God’s Not Dead : 上帝没有死

 CONTENTS

Introduction: Ground Zero of Faith

Chapter 1: God Is Not Dead ( here )

Chapter 2: Real Faith Isn't Blind (here)

Chapter 3: Good and Evil Are No Illusions ( here )

Chapter 4: There Was a Beginning (here)

Chapter 5: Life Is No Accident (here)

Chapter 6: Life Has Meaning and Purpose (here)

Chapter 7: Jesus and the Resurrection (here)

Chapter 8: The Witness of Scripture (here)

Chapter 9: The Grace Effect (here)

Chapter 10: Living Proof (here)

Conclusion: Seeking God (here)

Notes

Index

Acknowledgments

About the Author

内容

  简介：信仰归零

  第 1 章：上帝没有死

  第 2 章：真正的信心不是盲目的

  第 3 章:  善恶不是幻觉

  第 4 章：有一个开始

  第 5 章：人生绝非偶然

  第 6 章：生命具有意义和目的

  第 7 章：耶稣与复活

  第 8 章：圣经的见​​证

  第 9 章：恩典效应

  第10 章：活生生的证据

  结语：寻求神

  笔记

  指数

  致谢

  关于作者

GROUND ZERO OF FAITH

 Christianity has been successfully attacked and marginalized because those who professed belief were unable to defend the faith from attack, even though its attackers' arguments were deeply flawed.

—WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, REAL CHRISTIANITY

 “GOD, I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE IN YOU ANYMORE.” THIS WAS the frustrated conclusion of my friend Dean as he drove down the highway thinking of a conversation he had recently with an atheist – a conversation that rocked his world. He had been deeply challenged by this person's questions and objections to the existence of God. What was most upsetting to Dean was that he had no answers. Frustrated and embarrassed by his own inability to answer this skeptical barrage, he finally told God he intended to stop believing.

 What happened next was the last thing he expected. After making his declaration that he would no longer believe, he heard a voice: Who do you think you're talking to?

 He immediately pulled his car over to the side of the road to "get his heart right" with God. And he did. Then Dean had to "get his head right." Rather than bury his doubts, he brought them into the light and began to deal with them by studying the evidence that undergirds real faith. He says

信仰归零

  基督教已经成功地受到攻击和边缘化，因为那些自称信仰的人无法捍卫信仰免受攻击，即使攻击者的论点存在严重缺陷。

  —WILLIAM WILBERFORCE，真正的基督教

  “上帝啊，我简直不能再相信你了。” 这是我的朋友迪恩在高速公路上开车时沮丧的结论，他想起了他最近与无神论者的一次谈话——一次震撼了他的世界的谈话。 这个人对上帝存在的问题和反对意见深深地挑战了他。 最让 Dean 沮丧的是他没有答案。 由于自己无法回答这种怀疑的弹幕而感到沮丧和尴尬，他终于告诉上帝他打算停止相信。

  接下来发生的事情是他最没有预料到的。 在做出他不再相信的声明后，他听到一个声音：你认为你在和谁说话？

  他立即将车停在路边，与上帝“纠正他的心”。 他做到了。 然后 Dean 必须“调整好自己的头脑”。 他没有掩埋自己的疑惑，而是将它们暴露在光中，并开始通过研究支撑真正信仰的证据来对付它们。 他说

he is now able to answer the skeptic's challenges as well as help the doubter who is struggling to find faith.

 Stories like Dean's have led me to write this book. My hope is that every believer will be able to grasp the reasons to believe in God and be able to communicate them with the world around them. This is the challenge given to us from one of history's greatest examples of someone who recovered from the dark night of unbelief: the apostle Peter. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15 NIV). There are straightforward answers for the skeptics' questions, but most believers aren't familiar enough with them to be able to explain those reasons to others. I hope this book changes that for those who read it.

 The bluster from the ranks of the unbelieving is summed up in the words of musician and zoologist Greg Graffin of the group Bad Religion, who asserts that those who suggest life was intelligently designed have "not produced a single shred of data" to back up their claims.² Graffin is partially right. There isn't a shred of data. There is evidence for an intelligent Creator everywhere you look. To say there is no evidence for this Creator is like saying the thousands of paintings in an art museum couldn't have been painted because there are no artists visible in the gallery. The evidence of an intelligent mind behind the universe is so overwhelming that it has "shredded” the notion that everything was produced by nature alone. The evidence for God is not found only in some obscure fossil or the untestable hypotheses of a theoretical physicist; it is glaringly present everywhere you turn.

 I intend to give you an overview of that evidence. Faith in God is rising, yet so is skepticism. In the name of science and reason, faith is being framed as irrational and illogical. The metanarrative of Darwinian evolution has turned many minds and hearts, teaching that life arose spontaneously from nothing, for no reason, and for no purpose, guided by the "blind watchmaker” of natural selection.³  The belief that everything we see around us came about through natural causes is called naturalism. As Stephen Hawking concluded, "What place, then, for a creator?"⁴

 I intend to show you the need for the Creator to explain the world around us as well as the world within us, that is, the human soul. To do this, I refer to some of the thousands of scholarly works written on the evidence for the existence of God. 

他现在能够回答怀疑论者的挑战，并帮助正在努力寻找信仰的怀疑者。

  像 Dean 的故事促使我写了这本书。 我希望每个信徒都能掌握信神的理由，并能与周围的世界沟通。 这是从不信的黑夜中恢复过来的历史上最伟大的例子之一：使徒彼得给我们的挑战。 “总是准备好回答每个要求你给出希望的理由的人”（1 Peter 3:15 NIV）。怀疑论者的问题有直接的答案，但大多数信徒并不熟悉 足够他们能够向其他人解释这些原因。我希望这本书能改变那些阅读它的人。

  Bad Religion 乐队的音乐家和动物学家格雷格·格拉芬 (Greg Graffin) 的话总结了来自不信者队伍的恐吓，他断言那些认为生命是经过智能设计的人“没有产生任何数据碎片”来支持他们的观点 claims.² Graffin 是部分正确的。 没有一丝数据。 随处可见一位智慧造物主的证据。 说没有证据证明这位造物主就像说艺术博物馆里成千上万的画作不可能被画出来，因为画廊里看不到艺术家。 宇宙背后有智慧头脑的证据是如此压倒性，以至于它“粉碎”了一切都是自然产生的观念。上帝的证据不仅仅存在于一些晦涩的化石或理论物理学家无法检验的假设中；它 随处可见。

  我打算给你一个证据的概述。 对上帝的信仰正在上升，但怀疑主义也在上升。 以科学和理性的名义，信仰被认为是非理性和不合逻辑的。 达尔文进化论的元叙事改变了许多人的思想和心灵，教导生命从无到有、无缘无故、无目的地自发产生，由自然选择的“盲表匠”引导。³  相信我们周围看到的一切都来自 关于通过自然原因的讨论被称为自然主义。正如史蒂芬霍金总结的那样，“那么，造物主有什么地方？”⁴

  我打算向您展示造物主需要解释我们周围的世界以及我们内心的世界，即人类灵魂。 为此，我参考了数以千计关于上帝存在证据的学术著作中的一些。

 For centuries great minds have wrestled with the idea of an inspired creation and brilliantly answered doubts, quandaries, and accusations. And today we need the wisdom of history's giants of philosophy, theology, and science. I will refer to their arguments alongside my own comments as you absorb the genius of those who have already fought and won the great intellectual battles for faith. My own ideas and observations have come through years of study and discussions on these topics with skeptics as well as seekers. The reality is that people come to a place of faith not against reason but through it. That's why the first step of faith or ground zero is to believe God exists.

 Make no mistake; the atheists present their case with great fervor. They assert there is no rational proof for the existence of God, the Bible is a book of fairy tales and contradictions, and religion general is a bad thing. Furthermore, they charge that anyone who is rational and not delusional will come to the same conclusions. They feast on unprepared religious people who unintelligently hold to beliefs they've merely inherited, who have only a secondhand faith. But these skeptics seldom take a second look to see how unsustainable their own views are. Instead, they believe it's only a matter of time until everyone sees things their way. Their strategy is simple:

 1. Use ridicule and mockery to label people of faith as anti-intellectual or irrational.

 2. Set up a false dichotomy between science and faith, telling people to choose one or the other.

 3. Keep the debate one-sided by not allowing a dissenting opinion in the public arena, making sure the only places where expressions of faith are allowed are in strictly religious settings.

 The sad reality is that this strategy is working. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2007, 83 percent of millennials said they never doubted God's existence. In 2012, the number dropped to 68 percent. That is a fifteen-point drop in five years.⁵ Other studies have shown that more than half of the young people in America who attended church will drop out after they leave high school for college. While there are a variety of reasons for this, one of them is that these students have never been prepared to handle the objections the skeptics raise.

几个世纪以来，伟大的思想家一直在与灵感创造的想法搏斗，并出色地回答了怀疑、困惑和指责。 今天，我们需要历史上哲学、神学和科学巨匠的智慧。 当你吸收那些已经为信仰而战并赢得了伟大的智力战争的人的天才时，我会参考他们的论点和我自己的评论。 我自己的想法和观察来自多年对这些主题的研究和与怀疑论者和寻求者的讨论。 现实情况是，人们不是违背理性而是通过理性来到信仰之地。 这就是为什么信仰或归零的第一步是相信上帝存在。

  不犯错误; 无神论者以极大的热情陈述他们的论点。 他们断言上帝的存在没有合理的证据，圣经是童话和矛盾的书，宗教一般是一件坏事。 此外，他们指责任何理性而非妄想的人都会得出相同的结论。 他们以毫无准备的宗教人士为食，这些人不明智地坚持他们只是继承下来的信仰，只有二手信仰。 但这些怀疑论者很少重新审视他们自己的观点是多么不可持续。 相反，他们认为每个人都以自己的方式看待事物只是时间问题。 他们的策略很简单：

  1. 用嘲笑和嘲笑给有信仰的人贴上反智或非理性的标签。

  2. 在科学和信仰之间建立错误的二分法，告诉人们选择其中之一。

  3. 不允许在公共场合发表不同意见，保持辩论的一边倒，确保只有在严格的宗教场所才允许表达信仰。

  可悲的现实是这种策略正在奏效。 据皮尤研究中心称，2007 年，83% 的千禧一代表示他们从不怀疑上帝的存在。 2012 年，这一数字下降到 68%。 这是五年内下降了 15 个百分点。⁵ 其他研究表明，美国一半以上参加过教会活动的年轻人在离开高中上大学后会辍学。 虽然这有多种原因，但其中之一是这些学生从未准备好应对怀疑论者提出的反对意见。

to handle the objections the skeptics raise. Young people must have more than an experience of Jesus if they're going to withstand the intellectual onslaught that awaits them in college.

 As a Christian minister my passion is to teach the truths believers need not only to defend themselves from getting robbed of their faith but also to go on the offensive with the unbelieving world around them, demonstrating that God exists. Once that truth is firmly grasped, it becomes a logical necessity to seek out the nature and character of this Creator. This God has indeed revealed Himself to humanity through Jesus Christ.

 One of my great joys has been watching people find a faith in God that is both intellectually satisfying and spiritually fulfilling. The good news is that there are encouraging signs of a spiritual awakening happening among young people. Though not as dramatic as the growth of the Christian faith in Africa, Asia, and South America, thousands of people in North America have come to faith in God for the first time or returned to a faith they once had; but the struggle is far from over. The new generation of skeptics is committed to its own nonbelieving agenda. Its mission is to see the elimination of all religious faith, or as atheist Sam Harris said, "the end of faith" .⁷

 People of faith cannot afford to be passive and disengaged. Many fall into the trap of thinking, Maybe if we are nice enough, they will know we are true believers and God is real. After all, doesn't the Bible say to "preach the gospel and if necessary use words"? Well, no, it doesn't. That phrase is usually attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, but it is doubtful that he ever said it. While we must certainly treat those who express hostility toward God with dignity, we must also be prepared to speak the truth boldly. No one said it would be easy. Even the great evangelist and apostle of the early church Saul of Tarsus asked people to pray for him so he could "speak boldly, as I ought to speak" (Ephesians 6:20). The evidence from the New Testament is that the apostles and the early Christians possessed this boldness to proclaim the gospel at the risk of their own lives. We must, at least, be as bold in our witness for Christ as skeptics are in their attacks against the faith.

 Those early believers grasped something we need to understand. Every worldview is in essence a story, a metanarrative that attempts to answer the real questions of our existence. As it has often been said by a wide range of authors, whoever tells the most believable story wins the age.

处理怀疑论者提出的异议。 如果年轻人要经受住大学里等待他们的智力冲击，他们就必须不仅仅有耶稣的经历。

  作为一名基督教牧师，我热衷于教导信徒需要的真理，他们不仅需要保护自己免受信仰的剥夺，还需要继续与周围不信的世界展开攻势，证明上帝的存在。 一旦牢牢掌握了这个真理，探寻这位造物主的本质和性格就成为合乎逻辑的必然。 这位上帝确实通过耶稣基督向人类启示了自己。

  我最大的乐趣之一就是看到人们找到一种对上帝的信仰，这种信仰既能满足智力上的满足，又能满足精神上的满足。 好消息是，有令人鼓舞的迹象表明年轻人正在发生精神觉醒。 尽管不像基督教信仰在非洲、亚洲和南美洲那样迅速发展，但北美成千上万的人已经第一次信仰上帝或恢复了他们曾经拥有的信仰； 但斗争远未结束。 新一代的怀疑论者致力于他们自己的非信仰议程。 它的使命是消灭所有宗教信仰，或者正如无神论者萨姆·哈里斯所说，“信仰的终结” ⁷

  有信仰的人不能被动和脱离​​。 许多人陷入了这样的思维陷阱，也许如果我们足够好，他们就会知道我们是真正的信徒，上帝是真实的。 毕竟，圣经不是说要“传福音，必要时用言语”吗？ 好吧，不，它没有。 这句话通常归因于阿西西的圣弗朗西斯，但他是否曾说过这句话值得怀疑。 我们固然必须以尊严对待那些对上帝表示敌意的人，但我们也必须准备好大胆地说出真相。 没有人说这会很容易。 甚至早期教会大数扫罗的伟大传教士和使徒也要求人们为他祈祷，这样他就可以“放胆讲道，照我所当讲的”（以弗所书 6:20）。 新约的证据表明，使徒和早期的基督徒有这种勇气，可以冒着生命危险去传扬福音。 至少，我们必须像怀疑论者攻击信仰一样大胆地为基督作见证。

  那些早期的信徒掌握了一些我们需要理解的东西。 每一种世界观本质上都是一个故事，一个元叙事，试图回答我们存在的真正问题。 正如许多作家常说的那样，谁讲述了最可信的故事，谁就赢得了时代。

The early Christians told their story and confirmed it with evidence: Jesus resurrected to fulfill the words of the ancient prophets. In our postmodern world people want to believe every story is equally valid, but all stories are not equal. Once on an airplane I sat next to a strange woman who told me she believed she was God. After hearing this I smiled and said, "If you're God, I've got a lot of questions for you.” Reason helps us dismiss absurd claims like this.

 Similarly skeptics make claims that are thin and easily disproved as well. Other arguments require a much more thoughtful response, such as their claim that your religion depends on where you were born. If you were born in America, you would be a Christian. If you were born in India, you would be a Hindu. There's some truth to this, but isn't the whole story. Just because you were born into a certain religion doesn't mean you will remain in that faith once you are old enough to think for yourself and consider other worldviews. In fact, the lives of many of the skeptics themselves prove this point. Many of them were born into Christian families and cultures but left once they got older. The same is often true for people born in any culture. When later in life they are exposed to the free market of ideas, they change. They switch. They choose other options.

 That's why I have spent the last thirty years focusing on university campuses around the world. The campus is an exciting place, a crossroads where a person's cultural upbringing meets the world of ideas. It can also be the place where the truth of Jesus Christ shines the brightest. The gospel of Jesus Christ does not prevail only when there are no competitors; it shines most brightly when it is held up to other faiths. Secular religions, like Darwinian naturalism, can’t make the same boast. They don't do well when faced with competition. They try to eliminate rivals. That’s why there is enormous energy spent keeping any reference to the existence of design or intelligent creation out of the classroom. Real faith —particularly real faith in Jesus Christ—welcomes the challenge.

 Remember that Christianity originally arose in the hostile culture of the Roman Empire, where to believe in Jesus Christ could cost you your life. Thousands of early believers were thrown to the lions, burned at the stake, or even crucified, as Christ was, for their faith. The experience of the early Christians wasn't a result of the culture they were born into or the way their parents raised them. Unlike more militant religions that force people to believe at the point of the sword, early Christianity spread by a force that was fairly unknown to men at the time — the force of divine love. 

早期的基督徒讲述了他们的故事，并用证据证实了这一点：耶稣复活是为了应验古代先知的话。 在我们的后现代世界中，人们希望相信每个故事都同样有效，但并非所有故事都是平等的。 有一次在飞机上，我坐在一个陌生女人旁边，她告诉我她相信自己就是上帝。 我听了笑着说：“如果你是上帝，我有很多问题要问你。” 理性帮助我们驳斥这样荒谬的说法。

  同样，怀疑论者提出的主张也很薄弱，也很容易被推翻。 其他论点需要更深思熟虑的回应，例如他们声称您的宗教信仰取决于您的出生地。 如果你出生在美国，你就是基督徒。 如果你出生在印度，你就是印度教徒。 这有一些道理，但不是全部。 仅仅因为你出生于某种宗教并不意味着一旦你长大到可以独立思考并考虑其他世界观，你就会保持这种信仰。 事实上，许多怀疑论者的生活本身就证明了这一点。 他们中的许多人出生在基督教家庭和文化中，但长大后就离开了。 对于出生在任何文化中的人来说，情况往往也是如此。 当他们在以后的生活中接触到思想的自由市场时，他们就会改变。 他们切换。 他们选择其他选项。

  这就是为什么我在过去的三十年里一直关注世界各地的大学校园。 校园是一个令人兴奋的地方，是一个人的文化教育与思想世界相遇的十字路口。 它也可以是耶稣基督真理最闪耀的地方。 只有在没有竞争对手的情况下，耶稣基督的福音才会占上风； 当它与其他信仰相提并论时，它最闪耀。 世俗宗教，如达尔文自然主义，不能做同样的吹嘘。 他们在面对竞争时表现不佳。 他们试图消灭竞争对手。 这就是为什么要花费巨大的精力将任何对设计或智能创造的存在的提及都排除在课堂之外。 真正的信心——尤其是对耶稣基督的真正信心——欢迎挑战。

  请记住，基督教最初起源于罗马帝国的敌对文化，在那里相信耶稣基督可能会让你付出生命的代价。 数以千计的早期信徒为了他们的信仰被扔进狮子、被烧死在火刑柱上，甚至像基督一样被钉在十字架上。 早期基督徒的经历不是他们出生的文化或父母养育他们的方式的结果。 与那些迫使人们在剑尖上相信的好战宗教不同，早期基督教的传播是通过一种当时人们还不为人知的力量——神圣之爱的力量。

This is what caused those who had grown up in the Roman Empire's culture of violence, subjugation, and fear to turn to Christianity. Christ commanded His followers to advance His message by the irresistible force of love and the power of truth.

  True faith in God isn't coerced. It arises freely. The message of Christ transformed the Roman Empire because that message was based in love and truth and because it did not coerce obedience as other religions did. That's why skeptics, idolaters, and atheists turned to the message of Jesus in the early years of Christianity, regardless of where they were born. In places such as America, where the Christian faith has been practiced for generations, those born in the faith have an advantage that should not be ignored or dismissed as trivial.

  THE ENDURING GOSPEL STORY

  The gospel is the good news that God became man in Jesus Christ. He lived the life we should have lived (perfectly keeping the moral law); He then died the death we should have died (for breaking that law). Three days later Jesus rose from the dead, proving He is the Son of God and offering the gift of salvation to everyone who will repent and believe the gospel.

 • God incarnate man in Jesus Christ.

The WORD (LOGOS* in Greek) of God stepped into the world by taking on human flesh. The religions of the world call men to ascend and work their way to God. Christianity explains that God came down to us. [ Bible Study on LOGOS click here ] [ LOGOS Chart 1 here ] [ LOGOS Chart 2 here ] [ LOGOS Chart 3 here ]

•  He lived the life we should have lived. God expects us to keep the moral law. Christ lived a perfect life. His life modeled the life completely yielded to God. This was the life that God intended all men and women to live.

 • He died the death we should have died. This is a difficult truth for skeptics to embrace, that evil must be punished. If there is no consequence for breaking a law, then the law ceases to be a law. Christ bore our punishment by taking our place through His death on a Roman cross.

 • He rose from the dead.

Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead verified His identity and proved that His authority was real. It also gives us hope that there is eternal life after death.

 • He offers salvation to those who will repent and believe. 

In God's gift of salvation we not only receive forgiveness of sins but also are delivered from the power of evil and its consequences — both in this life and the next , eternal life after death. To repent means to turn from evil unbelief and from trusting in our own efforts to earn our own salvation. In turning from evil, we turn to Lord Jesus Christ and believe Him. 

The promise is straightforward:

  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

这就是导致那些在罗马帝国的暴力、征服和恐惧文化中长大的人转向基督教的原因。 基督命令祂的追随者以不可抗拒的爱的力量和真理的力量来传播祂的信息。

 对上帝的真正信仰不是被迫的。 它自由地生起。 基督的信息改变了罗马帝国，因为该信息基于爱和真理，并且因为它不像其他宗教那样强制服从。 这就是为什么怀疑论者、偶像崇拜者和无神论者在基督教早期转向耶稣的信息，无论他们出生在哪里。 在美国这样世世代代奉行基督教信仰的地方，那些出生在信仰中的人具有不应被忽视或视为微不足道的优势。

 经久不衰的福音故事

 福音是神在耶稣基督里成为人的好消息。 他过着我们应该过的生活（完全遵守道德律）； 然后他死了我们应该死的死（因为违反了那条法律）。 三天后，耶稣从死里复活，证明他是上帝的儿子，并向所有愿意悔改并相信福音的人献上救恩的礼物。

 • 上帝在耶稣基督里道成肉身。

 上帝的道（希腊语中的 LOGOS）通过取人肉身进入世界。 世界上的宗教呼吁人们提升并努力走向上帝。 基督教解释说上帝降临到我们身上。

[ 关于 LOGOS 的圣经研究，请点击此处] [ LOGOS 图表 1 ] [ LOGOS 图表 2 此处 ] [ LOGOS 图表 3 此处 ]

 • 他过着我们应该过的生活。 

上帝希望我们遵守道德律。 基督过着完美的生活。 他的生活模拟了完全顺服神的生活。 这就是上帝要所有男人和女人过的生活。

 • 他死了，我们本该死。 

对于怀疑论者来说，这是一个难以接受的事实，即邪恶必须受到惩罚。 如果违反法律没有后果，那么法律就不再是法律。 基督代替我们死在罗马十字架上，从而承担了我们的惩罚。

 • 他从死里复活。

 耶稣基督从死里复活证实了他的身份，证明了他的权柄是真实的。 它也给了我们死后有永生的希望。

 • 他为愿意悔改相信的人提供救恩。

 在上帝救恩的恩赐中，我们不仅罪得赦免，而且从邪恶的力量及其后果中解救出来——无论是今生还是来世，死后的永生。 悔改意味着从邪恶的不信和相信我们自己的努力来赢得我们自己的救赎。 在远离邪恶的过程中，我们转向主耶稣基督并相信他。

 承诺很简单：

 神爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信他的，不至灭亡，反得永生。 （约翰福音 3:16）

MY STORY

Despite being born in America and raised in a family that attended church, I lived as if there was no God. As long as I didn't break any serious laws, I was okay. The notion of being religious was repulsive. Church was just a place to have weddings and funerals

As a third-year university student, my personal problems became too big to  ignore. As much as I tried run from them or drown them with alcohol or drugs,  they only grew larger. The  turning  point  came when I began to doubt my doubts about God and I humbled myself by admitting I had deep needs. That step of humility put me in a position to listen when someone started talking to me about the reality of God and His incarnation as Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the people who took the time to speak to me, answer my questions, and ultimately call my bluff by challenging my unbelief.

For the first time I understood something that was truly good news. What was that something? That God had foreseen my need and provided help, long before I knew I needed it.  How long before? Try two thousand years before. At the right time in history, God incarnated man in Jesus. 

I decided to believe God's story and accept it as true not just true for me but really true for all humanity- the metanarrative that defines reality in this age of uncertainty. That fateful decision changed the course of my life. My questions were not all answered at once. In fact, following Christ has been a journey of continually finding the answers to the questions and quandaries of our existence. Yet time and time again , the answers have come. God isn't afraid of our questions, but we must ask them not out of hostility toward Him, but out of trust "that He is a rewarder of those who   diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). Because God is real, humanity's search for Him will not be in vain. With this hope in mind, I write this book for three types of people:

The Seeker is attempting to believe but faces doubts about whether God is real. I offer the evidence in these pages hoping that person will be able to realize that it is indeed credible as well as fulfilling to believe in God. Even before understanding Christianity or the Bible, there is ample evidence that the world around us is no accident.

The Believer knows God is real subjectively but cannot easily articulate  this faith to unbelievers. Hopefully these chapters will make the evidence for God clear so that it can be easily comprehended and then presented to  others.

The Skeptic may be reading this book from a critical point of view and a  predetermined mind-set that there is no God. My hope is that regardless of how attached this reader is to skepticism, the following evidence will ironically allow a seed of doubt to be planted, helping that person break free of the matrix of a godless worldview and embrace the real story that best corresponds to the evidence, the one that declares, "'God's not dead."

我的故事

 尽管我出生在美国，成长在一个去教堂的家庭，但我的生活就像没有上帝一样。 只要我不违反任何严重的法律，我就没事。 信奉宗教的想法是令人厌恶的。 教堂只是举行婚礼和葬礼的地方

 作为一名大学三年级学生，我的个人问题变得大得不容忽视。 尽管我尝试逃离它们或用酒精或毒品淹死它们，但它们只会变得更大。 当我开始怀疑自己对上帝的怀疑时，转折点就来了，我谦卑地承认自己有深刻的需要。 当有人开始向我谈论上帝的现实以及他道成肉身为耶稣基督时，谦卑的这一步使我能够倾听。 我很感谢那些花时间与我交谈、回答我的问题并最终通过挑战我的不信来揭穿我的虚张声势的人。

 我第一次明白了一些真正的好消息。 那是什么东西？ 早在我知道自己需要帮助之前，上帝就预见到了我的需要并提供了帮助。 多久之前？ 两千多年前就试试吧。 在历史的正确时刻，神在耶稣里道成肉身。

 我决定相信上帝的故事，并接受它不仅对我来说是真实的，而且对全人类来说也是真实的——在这个不确定的时代定义现实的元叙事。 这个决定性的决定改变了我的人生轨迹。 我的问题并没有立即全部得到解答。 事实上，跟随基督就是一个不断寻找我们存在的问题和困境的答案的旅程。 然而，答案一次又一次地出现。 神并不害怕我们的问题，但我们问这些问题不是出于对他的敌意，而是出于相信“他必赏赐那些殷切寻求他的人”（希伯来书11:6）。 因为上帝是真实的，人类对他的寻找不会徒劳。 带着这样的希望，我为三类人写了这本书：

•寻访者 / 寻求者试图相信，但对上帝是否真实存在怀疑。 我在这几页中提供证据，希望人们能够认识到相信上帝确实是可信的，也是令人满足的。 甚至在理解基督教或圣经之前，就有充分的证据表明我们周围的世界并非偶然。

• 信徒主观上知道神是真实的，但无法轻易向非信徒表达这种信仰。 希望这些章节能够让上帝的证据变得清晰，以便人们能够轻松理解并呈现给其他人。

• 怀疑论者 可能会从批判的角度和预定的心态（即不存在上帝）来阅读这本书。 我的希望是，无论这位读者对怀疑论有多么执着，以下证据都将具有讽刺意味地让怀疑的种子种下，帮助他摆脱无神的世界观的束缚，接受最符合现实的真实故事。 证据，即宣称“上帝没有死”的证据。

Chapter 1, to continue ....here

第 1 章，继续....这里