Three Popular Misconceptions About Christianity

Any person with even the most mediocre understanding of religious statistics will tell you that out of every three people you meet, one will be a Christian. Or, at least, they claim to be Christian.

In every culture, we find watered-down Christianity. In Africa, we find Christianity mixed with semblances of witchcraft. In the East, we find Christianity blended with spiritualism. In the West, we find Christianity blended with self-worship and atheism.

Unfortunately, Christianity is both popular and unpopular; it is popular by number but unpopular through conversation. If you were to go on the streets of New York and attempt to witness to random people, you would most likely get written off with responses of, “I’m not religious” or “I trust facts, not faith.” There are two common responses to Christianity, both contributing to its general status as a disliked religion.

Sadly, many of these statements are taken for granted. The average Atheist will use statements such as “Since the Bible has been disproved” or something similar. They seek to create an argument with a base that doesn’t exist at all. Instead of proving their base, they skip straight to the argument.

The fallacy is far more common than one might think, and it must be addressed. Below are three common misconceptions usually taken for granted by Atheistic and Agnostic debaters alike.

1: Christianity is about faith, Atheism is about proof.

A.W Tozer puts it perfectly when he says, “Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith”. Interestingly, while this quote remains true even to this day, Atheism focuses on faith as well.

Although not as pronounced, Atheism legitimately revolves around the same faith as Christianity. Because Atheists claim that their proof is found within science, they have to have faith in science to believe it at all. They have to have faith that their senses are not lying to them, their eyes are working, their brains are assessing the proof correctly, the proof is being applied in the right way, and there are no falsified pieces to this proof. All of this revolves around faith. And, when an atheist claims to only trust reason, the response is still the same- they have faith in their reason.

Thus we see that all religions and beliefs have some semblance of faith. To believe something, you have to have faith. It is impossible to trust in something without having even a subconscious faith in either yourself, the evidence, or the interpretation therein. And so, if everything requires even the smallest faith, how can we be certain of anything? How can scientists be sure that their hearts will not stop beating or that their brains will work to the fullest of capacities?

Let’s put this into context. Pretend, for a minute, that you have a deadly heart disease. In terror, you go to the doctor, who tells you that you only have a few weeks left to live before your heart stops working. You go home, defeated and in pain, but ready to spend the last few weeks of your life with your loved ones. What faith do we see here?

1: You have faith in your pain, and you know something is wrong.

2: You have faith in the doctor, else you wouldn’t have come to him at all.

3: The doctor has faith in himself and his training, else he wouldn’t be treating patients.

4: The doctor has faith in his senses, reading, and memory, else he wouldn’t have prescribed such a small window of time for your life.

5: You have faith that the doctor is correct in his prognosis.

6: You have faith that you will, in fact, die.

I don’t need to tell you all the ways this faith can be skewed. The doctor could make a mistake, read something wrong, or given an incorrect diagnosis. And yet, in this situation, you had faith in him and his work. Every single belief, statement, or creation requires faith. And yet, if that faith was wrong or misguided, who knows what chaos the world could be in? Belief in the laws of nature, belief in science, belief in medicine- all things that can be improperly believed in.

“Every single belief, statement, or creation requires faith. And yet, if that faith was wrong or misguided, who knows what chaos the world could be in?”
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Yet here’s where Jesus appears. He is the only Man that we can believe in without a shadow of a doubt, for He is Belief itself. This is why Christianity is unpopular- it presents the ultimatum, something that goes beyond the laws of this world. It presents Jesus, the one who shatters belief, logic, and knowledge and remains true through all of time. Jesus, the unchanging God that died for us, is the only thing we can completely have faith in.

2: Christianity is invalid because it focuses on a man that broke the laws of nature, something widely considered impossible.

Jesus claimed to be God, worked hundreds of miracles that broke well over a dozen laws of nature today, then proceeded to resurrect from the dead, something that had only happened in myths.

Let’s start with Jesus’ miracles. The first miracle recorded in the New Testament is found in John.

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
John 2:1-11

As we now know, many weddings would serve the good wine first, and then, once the guests had become too drunk to notice, they would begin to serve the cheaper wine. This was a commonly known and accepted trick, and yet one that Jesus confronted. Where a shortage of wine was found, Jesus changed the water into wine.

This seems easily explained by the Law of Conservation of Mass, one that any chemistry student knows: Matter cannot be created or destroyed, but only converted from form to form. Couldn’t Jesus have simply changed the matter of the wine from one form to another? Yes, but that’s where we see the true power of Jesus. Matter can only be changed through a physical change (ie. Painting a house) or a chemical change (ie. burning a piece of wood). The change of water to wine was a chemical change, as we see when the Master of the Feast confirms this in verse 10 by declaring the wine good. There is no doubt that the water changed to wine, but how?

There is no plausible explanation. Wine takes hundreds of hours of work to make, and even more time is involved in making quality wine. In changing the water to wine, Jesus breaks the Law of Conservation of Mass by changing one liquid to another in a process other than a chemical reaction or physical change.

Furthermore, we also know that Jesus claimed to be God. While many Christian, including myself, will tell you that Jesus’ claims are true, there are thousands of philosophers and atheists alike that will contradict this statement. Once again, this is because Jesus would break the laws of nature. When a man is born, he is born human and human only. He is not a dog, he is not an elephant, he is simply human. There’s no way out of it. We can’t wake up one morning and decide to be a dog.

But Jesus, once again, confronts what seems to be impossible and becomes 100% human, yet 100% God. This is such an impossible reality that our minds cannot even comprehend it. Not only does this break the laws of nature, but it also goes further than we can comprehend. Truly, a powerful God indeed, yet one that many want nothing to do with.

Unfortunately, many scientists contest the fact that he truly was God. C.S Lewis completely defeats these scientists with their own methods, using logic and deductions to show that Jesus could have only been Lord, nothing else. For the past century, this logic has been tested by fire and continues to come through, as dozens of modern-day Theologians will assert.

Finally, we know that Jesus died. That much is so certain, some scientists would even say that we are more certain of his death then of George Washington’s existence. However, we, the Christians, also know that Jesus rose again. This defies yet another law of nature.

To put this into perspective, we are going to redefine a law of nature, except this time, we dive into the realm of physics. Newton’s First Law of Motion states that “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force” (“Physics Classroom). For our purposes, we’re going to change this into, “A human alive stays alive and aging unless acted upon by an outer force. A human dead stays dead and decaying and cannot change from that state.”

This makes sense, right? However, Jesus once again proves himself above the laws of nature. He breaks the law of nature governing death, the one that tells us that no man, once truly dead, can revive. Yet Jesus did resurrect, and there is proof also for that. But, instead of citing the proof, which can be summed up here, we trust and have Faith, something everybody does on an hourly basis. Our Faith, however, is in the One who holds our eternal trust by showing Himself to be Faith and Love manifested. This Faith is in something that cannot be false, else the world crumble to ash.

“Our Faith is in the One who holds our eternal trust by showing Himself to be Faith and Love manifested. This Faith is in something that cannot be false, else the world crumble to ash.”
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3: The Bible is historically inaccurate.

This is a statement repeated so often it has become cliche, and yet it is never backed up with proof or evidence. Atheistic debaters often use this as ammo, and yet when questioned closely, we find that their response to where they learned this claim is often, “my teacher told me this”, or “my mentor told me so”. It is never based on first-hand evidence.

Furthermore, as Christians and even some inquisitive atheists have shown, nobody has firsthand evidence proving this claim. Not a single debater has brought it forward, which means that every single time this statement is uttered, it is second or third-hand.

The actual question of the historical accuracy of the Bible remains unanswered in this post. Everything addressing the historical accuracy of the Bible can be found here, as written by a historical expert (which the author is not).

Hopefully, you have seen why Christianity is so unpopular with the learned men of this world. After all, it breaks everything they stand for and believe in. But, as the Bible tells us, no matter of evidence can change a heart hardened against God. Take Pharaoh, for example. He was so hardened against God, he couldn’t see the frogs and hail destroying his kingdom. In his pride, he refused to accept what was right in front of his face. Matthew 13:15 perfectly describes this situation.

 For this people's heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.

God has hardened their hearts, leaving us only two things to do- witness and pray. May God bless you.

Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks so much for reading! I hope you really enjoyed that post. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to ask in the Comment section below. And, if you haven’t already, be sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side), so as to not miss out on posts like these. If you don’t want to write and desperately need to add content to your blog, feel free to Reblog this post. Thanks again, and I hope you have a fantastic day!

-Elisha McFarland

Note: This post was re-written from my earlier post “Why Is Christianity So Unpopular”. The original post was deleted because of citation and link errors.

“Physics Classroom”. Newton’s First Law, https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/Lesson-1/Newton-s-First-Law

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