Evidence and the Christian

The following thoughts on evidence and the Christian were typed after reading two articles. The first is a news report entitled "Surprising new study on Shroud of Turin: Simple technique could have been used to produce image" ). I was particularly impressed by what N. D. Wilson, the man who discovered this technique, said:

"I’m a Trinitarian Christian. I believe in the Resurrection and all that it means for this world. Either the Shroud is genuine or, as I believe, it is a lie about a great truth. I think Christians should want to see religious fraud exposed wherever we can find it."

The second article ("Atheist's turn to God was a 4-year process, says friend") is about the 'conversion' of famous British atheist Antony Flew, where the word "evidence" was used a few times, and where Flew said that he was just following the evidence, wherever it led.

I have always--for as long as I've thought more seriously about these matters anyway--been slightly hesitant about claims by professing Christians that they have come to acknowledge Christ on the basis of the evidence they have seen (historical, archaeological, textual, etc.). At the same time, I have also always been sympathetic with apologists who, like Josh McDowell, aim to present nonbelievers with "evidence that demands a verdict." I do believe that there is a substantial amount of evidence for the divinely inspired nature of the Bible and for the Christian faith (e.g. the Resurrection, fulfilled prophecies, the absence of any archaeological evidence that can definitively refute any part of the Bible and much that is consistent with it). There is also, in my view, overwhelming evidence in nature itself that testify to God's existence and goodness for those who will see it. To make too much of such evidences, however, to the extent of treating it like determinative court evidence in a court trial is to give to them a status I think they were never meant to have in the converting of man's hearts. The Bible is clear that salvation comes from the Lord, and that it is faith in Christ which saves a man--not trust or reliance in what the eyes can see and mind can understand concretely--but faith as it is understood properly as "the assurance [or substance] of things hoped for, the conviction [or evidence] of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Now faith can be encouraged and strengthened by evidence that we see and touch and understand (McDowell, Lewis, and many others have advanced in their journey towards belief in Christ by such evidences, and logical arguments), but the saving faith that matters most of all has to be something that goes beyond, and which is in fact radically different in kind, from a mere trust in the credibility of compelling evidence.

The greatest of all evidences for me as Christian is my personal relationship with a living God and the accompanying presence of the Holy Spirit within my heart that assures me that I, a sinner, have been reconciled to a God who loves me and who died in my place that I might live. And how did I come to know this and come to grow in faith and knowledge of God? 1 John 5:13 declares: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." Or, as a well-known children's song goes, "Jesus loves me this I know... the Bible tells me so!" Faith comes by hearing, and hearing (or reading) from the word of God (Romans 10:17).

"For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?" (Romans 8:24)