The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Luke W. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Read Why I Am A Christian by Norm Geisler
Why I Am a Christian, edited by Norman Geisler and Paul Hoffman, brings together many leading Christian thinkers to form an apologetic.
The beginning question put forward was epistemological; Francis J. Beckwith argued that truth could not be relative because moral relativism either refutes itself or condones barbarism (Geisler 24). If you say that truth is relative you include your own statement. To say that all truth is relative makes an absolute claim to truth; it self-destructs.
The next step is to say that truth is independent to the person. Such a claim sends people to impossible places. Your truth says we should help the poor; my truth says cannibalism is cool. The world of individuals defining truth is a slippery slope that does not end well.
While the statement, "I like vanilla ice cream" is relative to my tastes, it is a fixed truth that in the entire cosmos on May 4, 2010, Luke Wagner likes vanilla ice cream.
In the same way truth is ultimately fixed in the character of God. Because God pre-existed the creation of the world, He has inherent value. Everything is relative – a caveat exists, however, everything is relative to His fixed point.
The Christian would make one final qualification. We may not always know the truth about morality but we have a relationship with the moral law giver (Geisler 29).
The following series of chapters makes an argument that God is indeed the truth. A former atheist wrote of how he tried to construct things to replace what plainly looked to be the work of a Divine Creator. In the end he concludes, "There is a way to honesty, but it leads through Jesus Christ."
Christ is where the hope of the Christian lies. The resurrection has a lot of historical evidence; do not forget the empty tomb. Eleven men who cowered as Christ died became bold preachers when He reappeared. The sacred tests were written very early after His resurrection. He appeared to 513 people and the conversion of Paul stands as a light in His empty tomb.
The big bang can also comfort the Christian. For the big bang to produce earth is literally impossible. So many things would have had to work together just perfectly to have a life permitting universe and they did. God spoke and bang it happened.
Studying some of the word connotations heard by the Hebrews and combining that with scientific opinion, Walter Bradley argues against a literal creation. He said that the word for day could have meant a period of time and that the earth is very old and so are the stars. The science is sound for that and eternity may reveal some nuance in the passage. However, it could be rejoined that the age of the earth and its beginning are not the same thing. Adam was created a full grown man. Are we to limit God and say that He couldn’t create a full grown Earth and stars old enough to have sent their life to the Earth? Arguing for the reliability of scripture is necessary; reading the passage I had to be careful to remember that it is not the goal of God to be a creator that appeals to a modern day scientist, such a God will fall in the next generation. Instead He is the God who exists outside of time and created the world and showed Himself through the reliable personage of Jesus Christ. That was the final conclusion I took from the book.
