Apologetics Can Prove Christian Truth-Claims Are True
Like many new believers before me, I became interested in apologetics in part because of my inability to respond to challenges critical of Christianity. I remember two comments particularly well. One came from a relative who had studied world religions for many years. He made this comment with all the authority of a Bible scholar: “Jesus never really claimed to be God. Nowhere in the Bible does He say, ‘I’m God.'” Although I was certain that Jesus did claim to be God (if not in those exact words), I was nevertheless taken aback. And I was unable to prove him wrong.
The second statement that helped spur me into a study of apologetics expresses a common attitude among many unbelievers, especially those who look to science as the ultimate purveyor of truth (scientism). I was on vacation with an old friend, and we were eating dinner at a restaurant over-looking the Pacific Ocean in Fort Bragg, California. I was a new Christian, and after hearing me share my faith my friend responded, “I wish I could believe . . . if I only had ‘proof.'”
Well, I had no proof to offer. I only had faith. To him, this amounted to no more than personal opinion. He needed more than a testimony to convince him of the authenticity of Christianity.
Because of these and other questions—which I knew Christianity had answers to, but to which I personally couldn’t respond (and, I admit, because of my own need to confirm that Christianity was rational and not a leap of blind faith)—I began to study apologetics. People wanted proof, and I was determined to give it to them. I Looked to apologetics as proof of Christianity.
One of the first lessons I learned after beginning my studies was that proof, in the sense that my friend wanted it, was considered by many Christians as impossible to give. Apologetics, I was taught, doesn’t prove anything, in the sense of absolute proof; it doesn’t give irrefutable proof with no possibility of error. It can’t prove with absolute certainty, for example, that Jesus Christ is God or that Christianity is the only true religion.
Religious truth-claims are not true by definition, as in mathematics (five times five can only be twenty-five) or tautologies (all husbands are married). Nor can religious truths be proven scientifically through observation and experimentation. Religious truths fall out of the category of absolute certainty. Thus apologetics, most apologists agree, consists of giving evidence supporting Christian truth-claims, not proof positive. This is why many apologists use the phrase “evidences for Christianity” to describe apologetic conclusions rather than “proof of Christianity.”
But after many years of apologetic studies, I disagree with this position. Apologetics can prove the authenticity Christianity! I am not saying that Christian truth-claims are self-evident like mathematics or tautologies. But I am saying that apologetics can prove Christian truth-claims if we use the word proof in the same sense that we use it in all other areas of knowledge that do not entail mathematics or formal logic. It is perfectly legitimate for Christians to claim that they can prove Jesus is God and that Christianity is the only true religion. This is no semantics game I’m playing. I’m not equivocating—I’m not redefining the meaning of proof. I intend to use it exactly as it is used in most areas of truth and knowledge. ©
The first step in explaining this is to understand exactly what people normally mean when they claim to have proof that something is true. This will be the topic of next week’s blog article.