Reading one of the last few posts got me thinking about what evidence do we have that supports our beliefs as Christians.
There are many types of evidence. Some might be:
Prayer, Meditation- god given inspiration and illumination, feelings, gained knowledge, realizations.
Bible- Old and New Testament - something we have read impacted our lives for the better. We may have prayed about certain things, or received inspiration from some passage. The writings of Jesus may have impacted our lives in some way.
Personal Experience- Some story where something changed in our lives. ex. healing, visitation, community service, recovery.
Secondary Reading, Speech, Lecture, Video- we read, listened to, or watched something that impacted our lives.
Authority- Someone said something, which whom we admire, with direct impact on our lives.
Tradition- We were born into it. It is just part of our families' lives.
Reason- With logic and reason, we have discovered the existence of God.
Art, Song, Poetry, Fiction- Something in these forms of expressions impacts our lives deeply.
Revelation, Dream, Vision, Visitation, Near Death Experience- Something directly or to someone near to use experienced something supernatural.
Archaeology- modern excavations are discovering ancient biblical sites, relics, and documents lost for a long period of time.
Most of my evidence for God comes from prayer and the results of communicating with God. Nothing gives me greater peace than prayer and meditation, speaking to God.
Next I would say that reading the Bible would be the most influential, mostly the New Testament Gospels. These events written in the new testament help me several times a week. I enjoy reading mostly chronologically, using The Reese Chronological Bible (KJV), or Interlinear English-Greek (ESV). Chronologically it gives me a little picture into the possible order of events and writings. Interlinear helps me to know more in the original language, what was written. The evidence for Jesus as being the Messiah, comes from the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) fulfillment of Messianic prophecy: Isaiah, Zechariah, Psalms, Danial, Genesis, Micah.
Third for me is Reasoning (Apologetic) and Archaeology, I am amazed, though sometimes critical of some of histories arguments for and against Christianity. Some apologetic things the support my evidence is the World Views analysis comparing Deism to the others, Ontological argument, Cosmological argument, Teleological argument, and Anthropological (Moral) argument. Also the Problem (Views) of Evil.
Archaeology keeps discovering great things such as the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Old Testament, and Rylands Library Papyrus P52 (125AD) (John written 85-100AD, within one lifetime), for the New Testament to supplement authenticity of Codex Vaticanus (325AD), Sinaiticus (350AD), Alexandrinus (5th AD), Bezae (5th -6th AD) , and Latin Vulgate-Amiatinus(750AD). (also considering the oldest known copies of Plato (900AD) and Aristotle (1100AD), Homer (500AD), Julius Caesar (900AD) Also ossuaries, Pilate inscription, Erastus inscription, Yohanian Crucifixion, Pools of Siloam and Bethesda excavations.
Fourth Comparison of different religions, creations stories, attributes of God, and similar morality rules, leads me to believe God reveals to everyone in some way. Similarities of Near Death Experiences.