More Than a Carpenter (18 page)

We talked for almost an hour, and then I received one of the greatest thrills of my life. This man who was my father, this man who knew me too well for me to pull the wool over his eyes, looked at me and said, “Son, if God can do in my life what I’ve seen him do in yours, then I want to give him the opportunity. I want to trust him as my Savior and Lord.” I cannot imagine a greater miracle.

What Do You Think?

Why is it difficult to separate the faith of Christianity from the man, Jesus Christ? Can you see how the two are often viewed as being in opposition?

Usually after a person accepts Christ, the changes in his or her life occur over a period of days, weeks, months, or even years. In my own life the change took about six to eighteen months. But the life of my father changed right before my eyes. It was as if God reached down and flipped on the light switch. Never before or since have I seen such a dramatic change. My father touched an alcoholic beverage only once after that day. He got it as far as his lips before thrusting it away. Forever. I can come to only one conclusion: a relationship with Jesus Christ changes lives.

There was another person in my life that I needed to forgive. His name was Wayne, a man who worked for my parents when I was growing up on the farm. When my mom had to run an errand or was gone for a longer period of time, Wayne was put in charge of watching me. Mom would march me up to Wayne and say, “Now you obey Wayne and do everything he asks you to do. If you don’t, you are going to get a thrashing when I get home.” Trust me; you didn’t want to get a thrashing from my mother.

But I would have gladly taken the thrashings if I had known what Wayne had in store for me. From the time I was six years old until I was thirteen, he sexually abused me regularly. When I told my mother, she refused to believe me. At thirteen, I threatened Wayne. “If you ever touch me again, I will kill you.” Wayne knew I was serious and he stopped.

I wanted Wayne to burn in hell and I was willing to escort him there. The memories of the abuse scarred me. But after coming to Christ I knew I needed to forgive Wayne, just as I had forgiven my father. I confronted Wayne once again and said, “Wayne, what you did to me was evil. But I’ve trusted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and have become a Christian. I’ve come to tell you that Jesus died as much for you as he did for me. I forgive you.” It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. I could never have done it on my own. If you have a similar story, be assured that you don’t have to face your demons alone either. Your past
can
be overcome with God’s help.

You can laugh at Christianity, you can mock it and ridicule it. But it works. It changes lives. I should say
Jesus Christ
changes lives. Christianity is not a religion; it’s not a system; it’s not an ethical idea; it’s not a psychological phenomenon. It’s a person. If you trust Christ, start watching your attitudes and actions because Jesus Christ is in the business of changing lives.

So, as you can see, finding my faith in Christ has been a process, beginning with hard-nosed research and growing into the experience of a changed life. It seems that many people today are eager for the experience—they want the kind of renewed life that I’ve found—but they are unwilling to put Christianity to the hard rational and evidential test. Maybe part of their reluctance is a hesitance to affirm that anything is absolutely true in the face of today’s emphasis on tolerance and multiculturalism. Or maybe it stems from a fear that their exploration would raise doubts rather than affirm the truth of Christ’s claims.

Is research a hindrance to one’s faith in Christ? Not according to Edwin Yamauchi, one of the world’s leading experts in ancient history. Yamauchi, who holds several degrees from Brandeis, is emphatic: “For me, the historical evidence has reinforced my commitment to Jesus Christ as the Son of God who loves us and died for us and was raised from the dead. It’s that simple.”
¹

When asked if historical New Testament scholarship had weakened his faith, ancient manuscript authority Bruce Metzger immediately replied, “It has built it. I’ve asked questions all my life. I’ve dug into the text, I’ve studied this thoroughly, and today I know with confidence that my trust in Jesus has been well placed . . . very well placed.”
²

Quotations such as these from two respected scholars affirm my purpose in writing this little book. I have tried to show you that the claims of Christ stand firm as solid historical facts, confirmed by the evidence of history, prophecy, and reason. Understanding the facts will give you a solid, dependable foundation to stand on as you experience Christ’s claims for yourself in the kind of changed lives that I and millions of other Christians have experienced.

But in spite of the firmness of the facts and the authenticity of the experience, Christianity is not something you can shove down anyone’s throat. You can’t force Christ on anyone. You’ve got to live your life, and I’ve got to live mine. All of us are free to make our own decisions. All I can do is tell you what I’ve learned. After that, what you do is up to you.

Perhaps the prayer I prayed will help you: “Lord Jesus, I need you. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Forgive me and cleanse me. At this very moment I trust you as Savior and Lord. Make me the type of person you created me to be. In Christ’s name, Amen.”

Notes

Chapter 2: What Makes Jesus So Different?

1. Augustus H. Strong,
Systematic Theology
(Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1907), 1:52.

2. Archibald Thomas Robertson,
Word Pictures in the New Testament
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932), 5:186.

3. Leon Morris, “The Gospel According to John,”
The New International Commentary on the New Testament
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971), 524.

4. Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison, eds.,
The Wycliffe Bible Commentary
(Chicago: Moody, 1962), 943–44.

5. Lewis Sperry Chafer,
Systematic Theology
(Dallas: Dallas Theological Seminary Press, 1947), 5:21.

6. Robert M. Bowman and J. Ed Komoszewski,
Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2007), 246–47.

7. Robert Anderson,
The Lord from Heaven
(London: James Nisbet, 1910), 5.

8. Henry Barclay Swete,
The Gospel According to St. Mark
(London: Macmillan, 1898), 339.

9. Irwin H. Linton,
The Sanhedrin Verdict
(New York: Loizeaux Bros., 1943), 7.

10. Charles Edmund Deland,
The Mis-Trials of Jesus
(Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1914), 118–19.

Chapter 3: Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

1. C. S. Lewis,
Mere Christianity
(New York: Macmillan, 1960), 40–41.

2. F. J. A. Hort,
Way, Truth, and the Life
(New York: Macmillan, 1894), 207.

3. Kenneth Scott Latourette,
A History of Christianity
(New York: Harper & Row, 1953), 44, 48.

4. William E. Lecky,
History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne
(New York: D. Appleton, 1903): 2:8–9.

5. Philip Schaff,
History of the Christian Church
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962), 109.

6. Philip Schaff,
The Person of Christ
(New York: American Tract Society, 1913), 94–95.

7. Clark H. Pinnock,
Set Forth Your Case
(Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1967), 62.

8. Gary R. Collins, quoted in Lee Strobel,
The Case for Christ
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 147.

9. James T. Fisher and Lowell S. Hawley,
A Few Buttons Missing
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1951), 273.

10. C. S. Lewis,
Miracles: A Preliminary Study
(New York: Macmillan, 1947), 113.

11. Schaff,
The Person of Christ,
97.

12. Dan Brown,
The Da Vinci Code
(New York: Doubleday, 2003), 233.

13. James A. Kliest,
The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch,
“To the Ephesians” (Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978).

14. Alexander Roberts,
First Apology,
The Ante-Nicene Fathers,
vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), 184.

15. Joseph P. Smith,
St. Irenaeus: Proof of the Apostolic Preaching,
(Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press, 1978), chap. 47.

16. Pliny,
Letters and Panegyricus,
trans. Betty Radice, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969): 10.96 (2.289).

17. J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, Daniel B. Wallace,
Reinventing Jesus
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2006), 215.

Chapter 4: What about Science?

1.
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia,
15th ed., s.v. “scientific method.”

2. James B. Conant,
Science and Common Sense
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1951), 25.

Chapter 5: The Challenge of the New Atheism

1. John F. Haught,
God and the New Atheism
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 22.

2. Sam Harris,
Letter to a Christian Nation
(New York: Vintage Books, 2006), ix.

3. Richard Dawkins,
The God Delusion,
2nd ed. with Preface (New York: Mariner Books, 2008), 58.

4. Christopher Hitchens,
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
(New York: Twelve, 2007), 122, 5.

5. From a letter to W. Graham (July 3, 1881), quoted in
The
Autobiography of Charles Darwin and Selected Letters
(1892; reprint, New York: Dover, 1958).

6. Paul Davies, “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” in
God for the 21st Century,
ed. Russell Stannard (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2000), 12.

7. John C. Lennox,
God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
(Oxford, England: Lion Hudson, 2007), 22-25.

8. Alfred North Whitehead,
Science and the Modern World
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925), 17.

9. Cited in John C. Lennox,
God’s Undertaker,
20.

10. Hitchens,
God Is Not Great,
63–67.

11. Harris,
Letter to a Christian Nation,
72.

12. Hitchens,
God Is Not Great,
151.

13. William A. Dembski and Sean McDowell,
Understanding Intelligent Design
(Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2008).

14. Antony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese,
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 88.

15. George M. Whitesides, “Revolutions in Chemistry” (Priestly Medalist address),
Chemical & Engineering News
85(13) (26 March 2007): 12–17, available online at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/85/8513cover1.html (last accessed April 23, 2007).

16. Harris,
Letter to a Christian Nation,
71.

17. Richard Dawkins,
The Blind Watchmaker
(New York: Norton, 1987), 17–18.

18. Bill Gates,
The Road Ahead
(Boulder, CO.: Blue Penguin, 1996), 228.

19. Dawkins,
The God Delusion,
168.

20. Flew and Varghese,
There Is a God,
132.

21. Freeman J. Dyson,
Disturbing the Universe
(New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 250.

22. Quoted in Paul Davies,
The Accidental Universe
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 118.

23. Paul Davies,
Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 242.

24. Stephen Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
(New York: Bantam Books, 1996), 126.

25. Walter L. Bradley, “The ‘Just So’ Universe,” in
Signs of Intelligence,
ed. William A. Dembski and James M. Kushiner (Grand Rapids, MI.: Brazos Press, 2001), 169.

26. Roger Penrose,
The Emperor’s New Mind
(New York: Oxford, 1989), 344.

27. Paul Davies,
Cosmic Jackpot
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007), 149.

28. Dawkins,
The God Delusion,
258.

29. Ibid., 35.

30. Sam Harris,
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the End of Reason
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2005), 35.

31. Dinesh D’Souza,
What’s So Great about Christianity
(Washington, DC: Regnery, 2007), 207.

32. Ibid., 214.

33. David Berlinski,
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
(New York: Crown Forum, 2008), 26.

Chapter 6: Are the Bible Records Reliable?