Burden of Proof

I really don't have any conscious "rules" for my own blog as far as what I will or will not post. I guess I try to keep it about things relating to missions, church planting and evangelism. But sometimes I'll write about other stuff just for the fun of it. I recently wrote an extended comment on a blog post talking about Christian apologetics. After posting it I thought I would copy what I wrote and share it here, for what it's worth. So, here it is...

Sometimes I feel like we try to prove Christianity is true as if God himself was dead. We look down our nose at the subjective reasons people believe because we have more objective arguments we have come to understand. We ignore the fact that most of us “Objectivity Snobs” did not BECOME Christians after considering objective reasons, but after experiencing subjective events. However, over time, we were cemented in our faith after thinking about it objectively.

The same is true for people in other religions… their reasons for believing in their religions in the first place are mostly subjective (or regional/cultural) too. So, we tend to think that the only thing that will bump them over to our faith is an objective reasoning approach they have never considered since they only have believed for subjective reasons. I think this may be true some of the time and it is worthwhile making an objective appeal.

But remember the last thing Jesus said in Matthew? “I am with you always…” If Jesus is with us, and if that is really TRUE, then we can assume he is with us to do something, not just observe us. He is not dead. He is not just a theory. He is alive and active. And if that is the case, then I think God’s actions will and SHOULD influence people to believe in him.

I know without a doubt my grandpa lived. Why? I might explain objectively that if he had not lived then I wouldn’t be here. (Which would be completely legitimate and true.) But long before I ever considered the objective truth of that statement I would have said with passion that my grandpa once lived because I KNEW him. It was my very experience with my grandpa that makes his existence the most relevant to me. Now, if I want someone else to meet and know my grandpa... well, it is too late. He is dead. But if we introduce people to Jesus… shouldn’t we think that Jesus will somehow interact with them UNLESS he is NOT really alive?

But we have this sneaking feeling that God will not do any personal revealing anytime we tell someone about him. So, because we can’t know that God will give someone an experience with him or not, we go to our more dependable and reliable objective reasons for believing in God. Because God is not reliable we do not depend on him.

I think it would do us well, though, to remember that Jesus called his disciples to be witnesses. Not lawyers. Not judges. Not jurors. But witnesses. What do witnesses do? Testify to what they have seen and heard. Testify to their experience. And it is up to people to decide if the witness is credible or not.

The burden of proof for God lies with God. I am called just to be a witness.