Life Transformation

Recently I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a Christian missionary. We were talking about modern day evidence for Christianity and one point he made was that the gospel has the power to change lives (life transformation).

This would be a pretty good point, but there are two problems. Let's say that by changing lives we mean going from a "destructive" lifestyle to a more civilized / happy / fulfilled lifestyle. Does someone who hears the gospel and repents (changes their lifestyle) always remain that way? I'll bet everyone can think of examples of Christians who go back to their "sinful" way of life. So it does not always work and it does not always stick. So the first problem with the point my friend made is that the gospel's power to change lives is not powerful enough to keep everyone changed. This makes transformation and back-sliding look more like regular human nature than something that has a supernatural force behind it.

The second problem with using life transformation as evidence is that it is not unique to Christianity. Thanks to the Internet, finding examples of life transformation in other belief systems is not hard at all. The Internet is full of personal testimonies from people all over the world. Try searching for "How _____ changed my life" and fill in the blank with whatever you want: Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. I've already read through several testimonies that sound just like Christian testimonies only they are not Christian. These are sincere people who really feel that this new belief system or deity they've found has changed them.

I think my friend is grasping at straws when he tries to find modern day evidence for Christianity like this and I don't find it very convincing. What would be more convincing is if we had a consistent and unique experience for Christians that could only be explained by a supernatural force. Early Christians supposedly had the ability to perform miracles or give prophecies and some were even able to handle deadly snakes and drink poison without dying. I would have to change my mind if I witnessed something like that and if it could be verified as a real miracle. Since there are so many ancient writings that contain outrageous claims it is hard to take any of them seriously.

Does God know why he exists?

How's that for a random thought?

Just for fun, pretend to be God for a minute. You've always existed and you have the power to create anything. You know everything past, present and future. You create a universe wherein lies a small planet with some little people running around on it. Sometimes the people stop and think... "why am I here?" You smile and decide to be mysterious and let them continue to wonder. But then you start to think... "Why Am I Here?"