How can I keep my faith strong when people of great faith are walking away from my faith? And if we have historical evidences for Jesus outside the Bible that are more convincing than any other religion, why is it that people who are Christians convert into other religions like Hinduism or Islam? If the Muslim and Hindu view of Jesus are false why do Christians convert into those religions by leaving Christianity? If Christianity has so much solid evidence and if these are all acceptable by secular historians and scholars why doesn’t everyone accept Jesus as Lord and Savior? How can I be sure that these evidences are not just fabricated by Christians and their supporters? And how do I deal with evidences of other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam?

Answer:

People of great faith do not walk away from the faith of Christianity.  Period.  This never happens.  If they had great faith, they would not have walked away.  Famous people with weak faith have walked away, but people of strong faith have not.  Jesus lost Judas and he was the Son of God.  The fact that Judas walked away did nothing to disprove that Jesus was the Son of God.  You ask why people go for Hinduism or Islam in spite of the evidence for Christianity.  People believe all kinds of ridiculous things (not that I am saying Islam is ridiculous).  People believe in conspiracy theories.  Some people believe that the earth is flat.  Some people believe that the US never put people on the moon.  How do we explain this?  Some people say that Covid-19 is a hoax. The fact that some people do not believe that the earth is round does not mean that it is not round.  The fact that some Christians convert to Hinduism does not mean that Christianity is not true.  The fact that people believe in ghosts does not mean that ghosts are real.  What you need to do is look at the evidence and decide for yourself.  The fact that people believe in all kinds of irrational things does not make those things true.  The fact that people believe the US never put people on the moon does not mean that they did not.

Why do people not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior?  For many reasons–almost as many reasons as there are unbelievers–but lack of evidence is not one of them.  Because of their sinful hearts.  Because of their corrupt minds.  Because of fear of persecution.  Because they refuse to give up their traditions.  Because they do not want anyone other than themselves to be lord of their lives. Because, as Paul said in Romans 1:25, they prefer to worship created things rather than the Creator.  Like Paul said, they choose not to believe and actively suppress the truth (Romans 1:18) There are all kinds of reasons.  Look at the people who were eye witnesses of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11.  Some of them believed (a logical response), but others decided to kill him.  Why?  Was the evidence not strong enough?  No!!!  Because they feared losing their political power and financial position.  There are lots of reasons people do not become Christians, but lack of evidence is NOT one of them!

The fact that some people do not believe in something is a really bad reason to not believe in it.   Because some people believe the earth is flat, does that tempt you to believe it is flat? The evidences for Christianity are not fabricated and you already know this based on our previous discussions.

“How do I deal with the evidences of Hinduism, Jaina, Buddhism or Islam?”  What evidence?  There is no evidence.  There is no evidence whatsoever that Krishna is a real person. Literally none!  There is no evidence that Muhammad or Buddha did any miracles or fulfilled any prophecies.  These religions do not have evidence.   None!  What is their evidence?  What is the historical evidence that validates the Hindu scriptures?  None!  What is the miracle that supports Islam?  None!   What historical prophecy fulfillment is there in Hinduism?  None!  What is the evidence that Jaina or Sikkhism have inspired scripture?  I know of none.  These religions are a matter of believe it or not because you like them or not, but they do not have verifiable public miracles or unambiguous prophecy fulfillment or reliable historical accounts to support them.  Not at all.  They certainly do not have a leader who was resurrected from the dead.  Is there an empty tomb in Buddhism?   What about Hinduism?  You ask about the evidence of these religions and there is none.  This is why Muslims and Hindus spend so much time trying to disprove biblical miracles and prophecy fulfillment–because they have nothing of a similar sort in their own religions!  Christians spend literally zero time trying to disprove Hindu evidence because there is nothing to disprove. I am not exaggerating.

A few years ago we sponsored a debate with a Muslim imam, a Jewish rabbi and a Christian teacher on the premise, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, which is the true legacy of Abraham?  (the debate is available at www.ipibooks.com) The Muslim imam, Shabir Ally, knew he had to counter Christian prophecy fulfillment and miracles with something, so he argued for Muslim numerology.  He talked about the number of times that the number nineteen appeared in the Qur’an!  This shows how desperate he was to provide any sort of “evidence” to counter the Christian evidence he was well aware of.  I tell you this: He literally had no evidence, be it historical, the miraculous or prophecy fulfillment that he could use that would stand up to scrutiny from outsiders in open debate.  This is also true of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jaina, Bahai, and other world religions.  They have no evidence.  Comparing the evidence for Christianity to the “evidence” for Hinduism is like a tug of war between Hulk Hogan and your grandmother.  No contest.  This is not mere rhetoric in my part, it is the cold hard fact of the matter.

John Oakes