#862 Is the Story of Jesus Enough?

Dr. craig’s response

Thank you for your very transparent question, Grant! I think that many people in the UK are feeling exactly the same way. The story of Jesus is, indeed, gripping and captivating. It was reading about the life and teachings of Jesus in the Gospels that first drew me to Christ as a young man.

I think that faith in Jesus apart from any empirical evidence is certainly rational. In fact, the vast majority of believers down through history, and even in the world today, do not have the leisure time, resources, or education to study the empirical evidence for the truth of the Gospels. But that does not mean that their faith in Jesus is simply a leap in the dark, trusting in the story of Jesus without good reason.

Rather God Himself, by His Holy Spirit, speaks to the hearts of people to convict them and draw them to Himself. A loving God does not abandon us to work out by our own ingenuity in sometimes impossible situations whether or not He exists or whether the story of Jesus is true. Rather by the inner work of His Holy Spirit, He attests to the truth of the story of Jesus. To believe on the basis of this inner witness of the Holy Spirit is perfectly rational.

It has been rightly said that faith is trusting in what you have good reason to believe is true. Those reasons need not be merely empirical. For a properly basic belief in the truth of the Gospel grounded by the witness of the Holy Spirit is part of the deliverances of reason.[1] May God guide you in your spiritual quest!