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The Bible is True
How to Talk to Non-Christians about Jesus Christ “Jesus went about all the cities and the villages ... preaching the gospel of the kingdom {1} (Matthew 9:35). Many non-Christians may first need to convince themselves that the Bible is true. Then they can begin to understand Jesus’ sacrifice and the restoration to follow for the whole world. A Supreme Being Science is witness that there must have been an intelligent Creator:
Compare
the probability of life coming into existence by random chance with the number
of events that have ever occurred in the history of the universe. The maximum
possible number of reactions in the history of the universe {2}
is
nearly 10141. The Instruction Manual If God has taken billions of years to form the earth and make it habitable for human life, it should come as no surprise that He has given us an instruction book — the Bible. In Genesis the Bible alone (among many professedly-holy books) gives a credible account of Earth’s preparation for man — one that is consistent with both atmospheric physics and ecology.{4} (How would Moses, the writer of Genesis, have known enough about physical chemistry and ecology, unless God had told him what He had done?) Science Plays Catch-up More than 3000 years before the “space age” Job knew the Earth to be suspended in space: God “hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7).
Just a
short time ago, historically speaking, Galileo explained the hydrologic cycle
that provides the water purification so necessary to sustain earthly creation.
Old Testament writers knew of this cycle long before Galileo: “ he that calleth
for the waters of the sea, and poureth
them out upon the face of the earth; Jehovah is his name” (Amos 9:6).
In the 1920’s Albert Einstein and the world’s other prominent cosmologists agreed that the universe had no beginning, in direct contradiction to Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens.” But since World War II each of their hypotheses has fallen to new measurements, and general relativity now implies a “Big Bang” beginning, vindicating the Bible. Archaeology Testifies Archaeology presents us an opportunity to verify or falsify the Biblical accounts of history. Biblical archaeology was started by Flinders Petrie and others who sought to prove Biblical places and people never existed and that the events never happened. Instead, archaeologists have discovered Shechem, Samaria, Babylon, Ur and many more; also records of kings David, Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar and numerous others. In detail, see Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. The Law was Fair The Law of Moses shares several equitable features with known ancient law codes, those of Ur-Nammu, Eshnunna, and Hammurabi. However, only the Law of Moses is no respecter of persons: “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor ... Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the sojourner, as for the home-born: for I am Jehovah your God” (Leviticus 19:15, 24:22). So fair and just was it, that David said, “Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). In the Law, Moses also prophesied, “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken “ (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). “That prophet” is to be the Messiah (the Anointed, the Christ), the son of David, and the Messenger of the Covenant. The Apostle Peter identified Jesus Christ as that “prophet” (Acts 3:22). (Forty years after Jesus began his ministry the Temple and its genealogies were destroyed. Since then, no one else can trace his ancestry back to David in order to claim to be the Messiah.) The Beginning of Death Would an intelligent Creator be expected to create beings for failure or for success? But He might let people first experience wrongdoing and failure in order to fully desire only what is right. The Bible records that the first humans, Adam and Eve, were created perfect. They could live forever as long as they avoided one kind of fruit. But a mighty angel became proud and tricked Eve into eating the forbidden fruit (and she in turn persuaded Adam, against his conscience). The dying process was set in motion (although in those days it took many centuries to complete it). We all have been dying ever since (Genesis 2:16-3:24, Romans 5:12). But when someone is dead, he cannot benefit from the lesson he has learned from sin and death (Isaiah 38:18). Yet God has promised a solution: Bring people back from the dead. Teach them what is just and right. Let them see how much happier they are. Then those who are willing can do what is right because they want to, and not because they are afraid of what happens if they do not (Revelation 22:17). Jesus Christ
Someone may ask, Could God threaten death and then change His mind? Is He
inconsistent? No. Paul answers, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When
Adam sinned, he brought death upon himself and upon all who came from him — as
we all observe. But God could justly accept a perfect man who willingly
substitutes himself in death for Adam, and hence for all of Adam’s descendants.
To be a substitute for Adam, Jesus needed to be descended from Adam, and yet be sinless. Jesus’ father was God, and his mother Mary was descended from Adam. From his mother Jesus received his nature — human. Jesus inherited his rights from his Father; so he was born perfect — sinless. Jesus was “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26).
Jesus’ enemies felt the need to have two sets of accusations against him: To the
Romans he was accused of making himself a king (which would have made him
popular with the Jewish common people) and liable to be executed. To the Jews he
was accused of being a sorcerer (because of the healing miracles) and an
apostate (siding not with Sadducees nor Pharisees); both would be death-penalty
sins under the Mosaic Law (but neither was a crime under Roman law). The Talmud
further says, “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged” (Sanhedrin, vi,
43a), which agrees with the four Gospels. See also John 19.
The testimony is received by the faithful in the present age, and will be borne
to the whole rest of the world in the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ. That
Kingdom will be a time of remedial learning of righteousness for the whole
world, under the rulership of the Christ. The End of Death The Logos (“Word”) was a mighty spirit being, who worked with God in the creation of the universe, Earth and all its life. Then God made the Logos flesh (and named him “Jesus” — “Jehovah is salvation”) to give himself for his creation. And then God raised him from the dead to the highest nature in the universe, second only to God Himself. (This progression of Jesus was foreshadowed by the experiences of Joseph in Egypt: 1, under Potiphar, rising in authority; 2, in the King’s Prison, rising in authority and interpreting dreams; and 3, made number two ruler in all the land to save life.)
“The last enemy that shall be abolished is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Jesus
said, “I have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18
KJV);
that is, he will empty death and hell. Jesus Christ is the world’s savior (1 John 2:2). Christ’s thousand-year kingdom will give a remedial education to the world’s billions. Those who have died since Adam will be back. Then they will do what is right because they want to. Death will be history; life will be forever. Is it too good to be true? It is too good not to be true! __________ (1) Quotations are from the American Standard Version (ASV, 1901) except where otherwise noted. (2) Based on nearly 1080 atoms in the universe; an age of the universe of 13.8 (±0.8%) billion years (4.34 x 1017 seconds); and the Planck time, 0.5391 x 10-43 second (the minimum time for any action to occur). Here, (1080 x 4.34 x 1017 / 0.5391 x 10-43 =) 10140.9 actions. (3) Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell, New York: Harper-Collins, 2009, Chapters 9 and 10. This probability is further diminished by the chances that they would all occur in the same place at the same time, that they would not be neutralized by reactions with non-functional compounds, and that they would somehow organize themselves into a living cell. (4) E.g., see Creation, 3rd edition, East Rutherford, NJ: Dawn Publishers, 2011. (5) By analogy, the faithful church, the Bride of Christ, may be thought of as the mother of the children of the resurrection.6 7 July / August 2012
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