Eight years ago I wrote a piece entitled “Why I Am A Christian” that generated a lot of response at the time. Now eight years further along the journey, I’ve revised it for those who may have missed it the first time.

I am a Christian because the Biblical story offers the most complete and workable answers to life’s most enduring questions: “Where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” “What’s wrong with the world, and how can it be fixed?” “Why do I love beauty?” “Why do I have a passion for justice?”  While the Darwinists, the Marxists, and the Postmodern intellectuals wrestle to make sense of the world, the Biblical record quietly assembles the pieces into a storyline that offers a full accounting of life and existence. No other worldview even comes close.

I’m a believer because Biblical Christianity produces beautiful and enduring fruit. I’m not talking so much about religion, or the institutionalized church, but Kingdom Christianity as practiced by the early church, and small groups of faithful believers over the centuries. No other worldview has built so many hospitals, fed so many poor, emancipated as many slaves, or established so many organizations to serve, educate, heal, and bless the human race as the true followers of Christ, who recognize that “inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it unto me.”

I am a Christian because creation itself demonstrates a wondrous order that points to a loving Creator. Not only is the hand of God evident in the miraculous intricacies of animal instincts, hearing and sight, reproduction, the seasons, the water cycle, and the natural laws of nature, but man and animal alike exhibit a capacity for love and relationship that could never have arisen out of an impersonal time-chance worldview.  It’s just impossible for me to believe that dead matter could somehow spring into life, organize itself into DNA and living systems, become self-conscious, and write a symphonic masterpiece, apart from the work of a personal God.

I am a follower of Jesus because the Biblical worldview offers the best and most enduring foundation for a civilized society.  It’s no accident that without exception the most stable, democratic, prosperous, and technologically advanced nations of the world have all find their historic roots springing from the soil of Biblical Christianity.

And finally I am a follower of Christ because of the deeply personal way God meets me in everyday life; because of the way he steps into my darkness,  despair and separation with a redemptive love and quiet assurance  that I am not alone.

As the years of my life pile up, the certainty of my soul deepens into the experience of C.S. Lewis, who so aptly expressed, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; Not only because I see it, but because by it I see all things.