One strong evidence for the truth of Christianity is that it's the only worldview that doesn't collapse into itself with every statement it makes. As Christians, we have a reasonable standard for faith that is not the same as "I've seen it, so I know it's true", but at the same time, is by no means as silly as "some book says it's true, so it must be".
In their many attempts to discredit Christianity, some atheists act as if only the former standard is valid. Of course, there's the basic "have you ever seen God?" argument. Every atheist loves this one, because it's low hanging fruit. Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. But the reverse is not the case. Believing is not seeing.
Consider the picture in the header image. This was taken at Niagara Falls. But not by me. Personally, not being very well traveled, I've never seen a waterfall higher than my head. Or if I have, I was too young to remember it. I have never left the UK, much less visited the famous falls. Yet, though I have never seen Niagara Falls, I have sufficient evidence to believe in them. To begin with, the photo was given to me by (and is used by permission of) a very close friend of mine.
But let's suppose I wanted to be a bit of a numpty, and apply atheist logic to the Falls. Photos can be faked. Heck, these days, your smartphone can create a fairly convincing photo if you type a prompt into an app. So, maybe this photo is nothing more than an elaborate prank. But what about my friend's testimony? Well, we're a pair of pranksters. While I currently have no reason to doubt her travel stories, it wouldn't surprise me if at least one of them was made up to see if I'd believe it. What about the testimony of others? I can continue to dismiss those for as long as an atheist is able to dismiss the Christian faith.
You see, then, that not even seeing is necessarily believing, if you're stubborn enough. It is impossible to live your life believing only in that which you can see. Thus, the very thing that atheists claim makes them more reasonable than Christians is actually the thing that makes them most unreasonable.
The Scriptures are actually quite clear on the impossibility of sinners seeing God fully and surviving the encounter. Thus, while we are in the flesh, God must be revealed in other ways.
To begin with, there is what is known in philosophy as "general revelation". General revelation is available to all people, allowing us to know God to some degree, even without being told. This actually explains why atheism is a relatively new phenomenon. Throughout all of recorded history, mankind has been primarily Theistic. We have worshiped various things we call gods, even if we have been silly enough to carve them out of wood, or forge them out of metal.
Consider the words of Romans 1:18-23: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things."
From this, we see that God is reasonably concluded from His creation. And indeed, to this day, the teleological argument (argument from design) is one of the most powerful arguments for God's existence, made all the more powerful by our continued study into science. With our advanced technology, we can now see things our ancestors wouldn't have known what to do with. If you were to go back in time, about 500 years, and spoken about "motors", you'd be looked at as if you had a second head. But these days, you can show a detailed diagram of a bacterial flagellum to an educated man, and they will immediately recognise it as the most advanced motor on the face of the Earth. The tiniest of God's creations have been more advanced, for 6,000 years, than the cars we drive today!
What's more is that God's designs are so good, we try to copy them. "Biomimetics" is the practice of looking to the natural world in order to improve our own designs. Some of these are fairly obvious; we look to the human hand in order to improve prosthesis. Others, not so much. "Why did God make the mosquito?" Well, turns out, we can copy their design to improve medical needles. If we copy God's designs, how can we deny His hand in designing them? If we believe in such impossible coincidences, we need to expunge the very word "plagiarism" from our dictionaries, because it is functionally useless.
It takes huge amounts of faith I neither have, nor am willing to have, to see the obvious design in the "simplest" aspects of nature and conclude it is the end result of some magical explosion. You will convince me that the pile of bricks I call my house was a total accident before you convince me no one designed the tiniest cell in my body.
Of course, atheists are frustratingly stubborn, so they can be more easily persuaded that design can exist without a designer. But they do have another argument that would allow them to become Theists without becoming Christians: Even if a god exists, that's not enough to prove it's the Christian God.
On its own, they have a point. The teleological argument, and others like it, while being sufficient to prove a god, are insufficient to prove it is the Lord God of Israel. But thankfully, the teleological argument has never been alone, because of what is called "special revelation".
Special revelation is when God reveals Himself more directly. Think of it this way: General revelation is seeing a house and knowing someone built it. Special revelation is when the builder shows up with the documentation and says hi.
Throughout human history, God has made His presence known, both to His friends, and even to His enemies. This began in the Garden of Eden, where God formed the first human beings; a man, named Adam, and his wife, Eve. Adam and Eve knew God quite closely, as He manifested Himself to them, revealing Himself as their Creator, their provider, and even, after they messed up, their Savior.
Following Adam's sin, which threw the entire creation into disrepair, God withdrew to some degree, but continued to reveal Himself to mankind, from Cain and Abel, right the way up to Noah, whom He famously spared His first global judgement with his family. That particular judgement was a flood, which of course destroyed everything which was incapable of surviving the ordeal.
This flood was not a mysterious event that left no trace. Marine fossils have been found on top of mountains, which is only reasonably explained by a global flood. Even secular geology, shaped by the lies of Misotheist Charles Lyell, has since come to confess the evidence for the flood.
See, Lyell, hating God, wanted to free science, which is a notably Christian invention, from the very religion which pioneered it. And much like Satan, he knew the best way to achieve that was to cast doubt on the word of God from the very beginning.
At this time, the majority of scientists, and indeed the majority of people, knew that the maximum age of the Earth was very much under 10,000 years. But this, they knew only because they knew where it came from. They knew about the creation week, the fall, the flood, the Tower of Babel etc. Heck, for many of them, their own cultures preserved these events in their own religious legends.
But this was unsatisfactory for Lyell, who used the aforementioned Niagara Falls to promulgate a new pseudoscientific paradigm by the name of Uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism is, in simple terms, the belief that the present is the key to the past. Or, to put it as Scripture does, "knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Peter 3:3-7).
In his willful ignorance of the creation from water, and destruction by water, Lyell reasoned that by measuring the rate of erosion at Niagara Falls, he could determine its exact age. The irony, however, is that in doing so, he calculated an age of about 10,000 years. This, being much too young for Lyell's dogmas, was intolerable to him. Thus, he instead exaggerated the rate of erosion, giving him a significantly greater, more convenient age: "the average of one foot a year would be a much more probable conjecture. In that case, it would have required 35,000 years for the retreat of the Falls, from the escarpment of Queenstown to their present site."
We see, then, that from the very beginning, Lyell was a liar, incapable of remaining consistent with his own philosophy. And in our day, this is finally being recognised. To sum it up in the words of Warren Allmon, "...Lyell also sold geology some snake oil. He convinced geologists that because physical laws are constant in time and space and current processes should be consulted before resorting to unseen processes, it necessarily follows that all past processes acted at essentially their current rates (that is, those observed in historical time). This extreme gradualism has led to numerous unfortunate consequences, including the rejection of sudden or catastrophic events in the face of positive evidence for them, for no reason other than that they were not gradual."
Tragically, it is a lot easier to fool someone than to convince them they have been fooled. Thus, Lyell's snake oil is being gradually replaced with its slimier brother: Neo-Catastrophism. Neo-catastrophism is effectively Uniformitarianism, but with the added benefit of adaptability. While stubbornly clinging to the idea that the present is the key to the past, this can be set aside where there is positive evidence of a catastrophe. In effect, this means modern Evolutionists deny the historical reality of the global flood by positing the existence of many local floods.
But while "science" (translation: Biased scientists) continue to deny the reality of the flood, its memory lives on in the history of many isolated cultures worldwide. See, special revelation would ultimately be entrusted with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but prior to this, the human race remained together as one. The descendants of Noah did not fill the Earth, as God had commanded, but instead conspired to make one great city, centered around a giant tower. It was here that God dispersed them by confusing their languages.
Not surprisingly, many ancient cultures have similar tales. They are, for obvious reasons, distorted. However, each culture retains common elements: Creation in a garden, rebellion against the gods, a giant flood which spared only those aboard some kind of boat, and a tower from which the human race was scattered.
And then the similarities stop. After the Babel dispersion, the human race was too scattered to share a common history. Thus, they cease to share similar legends. And this is where God again revealed Himself, this time to a man who was initially called Abram, until God changed His name to Abraham. From Him, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob (who was later called Israel), God raised a nation who would receive, preserve, and exemplify His revelations to the world.
There were times when this nation did well, and other times when it did not. While they were called to be separate from the other nations, they frequently made the same mistakes, compromising with their gods, and ultimately falling into judgement. But God stayed true to His promises, judging their failures, but ultimately protecting them from destruction. Thus, even their enemies frequently testified "there is a God in Israel". To this day, God has not removed His wing from around His people, as even terrorists confess "Their God Changes The Path Of Our Rockets In Mid-Air".
But even those who live today may die tomorrow. Every man, woman, and child, who lived during the days of the Old Testament, has since passed on from this world. Thus, a more permanent solution is needed to our problems. And the Old Testament frequently promised it! Littered throughout Scripture, a figure known as "The Messiah" was constantly foreshadowed in many ways. Details of His life, from the major to the minor, were constantly presented, and in such strong fashion that it was as if they had already happened.
The New Testament describes the fulfillment of these prophecies in a man named Jesus. The fulfillment of a small number of these prophecies in any one man is so statistically unlikely that it is considered functionally impossible. Furthermore, Jesus did not only have the backing of Old Testament prophecy to prop up His claims. His miracles spoke for themselves.
In the modern day, we are capable of some rather impressive medical feats. Diseases that were previously a death sentence are now little more dangerous than the common cold. But even today, there is much we can't cure. Even if we could, it often requires invasive surgery, way beyond the skills of a first century carpenter.
But Jesus' miracles were so impressive, even His enemies had to attribute them to some supernatural force, namely the devil. Some of these miracles were fairly simple, and can be replicated by modern magicians, such as turning water into wine. Others involved curing the incurable. Returning sight to the blind, re-growing a freshly cut off ear, helping the lame stand up and walk, these are all impossible even now.
But by far the most powerful miracle of Christ is His power over death itself. There is the famous resurrection of Lazarus. There's another account of Him lifting a dead girl from her bed as if she was only taking a brief nap. But most amazingly, the grave could not even hold Jesus Himself! As the Scriptures foretold, Jesus was despised, rejected (Isaiah 53:3), even by His mother's sons (Psalm 69:8). Eventually, He was nailed to a cross, where He soon died.
Much like the other false Messiahs of His day, following His death, Jesus' disciples scattered like sheep (Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27). But they didn't stay this way. Even the most cowardly and unbelieving among them went to their graves for one testimony: We have seen the risen Lord.
This, in itself, is powerful. You can scream "bias" all you like, liars make poor martyrs. Point a gun at a man's head, he will deny even the truth, but a man's convictions are revealed by his stoicism. If someone is willing to die for what they profess, you know they believe it.
"But anyone can die for a lie", the unbeliever will point out. And this is absolutely true. Suppose I, as a Christian, die for my faith. That proves I believe it, but it doesn't prove I'm right to. The difference between me and the Disciples, however, is I would be dying for what I heard, they died for what they saw.
Suppose the story that they stole Jesus' body in the night was true. How many of the Disciples, knowing this, would stick to that story under threat of death? The theft of the body itself is absurd. The tomb, after all, was guarded by highly trained, well-equipped soldiers whose very lives depended on them not failing at their jobs. A few commoners aren't going to fight them off, roll away a giant stone, steal a decaying body, somehow hide it from the world, then run around telling everyone "this guy you killed is alive again, please don't kill us too...".
Ultimately, the only way the Disciples stood to gain from the resurrection is if it was true. If it wasn't, and they knew it wasn't, there is no way they would have dared step a toe out of their mundane lives again. They're certainly not going to willingly die for their lie.
But the Disciples were not the only believers. Indeed, one of the very persecutors of the Church eventually became one. Paul, previously Saul of Tarsus, labored harder for the Gospel than any of the other Disciples (1 Corinthians 15:10). Yet, prior to his conversion, this man believed the Christian faith needed to be destroyed entirely, or God would never restore Israel. Therefore, he persecuted the Church, often resulting in the death of Christians. But these same Christians celebrated his entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, because much like the Disciples, he, too, saw the risen Lord.
The Bible, which is so often dismissed as "just a book", is, in fact, a collection of 66 historical documents, many of them the corroborating witness testimony of those who saw the events they describe. Just as I can comfortably believe my friend really did go to Niagara Falls, I can say, with absolute confidence, that Christ is risen. The evidence, of which I have here described only an immeasurably small portion, is too incredible to deny. Doing so requires a seared conscience.
And that really is the problem. Man's conscience is seared, hardened against the God whom we rebel against on a daily basis. Jesus didn't just die and rise again as a testimony to His identity, but ultimately as the solution to our greatest problem: Sin. That which puts us at odds with the Author of Life. That which separates us from His blessings, His Kingdom, and ultimately, even from seeing His true form. Scripture tells us none shall behold Him and live (Exodus 33:20). Thus, no one, even the prophets, have ever seen Him, save the Son, who reveals Him to us (John 1:18).
But this is a temporary problem, solved in three words: Penal Substitutionary Atonement. In simple terms, this means "...He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21). Effectively, we swap verdicts. We, being guilty, are declared righteous through faith, because Jesus, though He fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), was "...pierced for our transgressions..." (Isaiah 53:5). Therefore, by confessing Jesus as Lord, and believing in our hearts God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9).
This will bring about a final evidence for God: His very presence in the hearts and lives of the believer. Most people look at Christianity and see just another religion, filled with rules, and hypocrites who pretend to follow them. And in a way, this is true. No man becomes a Christian, only to immediately become Christ. But no man walks into a hospital and immediately becomes well, either. Nevertheless, gradually, God works on the believer, changing them from the inside out. Over time, we begin to resemble Christ, allowing others to see Him, too. Therefore, may this article serve as encouragement to those who already know Jesus to continue following Him with all diligence and love, and also to those who do not yet know Him to seek Him out, for He is not far from us. Receive the gift of eternal life, and begin to live it today.