The Power of the Evidence

Christianity is founded on actual events that occurred in time-space history. As with any real event they leave traces of evidence. Similar to a CSI story, complete with DNA, blood samples, eyewitness accounts, fingerprints, contradictions etc. the information needs to be sifted through and interpreted to present an accurate picture of what transpired.

Derbyshire’s rendition of our faith is an all too often misrepresentation of the way we must approach the basis of our ‘religion’. Unfortunately many Christian’s support this erroneous view and some regard it as some type of faith “batch of honour” because of their supposed leap into the belief system. Besides being an idiotic perspective, it serves the devil’s purpose of preempting any one who is truly searching for answers to life.

John 20:26-28 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

Some would say Jesus requests for Thomas to ‘put your finger here’ and ‘place it in my side’ were unnecessary and without faith. But that is simply not the case. Christianity is belief in a reality not a fantasy. Without any evidence there is no reason to believe. As in this example, Jesus encourages the testing of the reality of what we face. Stick your fingers into what you are questioning (so to speak), you really have nothing to lose.

I Corinthians 15:14-17 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile

Paul goes on to say that, we are be pitied more than all men, if we’ve put our belief in something that did not occur.

I’m an expert in this area. At an early age I wrote in an essay “if someone proved to me that Jesus never lived I’d still believe in him.” Yes a wonderful zeal but incredible naïve and completely indefensible. I was called to account by my mentor at the time and many years later have come full circle to appreciate the immeasurably valuable place evidences play in the soul of a Christian.

I tossed the frontal shot of the Shroud of Turin on the last post. It’s interesting to me that Josh McDowell books (i.e. Evidence That Demands a Verdict) don’t mention the Shroud. I’ve read a number of books on the Shroud beginning with June 1980 article in National Geographic. Since then I have read much on the topic and come to the conclusion that it is one of the most important pieces of evidence for Christianity that exists. My mentor, who had written it off as a piece of Roman Catholic iconography, was later convinced by the facts surrounding the Shrouds makeup. I will present my case in a future post.

The image is the negative of a photograph of the cloth.