Following the Evidence: Rebuilding Trust in Uncertain Times (Part 4)
The following article is written by Max Jeganathan, author and speaker at OCCA, The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.
Can we prove that God exists?
In modern western law, the civil threshold for proving something – as was reached in the recent cases against Meta and Alphabet – is the ‘balance of probabilities.’ Evidence is gathered. Witnesses are examined and cross-examined. Statements of alleged truth are made. And either a judge or a jury makes a decision – an inference to the best explanation based on the available evidence – on what is most likely to be true.
This judicial means of deciding on truth claims, helpfully reflects how we all make decisions about all kinds of truth claims in our lives every day: Whom to vote for. Which insurance company to trust. Where to shop. How to invest our money. Whether to take an umbrella to work. We make hundreds of decisions every week that rely on assessing the available evidence and making an inference based on what seems true and what doesn’t.
Our judicial system is a helpful but limited reminder of how we decide what is true and what isn’t. While the fight to protect the vulnerable, uphold justice and further civility must continue in courtrooms, the broader and deeper human project of flourishing and truth-seeking must look beyond them. For the deeper questions of life, courtrooms, social media and political debates can’t help us. We must decide for ourselves based on the evidence available.
Searching for Truth
Our institutions and systems can only take us so far. Finding the answers to our deepest questions – the truth that matters most – is something personal. After all, the greatest institutions of the day abjectly failed when they encountered Jesus Christ – a person with whom there was literally and spiritually no fault. Instead of a fair trial and a willingness to follow the evidence of Jesus’ life, he encountered a sham trial, false witnesses, vested interests and power-hungry narcissists who put their short-term convenience before the search for truth.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Just a few centuries earlier across the Mediterranean Sea, the philosopher Plato mused that if the perfectly virtuous person – one who fully embodied moral truth – ever stepped into the world, we would kill him. The crucifixion of Jesus proved Plato right. Humankind couldn’t comprehend, accept or handle Jesus’ divinity or his moral perfection. Our tendency to twist, manipulate and torment the truth, continues to thwart our search for it. It’s a sad irony that when Jesus – the Truth himself – stood before Pontius Pilate just days before the very first Easter, Pilate sardonically remarked ‘What is truth?’ and walked away without waiting for a response.
It is no surprise that many who become Christian through investigating the evidence for the truth claims of Christianity, are lawyers and scientists. As per Mark Lanier – a trial lawyer with nearly 40 years of experience, and – the legal principles of justice, evidence-verifiability and truth-seeking fit easily with his Christian faith.
To learn more about how Mark brings faith, reason and evidence together, check out some of his videos here. The key for Mark and many others who have found Jesus by examining the evidence, is to be willing to follow the evidence to where it leads, even when that journey may be surprising or even uncomfortable at times. Put simply, the truth isn’t really about comfort, it’s about what is real and how that can lead to human flourishing.
The ultimate advocate and the evidence that demands a verdict
The Christian message makes – as you would expect from a major religion – certain truth claims. That God is the sovereign, all-knowing, supreme and loving creator of the universe. That He created humankind for the primary purposes of loving relationship with Him and with each other. That He stepped into the world as a person around 2000 years ago, died and rose again to make these relationships possible and beautiful. If these claims are true, they change everything about how we think about justice, compassion, love, purpose and flourishing. The Christian message – through the love and person of Jesus – claims to offer joy, hope, comfort, meaning, eternal life, and much more.
It’s no coincidence that courtrooms are used throughout the Bible as a metaphor for God’s offer of relationship with humankind. Jesus is presented as our ultimate advocate, if we say yes to his offer of forgiveness and relationship. By dying on a cross, he took upon himself the penalty for our brokenness and wrongdoing. Now, he offers to advocate for us, equipped with both the cosmic record to set us free and the cosmic love to welcome us into relationship with Him.
Understandably, questions are often asked about why God doesn’t make Himself more obvious. Why isn’t the evidence deductive and undeniable? The Bible tells us that God reveals Himself in different ways to different people. On the morning of Jesus’ resurrection, John only had to arrive at the entrance to the empty tomb, to believe. Peter went inside and saw the cloths that had wrapped Jesus, and he believed. By contrast Thomas – at first instance – wasn’t convinced until the risen Jesus stood before him and offered to show him the scars he bore, from his crucifixion. And countless figures throughout scripture never even saw Jesus, and yet they believed.
What would it take for you to believe? The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote that:
“There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.”
Pascal’s words speak to an important truth. God has given us plenty of evidence: The historical verifiability and credibility of the Bible. The beauty and complexity of the cosmos. The explanatory power of Christian anthropology, in light of human nature, longings and desires. And perhaps most astonishingly, by literally stepping into human history as a person. Now he offers His church, His scriptures and His Holy Spirit as ongoing evidence of His existence and His continuing work in the world.
However, even with all of this evidence, we miss something about the uniqueness of the Christian message if we reduce it to a mere set of claims to believe in. Rather, the offer of the Gospel of Jesus is an offer – an invitation – into a personal relationship with God.
It might all seem too good to be true. But if it is, it changes everything.
Accordingly, even the most ardent sceptic would be well advised to investigate. And Christians have been tasked with meeting their questions with graciousness, love and intelligence. This is what the theological discipline of ‘apologetics’ is all about. Taking its genealogy from the Greek word apologia, apologetics refers to the Biblical idea of giving a reasoned defence of the Christian faith. Perhaps more simply, apologetics is about Christians giving a reason for the Hope that they have (as per the Bible’s invitation to do so, in 1 Peter 3:15).
Following the Evidence: Where will it take you?
It’s what OCCA, The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics is all about. We’re here to come alongside people who are searching for truth. Not only because we believe the Christian message is true, but because we believe that your questions deserve thoughtful and meaningful answers. You can find out more about us here. We’d love to share the journey with you.
Our age of acceleration is yielding new challenges and opportunities. The digitalisation of our lives and the explosion of power for large corporations and technologies render many of us more vulnerable than ever. Protecting each other, standing up for justice and searching for truth are more important projects than they have ever been. Our technology, our institutions, our courtrooms and our systems will all be important. But – as history repeatedly shows us – they will only take us so far. All of the evidence seems to point to our need for help, meaning, purpose and identity beyond us. The ancient Christian message is correctly being illuminated as an urgent and welcome source of light in the darkness, and truth in the uncertainty.
Maybe it’s time to take a closer look.
Learning More
OCCA The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics was established in 2004 to raise up the next generation of evangelist-apologists. By 2021, around 350 emerging evangelists from around the world had studied on the OCCA one-year programme. This course equipped each of them to share and defend the gospel message and to come alongside others to help them with their intellectual objections and heartfelt concerns about the Christian faith. Subscribe to our weekly newsletters to see our latest articles from our team of speakers.
Max Jeganathan