Stacy Wolfe
Biblical Apologetics
11-19-02
Why I am a Christian
This paper would be the way I would present it to an undecided young person.
Before I was born, something wonderful happened. My parents decided to give their
hearts and lives to Jesus Christ. Their decisions encouraged me to develop a relationship with a
man who has never failed me but has always loved me and forgiven me no matter what I have
said or done to hurt him. If I did not have a relationship with this man, I would continually feel
empty and sad. This man saved me from a destructive life and gave me a productive life. There
are many reasons why I serve this man, Jesus Christ, and am called a Christian today.
One reason I became a Christian is because of my parents. My parents taught me about
God in many ways. First, they taught me that I could bring all my needs to God in prayer. As I
was growing up, they prayed with me every time I was sad, lonely, sick, or hurting. Secondly,
they taught me to trust in the Bible because it was my all-sufficient guide to daily living. They
brought me to church where I learned many stories about people who served God in the Bible,
and they helped me memorize Scripture verses while I competed in Junior Bible Quiz. Thirdly,
my parents taught my how to serve others. I watched them as they taught Sunday School, led
Youth Group, led worship, served food to people, played with kids, fixed up computers, and
counseled young people, all without being paid. Knowing that my parents believed in Jesus and
seeing that their lives backed up what they believed helped me to make a decision for Christ.
Another reason I continued my walk with Christ was because of my experiences at
Spencer Lake Bible Camp. In eighth grade, I saw a vision of Jesus on the cross dying for each
one of my unsaved friends at school. I believe God showed me that vision because He wanted
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me to care for my unsaved friends like He did, and intercede for their salvation as Jesus was. So,
I started caring and praying.
At camp, I was also filled with the baptism of the Holy Spirit when I spoke with other
tongues, which fulfilled a promise for me stated in Acts 1:8. It says, “But ye shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” After I received that power, I became an
even bolder witness in my Jerusalem, which was my school.
After that summer at camp, I started a Bible Study at my school and many people came to
hear God’s Word. Also, some Christians and I started praying before school at the flagpole. As
we prayed, more people joined us until we had about 30 people meeting regularly for prayer
every day before school. This brought a lot of attention to the people who were praying and
professing to be Christians. It also brought persecution.
I started to be persecuted by classmates of mine. They would call me a Jesus freak and a
goody too shoes. My basketball coach yelled at me for sticking up for another girl, and my
whole basketball team got mad at me for being honest to the coach when they had all lied and
thought they would get away with it. The hardest times came when my Christian friends were no
longer serving God and I had to stand up for Him by myself. This persecution did not make me
weak, though; it made me stronger. I had to trust in God more by praying and asking Him to
help me make it through each day, and I never regretted my decision to serve God, even though
those times were rough.
Serving God through persecution paid off, because I saw people come to Christ. In a
vision, I saw myself in heaven looking at a long line of people who were in heaven partly
because I had prayed for them. I did not recognize their faces, except the first one. That was my
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friend Trisha. One year, I invited and paid for Trisha to come to youth convention. She came
and gave her life to God during one of the services. Since then, her parents have been divorced,
her brother has been in jail, and her boyfriend has been on drugs. Yet, today, she, her husband,
and her kids are serving the Lord.
Also, I was able to play a part in my friend Aaron’s salvation. He was depressed a lot,
partly from listening to Nirvana, and did not have true joy and peace in his life. After witnessing
to him on a long bus ride, he gave his heart to the Lord. Today, he is going to North Central
Bible College and majoring in counseling/psychology because he wants to help people who feel
like he once did.
Another reason my faith in Christ has grown is because of the miracles I have seen and
heard about. One year at youth convention, the speaker asked everyone who had an injury or
sickness to raise his or her hand. Then, he prayed for these people and asked everyone who was
healed to come up to the stage. The stage was filled with people, and they gave testimonies of
how God had healed them.
Also, one year at youth convention, the speaker was Walt Weaver. He told of how he fell
off a six story building, breaking all the ribs in his body, twisting his left leg completely around,
breaking his right arm, and injuring his head in such a way that it swelled up to the size of his
shoulders. He proceeded to tell the audience of the miracles God performed in his body over the
next three days. Doctors performed acupuncture surgery on his head, but God miraculously
healed the rest of his injuries. God twisted his leg back around, healed his arm, and made all of
his broken ribs pop back to their rightful place. Doctors were awestruck with these miracles, and
their remarks throughout his time in the hospital changed from “he’s not going to make it” to
“he’ll make it, but it’ll take him a year to recover” to “he might be out of the hospital in three
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months” to “he’s ready to go home after only three days.” Hearing about these miracles and
many more since then has convinced me that there has to be a Supernatural Being performing
these miracles and that that Being is Jesus.
I am a Christian because of what Christ has done in my life, what I have seen Christ do in
other lives, and what I have heard that Christ has done all over the world. Yet, these are not the
only reasons I am a Christian. I am also a Christian because of all the evidences that prove
Christ is real and the only God who lived, died, and rose again for me. The evidences are
numerous and could not be written in such a limited space, so the ones I will discuss are the
reliability of the Old and New Testament, the deity of Christ, and the bodily resurrection of
Jesus.
First of all, the Old Testament is reliable. The question arises of how this manuscript
could be copied so many times and for so many years without error. The scribes did a few things
to make sure the text of the Hebrew Scriptures was preserved. They counted the number of
times each letter in the alphabet occurs in each book, they pointed out the middle letter of the
Pentateuch and the middle letter of the whole Bible, and they included any variant readings they
were presented with in the margin of the copies they made. Also, the comparison of the Dead
Sea Scrolls to the printed Hebrew Bibles that were being read at the time the Scrolls were found
proves the reliability of the Old Testament. The Scrolls are a thousand years older than the
oldest manuscripts possessed at the time of their finding, yet they are almost identical to the
printed Hebrew Bible, differing only by spelling and phrasing in some parts.
Secondly, the New Testament is reliable. Some arguments against its reliability are that
Jesus was lying, he was a lunatic, and his words have been changed. Most people do not accuse
Jesus of being a liar or a lunatic, but many people question whether the New Testament has been
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altered or not. The reasons Christians know Jesus’ words have not been changed are because of
the number of manuscripts found and the date of the earliest manuscripts surviving. The
importance of the number of copies is realized when a person thinks about the possibility of
changing one document, or even several, and the impossibility of changing hundreds of
documents found in different parts of the world. Mistakes in certain manuscripts would be easily
detected when comparing them to hundreds of manuscripts found in different geological areas.
The date of the earliest manuscript is also important because it shows how close a person is to
having the original autograph, which would be the best assurance of authenticity over all other
manuscripts.
The New Testament is reliable because it has more manuscripts than any other book in
history. Two comparisons that can be made to show the reliability of the New Testament are to
Julius Caesar’s, The Gallic War, and to Tacitus’, The Annals of Imperial Rome. There are nine
or ten Latin manuscripts of The Gallic War, and this is known as a very important document.
There are only two Latin manuscripts of The Annals of Imperial Rome, and it is known to
contain very important history of Rome. There are 3,157 manuscripts of the New Testament that
can be found in museums and libraries around the world. There are 2,795 manuscripts written in
miniscule Greek, 272 written in uncial Greek, and 88 written on papyrus, which is the most rare
and ancient of all the other manuscripts. There are also 2,209 lectionary manuscripts, which are
collections of New Testament passages read in Christian worship services. Even if all 5,366 of
these manuscripts of the New Testament were destroyed, the New Testament still could be
constructed, with an exception of eleven verses, through patristic quotations. Patristic quotations
are quotations found in the writings of the Early Church Fathers.
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The date of the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament also proves its reliability. The
Gallic War by Julius Caesar has the earliest copy date of about 900 years after the original
autograph. The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus has the earliest copy date of about 800
years after the autograph. In comparison, a complete manuscript of the New Testament has the
earliest copy date of 250 years after the autograph. There are many parts of New Testament
manuscripts that have a copy date of only 150 years after the autograph, and there is a short
passage that is probably copied less than 50 years after the autograph. These dates prove that the
New Testament is reliable.
Since I have proved the reliability of the Old and New Testament, I can believe what was
written in these Scriptures. One thing that was written was that Jesus of Nazareth was God in
human flesh. Two attacks against this truth claim include the questioning of the reliability of the
New Testament and the questioning of Jesus being God Himself. Since I have already proven
the reliability of the New Testament, I now need to prove that Jesus was God. Though there are
many examples of Jesus’ claim to be Deity, I will only mention one. Jesus claimed to be
Jehovah. Since the Jehovah of the Jewish Old Testament would not give his name, honor, or
glory to another, the first-century Jews labeled Jesus as a blasphemer when he spoke of being
what Jehovah said he was. In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd,” and the Old
Testament declared in Psalm 23:1, “Jehovah is my shepherd.” Jesus also claimed to be judge of
all men and nations in John 5:27 and Matthew 25:31, and Jehovah claimed, “For there I will sit
to judge all the nations round about” in Joel 3:12. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” in
John 8:12, and the Old Testament says that “Jehovah is our light” in Psalm 27:1. In John 8:58,
Jesus made the most direct claim to be Jehovah when he said to the Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus clearly claimed to be the “I AM” of Exodus 3:14 that
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refers to Jehovah alone, and this made the Jews angry because they knew Jesus was claiming
equality with God.
Another evidence of Jesus’ Deity is His unique fulfillment of prophecy. There were
dozens of predictive prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament. These are some of the most
significant predictive prophecies that Christ fulfilled: the Messiah would be born of a virgin
(Isaiah 7:14; cf. Matthew 1:21 f.), He will be of the seed of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3 and 22:18;
cf. Matthew 1:1 and Galatians 3:16), and He will have a ministry of miracles (Isaiah 35:5, 6; cf.
Mathew 9:35). Another prophecy was that the Messiah would die a humiliating death (Psalm 22
and Isaiah 53; cr. Matthew 27) involving: piercing his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16; cf. Luke
23:33), being crucified with thieves (Isaiah 53:12; cf. Matthew 17:38), piercing of his side
(Zechariah 12:10; cf. John 19:34), buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; cf. Matthew 27:5760), and casting lots for his garments (Psalm 22:18; cf. John 19:23, 24). Some of the most
important prophecies to be fulfilled were: He will rise from the dead (Psalm 2:7; 16:10; cf. Acts
2:31 and Mark 16:6), He will ascend into heaven (Psalm 68:18; cf. Acts 1:9 f.), and He will sit at
the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1; cf. Hebrews 1:3). The likelihood of all of these prophecies
being fulfilled by one man in one lifetime is practically impossible since what happens in each
person’s life is contingent on so many things. Everything had to be just right for all of these
prophecies to be fulfilled, and it was because Jesus was the Son of God.
The last proof I will present on why I am a Christian is the proof of the bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some factors to be considered in the resurrection of Jesus are Jesus’
burial, the Jews’ knowledge of an empty tomb, the Romans’ knowledge of an empty tomb, and
over 500 eyewitness’ accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.
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These are four false theories of Christ’s tomb being occupied. The first theory is the
unknown tomb theory, which states that the executioners must have cast the body into an
unknown burial pit. In Matthew 27:57-61, this theory is disproved because these verses state
that Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body, which he wrapped in a clean linen cloth
and placed in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. The second theory is the wrong
tomb theory, which states that Mary and the disciples went to the wrong tomb. This is ridiculous
because less than 72 hours had elapsed since Jesus was buried. This would mean Peter and John
did not know where the tomb was after such a short time, and the angel who appeared to Mary
went to the wrong tomb as well.
The third theory is the legend theory, which states that the resurrection was just a legend.
In 1 Corinthians 15:8, Paul said there were 500 witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, which was
supposed to be just a legend. Also, the disciples and untold numbers of later Christians would
not have died and become martyrs for a legend. The fourth theory is the hallucination theory,
which states that people were having hallucinations of Jesus after he died. This theory does not
match facts since there were 15 post-resurrection appearances, and it is pretty unbelievable that
that many people would hallucinate about Jesus on all of those different occasions.
I have also recorded three false empty tomb theories. The first theory is that the disciples
stole Jesus’ body. This is not true because it is improbable that the guards were bribed or
sleeping. They would have admitted if they were bribed, and they must have been deaf if they
did not hear the stone being thrown away from the tomb. The second theory is that the
authorities stole the body. If the authorities did this, they would be digging their own graves
because they would not have proof that Jesus was dead without his body.
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The third theory is the resuscitation theory or the “swoon” theory, which states that Jesus
was not really dead when they put him in the tomb- he just fainted. There are eleven problems
with this theory. Jesus first went through three Roman trials and three Jewish trials. Then, he
was beaten beyond recognition and could not even carry his cross. After that, the Romans drove
nails in his hands and feet. Then, they pierced a sword in his side to see if he was dead. The
separation of the blood and water that flowed from his body proved that he was. Four
executioners confirmed his death. After that, he was embalmed with 100 pounds of spices, as
noted in John 19:39-40. Then, he was laid in a cold, damp tomb, and a stone with a Roman seal
on it was placed against the door. Lastly, Roman guards were placed in front of the stone to
make sure nobody stole the body or did anything suspicious like that.
All of these occupied and empty tomb theories have been false. Jesus really was
crucified and had a bodily resurrection, as the Bible says in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Through these evidences of the reliability of the Old and New Testament, the deity of Christ, and
the bodily resurrection of Jesus, I am convinced that I need Jesus Christ as my Savior. These
evidences, along with my personal experiences, have made me determined to be a follower of
Jesus Christ and that is why I am a Christian today.