Book Comment: Christianity on the Offense (Part 1)

I very strongly recommend that you read Christianity on the Offense: Responding to the Beliefs and Assumptions of Spiritual Seekers (1998), by Dan Story.  Story discusses the underlying presuppositions of several modern world views,presenting their strengths and weaknesses, their intellectual consistency or lack of it, and presents strategies to use in evaluating the truth claims of of each worldview.  This is a powerful book of Christian apologetics which shows us clearly that we do not have to back down from our Christian truth claims.  It also takes a novel, highly aggressive approach to the inadequacies and logical inconsistencies of non-Christian and non-orthodox Christian world views.  Here is a link where you can find the book.


Story examines traditional orthodox Christianity and shows how it stands up under historical, scientific, and legal scrutiny.  "People who claim that they are being open-minded by accepting all religions as gateways to truth are actually being empty-headed. ... If we are to make heads-or-tails out of reality and if religious truth is to be known at all, we must adhere to the rudimentary rules of logic that govern all other areas of knowledge."

Did you realize that the strongest legal evidence is eyewitness testimony?  Paul understood this.  Mosaic law said that two witnesses were needed to prove a point as true.

“At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.”  Deuteronomy 17:6

Paul says that over five hundred people saw Jesus after His resurrection and that most of them were still alive at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians.  What he was saying was, "If you don't believe me, ask them!"

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Peter,  and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”  1 Corinthians 15:3-8

 After demonstrating that the Christian truth claims are internally consistent, logically consistent, consistent with reality, and based on provable facts,  Story examines several of the major world views, each held by millions of people and each having affected the modern Christian Church, the ἐκκλησία,  sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.