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Evidence for the Christian faith

What do C.S. Lewis, Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel all have in common? They all have academic backgrounds; they were all sceptics at one time; they all investigated the evidence for Jesus and gave it a fair hearing, they all became Christians and they all have written popular books in support of the Christian faith. And there are more authors that could be added to that list. There is enough evidence out there to convince anyone with an open mind that Jesus Christ is a real person, that he died and came back to life from the dead and that he is someone that we all need to get to know as our Lord and Saviour.

In this article I would like to give a brief overview of evidence for Jesus. This article is by no means comprehensive. It is just a start while I build up the content of this website.
Here are the main points.

Jesus' resurrection from the dead dramatically changed his disciples and is one of the main reasons that Christianity spread so rapidly. The disciples were willing to die because of their belief in the resurrection.
There is more textual evidence that Jesus Christ is a real person than there is for Julius Caesar.
The details of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection were clearly predicted in Bible prophecies that were recorded more than 400 years before Jesus was even born
The Big Bang is not a satisfactory explanation of how the Universe came into existence
Life is far too complex to have started and evolved all by itself. The only satisfactory explanation of how life began is that God created life
God’s word (The Bible) works when you apply it to your life
Jesus is still healing people and answering prayer
God's miraculous provision -exactly the right amount provided at exactly the right time- is too consistent to be explained by chance
Jesus is still changing people’s lives

Here are some links so you can check all this out for yourself.
In his book “The case for Christ”, Lee Strobel presents the evidence for Jesus life, death and how he came back to life after dying on a Roman Cross. There are many short video clips on Lee Strobel's website that you can watch online for free, that answer a number of questions that you might have about the evidence for Jesus' death and resurrection, the reliability of the Bible and the existence of God.
Here is a link to an article about the evidence for the resurrection by Josh McDowell. The book “More than a Carpenter” by Josh McDowell is a small paperback that is easy to read, it is inexpensive and it puts forward compelling arguments.

For topics such as the reliability of the Bible, the Big Bang, the age of the Earth, dinosaurs, the origin of life, Adam and Eve, Cain's wife, Noah's flood, the origin of human 'races', creation, science and evolution etc.
See www.creationontheweb.com and use their search or visit the Info -> FAQ section.

The details of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection were clearly predicted in the books of the Bible called the “Old Testament” that were recorded more than 400 years before Jesus was even born.
The chance that Jesus could have fulfilled all of the prophecies that are written in the Bible about him by coincidence alone is (practically speaking) zero. In “The case for Christ”, Lee Strobel devotes an entire chapter to this subject. To check this out for yourself you can watch a movie online for free called the Jesus film or read a book of the Bible that talks about Jesus' life called Luke and compare Jesus life with the predictions in the “Old Testament”.
See these “Old Testament” predictions about Jesus Zechariah 11:13,
Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Note: The style of writing in the Bible is different to what we are used to because the authors of the books of the Bible would jump from writing about other topics to predictions about the “Messiah” and jump back to writing about other topics again. Sometimes things happening at the time of the writer had a double meaning and applied to the Messiah as well. (See Acts 2:27-31 ) The religious leaders of Jesus' time were expecting the Messiah to come and fulfil such prophecies.

Some very specific predictions about Jesus include that he would
- be betrayed by a friend
Psalm 41:9 compare John 13:21-26
- be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver that would be thrown in the Temple.
Zechariah 11:13 compare Matthew 27:5-9
- be born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:2 compare Matthew 2:1
- be born to a virgin
Isaiah 7:14 compare Matthew 1:18
- be buried in a rich man’s grave
Isaiah 53:9 compare Matthew 27:57-60
- rise from the dead
Psalm 16:9-10 compare Acts 2:22-24 and Acts 2:27-31

And there are many more predictions that were fulfilled as well.
For an article that gives a short explanation about the four books of the Bible called the Gospels and some tips about understanding them please read “Why should I read the Bible?”
For a brief explanation of who Jesus was and why he lived, died and came back to life see this article “Who is Jesus?”.

The best evidence for Jesus however is when he makes himself real in your life, when that happens it is no longer something that happened to someone who lived two thousand years ago, it is something that is real to you on a personal level because Jesus is alive today and is living in you. Millions of Christians all over the world can tell you about how he has made a real change to their lives. I encourage you to ask Jesus to make himself real to you and to ask Jesus to come into your life. See “How do I become a Christian?”

Posted: July 14, 2006 Updated April 9, 2007

Evidence for the Christian faith