As Pastor John Piper finishes up his travels through the Middle East during the month of November, we're going back and listening to a few Ask Pastor John recordings from years past. And a few years back, he was asked this question, "What are some ways we can know Christianity is true?" Here's what Pastor John had to say.

You can come at the truth of Christianity through several angles of apologetics or of reasoning. Let me mention a few and tell you the one that is most existentially real for me. One would be historical. I think arguments can be mounted that are solid and compelling, first for the existence of Jesus, and then for the death of Jesus, and for the resurrection of Jesus to give an account for why the Apostles were the way they were after his death.

So that the arguments that Pondenberg has developed or evangelicals have developed for the resurrection of the dead, "who moved the stone" type arguments, that's the name of the book, are strong and have helped many people get over the barrier. Because if Jesus has been raised from the dead, never to die again, and ascend into heaven, then we should take very seriously and credit what he said about himself.

So that's one line of evidence. A second line of evidence would be what would be called presuppositional, that without God as an assumption, without the Bible as an assumption, all of our reasoning processes or all of our perceiving processes are not possible. In other words, every time we start thinking and every time we start perceiving, something is happening in our heads which assumes something.

And if you're going to have any kind of credible conversation about what you're thinking or about what you're seeing, then you are assuming certain laws of logic, certain laws of causality, certain laws of existence, which can't have any bearing or absolute significance unless they're rooted in God. So everybody's talking nonsense, but hardly anybody will say we're all just animals talking nonsense.

Even those who are total secular naturalistic evolutionists don't like to be treated like animals. When a dog barks, I don't assume he's writing poetry. But when a man puts poetry down, I assume he wants me to take him seriously as a human being, because it has serious meaning there and he doesn't like it if I say, "Oh, that's just chicken scratch." So he's assuming something unbelievably profound about the significance and the basis of what he's doing, which he can't unless there's this Christian construction of God.

So that's the presuppositional angle. Here's the third one and the last one that is most significant to me. How do you, when you want to decide if a testimony, a witness that somebody has is true? You weren't there, there were no videos, there was no recording, and you have to decide whether what he's saying happened, happened.

So that's, when I read this book, that's the way I feel I am. I'm reading Paul say, 13 letters of the Apostle Paul, and he's telling me he saw the Lord Jesus. He's telling me that he was knocked off his donkey on the Damascus Road, saw the Lord Jesus, was commissioned by the Lord Jesus, and now is inspired by the Lord Jesus.

And then he interprets all of that in terms of the gospel. Now, I've got to reckon with, Paul, are you a lunatic? Are you a liar? Or are you telling the truth? That's usually used with Jesus, you know, lunatic, liar, or Lord. I think it's a good argument, and I use it for the writers of the New Testament, not just for Jesus, because that's what I, I know that I've got Paul right here in my hand.

I've got Paul right here in my hand, and I want to know, are you crazy? So when I'm reading the Bible, whether it's the Gospel of John or whether it's Romans, I'm asking the question, how can I credit what's here, both the testimony of the man and the portrait of Jesus?

And I think there is a light that stands forth from the text of the truthfulness of Jesus that is self-authenticating. And there is a kind of character for the writers that stands forth that is authenticating of their solidity, their truthfulness, that they're not lunatics and they're not liars. And I would find it, if somebody said to me today, "Okay, just give me in 30 seconds why you're a Christian," I would say, number one, the portrait that I see of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is self-authenticating to me.

I cannot meet this man and have him speak like nobody else spoke and not believe him. He wins my trust. And then if they say, "Ah, but how do you know that that person is not being created by somebody else?" And I would say, "Well, then the person that's creating him is just as phenomenal, and they win my trust.

And if they win my trust, then they're not lying to me." The Apostle Paul is not a lunatic. I cannot read the 13 letters of the Apostle Paul and think he's crazy or think he's a liar. So those two things, the self-authenticating portrait of Jesus Christ that I find in Scripture and the character-endorsing way that the Apostles write their books and reveal their own trustworthiness.

That was Pastor John Piper. Thank you for listening to this podcast. We'll be back soon with all new episodes, so please continue to email your questions in to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. 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.

I'm your host, Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening.