Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. There are claims about Christianity that continue to make their way into popular books, movies, and TV, but are simply not true. For example, claims like the Gospels were written too long after Jesus to be accurate, or that early Christianity was progressive, or that Christianity was spread around the world by force, or that the church was anti-science and brought on the dark ages. According to the Apostle Paul, Christians should be ready to speak truth at all times, and the Apostle Peter exhorts believers to be ready with an answer when asked about the hope that should define our lives. Though the task of defending the faith can seem overwhelming, There have never been more resources available to Christians than right now.
And of course, Christ has fulfilled his promise to give us the Holy Spirit.
So we can do this. For example, we have every good reason to trust the four gospels as reliable sources of information about who Jesus was and what he taught. The scholarship on the Gospels is extensive. A great place to start are the books of J. Warner Wallace, especially Cold Case Christianity and Person of Interest.
Also, there's the book Dethroning Jesus by Daryl Bach and Daniel Watt. Wallace, that refutes the revisionist view of who Christ is as only a political reformer or a mystic. Or consider this claim that early Christianity was basically just a New Agey religion until a group of men changed it in a bid to establish their own power. No. As Aleister McGrath put it in his book, Heresy, the central tenets of the Christian faith were well established from the very beginning and not in dispute.
Here's McGrath: quote: Christian writers were perfectly aware that the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth had transformed the human situation. Their task was to explore patiently and thoroughly every conceivable way of making sense of this. End quote. Also consider that the earliest documents from the apostles all warned against false doctrine. When false teachers did propose ideas that were outside of the faith, the Christian community rejected them based on so-called rules of faith that eventually formed the basis of the creeds.
The idea that Christianity spread around the world by force also doesn't hold up to the evidence. After all, for its first three centuries, Christianity was illegal. And when Christianity became more tolerated in the Roman Empire, the problem wasn't too many conversions by sword, but too many people joining because it was the new shiny religion. Besides, as Rodney Stark argued in The Triumph of Christianity, the church spread widely across Asia, outside of any political protection, for centuries before Islam persecuted it into a tiny minority. Today, arguably the strongest parts of the church are in places like Africa, South America, and East Asia, generations after colonialism came to its end.
Instead of being a culturally imperialist force, Christianity became the first truly global religion. Much of its success is due to its adaptability. Instead of imposing culture like Islam does, Christianity was able to adapt to various cultures, customs, and languages. And the claim that Christianity calls the Dark Ages is a zombie idea, should have died a long time ago, and it only lives on with popular level skeptics. It's difficult to find a decent historian anymore who even believes there was a Dark Ages.
In reality, the so-called Dark Ages was just an innovation by Renaissance and Enlightenment scholars to elevate their own eras. Far from suppressing intellectual development, the church was at the forefront of literacy, scholarship, and scientific innovation. And universities and hospitals were birthed from cathedrals and monasteries. And the scientific and industrial revolutions wouldn't exist. without first the centuries of Christian meditation on the personal God who created an orderly universe.
Now to be more clear, refuting these claims doesn't necessarily prove that Christianity is true, but we should not allow these myths to go unchallenged. Believers should speak of our Savior, of the Bible, and our faith with confidence, of both objective truth and the confidence of our own changed lives. And unbelievers should know what it is that they're not believing in. rather than just basing their unbelief on falsehoods like these. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org. I'm going to go to the bathroom.
Colorado is at it again, trying to silence free speech. A law in Colorado forces businesses to use customers' preferred pronouns, even if they're biologically inaccurate, and even if using those incorrect pronouns would violate a person's religious beliefs or conscience. That's a violation of free speech, but as Colorado has proved time and again, it has little concern for the First Amendment. At Alliance Defending Freedom, we're challenging the law on behalf of a Christian bookstore and a Colorado-based sports apparel company. But a court recently ruled against them.
With ADF's help, they appealed the ruling, and they'll continue fighting to ensure Colorado doesn't get away with this next attempt to skirt the First Amendment. Your gift helps protect free speech in cases like this all over the country. And for a limited time, your first gift to ADF is doubled by a special matching grant while funds last. Text Breakpoint to 83848 or go to joinadf.com slash breakpoint. to have your gift doubled.
