Some Christians think getting more knowledge outside of the Bible is “evil” and lead to doubt one’s faith. All Christians have doubts and having doubts is not a “sin” but doing nothing about those doubts leads to walking “blindly” or walking away from God and neither of those directions are good. God created our brains which is the same God that created the universe so intricately and massive. God gave us a brain to process information and come to a conclusion or evaluate the evidence and come to a verdict especially about Him. God didn’t send down a complete Bible with a beam of light and declare “Here It Is!!!” but He gave us the Biblical Manuscripts to search for His Truth and some translators have given us the Bible. God’s Truth transcends all languages, all cultures, all time periods, all evil things to destroy the Bible and all the biblical manuscript copies along with all the variants in them. There are so many English versions of the Bible that it becomes more important to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us to God’s Truth.
I want to encourage you not to just take my word for it but Research it, Ask the Holy Spirit, and Seek to Understand God’s Truth! Please pray for the youth that grow up in the church yet don't hear about the evidence for the Bible Also pray are those who were former Christians and have walked away from the faith cause they didn't hear the evidence for the Bible rather they listened to the evidence against it.
Here is a story that illustrates how we need to have answers for today's youth and to former Christians walked away from the faith. Sean makes tours of going to churches or church camps/conferences to show Christians how to witness to atheists without getting upset he tells them that when he does these atheist role-play he sees the audiences time after time they get frustrated and upset when he doesn't give in to the Christian message. One time when he was done and all the people had left, a young lady came up to him and said "thank you, Mr. McDowell for doing the best you could to defend atheism." Sean replied "thank you why do you say that?" She then replied "because I am in atheist!" Then Sean said "How did you get here this is a Christian camp?"
She said "Because I am a youth leader." Wow! Her family had dismissed her questions or just blew her off so therefore with all her doubts she decided that she cannot believe there is a God.
We can't just tell our youth just to have faith and believe because they were raised in the church. We need to give them the evidence so they can decide for themselves. This current culture of America is very Anti-Christian. We need to give them a better chance to stand firm in their Christian beliefs.
Here's another story, Sean McDowell himself when he was younger around 19 years old started having doubts about Christianity so he wondered was he a Christian just because he was raised in a Christian home so he wanted to go to his dad and let him know about his doubts. Sean's dad is Josh McDowell the author of "Evidence that demands a verdict"and everysince he wrote the book he's been on tours defending Christianity and how the Bible is true, God exist Jesus died and rose from the grave. Sean was very intimidated but he went ahead and asked his dad during coffee. "Dad, I'm searching for truth and I'm not sure that Christianity is true" Josh replied, "I think that's great son!" Then Sean replied "Did you hear anything I just said?!" Josh replied, " Yes, I heard you say that you're searching for truth and I am confident that if you are searching for truth you will find Jesus. Don't be like those who were raised in the church and walked away from their faith in spite. Only walk away if you investigated it and searched it throughly and you concluded that it's not true. You know your mother and I will love you no matter what!"
Wow! How many of you, parents could respond that way? Hey I think some of you would want to lock up your kid in the room and say you can't come out til you believe. Josh realized that his son had to make his own decision he couldn't make it for him nor did he want his son to think that because he was raised in the church and his faith makes Christianity true.
I think a lot of Christians need to think outside of the Bible. Do you remember that phrase "think outside of the box", well, I think Christians need to think outside of the Bible to understand why it's true. You can't point to a verse in the Bible assuming it's true to prove it. we need to show evidence outside bible that it is true and that Christianity is true.
Christianity is based on a historical event the resurrection of Jesus and that's why they were Christians the first few centuries before the Bible was even ratified in 393. You see, they were Christians before the Bible was even put together. Yes the Bible is inspired by God and is our guide to living I Christlike life but it was copied through thousand manuscripts and these manuscripts have differences. The biggest thing is that 0% of those 300,000-400,000 variances DON'T have any affect on the core doctrines of Christianity. That's an amazing fact despite that there were nine different authors who wrote from various locations to various locations and there were hundreds of copyists that copied from various cities to various cities without any central location to double check everything. Also this was done through several centuries so the odds of getting 0% of the core doctrines not changed in any way are astronomical. You have a better chance of winning the lottery than for that to happen. After I saw these numbers and that the Bible was copied and translated by fallible men yet core doctrines of our Christian faith were transmitted consistently that's why I say God's truth transcends all variances in the manuscripts. Also it makes me extremely confident that the Bible is historically reliable and accurate.
Sincerely,
Kevin J. Garrison