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Big Questions- "How Do We Know Christianity Is True and Not Just One Religion Among Many?" · Equipped for Impact

• 0:07
  Nate: Welcome to Equipped for Impact, the podcast designed to assist Christian parents, leaders and educators to raise up the next generation to stand firm in their faith and influence the world.
• 0:18
  Nate: For Christ, we're your hosts.
• 0:20
  Nate: I'm Nate and I'm Lewis, so let's get started.
• 0:24
  Nate: Today we're diving into our next big question in this Big Questions of the Faith miniseries.
• 0:31
  Nate: Today's question is one that a lot of people wrestle with, young and old right, and it is the question of how do we know Christianity is true and not just one religion among many?
• 0:45
  Nate: So, lewis, where have you seen this question come out just kind of in your time, talking to people, kids, students, parents, whatever in your ministry?
• 0:56
  Luis: I think that, if we're honest, a lot of us have probably wrestled with this question.
• 1:01
  Luis: Yeah, nate, I don't know what it was like for you growing up.
• 1:04
  Luis: I remember being a teenager and kind of wondering that, thinking about that, and even when I was in college.
• 1:10
  Luis: And the research supports that right.
• 1:13
  Luis: A 2021 Pew study found that nearly six out of 10 Americans believe that many religions can lead to eternal life, and that mindset is everywhere.
• 1:26
  Luis: We see it in our schools, we see it on social media.
• 1:29
  Luis: We even have churches that believe that, and there is an organization called the World Council of Churches.
• 1:37
  Luis: That's an ecumenical body that brings together what's supposed to be Christian groups, and even within those Christian groups, there are churches who teach a version of universalism, and that's a really fancy way of saying that all paths, or that many paths, lead to salvation and that everybody will ultimately be quote unquote saved, and so it's everywhere.
• 2:01
  Luis: But Christianity makes a radically different claim.
• 2:06
  Nate: Yeah, I think that the part of this is like it's just, you know, people, you know, just being honest, thinking to themselves like they know, and next week's question, to already give a little teaser, right, we're going to talk about, you know, if God is good, like like, how are these things Like?
• 2:21
  Nate: How Like, how are these things like, how could he, you know, allow bad things to happen?
• 2:26
  Nate: You know, and he's a good God.
• 2:27
  Nate: And so they kind of take that one character trait of God, right, his goodness, his love, and they say, well, god loves everybody, so everybody will get saved.
• 2:36
  Nate: Right, god loves the world that he gave his only son.
• 2:39
  Nate: And so you know, oh well, then everybody could get saved.
• 2:41
  Nate: And so they try and rationalize, oh well, then everybody could get saved.
• 2:47
  Nate: And so they try and rationalize, and so many times I think this is coming from a good place like making that rationalization of God loves everybody, he died for the world, and so, you know, yeah, they worship different than me.
• 2:56
  Nate: So, you know, we'll just be okay with that, it's all kind of equal.
• 3:01
  Nate: The problem with that is, you know, jesus himself refutes that claim, right, john 14, 6,.
• 3:07
  Nate: He said I am the way, the truth and the life right.
• 3:12
  Nate: And if that's not enough, he clarifies what he means by that right.
• 3:15
  Nate: No one comes to the Father, god the Father, except through me, right?
• 3:20
  Nate: So there's no other way you can get to heaven except through Jesus Christ.
• 3:25
  Nate: He's the only way.
• 3:26
  Luis: Have you ever heard of the elephant analogy?
• 3:29
  Luis: Yes, Like with the blind men, yeah, yeah, if you're not familiar with that and I'm going to butcher it here because it's been a long time since I've heard it or even read it but it's the idea that you have a group of blind people that are touching different parts of an elephant, and so you've got one that's touching the tail, and so they believe that it's a snake or something.
• 3:52
  Luis: Another one's touching the side of the elephant, and so they believe that it's like a wall right, and then you've got one that's touching the ear.
• 4:00
  Luis: I think that's one you know and it's like oh well, this is a you know it's a leaf, it's a sail, it's something like that, and so they can't see what they're touching, but they're all touching the same thing and ultimately it's an elephant.
• 4:11
  Luis: And so they use this analogy to kind of say that that's what religion is like.
• 4:16
  Luis: But here's the tension right With what Nate just said about Jesus.
• 4:21
  Luis: If Christianity is true, if what Jesus said is true, then it changes everything, because it's not just another option on this religious menu.
• 4:33
  Luis: Right, it's not the tail on the elephant, it's not the ear, it's.
• 4:37
  Luis: It's the truth with a capital T.
• 4:40
  Luis: And so then we've got to deal honestly with this question, because your kids are either going to ask it, or asking it now, or are going to encounter a person in their life that's going to either say to them hey, I'm religious, you do your Christian thing, I do my thing, but it's ultimately all leading to the same thing.
• 5:01
  Nate: What I love about that illustration is that they're all wrong.
• 5:05
  Nate: Yeah, you know, it's like some people use that, and it's funny how people use the same illustration to argue their own point, right?
• 5:12
  Nate: Some people say, oh well, they're all just have different perspectives, right, as if religion is just a perspective on the truth.
• 5:19
  Nate: Yeah, but they're all wrong.
• 5:20
  Nate: Right, it's not a rope, it's not a snake, it's not a wall, it's an elephant, right, and they're blind.
• 5:26
  Nate: And that's the people, you know, touching it.
• 5:29
  Nate: They're blind, and so they come to a wrong conclusion because of their blindness which is exactly what the Bible tells us, right.
• 5:36
  Nate: Without someone telling them it was an elephant, they wouldn't know the truth.
• 5:40
  Nate: And so for us, without someone who has an eternal, you know, omniscient perspective, we wouldn't know the truth.
• 5:48
  Nate: And so that's why we have God, who gave us the Bible to tell us the truth.
• 5:53
  Nate: Right, jesus came as the Word of God.
• 5:56
  Nate: Right, the Word became flesh and he said no, no, no, it's not multiple ways, it's not religion, it's through Jesus, it's through him, the way, the.
• 6:03
  Nate: No, it's not multiple ways, it's not religion, it's through Jesus, it's through him, the way, the truth and the life.
• 6:06
  Luis: And so here's what we want to do in today's episode right, we're going to deal honestly with this question, because we don't want our children, we don't want you, we don't want our listeners to flounder in this.
• 6:18
  Luis: And so let's start by looking at the evidence for Christianity's truth, and let's start with the boldest claim of Christianity Yep, and that's the resurrection, absolutely, lee Strobel wrote.
• 6:32
  Luis: He said if you want to put the stake in the heart of Christianity, all you have to do is demonstrate that not only did Jesus die, but that he stayed dead.
• 6:43
  Luis: Right, you take away the resurrection, you take away the claim of Christianity.
• 6:49
  Nate: Is Lee Strobel the one that did Case for Christ he?
• 6:52
  Luis: is he's?
• 6:52
  Nate: like the investigator.
• 6:53
  Nate: Investigative reporter.
• 6:55
  Luis: He was an atheist, and so he set out to disprove the resurrection.
• 6:59
  Luis: And then, as he began to unpack it like a journalist would, he came to realize like I can't disprove this, In fact I'm more convinced now than I ever was that this was an actual event.
• 7:13
  Nate: Yeah, which is a great.
• 7:14
  Nate: That's a great book and it's a great story to think through, because it was not a Christian trying to prove their faith, it was somebody trying to discredit it, absolutely.
• 7:23
  Nate: He was coming trying to discredit it.
• 7:23
  Nate: You know he was coming at it from that perspective.
• 7:25
  Luis: And actually he set out to disprove it because his wife converted to Christianity and so he got tired of her trying to get him to go to church.
• 7:35
  Luis: And he's like you know what, like I'm not going to believe what you're telling me, I don't believe this stuff.
• 7:40
  Luis: And so he set out to prove that it was wrong, so that he could convince his wife because, in his words, right, he wanted to get his wife back and so.
• 7:49
  Luis: But when you look at the evidence of the resurrection, it's, it's powerful, right.
• 7:54
  Nate: Yeah, and I I think the the best place to go for this, uh, is first Corinthians 15, you know Paul in there talking to the Corinthians.
• 8:02
  Nate: That's where he puts his stake in the ground.
• 8:07
  Nate: He says there, at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received.
• 8:13
  Nate: I memorized this in King James, so the King James version is going to come out here.
• 8:17
  Nate: But Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.
• 8:20
  Nate: That's the gospel.
• 8:22
  Nate: It's very clear and the resurrection is a key part of that.
• 8:24
  Nate: Like he goes in and he says we know he died, right, because he was buried and the scriptures told us he was going to die.
• 8:30
  Nate: So we've got that point.
• 8:31
  Nate: And then he resurrected, right, and the scriptures told us he was going to resurrect.
• 8:35
  Nate: And then we've got the proof right.
• 8:37
  Nate: He goes on to say he appeared to Peter, and then to the 12, and then up to 500 eyewitnesses at one time, right, and so we could go into talking about how, you know, the disciples might have made it up.
• 8:51
  Nate: They stole the body.
• 8:52
  Nate: You know you could go down and kind of, you know, disprove each of those objections to Christianity, but the 500 witnesses at one time like the only way for that to happen is a mass hallucination right.
• 9:06
  Nate: Which there's no way 500 people would see the same thing at the same time.
• 9:10
  Nate: You know one or two, a small group, as they're really worked up and emotional, and maybe, but 500 people like seeing.
• 9:40
  Nate: That's not a rumor, right, it's history.
• 9:42
  Nate: And my favorite part of that in 1.
• 9:44
  Nate: Corinthians 15 is Paul, says many of whom have, and he's saying hey, go talk to him, he rose from the dead, they've seen him.
• 9:50
  Nate: And so if Jesus really rose from the dead, then his claims about being the son of God are true, and Christianity isn't just another religion, it's reality give us wishful thinking.
• 10:04
  Luis: it gives coherent answers to life's questions and you know.
• 10:08
  Luis: If you want to know where did we come from, you know.
• 10:11
  Luis: It tells us God created us in His image.
• 10:14
  Luis: If you want to understand why are we here?
• 10:17
  Luis: Well, it tells us to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
• 10:21
  Luis: If you want to know how should we live?
• 10:23
  Luis: Well, it tells us by his word, not by shifting cultural values.
• 10:28
  Luis: And you want to know what happens when we die?
• 10:30
  Luis: Well, you have hope in eternal life through Christ.
• 10:33
  Luis: And so Christianity isn't just another religion, it's reality.
• 10:38
  Luis: And it gives us answers to the questions that we're asking in life.
• 10:43
  Luis: Cs Lewis said this the questions that we're asking in life.
• 10:47
  Luis: Cs Lewis said this.
• 10:48
  Luis: He said I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun lowercase sun right has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
• 10:57
  Nate: Yeah, that's good.
• 10:58
  Nate: And those things like are unique for Christianity, right, you know, other religions are going to have different answers to that, you know.
• 11:08
  Nate: And I like to, you know, put religions in quotation marks because some people take issue with calling Christianity a religion.
• 11:15
  Nate: But there's another unique thing about Christianity and that's grace.
• 11:21
  Nate: Right, every religion says, you know, do more, earn your way, balance the scales.
• 11:28
  Nate: Different things like that, you know.
• 11:29
  Nate: And every, every religion has its own version of that, whether it's accumulating karma or pleasing Allah or those types of things.
• 11:49
  Nate: You know, muslims, you know, talking about Islam, and you know, even saying before, maybe so extreme, as you know, they're getting ready to be a suicide bomber or something like that, and even saying, like, well, even then, I hope that Allah will accept me.
• 11:58
  Nate: Right, they don't even have certainty.
• 12:00
  Nate: They're based on their own religious teachings that they follow.
• 12:04
  Nate: Right, but Christianity, you know, on the cross, jesus said his last words.
• 12:08
  Nate: You know it is finished.
• 12:10
  Nate: Right, it was done.
• 12:11
  Nate: He paid it all.
• 12:12
  Nate: You know the whole, you know classic hymn, right, jesus paid it all, you know.
• 12:16
  Nate: And so that's not just different, right, it's completely revolutionary, it's completely opposed to every other, you know, religious claim out there.
• 12:26
  Luis: And one illustration that I enjoy when discussing this topic that I enjoy using is when you think of the mountain, right, religion is like climbing up a mountain right, you are climbing this mountain to reach God, to reach God.
• 12:49
  Luis: But Christianity flips that and says God came down to us in Jesus so that we could get to him, because we can't really climb the mountain right.
• 12:53
  Luis: So he's like I'm coming to you and that's the gospel right.
• 12:58
  Luis: Jesus was born, he lived, he died, he resurrected because there was no way we would be able to do enough good things or earn our way to a relationship with God.
• 13:12
  Nate: Telling people to earn their way to heaven and be good enough is like telling a quadriplegic to go climb Mount Everest.
• 13:18
  Nate: Right, yeah, it's not going to happen, it ain't happening.
• 13:20
  Nate: And so you know that's one of the classic objections.
• 13:23
  Nate: Right, people come and they say well, aren't all religions basically the same?
• 13:28
  Nate: And you know there are, on the surface, some similarities.
• 13:31
  Nate: You know a moral code.
• 13:33
  Nate: You know kindness and compassion.
• 13:35
  Nate: You know those are always in there somewhere of caring for others and all of those types of things.
• 13:41
  Nate: But that's all very surface level.
• 13:43
  Nate: You know behaviors A couple episodes ago we talked about.
• 13:46
  Nate: You know, just behavior modification is not enough.
• 13:49
  Nate: We want to get to the heart of it, and that's what Christianity, you know, that's where the difference really comes from.
• 13:55
  Nate: Right, we have a personal God who wants to have a relationship with his creation, and so Jesus came as a human right, fully God and fully man, to die in our place, right.
• 14:10
  Nate: And so Buddhism, you know, denies a personal God.
• 14:13
  Nate: Islam denies the cross.
• 14:15
  Nate: Hinduism says there's thousands of gods, right, but Christianity is the only one that says, you know, it's by grace, through faith in Christ alone.
• 14:24
  Nate: You know, all the others throw some type of works in the mix and in fact that's what the entire book of Galatians is about.
• 14:31
  Nate: Just sit down and read that.
• 14:32
  Nate: You know you can read it in one sitting.
• 14:34
  Nate: You know 15, 20 minutes maybe.
• 14:36
  Nate: And you just read through and he's like no, you know, you started by grace, you're going to continue by grace, it's all grace, it's not works.
• 14:45
  Nate: That you did.
• 14:46
  Luis: Yep, and this isn't just academic right, the data supports this.
• 14:50
  Luis: Barner Research shows that nearly half of millennials so our age group, right, those that are probably that are parents listening to this podcast half of them believe that it's wrong to share your faith with the hope that someone will convert to Christianity.
• 15:07
  Luis: That's huge, yeah, because if we believe Christianity is just one of many truth, then it's going to feel offensive to share Jesus.
• 15:16
  Luis: Right, yeah, I mean, you've got your truth.
• 15:19
  Nate: I've got my truth, yes.
• 15:20
  Nate: So I'm not going to push my position on you.
• 15:24
  Luis: But if Jesus is the truth, then sharing the gospel is the most loving thing that we could do.
• 15:31
  Luis: If we believe the exclusive claim of Christianity, then me telling somebody who's not a Christian this important truth is an act of love.
• 15:42
  Nate: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:43
  Nate: And then I think that that's really important for us.
• 15:58
  Nate: You know, it goes to that side of evangelism, act of love bridge.
• 16:01
  Nate: Then he's following a car and all he can see is the taillights and then all of a sudden, like the taillights disappear and he's like slowing down and he realizes they had just driven over the edge of the cliff because the bridge was gone from the earthquake.
• 16:15
  Nate: And so this guy gets out and he's like, oh man, he sees another car coming and he tries to wave them down and they just ignore him.
• 16:20
  Nate: Right, it's the middle of the night, it's dark, crazy guy on the side of the road, I would ignore him too.
• 16:25
  Nate: They just go over the edge, and two or three cars did that, and all of a sudden a bus comes and the man was just like I have got to be like in front of this bus because all you know however many people on this bus are just going to go over the edge, right.
• 16:38
  Nate: And so he's waving his shirt around, he's waving arms, and finally the bus driver sees him, slows down, stops goes to be like man, what are you even doing?
• 16:46
  Nate: You crazy guy like, leave me alone.
• 16:47
  Nate: And then realizes that the bridge was out.
• 16:52
  Nate: And that's that illustration of you.
• 16:54
  Nate: Know, if we truly believe the bridge is out, then it's not loving to just let people drive over the cliff.
• 17:02
  Nate: And so that's huge, and so that's huge.
• 17:03
  Nate: And so when we're talking to our kids and answering this question, obviously we want to do it in a gentle way.
• 17:12
  Nate: They're kids, but the stakes here are pretty high in answering this question.
• 17:17
  Nate: So what do we do with this, lewis, as parents, as leaders, we can't even assume that our own children will just get it.
• 17:26
  Nate: So how do we equip them to answer questions like this?
• 17:29
  Luis: Well, I think it starts by creating space for questions at home, right, and so the reason we're doing this series is because, parents, you may be asking these questions, your kids may be asking these questions, and so we have to create a space in our children where our child can ask us why do we believe Christianity is true?
• 17:49
  Luis: And when a kid asks that question, that's not rebellion, but it gives us an opportunity to disciple them, it gives us an opportunity to walk with them, and so you can use resources like what we mentioned earlier.
• 18:03
  Luis: Right, lee Strobel's the Case for Christianity, or it's called the Case for Christ, right, and so there's a book, there's a workbook, there's a movie that you can watch to engage them in that.
• 18:17
  Luis: Our church we've talked about this before at our church we do Word of Life, and one of the things that I really like about Word of Life is that Word of Life has some apologetic series, and so sometimes in our teen night, we wrestle with some of these questions.
• 18:33
  Luis: And so, if you're not connected to a church, get connected to a church where you can ask these questions.
• 18:39
  Luis: If you're connected to a church that doesn't have these resources, then maybe ask your teen pastor, your youth pastor, your pastor.
• 18:46
  Luis: Hey, can we devote a night to wrestling with these questions?
• 18:51
  Luis: Right, because remember what CS Lewis said.
• 18:53
  Luis: Right, he said I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen right, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else, and that's the lens that we want our kids to have.
• 19:07
  Luis: So don't be scared, don't be put off by the question, don't tell them oh you know, don makes Christianity different from other religions.
• 19:15
  Nate: Maybe you bring up the question preemptively because if they haven't thought about it, it's better to wrestle with it now in a safe place like your dinner table than later when they're by themselves and they might start scrolling TikTok looking for the answers, right, because who knows what they're going to find.
• 19:43
  Nate: Ai hallucinates a lot, so you know AI won't give them the right answer potentially, and so you know it just opens the door and they know that it's a safe place to wrestle with it and think about it.
• 19:56
  Nate: And you know, just talk through those issues.
• 20:00
  Nate: So, lewis, you know, what closing encouragement do you have for our parents and listeners today?
• 20:07
  Luis: I hope that Nate and I have done a good job of making it clear to you today that Christianity is not just one option among many.
• 20:14
  Luis: It's true, because Jesus rose from the dead and his truth changes everything.
• 20:21
  Luis: And, parents, you can't just hope that your kids are going to catch this.
• 20:27
  Luis: You have to teach it, you have to model it and you have to show them that faith is, it's not blind.
• 20:33
  Luis: Right, we don't have a blind faith.
• 20:36
  Luis: Our faith is rooted in truth, and remember that what we believe about truth doesn't just shape Sunday.
• 20:47
  Luis: Yeah, it shapes how we live, it shapes how we parent, it shapes how we lead every day.
• 20:54
  Luis: And so, if this is true for you, then it's going to show up in your everyday life.
• 21:00
  Nate: That's right.
• 21:01
  Nate: So thank you, guys, for hanging with us today and listening to Equipped for Impact.
• 21:07
  Nate: I hope this episode encouraged you and, if it did, please share it with another parent who could use this resource.
• 21:14
  Nate: We would love for other people to be able to listen and be encouraged and be equipped to disciple their children and wrestle through these questions.
• 21:23
  Nate: Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss our next episode in the Big Questions miniseries.
• 21:29
  Nate: Our next question is going to be why do people do bad things if God made the world good?
• 21:37
  Nate: So there'll be another great conversation and until then, keep leading the next generation to stand firm in their faith and influence the world for Christ.