for legal proof that could establish a case “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In The Case for Christ he interviews top scholars concerning historical proof for the claims of Christ.

Lee Strobel asks, “How do we know anything about the past?” How do we know that George Washington crossed the Delaware, or that Plato really lived? None of us were alive back then. Our knowledge of history must rely upon historical reports. In the case of Washington and Plato, we rely on writings that tell us about their lives. Even though we never saw them ourselves, we can judge the reliability of eyewitness reports about them. Scholars believe Washington existed because they believe the reports that were written about his life.

In the case of Jesus, we have four different reports that have been written about His life by people who were eyewitnesses or who interviewed eyewitnesses about his life. These four reports are known as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In addition to the Gospels, there are a variety of other historical reports that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus really existed. Let’s look at some of the evidence.

The Epistles prove that Jesus existed

The Apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians in approximately 50 A.D. In this book, written twenty years after Jesus ascended to heaven, he confirms that Jesus lived, died, and rose again. In his first letter to the Corinthians believers, Paul states:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

When Paul says that the 500 people who saw Jesus after the resurrection were still alive, he means that they can be called on to corroborate his testimony. The Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and other New Testament epistles give evidence of a community of Christians who believed in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ during the mid-first century.

The four Gospels prove Jesus existed

Gospel simply means good news, and that’s what the four Gospels give us—the good news about Jesus the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels because they contain much of the same material. This material (known by scholars as the Q material), may have come directly from the pen of someone who wrote down Jesus’ words as he spoke them. Perhaps Matthew, a well-educated tax collector, kept a notebook of Jesus’ sayings. The Gospel of John was written by “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John personally walked and talked with Jesus. He saw the miracles he records with his own eyes.

Each of the Gospel writers provides a valuable and slightly different perspective. Matthew writes to a Jewish audience, Mark writes to people living in Rome, Luke writes his Gospel to the Gentiles, and John writes to the Church. Because they are writing to different audiences, the Gospel writers emphasize different aspects of the ministry of Jesus. Matthew focuses on Jesus as the long-awaited king, Mark presents Jesus as a suffering servant, Luke emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, and John reveals the divinity of Jesus.

Much ado has been made about so-called “inconsistencies” between the different Gospel accounts. But, the differences in the stories of the Gospel writers are not a weakness; instead they are strengths. Each of the Gospel writers had a different perspective, just as different witnesses at a car wreck remember different details of what they witnessed. David Limbaugh writes, “These variations are not contradictions. In fact, they add weight to the authenticity of the writings, since if the writers aimed to produce fully synchronized narratives, they could have colluded to vet any discrepancies.”

Some have argued that one cannot accept the Gospels as evidence for the life of Jesus because they were written by Christians—the idea being that only non-Christians could be trusted to tell the objective truth about Jesus. But this line of argument is like only trusting books on BBQ that are written by vegans. Often the best proof can be found in the writings of those who have been most impacted by an event. After carefully examining the evidence of the four accounts about the life of Jesus, it can be said with great certainty that Jesus really lived, preached, performed miracles, died, and rose from the dead.

Non-Christian writers prove that Jesus existed

Evidence for the life of Jesus is not just found in the Gospels. He is mentioned by a variety of non-Christian writers in the years following his death.

1. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, mentions Jesus twice in his Antiquities of the Jews. The first time he mentions Christ is when he writes about the condemnation of James “the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ.”Later he writes:

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and from the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who became his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive.

Some scholars think part of this statement might be an interpolation by a later Christian editor, but the fact that a Jewish historian mentions Jesus at all is significant.

2. Pliny the Younger wrote to Emperor Trajan around A.D. 112 seeking advice concerning the prosecution of Christians in the court of law. Concerning Christians, he writes,

They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.

3. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing in 115 A.D about the fire that destroyed Rome in A.D. 64, records:

Nero fastened the guilt […] on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our Procurators Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome.

4. In 115 A.D. Suetonius wrote about Claudius who was emperor from 41-54. He mentions how a group of Jews were deported from Rome during his reign after disturbances “on the instigation of Chrestus.” It is likely that he misspelled Christus. If so, this reference puts Christians living in Rome in the 50’s A.D.

4. The Babylonian Talmud mentions Jesus in a negative light. In writings dated to A.D. 70-200, they say, “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald […] cried, ‘He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy’.”

5. Lucian of Samosata, a second century Greek satirist, wrote about the Christians,

The Christians […] worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account […]. [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.

Yes, Jesus was there

The enormous number of written accounts of Jesus’ existence written just a few decades after his life provide overwhelming evidence He really existed. Few historians question the existence of Hannibal, the rebel general during the Second Punic War, yet the earliest account we have of him was written by Polybius about one hundred years after the war was over. Most of we know about Hannibal comes from another historian, Livy, writing more than two hundred years after the fact. The evidence for the life of Buddha in the Pāli Canon was written down about five hundred years after he was alive. But no one disputes the existence of Buddha or the main events of his life. Compared to the historical record supporting Hannibal and Buddha, the written evidence for the existence of Jesus and the events of His life could be considered “hot-off-the-press.” Based on this evidence, it is certain that Jesus was a real person.

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