Book Recommendations For Non-Believer

[kliver]

Aside from the Bible, what books would you recommend a Non-Believer should read to point them to the fact that God does exist and Jesus Christ was His Son?

 

[faroukfarouk]

Aside from the Bible, what books would you recommend a Non-Believer should read to point them to the fact that God does exist and Jesus Christ was His Son?

Actually, I can't recommend anything else. It's go to be the Bible as God's Word that works in our heart and mind, by God Spirit, pointing us to the Saviour Who died for sinners.

Or else it ends up being a lot of words and circular ideas.

 

[John Davidson]

Aside from the Bible, what books would you recommend a Non-Believer should read to point them to the fact that God does exist and Jesus Christ was His Son?

Hi kliver, Good question. I recommend the following books:

On Guard : Student Edition by William Lane Craig

Knowing God by J.I. Packer

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Darwinism Under The Microscope by James P. Gills

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

 

[chilehed]

Those are two different questions. The existence of God needs to come first. Peter Kreeft has a good lecture on proofs.
http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/08_arguments-for-god.htm

 

[graceandpeace]

Aside from the Bible, what books would you recommend a Non-Believer should read to point them to the fact that God does exist and Jesus Christ was His Son?

I'm not sure.

I'm usually not comfortable with apologetic works, because I don't see any way to "prove" religious beliefs. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, for reasons that can't be "factually" demonstrated.

Perhaps a better idea would be seeking resources to actually learn about Christianity or what Christians believe. Then, the questions of why & how can be explored - not to produce "proof" (because there's none) but to offer the reasons & thought-processes that lead to this path.

Good luck.

 

[zippy2006]

Aside from the Bible, what books would you recommend a Non-Believer should read to point them to the fact that God does exist and Jesus Christ was His Son?

Mere Christianity.

 

[xpower]

Also read "the great divorce" by c.s lewis

 

[Brianlear]

CS Lewis.

You asked two different questions. First is about the existence of God. The answer to that question comes differently than the subsequent stuff about Jesus. First you have to believe in "a" God. You don't have to know anything particular about that God, just that you think there really is something, a higher power. People tend to spend a long time getting to that point, but then reach a stage where it becomes obvious or somehow right. After that, they tend to call themselves theists and that part is pretty solid.But after that, you may spend the rest of your life wrestling with whether that God has a son, if that son is indeed the biblical Jesus, etc. And that's actually how it's supposed to be. The struggle to make sense of that story, is sort of the point. Pretty much every single person who ever witnessed Jesus had serious doubts that he really was "who he said he was". Someone who doesn't doubt, doesn't struggle to wrap their mind around it, will miss it.Eventually, we come to a place where we believe the story. It takes a while to get there though.

If only it were as simple as handing you a bible, and telling you all you have to do to get into heaven is believe in Jesus. Checkbox yes or no?

No, it's a lifetime of wrestling with just how amazing and powerful the story is. How it is absolutely counter to everything you know with your rational mind. How great the implications are. I mean, this is a story that has the potential to ruin nations, bring down multinational corporations, and completely revolutionize the universe. You aren't going to get it during a 1 hour sermon or even a CS lewis book. You just need a starting point, there are some good suggestions in this thread. I would start by beginning to shift your perspective towards looking at the universe as a God created place with God as the central source of everything (the inverse of how secular society sees the world).

 

[ViaCrucis]

I am of the same opinion as graceandpeace. I'd even say that, as far as trying to "prove" God's existence the Bible isn't particularly helpful. The Bible, let's remember, is that collection of Scriptures embraced and accepted within the Church for the Church--it's not an evangelistic tool or an apologetics tool, it's a liturgical tool.

Far more helpful is, if one is interested, providing sources of helpful information about Christianity, what we're about, what we believe, etc. And what kind of information is desirable, if someone were completely unfamiliar with the Christian religion there are a couple approaches one can take. It can be very difficult to provide a purely objective material on the subject because there are so many different denominations and traditions, though I recall Alister McGrath's "I Believe": Exploring the Apostles' Creed being both quite good and rather short. I have also heard good things about Joseph Ratzinger's (before he was Pope Benedict XVI) Introduction to Christianity. Likewise, I understand C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity is also quite helpful in this regard.

In addition it may simply be helpful to let them read the Jesus Story itself, I usually recommend St. Luke's Gospel, but St. Mark's is also a good choice, it both introduces the reader to the story of our Lord itself, and is also a very good starting place for the Bible if they are interested in that as well.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Cearbhall]

Also read "the great divorce" by c.s lewis

I greatly enjoyed that book.

 

[Lukaris]

Seconding all those who recommended C.S. Lewis. I would also suggest a book by Frederica Matthews-Green Titled: The Illumined Heart which explains the basic ancient and ongoing Christian faith in living out our daily life. It is based on feeling a need for Christ and our receptivity to it as shaping our recognition of the tension we experience in trying to be decent human beings while seeing our faults. If we embrace this as what inspires our conscience to do right ( see 1 Timothy 1:5 ) then our intellects will see this as our guiding truth which we apply as intelligently as possible. Further info on the Illumined Heart: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/417577.Illumined_Heart

 

[Razare]

The other source besides scripture is not a book.

The secondary sources are two: God's creation (the world) and then also God himself.

If you want proof of God, you can't get it out of a secular book, or out of a 2nd-hand Christian book. The 2nd hand Christian book will just be a pale revelation of what the Bible already says. If the Bible doesn't solve it for you, then you got to go to the things outside the Bible, which will point back to the Bible. Which is as I said, creation and God himself.

To go to God directly, you have to believe something out of God's word (scripture). You don't have to believe the whole document, you have to believe 1 thing out of the document, and use that to come near to God to receive from him.

And about God's creation, we would think a science book should do it. The problem is science books contain wrong ideas which are factually disproven due to mathematics and other sciences. "The Devil's Delusion" by David Berlinski goes into the problems with science as it attempts to assert things like evolution. But that book wont point to God, it only points to the flaws of logic that modern scientific mindsets hold.

And so the revelation of God from nature must come from nature itself, and the more you hear from the world of people scoffing at God, the dumber we become to this revelation. So that a children could easily see it, but adults have become ignorant and stupid to it. Romans 1:20

Romans 1:20 has a problem in modern society. The minds of our culture became dark enough to the point that we stopped realizing the evidences of nature which point to God, and the primary argument was evolution. But since evolution is impossible according to legitimate science, it's not a valid basis to darken our minds and reasoning.

Page 194 -

The neutral theory of molecular evolution was never
destined to achieve wide favor among Darwinian biologists.

Ki mura’s treatise is framed as a powerful but difficult mathematical
argument. But population geneticists understood its
importance, even if they disagreed in some of its details. To the
extent that the neutral theory is true, Darwin’s theory is not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_theory_of_molecular_evolution

So in the sciences, I would actually point to this line of thinking as evidences toward God. Another is information theory, "what is the source of information?" This too is another powerful argument, for if there is a mechanism inside biology which produces information, such as evolution, then we should be able to replicate such a process to produce information without a biologic organism being involved. Yet we can't do this, despite there being a large sum of prize money at stake, plus the wealth that person would attain with a patent.

http://cosmicfingerprints.com/solve/

---------

Though, I would agree CS Lewis is pretty good. He can explain the Bible's theology very well, so a person will understand what they're reading out of scripture. And he does it without talking about scripture all that much.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

It has been said before, but CS Lewis is a good additional source. Personally I would add a short work of his collected essays like Weight of Glory or God in the Dock with Mere Christianity, as people would be more likely to read a short essay than a whole book.

However, I agree with those that say that you can't prove God's existence. It takes faith. But I think CS Lewis is a good way to at least put a chink in the non-believer's armour and often that is all one needs to start the process.

 

[Mudinyeri]

If you're struggling with some of the "standard" questions ... Letters from a Skeptic may help.

 

[Hoghead1]

The other source besides scripture is not a book.

The secondary sources are two: God's creation (the world) and then also God himself.

If you want proof of God, you can't get it out of a secular book, or out of a 2nd-hand Christian book. The 2nd hand Christian book will just be a pale revelation of what the Bible already says. If the Bible doesn't solve it for you, then you got to go to the things outside the Bible, which will point back to the Bible. Which is as I said, creation and God himself.

To go to God directly, you have to believe something out of God's word (scripture). You don't have to believe the whole document, you have to believe 1 thing out of the document, and use that to come near to God to receive from him.

And about God's creation, we would think a science book should do it. The problem is science books contain wrong ideas which are factually disproven due to mathematics and other sciences. "The Devil's Delusion" by David Berlinski goes into the problems with science as it attempts to assert things like evolution. But that book wont point to God, it only points to the flaws of logic that modern scientific mindsets hold.

And so the revelation of God from nature must come from nature itself, and the more you hear from the world of people scoffing at God, the dumber we become to this revelation. So that a children could easily see it, but adults have become ignorant and stupid to it. Romans 1:20

Romans 1:20 has a problem in modern society. The minds of our culture became dark enough to the point that we stopped realizing the evidences of nature which point to God, and the primary argument was evolution. But since evolution is impossible according to legitimate science, it's not a valid basis to darken our minds and reasoning.

Page 194 -


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_theory_of_molecular_evolution

So in the sciences, I would actually point to this line of thinking as evidences toward God. Another is information theory, "what is the source of information?" This too is another powerful argument, for if there is a mechanism inside biology which produces information, such as evolution, then we should be able to replicate such a process to produce information without a biologic organism being involved. Yet we can't do this, despite there being a large sum of prize money at stake, plus the wealth that person would attain with a patent.

http://cosmicfingerprints.com/solve/

---------

Though, I would agree CS Lewis is pretty good. He can explain the Bible's theology very well, so a person will understand what they're reading out of scripture. And he does it without talking about scripture all that much.

Yes, nature does reveal God. That's why I have no trouble reconciling God with evolution.

 

[Razare]

Yes, nature does reveal God. That's why I have no trouble reconciling God with evolution.

The idea and concept of evolution never originated from scripture. It's incongruent.

And people to put to rest their fears of the incongruency began to change scripture to fit into evolutionary mindsets, but it was never necessary since it was never true scientifically.

The man who discovered DNA, abandoned evolution when he made the discovery. As soon as evolution could be quantified mathematically through DNA, that was when the theory died.

If you want to believe in non-Darwinian evolution, where selection occurs by God and not random chance, that's a different discussion. But we have random algorithms, they're an insufficient mechanism.

 

[ViaCrucis]

The man who discovered DNA, abandoned evolution when he made the discovery. As soon as evolution could be quantified mathematically through DNA, that was when the theory died.

Perhaps you could name that individual for us.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[hedrick]

There are several possibilities depending upon the person and what you’re trying to do.

The best conservative apologetic work I’ve seen is Timothy Keller’s “The Reason for God.” I don’t agree with some of its theological perspectives, but many of the people who are interested in Christianity are interested in conservative Christianity, in which case that’s probably a good place to start.

Otherwise you might consider N T Wright’s book “Simply Christian.” It’s an attempt to update Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” to present a view of Christianity that’s more in tune with current scholarship on Jesus. Mere Christianity was OK when it was written, but I would be reluctant to recommend it now.

However the strength of this book is also its weakness. The first section tries to help people see the reality of God. In that sense it’s apologetics. But most of it is a really good introduction to Christianity as we see it in the NT. That means that it isn’t really an apologetics book such as Keller’s, and thus doesn’t go through the standard difficulties such as the problem of suffering. If those issues are a big problem, Keller is the best I’ve seen. Most treatments of these questions in my opinion leave pretty obvious gaps in reasoning. Keller’s is the most honest I’ve seen, though if were a non-Christian I wouldn't buy some of his answers.

An attempt to point to the reality of God is also part of McLaren’s “Finding Faith — A Search for what makes sense.” This is a more conventional apologetics approach than Wright's to helping people find God plausible. But it still doesn’t deal with as many issues as Keller does. I just prefer McLaren’t treatment.

 

[kliver]

Thank you everyone for your recommendations and replies.