An Invitation to Talk, Part 1

Hello. My name is Rick Mattson and I've been in college campus ministry with InterVarsity for over 30 years. See my profile at right, if you wish to know more.

My job these days in InterVarsity is to travel to campuses around the country, making a case for Christian faith. I'm what they call an "apologist," meaning, I try to make a convincing case for the Christian faith.

I have a book coming out later in the year (untitled, as of yet), and this series of posts will draw on my research and writing from that project.

So, if you are a "seeker" of Jesus or a skeptic of Christianity, I am writing to you.

First, then, welcome. I'm truly thankful you would take the time to read my posts.

To my thinking, the "Jesus" question is the greatest question in the world, because if the biblical accounts of his life are true, we all ought to pay attention.

If the accounts are not true, however, then I guess everything is up for grabs.

So I hope you'll enjoy thinking through the Jesus question -- and related questions -- with me. I am not a preachy Christian, and I think you'll find as you read that I respect you as a thoughtful person.

Each post is short -- about a one-minute read. Except this one, which is longer. Feel free to leave a comment at the end.

First Idea: Faith is like Skydiving. You look before you leap.

My wife Sharon tells me she plans to jump out of a plane one of these days. Not my thing. But I have promised to attend her post-jump funeral.

I jest. Anyway, according to the USPA*, somewhere around 99.99% of jumps are successful.

Still, there's no proof of future safety.

There's plenty of evidence of safety, such as the quality of the jumping gear, the experience of the pilot and the track record of the skydiving business -- none of which constitutes proof. At some point Sharon will still leap out an open hatch into thin air, no guarantees.

To my thinking, skydiving is a good analogy for Christian faith. Faith in Jesus is based on evidence and arguments, but not proof.

So where does that leave us?

If you're a seeker of Jesus (meaning, you're checking him out), you're probably OK with what I've said so far. You're looking at the reasons for Christian faith and you're intrigued by the possibilities.

If you're a skeptic, however, you probably have objections. One may be that you've never thought the words "evidence" and "faith" could appear in the same sentence.

I understand. You've probably been around Christians who just "have faith," and that's all there is to it. Not everyone is a philosophical thinker. Many are following the tradition of their upbringing, or they've had a significant conversion experience they look back on -- or they sense God working in their life each day.

You, understandably, don't want to adopt blind faith. 

You may be a person who wishes to live your life in a more scientific way -- by reason rather than faith. And here is where I wish to appeal to your best sensibilities. I want to simply invite you to consider that many (certainly not all) Christians do approach their faith from the standpoint of reason.

Myself? I would NEVER believe in Jesus (or anything else) if I thought the evidence and rationale for doing so was lacking. You'll just have to take my word on that.

So what is the evidence and rationale for Christian faith?  What are the "reasons"?

I'll write about that next week.

I normally post on Mondays, so if a friend forwarded this to you, you can ask them to continue that practice, or you can come directly to my blog at http://rickmattson.blogspot.com/ and read -- and interact, if you wish.

Thanks again for giving me the privilege of talking with you.


* USPA = United States Parachute Association http://www.uspa.org/
picture credit: 
http://parachutemobile.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/parachute_mobile_jim_pink2.jpg