How do we know Christianity is right?
That is the right question, and it is not answered by asserting it more loudly. Christianity makes claims that can be tested — about history, about the origin of the universe, about human nature — and it invites the test.
1. Christianity rests on a public event, not a private feeling. The central claim is that a man rose from the dead in Jerusalem, publicly, and appeared to named witnesses, most of whom were still alive and could be questioned (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). That is a historical claim, and historical claims can be investigated.
2. The resurrection has better evidence than most ancient events we accept. We have early testimony, hostile sources that concede the empty tomb, and the transformation of fearful disciples into men who died for the claim. No rival explanation accounts for all three without multiplying assumptions.
3. The universe points to a cause beyond itself. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist — the expansion and thermodynamics of the cosmos both indicate a beginning. Therefore the universe has a cause, and that cause must be spaceless, timeless, and personal (Genesis 1:1).
4. Objective morality needs a foundation. Some things are genuinely wrong, not merely disliked. If morality is only preference, the charge of injustice against God collapses along with it. Romans 2:14-15 says the moral law is written on the heart — and our experience matches the claim.
5. Scripture survives the kind of scrutiny that destroys other ancient texts. We possess thousands of Greek manuscripts, some within a century of the originals. The New Testament is better attested than any work of classical antiquity, and the variants that exist are overwhelmingly trivial or identifiable.
6. It explains the human condition better than its rivals. We are creatures who know we ought to be better and cannot become so on our own. That is not a puzzle Christianity created — it is the one it names (Romans 7:18-19), and it offers a remedy rather than a diagnosis alone.
7. The claim is falsifiable, and it has not been falsified. Paul says plainly that if Christ has not been raised, the faith is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:14). Christianity staked everything on a checkable event. That is the opposite of a belief built to be unfalsifiable.
8. The test is not only intellectual. Jesus said that anyone willing to do God's will would know whether the teaching is from God (John 7:17). Christianity invites the honest experiment: read the Gospels, obey what you find, and see what happens.
None of this is a proof that compels assent. It is evidence that deserves a verdict — and the honest position is not indifference but examination.
Sources: J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City; William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith; N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God; Gary Habermas, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus; C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
Related challenges:
• Does the resurrection hold up historically?
• Is there evidence for God?
• Can the Bible be trusted?