first off, in my part of the world, Africa (especially Black Africa), demonic encounters are so common that almost everyone is well aware of the supernatural. Here active Christians are constantly overpowering evil spirits in Jesus's name in various personal spiritual or supernatural experiences. These experiences are very common and well known. Additionally, pastors are constantly casting out demons in Jesus's name at church. Hence almost every Christian has sure knowledge of the truth of the Bible and the supernatural. Non-Christians too, as indicated before, experience the supernatural in their own way, mainly in the form of demonic encounters. Thus, hardly anyone bothers with debates about Jesus. You cannot deny the existence of someone in whose name you're frequently fighting off demons. Demons in other parts of the world, especially the West, have obviously gone about things differently, causing you to lose all sense of and contact with the supernatural. Which is why you're always engaged in intellectual debates about Jesus.

[Personal experience is the only source of experiential knowledge, which is the highest form of knowledge. Thus, personal experience is of great intellectual importance. To condemn personal experience is like saying marriage is illegitimate as a social institution, for the reason that not every marriage works. Or, that friendship is useless because not every friendship works. And yet we all know how deeply essential to life friendship is. And so when it comes to personal experience, it's best to consider it on a case-by-case basis rather than lumping them all together and throwing them out. Also, if God is a person, instead of just a theory, then we've got to experience him.] (here's a personal experience to show the reality of the supernatural and the truth and power of the Bible. Due to the topic of the video under which I originally posted this piece, it also explains a bit about sin and the sacrificial death of Christ.) you know, Dawkins downplays the effect of sin in this video. A little over a decade ago (I was 20 at the time), my parents and I went to rent an apartment. It was on a walled compound that contained other apartments as well. In our first meeting with the landlord (a lively old man of about 70) to discuss the rate, he told us that he evicted those whom we were to replace in our preferred apartment. He said that there was a young woman who lived there with her senior sister and the senior sister's husband. And this young woman was to help care for their newborn baby. According to the landlord, the young woman was terribly rude to everyone. And she was so lazy she did nothing to contribute to the cleanliness of the house. Worst of all, there was a young man whose apartment she was always at for sex. Sometimes this young woman would leave the kitchen in the middle of cooking and go be with the young man, so that her meal kept burning until there was a big reek all over the compound. He said that despite numerous warnings and meetings to address this issue with the young woman, she continued her bad behaviour. And that'd explain why he evicted them. About two weeks after settling down at the house, I had a dream around 2am. In this dream, I was following the landlord to his apartment which stood across from ours. I carried with me my Bible and a small bottle of holy oil (which we use at my church). When we got to his apartment, the landlord asked me to drop the Bible and the holy oil into the water closet so he could flush them down. Expectedly, I refused. He tried to persuade me. But when that didn't work, he tried to force me. And so I ran outside. He gave chase. He had in his hands a lasso. In the attempt to catch me, he threw it repeatedly but kept failing. And so he asked, "Are you a virgin?!" I answered, "Yes! The Lord, by his grace, has kept me that way up to this time!" He blew toward me from his mouth a puff of wind. I responded by pouring some of the holy oil into my mouth and blowing it out in a spray toward him. (That's one way it's used at my church.) We kept up this fierce exchange until I overpowered him and he scuttled away, bringing the battle to an end. This was when I got to know he was responsible for the young woman's misconduct, in particular her unusual sexual misconduct. As a demon, this landlord was able to subdue and destroy the young woman because she wasn't a virgin, but also probably because she wasn't prayerful enough. This inference would be easy to make, even for a non-spiritual person. Especially given when we arrived at the house, a different young woman lived in the apartment which used to be occupied by the other young man. Clearly this new young woman and I were to be his next victims. In other parts of the world, demons allow people to succeed in life without God, so they can ignore Him. Which ultimately means those people belong to the devil (because whoever isn't connected to Jesus is under Satan's authority). So sin does have a serious effect on us. Sin, especially sexual sin, gives the devil great power over us. The sacrificial death of Christ was meant to solve that problem (and not just for one person or even one nation, but for all humanity and for all time). But of course, someone who lacks spiritual knowledge doesn't understand this. Because it's all spiritual. And since justice is a foundational pillar of God, he couldn't "have just forgiven." Because even in dealing with his enemy, God has to ensure fairness. This would be one reason at least. And oh, that encounter with the landlord was only the precursor ... take care (I hope this account gives you some insight into supernatural causes. Ofc someone who can't access the supernatural could never know or experience anything like this. Such a person would only find natural causes, which could be valid but secondary to the supernatural.) [I share this dream because of how clearly it demonstrates the relationship between the supernatural and the natural. Actually most of my supernatural experiences involve visits to the supernatural world to battle demons face-to-face. Ordinarily, this would be better proof of the supernatural. But I use this dream instead, due to the above-stated reason. Speaking of visits to the supernatural world, the sequel to this dream is such a one. If you need to hear that too, I can share it. Maybe you'll want more tangible proof of the supernatural as it relates to this particular event. But I'd suggest we do that after you've read all the evidence, since that would likely remove any need for that sequel.]

(This piece explains God's fail-safe for dealing with the confusion that can arise between God-sent visions, dreams etc and mere mental experiences like delusions, hallucinations etc.) For centuries there's been much talk about heaven. At age 17 during a church service, God literally drove my spirit into heaven to see him and spend time with him and his angels at his throne. Yes, I saw and experienced this incredible joy! This was in the year 2008. As a result of this experience, "Lord of angels" is how I call upon God during battles with demons in the supernatural world. Because God wanted to make sure that I didn't think I was having delusions, he confirmed the reality of that heaven event by telling my pastor, who in turn told me. This account is similar to that of Paul in the Bible, where God involved a third party, the prophet Ananias, to ensure that Paul didn't think he was deluded after seeing Jesus in a vision on his way to Damascus. God's work among humans continues, but it is only experienced by the "chosen few" Jesus talked about. Keeping an open mind and a reasonably receptive heart is necessary to learning the truth. Without these, no amount of evidence will suffice for you. This was why in Jesus's day, many rejected him although he performed countless miracles to prove his Godship. Getting good evidence of God can be easy. You just have to meet the right kind of person. Someone who's genuinely called of God, someone who's truly willing to help, someone who understands your position fairly well. God is coming back into this world to give proof of his existence through supernatural events, just as he did 2,000 years ago. But it's going to be far more glorious this time. However genuine seekers can get to know God and begin a relationship with him well before that time arrives. For now, the best I can do to help is share this brief evidence with others. (God has used this fail-safe throughout history to ensure clarity for his servants. The Bible contains many examples of it.)

here's how Christianity is different from other religions. Throughout history, various people have claimed to be God our creator. Some are mythical, others historical. Jesus happens to be one of the historical ones, and he performed countless miracles to prove his Godship. About Jesus's historicity, it's firmly established and widely accepted by secular historians. There's about as much historical evidence for Jesus as there's for people like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. This goes for his miracles too, especially his resurrection. The resurrection is the best evidence for proof of Godship, since it's the ultimate show of total power over the laws of nature. Historians and New Testament theologians have now firmly established four facts concerning Jesus's death, including the empty tomb and the post-mortem appearances. And they calculate that these facts or events are best explained by the resurrection. The calculation is based on several factors, among them explanatory scope and explanatory power. Expectedly, the materialists among these experts stop just short of that conclusion, as a matter of principle. Also by historicity, I mean he walked this earth as a mortal and hence entered recorded history. There is still some disagreement among historians about certain details of Jesus's life, but that's just the nature of learning. If we humans have a creator, especially a loving one who wants us to know him, we'd expect him to reveal himself to us, personally and directly. And he did, through Jesus. Additionally, the Bible isn't the only place where evidence of Jesus's historicity is found. Secular historians from his era mention him in their works. Josephus, Tacitus, and others. Google would confirm everything. There are even 10min vids-reliable ones-right here on KZfaq that give such information. (When I say "religions", I'm usually referring to the three main monotheistic religions, which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As you may know, these are the religions often being debated by our leading thinkers. But there's also a strong intellectual reason for this, and it's largely based on science. The impressive coherence or unity that exists among the laws of nature clearly suggests that the universe came from a single, infinitely powerful source, possibly the mind of a supernatural being. Additionally, if a god has to co-rule the cosmos with others, then he isn't really "God". For these reasons, monotheistic religions are far more plausible than polytheistic religions. Also as regards that single, powerful source, the supernatural being that best fits that description is the Abrahamic God of the three major monotheistic religions, who's sovereign and all-powerful. Despite the huge emphasis laid here on polytheistic religions, I must say that the original argument would hold against any kinds of religions at all.)

This piece addresses several vital issues that confront unbelievers. As a result of these issues, they find Christianity difficult to grasp and hence accept. I'll share them in the next two posts. ● Misconception about god. The Christian God isn't a "god of the gaps". Which is to say "I don't understand, therefore god did it." That'd be the ancient greek gods of thunder etc, which were likely invented to explain natural events. The Christian God is the God of the whole show. The creator of the entire cosmos, both the bits we do understand and the bits we don't. ● Misconception about faith. Faith is from the Latin word fidēs meaning trust or fidelity. Faith is a useful and normal idea in everyday life. For eg, faith that the bus would get you safely to work. Faith in the original meaning of the word is evidence-based. Faith that's not evidence-based is blind faith, which isn't what Christianity is. Even Einstein acknowledged the necessity of faith when he said that "I can't imagine any serious scientist who doesn't have faith." And by that he meant faith in the rational intelligibility of the universe. So you see, even scientists need faith. ● The false debate between science and God. Between 1901 and 2000, about 65% of physics Nobel laureates were Christian. This research was done and published by the Jewish scholar Baruch Shalev. The percentages are comparably high for other fields. This clearly shows the debate isn't between science and God. Rather it's a competition of worldviews, namely theism versus atheism. Additionally, the scientific method is only suited to the natural world. Religions, broadly speaking, deal with God. And God is a supernatural being who lives in the supernatural world. The supernatural is utterly different from the natural. It's also far superior to it. The supernatural world is well above and beyond the "revered" scientific methods of the natural world with its peer reviews. Think of the fact, for example, that supernatural beings aren't affected by physical quantities such as gravity, time, and space. The supernatural can only be accessed and assessed by supernatural means. I explain further in the second part of my evidence. ● Levels of explanation. I shall illustrate by example. "Why is the water boiling?" It's boiling because heat energy is conducted to the copper kettle and then transferred to the water molecules which gain kinetic energy and so move faster and faster and so forth. Or, it's boiling because I want a cup of tea. The first explanation is the mechanistic explanation provided by science. The second is the agent explanation provided by the person who set the kettle on the stove in the first place. The two kinds of explanation are different, but they're both correct. They don't compete, they complement. This is self-evident. On the larger scale of how the cosmos came into existence, science (through evolution, astronomy etc) gives the mechanistic explanation, whereas the Bible (through God) gives the agent explanation. As seen from the earlier illustration, the two explanations don't compete, they complement. However since they're fundamentally different, it's only natural for discrepancies to arise between them sometimes. And this is what tricks many people into thinking they conflict, when in fact they don't. Science and God are definitely compatible. ● The false idea that reason equates to truth. A very common mistake by atheists is the belief that something has to make sense in order to be true. It doesn't make sense that Hitler killed 6M+ of his fellow humans and yet it's true he did. And so for any given case, the right thing to do is to find evidence and not simply reject it because it sounds senseless or implausible. Thus the virgin birth, the sacrifice of Christ, heaven and hell, and other Christian beliefs don't have to make sense in order to be true. But of course, many theologians have long since provided lucid explanations for all these. Among them NT Wright and William Craig, both from this era.