Dr. Jonathan McLatchie is a Christian writer, international speaker, scholar, debater, assistant professor and fellow of The Discovery Institute. The quotation, below, is from his article on Warranted Christian Belief and the Internal Witness of the Holy Spirit. The analysis that follows it is based on an anonymous comment that was posted to that article, early on, but was never replied to.
If one were to ask me why I myself am a follower of Jesus, I would have to say “My faith rests entirely on the public evidence.” ~ Jonathan McLatchie
Really, Jonathan—is that all there is to it? Pardon me, if I’m somewhat skeptical!
That might be a plausible claim if you had been raised in a predominantly non-Christian environment–not necessarily true, but at least plausible… But as I recall, you accepted Christ when you were quite young, right? As such– and being careful not to equivocate –is it accurate to say that your decision to accept Christ as a child was based on the same evidence that you appeal to now, as an adult? If not, must you not acknowledge that your faith as an adult also rests, at least to some extent, on your experience as a child? Or do you place no credence at all in the Jesuit maxim, “give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man”? (cf. Wordsworth: “The child is the father of the man.”)
Surely you must acknowledge that. But if not– if you still insist that your Christian faith rests entirely on the public evidence for the historicity of the Christian gospel and (by implication) does not depend at all on your childhood experience –why do you suppose that your evaluation of this evidence is relatively unique? Anecdotal evidence notwithstanding, why are those born and raised outside of Christendom not more convertible?
We have no trouble persuading people around the globe that 2 + 2 = 4 or that George Washington was the first president of the United States, but to persuade someone that Jesus was God– born of a virgin, died for them, rose the third day, and ascended to heaven –requires a whole host of extra considerations, not least of which are threats of hell and hopes of paradise (usually in conjunction with a keen awareness of their personal vulnerability and ultimate mortality). In other words, it is almost never merely a matter of publicly available evidence, alone, but usually also involves a whole host of emotional, psychological, and material conditions, as well (including educational and environmental factors coming to bear on our lives at a very young age). Honestly, now, is that not the case? Looking around us, we see that children of Christians tend to become Christians and children of Muslims tend to become Muslims, do we not? And it is only after the fact, by and large– in the face of competing claims –that they feel compelled to rationally defend their faith.
To be sure, it has been the story of Jesus that– in the Western world, for the last two thousand years –has provided the context for our experience of the Divine. Nevertheless, it is the experience itself that is vital, not the historicity of the stories that inform that experience. A much more compelling reason to follow Jesus is because we sense him “knocking on our hearts door” and because, as we open our hearts to him, we also experience the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Moreover, a modicum of open minded research would reveal that this type of experience is universal (is experienced across creeds and cultures). Indeed, in the final analysis, it is the significant similarities between “the inner truth” of Christianity and that of other religions that gives real credibility to the claim that whosoever will may come…
As such, whether or not the narratives contained in the Bible are deemed in every respect “historical”, they will continue to function as “training wheels”– a scaffolding of sorts –through which people will come to know and love the Lord. There is no need to exaggerate the role that publicly available evidence plays in our faith once the nature and locus of the truths revealed in scripture are really understood.
–> He Lives!
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