EVIDENCE BASED CHRISTIANITY
George Harrison was the quietest of the Beatles. He died in November 2001 when only 58. Four years before he had developed a cancer at the base of his tongue which at first responded well to treatment. However he developed metastases first in his lungs and then in his brain. When the Beetles were at their prime it was George, who led the others to a guru in the Himalayas in order,
“To find out what its all about – what we are hear for.”
Apparently he would frequently say,
“Everything else can wait – but the search for God cannot wait.”
This quest was common in other generations but today it is all too rare. How seldom it is for people to search for such answers.
A medical consultant in a London teaching hospital took his medical students on a ward round and introduced them to a patient with a recurrent tumour in his throat. After they had examined him the consultant said to the students,
“This man will probably choke on his food and die within six months. Can you tell him what the meaning of life is?”
A patient was talking with his Christian doctor about spiritual matters.
“I’ve been searching for God for years.”
“Then it is astonishing you haven’t found him. He isn’t hiding. Where have you been looking?” the doctor replied.
“I’ve been thinking about these things.”
“Oh, no wonder then, you won’t find God that way. You’ll have to look where he has revealed himself.”
A schoolmaster was taking a Religious Education period for a group of eleven year olds. Perhaps because he wanted to test the master, one of the pupils asked him,
“Sir, have you ever seen God?”
The reply was so clear.
“No, but if I had lived in Israel two thousand years ago, I could have done.”
That is what Jesus claimed for himself.
“I and the Father are one. No-one comes to the Father but through me.” (John 14:6)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”(Matthew 11:28)
Such claims as these are mind-blowing; they appear so arrogant and egocentric. Yet everyone who knew him well acknowledged that Jesus was a loving, humble person who really cared for others. Jesus explained this paradox by affirming that he really had come from the Father in heaven. He claimed to be the unique ‘Son of God’. He was the ‘Lamb of God’ that all the sacrifices over the previous millennia looked forward to. He said that he had come to die to be the real bearer of sin for all people in all times.
These are staggering claims. But is it true – really true – or could it be just wishful thinking? Could it be just a placebo effect with no substance?
Last week I was phoned by a national newspaper reporter as he had been shown an article in ‘Triple Helix’, the magazine of the Christian Medical Fellowship in which it is suggested that doctors are in a good position to share the Christian gospel with their patients. He implied that many are concerned about this.
“What do you think?” he asked.
In reply I reminded him that in the annual ‘State of Health of the Nation’ report given by Professor Calman (then Chief Medical Officer) a few years ago health was defined in terms of being well physically, mentally and spiritually. All three are interlinked closely. I then suggested that whether we talk about spiritual matters to a patient should be controlled by three questions. These questions also apply to any other clinical matter we are thinking of discussing with them. The reply to all three should be in the affirmative if we are to go ahead.
Is it likely to be helpful to this individual?
Is it helpful to society?
Is it true?
Unfortunately time is limited to answer each of these in depth but let us briefly look at them.
Does having a faith help individuals?
Dr Monty Barker, in his Templeton Lectures challenged the sceptics on the question to look at the scientific evidence. He concluded that there are great benefits for individuals who have a real faith. He showed that regular worshippers live longer because of a reduction of heart attacks and strokes. He also found significant mental health benefits.i
Dr Harold Koenig studied 87 hospital patients who were depressed as well as suffering from organic conditions such as heart disease and strokes. In his report in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1998 it was reported that the stronger an elderly persons religious beliefs, the faster they recovered from their depression. This benefit was independent of medical intervention and quality of life issues.
A study looking at almost 4000 elderly people in North Carolina found that those who attended religious services regularly were 28% less likely to die during the study than others, even after controlling for other risk factors. This benefit was so strong that it was equal to that of not smoking cigarettes.
Another new book by Chamberlain and Hallii gives a scholarly overview of the hundreds of scientific papers on the relationship between faith and well-being, both in the physical and psychology realms. They looked carefully at the significance of ‘observer bias’ but they still came to the same conclusions as Dr Barker,
“Fully 80% of psychological research on religion and health conclude that a strong faith is advantageous.”
“The scientific evidence convincingly demonstrates that the natural by-product of ‘religion realised’ is longer life, less illness, better physical and mental health, more marital stability, less divorce, less suicide and less abuse of alcohol and other substances.”
They quote Professor Dale Matthews, Professor of Medicine at Georgetown who also argues strongly for the soundness of the ‘faith factor’ when he analysed hundreds of different researchers studies.
The head of psychiatry at a Scottish university said,
“If my patients could be assured of forgiveness, half of them could go home tomorrow.”
The psychiatrist C. J. Jung wrote towards the end of his lifetime,
“During the past thirty years, men from every civilised country in the world have come to me for consultation. Among all my mature patients there was not one whose problem did not spring from a lack of religious world outlook. I can assure you that each of them had become ill because they had not that which only a living religion can give to a man, and not one of them will recover fully unless he regains the religious view of life.”
People do need to know the true explanation and answer to life in order to have a full, satisfying existence.
It has been said that if there is a therapy that statistically gives a 5% advantage to patients, then this should be discussed with patients. On this basis having a clear faith, that people are really committed to, is clearly advantageous to them and on this basis should be mentioned.
2. Does having a faith help society?
Western societies are now seeing the effects of ‘self-centred’ religion. Where there is no belief in a supreme God, to whom we must answer selfishness takes over. Family break-ups and all the consequences of this increase. Litigation goes out of control as people seek their rights whilst neglecting their duties. Care of the elderly and chronically sick becomes a real problem as less and less families see these family members as their responsibility. AIDS becomes common in societies where sexual promiscuity is widespread. The increased use of drugs and alcohol suggest a widespread dissatisfaction in society. Statistically those with a firm faith have lower blood pressure, less depression and anxiety, stronger immune systems and cost the health care system less than people less religiously involved – there are real economic advantages for a society with a widespread faith.
Few people have realised that the word ‘integrity’ has an opposite. It is ‘dis-integrity’ or ‘disintegration’. When individuals cease to be concerned about doing what is right before God, and behave with themselves as their ‘God’, then their personal life will tend to begin to disintegrate. Next their family and social life is affected and eventually the nations life is influenced. When a society looses a strong religious faith then the laws of that society have to become firmer and hasher. Consequently a loss of faith opens the door to totalitarian governments.
Kindness for others is the fruit of a faith, selfishness is the result of a loss of faith. Such kindness helps society run better.
3. Is it true?
The above arguments are interesting and significant. But just because individuals and society are really helped by having a faith does not help in answering to whom or to what this faith should be directed. The sort of faith needed to give a clear purpose, even when we are facing death, to give the motivation to live with integrity even when this appears to be to our disadvantage and to give relief to a guilty consciences, must be related to God himself. This can obviously give rise to much speculation as so many people over the centuries have had intuitions or visions that claim to be from God - yet these usually differ. If they differ then logically either they are all wrong or only one is right. I personally have no desire to live by a faith that is untrue. What point is there in having faith in someone if in eternity this is shown to be false?
The ultimate reason why everyone should submit to living under the authority of Jesus is that he really is the ‘Lord Jesus Christ (or Messiah)’. The Christian message does stand up under vigorous investigation.
Survey of some of the evidence that the Christian Faith is true
A missionary in Turkey had some Moslem students round for tea. Afterwards, he read to them the following ancient writing and then asked them these questions, ‘Who is this about?’, ‘Who wrote it?’, and ‘When was it written?’.
“A man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief, we turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised and we did not care, yet it was our grief He bore, our sorrows that weighed him down, and we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for His own sins. But He was wounded and bruised for our sins; he was chastised that we might have peace; He was lashed and we were healed. We are the ones who strayed away like sheep, we who left God’s paths to follow our own, yet God laid on him the guilt and sin of every one of us. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He never said a word. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and, as a sheep before her sheerer is dumb, so He stood silent before the ones condemning him. From prison and trial, they led Him away to his death, but who among the people of that day realised it was their sins that He was dying for, that He was suffering their punishment? He was buried like a criminal, in a rich man’s grave, but He had done no wrong and never spoken an evil word.”
They quickly realised that this passage was about the crucifixion of Jesus, and thought that it was written by one of His early disciples, because of the detail given. They were amazed to learn that it was in fact written by the prophet Isaiah over seven hundred years before Jesus was born! This passage teaches that the coming servant king would be despised, flogged, and finally killed as a wrongdoer - yet He was to do this on our behalf, to bear our sins.
Old Testament Prophesies
The Old Testament contains over three hundred and thirty such prophecies about the coming Messiah - the promised deliverer of God’s people who would reign for ever. These were written at widely differing times in the history of the Jewish people, and sixty of them are of major significance, like the one quoted above.
In the 1920s, a publisher in the United States of America offered $1000 to anyone who could show that even half of the prophecies could refer to someone other than Jesus. No-one has ever claimed the prize and the challenge still stands.
Here are some of the Messianic prophecies:
1. His Birth
The prophets predicted that the rescue mission of God would involve the birth of a special baby. This suggests that there was something extraordinary about this child right from the beginning. Note who the prophet says he will be:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign . . . . for ever” (Isaiah 9 v. 6-7)
Where? His birth would take place in the village of Bethlehem, five miles outside Jerusalem:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are of old, from ancient times . . . . . He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.” (Micah 5 v. 2-5)
This village only had about two hundred houses when Jesus was born. No-one else of major importance has been born in Bethlehem since this prophecy was written.
When? The Messiah would come whilst the temple at Jerusalem was still standing, and would be preceded by a prophet who would prepare the people:
“ See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.” (Malachi 3 v. 1)
The temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans and has never been rebuilt. This passage also hints strongly that this Messiah would be the Lord God himself! John the Baptist was to become the forerunner (Matthew 3 v. 3).
How? He would have a remarkable conception in that His mother would be a virgin. He would have no human father, but would be the true son of God:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7 v. 14)
The name Immanuel literally means ‘God with us’, which is who Jesus claimed to be.
2. His Ministry
When Jesus delivered one of His first sermons in the synagogue at Nazareth, his home town, during His ministry, He quoted another prophesy of Isaiah and applied it to himself saying:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has appointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God . .” (Isaiah 61 v. 1-2)
This is particularly startling as most preachers then were concerned to influence the behaviour of the powerful and influential, not with offering a rescue package to the poor, whether their poverty was material, physical or spiritual! This is what Jesus came to do. This passage also emphasises two aspects of the future Messiah’s work - firstly he would preach the good news of freedom and forgiveness, but later he would execute God’s wrath on those who reject him.
3. His Death
Psalm 22 was written by King David about 1012 BC. It starts with the words, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ which Jesus quoted as He was about to die on the cross. He obviously thought that this Psalm referred to Him and, when you read on, it is not surprising.
“All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him, since he delights in him.’ ” (Psalm 22 v. 7-8)
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” (v.14)
“. . . my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me; they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” (v. 15-18)
This is a very specific description of death by crucifixion, which is all the more striking as no description of this torture has been discovered before 300 BC when the Phoenician people invented it! It depicts a godly man being vilified by those watching his death. He is very dehydrated, and his joints were out of place which were features of such deaths, which could take up to nine days. It even foretells the way his clothes were distributed. At a Roman crucifixion, four soldiers allocated to each condemned man. They would guard him until he was dead. One of the perks of this grisly job was to have his personal property, which they divided up between them. They even cast lots for the best item: the seamless undergarment. (John 19 v. 23-24)
4. His Resurrection
Although it was God’s will that Jesus should die on our behalf, it was equally His plan that death would not be the end.
“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days . . . . After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.” (Isaiah 53 v. 9-11)
This passage teaches that after his death as a guilt offering, the Messiah will live again.
5. The Family History of Jesus
The whole of the Old Testament is a description of the unfolding drama of God’s rescue mission of His people. The prophecies about the pedigree of God’s Messiah, who would complete this rescue, are very clear. At the beginning of Matthew’s gospel (Chapter 1), great importance is placed on the significance of Jesus’ ancestry. Luke also stresses the importance of His family background and describes it right back to Adam. Those people mentioned include:
Noah , who built the ark is there. It was his son, Shem, who was to be the forefather of the Semitic (Shem-itic) people, the Jews and Arabs.
Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was the son of his servant Hagar, but later his wife Sarah had Isaac. There was bitter rivalry between the two. Ishmael became the father of the Arab people, whereas Isaac was the ancestor of the Jews. This antagonism has continued to this present day!
Isaac had twin sons: Esau the hairy hunter, and Jacob the smooth-skinned scheming farmer. They were also jealous adversaries. God’s Messiah was to come through Jacob, who was re-named Israel by God. Jacob had twelve sons who were the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel. It was prophesied that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah.
When the Jews entered the promised land under Joshua, they first captured the city of Jericho. The two spies who had visited the city earlier had been rescued by a young prostitute named Rahab, who had a flat in the wall of the city. Because of what she had done, she was protected when the city was routed. (Numbers 2) Why should this woman have a whole chapter in the Bible? It was because she was to be an ancestor of Jesus! She married one of the soldiers of the victorious army and they had a son called Boaz.
Many have been puzzled why the short book of Ruth is in the Bible. After all, she was a Moabite woman. However, her second marriage was to Boaz who by this time owned land at Bethlehem. Their grandson was Jesse who became the father of King David. The prophet Jeremiah said what God thought of this family:
“I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23 v. 5-6)
That is exactly what Jesus, the Son (or descendant) of David, did; he became our righteousness.
A consultant colleague of mine asked me one day why I was a Christian. “Because it is true,” I replied. We then discussed the types of evidence that there are. He became intrigued by the concept that so much about Jesus had been prophesied in the Old Testament, and set about to check up on this claim. He found many prophesies that I didn’t know about! After a few months, he said “I am convinced,” and it was soon after that he committed himself to Jesus.
Non Christian Writers
Although Jesus was executed in his early thirties in a backwater of the Roman Empire, He made so great an impact that much was written about Him both by His followers and by others not so sympathetic! We will first look at some of the direct evidence for the historical Jesus by non-Christian writers.
Cornelius Tacitus
Tacitus wrote his ‘Annals’ about 115 AD. He describes how the early Christians had become such an embarrassment in Rome that the emperor Nero made them the scapegoats for the great fire of Rome that devastated the city in 64 AD - just over thirty years after the death of Jesus. There was a rumour going about that Nero himself had started the fire.
“To dispel the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and treated with the most extreme punishments, some people, popularly known as Christians, whose disgraceful activities were notorious. The originator of that name, Christus, had been executed when Tiberius was Emperor by order of the procurator, Pontius Pilatus. But the deadly cult, though checked for a time, was now breaking out again not only in Judaea, the birthplace of this evil, but even throughout Rome, where all the nasty and disgusting ideas from all over the world pour in and find a ready following.” (Tacitus, Annals XV.44)
Tacitus was obviously no friend of the Christians, but his evidence is therefore even more reliable. He confirms that Jesus lived in Judea, and was executed by order of the governor, Pontius Pilate. He was governor between AD 26-36.
Pliny the Younger
Pliny was sent to govern Bithynia, a small state in northern Turkey, in about AD 112. He wrote letters on many subjects to the emperor Trajan. One of these concerned the problem he faced with the Christians in the area. He complained that, because of the new religion, people were deserting the pagan temples; that the sacred festivals were being discontinued for lack of popular support, and that the lucrative trade in animals for temple sacrifices was dwindling badly! He therefore had the custom of arresting any Christians he could find and, if they persisted in their allegiance to Jesus after being warned of the consequences, he had them executed. Pliny discovered that true Christians would rather die than pray to the pagan gods, or ‘curse Christ’, or make an offering to the emperor’s statue. He described the habits of these early Christians.
“They were in the habit of meeting before dawn on a fixed day, when they would recite in turn, a hymn to Christ as to a god, and would bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal act but rather that they would not commit any theft, robbery or adultery, nor betray any trust nor refuse to restore a deposit on demand. This done, they would disperse, and then they would meet again later to eat together (but the food was quite ordinary and harmless).”
Pliny added that this ‘perverse religious cult’ was affecting ‘large numbers of all classes’. Obviously, something very strong indeed was convincing these people to risk death by continuing their allegiance to Jesus.
Josephus
Josephus was a commander of the Jewish forces in the north of Judea when the Jews revolted against Rome in 66 AD. He wrote two important histories. The ‘Antiquities’ gave a history of the Jews up to AD 66, and the ‘The Jewish War’ gives a detailed account of the rebellion between AD 66-73. He was able to do this as, realising the eventual outcome, he had changed sides and became advisor on Jewish affairs to the Roman generals! He talks about many historical figures, including Pontius Pilate, John the Baptist, Herod, Caiaphas the High Priest, and James the brother of Jesus who became an early martyr when leading the church in Jerusalem. He wrote:
“At that time, there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good and he was known to be virtuous. Many among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die, but those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders; and the tribe of Christians, so named after him, have not disappeared to this day.” (Antiquities XVIII 64)
Elsewhere, Josephus acknowledged that Jesus was ‘a doer of marvellous works’; in other words, a miracle worker.
The Resurrection
The reason why so many people became Christians in those early years was not just because they felt convicted of their sin, and that they did need a Saviour. They recognised that Jesus was that Saviour primarily because he rose from the dead.
There was no contemporary explanation of the resurrection that suggested that the wrong man had been executed. Jesus was a well known preacher, and his opponents would hardly be satisfied with the death of the wrong man. It is psychologically impossible for the twelve disciples to give up their lives for the message that Jesus was God who rose from the dead if they were not convinced by seeing him alive after they had seen him crucified.
The ‘Today’ newspaper of April 27th 1991 ran a startling feature on its front page, with the headline, “JESUS DID NOT DIE ON CROSS.” It was proposed that Jesus was still alive when taken from the cross, and that placing Him in a cool place would have revived Him. This theory was first propounded at the end of the eighteenth century and has appeared every generation since.
One proof that Jesus must have died on the cross is one I find utterly convincing. It comes from one sentence in John’s record of the crucifixion:
“One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.” (John 19 v. 34)
Out of the spear wound came a flow of first blood and then water. This must have collected in one of the body cavities of Jesus. We do know that the blood of animals and humans that are tortured to death does not clot (this is due to circulating anti-clotting chemicals called ‘fibrinolysins’). When blood is left to stand, it separates into the red cells which drop to the bottom, leaving the clear plasma above. There seems to be no other reasonable explanation of what John saw, other than that the spear pierced a large cavity which had filled up with blood just before Jesus died and that this blood had separated into the red cells and plasma. It would take at least half an hour after death for this separation to occur. It could not have occurred if Jesus had swooned.
I am interested in which cavity the spear could have hit. The inside of the heart itself is too small to contain enough blood to produce this effect. The only other possibilities are the cavities around the lung (pleural cavity), and the cavity around the heart (pericardial cavity). Just before Jesus died, He ‘cried out with a loud voice’. When people have a pleural cavity full of fluid, they are gasping for breath - so this does not fit. The only viable possibility is that, just before he died, there was a tear in His heart, which led to a rapid filling of the pericardial space with blood. This itself would rapidly stop the heart due to what doctors call ‘cardiac tamponade.’ It is interesting that Jesus did die a ‘cardiac type’ death - He was not comatosed but awake when He realised something was going wrong, and said ‘It is finished’, and suddenly died. It therefore seems likely that Jesus literally died of a broken heart!
Three days after his execution Jesus appeared to the disciples and convinced them of his resurrection. That same afternoon he walked with two disciples to the village of Emmaus, which is seven miles from Jerusalem. Later that evening joined his disciples back in Jerusalem. That means he would have had to walk 14 miles. The pain would make this totally impossible, without a miracle, because a thick Roman nail had just been driven through his feet!
From all the information that we have, from several sources, there can be no doubt that Jesus did die on that cross and miraculously rose. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that Jesus later appeared to over 500 at the same time and when he wrote many of these were still alive. (1 Cor 15:6)
Subjective evidence
There is another type of evidence that is also very important. All people have a sense of right and wrong that, interestingly enough is most active when we feel we have been wronged by others. We recognise that values such as honesty, kindness, selflessness and integrity are important and when we fail in these areas we feel bad about it. Instinctively we know the truth of the verse from the Bible,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)
Why doesn’t everyone believe?
Our underlying problem is that we don’t want God to be in control of our lives. We want to live our lives our way. Consequently we make excuses as to why we reject him. The writer Aldous Huxley wrote when he was elderly why he had rejected Jesus.
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation – both sexual and political.”
Yet God still demands that all people honestly bow in submission to our all loving creator and sustainer. The first question people should ask is,
“Is the Christian faith true – is it evidence based?”
However they will not be able to investigate this honestly until they have answered the second,
“Am I willing to admit that I need a Saviour who can represent me before God and could I surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ?”
Jesus says that the eternal destiny of each one of us depends upon our response.
Montagu Barker, ‘Psychology, Religion and Mental Health’ Rutherford House 2000
2. Theodore Chamberlain and Christopher Hall, ‘Realized Religion’, Templeton Foundation Press 2000
Lecture given at Imperial College, London May 2001 by BVP
