Isa 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Now the skeptic chimes in:

You said God spoke to me, but I don't hear his voice.

You said that the Son testified, but I don't get it.

You said the Holy Spirit makes it make sense, but it's still gibberish.

And you say that Jesus testified in the flesh, but I wasn't there.

So how am I supposed to know?

Typically the answer is: You just have to believe, then you will know. I don't buy that answer either! Sometimes the answer is: Look at all the miracles! But the miracles werre not intended to persuade non-believers. Not even Jesus's teaching was intended to do that. ^[1]

Lets pretend that there is an ancient tree, and inside that tree, at the core, there is a jar totally encased by the tree. There is no sign of any kind, no matter what technology is used to observe it, that the jar got there by any means than the tree growing around it. Inside the tree a giant crossword puzzle. To solve it required knowledge of current events. Furthermore, all the riddles used metaphor that only came into existence recently, long after the jar was encapsulated.

The atheist says: The jar simply does not exist, so I refuse to look at it.

The agnostic says: I don't know what a possible solution to the issue is, so I don't care to look at it.

The true skeptic looks at it with an open mind; examining the evidence.

Are the observations true and reproducible?

What possible solutions exist?

Is there evidence that rules out all possibilities but one?

1. ↑ Mt 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and [their] ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and should understand with [their] heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.