Answering the skeptics, part trois/tres/drei/three

Small cheer... you just learned a few new languages with this title...how to say 3! :)

We've just done a bit of "soul searching" to find out what our faith in Christianity starts. You all may not be experts in science, archaeology, etc., but there are experts out there that have done a lot of work in these areas, and we trust them. This is TOTALLY fine, because everyone has to trust the "experts" in most areas of study.

Now, of course, this is just my thoughts here, but I think it's very important for us to not lean on only one thing that supports Christianity, but to learn about the different fields of study that also support Christianity. For one thing, it strengthens our faith in Christ to know that God's given us plenty of "evidence" (in different forms... not only hard-science "evidence") to learn about Him, and this goes along with the greatest commandment given: "You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. ... And you are to love your neighbor as yourself."

I wish it were possible in this blog to go through all of the questions skeptics raise, but if I were to do that, we'd never be able to get to anything else. Let me just say this... for all the arguments I've heard skeptics raise against Christianity, most of their arguments have to do with misunderstanding some of the things in the Bible. What I've noticed is that many skeptics tend to read the Bible through 20th/21st century eyes. We must understand that styles of writing change throughout the centuries. For one thing, today we think in a very "linear" fashion: first this happened, then that happened, and that person was wearing blank, and people reacted [insert adverb here]. We write that way too.

When the Hebrews wrote the Old Testament, they were more "picture" thinkers... "a picture is worth 1000 words" style of writing. Once we understand how the biblical writers wrote and try to see it through their eyes, then we can apply it to our lives. This takes practice and patience for us. It doesn't mean we can't understand anything now... we CAN, but need to realize that there's more than meets the eye when reading the Bible. They also weren't concerned with how things happened... they were more concerned simply with the interaction of God with creation, His promises, and God's revealing who He is to creation.

So what I want to do now is go over only a couple of arguments against Christianity and examine why they are not strong arguments. I will also post a short blog regarding "textual" support for the Bible. Then after that, I hope to examine the support there is for Christianity.