Silencing Skepticism: An Introduction

In other series, we look at objections to the historic Christian faith coming from competing world views: Jews, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, for example. Objections often come, however, not from adherents to a specific world view, but from non-Christians of all different persuasions, skeptical of the Bible and of Christian truth claims. These "skeptics" attack the validity of Scripture using a wide variety of arguments, from seeming contradictions in the Bible, to logical problems in theology, and beyond. Some of these arguments appear, on the surface, to be very convincing, and many unprepared Christians find themselves at best unable to respond effectively, and at worst deeply shaken in their faith. In this series, we'll examine these arguments and demonstrate that when it comes to such skeptics, their bark is bigger than their bite.

In the first entry in this series (after this introduction), we'll look at a popular claim from skeptics, that the story of Jesus recorded in the New Testament is merely a repackaging of ancient pagan myths. When one compares what is recorded of Jesus, they'll argue, with figures from myths and mystery religions that appear to predate Him, such as Mithras or Horus, one sees that their alleged lives are largely identical. How should the Christian respond to this claim? Stay tuned.