Episode 143 – Truth and Proof – Part 3 – Objections to Knowing Truth Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans, Chapter 1, verses 18 through 20 ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re excited to be with you as we continue with our recently started series on Anchored by Truth that we’re calling “Truth and Proof.” As we mentioned in our first couple of episodes this series was inspired by a teaching series that Dr. Gregg Alexander did for his Sunday school class a few years ago. And I’m pleased to announce that today we are joined by Dr. Alexander to help us push deeper into why Christians can be so confident that the Christian faith has a firm basis in reason and evidence. Dr. Alexander was a practicing physician for more than xx years but more importantly he has taught an adult Sunday school class for more than 25 years. Dr. Alexander, would you like to introduce yourself to the Anchored by Truth audience? Gregg: It’s a pleasure to be with you today. I really admire the fact that Anchored by Truth has devoted itself to supporting and demonstrating the inspiration and infallibility of scripture. I am also grateful that you decided to do this series on “Truth and Proof.” As you mentioned several years ago I wanted to help my Sunday school students begin to understand that Christianity is a faith that is not only supported by logic and reason but also that logic and reason properly applied can help lead people into a deeper relationship with Jesus. VK: We agree. In our first couple of episodes we’ve also mentioned that the primary reason we think apologetics is an important area of study for Christians is because apologetics can be used to support evangelism. And this particularly true in today’s culture when it seems as though we’ve lost some of the common touchpoints about truth and faith that used to be accepted without question. Gregg: I think that’s true. Years ago, if you said to someone in our nation that such-and-such a principle was important because it was in the Bible, no one thought anything about your statement. But today, if you encounter a non-believer and fall back on the authority of the Bible the other person is likely to say, “well, I don’t believe in the Bible and I don’t accept its authority.” So, then the believer is faced with the question of where do you go from there? Questions like that are why studying apologetics can be very useful for people like us, and be for the eternal benefit of others. If you know why the Bible is authoritative for all persons – not just for believers – and if the other person is a sincere seeker who will listen to you, then there is a chance that that person may be saved – and that is the purpose of apologetics, evangelism, and a big part of the Christian life. Christianity is a faith that is “other-directed.” 1st Chronicles 28:9 says, “for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you . . .” In my series I set out to prove the truth of that verse. VK: So, in this series on Anchored by Truth we began in the same place as your Sunday school series - with the building blocks of apologetics. We started with the things that everyone can understand regardless of what they already know, or think they know, about religion in general, and Christianity in particular. And last time we spent a lot of our time talking about truth. After all, we want people to understand that the Bible is true and accurate in matters pertaining to fact and history. But emphasizing that the Bible is true would be meaningless if truth didn’t exist in the first place. Gregg: That’s a very important point for people to understand. Too often today you hear people say something like “you have your truth and that’s fine for you but that’s not my truth.” When people say that, they have committed the sin or equivocation. They have used the word “truth” as an improper substitute for the word “opinion” or “preference.” Real truth is always absolute. It is not subject to whims, opinions, or individual or group preferences. You wouldn’t think ...
