Copyright holder: Tyndale University, 3377 Bayview Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2M 3S4 Att.: Library Director, J. William Horsey Library Copyright: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Copyright license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Citation: Overholt, David. Reasons to Believe. Hamilton, ON: Church on the Rock Pub., 2001. ***** Begin Content ****** TYNDALE UNIVERSITY 3377 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M2M 3S4 TEL: 416.226.6620 www.tyndale.ca Note: This Work has been made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws of Canada without the written authority from the copyright owner. Overholt, David. Reasons to Believe. Hamilton, ON: Church on the Rock Pub., 2001. [ Citation Page ] Reasons to Believe [ Title Page ] Reasons to Believe 2001 Copyright © by L. David Overholt. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written premission from the publisher. Unless noted otherwise, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Illustrations by Rachel Peters p. 4, 9, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24, 29, 33, 39, 44, 50, 54, 57,61,65, 68, 72 Paul Cox p. 28, 37, 49, 60, 74 Printed in Canada Church on the Rock Publishing ISBN 0-9688568-0-2 [ Title Page Verso ] Table of Contents Arguments Against God The beginning p. 4 What about the bad stuff that happens to people? p.7 Isn’t one way stupid? p. 10 People who have never heard of Jesus? p. 14 Christians are hypocrites. p. 17 God can’t live forever. p. 21 What about evolution? p. 24 Hell. p. 29 Rules. p. 33 Arguments for God Why Jesus? p. 39 Jesus came alive. p. 44 The Bible. p. 50 Perfect is really good. p. 54 Spiritual hunger. p. 57 Lives changed. p. 61 Power in Jesus name. p. 64 Supernatural coincidences. p. 67 The problem of being good. P- 71 The end. p. 74 [ Page 3 ] 1. The Beginning [ Page 4 ] The Beginning "Prove to me beyond a doubt that there is a God," a friend at school once challenged me. We had been talking about why I would waste my time going to church. I was answering his questions pretty well when he came up with this one. I was stumped, so to buy time I challenged, "First prove to me that there is no God, beyond any doubt." We were both silent. We learned a lesson that day. There are a lot of things you can’t prove beyond any doubt. Does your boyfriend or girlfriend love you? Of course they do, but what is the proof beyond any doubt? How about the football team last year, where did it place? That’s easy to prove, you may say; the scores are published. They could have been faked. You could say that you were there and saw the games. I would say that you are making up the scores because it is your school. Isn’t it more fun to argue against something? It’s the easiest thing in the world to shoot holes in people's beliefs. But it is hard to prove that something is beyond any doubt even if the thing just happened yesterday. There are no solid 100 % proofs for or against God. God can't be placed under a microscope and be studied. Not only would the cover slip not fit over Him but also God is made of different stuff than the things He made. It is like two animated figures in a computer game looking for the programmer. It would be rather hard to find God since the programmer is in a different dimension and belongs to an altogether different existence. You may say, "If we can't prove beyond a doubt that there is a God, then let's forget it." I would think that too, except this subject is really important. If there were a God, knowing about Him would be the most important thing in the universe. In fact there might be eternal consequences of not knowing God. What should we do then? [ Page ] 5 Let's look at this in the same way we might look at any other thing - we’ll consider the evidence. If you read the newspaper and see your football team is in second place (that's how mine was, always second and never first) and you see your team standing poster in the hallway saying they are in second, you believe it, even though there isn't 100% proof. There are enough sources that seem to be reliable for most people to believe. Someone who just likes to play the doubter could say that both these scores were rigged to make you believe that your team is in second place - a person that likes the game of doubting, not the game of football. Looking for God is a much larger job so let's start to look at the evidence - something like a private investigator. Are there fingerprints of God in this world? Maybe there have been some eyewitnesses too. Maybe God Himself has helped us out! I see this search like stacking weights on a giant balance. On one side there is evidence against the existence of a God. On the other side, there is evidence that there is a God and His name is Jesus. Perhaps you have your balance tipped, because you reason there could not be a personal God who has loved us through Jesus. The first half of this book looks at those evidences against God and Jesus. We will also look at the weaknesses of these arguments. Maybe we can even remove some of your negative reasons from the balance. The second half of this book examines the evidence for believing in God through Jesus. There may be reasons to believe that you have not even heard of yet. Take the adventure and read some chapters that interest you; the order is not important. Remember to have an open mind. Don't read this book simply to play the game of doubting. The game of life is too important to lose. Be a private investigator and see if there is enough evidence to give you a reason to believe. [ Page 6 ] ***** This is the end of the e-text. This e-text was brought to you by Tyndale University, J. William Horsey Library - Tyndale Digital Collections *****