A friend of mine who has a prolific, and interesting blog, had an article by a reporter detailing why he’s not a Christian. My buddy, Polycarp (don’t you love that! I wish I’d named my son that!) touches simply on one aspect of the article’s many forays into the slaying of Christianity and it’s holy document. Interestingly, though only from my perspective, the reporter’s piece is in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the paper from my old stompin’ grounds.

The reporter makes the statement:

If the Bible was miraculously inspired by God, He did a very poor job of miraculously preserving its original manuscripts, as we might reasonably expect an omnipotent deity to do.

He then proceeds to disassemble the Bible, at least from his perspective of what Christendom makes it out to be. His conclusion is:

The Bible, with all its imperfections, is clearly the work of men, not God, and does not, therefore, rise to the challenge of providing incontrovertible evidence of Christianity’s claims. At least, that’s the intellectual position to which the evidence has taken me.

Here’s the funny part, I’ve got to agree with him on many of his points because he makes a valid point (uh oh, that noise I hear is the faithful coming to lynch me).

I’m all for textual criticism, historical evidence, and so on. Shucks, I’ve got enough diploma paper on my walls to prove that I at least know what those things are. But, is any of that going to make an unChristian aChristian? I am never going to convince someone to believe the Bible is God’s word. That’s not even my responsibility.

More interesting yet, do the aChristians even believe the Bible is God’s word? If so, it sure is comical how poorly they can prove it by their lifestyles. If I was an unChristian, why would I even want to be aChristian? I may be better off as an unChristian.

This reporter’s underlying assumption is exactly what we aChristians need to address. We don’t need to debate, nor try to prove him wrong; all that will do is further alienate him (and prove his point). We do not have to prove that the Bible is from God, we need to prove that what this Being is doing in our lives is so irrefutable, so powerful, so different, that he’ll be intrigued to examine our claims. We have to prove that we are from God.

If you take the time to read the article in the Post Dispatch, be sure to read all the comments by the aChristians. They would make me want to be aChristian alright… NOT!

So I have reason to be enthusiastic about all Christ Jesus has done through me in my service to God. Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ… —Paul