Evidence vs. surrender

The long-form podcast is the best thing about the internet. I cleaned a whole floor of the church the other day with a lively three-hour discussion between Joe Rogan and Christian geophysicist Stephen Meyer in my hip pocket.

You can tell Christianity has some appeal to Rogan, but he fought tooth and nail, like the UFC guy he is. Meyer’s arguments included genetic evidence, historical evidence, archaeological evidence, logic, and personal testimony. There is nothing to which Rogan did not suggest an alternative possibility, however far-fetched.

At the close of 190 minutes the brawny inquisitor went away somewhat sad, like the rich young man of Matthew 19:22. This is because I think Rogan really wanted to believe that Meyer was right and that the God of the Bible is real, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it because (as he kept saying) he needed more “proof.”

I felt some sympathy for Rogan, as one looking back on my younger self. Before I became “the most reluctant convert” on Cape Cod in the mid-’70s, I posed questions for two years following a mountaintop experience at Swiss L’Abri. I insisted on “proof,” and despaired that it was possible.

It is the idea of “proof” that I would like to address here.

Rogan and I had blind spots. First, we couldn’t see that many of the things we go around believing all day long as certainties are based on much less “proof” than the level of proof we were insisting on in order to believe that Jesus died and rose for our sins. We had no trouble believing that Julius Caesar lived, or that there are trillions of galaxies, or fish living 6 miles under the sea.

Second, Rogan and I failed to realize that all human knowledge involves an act of knowing. Knowing is not something that happens to you; it is a process you’re involved in. For instance, it is not as if we have “knowledge” that Caesar fought in the Gallic wars, but only “faith” that Jesus died and came alive three days later. We have met neither man in the flesh. If you say you have proofs for Caesar but only stories for Jesus, what is your standard of proof? The truth is you just decided to believe the records for Caesar and not to believe the records for Jesus.

Third, Christianity has better proofs than any other fact. Many of the things we are happy to call facts may be attested by only one kind of evidence—say, only historical. Or only scientific. Or only archaeological.

But God is not stingy with evidence. He gives not only lots of evidence but lots of kinds of evidence—multidimensional evidence—the better to help us take that epistemic step of knowing, and to put our trust in Him. We have the Bible. We have the accounts of eyewitnesses. We have martyrs who staked their lives on the resurrection being true. We have Assyrian cuneiform tablets. We have the Creation itself declaring God’s deity and power (Romans 1).

Let us not forget the “subjective” proofs—an experience of guilt that confirms the teachings of Scripture regarding our need for a Savior; the witness of the Spirit; the sudden quickening of a portion of the living Word. If you don’t think these are proof, you would do well to reexamine whether your definition is too narrow. Perhaps you are more a child of European philosophical materialism than you flatter yourself to believe.

Sin is a proof. How do you explain sin—in you and in the world—apart from the Bible’s explanation? Why isn’t the world entirely harmonious? Or entirely evil? How do you explain the unspeakable beauty of woodlands, sunsets, and kittens, side by side with the unspeakable darkness of the murder of a child, except as evidence of two warring kingdoms battling it out behind the affairs of men?

The dwarfs of Narnia were too clever by half to believe in the new Narnia because they refused to be “taken in.” After I had argued in Hyannis for two years, a man said to me: “Your problem isn’t insufficient evidence; your problem is you won’t surrender.” Shortly afterward, I went home, got on my knees, and asked Christ to save me.

When Moses wanted certainty before taking on a mission to Pharaoh, God told him his “sign” would come after he obeyed (Exodus 3:11-12). It is very interesting to me that most of my evidences for the reality of Christ—answered prayers, rebukes, corrections, discernments, deepenings of understanding—have come following, not preceding, my step of “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26).