Why am I still a Christian in 2014?

February 2014

Wasn’t the Christian faith out of date in the last century, let alone in this?  So why am I still a Christian in 2014? 

Well, firstly, because it’s the truth.  I first trusted in Jesus at the age of 12; since then I’ve had many years to consider the Bible’s teaching and the objections to it that are often raised.  My confidence that the Bible speaks truthfully has only grown.  I don’t know of anything else that makes such sense of our bitter-sweet experience of life, that speaks with such disturbing accuracy about my own flawed character and that tells such an unbelievable story (as the account of Jesus seems to be) in such a simple, matter-of-fact, truthful way.  Every century has had its way of hiding this but Christian faith remains true, just as sugar remains sweet and the sky stays blue.

But secondly, I’m a Christian because the message of the Bible gives me hope.  If it wasn’t true then this would just be false hope, but because it is true the hope is of the solid, 24-carat, armour-plated variety.  There is hope for me personally because the great debt that I owed to God for stubbornly resisting his right to tell me how I ought to live has been paid in full and wiped from the slate by Jesus Christ.  There is hope for my family; how can I hope to protect them from all the circumstances that might threaten to overwhelm their lives in the future?  God promises in the Bible that his “love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children.”  And there is hope for the whole world because the Bible confidently asserts that the rule of Jesus Christ will increase year by year until there is no town or village outside his just government and no person who does not acknowledge that he is Lord.

Christians often feel pressured to let go of their faith and adopt an easier outlook on life.  But where else could we find such a true hope to live for?

Sincerely

Graham Burrows