People across the world have different worldviews. Each of these worldviews is based on religion, or atheism, or even anti-theism.
In this post, I'm just sharing my personal journey of thoughts and reasonings (to the best of my knowledge) to conclude that Christianity is True.
My journey toward finding the truth started from sufferings. I had a lot of questions.
Why are sufferings unavoidable in human life? Why am I existing on this earth? How did humanity and everything else on Earth come into existence? How did the Earth (and all other planets, the milky way galaxy, and all other galaxies) come into existence?
As a beginner on the journey, I had 2 critical questions - Does God exist? Or is Atheism true?
In my journey to find the answer to those 2 questions, I looked at my own body (and pondered upon how each organ works with the other). I was easily able to rule out atheism. In fact, I needed a lot more faith to believe that humans came into existence through some random explosion of a particle than simply believing that human existence is the result of the works of a Creator.
I've also heard a lot of atheists using science in their arguments - that science is the solution, and science will help us to trace the cause of human existence, and help humanity to solve all problems, and so on.
But my thought on science is - it's just common sense at serious and deep work. A lot of scientists were probably led by curiosity and obsession, to find facts about things that already exist. For example, Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravitational force (something that already existed even before he found it), but the question is how the gravitational force came into existence. Or let's get a level deeper - How common sense came into existence?
Due to these reasons, atheism made no sense to me. But I was able to still agree on some questions that atheists raise as an objection to theism - If there is a Creator, where is He, and why can't we see Him? If the Creator is both omnipotent and loving, why didn't He eliminate sufferings from human lives? What if the Creator is omnipotent but not loving?
Despite being frustrated by the fact that the Creator allowed sufferings in human lives, I was able to believe a Creator exists and rule out atheism confidently when I examined my own body. Now the question comes down to who is that Creator, in order to find the answers to the same questions that Atheists raise as an objection to Theism.
The journey to finding the True Creator may seem impossible if we take a look at the number of worldviews trying to explain Theism. There are thousands (or even millions) of worldviews.
But during my journey, I found an easy way to find the true worldview just by one criterion. That criterion is - The worldview must give an account of the starting point of human existence in a reasonable way. The Torah gives it. So I took Judaism into account at this point. The Bible includes the books of the Torah, and Christianity is based on Judaism. So Christianity made its way at this point. I haven't read the Quran but as Islam also is claimed to have evolved from Abraham, I hope Islam also gives an account of the beginning.
For me, every other worldview (except for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) didn't seem to have a chance to be true at this point. These millions of worldviews have principles either based on a philosophical standpoint or human imagination to produce good behavior in human beings, and all these worldviews can agree on what's generally good and bad. For example, almost all worldviews preach helping poor people (even when they can't help you in return) is good and laudable, and actions such as stealing and raping are bad and punishable.
My parents' religion also didn't give an account of the beginning of mankind in a reasonable way (though I've come across a lot of folks trying to explain from their own imagination, heavily influenced by local culture, and ancestral practices/beliefs). At this point, my goal is to find which one is true - Judaism, Christianity, or Islam.
First, let's take Judaism.
In the books of the Torah, we come across the event when God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, Isaac. God tells Abraham that He will arrange a sacrifice. When we read the Bible, we understand that Jesus is the sacrifice made by God Himself, and this is a fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. So I view Christianity as a fulfillment of Judaism at this point. But what if Islam is true?
I took one critical issue dealt with by almost all of mankind - lust. I tried to figure out how both Islam and Christianity helped humans to get rid of lust. Islam instructs each woman to cover all their body (and that their eyes alone must be visible). It's true that when a person covers their body decently, the chances of another person from the opposite gender having lustful thoughts are reduced. However, one can still have lustful thoughts in their heart about a person even when they are dressed decently. Also, Islam's instruction seems to restrict the responsibility for just one gender - females. But what about a man? I had the question - Can a man blame a woman for revealing her body, and justify his wrong actions? I couldn't find a valid, reasonable answer.
Now it's the turn of the Bible. I looked at what the Bible (or Jesus) had to say about lust. Jesus said anyone who looks at another person with an adulterous thought has already sinned in their heart. At first, I thought Jesus's teaching is too hard to follow as a lustful thought seemed unavoidable, but later I realized the truth in it. The words of Jesus pierced my heart, and it was like a light in the darkness to help me differentiate sinful actions (a lot of which all other worldviews also count as sin) from sinful thoughts (which other worldviews don't seem to take seriously).
Wondering how? Jesus is showing us the root cause of sins - our sinful thoughts. Rape is a sinful action starting with a lustful thought. Murder is a sinful action starting with a grudgeful thought. Stealing is a sinful action starting with a greedy and covetous thought. This was striking to me. Jesus showed me the root cause of all my sins - the thoughts in my own heart.
The Bible shows it is the responsibility of every person as an individual (and that no one can blame others for their sins) to stay away from sinful thoughts. If we don't allow sinful thoughts, we stop it from giving birth to sinful actions!
As Jesus defined sin perfectly, Islam is ruled out for me at this point. And I've come to the conclusion that I'm a sinner.
Now the question is - How can I get rid of my sins? I needed forgiveness. The Bible answers that question as well - God gave us forgiveness and offered us the salvation of our souls through the death of Jesus as a perfect, spotless sacrifice for the entire world's sins. The verse John 3:16 in the Bible talks about this.
Further, Jesus also showed that He reigns over everything as God by coming back alive after death. Reading the Bible further, I realized that if I truly repent for my sins, and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, my soul will be redeemed (after my physical death on earth) and experience Eternal life. The Bible also makes it clear that Jesus's offer of the salvation of our souls should not be confused with prosperity on earth. In fact, the preaching that Jesus will make His followers flourish on earth with riches is false. Jesus's promises are focused more on after the death in this human body. Also, the Bible conveys clearly that the forgiveness we get through Christ is not a license to willfully sin again. When I meditated on the Bible, I was also able to rule out the chances of the Gospel being an imaginary or deceptive story.
Also, during my journey, I revisited the 3 questions that I mentioned earlier - the ones Atheists raise as an objection to Theism. The questions are listed below:
If there is a Creator, where is He, and why can't we see Him?
If the Creator is both omnipotent and loving, why didn't He eliminate sufferings from human lives?
What if the Creator is omnipotent but not loving?
John 3:16 is the proof that the Creator is loving. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead makes it clear He's omnipotent. But the question of why did He allow sufferings in human lives remained.
Well, to me, it seems the reason that God allowed sufferings in our lives is to give us a choice to love Him back. He died for us and endured our punishment. The sufferings we undergo are undeniably hard for us (but still it's nowhere near the sufferings Christ underwent for us by dying as a sinless sacrifice for our sins, in order to provide our souls a chance to avoid perishing in hell). It made sense to me, but honestly, I feel I need to meditate on the Bible a lot more to understand the truth a lot more in-depth!
Now I'm eagerly waiting for His second coming like a lot of true Christians around the world. Until then, I have decided to live my life for Christ (despite failing because of my flesh and truly repenting and being forgiven by Christ for my shortcomings countless times).
ps: I've written this post based on my journey to finding truth in Christianity, over other worldviews/ways of life. Though I believe that Christianity is 100% true, I welcome the readers to critically analyze everything written here and dig deep into the resources outside of this article to make their choice. I personally believe that a sincere effort made by anyone to find the Creator will point them to Christianity!