I've never had this happen before.
Yes I've had the dumb kids come up to me and tell me what I believed in was a lie, but I've never had someone back up their argument with actual facts, that as much as I hate to admit it, made sense.
The first one occurred in my English 1102 class. My teacher told us we had to write a 2000 word research paper on anything we wanted to research. I decided I wanted to research how the Bible came to be and the historical information and findings that backed up what the Bible says. I turned in all of my research and my teacher proceeded to tell me that she didn't want me to do a paper on why Christianity is true and if I decided to do it anyways I would need to double the number of sources, 24, to tell her why it is true. According to her, she could tell me 10 reasons why Jesus wasn't the Messiah right there.
Two days later I encountered my Humanities professor. He started to talk about all of the inconsistencies with the Bible and how Paul wasn't an Apostle so we can't trust anything he says. Another student stayed after class and debated the Bible and Christianity with my professor who has a mutated belief of Buddhism and Christianity called Christian zen. I stayed two hours after class listening to them debate the Bible.
I came to this conclusion.
There is a big difference between showing and proving the Bible.
When you are living out God's word you don't need to prove it to anyone, you just need to show them. God doesn't need us. God wants us here. He wants us here so we can be ministers of His love. If He wanted to prove that without a doubt He is real, He would have done it already. We are here with a purpose to share His love, not prove it. Becuase love is not something you prove, it's something you show. Love is the biggest components to Christianity. " For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." That is why people who just know the facts about Christianity just don't get it. Without love, this is just another religion, but because of His love its a relationship.
Who's kingdom are we actually trying to further when we try to prove Christianity? It's ours. When we try to prove God it looks a whole lot like " Look at me and how much I know" and a lot less like " Look at God and how great He is." He doesn't call us to make ourselves known and our relationship with Him known, He calls to make Himself known.
So when I saw this student trying to prove the Bible, it broke my heart. It broke my heart to see him going in circles with my professor. Being a Christian is not about having a bunch of theological facts in your head, but about sharing the Gospel and letting God do the rest. The Bible says that even the demons know the facts about God but they tremble because they know they are not going to Heaven, God has the power to change a heart not you. You cannot force someone to believe in God, and that's the beauty of Christianity. It's a choice. It's not something you are forced to believe in and anyone who tries to force you to is wrong. One of my favorite blog authors, Brooke Putney, puts it this way, "When you are living out the gospel you are not going to need to prove it to anyone. When you are truly living out the gospel, it is a whole lot more about loving and a whole lot less about proving. When you are truly living out the gospel, you are not even concerned with proving it. You are concerned with sharing. Because God is radical, He transforms, “Look at me!” to “Set your eyes on Him!” He alters, “Nothing is going right.” to “But I am getting to see God in..” He changes it and when we really release ourselves to Him and let go of our egos, He reminds us it was never about us anyway. He reminds us it’s even more fun that way."
So I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to argue why Christianity is true, I am going to show my teacher why it is true. I'm not going to go against her authority and be disrespectful, but I am going let her know what I believe in. I am going to show her the gospel through my actions and my words. I am going to preach the Gospel through my heart, my actions, and relationship with others. I am going to tell her what I believe and what God has done for me. I am not going to prove to her the bible is true but I am going to show her why I believe in what I do and let God work on her heart.