The Works of

Because I Think, I Believe is a unique defense of the Christian world view. It is presented from the perspective of an ordinary lay person, and as such it speaks effectively to ordinary readers. Absent the forbidding rigor of most philosophical treatments of this subject, the book seeks to reason from commonly understood and well-accepted truth step-by-step to the reasons why anyone can see that God exists, what His attributes are, and why He can be understood only in the light of Jesus’ teachings.

Because I Think, I Believe is about the importance of finding trustworthy, fundamental truths in an era of atheism, humanism, materialism, naturalism, Darwinism, mysticism, spiritualism and any number of personal “–isms” that permeate our post-modern society. Unlike the typical philosophical apologetic, this book is a readable walk through the logic behind how we see our world.

Most people, including Christians, have never completely thought through what it is that they believe about the true nature of the reality into which they are born. Most adopt a belief system about life because it is taught to them by parents or other significant mentors in their life, because it is popular among their peers, or because it sounds good to them and makes them psychologically comfortable. Even those who see the world in a largely valid way do so not because they understand the rationality of it, but because they happened to be taught by others who saw it that way. Although most people wrongly see the effort to form a defensible world view as impossibly complex, it is in fact possible for the average person to think through, and reason out, the truth about reality. It is the premise of this book that if a fair-minded person actually goes through this process, he or she will reach the point of realizing that the Christian world view represents the only rational understanding of the way things really are, whether or not they choose to accept this view for themselves.

The author’s vision for the book is to help the reader understand that truth is something that you can’t just decide for yourself; that there are transcendent truths which are self-validated and therefore depend upon nothing. The reader will see that no opinion of mankind, no matter how popular, seemingly reasonable, or apparently well supported can modify or change these truths in any way. They are true everywhere, in all cultures and eras, and they will always remain true. Readers will also learn that a complete and logical look at what we know about our environment demands a belief in a non-physical reality and that it is eminently reasonable to have faith in what the Creator God has said about those things that we can’t fully understand or that we can’t prove.

Along the way, the book deals with common questions and complaints about Christianity, such as the accusation that God is cruel and apathetic toward us, what Jesus has to do with all this, why it is illogical to blame Christianity for the deeds of Christians and Christian institutions, how the world’s cultures have gotten so many confused views of God, why the bible can be trusted as true, and others.

Doctrinal Positions:

The focus of the book is on how to establish a justified, true belief system and its conclusions support the core tenets of Christianity as the one belief system that meets this definition.

The book supports and defends the following doctrinal positions.

1. Authority of scripture: The bible is the inerrant Word of God, and can be relied upon as true from the first word to the last when read in a natural way against the backdrop of the language and context.

2. Denominational point of view: The author was raised in a non-denominational protestant setting and has spent many years attending Baptist and Wesleyan churches. While the author’s viewpoint is consistent with evangelical protestant doctrine, the book does not criticize in any way the doctrinal beliefs of other protestant denominations, or the various Catholic traditions, although there is much frustration expressed with so-called liberal theology.

3. Faith vs. Reason: Salvation and justification are by God’s grace, through faith. Reason is important for establishing an intellectual framework in which faith becomes possible because it is seen to be rationally justified, but simply understanding that Christianity is the only rational world view does not save anyone.

4. The nature of God: Logically, a being exists who is the source of all things. This being, by logical inference, is both essential and pre-existent. Because He created all things after His pleasure, He is perfect by definition and the ultimate criterion against which all things are compared. This perfection expresses itself in holiness, goodness, judgment, omnipotence and omniscience. This one God, a trinity of persons, spoke into existence all that we know by the power of his will. God has a personality, because it is clear He chose to create for His pleasure and that He placed His crowning work, us, atop all that He made. Therefore He maintains a personal interest in us, and loves us perfectly, because it is His nature to do so.

5. The role of Christ: God, in the person of Jesus Christ, has answered the epic need of mankind for a way of reconciliation with his Creator. This need exists because of the entrance of sin into the world, with which a holy God cannot coexist. The just penalty of death was imposed by our Creator for this sin, but the cruel murder and resurrection of God Himself in human form has opened a conduit for reestablishing this relationship and removing the “sting” of death.

6. The History of the Earth and Mankind: The bible presents the narrative written history of the only Eyewitness of creation and the early history of man. A correct world view cannot be reached if this history is modified or denied.

The Works of

DONALD R. WILSON