My Response to Bertrand Russell
In his essay entitled, “Why I am not a Christian”, Bertrand Russell outlines several reasons for his disbelief in Christianity, and levels many attacks at it as well. These accusations are all fairly common misgivings and may be refuted, for Christianity is the only system of belief which offers man the truth of what is.
Bertrand Russell’s first accusation is aimed at the historicity of Christ Himself. He says, “It is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.” This is a frightening accusation, for if the historicity of Christ can be seriously questioned then the whole of Christianity can also be questioned, for the Christian’s faith is grounded in history. However, to say that the historicity of Christ can be questioned is to prove one’s ignorance of historical study. As Otto Betz says, “No serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus.” Indeed the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus is quite exhaustive, both from secular and Jewish sources as well as Christian ones. Bertrand then goes on to state of Jesus,
“He certainly thought His second coming would occur in clouds of glory before the death of all the people who were living at that time. He says, for instance, “I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the houses of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Then he says, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste Death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”
The first Scripture used here, found in Matthew 10:23, is Jesus speaking of things to come in the last days. He is, in fact, prophesying about His second coming, but He is not speaking directly about those standing around Him, as if to imply that they would be physically alive when He returned. The second verse quoted here is found in Matthew 16:28. Here Jesus is speaking of John. What Jesus is saying here is not that John will live until the day that Jesus actually returns, but that he will not die until he sees the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom. This verse was fulfilled with God’s revelation to John while he was exiled to the island of Patmos, in which John saw what was to come at the Second Coming of Christ. This vision he wrote down in the book of Revelation.
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