“What is it that convinces you that Christianity is true?”
“What is it that convinces you that Christianity is true?”
I was asked this question recently by a former student of mine when I was doing youth and college ministry who now considers himself to be an atheist. I’m sure you’ve had others ask you questions like these, or maybe you yourself have wondered about these kinds of things before—why do you believe Christianity is true?—how can we know the Bible is true?
I believe there are several good apologetic answers to these questions; each of them helping us to see the truthfulness of Christianity. For example, Christianity’s “rootedness” in real history. There are eye-witness accounts that externally corroborate these events to be true. These are not made up of some set of myths or cleverly devised stories, but are actually anchored in real history.
Or how about the BIble’s ability to make sense of our lives and the world we live in. The Scriptures, I believe, provide the best, most compelling, answers to the major questions we ask as human beings. They actually speak to the deep things of the human heart and offer to us meaning and purpose and signficance that people are searching for their entire lives. The problems with the world are answered here in Scripture! What is wrong with the human condition is addressed here! The Bible has the best answers. In fact, where else could we go? What other religion or worldview has better answers that correspond to reality?
Then, of course, there is the biblical truth that God is the One who must open our spiritual eyes to see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4). There is a sense in which the only way anyone will ever truly embrace and believe the truth of the gospel is by the supernatural awakening, illuminating, converting work of the Holy Spirit to convince you it is true.
But as I have been thinking deeply on Matthew 1-2 during this advent season, on the birth narratives of Jesus, there are a few answers to these kinds of questions that have emerged that I wanted to share with you from the nativity story. What is it that convinces you that Christianity is true? Let me give you two answers that Matthew shows us here.
First, note that Matthew presents his story as historically true. That’s sounds rather simple, doesn’t it? In other words, Matthew intends for us to read it as actual history. Not only does his story include historical people (like King Herod), or historical places (like Bethlehem), but right alongside those historical facts and people and places, he also includes things like virgin births and visits from angels—things a bit more hard to believe. And he intends for you and I to read both of them together as actual history.
In fact, notice how he states it just so “matter-of-fact.” “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.” (Matt 1:18) In other words, this is how it really happened! In Matthew 1:1-17, with this genealogy, Matthew is ‘rooting’ Jesus’ arrival in human history with real people, real kings, happening in real world-time events. And now, he says that this is how his birth really happened.
Now why is that important? Because we see there are some pretty unbelievable things that happen in this birth story! A pregnant virgin? Supernatural visitations from angelic beings? A star guiding some foreign magi? Which, being stated so “matter-of-fact,” should actually clue us in as his readers to their truthfulness. Because if this were some sort of fabricated lie or fairy tale, we might expect Matthew to embellish it a bit more, wouldn’t we? If you were going to make up a story that was hard to believe, then wouldn’t you add-in or enhance the story more in order to try and make it believable? And so, we might assume Matthew would try to convince us a little more than just a brief statement in vs. 18 that this was the way it really happened.
Let us not be guilty of what C.S. Lewis calls “chronological snobbery,” where we think that because these were ancient times, more primitive people, and that we today are modern people, that we are more advanced and sophisticated in our thinking than they were. Listen, no one (I don’t care who you are!) would not be shocked by news of a virgin birth! These first-century readers would be just as surprised by these events as we are still today!
And so, we might expect Matthew then to embellish a bit more, unless it really did happen in this way. John MacArthur writes, “The very fact that the account of Jesus’ divine conception is given in but one verse strongly suggests that the story was not man-made. It is simply not characteristic of human nature to try and describe something so absolutely momentous and marvelous in such a brief space. A human fabrication would call for much more convincing material.” And therefore, I think we can believe it is true.
Second, another reason we can believe Christianity and the Bible are true is when they speak about things that will happen at some future time in history, and then those things actually happen. God promises to do certain things, or that certain events will happen, and then those promises come to pass. In other words, we are talking here about fullfilled prophesy. This testifies to its truthfulness! It proves that there is a greater reality that Christianity is based in. There is a God who is working out His divine purposes in history, and frequently He will announce ahead of time what He is planning to do.
And here in Matthew 1-2, the Gospel writer draws our attention to this five different times just in these two opening chapters. There are five direct quotations from the Old Testament here, and Matthew shows how the birth of Jesus Christ fulfills them all–these ancient prophesies about future events–and gives us an unusual concentration of them around the birth of Christ!
Notice the five times this happens. Matthew 1:22, quoting from the prophet Isaiah who spoke 800 years before this, “all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.” Or Matthew 2:5, “They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet,” who then quote from the prophet Micah, who also wrote about 800 years before this event. Or how about in Matthew 2:15, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,” and then Matthew quotes from the prophet Hosea.
Then just a few verses later, Matthew 2:17, “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.” It was Jeremiah who spoke some 600 years before these things took place. Finally, Matthew 2:23, “And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
So notice how Matthew is very careful to show us that all of the events surrounding the birth of Christ, and who he is, are fulfilling ancient prophesy that was told hundreds and hundreds of years before it actually happened. What else could account for this but a sovereign God who is orchestrating all of these events in history?
Can the Bible be trusted? Yes. Is Christianity true? The testimony of the Scriptures and the events of world history prove it to be so. What is it that convinces you that Christianity is true?
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