The Paradox of Victory through Surrender: Rise Above

We tend to go through a lot of weighty material, exploring truth claims, philosophy, and apologetics.  But the Christian faith is also a heart issue, found in the depths of the struggles of this life.  To that end, I'd like share a short speech I gave recently.  I was asked to share my testimony of how I became a Christian at a Salvation Army conference called "Rise Above."  It was part of a nation wide conference called "Youth Councils" where the youth of Salvation Army and young adult leaders come together to learn, grow, and worship together.  I gave this testimony, my testimony, on April 18th 2015 in front of several hundred listeners.  It went really well, though I was terrified.  Several people came up and gave me hugs afterward and wished me well.  It was a wonderful experience!  

What is your testimony?  How can you share it with those around you?  It means more than you think.  Our first hand encounters with God are often much more powerful than dry statistics and scientific examples.  People are hurting, and they want to see and learn how hurting people can break free of confusion and apathy.   

The idea is simple... victory from surrender.  Confusing?  A bit.  Contradictory?  Not at all.  Paradoxical?  Certainly.  But God often works in such ways.  Anyway...

Here is the testimony I gave at the conference in Green Bay:

Hello. Its an honor to be in your presence. I told a friend after the last Salvation Army conference I attended, that I'd found a home in the Salvation Army. And she asked why? And I said because they're as nerdy as I am.

I've worked at a salvation army homeless shelter for the last year, and let me tell you, it's been a struggle. To be honest there were several times that I felt like I wanted to throw in the towel. But praise God I didn't.

So when I say its an honor to be in your presence. I mean that. What we do is not easy.

I'd like to share some of my story with you, how I came to this point.

William Booth said:"The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender." That statement is what you call a paradox. How can power flow from surrender? Keep that statement in the back of your mind as I share my story.

One of my first memories, was as a child, around age 4 or 5, looking up into the sky and wondering.. why do I exist? At the moment I felt the joy and discovery of new life. Yet the question remained: Why am I here?

Jump forward 10 years, and the first of a long journey downward began, with the destruction of my family, in a bitter, cold divorce. Suffering, strain, and sorrow have a way of refining the search for truth and meaning.

From right around that age, I began to increasingly see the evil and suffering in the world around me. I never knew what I wanted to do with my life. Never could quite place it. But I knew one thing.. I wanted to save the world. Can anyone else relate to wanting to see a better world? (raise your hand)

And yet pain, and sorrow, and confusion. My family crumbling. What was the solution? As the family problems grew worse and worse, I had been given anti-depressants, and then anti-anxiety meds, and sleep meds. So I started taking pills. Pills led to alcohol. Alcohol, to cigarettes, cigarettes, to marijuana. Marijuana to other drugs. Depression grew. 

 

Charges eventually began to accumulate. I was in jail several times. Placed on probation. Drunk driving charges. Drug charges.

Yet the search continued. Why am I here? What is my purpose? What is the solution to all the problems of the world? I read books, Henry Thoreau, Aldous Huxley, HG Wells, George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, and eventually began to study a great deal regarding politics, philosophy, and spirituality. I began attending college, and found an increasing interest in writing and journalism.

Yet the agony of life in those days was profound. It seemed like I went from blunder to blunder. I wept bitterly in a jail cell reading the book of Job over and over. I did drugs daily, and one night found myself laying on the road, in the middle of the night outside my house calling out "just do it, run me over." Incident after incident, new low after new low.

The darkness of those days I would fondly recall as the "year of no light" in my many pages of writing. Yet that year seemed to repeat over and over and over again. Eventually I gave my life the grim title "the repeating disaster." Because the same cycle seemed to repeat over and over.

I would write endless pages pondering the meaning of life. I would take walks in the middle of the night, sometimes every night, yearning for an answer, staring up at the stars, wondering how things might change.

How could I rise above? How could I escape the repeating disaster?

By age 27, I had lost all of my friends. My family had given up on me. I had been hospitalized in the emergency room twice for drug overdose. I recall one night in the emergency room ICU, the doctor came in and told me, we're not sure if you're going to make it through the night. Then he slammed the door. As if my life didn't matter. I burst out crying. My mother next to me, burst out crying. I felt an emptiness like I'd never experienced before. It was really over. I'm going to die.

I had been such a kind young man at one time. So full of life. So full of hope. So full of drive to change the world. But the problem was not just outside me. It was within me. 

 

And I was a slave to addictions, and compulsions, and sins, chains that were not breakable. I had tried, the steel was too thick. I couldn't rise above. I could tread water for a while, but I always dipped under again.

During that last year I began carrying a Bible around with me as I wandered the city in constant despair and sadness. I read from Genesis again and again the story of Jacob. How he ran from his brother, ran from God, fled him out the days and nights in fear. Yet despite Jacob's failings, God pursued him, and showed him the stairway to heaven. Jacob wrestled with God, and admitted who he truly was before God. And God made a great man of him as a result.

And I read the gospel of John, over and over. It said..

"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." John 1:4  

"the Word became flesh & dwelt among us & we have seen his glory" John1:14

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32

I had seen my foundation shattered. I had lost all hope. I lost my family. I lost my friends. I'd become enslaved to addictions so powerful they had engulfed me. I had been sent to jail. Judged, prescribed to, diagnosed, and declared a danger to myself and others. I had been condemned before my fellow man. I had become a vagabond. I despised my own life. I had failed in my desire to help the world. I had done terrible things. I had become terrible things. I had let everyone down. And my body now, was physically crumbling.

At that moment, at rock bottom, for some odd reason, I crawled onto the floor in my living room, in the dark.. now this is something I would never do. And I'm still not sure exactly what happened.. but I got down on the carpet, on the floor, and I realized who to call out to. Call out to Jesus. And I cried out, loudly in the room, I cried, JESUS SAVE ME. I remember at that moment it was like the words echoed, the call rumbled through my being. I felt the ground shaking around me. I was terrified. Am I going crazy?

Yet after that day, November 1st, 2012, I never had to drink or drug again. And everything in my life changed as a result of a call for help.. to one man: Jesus Christ. 

 

Reaching out across the years, I had asked...

Where do I go from here? How can I rise above? Jesus said, "I am the way."

I asked: What is the truth? Jesus said, "I am the truth."

I asked: How do I live? Jesus said, "I am the life."

Here were the answers to all those ancient questions.

I began attending a church, and support groups. I was baptized into the body of Christ. I learned to follow Jesus, and see the world through the eyes of the Christian worldview. I began studying religion at Liberty University. I wrote a blog on my journey. And I was hired at a Salvation Army homeless shelter. 2 years later I asked God, what next? Where do you want me? And it began to seem clear, I should pursue officership... among you fine people.

I've become a new man. Not by my strength. Not by my cunning, no. But through surrender, as William Booth said. I've become a new man because the Great Physician, Jesus, has given me new life, in his grace. Not metaphorically, but literally, he has saved me.

So many want us to try and drag ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But thats impossible. Victory is only possible, paradoxically, by surrender at the cross of Jesus Christ. I tossed aside my approach to life, and gave in to his. I admitted God was in fact, God. There is only one way to rise above this world, the temptations, the sins, the addictions, and the lies.. and it's by radical submission to the way, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not just a story.. This is not just a tradition. It's real. I know it for a fact. Jesus is alive. God is real. What we have here in our midst is the truth. All my questions, all my searching, all my hopes to be a hero, to be a man of honor.. were impossible before. Now, anything is possible. All of those yearnings are "yes" in Christ. Believe in him. Dare to really follow him. Experience the victory found in surrender, as I did.

Let's pray. Lord, give us hearts to serve you, and hearts to serve others. Thank you for saving us from ourselves. Amen. Thank you.

Related Posts:

• Reflections on the Salvation Army Regeneration Conference
• How to trigger a Great Awakening 
• You Oh Lord are my Strength: The Manifold Provision of the Architect of Reality
• What is the will of God? 
• Am I called to Ministry? How can I know? 
• The Stairway to Heaven 
• Depression & Meaninglessness: Where is God in the depths of despair?
• Ten Years in the Desert, Two Years in the Wilderness
• A Vital Spiritual Experience 
• Be a Man 
• Called from the Dead End course of the World
      

Expert Testimony: the Demise of Evolution, Complexity in DNA, & the Resurrection of Christ

“If the Bible is not the Word of God and inspired, the whole of Christendom for 1800 years has been under an immense delusion; half the human race has been cheated and deceived, and churches are monuments of folly. If the Bible is the Word of God and inspired, all who refuse to believe it are in fearful danger; they are living on the brink of eternal misery. No man, in his sober senses, can fail to see that the whole subject demands most serious attention.”
–J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

Life, death, truth, falsehood, we face down the greatest questions of our time on this website.  And why not anyhow?  Dare we dismiss all inquiry, sacrificed at the altar of post-modernism?  Should we dismiss all comprehension of a creator to give ourselves an open season to depravity?  No, we shall not!  Truth is truth, and we must know it while the chance is available to us.

In the United States we love experts.  We look to the experts for everything from psychology to politics and of course to the sciences.  Expert testimony is vital in determining if indeed there is a God, or if there is not.  Unfortunately the playing field is not always even.  Or as Dr. Ravi Zacharias said, "Man's problem is not the absence of evidence but the suppression of it."

Since the famed scopes trial evolutionary biology has fought it's way from the outside, to the very center of the US educational system.  Darwinian evolution is powerful and entrenched.  Dissent is silenced, yet many brave men and women, scientists, have the courage to stand for the truth.  What can we learn from them?  Did we really rise from the muck?  Or does the emperor have no clothes?  

Next we look at complexity in DNA, observed by scientists as evidence for the existence of God.  Given such severe complexity, such incredible loads of information, what conclusions can we draw?

Finally, we look at the very center of the Christian faith: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Before we dismiss the miraculous as impossible, perhaps we should recheck that underlying assumption.  Are miracles really absurd?  Is there solid evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ?  And is it really so ludicrous to think that the God who made the universe from nothing could bring back this man from the dead?  Consider these questions, and the assumptions underneath prior beliefs when examining these quotations from great thinkers across the ages.  Enjoy.

The Demise of Evolution

 “Scientists who utterly reject evolution may be one of our fastest-growing controversial minorities...Many of the scientists supporting this position hold impressive credentials in science.” –Larry Hatfield, “Educators Against Darwin,” Science Digest Special (Winter 1979), pp. 94-96.

“These are exciting times. When I finished the Epilogue to Darwin on Trial in 1993, I compared evolutionary naturalism to a great battleship afloat on the Ocean of Reality. The ship's sides are heavily armored with philosophical and legal barriers to criticism, and its decks are stacked with 16-inch rhetorical guns to intimidate would-be attackers. In appearance, it is as impregnable as the Soviet Union seemed a few years ago. But the ship has sprung a metaphysical leak, and that leak widens as more and more people understand it and draw attention to the conflict between empirical science and materialist philosophy. The more perceptive of the ship's officers know that the ship is doomed if the leak cannot be plugged. The struggle to save the ship will go on for a while, and meanwhile there will even be academic wine-and-cheese parties on the deck. In the end, the ship's great firepower and ponderous armor will only help drag it to the bottom. Reality will win.” –Phillip E. Johnson in an article, “How to Sink a Battleship: A call to separate materialist philosophy from empirical science.”

“According to Darwinists, there is such overwhelming evidence for their view that it should be considered a fact. Yet to the Darwinists' dismay, at least three-quarters of the American people - citizens of the most scientifically advanced country in history - reject it....The truth is Darwinism is not a scientific theory, but a materialistic creation myth masquerading as science. It is first and foremost a weapon against religion - especially traditional Christianity. Evidence is brought in afterwards, as window dressing. This is becoming increasingly obvious to the American people, who are not the ignorant backwoods religious dogmatists that Darwinists make them out to be. Darwinists insult the intelligence of American taxpayers and at the same time depend on them for support. This is an inherently unstable situation, and it cannot last. If I were a Darwinist, I would be afraid. Very afraid.” –Jonathan Wells, American molecular biologist


“A Chinese paleontologist lectures around the world saying that recent fossil finds in his country are inconsistent with the Darwinian theory of evolution. His reason: The major animal groups appear abruptly in the rocks over a relatively short time, rather than evolving gradually from a common ancestor as Darwin’s theory predicts. When this conclusion upsets American scientists, he wryly comments: "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government but not Darwin.” –Phillip E. Johnson in an article, “The Church of Darwin.”

“Even if all the data points to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.” –Dr. Scott Todd, Kansas State University

Complexity in DNA

“Just one living cell in the human body is, more complex than New York City.” –Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize winner

“There is enough information capacity in a single human cell to store the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times over.” –Richard Dawkins, prominent atheist ethologist & biologist


"Human DNA contains more organized information than the Encyclopedia Britannica. If the full text of the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer code from outer space, most people would regard this as proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But when seen in nature, it is explained as the workings of random forces." –George Sim Johnson, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, 219.

“DNA is like a computer program, but far, far more advanced that any software we've ever created.” –Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft  

“It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design.” –Antony Flew, English Philosopher & former atheist turned theist

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

“I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” –Thomas Arnold, historian and Oxford professor

“If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, in which Jesus was buried, was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy, or archaeology that would disprove this statement.” –Paul Maier, Historian Emeritus, Western Michigan University


“They [the disciples] were testifying to the resurrection, a question of fact, not merely of faith. They were convinced of an event. And their willingness to die for attesting to that event is far more convincing that the willingness of others to die for a mere belief or because of loyalty to a religion or religious leader.” –Dave Hunt, Christian Apologist & Author

“Raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.”
–Brooke Foss Westcott, British Bishop, Biblical Scholar & Theologian

“If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the reality of the Christian church and its phenomenal growth in the first three centuries of the Christian era? Christ's church covered the Western world by the fourth century. A religious movement built on a lie could not have accomplished that....All the power of Rome and of the religious establishment in Jerusalem was geared to stop the Christian faith. All they had to do was to dig up the grave and to present the corpse. They didn’t.” –Henry Schaefer III, computational & theoretical chemist, University of Georgia 

In other words, welcome to the family, should you decide that now is the moment to embrace what is seen to be true... ultimately the choice is yours.  The architect of the universe loves us enough to give us a choice, whether to embrace him, or ignore him.  Imagine that.    

 Related Posts:

•  Expert Testimony: The Existence of God, the Problem of Evil & the Facts on the Bible
• Expert Testimony: The Anthropic Principle, Anthropology, & the Historicity
• Expert Testimony: Intelligent Design, Archaeology, & the Historical Jesus 
• What is the Gospel?
• Does man need God in Western Civilization: Young People are Hungry for the Truth
• Real Christianity: Clothing, Buildings, Money, & Extravagance
• Seven Objections to the Bible and Seven Reasonable Responses
• 10 Answers to Common Questions Raised by Skeptics 
• The Entrenched vs. the Minimized: Five Paradigms of Western Civilization
• Unity in Diversity: Beings in Relationship  

Expert Testimony: Intelligent Design, Archaeology, & the Historical Jesus

“Christianity is...rarely understood by those outside its bounds. In fact, this is probably one of the greatest tasks confronting the apologist–to rescue Christianity from misunderstandings.”
–Alister E. McGrath, theologian, historian, and scientist, Andreas Idreos Professorship in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford

We've recently gone through expert testimony in six areas of inquiry, organized into the past two posts:

Expert Testimony: The Existence of God, the Problem of Evil, and the Facts on the Bible 

Expert Testimony: The Anthropic Principle, Anthropology, and Historicity 

Now we come to three additional areas of inquiry: intelligent design, archaeology, and the historical Jesus.  Expert testimony is very important to the verification of truth claims.  Is Christianity really the truth about reality?  That is the ultimate question.  If it isn't then it ought to be disregarded.  If it is, then it ought to be followed.  It ought to be the lenses through which we see reality.  The truth is so very important.  Can we know truth?  Yes indeed we can.  

Intelligent design seeks to describe the scientific case for a designer of the universe.  Archaeology is a discipline by which history may be discovered by excavating dig sites and examining artifacts for their historical implications.  The idea of "The Historical Jesus" is approaching the person of Jesus Christ from a historical angle, asking ourselves: Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist?  Is there evidence to support the conclusion that he did exist?  Let's see what some experts have to say on these three important topics: 
 


Intelligent Design
Is there positive evidence for design? 
 
(1) Biochemistry
 Natural structures contain many parts arranged in intricate patterns that perform a specific function (e.g., they contain high CSI). These include language-based codes in our DNA, irreducibly complex molecular machines like the bacterial flagellum, and highly specified protein sequences. Regarding the latter example, mutational sensitivity tests and genetic knockout experiments have shown that the amino acid sequences of functional proteins must be highly complex and specified in order to function.

(2) Paleontology
Biological novelty commonly appears in the fossil record suddenly, ‘fully formed,’ and without similar precursors or evolutionary intermediates. The Cambrian explosion is a prime example, but there are many other examples in the fossil record, including a bird explosion, an angiosperm explosion, and a mammal explosion. Even our genus Homo appears abruptly.

(3) Systematics
Highly similar parts have been found re-used in widely different organisms where even evolutionists believe the common ancestor did not have the part in question. Examples include genes controlling eye or limb growth in different organisms whose alleged common ancestors are not thought to have had such forms of eyes or limbs. There are numerous examples of extreme convergent genetic evolution, including similar genes used in whales and bats for echolocation. These examples are best explained by common design. Genes and functional parts are commonly not distributed in a “tree-like” pattern or nested hierarchy predicted by common ancestry.

(4) Genetics
Studies have discovered mass-functionality for “junk-DNA.” Specific examples include functionality in pseudogenes, microRNAs, introns, endogenous retroviruses, and repetitive LINE, SINE, and Alu elements. Examples of unknown DNA functions persist, but ID encourages researchers to investigate functions, whereas neo-Darwinism has discouraged seeking such function.

 All quotations from Evolution News: The College Student's Back to School Guide to Intelligent Design
www.intelligentdesign.org




Archaeology
Do archaeological findings support or refute the Biblical narrative?

 “Archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine.” –Millar Burrows, former Yale University professor

 “Where the data of the Gospels can be tested, they consistently have proven to be remarkably accurate, especially in John. Archaeologists have unearthed the five porticoes of the pool of Bethesda by the Sheep Gate (John 5:2), the pool of Siloam (9:1-7), Jacob's well at Sychar (4:5), the "Pavement" (Gabbatha) where Pilate tried Jesus (19:13), and Solomon's porch in the temple precincts (10:22-23). As recently as 1961 an inscription was discovered in Caesarea, providing for the first time extrabiblical corroboration of Pilate as Judea's prefect during the time of Christ. Since the, discovery of an ossuary (bone-box) of a crucified man named Johanan from first-century Palestine confirms that nails were driven in his ankles, as in Christ's; previously some skeptics thought that that Romans used only ropes to affix the legs of condemned men to their crosses....In 1990, the burial grounds of Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest, and his family were uncovered in Jerusalem. These and numerous other details create a favorable impression of the Gospels' trustworthiness in the areas in which they can be tested.” –Craig L. Blomberg, New Testament Scholar at Denver Seminary


 “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.” –Nelson Glueck, American Archaeologist and Academic.  Pioneer in Biblical Archaeology

“It is not too much to say that it was the rise of the science of archeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christian. Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible, were restored to their proper place in ancient history by the studies of archeologists…The over-all result is indisputable. Forgotten cities have been found, the handiwork of vanished peoples has reappeared, contemporary records of Biblical events have been unearthed and the uniqueness of biblical revelation has been emphasized by contrast and comparison to the newly understood religions of ancient peoples. Nowhere has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible as history.” –John Elder, Archaeologist (Quoted in Don Stewart, The Ten Wonders of the Bible, 1990, p. 58)

The Historical Jesus
Was there a historical person named Jesus of Nazareth? 

“I am an 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.” –H. G. Wells, prolific English author

“Do you believe in the existence of Socrates? Alexander the Great? Julius Caesar? If historicity is established by written records in multiple copies that date originally from near contemporaneous sources, there is far more proof for Christ’s existence than for any of theirs.” –Dinesh D’Souza, What’s So Great About Christianity, p. 296.

“The “Encyclopedia Britannica, fifteenth edition, devotes 20,000 words to the person of Jesus Christ and never once hints that He didn’t exist.” –John Ankerberg, Author & Theologian, Ankerberg Theological Institute


“That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic, and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of life, character, and teaching of Christ remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man” –Will Durant, renowned historian who devoted his life to the study of records of antiquity, Caesar and Christ, in The Story of Civilization, vol. 3, 1944, p. 557.

 
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• Quick Fact Sheet: Four Points to Consider 
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• Nine Documentaries & Presentations on Atheism, Intelligent Design and the Existence of God
• Life Formula for the Growing Christian
• What is Salvation?
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• Reasonable Evidence for Christianity & Intelligent Videos
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Expert Testimony: The Anthropic Principle, Anthropology, and Historicity

“The Christian faith does not call for us to put our minds on the shelf, to fly in the face of common sense and history, or to make a leap of faith into the dark. The rational person, fully apprised of the evidence, can confidently believe...” –William Lane Craig

What is faith exactly?  Is it unyielding belief in the absurd as Richard Dawkins has suggested?  Is it trust in propositions that exist in contradiction to reality?  Or is faith something else?  Could it be possible that faith is reasonable, even logical?

We all put our faith in a certain ideology.  An atheist puts his or her faith in naturalistic conclusions, the belief that all things can be explained through natural means.  Is that a scientific conclusion, or a belief structure?  A Christian puts his or her faith in conclusions based on theological constructs of reality.  Is that entirely unscientific, or reasonable faith?

"I actually do not believe that there are any collisions between what I believe as a Christian, and what I know and have learned about as a scientist. I think there's a broad perception that that's the case, and that's what scares many scientists away from a serious consideration of faith." Francis Collins

I see three key areas as vital to my faith, which I see as intelligent faith.  We've often discussed the anthropic principle, or the evidence that the universe is tuned to allow for stars, planets, and life.  That is a vital first step toward intelligent faith.  To ignore the anthropic principle seems to me, insincere.  Second, it's important to understand anthropology, or the study of man.  More specifically I look to the heart of man.  Which means I'm trying to understand the common perspective from which I view the evidence and inquire of reality around me.  If I'm to be honest, as much so as possible at least, I must see my own inclinations and desires in how they affect my conclusions.  And finally historical voracity.  Since I am not able to inquire of the accounts of Christ by scientific measurements, how am I to inquire?  I am to inquire by the tests of historical verification.  How do historians decide on the credibility of events that took place in the past?  History is credible when it meets certain requirements, as we will see.

Once again as we've done in the past, we'll be looking at expert testimony, quotes from great minds to discover what their conclusions were regarding these three key topics.  So let's take a look.

The Anthropic Principle
the fine tuning of the universe

“If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.” –Robert Jastrow, agnostic astronomer, author of God and the Astronomers

“An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.” –Francis Crick, biochemist and spiritual skeptic, shared the Nobel Prize for discovering the molecular structure of DNA 

“There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all....It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature's numbers to make the universe....The impression of design is overwhelming.” – Paul Davies, an internationally known British astrophysicist and author

“When you realize that the laws of nature must be incredibly finely tuned to produce the universe we see, that conspires to plant the idea that the universe did not just happen, but that there must be a purpose behind it.” – John Polkinghorne, renowned theoretical physicist 

“Many have a feeling that somehow intelligence must have been involved in the laws of the universe....I strongly sense the presence and actions of a creative being far beyond myself and yet always personal and close by.” – Charles Townes, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

"God is an awesome mathematician and physicist." -Francis Collins, award winning physician-geneticist, distinguished leadership in the Human Genome Project

 Anthropology
the study of man

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
C. S. Lewis, famous author, The Weight of Glory


 "Education, the great mumbo-jumbo and fraud of the age, purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part it only serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brain-washers with printing presses, radio and TV at their disposal." Malcolm Muggeridge, famous journalist & author, in the "Observer", 1966

“Many people are being persuaded that they cannot be considered intelligent or well educated if they insist on the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Book. Let me say to you that truth has always lived with the minority; what the majority says at a given moment is usually wrong. The crowd one day cried, “Crucify him,” and the whole world united to murder the Son of God, because in their ignorance they knew Him not.” –Alan Redpath, Victorious Christian Service: Studies in the Book of Nehemiah, p. 113.

“There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.” –G. K. Chesterton, English philosopher & author


“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”–C. S. Lewis, famed author

“Therefore, when a person refuses to come to Christ it is never just because of lack of evidence or because of intellectual difficulties: at root, he refuses to come because he willingly ignores and rejects the drawing of God's Spirit on his heart. No one in the final analysis really fails to become a Christian because of lack of arguments; he fails to become a Christian because he loves darkness rather than light and wants nothing to do with God.” –William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, p. 35-36.

“As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene...No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.” –Albert Einstein, famous scientist, Nobel prize winner 

Historicity
historical verification
“I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” –Thomas Arnold, historian and Oxford professor

“If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, in which Jesus was buried, was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy, or archaeology that would disprove this statement.” –Paul Maier, historian, Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University

“They [the disciples] were testifying to the resurrection, a question of fact, not merely of faith. They were convinced of an event. And their willingness to die for attesting to that event is far more convincing that the willingness of others to die for a mere belief or because of loyalty to a religion or religious leader.” –Dave Hunt, Christian apologist & author

“I claim to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And 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...” – E. M. Blaiklock, Professor of Classics at Auckland University

“If Jesus remained dead, how can you explain the reality of the Christian church and its phenomenal growth in the first three centuries of the Christian era? Christ's church covered the Western world by the fourth century. A religious movement built on a lie could not have accomplished that....All the power of Rome and of the religious establishment in Jerusalem was geared to stop the Christian faith. All they had to do was to dig up the grave and to present the corpse. They didn’t.” –Henry Schaefer III, Professor of Chemistry University of Georgia, highly cited scientist H-index 110.

“The fact that the Christian fellowship, founded on belief in Jesus’ resurrection, could come into existence and flourish in the very city where he was executed and buried seems to be compelling evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb.” –William Lane Craig, Christian author and speaker, Biola University

  
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Further Reading on this Website:

• Expert Testimony: The Existence of God, the Problem of Evil, & the Facts on the Bible
• Origin, Meaning, Morality, & Destiny
• Apologetics: Answering Atheism, Naturalism in the USA, and the Bible 
• No Evidence for God?
• Daybreak: Examining the Problem of Pain  
• Journey of the Christian through the Forest 
• True Christianity vs. the Modern Culture 
• Secular Views vs. Christian Truth 
• Questions on Salvation and God
• The Search for Truth & Meaning