How Do You Know Christianity Is True?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | As Pastor John Piper finishes up his travels through the Middle East during the month of November,
00:00:09.000 | we're going back and listening to a few Ask Pastor John recordings from years past.
00:00:13.000 | And a few years back, he was asked this question,
00:00:17.000 | "What are some ways we can know Christianity is true?"
00:00:21.000 | Here's what Pastor John had to say.
00:00:23.000 | You can come at the truth of Christianity through several angles of apologetics or of reasoning.
00:00:36.000 | Let me mention a few and tell you the one that is most existentially real for me.
00:00:43.000 | One would be historical.
00:00:46.000 | I think arguments can be mounted that are solid and compelling,
00:00:53.000 | first for the existence of Jesus, and then for the death of Jesus,
00:00:57.000 | and for the resurrection of Jesus to give an account for why the Apostles were the way they were after his death.
00:01:06.000 | So that the arguments that Pondenberg has developed or evangelicals have developed
00:01:12.000 | for the resurrection of the dead, "who moved the stone" type arguments, that's the name of the book,
00:01:18.000 | are strong and have helped many people get over the barrier.
00:01:23.000 | Because if Jesus has been raised from the dead, never to die again, and ascend into heaven,
00:01:30.000 | then we should take very seriously and credit what he said about himself.
00:01:36.000 | So that's one line of evidence.
00:01:38.000 | A second line of evidence would be what would be called presuppositional,
00:01:45.000 | that without God as an assumption, without the Bible as an assumption,
00:01:52.000 | all of our reasoning processes or all of our perceiving processes are not possible.
00:01:59.000 | In other words, every time we start thinking and every time we start perceiving,
00:02:04.000 | something is happening in our heads which assumes something.
00:02:08.000 | And if you're going to have any kind of credible conversation about what you're thinking or about what you're seeing,
00:02:15.000 | then you are assuming certain laws of logic, certain laws of causality, certain laws of existence,
00:02:23.000 | which can't have any bearing or absolute significance unless they're rooted in God.
00:02:30.000 | So everybody's talking nonsense, but hardly anybody will say we're all just animals talking nonsense.
00:02:37.000 | Even those who are total secular naturalistic evolutionists don't like to be treated like animals.
00:02:44.000 | When a dog barks, I don't assume he's writing poetry.
00:02:48.000 | But when a man puts poetry down, I assume he wants me to take him seriously as a human being,
00:02:54.000 | because it has serious meaning there and he doesn't like it if I say, "Oh, that's just chicken scratch."
00:03:01.000 | So he's assuming something unbelievably profound about the significance and the basis of what he's doing,
00:03:07.000 | which he can't unless there's this Christian construction of God.
00:03:12.000 | So that's the presuppositional angle.
00:03:16.000 | Here's the third one and the last one that is most significant to me.
00:03:21.000 | How do you, when you want to decide if a testimony, a witness that somebody has is true?
00:03:30.000 | You weren't there, there were no videos, there was no recording,
00:03:35.000 | and you have to decide whether what he's saying happened, happened.
00:03:40.000 | So that's, when I read this book, that's the way I feel I am.
00:03:44.000 | I'm reading Paul say, 13 letters of the Apostle Paul,
00:03:48.000 | and he's telling me he saw the Lord Jesus.
00:03:54.000 | He's telling me that he was knocked off his donkey on the Damascus Road,
00:03:58.000 | saw the Lord Jesus, was commissioned by the Lord Jesus, and now is inspired by the Lord Jesus.
00:04:04.000 | And then he interprets all of that in terms of the gospel.
00:04:08.000 | Now, I've got to reckon with, Paul, are you a lunatic?
00:04:13.000 | Are you a liar? Or are you telling the truth?
00:04:17.000 | That's usually used with Jesus, you know, lunatic, liar, or Lord.
00:04:21.000 | I think it's a good argument, and I use it for the writers of the New Testament,
00:04:25.000 | not just for Jesus, because that's what I, I know that I've got Paul right here in my hand.
00:04:31.000 | I've got Paul right here in my hand, and I want to know, are you crazy?
00:04:36.000 | So when I'm reading the Bible, whether it's the Gospel of John or whether it's Romans,
00:04:41.000 | I'm asking the question, how can I credit what's here, both the testimony of the man and the portrait of Jesus?
00:04:50.000 | And I think there is a light that stands forth from the text of the truthfulness of Jesus that is self-authenticating.
00:05:03.000 | And there is a kind of character for the writers that stands forth that is authenticating of their solidity,
00:05:13.000 | their truthfulness, that they're not lunatics and they're not liars.
00:05:19.000 | And I would find it, if somebody said to me today, "Okay, just give me in 30 seconds why you're a Christian,"
00:05:25.000 | I would say, number one, the portrait that I see of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is self-authenticating to me.
00:05:32.000 | I cannot meet this man and have him speak like nobody else spoke and not believe him.
00:05:39.000 | He wins my trust.
00:05:42.000 | And then if they say, "Ah, but how do you know that that person is not being created by somebody else?"
00:05:48.000 | And I would say, "Well, then the person that's creating him is just as phenomenal, and they win my trust.
00:05:53.000 | And if they win my trust, then they're not lying to me."
00:05:58.000 | The Apostle Paul is not a lunatic.
00:06:01.000 | I cannot read the 13 letters of the Apostle Paul and think he's crazy or think he's a liar.
00:06:07.000 | So those two things, the self-authenticating portrait of Jesus Christ that I find in Scripture
00:06:13.000 | and the character-endorsing way that the Apostles write their books and reveal their own trustworthiness.
00:06:23.000 | That was Pastor John Piper. Thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:06:27.000 | We'll be back soon with all new episodes, so please continue to email your questions in to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:06:33.000 | And you can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources all free of charge from John Piper.
00:06:40.000 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening.
00:06:42.000 | [Music]
00:06:44.000 | [Music]
00:06:46.000 | [Music]
00:06:48.000 | [BLANK_AUDIO]