When someone asks, "how do you know Christianity is true?" my answer is often too long and complicated so I need help explaining why Christianity is true is the simplest way possible.

Any helpful hints or tips would be apperciated.

Thank you.

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Conscience may lash us, but it cannot replenish a languishing life. Conscience may be God's word and minister to you, telling you of your faults and your follies and your destitution. It may point out, but it will never supply you. Christ must give you new life. Hart has well expressed it: "He to the feeble and the faint, His mighty aid makes known; and when their languid life is spent, supplies it with His own." - J. K. Popham

How do *I* know Christianity is true? The inner witness of the Holy Spirit.

How can I prove to *you* that Christianity is true? Christianity is logically consistent and fits the scientific, historical, and philosophical requirements to a T.

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

Because I feel it in my heart just kidding, sorry could not help myself

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Martin - Reformed
Husband to the most godly, honorable and loyal wife Line
Searching for a Church
Webpage www.5solas.dk
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
Soli Deo Gloria

I know it is true... because I get a burning sensation in my bosom.

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Ben
Chaplain, US Army
Ft. Riley, KS
TE Ohio Valley Presbytery, PCA

God says so!!!

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Rich Koster
1689'er
Browns Mills NJ USA
Often Goofy Reformed Eccentric
Romans 7:14-25

Aye, my bowls tingle. Thus, I especially know it's true on Chili Chow-Downs at church.

...But really, I am interested in a good answer to this question as well. I don't know how lay out a reformed overview of "how I know Christianity is true." My true answer is that I know in my soul, through the witness of the Spirit. But, would that answer suffice to a questioning unbeliever?

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Andrew Thornquist My Photo Album
Calvinistic Baptist
Ukiah, California
To follow Christ was the best decision God made for me!

Seriously, in a nutshell, when asked why I think Christianity is true, I point out 2 things:

1. What draws my attention to Christianity in the first place is the fact that when you line up all the religious systems of the world, every religion says the same thing: Do enough good and you'll have favor with God/the gods. The only real exception to this is Christianity, which says that you could NEVER do enough good to earn God's favor because of sin... and then I talk about the Gospel...

2. With Christianity standing out as the only religion saying "You aren't able to save yourself," I took a closer look... and I found that it has the best answers to the questions of life, it makes the most sense of the phenomena we see occuring in the universe, AND it has an answer for why it is the only religion saying what it says.


This is the nutshell version.

Every meaningful answer I can think of will lead to a longer and more complicated conversation. So, I suppose I need this thread too.

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Devin Brian
1689er
Attending Trinity Baptist Church in Shreveport, LA.
Vivian, Louisiana, USA

"...If you are not firm in faith,you will not be firm at all." - Isaiah 7:9
"The fall of man is written in too legible characters not to be understood: Those that deny it, by their denying, prove it." - George Whitefield

Christianity is true because Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.

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Ivan R. Schoen, B.A., M.A., M.L.I.S.
Pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church (SBC)
Poplar Grove, IL, USA
http://maranatha-sbc.org

There will never be an answer that in isolation is sufficient for an unbeliever, that is the limit on apologetics, and is implicit in total depravity.

What we know is that creation proclaims the triune God and that it is our sinful nature that obscures this truth. The unbeliver will be without excuse on judgement day.

My own favoured approach is to stress the single historic revelation that only Christianity accepts without question or amendment, and this revelation is the only internally logical religion that there is. The reason for this claim is historic fact more subjective feeling.

I have come to the conclusion that in the end it is faith, if that does not convince an unbeliever then firstly that is his problem not mine and secondly we should not expect that it would.

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Mike
London City Presbyterian Church
London
England

"Surely, we wish to be orthodox, but we must first learn what real orthodoxy is. Surely, we wish to be progressive, but we must first have a basis to progress from."

There is an atheist who stops me a few times a week while I'm at work to ask me different questions about the faith. Today we spoke while I was on my supper hour and I hammered him on the inconsistency of his worldview and got him to admit his worldview didn’t make much sense, that it was arbitrary, etc. But then I had a hard time coming up with a simple answer to the question in the op.

Above is a very good, quick response. I tend to unpack the ideas as they are coming out of my mouth complete with footnotes and references.

Well, that's what you have to do--but give it to him as he asks for it. Don't give him more than he asks for, or he'll ignore it and you'll have to repeat it--though you may have to anyway, if he decides to be difficult.

I have told ones that asked me that that I know Christianity is true because I'm here. There are many times in my life that I would be dead if not for God, there is so many factors it's hard to pin one done.

I know He lives because He lives in my heart, not through some intellectual idea that I had one day.

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Doug
Baptist
Hemet, Ca
Old Time Radio Podcast

It's a pretty hard to answer question.

There is ample, I think, evidence of Christ's resurrection; there are plenty of alright arguments for the existence of God; there is the persuasiveness of the presuppositionalist method and the TAG; there is the plain answer of "I simply know by way of inner testimony of the Holy Spirit"; there is a simple appeal to "better explanations" for the universe around us; surely the Christian answer to all the questions of life is enticing and intriguing enough...

I suppose I just know. It's not a good answer at all to give. I know Christianity is true because of a combination of all these things, perhaps...

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Steven Nemes
Phoenix, AZ

Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy must be answered - C.S. Lewis

When you think about it, from the Reformed perspective it seems to me that the only way we can be drawn from our web of self-deception to the truth that Christianity is true is by the Holy Spirit. So in that sense, the inner witness of the Holy Spirit is the "real" answer; other arguments/evidences just serve as confirmation. And, really, that's the only way an unbeliever can be convinced that Christianity is true.

When folks ask me why i believe in Jesus i usually tell them it's the same reason that i believe that my uncle exists....because i've met Him.
They may not believe in Jesus, but that really just means they haven't met Him.

As far as proof goes, one can only prove that Christianity is a probable conclusion to the facts at hand. But that would, in turn, prove that there's also a chance that Christianity is not correct.
In other words, since you can't prove Christianity beyond question it will always leave holes for the unbeliever to squirm out of.

I guess that's why God doesn't call us to convince people into the kingdom of Heaven, but simply to preach the Word. God's Spirit will effectively work through the preaching of His Word to accomplish His ends.

Sometimes when asked "How do you know Christianity is true" i respond by asking "what could i say that would convince you?" The general response that i get is "nothing"...so then, why bother?

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Larry Bray
Elder - Reformed Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, PCA
Boothwyn, PA - http://www.rpcb.org/
Free Online Reformed Seminary - http://www.tnars.net
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Christian ritual costs nothing and is worth nothing. True Christian religion costs all that we have and is worth everything.

Yeah...there is no short answer, or else previous generations probably would have encountered it by now, and a short 5 page book would have been written I suppose. But, I tend to say, "well, why do you not believe that Christianity is true?", and build from there. Sometimes the hangup is more particular rather than an overlying abhorrance of God. And so, often the battle can be be reduced to a minimal terriroty rather than having to deal with the entire scheme of things. But, for those more inclined to resist the entire idea of God, I have often been dumbfounded to find much better than C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, Chapters 1-3 to goad most people in the right direction. If there is no God, then why not kill anyone in your path to secure your success? For, where does any notion of morality come into play via evolution and natural selection? And, as far as narrowing that God down to Christianity, I agree with all that is said before about the resurrection. I ask them, "what year is it?" And it is 2009 years from what? And why was that much significance placed upon a certain someone if it is all a fairy tale, or at least something worth investigating in order to find out it's true importance?

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Charles Plauger
Member/Grace Reformed Church
Oakland, MD

Ivan's response is best...Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Ultimately, it is Jesus' testimony and work that gives warrant to belief in the system as a whole.

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Joel Batts
Christ Presbyterian Church (PCA) - Memphis, TN

I believe that many would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand. - CS Lewis

I love this question.

"Because the Bible is the only "holy" book that you can prove to be from outside our space-time continuum"

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Timothy Johnson
First United Presbyterian of Moline
PCUSA (Yea, I know)
Theology/Philosophy Sunday School Teacher
Davenport, IA

Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so.

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Brian Withnell
Deacon, OPC
Leesburg, Virginia

You cannot train for war in the midst of a battle. Prepare before the battle starts; if the battle is long and hard, you will wish you had.

I have a friend who says the first line this way:

I like that.

ESV Romans 8:14,16 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

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Flavio
Particular Baptist, 1644er
Visiting churches
Bond servant of my Lord Jesus
Husband to Hanna, father to Nathan, Chloe, Caleb, & Lily