Why Should We Believe that Christianity is True? Part 1 – The Trilemma
Neil Shenvi – Apologetics
If you had two minutes to provide a rational defense of Christianity, what would you say?
This is part one of a four-part series of essays attempting to answer that question. These essays will by no means exhaust the possible answers, but they will help to equip us as Christians to give “a reason for the hope that is in us” (1 Pet. 3:15). Below, I want to look at what I consider to be one of the most important arguments for the truth of Christianity. It was put forward in its most popular form by C.S. Lewis and is known as the ‘Lord, Liar, Lunatic’ argument, or the Trilemma.
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Key quote:
“The essence of the argument is that we cannot put Jesus off as a ‘good teacher.’ It calls us to actually, honestly engage with the person of Jesus that we find in the Bible and make a decision about his extraordinary claims. However, one major obstacle to any engagement with Jesus is skepticism about the biblical text. Lewis assumed that most of his hearers recognized the biblical texts as generally reliable. Unfortunately, this belief is not shared by many today.
In order to restore the argument’s usefulness, we must therefore make a case that the gospels provide a generally reliable portrait of the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth. To do so, let’s focus on four major areas: reliability of transmission, non-Christian documentary evidence, archaeology, and internal evidence.”
First, all works of piety; such as public prayer, family prayer, and praying in our closet; receiving the supper of the Lord; searching the Scriptures, by hearing, reading, meditating; and using such a measure of fasting or abstinence as our bodily health allows.
Secondly, all works of mercy; whether they relate to the bodies or souls of men; such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, entertaining the stranger, visiting those that are in prison, or sick, or variously afflicted; such as the endeavouring to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the stupid sinner, to quicken the lukewarm, to confirm the wavering, to comfort the feeble-minded, to succour the tempted, or contribute in any manner to the saving of souls from death. This is the repentance, and these the ‘fruits meet for repentance,’ which are necessary to full sanctification. This is the way wherein God hath appointed his children to wait for complete salvation. (6)
Wesley’s sermon, The Scripture Way of Salvation