You can have these reasons:
These are good answers, but what if you can answer evidentially?
With evidence, philosophy, and good reasoning, we can prove even to non-believers that our God's not dead. If we want to keep our faith intact, we must know what we believe and why we believe. We can grow in our confidence in our faith even amid strong opposition. We not only serve others in love, but we also protect the truth of our faith.
Christianity is the only faith verified by evidence. And that evidence is true, which makes it distinct from the rest. If that's the case, it should be our duty to approach it with that kind of truth. After all, Scripture encourages us repeatedly to examine what we believe carefully to be fully convinced that our beliefs are true and reasonable.
Jesus is the best example of a case maker. He wanted to let His followers believe what He said with good reason. He supported His testimony with indirect evidence of His miracles. Even in His resurrection, He proved that. He encouraged those who doubted by giving continuous evidence until they were fully convinced.
His disciples carried on as case makers. And with what they witnessed, they went on fulfilling the Great Mission. Even those who authored the books of the New Testament carried on, as well as continuing case makers like Quadratus of Athens, Ariston of Pella, Justin Martyr, and Marcus Minucius Felix.
And we've seen others throughout Christian history. As we approach today, we're now the case makers. We should continue what was started and pass it on to the generations after us.
We need to train ourselves on how we can effectively do this. Training is an "all-in" effort. This is how American homicide detective and Christian apologist James Warner Wallace defined it.
- We test ourselves and see how we go. That's where we can identify our weaknesses and work on improving them.
- We raise the bar by dedicating ourselves to the preparation. We're more than willing to do whatever it takes to improve our abilities.
- We arm ourselves for battle. We have the truth as our most effective tool. We need to know it and how to use it.
- We involve ourselves and deploy in the field. That's where we engage with others and apply the practice of defending the reason for our hope in Christ with gentleness and respect.
- We nurture others by demonstrating the nature of Jesus. We'll meet people who are wounded by aggressive challengers of the faith. So we nurse them with the truth we know about it. And that's where preparedness is important. We must be ready before the battle to be helpful during cases like this.
Training is putting everything we're taught into practice. And the church is a perfect training ground to become ready wherever we're deployed. There are lots of resources to equip us for the battle ahead. This calls for us to utilize our drilling well.
This also means that we need to develop on becoming a diligent and meticulous investigator. When we diligently investigate, we can conclude confidently with our evidence.
I've learned these practices from James Warner Wallace to help us in doing such:
1. Read the casebook completely.
We read everything from cover to cover and not read bits and pieces out of context. In this context, the Bible is our casebook. When we read, we need to understand the context of why it's written that way and not just interpret it from our understanding. Scholarly commentaries give a big help for that.
2. Think about the nature of evidence boldly.
Everything has the potential to be considered as evidence, even those about God and the Bible. What may seem to be unimportant can count as important evidence. Keep an open mind and think about them broadly.
3. Take notes and analyze the case thoroughly.
The better our note-taking, the better our outlines, and the better our case. We feel free to note everything we discover, our impressions, reminders of things we want to research, or puzzling or troublesome texts we want to highlight. We watch out for words because every word counts.
4. Summarize and organize the evidence usefully.
It's important to list the evidence so that the data can be organized, assessed, and interpreted. Sometimes, evidence may be lacking when considered in isolation. But when examined in totality, the case can become strong and reasonable.
5. Add to the case evidentially.
When we need additional evidence outside the notebook to file the case, we do so. There's additional information we may find that can add substance to it.
It's not only in our investigation that matters but also in our communication. We share what we believe like a good prosecutor.
We pick a jury insightfully. It will be helpful if they are passionate, unbiased, and humble.
We instruct them evidentially. We do this in the nature and role of evidence before we cite the proof itself.
We make our opening statement enthusiastically. We practice, prepare, protect our first impression, and keep the momentum along.
We present the evidence powerfully with a balance of grace and self-effacement. We also make it understandable and strategic. We ask good questions and know how to be pre-emptive.
We make a closing argument persuasively. We can close confidently, summarize visually, and offer rebuttal (when needed) with gentleness and respect. We ask for a decision passionately and trust in the hands of the jury for the case.
We can grow and go into the case maker we want to be. We may not get it at first, but it's okay. It takes time to become a good one. We can struggle, make mistakes, learn from our errors, and take incremental steps toward becoming a great case-maker for Christ.
It's one of the ways we can partner with the Holy Spirit to transform the hearts and minds of those who need a clear sense of believing in God. And we can help in that work in our own way.
As Christ-followers, we all need to help one another in making the case. We ought to be like sheepdogs, protecting the sheep against wolves. When we understand where our faith stands, we can make the case that Christianity is real. So let's be good ones at that.
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