Month: December 2019

The Bible has had a universal influence on mankind and all nations. Western civilization was founded on biblical principles. The Bible is the root of all western law. The United States itself was established as a Christian nation by our Bible-believing forefathers. The Bible has played an important role in the advancement of the world’s art, music, and literature. The world’s calendar and most of its holidays stem from the Bible.  The Bible has life-transforming power. Only the Bible has been able to change corrupt humanity. Millions of Christians testify that God, through His Word, has changed their lives for the better. In Scripture God says to taste Him to see if He is good. God says to test Him to see if He is faithful. Only our God says to come let us reason together.

All other religions require you to earn your way to heaven and you never know if you’ve done enough. With Christianity eternal life is a free gift from God for the asking and you never have to wonder if you’re going to heaven or not. All other religions say you can’t talk to God or get close to God but Christianity promises a loving personal relationship between you and God.  All those cold dead religions have one thing in common. They are all fake religions designed and sponsored by Satan to lead man away from the truth of the gospel and eternal life with the living God of heaven.  Since God cannot lie, when He tells the story of human history God is absolutely honest. The Bible is brutally honest about bad things done by good people and good things done by bad people. God presents our story accurately, warts and all.

The Bible is not a book that man could write if he would, or would write if he could.  First, man couldn’t have known all the facts contained in the Bible when it was written. Second, our human nature would prevent us from writing such a story because we are put in such a bad light much of the time. Who else but God would be honest enough to admit to a prostitute in the family tree (Rehab)?  When I read the Bible I don’t detect any of the BS or lying that would be present if a human being wrote it. The Bible contains facts, answers to life’s questions and wisdom on every subject in life. The Bible is alive, ever changing to meet our needs. God’s authorship of the Bible jumps out to me from every page. Can you see what I see?

The Bible is indestructible. The world will one day be destroyed by fire but God’s Word will stand forever. The Roman emperors tried to have every Bible destroyed but the number proliferated. Just about every Pope also opposed the reading and translating of the Bible because it lessened their importance in the eyes of believers, most of whom couldn’t read or write and therefore had to believe what they were told. In 1199 Pope Innocent III even ordered the burning od all Bibles to no avail.  Communist Russia and Stalin in particular tried unsuccessfully to eliminate Bibles from Russian life. China’s decades long push to discriminate against Christians and eliminate Bibles has also been futile. The more man tries to constrain the Bible the more amazing the circulation of the Bible becomes. In Scripture God says He will accomplish His purpose and that purpose is to give man access to God’s Word, the Holy Bible. Man’s futile attempt to thwart God’s will is like spitting into the wind.

Only one half of 1% of all books published survive seven years. 80% of all books are forgotten in one year. Most religious books disappear in short order but a person can walk into any bookstore in the world and buy a copy of the Christian Holy Bible. God will always ensure the availability of His Word for man because He cares for us and wants us all to be saved and that will be accomplished primarily through the Holy Bible.  No book in history has been copied as meticulously as the Bible. When scribes copied the Bible the slightest error meant the entire page had to be redone. Care was taken that not one comma or punctuation mark was omitted. The discovery of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls contained books of the Bible that were the same as we have today which proves God’s Word has not been altered by man over the centuries.  God is jealous of His Word and there is a warning in the Scriptures not to add or remove even one jot or tittle or face God’s judgement. The Bible says God’s eyes go to and fro across the earth looking for ways to fulfill His Word. If God says it then truth has been established and it will come to pass because whatever God says is Law and God cannot lie.

The Bible is prophetically accurate. I should have made this proof #1 since I’ve mentioned it several time already and it’s the most compelling evidence of God’s existence. The evidence bears repeating. The Bible is one third prophecy with over 1000 prophecies. Over 500 prophecies have been fulfilled with the rest awaiting their appointed time.  Only the true God knows how history will unfold because He wrote it. No other world religion has even fulfilled one prophecy. Bible prophecies are so specific and detailed they point directly to Jehovah so there is no excuse for unbelief.  There are 48 prophecies about Jesus Christ and I previously sent you a list of the 36 prophecies I find most compelling. These prophecies were documented in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament. The odds of one person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies and not being the Messiah is somewhere in the magnitude of 1 X 10 to the 17th power, which is a number so large I can’t get my head around it. Basically the number is so big its a certainty Jesus is the promised Son of God, God come to earth in the flesh.

Some prophecies about Jesus were very specific and these are the ones that grab my attention. Like being born in Bethlehem, a village of no more than 200 people. Like living in Nazareth, also a very small village of a few hundred people. Like being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver which happened. Like being crucified by having his hands and feet pierced which was such a cruel form of execution the Romans only used it for about 200 years before it was banned.  It was normal to break the legs of those crucified yet Scripture said the legs of Jesus would not be broken and they weren’t because Jesus was already dead when the Roman soldiers made their rounds. Prophecy said Jesus’ side would be pierced, which is also unusual, but it happened.

God said the Israelites would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years and they were there for 432 years. God said Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed and they were in 70 AD. God said the Israelites would be carried off to Babylon as slaves for 70 years and they were. God actually named the man to free His people as Cyrus which turned out to be King Cyrus of Persia.  Personally, I find this to be the most amazing prophecy in the entire Bible. What more must God do to convince man He is God? In Scripture God said He would disperse the Jewish people to the ends of the earth and regather them to the land God gave them in the end times. God reestablished Israel as a nation, as foretold, on May 14, 1948.

The Bible is scientifically accurate. Many times when the Bible authors were writing scripture under the influence of the Holy Spirit they didn’t have a clue what they were writing. They simply did as they were told or moved.  These writers wrote things that there was no way on earth they could have known. Things that weren’t known or discovered for thousands of years. Things which they couldn’t have known with their experiences and educational background. When I see these verses it’s like seeing God’s signature on His Word.  It may be easy now to see the accuracy of the Bible but you have to remember in ancient times the prevailing opinion many times was much different than what God’s Word said. Everyone thought the world was flat until the 1500’s and if you sailed out of sight of land you might fall off the earth. In Psalms it clearly says the earth is a sphere.

Everyone thought the earth rested on a giant turtle. Scripture says the earth hangs in space on nothing, which wasn’t confirmed for a couple thousand years. The Bible says the number of stars in the heavens is innumerable but in ancient times the consensus opinion was there were about 1200 stars which was about all they could see with the naked eye. With the invention of the telescope God was again proven correct.  I love the story of the guy who discovered the ocean currents. He was a believer who was convalescing from an illness and his son was reading the Bible to him. When he heard the verses about there being rivers in the sea and paths in the oceans he set about finding them based on his faith in God’s Word.  In ancient times the ocean bottoms were thought to be smooth like a bowl. Scripture said there were mountains and canyons on the sea floor which wasn’t verified until many centuries later. There are over 10,000 underwater volcanoes under the ocean that spew out fresh water. Scripture alludes to these fountains and springs under the sea.

The Holy Bible is the ultimate in wisdom literature and millions of lives could have been saved over the centuries if its precepts had been followed.  The Bible tells us the life of the flesh is in the blood yet until the mid-1800’s the major treatment for the sick was bloodletting, which only weakens the patient.  This practice is what killed George Washington.  When God gave the Law of Moses to the Israelites it included health and sanitation guidelines that included segregated latrines and isolating the sick.  Civilization in general and armies in particular lost millions of lives due to sickness and disease up through the U. S. Civil War because they didn’t apply God’s wisdom to their lives.

God requires all Jewish men to be circumcised when they are eight days old.  That is the day the level of blood clotting agent is highest in a person’s entire life.  There is a cancer causing bacteria that can be transmitted by uncircumcised males.  Science discovered this a couple thousand years later.  The Bible describes the hydrological cycle later confirmed by science.  In ancient times life was thought to self-generate from nothing while the Bible says all living things produce after their kind which we know to be true.  The left pushes the theory of evolution yet there is not one shred of evidence that shows any living species has evolved in any way whatsoever from the way God made them.  Not one.  None.

 

The Bible is historically accurate. For 2000 years scoffers have tried to debunk the Bible and failed miserably. No place mentioned in the Bible has ever been proven not to exist. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Archaeology has confirmed the Bible version of places numerous times.  Detractors said there was no such person as King David. This remained unproven until a few years ago when stones were unearthed referencing the house of David. The Bible mentioned the Hittites, a nation from modern day Turkey, and historians said no such people existed. Low and behold, excavations a few years ago discovered the remnants of the Hittite civilization.  Sodom and Gomorrah were said not to exist.  The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered and the cities were destroyed by fire as God said.  

Most famous of all was the biblical account of the walls of Jericho which God caused to fall all at once with a blast of the trumpet. Disbelievers said no way. I don’t know how they proved it but years ago excavation at the site proved the walls of Jericho fell all at once and outward.  If walls are collapsed in a siege they always fall inward and only in limited areas for entry and not the entire circumference of a big city and all at once. If an earthquake occurred, who caused the earthquake, and in such a way that only the entire wall was affected but not the structures inside the city? Obviously Jericho was a divine occurrence, not only by the evidence but by the declaration of God Himself.  Unbelievers thought if they could prove just one thing false in the Bible they could claim the entire Bible is a fable. 

For 2000 years they hung their hat on the fact the Bible mentions Israel prominently in end time events and Israel didn’t exist.  That was true until May 14, 1948, when Israel was reborn as a nation in a single day, as foretold in prophecy.  No nation in history has ever done that before or since.  There are at least 18 prophecies about Israel that have been fulfilled and documented.  Over 500 Bible prophecies have been fulfilled and documented as historical fact.  No Bible prophecy has failed to be fulfilled in its due time which is a 100% success rate.  Therefore, we have confidence that the rest of the Bible prophecies will also come to pass.  No rational person can examine the facts and conclude anything other than the obvious, the Holy Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God.   

The unity of the Bible is amazing. The 66 books of the Bible were written over a period of about 1500 years. It’s possible the book of Job could be much older, maybe as old as 2600 BC. The Bible’s 40 authors ranged from scholars like Paul to illiterate fishermen like Peter and John. Writers included prophets, kings, priests and simple farmers.  The commonality between all the writers is that they wrote their particular book or books as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God so that the text reflected the personality of the writer but also said exactly what God wanted said.  You don’t get a sense of the Bible’s unity until you read the entire Bible like I have (three times). People from different backgrounds, education and life experiences wrote in such a manner that when compiled together reads like there is a single author (there is!).

Every book of the Bible is woven with the story of God’s love for man, His special creation, and His salvation plan for us through the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from a sin-filled world. The entire Bible makes it clear our ultimate destiny is heaven where we will enjoy fellowship with God for eternity.  Most of these writers of the Bible had no knowledge of what others had written yet amazingly they never walked over each other or contradicted each other. In addition to the consistent message, the scriptural cross-references are without error.  This would be impossible for a single human author let alone 40 authors over a span of 1500 years.  In the New Testament alone there are hundreds of scriptural references to the Old Testament.  The books of Luke and Acts were written by a Gentile physician with no knowledge of the Law of Moses yet his text is flawless.  

The Bible is one third prophecy.  People don’t know what will happen in the future and if they’re writing prophecy it’s coming to them from God, the author of history.  All of the writers freely admitted they were writing as God directed.  God gave us prophecy so that we would know what is to come but also to prove that He is God and there is no other.  The Bible contains over 1000 prophecies, 500 of which have been fulfilled and the rest are awaiting their due time.  Not one single prophecy of any other religion has even been fulfilled.  It can’t, because they are all fake attempts by Satan to divert man from the truth of the gospel message.  The only logical conclusion is God Himself is the author of the Holy Bible, God’s Word.  Not only do I know this to be true by the evidence I know it to be true in my spirit as confirmed by the Holy Spirit that dwells within me.    

 

If you had a nuclear bomb in your house I think you’d know where it was at all times. You’d think about it often and look upon it with fear, knowing the awesome power could be unleashed at any moment. I think you’d be very respectful of it and careful who touched it.  The Holy Bible, God’s Word, is the most powerful instrument on earth and deserves the same kind of awe and respect. Think of it as a spiritual nuclear bomb able to condemn souls to hell forever or to save souls to heaven for eternity.  I think about all the times growing up I dismissed the Bible as just another book I ought to read someday. As an adult your life gets complicated and most of us never get around to reading God’s revelation to man. I didn’t get around to reading the entire Bible until I was in my 50’s. I missed so much! I lost so much time!

Unbelievers haven’t read the Bible or they would be believers. When someone tells me they don’t believe the Bible was written by God I know they haven’t read it. They are making an assumption or going on what someone else has told them.  You can’t read the Bible all the way through without the Holy Spirit communing with your spirit and verifying the Bible is God’s Word.  It’s impossible, if you have an open mind.  For  2-3% of Bible readers it could take a second reading to convince them if they have an agenda before starting.  Only 10% of Christians who attend church regularly have read their Bible in its entirety.  Fewer still actually engage in personal Bible study.  What does that say about non-Christians who don’t go to church?  Not one person in a hundred out there on the street actually has a good working knowledge of God’s Word.  The most important thing we can know and the source of all wisdom and nobody knows it.

What can we do?  Start now and read the entire New Testament and then start on the Old Testament.  Read your Bible daily.  See that your family does the same.  Attend church as a family and discuss the Bible.  Teach your children and grandchildren to pray.  If you don’t do it who will?  If you don’t the secular world’s education system will turn your kids into liberal atheists by the time they graduate college.  Never forget Satan is the god of this world and opposes God’s Word at every turn.  The younger generation, for the most part,  does not honor God as their fathers did.  God is Spirit and must be worshiped in spirit.  We must believe that God is, and that God rewards those who believe in Him with eternal life.  People have a tendency to believe only what they can see.  When you witness to people you can start with the Bible, something they can see, touch and read.  There is compelling evidence about the Bible that should convince any logical person that God is the author.  Learn the truth yourself and be ready to share the “good news”.

Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried.  On the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus died in our place and accepted the wrath of God for the sins of all men, past, present and future.

1 Peter 3:18 – (Jesus died to bring man to God) – For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

Romans 3:23 – (all have sinned and all are saved by faith) – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

By His grace God has provided a way of salvation for man at great cost to Himself because He loves us.  But you must believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, was crucified and raised from the dead by God and now sits at the right hand of God in heaven.  You must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, repent of your sins, and commit your life to Jesus.

Romans 10:9 – (confession) – That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Mark 1:15 – (Jesus declares the good news) – The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent, and believe in the gospel.

John 10:10 – (Jesus has come to give life) – The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

John 1:12 – (those who receive Jesus become children of God) – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

I believe we are put on this earth to seek out God, find His salvation, and live out our lives witnessing and emulating Christ to the glory of our Father in heaven.

Micah 6:8 – (do right, love mercy and walk humbly with God) – He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Galatians 6:7 – (whatever a man sows, that will he also reap) – Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap.

Ephesians 2:10 – (God prepared good works for us to do) – For we are all His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

If you know these basic facts and memorize these few verses you’ll be able to witness to anyone at any time.  God will lead unsaved people across your path so you can help them.  The Holy Bible is the unerring Word of God.  When you read the Bible God is speaking to you and when you pray you are speaking to God.  God created the heavens and the earth.  God created Adam and Eve for fellowship and placed them in the garden of Eden.  God gave Adam dominion over the earth.  Adam and Eve sinned when they disobeyed God and they were expelled from Eden because God is holy and cannot tolerate sin.  Through Adam all men are born with a sin nature that separates them from the loving God who made them.

Genesis 2:7 – (God made man) – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 

Isaiah 59:2 – ( all men are sinners) – But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

God knew the end from the beginning so He knew man would fall.  God had a salvation plan from the beginning.  In God’s economy there can be no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.  The only one worthy of sacrifice was God Himself so He came to earth as Jesus Christ and died on the cross to remove our sins so man could restored fellowship with his maker and once again approach the throne of grace.  There is only one God.  The triune Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and they are co-equal and co-eternal.   All are separate and all are God.  If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came down from heaven and died on the cross for your sins and you’ve put your faith in Him as your Lord and Savior your sins have been forgiven and you have eternal life.

John 3:16 – (God gave His Son) – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 6:23 – (God’s free gift is eternal life) – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 – (God loves you) – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God knows you’re weak, after all, He made you.  God does not expect you to witness, emulate Christ or contend with the devil all by yourself.  You can’t unless God guides you and gives you the power to serve Him.  Devote yourself to personal study and the Holy Spirit will give you the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of God’s Word.  The fallen angels are much more powerful than we are but they are no match for God.  Let the Holy Spirit grow your spiritual maturity  and strengthen you in order to prevail against the powers of darkness.  In addition to reading your Bible, pray continually to the Father and most important of all, take every opportunity to witness, witness, witness!

INDWELT HOLY SPIRIT:

Prov. 11:30 – The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Prov. 14:25 – A true witness delivers souls.

Jas. 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Ps. 119:104 – Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Jer. 24:7 – Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.