Sep
25
Pillars of Truth
Filed Under Devotional
It is much easier to poke holes than it is to defend. This is part of what makes apologetics a difficult discipline. The skeptic can present fifty legitimate questions in about ten minutes, but it can take years of study to deeply understand and explain how to answer those questions. This is why I love a new approach I heard about recently.
In their book, “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus,” the authors, Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, take a minimal facts approach. They point out that there are three facts about the resurrection that nearly every scholar agrees is true. First, the fact that Jesus died as a result of crucifixion. Second, that His disciples believed that He rose from the dead and appeared to them physically. Third, that He appeared to Paul, a persecutor of Christians, and he was suddenly changed to faith in Jesus. Then, the authors put the onus back on the skeptic. They challenge the skeptic to come up with any theory that explains the almost universally accepted facts rather than just argue about other issues.
This is great because it puts in stark relief the strength of truth. It’s easy to look weak when you’re just defending, but the facts look much stronger when skeptics have to construct an alternative theory around them.
“For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.” 2 Corinthians 13:8
The truth stands as pillars of stone. We can support it and reveal it, but we cannot move it and neither can anyone else.
Work with the truth and let the skeptics find a way around it. Let them sweat for once.