The day I gave my heart to Jesus on October 12, 1981, little could I have imagined that this decision of faith, over 41 years later, would prove, not only the best decision I ever made in life, but the most rational. For you see not only does Christianity promise us peace, joy, and meaning in this life, but a retirement package that is simply out of this world. In addition, only Christianity, of all the world religions, is based on an avalanche of evidences, which make it the most wonderful leap into the light imaginable.
While many believe that the Christian faith is a blind leap into the dark, I believe, just the opposite – that it is clearly a leap into the light and is based on a myriad of powerful lines of reason. For example, if the religion of Christianity is to be believed it should be historically accurate in every way. And thanks to the scientific field of archaeology the Bible has been shown to be a first-rate history book in every way. The noted American biblical scholar, Millar Burrows, provides us with confidence here when he stated: “Archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine.”1
Now what about the scientific accuracy of the Bible. I contend that whenever the Bible speaks about science it is always accurate. Not only that but one of the greatest proofs that the Bible is a supernatural book is that there are many things written in the word of a God that were not discovered to be scientifically accurate until sometimes hundreds and even thousands of years later.
Another way in which the Christian faith shows itself to be a leap into the light is in the whole area of prophecy. Since prophecy is the declaration of future events such as no human wisdom or forecast is sufficient to make, if we could show that the Bible is accurate in its prophetic claims then this indeed would prove a great leap into the light. In fact, there is clearly no religion extant in the world today with one viable, believable, verifiable prophecy except Christianity. One of the greatest proofs of the truthfulness of the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. It is staggering in its amount and is extra-Biblical in its verification.
I like how apologist Charlie Campbell puts it: “We’re not asking people to believe what the Bible says about God, just ‘because it says so.’ No. We want people to believe the Bible because of the wealth of good evidence that has demonstrated the Bible to be trustworthy…hundreds of fulfilled prophecies…thousands of archaeological discoveries…numerous details in the Bible that have been corroborated by extrabiblical historical sources, and so on.”2
I like to tell people that when I gave my heart to Jesus, I didn’t throw away my mind, no, my mind, in fact, became illuminated. William Lane Craig summed it up this way: “The Christian faith does not call for us to put our minds on the shelf, to fly in the face of common sense and history, or to make a leap of faith into the dark. The rational person, fully apprised of the evidence, can confidently believe.”3
In the final analysis all truth seekers should be excited when they give their hearts and minds over to Christianity because no other belief system has so much evidence to back up its claims. For me it is so refreshing to know that when I gave my life over to Jesus I took a leap into the light.
In closing, I love how J. Warner Wallace shared the following observation: “I’m not a Christian because it ‘works’ for me. I had a life prior to Christianity that seemed to be working just fine, and my life as a Christian hasn’t always been easy. I’m a Christian because it is true. I’m a Christian because I want to live in a way that reflects the truth. I’m a Christian because my high regard for the truth leaves me no alternative.”4
1 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 16.
2 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 8.
3 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 58.
4 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 19.