IS THE CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE

JUST A DELUSION?
Chapter 42

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 was giving my testimony during a debate in a history class recently, and just as I was finishing, the professor spoke up and remarked, "Look, McDowell, we're interested in facts, not testimonies. Why, I have met scores of people around the world who have been transformed by Christ."

 

I interrupted and said, "Thank you, let me wrap up what I am sharing, and then I will concentrate my remarks on your statement."

 

After my testimony of how Christ changed my life, I outlined the following to the class: "Many of you are saying, 'Christ changed your life, so what?' One thing that has confirmed to me the resurrection of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago is the transformation of the lives of millions of people when they become related by faith to the person of Jesus. Although they are from every walk of life and from all the nations of the world, they are changed in remarkably similar ways. From the most brilliant professor to the most ignorant savage, when one puts his trust in Christ, his life begins to change.

 

"Some say it is just wishful thinking, or they simply excuse it by saying it doesn't prove a thing. For a Christian, behind his subjective experience is an objective reality as its basis. This objective reality is the person of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

 

"For example, let's say a student comes into the room and says, 'Guys, I have a stewed tomato in my right tennis shoe. This tomato has changed my life. It has given me a peace and love and joy that I never experienced before, not only that, but I can now run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat.'

 

"It is hard to argue with a student like that if his life backs up what he says (especially if he runs circles around you on the track). A personal testimony is often a subjective argument for the reality of something. Therefore, don't dismiss a subjective experience as being irrelevant.

 

"There are two questions or tests I apply to a subjective experience. First: What is the objective reality for the subjective experience? Second: How many other people have had the same subjective experience from being related to the objective reality?

 

"Let me apply this to the student with the 'stewed tomato' in his right tennis shoe. To the first question he would reply, 'A stewed tomato in my right tennis shoe.'

 

"Then the second question would be put this way: 'How many people in this classroom, in this university, in this country, on this continent, etc., have experienced the same love, peace, joy and increased track speed as the result of a stewed tomato in their right shoes? "

 

At this point, most of the history students laughed. I didn't blame them, for it was obvious that the answer to the second question was, "No one!"

 

Now I had to apply these same two questions to my own subjective experience:

 

1. What is the objective reality or basis for my subjective experience-a changed life?

Answer: the person of Christ and His resurrection.

2. How many others have had this same subjective experience from being related to the objective reality, Jesus Christ?

 

The evidence is overwhelming. Truly millions of people, from all backgrounds, nationalities and professions, have seen their lives elevated to new levels of peace and joy by turning their lives over to Christ. Indeed, the professor confirmed this when he said, "I have met scores of people around the world who have been transformed by Christ."

 

To those who say it is a delusion, then WOW! What a powerful delusion! E. Y. Mullins writes:

 

A redeemed drunkard, with vivid memory of past hopeless struggles and new sense of power through Christ, was replying to the charge that "his religion was a delusion." He said: "Thank God for the delusion; it has put clothes on my children and shoes on their feet and bread in their mouths. It has made a man of me and it has put joy and peace in my home, which had been a hell. If this is a delusion, may God send it to the slaves of drink everywhere, for their slavery is an awful reality."

 

From the first century A.D. down to the present, Jesus Christ has been radically changing the lives of millions of individuals from all walks of life. The following pages of this section highlight a sampling of people who have come to experience the life-transforming power of "Christ in the inner man."

 

 

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