Many well-meaning believers, in an attempt to “prove” the truth of Christianity, will make use of what I call “Christian folklore”. This is second-hand evidence that usually either disproves evolution, or proves creation. The problem is that upon investigation, the evidence evaporates – it is found to be non-existant. While bad evidence doesn’t disprove the truth, it sure does seem that way to the sceptic. False evidence usually does more harm than good.

An example: Many Christians (and even some non-Christians) believe men have one less rib than women, because God took a rib from Adam to make Eve. But this is not true. Men have the same number of ribs as women. Just because God took a rib from Adam doesn’t mean all of his male offspring had one less rib. The physical characteristics of children are determined by genetics, not physical differences of the parents. The children of a one-armed man will still will have two arms.

Another example of false evidence has to do with the lost day of Joshua (Joshua 10:12-13). This is an account of when the sun stood still for about a day. Many of us have heard that space program scientists somehow proved the lost day occurred through their calculations. The problem with using this as an argument for the reliability of the Bible is that these calculations don’t exist. In fact, there is no known way to calculate if a day was lost. There is other evidence that the lost day occurred, but by using false evidence (i.e. rumor) to attempt to prove what is true, we run the risk of making the truth seem like a lie when the evidence is discovered to be untrue.

We need to be very careful with what evidence we use to defend what we believe. Scientific evidence must be personally thoroughly investigated and proved reliable before it is used. It is better not to use scientific evidence if we cannot prove the reliability of the evidence ourselves.

We are called to be witnesses. In order to be a witness, one must be personally acquaint with the facts. This is one of the reasons that the apostles’ message was so convincing: they were witnesses of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection (John 15:27, Acts 2:32, 5:32, 2 Peter 1:16).

The most important evidence we can give for the truth of Christianity is our testimony of what God has done in our lives. This should be evident not only through our words, but our actions and our very lives. This is the best evidence we can present because we are personally acquainted with it. We know what we were like before we were saved, we know what God did to save us and we can see the results in our lives.

Scientific evidence for the reliability of the Bible abounds, and there’s nothing wrong with using it when witnessing to an unbeliever, as long as we know it’s accurate. But the most important evidence is our testimony. Let’s tell the world what we do know!