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CHAPTER 13
ONE
CANDIDATE
If God indelibly stamped the
Bible with accurate and explicitly detailed predictions of the
future, then we have certainly been summoned. Our initial
analogy began by comparing an examination of Christ's badge of
authority, the Bible, to the practice of checking the credentials of
anyone claiming lawful authority. If we validate a police
officer's claim to authority and then proceed to defy him, we have
placed ourselves in a tenuous position. The same can be said
about our position with God. If He provides effective
confirmation for Christ's authority through prophetic scripture and
we deny Christ, we have proven ourselves to be the ultimate fools as
the consequence of resistance, eternal damnation, is spelled out in
the very manuscript we have just finished authenticating.
Many who reject the authority of
Christ do so with the same mind-set adopted by Rodney King as he
challenged the Los Angeles Police Department in the mid 1990’s.
Although there should have been no doubt in Mr. King’s mind that he
was dealing with an agency possessing official authority over him in
matters of criminal law, he apparently chose to resist arrest
because he thought the police officers arresting him were unfair in
the way they were administering their authority. Public
opinion was certainly on his side as a clandestine home video showed
officers beating him with night-sticks. He ultimately sued the City
of Los Angeles and received a large financial settlement.
The point of all this is that any
debate as to the relative fairness or unfairness of how a lawful
authoritative agency administers their authority is irrelevant
regarding the actual validity of the authority in question, a
separate issue altogether. In Mr. King’s case, in a federal
court of law, a legal debate ensued regarding the policies of
specific officers within the L.A. Police Department as they
exercised their legal authority. An agreement was reached by a
judge who heard arguments presented by both sides. He decided that
the department’s authority was unfairly and, in fact, illegally
administered, but his decision in no way rescinded or negated the
department’s publicly sanctioned authority over Rodney King, or
anyone else within its jurisdiction. Rodney King gained first hand
knowledge of this principal as, years later, he was arrested, jailed
and fined for drunk driving by the very same agency that had been
censured earlier for the conduct of some of its officers.
The same principal applies to all of
us. It may seem righteous and appropriate to resist authority
if those exercising power are abusing their position of power, even
if that authority is backed by the proper credentials. But, as
in Mr. King's case, the law remains in tact. Any actual
violation of the law will probably result in an indictment and
punishment is sure to result, regardless of whether or not certain
members of the police force are abusing their status.
Similarly, one may strongly maintain that the administration of
justice as described in the Bible is unfair, that hell is far to
severe a punishment for sin, and may even convince others to agree,
but if the Bible is a truthful document, one’s opinion as to how
God’s authority is administered is irrelevant, unless one is
prepared to overthrow the Creator. According to the Bible, God has
given all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus Christ.
Throughout history that authority has certainly been abused by some
of His so-called emissaries, false prophets and self-serving
priests, but that has no bearing on its validity. Let's take a look
at the one characteristic of the Bible, prophecy, that
overwhelmingly declares its authenticity as valid credentials for
Christ’s authority.
There are four categories of
prophecy that stand out. In the 20th century we have the
luxury of being able to look back on the panorama of history and see
their fulfillment. They are:
1. Predictions
in the Old Testament about a Messiah and the fulfillment of those
prophecies in the person of one man.
2. Predictions
regarding the nation of Israel from the time of Moses until the
present.
3. Predictions
about the worldwide spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
4. Predictions
about a specific time period close to the end of human history,
recognizable by the confluence of a large and varied number of
indicators or signs.
Prior to examining these prophetic
categories separately, reflect on the following broad picture
painted by the Old and New Testament prophets. What is the
likelihood that these forecasts would occur coincidentally?
Men from an obscure Semitic band of
nomads, wandering a desert wilderness approximately the size of
Massachusetts 3500 years ago began to write prophetic words.
They said they had been chosen by the Creator of the universe to be
the people through whom He would reveal Himself. They
predicted that He would ultimately do this through a messiah, a man
with divine qualities, who would be born into one of their families,
in one of their cities, and would present Himself as their savior
and of mankind in general. The messiah would appear at a
specific time and place. They predicted He would offer truth
and healing but would be rejected, executed and subsequently
preached about to the entire world. They said a segment of
people from every nation and tongue on the planet would then worship
Him.
They also predicted their own history, documenting their capture and
domination by four successive empires. They described the loss
of their homeland twice, the complete and total destruction of their
temple and their ultimate dispersion to the four corners of the
earth. Continuing, they anticipated that they would not lose
their ethnicity, religion or national identity and that ultimately
they would be restored to their original homeland and gain control
of Jerusalem.
If thousands of years of
history had not unfolded exactly as those ancient prophets had
predicted, we might laugh their writings off as the product of an
arrogant, pretentious band of religious fanatics. But how do
we handle the reality that what they recorded has occurred exactly
as described? The rational decision would be to believe what
the Bible says about the forecasts, that they were inspired by a
Creator who either controls history or occupies all of time at once.
In either case, it would be rather foolhardy to challenge the
authority of a being with that type of power.
Meditate for a moment on the
likelihood that ancient prophets would specifically predict and
describe the appearance of a single individual from within their own
ethnic group who would have a tremendous impact on world history and
that it would come to pass; and that they would also accurately
forecast their own future within the same manuscript. They were no
more inherently qualified to do this than the Aztecs, the
Phoenicians, Mongols, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Greeks, Saracens,
Vikings, South Sea Islanders, Eskimos, Sioux Indians, Watusis, or
any other ethnic group. There are no other writings even
remotely similar. They told us how they were doing it, through
divine revelation, and time has justified their claims. Is it
any wonder the Bible says there are no valid excuses for rejecting
its claims?
They said
the beginning of the time period signaling the end of history, as we
know, it would be highlighted by their national
restoration. This period would include other
recognizable signs as well. Those signs are:
1. A movement
towards a world economy, world religion and world government, and
man would be in danger of destroying himself.
2. Wars,
plagues and famines appearing as birth pangs, in other words with
greater frequency and intensity as the end draws near.
3. There would
appear, also with increasing frequency, cultic false prophets
claiming to be the messiah who would gain many followers.
4. The message
of the Savior would be preached to all nations and tongues as a
final sign of the end.
All these things have begun to
occur, at least partially, and are quickly moving towards complete
fulfillment. Is it coincidence that these signs have been
dramatically manifested during the same century that Israel has been
restored as a nation? It is our generation that is seeing the
final move towards a world, which through modern computer
technology, can unite governments, economies and even spiritual
movements like "mother earth" environmentalism. We are the
ones witnessing the world-wide proclamation of the gospel through
the mediums of television, radio, tapes and mass printing. We
see numerous plagues, famines, wars and false messiahs. These
things have been intensifying exponentially since 1948, when the
Jews regained the national status their prophets said they
would. The stage is set for the final curtain of biblical
prophecy to be drawn. Jesus Christ put it this way.
"Even so, when you see all these
things, you know it is near, right at the door. I tell you the
truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things
have happened." Matthew 24:33-34
Handicappers predict winners of
horse races that are scheduled for the next day. Over the
course of time they establish a track record, which represents their
accuracy level. Professional gamblers analyze the
handicapper's predictions prior to betting on a race. Imagine
a gambler calculating the wisdom of betting that the biblical
predictions remaining unfulfilled will also come to pass. He
would analyze biblical prophets the same way he would a
handicapper. He would take into account their track record and
based on that, he would wager something on the predictions in the
Bible. Based on the track record displayed by biblical
prophets, he would likely bet his entire bankroll.
God, speaking here through the prophet Isaiah, issues a challenge to
anyone who thinks they, or the object of their worship, can predict
the future. This challenge is issued to reinforce the obvious,
that an accurate record of prognostication is evidence of
supernatural influence.
"And who is like Me?" Let him proclaim and declare it;
Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I
established the ancient nation. And let him declare to them
the things that are coming and the events that are going to take
place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long
since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My
witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, or is there any other
Rock? I know of none." Isa.44:7-8.
There have been a large number of books written on the subject of
prophecy and those resulting from detailed research and offering a
thorough treatment of the subject are only able to cover a specific
area of prophecy. For example, an in depth analysis of
messianic prophecy would necessitate an entire volume, at
least. The same can be said for eschatology, that is end times
prophecy, or Jewish historical prophecy. The subject contains far
too much information to be settled properly here but we will offer
some scriptures as an example of what can be discovered by a
detailed inquiry.
The last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, was completed 400 years
prior to the birth of Christ. From about 1450 BC, when Moses
wrote the first 5 books of the Bible, until Malachi, the Jewish
prophets recorded numerous distinct prophecies about their coming
messiah. As we look at just a few of the predictions about Jesus
Christ, weigh the odds of predicting the birthplace, family name,
date of inauguration, platform and cause of death of a president of
the United States in the 24th century. Without a great deal of
reflection, common sense tells us that there would be no chance of
success, yet that is exactly what the Jews accomplished in the Old
Testament with their prophecies about the life of their messiah, who
as it turns out could be none other than Jesus Christ.
Four decades ago Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College,
Peter Stoner, calculated the odds of one man fulfilling eight of the
major prophecies regarding the messiah. He submitted his
figures to the Committee of the American Scientific Affiliation and
they were accepted as conservative. The odds of those eight
prophecies being fulfilled in the life of any one man are
staggering. They were calculated to be 1 in 10 to the 17th
power. Professor Stoner used the following illustration in
providing a sense of perspective to that number.
If the entire state of Texas
were covered with silver dollars two feet deep and one coin was
painted red, the odds under discussion would be fulfilled if a blind
man then wandered the state at his own pace, stuck in his fist and
managed to come up with the red coin on his first try.
The above analogy represents one
chance in 10 to the 17th power. The odds were also calculated
for 45 specific prophecies and the figure is 1 in 10 to the 157th
power, a number truly beyond our limits of comprehension.
Using a similar illustration, consider the universe. It is 16
billion light years in diameter. It would be completely
crammed with electrons if there were 10 to the 157th of them
available, which there are not, as there are only 10 to the 80th
fundamental particles in the entire cosmos. This time we would send
a man out in a spacecraft, have him stop in a solar system of his
choice, scoop up some matter and observe it through a super
microscope. What are his odds of pin-pointing the red
electron? Would anyone bet on his success?
Those are the odds against us if we
choose to believe that Jesus Christ coincidentally fulfilled the
prophecies about Him in the Bible. In the late Barton Payne’s
monumental catalogue of Biblical prophecy, he cited 122 Old
Testament predictions about Christ, not counting typological
prophecy. Following are several of those messianic
prophecies.
1. "The
scepter shall not depart from Judah...Until Shilow (Messiah) comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people." Genesis
49:10
Every prophecy
regarding Jesus Christ eliminates certain segments of people who can
not fulfill that particular prophecy. By the time we look at
just a few, every human being on the face of the earth will have
been eliminated. But there are scores upon scores of messianic
predictions, which is why the odds of finding someone to fulfill
them is so astronomically low. It is far more likely that no
one would meet all the requirements of these prophecies. Jesus
Christ met them all, however, which is why their fulfillment means
first, that He is the one predicted and second, the predictions
could only have originated with God.
The above prophecy indicates that He
will come from the tribe of Judah. That eliminates every
candidate on the planet except those descendents of one Jewish
tribal founder, Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob.
2. "And it
shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with
your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of
your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me
a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be
his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy
away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. And I
will establish him in my House and in My kingdom forever; and his
throne shall be established forever." According to all these
words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to
David."
1
Chronicles 17:11-15
From this messianic prophecy, we
know He will be a direct descendent of King David, a Jewish
conqueror living around the 10th century B.C. David was of the tribe
of Judah but the field just narrowed considerably.
3. "The Lord
your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst,
from your brethren..." Deuteronomy 18:15
This prophecy was offered by
Moses. Christ must be a prophet, and a prophet like Moses, one
who would present the Law of God and be a deliverer. Christ did
both, fulfilling the typology of Moses in a more complete and
substantial manner. He summarized the Ten Commandments by
presenting the ultimate law of God, that is to love your God and
your neighbor, and He became a deliverer for the entire human race,
not just the Jews. Today, all the major religions consider Jesus
Christ to be a great prophet and even skeptics refer to him as a
“religious prophet” from antiquity.
4. "For dogs
have surrounded Me; the assembly of the wicked has enclosed
me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My
bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My
garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Psalm
22:16-18l
This prophecy is
taken from the 22nd Psalm. One of the things Jesus is reported to
have said while hanging on the cross is, “My God, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?”, which is the first verse of the 22nd
Psalm. Although skeptics have asked why the supposed Son of
God would make such an utterance, it becomes clear why after reading
the psalm in its entirety. The verse quoted above is just the
beginning of an absolutely astounding treatise by King David because
it describes explicitly, from the perspective of someone actually
enduring such a tortuous episode, what it must feel like to be
crucified. This is the prophecy Christ was pointing to as he
fulfilled it with his infamous declaration. What makes this prophecy
even more fascinating is that David had no way of knowing about
crucifixion as a means of execution because it was not being
practiced at the time he wrote it. So now we must find a
prophet greater than Moses who is a direct descendant of King David
who is publicly vilified while looking down in agony on men who have
pierced his hands and feet.
5. "For you
shall not leave my soul in hell, Nor will you allow your Holy One to
see corruption." Psalm 16:10
This particular
prophecy adds yet another extremely unique qualification for the
predicted messiah. He must not only be a man who dies by the
method described in Psalm 22, but he must then defeat the grave,
body and soul. That effectively narrows it down to one person in
human history. Only Jesus Christ, because His resurrection is
a fully documented historical event exceeding all of the
requirements of historical investigation, can be considered.
So if a man fulfills a myriad of specific predictions about his life
and death and as a grand finale is the prime participant in the most
stupendous miracle ever reported, to the extent that not one shred
of evidence can ever be produced to refute it, then that man is,
most assuredly, someone to be taken very seriously.
It should also be pointed out that
anyone investigating messianic prophecy, if they have an honest
desire for the truth, will ask themselves the question as to whether
these scriptures were considered to be messianic predictions by the
Jews, the original caretakers of the writings in which they
appear. Skeptics have certainly asked that question and
generally accuse Christians of falsely labeling distinct prophecies
as messianic in order to support their theology. But very old
rabbinical writings indicate otherwise. The Mishna, the Midrash and
the Targums are ancient rabbinical commentaries on the Old Testament
in which numerous analyses of the very scripture verses presented
above attest to the prevailing view that these scriptures were
indeed messianic, meaning that they were believed by orthodox Jews
to be descriptions and predictions of one who would usher in the
Kingdom of God on earth. An exhaustive analysis of these ancient
Jewish beliefs was documented by Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish Hebrew
Scholar living in the 19th century, who converted to
Christianity. His book, The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah, recognized as a superior scholarly effort in the highly
critical world of biblical scholarship, documents this phenomenon at
length and in detail.
Unknowledgeable skeptics often claim
that scriptures that Christians say are predictions of the messiah
are falsely interpreted to support the Christian theological
position. They say that the scriptures in question are
actually speaking of some other historical personage or the nation
of Israel. But Alfred Edersheim and many others, through
legitimate and comprehensive biblical scholarship, have demonstrated
that charge to be prejudicial.
Following is a quote from the 53rd
chapter of Isaiah, considered by many ancient rabbis to be messianic
and only interpreted otherwise by Jews since the 11th century, by
which time a severe theological, hence political, schism between
Jews and Christians had developed. From then on scriptures
that had historically been accepted as messianic were translated
differently by many Jewish rabbis. In this case, Isaiah 53,
the one being spoken of is said to be the nation of Israel, which
severely stretches any honest reading of the entire
chapter.
6. He was
oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off (killed) from the land of the living; For the
transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His
grave with the wicked-but with the rich at His death, because He had
done no violence, nor was deceit in His mouth." Isaiah
53:7-9
Three hundred years after most of
the psalms were penned, Isaiah followed up on David's predictions
and described the unique circumstances surrounding Christ's
crucifixion. Above, the messiah is described as being resigned
to His death, as being a truthful, non-violent person and one who
willingly died for the sins of mankind.
7. "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you
shall come forth to Me The One to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings
forth have been from of old, From everlasting."
Micah
5:2
His place of birth, the town of
Bethlehem, was predicted by the prophet Micah.
8. "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way
before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His
temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you
delight... Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of
hosts." Malachi 3:1
This prophecy is in the last book of
the Old Testament and was written about 400 years before Christ came
to His temple in Jerusalem. So far the prophets have predicted
His birthplace, family name, platform and cause of death. The
date of his inauguration is next.
In the
next prophecy, given around 540 BC, Daniel predicted that after the
messiah was killed, Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed,
which it was by the Emperor Titus of Rome in 70 AD. Daniel's
prophecy eliminated all of humanity born after that date.
(Malachi's prophecy places the messiah's appearance in a 400 year
window of time between Malachi and the destruction of the temple by
Titus.) But Daniel's prophecy has other characteristics that
make it far more noteworthy. It actually qualifies as
one of the most amazing prophecies ever written. It virtually
eliminates every candidate for messiah on earth except the
celebrated carpenter from Bethlehem.
"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people (the Jews) and for your holy city, (Jerusalem) To
finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make
reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
(messiah) Know therefore and understand, That from the going
forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah
the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The
street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome
times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off,
but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come
(Emperor Titus of Rome) Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
(Temple) The end of it shall be with a flood, (the word here
translated flood is used only twice in the Bible, both times in
Daniel, and does not mean a deluge of water. It means an
overflowing of anything, and is referring to the overwhelming
legions of Titus.) And till the end of the war desolations are
determined.." Daniel 9:24-27
The 62 weeks and 7 weeks Daniel is
referring to are weeks of years. (The word translated weeks actually
means units of seven in Hebrew and the context demands that it be
years) They add up to 483. (7+62) x 7 = 483.
Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as the messiah
exactly 483 years from the time Artaxerxes issued an edict to
rebuild Jerusalem in 444 BC. The Jewish year contained only
360 days so, 483 x 360 = 173,880/365 = 476 - 444 = 32. Between
1BC and 1AD only one year passed, not two, so if we add that year to
our figure of 32, we arrive at the very year historians think Jesus
was crucified...33AD. The mathematics and chronology on this
prediction are available in any unbiased commentary on the Book of
Daniel.
The Book of Daniel, because it also
has many other accurate historical predictions, has been severely
attacked by those who deny that miracles, such as predictive
prophecy, can occur. The book predicts the rise and fall of
four empires and specific events in their history, so skeptics
unjustly say it was written after the events. But even they
realize the Book of Daniel was accepted into the Jewish Holy
Scriptures long before the time of Christ because it is part of the
Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament completed
around 200 BC. So the messianic prophecy cited above can not
be denied.
This prophecy defies human
explanations. It is so extraordinary skeptics generally try to
ignore it. When linked to other messianic prophecies it
becomes conclusive evidence that Jesus Christ is the messiah
predicted in the Old Testament. No other person could possibly
qualify and that a qualifier even exists is a miracle.
We see
the messiah must be a prophet at least equal in stature to Moses, be
a direct descendent of David and be born in Bethlehem. He must
appear at the temple in Jerusalem 483 years after a specific edict
is issued and be a non-violent person who claims to die for the sins
of humanity. He must have His hands and feet pierced, be
killed undeservedly and have His clothes gambled for. He must
appear to be resigned to his death and must not suffer decay in the
grave. Case closed. Humanity hasn't produced
anyone meeting those requirements except Jesus Christ. He
meets them all explicitly.
Some skeptics say Jesus Christ
arranged His life in order to fulfill the Messianic
predictions. In one sense they are absolutely correct.
Jesus Christ, the living Word and a perfect fulfillment of the
written Word, is according to the Bible, God incarnate in the
flesh.
"And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the father, full of grace and truth". John
1:14
He arranged His first appearance
from eternity past and completed that appearance according to the
descriptions His inspired prophets recorded. He initiated the
plan and carried it out. Fulfillment of the prophecies would
have been impossible for a mere man to arrange however. How
could a man arrange the place of His birth, the family from which he
would be born and a specific type of execution at a given time and
place? But for the sake of argument, let's say He bribed
everyone in the town of Bethlehem to go along with His ploy.
After that He influenced the official scribes, who kept meticulous
records of Jewish family lineage, to also keep His secret. He
then convinced the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman Governor,
who despised each other, to conspire, fake a public trial and
crucify Him. Not only is this idea preposterous, it means the
entire world honors a suicidal “confidence-man”, a fraud, as wise
and good. But even if all that were true, it still fails to
explain how He managed to orchestrate being placed in a position of
reverence by millions of believers centuries in the future. If
someone says He arranged the events of His life, they're saying a
lunatic predicted that His message would be preached and believed
globally and that it happened. (Mathew 24)
Other skeptics say the apostles
purposely fabricated accounts about Him in order to make them
conform to Old Testament prophecies. Something like that is
easy to say in an off-handed way but upon closer examination it is
absurd and irrational. If the apostles had tried to falsify
testimony about the life of Jesus, they picked the wrong time and
place to do it. They were preaching Jesus as the messiah, in
Jerusalem, within weeks of His execution, to hostile Jews who knew
as much about Him and His ministry as His followers. In fact,
He was eliminated because He had become so well known. He had
gathered such a large following that He represented a threat to the
existing power structure. If the details of His life had been
inaccurately portrayed, those hostile to the apostles would have
brought this to light immediately. Never was an argument
raised as to the facts of Jesus life - only His claims to divinity.
Besides, the writers of the New
Testament dedicated their lives and subsequently died for their
public statements that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the Old
Testament. Why would they allow themselves to be executed for
a lie of their own fabrication?
Charles Colson, one of the notorious
Watergate conspirators, who has since submitted to the authority of
Jesus Christ, scoffs at a conspiracy theory. Colson, who ought
to know, says no conspiracy involving numerous individuals can stand
in the face of a threat to personal freedom, or especially, to
life. Some of the Watergate conspirators, including Colson,
readily sought a plea bargain when confronted with incarceration.
The disciples were boldly
proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the face of persecution.
But something far more profound than the intellectual understanding
that Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies caused the disciples
to become martyrs. They died for what they professed because
of His resurrection. They saw and spoke with Christ after they
witnessed His crucifixion, death and burial. It was this solitary
incident in history that laid the groundwork for their dynamic and
successful preaching about His role as messiah.
If the Old Testament had never said
a word about Jesus Christ, the resurrection would be enough to
validate His claims. The prophecies simply reinforced the
testimony of the apostles. They used the scriptures to
demonstrate that their risen Lord was indeed the same person who was
spoken of in scripture. Therefore, because the resurrection of
Christ is so tightly knitted with prophecies about Him, we will
diverge slightly from our examination of biblical foreknowledge and
consider that unique occurrence.
CHAPTER 14
THE PROPHET OF
THE UNKNOWN TOMB
Christian apostles were dedicated to convincing Jews in Jerusalem
that Jesus was the Messiah predicted in the Jewish Scriptures.
They used an argument that was to eventually shake the Roman Empire
and the entire world. They claimed that Jesus was the Jewish
messiah, that he had fulfilled all the messianic predictions made in
their own Holy Scriptures, and that he had then proven the
legitimacy of His messianic claim by coming back from the dead.
Their argument was hurriedly opposed by the Pharisees, a hostile
sect that had just manipulated the Roman Procurator Pilate into
executing Jesus Christ on a cross. Although the Pharisees had
been anticipating something unusual and had posted an armed guard at
Jesus’ tomb, they were not prepared for the apostles claim that
Christ had come back to life and were ultimately powerless to refute
it. But they tried.
How? Not by denying that the tomb was empty or by producing the
body, which they couldn't, but by denying that Jesus fulfilled what
they claimed to be a true picture of the messiah, a picture which
had Him appearing as a military leader, not a common Jewish
carpenter turned itinerant preacher from the “backwoods” of
Galilee. In order to stifle the apostle’s claim, they
immediately began levying the same charges against them that they
had made against Jesus in order to provide grounds for having him
executed. They said the apostle’s proclamation that He was the Son
of God constituted blasphemy, which is what they had charged Christ
with saying about Himself at His trial. It proved to be a
useless argument because they were never able to refute the fact
that He had risen from the grave and if that were the case He most
certainly was at least the Son of God. If there was anything
they could have done to squelch the claim - He is risen - they would
have.
They tried saying Jesus
disciples removed the body but that “political spin” is easily
dismissed by pointing out the lack of any conceivable motive for
such an act. The disciples were unanimously willing to die for
their pronouncement that they had seen and spoken with the risen
Jesus, their overwhelming sincerity attested to by their success in
spreading the gospel from one end of the Roman Empire to the other.
Ultimately the Pharisees, and later the Romans, had to resort to
execution as a way of silencing believers, just as they had with
Jesus.
Jesus tomb was found to be empty by
His followers and although many have tried, no one has ever been
able to offer a believable natural explanation. Nor has anyone ever
offered a plausible explanation as to why so many of His disciples
would testify, under threat of death, that they had seen and
spoken with Him after His burial. The fact that their testimony
could not be effectively countered is supported by the sudden and
phenomenal growth of the Christian Church. It was first
populated by thousands of Jewish converts in the very city where
proof of any deception would have been produced if it had
existed. The apostle’s appeal would never have been accepted
by Jerusalem's citizens if there was any real evidence against it,
especially by devout Jews whose foundational theology doomed them to
hell for believing in a false God - and Jesus was being presented as
divine.
The Book of Acts is a history of the
beginning and growth of the Christian Church. In Chapter 2,
Luke, a writer authenticated by archaeologists and historians as
accurate in every detail available about that period, tells us about
the first gospel sermon ever preached. It was by Peter in
Jerusalem and it appealed to the Jew's knowledge of Jesus' life,
ministry and resurrection as support for the truth of His
message. Peter told them to place their eternal destiny
in Christ's hands. They did not respond by saying Peter was
incorrect about the facts - but asked what they should do.
This was his answer.
"Then Peter said to them,
'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38
Luke says 3000 Jews submitted their
lives to the Messiah that day and judging from the eruption and
growth of the church, it must have been at least that many. Within
one generation of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection the church had
many more thousands of converts, Jews and Gentiles, throughout the
Mediterranean region and in Asia.
The most famous convert to
Christianity during the formative stages of the church was the
Apostle Paul. Saul of Tarsus, as he was known prior to his
conversion, was to eventually write most of the epistles in the New
Testament. But before that he severely persecuted the growing
army of Christians. He even participated in the murder of
Stephen in Jerusalem, a disciple who was boldly preaching the gospel
at a time when the political/religious powers were feeling
threatened and were inciting mob violence against Christians in
order to maintain their status. They had found it necessary to
eliminate Jesus but His disciple’s message of “free” salvation had
become even a greater danger. If the message was believed, the
demand for sacrificial animals the Pharisees were selling in the
temple would disappear, the “tithing” system supporting the
priesthood would be threatened and the political power they enjoyed
through control of an intensely legalistic 1st century Judaism would
be eroded.
Paul wrote that he witnessed a
personal appearance by Christ and it forced him to accept Jesus as
the messiah predicted in Scripture. He spent the rest of his
days preaching the Gospel. Here are his words as he spoke of
Jesus.
"...and last of all, as it were
to one untimely born, He appeared to me also" 1
Corinthians 15:8
Paul was
an influential and well educated Jew as well as a citizen of the
Roman Empire. After reading his letters, one realizes that he
was also an intelligent and critical thinker. A man like that
does not flip-flop in the middle of his life for an unsubstantiated
tale. In his letter to the Church in Corinth, Paul speaks of the
trials and persecution he suffered as a result of his
conversion. Among other things, he was imprisoned, stoned and
left for dead. But Paul and the rest of the apostles never
wavered in their passion to record Jesus’ mission for
posterity. Why? Because they saw Him alive after His
lifeless body was entombed. Although their course of action
ultimately resulted in their martyrdom, they never cringed.
Of course the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is the single most passionately debated theological idea in
history. And what sets it apart is that it is really not a
theological idea at all, as many skeptics and liberal Christians
would prefer it to be, but rather a historical event. And it is no
less a recorded historical episode than the crossing of the Alps by
Hannibal, the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great or the burning
of Rome by Nero. The criteria utilized in accepting or
rejecting the evidence for the occurrence of those events should be
no different than the criteria used to decide if the resurrection of
Jesus Christ took place. And of course if it is, much to the
dismay of skeptics, we are confronted with more evidence confirming
that Jesus rose from the dead than for other ancient historical
events we take for granted.
We primarily know about the
resurrection because of the New Testament documents. As
detailed in Chapter 8, on the basis of accepted principals of
historic and textural analysis, they have been shown to be reliable
and trustworthy, meaning they provide eyewitness, primary source
evidence by morally credible men for the death and post-resurrection
appearances of Jesus. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:3, written
by Paul about 57 AD, only 25 years after the crucifixion, states
that he is passing on information given to him by those who were
there. His conversion took place just three years after Jesus
crucifixion so we can safely assume that his new associates, many of
whom witnessed Christ’s execution and post resurrection appearances,
immediately told him about everything they had seen.
"For I delivered to you first of all
that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again
the third day...and that he was seen by Cephas (Peter), then by the
twelve..." 1st Corinthians 15
John and Peter, eye witnesses to
Christ’s crucifixion and subsequent appearances, also contributed to
the historical documents we call the New Testament. In 2000 years
the authors of that potent collection of books and letters have
never been proven to be unethical, dishonest or deceived. Then
why did many Jews reject Christ as their Messiah? Why do many
continue to reject Him?
Prior to answering that question we
must understand that it is somewhat misleading. When Bible
critics ask it, they are implying that Jesus is not the
messiah. They are insinuating that Jews should be most
qualified to recognize their own messiah and if they rejected
Christ, we should accept their decision. But the question
should also be asked, why did so many Jews accept Jesus as the
messiah? Skeptics conveniently forget that the Christian
Church was first populated exclusively by Jews, in Jerusalem, where
the disciples claims could most easily have been countered.
According to Jewish religious beliefs going back centuries, the
decision to reject traditional Judaism and embrace Christianity
would have condemned them to damnation if they were wrong.
That is not a decision a Jew would make lightly or on flimsy
evidence. History testifies to the fact that the first Jewish
converts consisted of no small number, as they expanded within just
a few decades as far as Rome. But there are several reasons
for the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish religious hierarchy.
The Jews are the vehicle
through whom God offered salvation to the world in the person of
Jesus Christ. They are as intricately woven into God's plan as
the Messiah and the Bible. One can’t consider the Jewish
nation without considering the Scriptures, hence the messiah, and
vice versa. As we are seeing, the prophetic scriptures are
always fulfilled, and this is what Isaiah the prophet
said.
"Like one from whom men hide
their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took
up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him
stricken by God" Isaiah 53:3-4
God said through Isaiah that the
Jewish nation would reject the messiah, and they did. Again it
is clear. If the Bible says it will happen, it does. But
secular historians also offer a reasonable explanation. The Jews
expected their messiah to be a political and military deliverer, as
noted earlier. His dying wretchedly on a cross did not fit
that picture. In fact, they considered anyone “hung from a
tree” to be accursed of God and their messiah was certainly not
expected to be accursed of God. Rather, the hope was that he
would deliver them from Roman oppression. Even His disciples
misunderstood His mission until His crucifixion and resurrection.
According to the Scriptures, He will return as a conqueror and
judge, as the Jews expected of Him, but they did not understand that
the prophetic picture of their messiah necessitated two appearances
- the first as a humble servant intent upon the salvation of mankind
and the second as Lord and King. But they were motivated to
interpret the scriptures in order to suit themselves. The Jewish
rejection of Christ originated from within the economically powerful
and influential sect of Pharisees. Christ and His disciples
repeatedly exposed their claim to "righteousness through religious
works" as a sham, potentially eroding their political power and
stature within Jewish society. Listen to one of Jesus' rebuke
of the Pharisees.
"Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make
long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation"
Matthew 23:14
They did not humbly accept this as
constructive criticism. His condemnation of their practices and His
growing popularity with the masses threatened their influence and
caused them to vehemently oppose Him. It finally drove them to a
murderous conspiracy involving one of Jesus’ own followers, Judas
Iscariot. They whitewashed their crime by labeling it as a
lawful execution. Even Pontius Pilate recognized it as a
kangaroo court but he feared that the Pharisees would report that he
was allowing a Jew to elevate himself above Caesar by claiming to be
the Son of God and “King” of the Jews.
After the
crucifixion the sermons preached in Jerusalem by Peter and Stephen
pointed to the resurrection but also accused the Pharisees of
killing their own messiah. This did not go over any better
than Jesus’ rebukes and the Pharisees denied the charge, of course,
in the same way any prosecutor would be reluctant to admit that he
had condemned an innocent man. The Pharisees felt compelled to
justify their actions by claiming that Jesus was not who He said He
was - even in the face of evidence for the resurrection. But
Jews who reject Jesus are no different than anyone else who rejects
Him, and they do it for the same reason. They refuse to submit
to His authority because if they do, they must sacrifice power over
their own lives or the lives of others.
We deal with end time prophecies
later, but we should note here that although Holy Scripture
predicted that the Jews would reject the Messiah, it also predicts
that, as a nation, they will ultimately embrace Him just prior to
His return. The 20th century has witnessed a steady world-wide
growth of Christian converts from Judaism, primarily calling
themselves Messianic Jews. Right now they are scorned and
ostracized by traditional Jews but the movement is gaining momentum
regardless. Is it coincidence?
Nothing in history has had more of a
profound impact upon the entire human race than the claim made in
Palestine 2000 years ago that Jesus of Nazareth had risen form the
grave. Men like Simon Greenleaf, the recognized foremost
expert on the rules of credible evidence in a court of law, have
converted to Christianity as a result of their investigations into
the historical evidence for the resurrection. Mr. Greenleaf lived in
the 17th century but the trend continues. In a book entitled
“The Faith of a Physicist”, printed in 1994, John Polkinghorne, a
theoretical particle physicist, devotes an entire chapter to
evidence for the resurrection, from the perspective of scientific
inquiry. And the library is filled with similar accounts of thinking
men from all walks of life who have come to believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God because of what was reported to have
happened in Jerusalem in the 1rst century. This book, a mere
syllogistic summary of converging lines of evidence for the truth of
the primary Christian claim that Jesus Christ is who He claims to
be, and that the claim has relevance to our eternal destiny, can
barely touch upon the volume of historical facts supporting the
resurrection of Christ.
Anyone setting out to show, through
an investigation of history, that Jesus Christ did not actually come
back to life after dying, will be forced into a very difficult
position. He will have to demonstrate that the New Testament
is not reliable history, a somewhat difficult enterprise,
considering that all the material typically considered “historical”
that is recorded in that “document”, like the names of public
figures, descriptions of geographic settings in Palestine and around
the Mediterranean, descriptions of cultural and religious practices
in the 1st century, have all been confirmed by archaeology. He will
have to justify the empty tomb and why a body was never produced at
the same time he explains away the numerous reports of Christ’s
appearances immediately after the tomb was discovered empty.
Maybe he could show that the disciples and apostles were frauds,
wicked or mentally unstable. This could prove to be troublesome
since their writings demonstrate a moral excellence rarely seen in
the annals of mankind. He will have to explain the explosive
growth of 1st century Jewish believers who, in the face of cultural
and religious exile, changed the Sabbath day to Sunday and were
willing to die for their beliefs. Maybe skeptics could
demonstrate that Jews from the first century were particularly naïve
and suicidal when compared to mankind in general. The skeptic
will be confronted with a formidable task because all of these
things have been thoroughly developed as evidence for the
resurrection by numerous eminent Christian biblical scholars.
The few serious attempts by doubters to explain away the evidence as
a conspiracy theory, or to rationalize the effects the risen Christ
has had on the world in general and individuals in particular, are
conspicuous in their bias against the supernatural. At the
bottom of the ledger, the only argument ever made against the truth
of the resurrection has been the insistence that miracles do not
occur in a natural universe, therefore a miracle of the magnitude of
the resurrection certainly did not occur.
When a naturalist feels hemmed in by
the evidence against his adopted position, he will usually resort to
the “miracles do not occur” argument, but sometimes will retreat to
the old stand by. He will smile shrewdly and say, ‘If God exists,
why doesn’t he show himself?’ As the messiah Himself pointed
out, if God raised a man from the dead, a skeptic wouldn’t believe
it anyway.
“He
said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they
will not be convinced even though someone rises from the
dead." Luke 16:31
CHAPTER 15
ISRAEL
It’s been said that King Frederick
the Great of Prussia, who was a rationalistic skeptic, challenged a
Christian chaplain to give him a clear and concise argument for the
existence of the biblical God. The chaplain quickly replied,
“The Jew, your majesty.”
We don’t know what happened next but
he may have went on to explain the astounding way in which the
Jewish prophets recorded their history, that is, before it actually
happened. The Bible is filled with prophecies and decrees
concerning the destiny of Israel that the Jews claim were inspired
by their God. The fact that what they wrote eventually
occurred exactly as predicted defies any type of natural
explanation, especially when the event signaling the beginning of
the grand finale of those occurrences simply has no historical
precedent. That incident took place on May 14, 1948 when David
Ben Gurion, Israel’s Prime Minister, declared her to be a sovereign
nation in the very same land she had originally conquered 3400 years
prior.
The prophetic and historic enigma
called the “Jewish nation” began with God’s promise to Abraham that
Canaan (Palestine) would become the possession of his “seed”, the
twelve tribes of Israel. Four hundred years later that covenant
became a reality after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt and
their destiny from then on is summarized in Deuteronomy, the fifth
book of the Torah. Moses, the writer, laid out a series of blessings
and curses which the Jews would receive from the Lord based upon
their obedience to Him as a nation. Obedience was to bring
blessing and disobedience was to bring the curses. There were
subsequent periods in Israel's history when its rulers established a
standard of obedience to God and the nation prospered. This
prosperity was especially evident during the reigns of King David
and his son Solomon. But the Jewish epic is overwhelmingly
pervaded by reigns of what their prophets describe as idolatrous and
evil kings and their society suffered the predicted curses.
After Solomon, they were overrun by Assyria and Babylon, the latter
destroying their first temple around 600 BC and forcing them into
exile for 70 years. Between about 500 BC and the time of
Christ they were placed in subjection to the Medo-Persian and Greek
empires. Finally, under Roman domination, during the siege of
Jerusalem the rebuilt temple was leveled again, the Jews were
scattered abroad and there they remained until Ben Gurion opened the
doors by reading Israel’s declaration of independence. Moses laid
all this out in broad outline form and later prophets continued to
embellish upon it.
First was the
promise to the patriarch Abraham.
"Also I give to you and your
descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the
land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their
God." Genesis 17:8
Ultimately Moses was not permitted
to enter the “promised land” himself but his writings, even though
they contained predictions that Israel would lose the land twice,
clearly stated that Canaan was forever earmarked for the Jews. So in
spite of their being forcibly removed from that land, once by
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and once by Rome for over 1900 years,
God's word through Moses and the prophets ultimately
prevailed.
Anthropologists, historians
and sociologists know better than anyone that the Jews are indeed
unique in the world. Whenever any ethnic group is conquered by
another civilization, or removed from their homeland into another
geographic area, invariably within several centuries and sometimes
within a few generations, they are assimilated and lose their
ethnic, religious and national identity. Although the dynamics
of history can not explain how the Jews managed to retain
distinctiveness for so long and then get their original turf back,
from what we are seeing, it is perfectly explainable. It was
written in the Bible that it would occur and so it has.
After the reformation, when the
Bible was basically made available to the masses against the will of
the Roman Catholic Church, a minority of Christian Bible scholars
were openly scoffed at for their insistence that the Jews would
again become an independent nation simply because the Bible said
so. But they refused to waver in the face of a growing
naturalistic and religious liberal trend. People like Charles
Spurgeon, Dr. John Cummings, James Grant and Increase Mather, who
lived from the 1600’s to the 1800’s, all went against the tide and
predicted an occurrence that must have seemed highly improbable at
the time. Today it is the skeptic who must buck the tide if he
seriously attempts to compare the prophetic body of scripture
regarding Israel against recorded history and rationalize the exact
parallel as a mere coincidence.
In any case, as noted above, God
included with his promise of the land some dire predictions as well.
Through Moses He said that the Jews would be taken from their land
for their disobedience and idolatry.
"But it shall come to pass, if you
do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all
His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that
all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Deuteronomy
28:15
"Then the Lord will scatter
you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the
other..." Deuteronomy
28:64
"I announce to you today that
you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land
which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess."
Deuteronomy 30:18
Moses also predicted that they would
regain it, as did numerous prophets following him.
"…that the Lord your God
will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and
gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has
scattered you." Deuteronomy 30:3
"And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to
the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you
children of Israel." Isaiah 27:12
"Behold, I will bring them from
the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among
them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who
labors with child, together; A great throng shall return
there. They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I
will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am
a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. "Hear the
word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off,
and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a
shepherd does his flock." Jeremiah 31:8-10
The Bible contains hundreds of
specific historical prophecies regarding the nation of Israel and
her people. They range from predictions fulfilled within the
lifetime of the prophet to forecasts of events thousands of years in
the future. Of course those forecasts regarding things that
took place within our own generation are especially significant, as
they cannot be refuted through radical or liberal biblical
criticism. Who can deny that we have seen a nation literally
born in one day (Ezekiel 38: 8), or that we have witnessed a
prolonged and seemingly irreconcilable feud between the Arabs and
Jews and the overwhelming dominance of the Jews in that conflict
(Psalm 83:4 and Ezekiel 35-38) or that we have seen the literal
blossoming with fruit of a land barren and wasted for 2000 years
(Isaiah 27:6 & Ezekiel 36:30)? And all this has happened
in conjunction with the predicted mass return of the Jews to their
old homeland from all over the world.
The overall phenomenon discussed in
this chapter is briefly but eloquently assessed in the following
paragraphs taken from a series of essays on prophecy that was
compiled by Robert C. Newman in a book, “The Evidence of
Prophecy”. This particular quote is from Samuel Kellogg’s
chapter on Israel.
“The conclusion from all this is
as clear and inescapable as it is important. Here is a nation
whose whole history from its beginning has been unique in character;
a people who, arising out of a race and age notable in the ancient
world for the grossness of its idolatries, have yet been the
undoubted source of all the monotheistic religion on the face of the
earth; a people who, without those outward and visible cords of a
common government and homeland, subjected for centuries to
circumstances which should naturally have resulted in their
extinction, have not only still survived, but have maintained a
national life and a separateness from the many nations among which
they have lived as has no other nation in history. As
Cristlieb says, “the people of Israel [are] a perennial, living
historical miracle.”
But the strangest fact of all
remains. This same peculiar people has a literature,
admittedly very ancient, in which all this unique experience is
predicted, written out centuries before it even seemed
possible. Is this all of no significance? Do these
unparalleled phenomena in the history of Israel mean nothing?
Can they reasonably be explained on purely naturalistic
grounds? Have we here nothing but the wonderful Jewish
“intuition”? Is there not the strongest reason to suspect the
presence in this history and in these prophecies an element which is
not of man, but from above man?
And when we observe that these
prophets expressly claim that this was indeed the case; that under
every pressure to the contrary, even when facing imprisonment and
death because of the words they spoke, they still never wavered in
the persistent assertion that the words they spoke were not their
own words, but God’s words, are we not compelled, as reasonable
people, in the light of 2000 years of unbroken fulfillment of this
prophetic history, to admit their claim and confess that, in a sense
which is true of the words of no other men, the words of Jesus, the
apostles and the prophets are indeed words of the living and
omniscient God; and that the books in which these words are found,
and of which they form an integral part, are indeed the very Word of
God, and are therefore to be believed and obeyed accordingly?
Can any reasonable and unbiased person escape this
conclusion?”
Although an entire portion of
biblical prophecy remains unfulfilled, that portion dealing with the
last days, all prophecy fulfilled to date has unfolded exactly as
anticipated, a phenomenon especially evident with the Jewish
people. The record is so accurate that to expect a
continuation of the trend would not only be logical but prudent,
which is an understatement a corollary might reinforce. To
think, even for a second, that the Bible's record of accuracy will
not continue would be irrational and reckless, because the God who
inspired prophets to unerringly record the future also inspired
those prophets to issue a warning. Paraphrased in broad terms,
that warning tells all of mankind to repent of its moral
transgression of the law of God or endure God’s
judgment. We have already seen the standard of law to be
enforced in that judgment and we are all guilty. To accept the
pardon offered by Jesus Christ would be a wise decision. Now
let’s take a look at another body of prophecy relating to our own
generation.
CHAPTER 16
A LIGHT TO THE
GENTILES
The Bible also contains many prophecies dealing with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ as a world wide phenomenon. Christianity’s eruption
onto the world scene 2000 years ago and subsequent position at
center-stage in the unfolding drama of human history can not be
explained by any natural historical process, as in the case of
Israel’s reinstatement as a nation. The only explanation that
makes sense is the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
But the reality is this. The sudden appearance and global
spread of a message of salvation to the Gentile nations originated
with the Jewish nation and was predicted in the Bible long before
the resurrection took place. This further authenticates
biblical foreknowledge as the stamp of God. Out of hundreds of
ethnic groups in existence 2000 plus years ago, one wrote that
assemblies of people from every nation on the globe would ultimately
revere a member of their own nation and it happened. That
speaks for itself. Read some of what they
wrote.
"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, (from the
family of Judah and David) Who shall stand as a banner to the
people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall
be glorious." Isaiah 11:10
Gentiles was the term used by Jews to denote everyone else, in other
words, non Jews or the rest of the world.
"I, the Lord, have called You in
righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles."
Isaiah 42:6
"Indeed He says, 'It is too
small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes
of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also
give You as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be My salvation
to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49:6
These were predictions that the
messiah would come for the world as a whole, and not just for
Israel. Following is another prophecy predicting that the
Gospel would be preached around the world. That has actually
happened as Christian missionaries have literally encompassed the
planet.
"You are my Son, Today I have
begotten You. Ask of Me and I will give You the nations for your
inheritance, And the ends of the earth for your
possession." Psalm 2:7-8
"For unto us a Child is given; And
the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be
called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be
no end." Isaiah
9:6-7
These scriptures clearly describe a
person to come who can only be adequately represented by one
historical figure, Jesus Christ. He is known the world over as the
one claiming to be the Son; His followers consider Him to be the Son
of God and these verses also plainly predict that He will effect
world-wide influence.
"And this gospel of the Kingdom
will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14
This
prediction, made by Jesus Himself, warns that when the gospel is
preached to every ethnic group, the end will come, meaning He'll
make His return. Although there are still a few remote areas
where the gospel has not been heard, like northern China and parts
of India and Pakistan, it will not be long. The mediums of
mass communication are enabling the Gospel to penetrate those
regions at tremendous speed.
"But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses
to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of
the earth." Acts 1:8
Christ is again speaking to His disciples and telling them their
preaching will reach the ends of the earth. How could he
arrange that from the grave?
"And now I say to you, keep away
from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is
of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is God, you cannot
overthrow it - lest you even be found to fight against
God." Acts 5:38-39
In one of the most profound and
prophetic quotes in the Bible, a first century Jew whose associates
within the Pharisaic sect were vehemently resisting the apostle's
message displays wisdom by proclaiming, in effect, that if it was
fraudulent, that Jesus Christ was not the Jewish messiah and had not
risen from the dead, the movement behind the gospel message would
falter and die. History has supported the corollary to this
insight, which says that because the movement blossomed so
passionately, it must have been divinely providential.
"Then He said, "What is the
kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? "It is
like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it
grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its
branches." Luke 13:18-19
This was a prediction by Jesus made in the form of a parable. It
says the kingdom of God (His kingdom) would grow to enormous
proportions compared to its embryonic phase. It has
happened.
"And they sang a new song,
saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals;
For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of
every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings
and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."
Revelation 5:9-10
"After these things I looked, and
behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations,
tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their
hands." Revelation 7:9
The Bible here says that prior to
Christ's return a representative sampling from every people group in
existence will believe, and be redeemed by, it's message of
salvation. This is a bizarre assumption for someone from a
little known sect in the middle east to make but according to the
U.S. Center for World Missions in Pasadena, California, it is now on
the verge of occurring.
"For many will come in My name,
saying, "I am He, and will deceive many." Mark :13:6
Christ
and His apostles not only predicted a world-wide body of believers,
they knew many false prophets would appear who would use the name of
Christ to promote their own interests and doctrine. This is
manifested in the many cults using Christian jargon such as the
Mormon Church and the Watchtower Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) but
who deny the biblical truths of Jesus' claim to be God and salvation
by simple faith.
So we see that the Bible writers
accurately forecasted that the Gospel message would be preached
around the world and believed upon, exerting global influence on the
civilization of man. The literal fulfillment of those
prophecies is simply another demonstration of biblical
foreknowledge.
CHAPTER 17
THE
END
We will look finally at prophecies
of the end times, one of the periods of history referred to in the
Bible as the day of the Lord or that day. Again, our generation has
a distinct advantage over people living previous to this century in
recognizing the accuracy of biblical prophecy. It must have
been easy for skeptics to read about conditions just prior to God’s
final judgment on planet earth, as described in the Bible, and scoff
at the idea that their probability of occurrence was somehow
realistic. It must have been equally difficult for believers to
maintain their faith that mankind would someday find itself in its
present condition and that these conditions would signal its
imminent demise. It was a lot easier to believe that passages in the
Bible describing such things were spiritually metaphoric. That
is not the case today. Our current plight and the unfolding
drama in the area of basic survival confirms that what the Bible
says about our future is not symbolic, but real. Although it is hard
to believe that God will judge us in such a harsh fashion, we now
have the evidence right in front of our eyes.
For centuries the earth seemed
indefatigable and the Bible's warnings that life on earth could
actually be wiped out appeared to be in the realm of fantasy.
But since August of 1945, when a man made nuclear reaction took
place as an act of violence, the fantastic became a reality.
Atomic warfare is a threat and the risk is increasing as more and
more nations considered radical politically, such as North Korea and
Iran, attempt to arm themselves with nuclear weapons. In fact,
nuclear technology is now so prolific that its manipulation by
terrorists is a real and looming threat.
Since 1945 many more menaces to our
existence have appeared. Plagues are just one. Maybe we will
find a cure for AIDS and maybe not. In any case, medical
science has been humbled by this deadly virus and has to admit it
does not necessarily have the means to control infectious viral
disease. A devastating viral plague affecting all of humanity,
maybe AIDS or maybe some other, is a definite possibility. The
Ebola virus, for example, another incurable killer that works within
weeks, continues to break out periodically in Africa - each time in
a more populated and harder to quarantine area.
In 1994 scientists witnessed the
explosive collision of a comet with the planet Jupiter. If it
had careened into planet earth, no one would be left alive to
release an environmental impact report. Astronomers agree the
earth is vulnerable to such a collision at any time, although the
possibility is remote. But as mentioned in a previous chapter, we
have evidence that these devastating impacts have occurred in the
past. There are more than 2000 asteroids and comets whose
orbits around the sun intersect ours. The Bible's numerous
statements regarding one of the final portents of the end, great
signs in the heavens, is no longer in the realm of science
fiction.
The depletion of the ozone layer
because of pollutants being released into the atmosphere has already
resulted in vastly increased exposure of plankton in the Antarctic
sea to destructive radiation from the sun. Plankton is the
prime source of oxygen, which sustains all life. At the rate third
world countries are cutting down rain forests, estimated to be 5000
acres per day, it will not be long before the earth's lungs, as
these forests are sometimes referred to, are depleted to a level
where they can no longer supply the balance of oxygen necessary for
our atmosphere. Plankton is the primary source of oxygen and
rain forests are second. Because of these and other problems,
like radioactive and toxic waste in the oceans and ground water,
scientists today are actually split as to whether or not the earth
can be environmentally salvaged. There are many who think we've
already passed the point of no return. Those who believe we are
doomed to some terrible environmental repercussion as a result of
our own misuse of the planet are in the minority but the point is,
for the first time in history educated men discuss such issues
realistically rather than theoretically. The Bible says
this.
"For then there will be great
tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world
until this time, no, nor ever shall be. "And unless those days
were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake
those days will be shortened." Matthew 24:21-22
In this passage Jesus Christ says,
as do other biblical prophets in numerous scriptures, that life on
earth will become intolerable for those without faith in Him and
that His appearance will become necessary to save believers and the
nation of Israel from being totally destroyed by the ungodly.
The Book of Revelation describes this vividly. The "time of
tribulation," as it is described in the Bible, will occur because of
man's inability to control his evil nature, Satan's influence and
ultimately, because of God's wrath.
"In those days and at that time I
will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness
(the messiah);
He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth."
Jeremiah 33:15
The
Bible is the only piece of ancient literature in existence that
graphically depicts the demise of man. It accurately describes
today's world situation, then describes the end, then says one will
signal the other. It says modern society will appear thus,
just prior to the end. As society finally appears thus,
mankind can for the first time in history consider his own demise as
a rational possibility, if not an actual probability.
The truth of the social and
environmental phenomena described below can be confirmed by picking
up a newspaper and it was all predicted in the Bible as coming to
pass in the same “day” that mankind would witness the restoration of
Israel as a nation and in the same “day” that the end of the world
would be discussed realistically. Is it simply another
coincidence?
Liberal Jews and Arabs are
attempting to negotiate a peace, but who really believes they will
ever have more than transient success? Orthodox Jews
view the Dome of the Rock, a sacred Muslim Shrine in Jerusalem, as
an infringement on their holy temple site and adamantly refuse to
desist from their plan to rebuild that temple. And fundamental
Muslims, like those who control Iran, Iraq and Libya, have shown no
signs of giving up their “religious” imperative to destroy the
Jews.
The United Nations is being given
greater global "peace keeping" authority in an attempt to achieve
the "new-world order”, a cliche coined by "statesmen”, not religious
fundamentalists, but certainly a phenomenon predicted in the
Bible. Concurrent with this is the move towards world trade
agreements, utilizing a common medium of exchange, and this movement
is being spearheaded by what started out as the European Common
Market. Computers, of course, have made the logistics
possible.
Plagues have been mentioned and
there have been severe famines, as well, in recent decades.
Anyone familiar with population levels on earth knows we cannot
continue to propagate the way we have been and provide enough food
for everyone. Something will have to give.
The Roman Catholic Church, the
Liberal Evangelical Church, liberal Jews, liberal Muslims and New
Age pantheists are all gathering under an umbrella of
tolerance. A spiritual brotherhood, of sorts, is evolving
under the banner of global accord and protection of the
environment. A world wide ecumenical movement is definitely
afoot, one that embraces religious tolerance and humanism and is
critical of fundamentalist loyalty to a specific creed.
Self proclaimed messiahs and cults
are mushrooming. What seemed to be a tragic but isolated
incident in Jonestown years ago is now common-place. Japan,
Switzerland, France and the United States have all experienced
tragedies spawned by doomsday suicide cults in the 90's and the
major religious groups are unwittingly inspiring more and more
maniacs bent on administering their delusions of God's will by
assassination, bombing and murder.
Lawlessness is increasing
everywhere, even in nations that traditionally never had such a
problem - like Japan. It is the severity and depravity of the crimes
that is appalling. One hundred years ago Jack the Ripper was
an enigma. Today every major police department needs a serial
killer task force. Terrorism, a particularly vicious form of
lawlessness, is now a problem for even the most powerful
nations.
Scientists are witnessing global
environmental effects brought about by mankind as though the earth
itself were voicing it's outrage at the catastrophes visited upon it
by the quest for profit and power by nations and industry.
Scientists say we may be the secondary cause of many unique weather
patterns experienced recently around the world, including record
storms and floods. It is improbable that we may be
causing earthquakes but killer quakes have dramatically increased
and that fact cannot be attributed to greater reporting
techniques. The exponential increase in quakes has occurred
since the middle of this century, by which time reporting techniques
were firmly established.
These problems, and the noticeable
absence of any "world class" statesmen at the helm of any nation
anywhere make the world ripe for a man who would propose to solve
the ills of the world and who would then be elevated to a position
of multinational military and political power.
Although the gospel of Jesus Christ
will reach to the remotest parts of the globe, the world at large
will increasingly reject Him and His followers as narrow minded and
intolerant.
The Bible contains the distinct
stamp of God. That stamp is the ability to see the future and
record it. The Bible predicted all of the above. It
predicted the appearance and ministry of Jesus Christ along with
numerous specifics about His life. He fulfilled those
prophecies to the letter. The scriptures also record the
checkered history of Israel, including the destruction of the temple
in 70 AD, the dispersion of the Jews around the world and the
reinstatement of that nation to the original piece of land promised
to them over 3500 years ago. The prophets not only predicted
the messiah, they predicted that He would be preached about,
believed upon and worshipped by people from all ethnic groups and
nations. That has also come to pass. The Word of God
describes the end of human history, as we know it, and says it will
be characterized by specific signs, the primary one being the
reinstatement of Israel to it's land. The signs are manifest
and the Jews are back.
What is absurd is the notion that
this global plot was scripted as a prophetic shot in the dark.
To deny the existence and accuracy of prophecy is to ignore the
facts. To admit the obvious, that the Bible exhibits
foreknowledge, and deny God as the source is self-imposed spiritual
blindness, the very condition we have been attempting to
remedy.
CHAPTER 18
THE LAST
CHOICE
We have come face to face with what
many sound thinkers hold to be compelling evidence for the Bible's
divine inspiration, and so are confronted with a choice. It is a
choice many would consider very strange. We are being offered the
opportunity to encounter a person existing in a dimension not of
this universe, a divine Person. Most of us adamantly choose not to,
saying it is just too hard to believe. We are rigorously skeptical
that such an encounter is possible, even in the face of evidence.
Chances are we believe in God but reject the idea that He is a being
with a will, a nature and the desire and ability to
communicate. We view God as an unapproachable and impersonal
entity of some sort. On the other hand, those of us who accept
the Bible as the Word of God believe it to be the personal
revelation of a God who can be known intimately, with all that an
intimate relationship implies, including dialogue and mutual
awareness between the parties involved in the relationship.
But both views can’t be correct because, as we have seen, something
can’t be and not be at the same time and in the same circumstances,
meaning either God is personal or He isn’t. Jeremiah the
prophet wrote this about the dilemma.
"Thus says the Lord: "Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in
his riches; But let him who glories glory in this; That he
understands and Knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising
loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For
in these I delight, says the Lord." Jeremiah
9:23-24
Believers
agree with Jeremiah that God spoke through him and other prophets,
revealing Himself as a God who can be known, but they believe that
intimate knowledge of God comes through a personal encounter with
Jesus Christ. They believe this because that’s what it says in
the New Testament and their own experience confirms it.
Because the vast majority of these New Testament believers do not
exhibit any overt signs of emotional instability, it is logical to
conclude that they are telling the truth, especially after seeing
that the Bible apparently is the Word of God because it demonstrates
supernatural foreknowledge. It says God is personal, but the
individuals who adamantly claim that God can never be known
personally, if they are honest with themselves and others, will
probably have to admit that they have studiously avoided a personal
introduction.
So in spite of our skepticism, there
is a credible manuscript in existence that says we must choose
whether or not to meet Jesus of Nazareth. The evidence is
overpowering that he is available for the introduction. The Bible
says so and we have seen it to be a book with infallible and
supernatural credentials. Millions of Christians have been saying so
for centuries and it stretches the imagination to suggest that
they're all suffering from the same mental imbalance. We are
being told someone is waiting to meet us and if we don't believe it,
just open the door. Listen to the words of Jesus
Christ.
"Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in
to him and dine with him, and he with Me. " Revelation
3:2
What is there about a possible
introduction to Jesus Christ that might cause someone to shy
away? Presumably, many things, but possibly the vague
suspicion that it is not like being introduced to your neighbor's
brother-in-law. And that suspicion would be correct. We
do not meet God’s Son as equals. He has been declared in the
Bible as the sovereign of the universe, the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. When being introduced to a sovereign ruler it
is customary to bow before him and it is no different with Jesus
Christ. This is what the Bible says about His status.
"That
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and
of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father." Philippians 2:10-11
The refusal to exercise the humility
described in the above scripture will prevent the consummation of
any encounter with Christ, that is, He will not respond, as there
are certain humbling formalities we must observe when we meet the
messiah. The Bible says we must first admit that we have
violated God's law, that we are guilty, that we have been judged by
God and that we are destined for eternal damnation upon our earthly
demise. We must admit that we can never override that judgment with
what we consider to be good deeds. We must gratefully ask for
the only pardon available, which is conferred upon those who accept
the suffering and death of Jesus Christ as payment in full for their
sins. We must repent, which means we must willingly turn from
the sin in our lives and we must promise to make Jesus Christ our
ultimate authority, pledging obedience to Him and recognizing that
He rose from the grave and lives.
According to scripture, those
formalities must be observed if we are to personally experience the
Lord of the universe. Jesus Christ says He will make Himself known
to whoever approaches Him in that manner. That knowledge is
characterized by what the Bible refers to as being born again, a
biblical expression describing the spiritual regeneration that will
be experienced through an encounter with Christ. It is what
happens when the Holy Spirit breathes new life into our dead spirits
and it occurs when we submit to the authority of Jesus.
"That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel
that I said to you "You must be born again." John
3:6-7
Our regenerated spirits are
then, and only then, able to understand and discern spiritual truths
in the Bible. Prior to that rebirth the Bible seems dull and
lifeless, and although we can intellectually understand what it
says, the words seem to be irrelevant and have no pertinence to our
lives. Although it implores us to submit to Christ for
salvation, the message is probably falling on deaf ears. On the
other hand, God said there is no excuse for denying Him, including a
spirit corrupted by sin.
"For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse..." Romans 1:20
The Bible tells us to believe in
Jesus Christ for salvation from the judgment of a holy and righteous
God. But the Bible seems to be saying that we can't truly be
empowered by its words, in a profound way, until after we have been
saved from judgment through regeneration. This would mean we
would have to experience regeneration before we could actually
perceive the essence of salvation by reading the Bible. Although it
seems to be a catch 22, that is right.
"For what man knows the things
of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so
no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us
by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's
wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing,
spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned."
1 Corinthians
2:11-14
Fortunately, the Bible is not
necessary for regeneration. What is necessary is hearing and
responding to the gospel. That is why Jesus Christ
commissioned apostles and preachers to spread the good news (gospel)
in person. It is why Christians everywhere tell the story of
Jesus Christ to those willing to listen. It is why thousands
of people were introduced to the risen Jesus within weeks of His
death and resurrection, before the New Testament was ever written.
The message of salvation is simple and can be delivered or received
by anyone. Humble thyself before the Lord Jesus Christ.
It does not take either a nuclear physicist or a Bible scholar to
deliver that message or understand it.
But that message is also a
tremendous barrier to salvation. In looking at the
prerequisites for a valid introduction to Jesus, we see that, from
start to finish, we are being asked to sacrifice our pride.
But our pride tells us not to submit to an authority greater than
ourselves, so we don't. We remain at an impasse with
God. We will never know Him and He will not redeem us against
our will. The problem is, God says the “stand-off” is as temporary
as the length of our lives and that it will be resolved on the day
we die.
"And as it is appointed for men
to die once, but after this the judgment..." Hebrews 9:27
We are being asked, therefore,
without having to understand every word of scripture in the Old and
New Testaments, to hear evidence and testimony about Jesus Christ
and to take a step of faith. That faith does not have to be in
the content of men's teachings, dreams, visions or ideas, but in one
person as revealed in the Bible - Jesus Christ. According to
the Bible, that step of faith will result in salvation and eternal
life. We become a temple (dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit
and through this Spirit we become intimate with Christ. The
intimacy of the relationship provides an assurance of the reality of
eternal life and that assurance nurtures a deep peace transcending
the temporal emotions with which we are all to familiar. The
Bible begins to speak as if from the very mouth of God. We see
things in it which were never discernible prior to the re-kindling
of our spirit. God puts it this way through the pen of the
apostles.
" I write these things to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that
you have eternal life." 1 John 5
"For the word of God is living and
active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to
dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts
and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12
"However as it is written, 'No eye
has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has
prepared for those who love Him'-but God has revealed it to us by
His spirit" 1 Corinthians
2:9-10
"Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might
know the things that have been freely given to us by
God." 1 Corinthians 2:12
"For 'Who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of
Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:16
The re-birth is not some sort of
mind-state we assume for a while and then lose through attrition, or
keep through ritual. It is the beginning of eternal life in the
presence of God through the Spirit of God. Those who have chosen to
receive it would never discard it and, in fact, could not, any more
than one could discard his humanity by choice. It will remain
forever obscure, however, from those who choose to reject the
outstretched hand of Jesus. God did not create robots, but rather,
beings in His image, that is, beings with a sense of morality,
creativity and a free will. Although He will not force anyone to
submit, He will see to it that every person has the opportunity to
decide.
"For since the creation of the world
His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse." Romans 1:20
"if indeed you continue in the
faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature
under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister"
Colossians 1:23
God has provided
a witness of Himself through His creation, His Word, our
consciences, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Everyone will be given the opportunity to submit to God's authority
and those receiving greater revelation will be held to greater
accountability.
"...For everyone to whom much is
given, from him much will be required..." Luke
12:48
But how does one overcome the
hurdle of disbelief? To begin with, even if we had trouble
believing, we must, at least secretly, think that the story of Jesus
would be a good thing if it were true. If we were hypothetically
given the power to decide whether or not the gospel were true and
realized we would render it false, then all the evidence in the
world would not make a bit of difference. A person who wants to
believe, or not believe something, will never be persuaded
otherwise. Such a person should probably examine his heart and
try to figure out why he would choose to render a message of eternal
peace and security false. The Bible says a person with that
particular predisposition towards the gospel risks suffering what it
describes as “hardening of the heart”, wherein the enticement
offered by God ceases to have any effect.
"So, as the Holy Spirit says:
Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...So I
declared an oath in my anger, They shall never enter my
rest." Hebrews 3:7-11
In any
case, the evidence and the personal witness of believers regarding
the truth of the living and written Word has to arouse enough
initiative to motivate a step of faith. We must ultimately
commit our lives to Jesus Christ and trust that He rose from the
dead, although we can't see or touch Him. We must believe in the
most spectacular and unusual occurrence ever reported, the return of
a dead man from the grave, and what that event
accomplished.
If we were being asked to trust a
religious system enjoying unqualified and universal acceptance from
our family and the rest of the world, one that allowed us to keep
whatever is precious to ourselves but still guaranteeing eternal
salvation, few would hesitate. But true faith is tested by the
presence of risk. And the fact is that family and friends will scoff
at a decision to “follow Jesus” and life-styles must be
forsaken. So the initial step can never be tentative. It
must be total and with disregard for earthly consequences, priority
being not the things and circumstances of this world but one's
status before God on judgment day. Saving faith is like a
plunge into icy water for a treasure beneath the surface, in the
words of the Bible, a “pearl of great price”. That plunge is rarely
initiated by testing the waters daintily with the toes to see if it
may be unpleasant. Saving faith is epitomized by the popular
expressions, “no fear” and “go for it”.
But it is not a blind faith because,
as we have seen, the Word of God can be trusted. The
scriptures speak about things we can’t confirm, like heaven and
hell, but we choose to believe the Bible regarding those things,
through the bold exercise of faith, because of the record of
credibility it has established in other areas, such as prophecy and
history - things we can confirm.
Suppose a prophet issues a warning
that anyone wearing scarlet will be struck by lightning because
scarlet clothing is evidence of the presence of a larcenous
nature. As a demonstration of his credibility the prophet
accurately predicts the winners of the next five Super Bowls,
including the most valuable player from each winning team. If
someone then continues to clothe themselves in scarlet, they are
living dangerously. After confirming the prophet’s predictions as
flawless, it would be prudent to exercise faith in the prophet’s
ability to tell the truth about the symbolism of scarlet and the
consequence of wearing it.
We all have something to think about
regarding what God expects of us. Just about everyone living in
today's multi-media world has heard the primary message of Jesus
Christ, and those who have read this far certainly have. According
to the Bible we are all obligated to act on what we have
heard. Let's look again at Jesus' words according to Luke.
"But he who did not know, yet
committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few.
For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required;
and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the
more." Luke
12:48
In other words, to those who have been given greater revelation of
Jesus Christ, resulting in continuing rejection of His claim to
authority, harsher judgment will be forthcoming. In the 20th
century we have been gifted with scientific evidence for a Creator
and the ability to witness more and more fulfillment of biblical
prophecy. We have a greater responsibility to recognize the
truth.
Failure to recognize and act upon
the truth will ultimately result in destruction and judgment.
That is not a pleasant thought and it doesn't sit well with our
ego. We do not like being told what to do. We do not
like giving control of our lives to someone else. We want to
decide for ourselves what is right and wrong. Ever since we
escaped the authority of parents, teachers or the military, we have
been an authority unto ourselves. Regarding the pursuit of
money, power or love, we claim the intellectual capacity to
establish the line dividing right from wrong.
We were that way as children and we
are that way today. We have not changed. The Bible is
right about us. Our very nature cries out against submitting
to the authority of another. But why? Why is it so
difficult? Why would anyone read this scripture and reject it?
"God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" John 3:16
CHAPTER 19
SMOKESCREENS
According to the Bible, the
profusion of reasons men offer for their rejection of Christ is
really mental camouflage for something deeper, the desire to keep
sin hidden. We do not want our secrets exposed. But some
of this camouflage is indeed very effective. The penetrating
questions raised by skeptics regarding the reasonableness of
Christian theology can be difficult to answer and deserve an honest
response. So what follows is a modest attempt to provide insight
into the resolution of some theological and philosophical problems
that have plagued doubters for centuries. On the other hand,
we have seen that the Bible can be trusted and it says that
skeptical questions designed to undermine the validity of Christ are
fundamentally rooted in rebellion against the moral law of God,
penetrating or not. With that in mind, lets take a look at
some of the most common reproaches leveled at Christianity.
We will look first at what is viewed
by some to be the Achilles heel of Christian doctrine, the existence
of evil. Some very intelligent and renowned skeptics, like
John Stuart Mill, have used the phenomenon of “evil” as a basis for
posing a dilemma they contend is impossible for Christians to
resolve. It is generally stated something like this.
If God desires evil to be
present in the world, He is not good. If God does not desire
evil to be present in the world, yet it exists, He is not all -
powerful. Evil certainly exists yet Christians say God is both
omnipotent and good so Christianity is a contradictory belief system
and must be discarded as irrational.
In order to even think clearly about
evil, we must define it. The concept of evil is generally understood
through its kindred relationship with the phenomenon of
suffering. Evil is said to be present when suffering has been
premeditated. In other words, evil is a word used to describe
the existence of a cognitive desire to inflict suffering on another
living thing. The core issue of the dilemma stated by Mills is
actually the origin of evil because skeptics are insinuating that
the evil we witness in the world must have been pre-meditated by God
or He would never have allowed it to rear its ugly head. Christians
typically try to divert the responsibility for evil from God to man,
saying correctly that the sin of man is the root cause of evil. But
if a skeptic has suffered the loss of a child to leukemia or a
drive-by shooter, he will angrily ask why, if God has control,
didn’t He prevent it? Or he might ask how a 3 year old child
could bring about its own demise through sin, or why would a good
God allow the sin of an adult to cause the suffering of an innocent
child? If God knew that men would sin and cause so much
suffering, why did He create us? How could a perfectly good
God choose to create a universe in which conscious beings would
ultimately suffer in the most horrible ways through disease,
torture, mental illness, starvation and war? Something is
wrong. A good God wouldn’t allow such things to happen and so
if the Bible says God is good, it has to be nothing more than a
religious fantasy. A God who would allow such things must
either have an evil side to His nature, be utterly capricious, or
must not have total control. Christians are mad if they expect
us to believe otherwise.
The alleged problem is complex,
involving God’s level of power or control and His decision to create
a species of free willed beings. The dilemma posed by Mills
complicates the problem even more by defining God’s omnipotence
incorrectly. We are subtly led to believe the premise that
there is absolutely nothing beyond God’s control, which is simply
not true, even for the almighty God revealed in the Bible. The
Bible says God is omniscient, boundless, eternal and invincible, but
it certainly doesn’t say that God can defy logic. He can’t
create another God with “no beginning and no end”. He can’t
create a triangle with 4 sides. He can’t create a man that is
not a man. In other words, in the universe God chose to
create, that is, one regulated by precise laws, one that is
understandable and defined by rules of mathematical logic, there are
certain things that God can’t do. He can’t defy his own
nature, Him being absolutely and eternally what He is, meaning, for
instance, that as a perfect moral being, He can’t lie or violate His
own “good” will. So if God chose to create free-willed beings
as the best of all possible creative scenarios, He is obligated to
provide them with an opportunity to choose. This does not make Him
impotent or evil.
In other words, because mankind
generally considers free-will to be a good thing, God has not
violated the good aspect of His nature by creating free willed
beings as opposed to slaves or robots. But free-willed beings
will choose to sin, and even God can’t create a free-willed being
without options. So in one respect the typical response to the
problem of evil made by Christians is appropriate. A huge
portion of the evil experienced in the world today is generated by
the lust, greed and hostility of men. But why did God choose
to create a being that would ultimately bring about
suffering?
The question probably doesn’t have a
perfectly satisfying answer but anyone who has ever chosen to have a
child has at least some insight into the matter. We know that
our children may someday become horribly disfigured, be ridiculed
and scorned by their peers, be rejected by their first love or be
killed in war but in spite of that, we choose to “create” beings in
our own image with the capacity to choose a path in life, that is,
beings with the opportunity to live, to love, and to experience joy,
excitement and total fulfillment. Why do we do it? We do
it for the same reason God created us, meaning it may simply be part
of our nature to create beings in our own image. That act, in
and of itself, does not render us as inherently evil.
But what about “natural” evil, like
the loss of life or limb in a tornado, that is, the onslaught of
suffering through a natural occurrence totally beyond the control or
influence of men, suffering caused by what insurance companies call
“acts of God”?
Are they really acts of God?
The Bible certainly describes many natural disasters caused by God
in his judgment of humanity. In fact, the Bible says that the
ultimate judgment of men by God will involve natural calamities on a
scale never before seen. Skeptics want to know how a good God
could wreak such havoc? In return Christians ask, with the
underlying assumption that justice is good, how could a just God
avoid wreaking such havoc on men who have caused such dreadful
suffering?
In any case, although the problem of
evil in any guise raises a lot of questions, it becomes downright
thorny for a skeptic. If he uses the origin of evil to deny
the existence of a good God, he must figure out how to explain the
origin of good, because the phenomena of evil is certainly nothing
more than a corruption of that which is perfectly good. How
can we judge something as evil if we have no concept of perfect
goodness, established by a perfectly good God, against which to
measure? Christians do not have the problem of explaining the
origin of good. That problem is reserved for skeptics.
What we are saying is this.
The answer to why the God of the Bible allowed evil to enter our
universe is certainly wrapped up in the concept of free will and the
consequent evil choices it allows. At least we have some
insight into the difficulty as a “parenting” species of free willed
progeny. For Christians, that insight probably represents as much
understanding of the matter as they will ever need because they are
more concerned with the existence of evil rather than in its origin.
But how can a skeptic successfully contend with a phenomenon whose
existence his philosophy logically denies? How can he escape the
quandary described above, that is, in order for evil to exist, good
must exist but good and evil would be nonsense in a godless
universe?
So if we are to gain any peace of
mind at all about the reality of suffering, whether or not we think
of natural disasters as “acts of God” or whether or not we agree
that free will is good enough to be worth the inherent risk, and
because the evidence is stacked against us if we think we can
eliminate God simply by blaming Him for the presence of evil, we
should certainly be more interested in how to overcome evil rather
than in its origin or existence. It seems to be a part of life
and few of us indeed would choose never to have breathed rather than
having had the opportunity to experience life as free willed beings,
regardless of whether that experience may have included
suffering. We recognize that in order to live and love, we
must run the risk of being exposed to the malice of others.
The existence of suffering by design, either through the cruelty of
man or the judgment of God, appears to be inevitable.
A Christian deals with evil by
accepting evidence for the existence of God and accepting that God’s
choice to create free-willed beings is somewhat of a mystery,
probably rooted in a plan by God involving the ultimate and eternal
victory of good over evil, but is none-the-less grateful for the
decision and endures everyday suffering with assurance from a good
God that his suffering will eventually end. The Godly gifts he
uses to fight suffering are courage and patience, terms without
meaning in a strictly survivalist world. An atheist or
skeptical agnostic can only fight suffering with stubbornness,
bitterness, anger, hedonism or finally, suicide. He certainly can’t
call on courage. Courage necessitates taking an unnecessary
risk for a cause. What cause? The sanctity of life?
Righteousness? There would be no such thing in an atheistic
world. Taking a risk simply to survive is not courage; it is
instinct. He can’t call on patience. Patience involves
waiting in silence. Waiting for what? Death? The
suffering to end? Why cultivate virtue by waiting
patiently? He might as well do whatever he can to end his
suffering right now and virtue be damned.
The skeptic is rejecting scientific
evidence for the existence of God and seems to be saying that his
bitterness and anger regarding the presence of evil are evidence
that God doesn’t exist, that if God existed he would feel joy and
fulfillment instead. But how could he even know what joy and
fulfillment were unless he had experienced them or witnessed them in
others and if he did, there must be a God. Put another way, men
experience joy and fulfillment, even in the midst of suffering, but
it wouldn’t be possible without a God, unless one had a very low
standard of joy and fulfillment.
The almost negligible incidence of
suicide in the history of mankind tells us that the great majority
of men, in spite of their views about the origin or existence of
evil, would choose life over death, even if it included suffering.
Although they may shake their fist at God in illogical defiance of
his existence, they agree with his decision that to be a free-willed
living being, subject to suffering and death, is better than not
existing at all. In other words, they consider life good.
Accordingly then, perhaps something like this should replace Mill’s
dilemma.
Suffering is viewed as evil. Because
mankind agrees that life as a free-willed being is a good thing,
mankind should accept responsibility for the evil and consequent
suffering he has brought into the world. Mankind should also
recognize that a just God is obligated to bring judgment and even
more suffering on men. Christ provides the solution for evil
and suffering, whether from man or from the judgment of God, and men
should avail themselves of that solution rather than blaming God for
their problems, especially when it won’t change things anyway.
Jesus Christ freely chose to perform
the most loving act imaginable, to suffer for all of us so that our
suffering could ultimately end. His solution to the problem of evil
also includes separating good from evil in heaven or hell and
providing every free-willed, morally aware being, the opportunity to
choose between the two, which brings us to another common skeptical
attack on Christianity along the same lines as the “problem” of
evil.
'Why would a good, loving God allow
evil and suffering to continue. Why hasn't He stopped
it?'
The late Walter Martin, best known
for his book, “The Kingdom of the Cults”, told the story of a man
who asked him this question. Mr. Martin realized, whether the
man did or not, that the man was implying that he would handle evil
differently if he were God. Mr. Martin asked him if he had one
minute to solve the problem of evil in the world today, what would
he do? The man remained silent. Martin forced the man to
recognize that if he wanted to stop evil right now, he would have to
destroy humanity.
God is loving and
long-suffering. He doesn't want to see anyone perish. He
holds the door open as long as possible in anticipation of one more
soul coming to salvation. The Bible says that God will wait
patiently, so as many as possible can be saved, but when our sin
reaches an intolerable level, He will intervene. According to
the Bible that time is close at hand. Those who remain in
rebellion at their own death, or at the return of Christ, will be
separated from His presence forever.
What about the people who have
never had a chance to hear? Is it fair for them to go to
Hell?
This is another of several prevalent
objections to Christianity that all share a common denominator, that
upon analysis their relevance to the more important question is
lacking. Once this has been demonstrated, continued use of
such “red herring” skeptical ruses becomes suspicious, as if the
skeptic isn’t really interested in answers but, rather, is
justifying his own world-view. So what is the “more important”
question to which we refer? It is the question asked by Christ
of all men and the one He asked Peter in Galilee 2000 years
ago. “Who do you say that I am?” If there is enough
evidence to answer that question correctly, as Peter did, saying in
response, “the messiah”, that is, the Son of God and the savior of
mankind, then one has no excuse for not responding as Peter did. To
ask why someone would go to hell for not hearing about Christ does
not answer this real question and is simply another diversion.
Anyone having faced a judge to plead
their innocence knows that they were not judged upon the merits of
men appearing before them, regardless if in someone’s opinion those
men were unfairly charged. It would be foolish to irrelevantly
admonish a judge because we thought some other defendant had been
unjustly indicted and then expect our admonishment to work in our
favor. Every person charged with a crime had better prepare a
defense based upon its own merits. An opinion about the
fairness of some other case will probably be disregarded. The
Bible says that everyone will be individually and fairly judged by a
perfectly just God. To the individual who proposes the above
question, the Bible guarantees that he will be judged upon what has
been revealed to him. If he has heard the “good news”, there
remains no excuse.
But in spite of all that, there is
an answer and it is this. No one has, or ever will be, sent to
hell for not hearing about Christ. Paul clearly informs us of
this in the Book of Romans. In effect, he writes that the
creation itself is evidence for the existence of God and therefore,
because every man intuitively knows right from wrong through a God
given conscience, every man should seek mercy from God for violating
the perfect moral code his conscience has convicted him of
violating. So if a person who has never heard of Christ is
sent to hell, it will be because he has ungraciously rejected God
the Creator. Paul points out that generally men have gone down
that path, choosing what is right in their own minds and worshipping
the things of the world and of their own making rather than the
Creator, hence the need for salvation. In any case, if a man
asks the above question, it is an indication that he himself has
heard about Jesus and must respond to that knowledge.
The Bible indicates that God is
just, an aspect of His nature requiring that sin be punished. Jesus
Christ satisfied that requirement by suffering and dying on the
cross for His fellow men, an act displaying not only God's sense of
justice but His capacity for compassion as well, further
demonstration of His goodness.
'A good God would not send anyone to
Hell!'
This is Mill’s dilemma all over
again but it highlights a lack of understanding of the Bible and is
definitely not a valid reason to reject Christ. God doesn't
send anyone to Hell. God created us with a free will and we
wouldn’t have it any other way, as we consider freedom to be a
“good” thing. But if there are moral laws, which there are,
and if there is such a thing as free will, which there is, then
ultimately the choice will be made to disobey those moral
laws. That is a decision we have all consciously and willfully
made, at one time or another, and it renders us guilty. In a
just universe, and we consider justice a “good” thing, guilt is
punished. It isn’t as if the punishment is a surprise - it has been
revealed and it is described as “hell”. A pardon would be a
“good” thing and that’s what God has offered through the suffering
and death of Jesus Christ. If someone chooses to reject God's
offer of a pardon after being told that he will be punished, it is
somewhat difficult to rationally lay the blame on God. A good God
would offer salvation to everyone and He has done just that.
'I am a good person, I don't harm
anyone, why would God punish me?'
The first part of this statement is
probably the greatest self-deception ever practiced by mankind.
According to the Bible, no one is a good person.
"As it is
written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none
who understand; There is none who seeks after God. They have
all gone out of the way; They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one." Romans
3:10-12
"For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God." Romans
3:23
Those making the above statement are
obviously comparing themselves to some other person they consider
less righteous than themselves. Unfortunately for them, they
are being judged against the requirements of a perfect moral code,
not against the behavior of Joseph Stalin or Charles Manson.
They have “missed the mark” morally and consequently must endure the
judgment of a perfect judge who will not display partiality and will
punish all offenses.
'I can't accept a religion that
is narrow minded and says that Jesus is the only way to enter
heaven.'
Here again, the primary question
remains unanswered in the presentation of an irrelevant objection.
It is not Christianity as a religion that is being rejected but
Jesus Christ, who told his followers that to enter the kingdom of
heaven, one must accept the sacrifice that He was to make, on their
behalf, and that there was no other way. The objection is irrelevant
because it doesn’t change anything. If there is no other way
for an illegal alien to gain citizenship in this country other than
by passing a test and taking an oath of allegiance, then rejecting
the citizens and president of this nation as narrow minded, and
refusing to take the test or the oath, will have no effect
whatsoever except to prolong the objector’s alien status. The
failure to accept a truth doesn't change that truth. Jesus
said he was the only way and if there is evidence indicating
otherwise, so be it, but not liking what he said doesn’t refute his
claim.
But it is not true that God is
narrow-minded regarding salvation. God offers salvation to all
of mankind, without prejudice. Christ died for everyone's
sins, without discriminating. That is not a narrow-minded
effort. In reality the person making the above statement
resents being placed under the authority of God and wants to
continue following his own course of action. If that person
was trapped in a burning building and was offered only one avenue of
escape, would he accuse his rescuer of being
narrow-minded?
'Many Christians are self-righteous
hypocrites - look at Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker.'
This objection is a rejection of
Christianity, in effect a rejection of Christ, because of all the
wars and persecution and questionable behavior attributed to those
claiming to be Christians. In other words, the skeptic refuses
to embrace Christianity because of the historical existence of
malpractice by its leaders, institutions and practitioners.
The common denominator between this objection and many others is,
again, its irrelevancy to the real issue. If, in fact, men
claiming to be acting on behalf of God committed immoral acts, then
how does their behavior affect the truth or non-truth of Jesus claim
to be the Son of God? It doesn’t.
But on the surface this may appear
to be a valid reason for rejecting Christ. If wars,
persecution and hypocrisy result from faith in Christ, then the
Bible’s claim that His followers will manifest virtues is suspect.
Therefore the Bible can’t be trusted, and if the Bible can’t be
trusted, what other evidence is there that Christ is the one He
alleges to be?
The entire argument fails to
consider the true meaning of hypocrisy, however. Hypocrisy is
failing to practice what you preach. Hypocrisy is pretense and
duplicity, the practice of a double standard. But in order for a
pretense of the real thing to take place, the real thing must
exist. In other words, a hypocrite can be used as proof that
real Christians exist. We must ask these skeptics if they reject law
and order because of crooked cops, the art of healing because of
quacks or charitable organizations because of embezzlers.
The persecution of true believers
and reformers during the inquisition in Europe, the crusades, the
forced conversion of native Americans, the bloody massacres carried
out by religious factions in Ireland, Lebanon, the justification of
slavery and anti-Semitism, the persecution of Muslims in Serbia, and
other similar acts, are all certified facts of history. There
is no doubt of that. But they were not initiated or ordained
by individual Christians but by men serving a religious/political
“system” from a personal position of power. Primarily the
Roman Catholic Church, that is the Papacy, and to a lesser extent
powerful denominations, like the Lutheran Church, the Church of
England, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Southern Baptist
Church, are the religious institutions responsible for the vast
majority of injustices that have been used by critics to attack
Christianity. But the acts could not be considered
hypocritical unless there existed what the Bible refers to as the
true church, or in the parlance of the New Testament, the “body” of
Christ.
The individuals making up this true
“body” of believers are recognizable today, and throughout history,
by their commitment to the expression of the gospel through
self-sacrifice and religious freedom and by their willingness to be
martyred for their belief in the face of persecution. They are
responsible for hospitals, institutions of higher learning,
orphanages, charitable organizations like the Red Cross and the
Salvation Army and relief organizations for the poor and sick.
Critics point at religious hypocrites who use the cover of
Christianity to justify their quest for power and label them as
Christians in their attempt to find an excuse to deny Christ. A fair
analysis of history would reveal that true Christians are defined by
their commitment to humanitarian causes and religious freedom
whereas hypocrites are defined by their commitment to political,
military and financial power. In other words, each category
can be recognized by their actions and Christian hypocrites would
not exist if real Christians didn’t, so it is completely illogical
to reject Christianity as a credible belief system because of the
existence of fakers.
We are not being compared to one
another as we are judged by God, but against the demands of a holy
and perfect moral code and the only one who successfully obeyed it,
Jesus Christ. Those rejecting Christ because of religious
hypocrisy within the Church need to compare themselves to Him rather
than mere mortals who have distorted his message. Even a
skeptic should be able to recognize the absolute antithesis of the
“sermon on the mount” exhibited by the elitist priesthood of
the politically powerful Church of Rome, Church of England, Eastern
Orthodox Church and others. Organizations like these, in the
name of Christianity, have actually been the most potent &
vindictive enemy of true individual Christians, that is, individuals
who refuse to bow down to tradition and ritual. If Skeptics
can’t see this, it is more likely an attempt to turn the light away
from themselves rather than an honest ignorance of history.
Men like Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart may be hypocrites but then
again they may be just like the rest of us, morally imperfect and
struggling with temptation on a daily basis, thrown into the
limelight because of their public status. How many of us would
like to see our darkest secrets shown on the 6:00 PM news. The
Bible says that if they, like all of us, accept Christ’s sacrifice
for their sins and repent, they will be forgiven. But if they,
like all of us, maintain their goodness relative to someone they
consider worse than themselves, God will equate their
self-righteousness with “filthy menstrual rags”, a metaphor used by
the prophet Isaiah.
"Religion is a crutch for the
weak"
This statement is usually followed
by a patronizing observation. The skeptic, apparently aware
that becoming a Christian benefited someone suffering from some
“character flaw” like drug addiction, condescendingly allows that if
it works for so & so, that’s fine but he doesn’t need it.
There are two issues here. First, the skeptic is equating a
commitment to Christ with the myriad of secular fixes available in
today’s world for the psychological maladies plaguing humanity from
“womb to tomb”. As we have seen, Christ’s claim is to heal the
malady we face after the grave. The skeptic is dragging a
person who claimed to be the savior of our eternal souls to the
level of a psychiatrist and then saying he doesn’t need a
psychiatrist. Maybe so but it doesn’t logically follow that he
doesn’t need eternal salvation. Second, the skeptic certainly does
not understand the inward soul searching that is part and parcel of
becoming a Christian. Maybe he thinks that recognition of
one’s own moral imperfection in a universe governed by perfect moral
law is weakness. In reality it is wisdom and moral
discernment. On the other hand, the refusal to recognize moral
depravity in the face of conviction is foolishness and to believe
that one has no need of moral healing is the epitome of
arrogance. To admit the violation of a perfect moral law and
conclude that there will be no consequences is naive, if not
vapid.
Those who relinquish their lives to
the authority of Christ understand that they are obligating
themselves to a life of submission and obedience. Christ makes
it clear that sacrifice and tribulation will be the primary
ingredient characterizing a believer’s life. That is a choice
generally not made by the faint-hearted.
'What about Muslims, Hindus, Mormons
and others, they are sincerely worshipping God so why would He
punish them'?
Sincerity is not the primary
ingredient necessary for salvation, rather it is the object of our
sincerity. Pure sincerity can, and quite often does, lead to
death. A blind trapeze artist may sincerely believe there is a
safety net under him because his riggers told him so. If they
lied, his sincere faith in the net will not save him if he
falls. If we sincerely believe we are drinking water but it's
poison, the object of our sincerity will kill us. The owners
of the Titanic sincerely believed their vessel to be unsinkable, but
their passengers perished.
The Bible says we must rely on the
wisdom of God for our salvation. The Bible describes a specific God
and says He and He alone offers salvation. Other religions are not
worshipping the God of the Bible. They are worshipping a God
conceived of by men. They are in violation of God's first holy
commandment.
"You shall have no other
gods before Me." Exodus 20:3
Like every other human being, they
are being offered the opportunity to be forgiven. They can
accept salvation, like anyone else, but not from a god who doesn't
exist, no matter how sincerely they believe he does.
Jesus Christ is unique when compared
to the religions of the world. Without exception, other
religions abide by a system wherein the deeds of their adherents
provide justification in the eyes of their god, thus qualifying them
for a place in heaven. But Jesus Christ offers salvation as a
completely unearned and undeserved gift. There are no strings
attached. There is nothing we must accomplish to earn His
favor. It is not necessary to go through any ritual of
preparation. There is no list of merits or charitable works we
must present. The only requirement necessary to receive the
gift is to ask for it. It is there for the taking and it is
not in short supply. There is enough for every human being
ever born. Those who will not receive the gift are those who
refuse it.
This is what the Bible says
regarding the truth of why people reject Jesus Christ.
They refuse to come to the light of Jesus because they do not want
their sin to be revealed.
"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and
does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
"But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be
clearly seen, that they have been done in God." John
3:19-21
The desire to keep sin hidden is
what keeps us from Christ. In its simplest form this desire is
manifested in the following way. We have adopted a behavior
pattern we know God condemns but because we don't want to give it
up, we refuse to accept the authority of the Bible. Those of
us falling into this category need only take one additional step in
order to meet Jesus Christ. The prerequisite step has already
been taken, the admission that we are engaging in sinful
behavior. In any case, we are experiencing a degree of
pleasure for the moment, knowing it is wrong, but still refusing to
sacrifice that pleasure.
We have all had the experience of
forfeiting self-control for instant gratification, knowing we would
pay the price later but ignoring the reality. When we finally
realize the future price is too great, we exercise restraint.
When we recognize that the future price includes eternal judgment,
we are ready to take the necessary step to meet Jesus Christ. But we
must understand that more than a commitment to restraint is
necessary. The sins of the past must also be dealt with.
Jesus Christ dealt with them completely and forever, however, so
submission to His work on our behalf solves that problem.
But failure to deal properly with
our sins of the past can be a dangerous cover up. An
individual may gain control over a specific vice and believe his
newly acquired self-control relieves him of the responsibility for
previous transgressions. But obeying the law now does not
absolve one from the guilt of a past crime, even though we tend to
think that our current good behavior makes everything OK and changes
us from bad to good. That is a dangerous line of thinking
because we are deceived into believing there are no consequences at
the end of the road. We may never take that step which
permanently erases our guilt.
The most lethal means of avoiding
the personal exposure of sin is the steadfast maintenance that sin
is not sin, which is denial in its purest form. It is the
self-exaltation of oneself to the position of ultimate authority as
to what is right and wrong and then using that position to justify
one's behavior. Of course that place is reserved for God,
according to the Bible, and He makes it clear that to pursue that
line of reasoning will result in destruction. The first step
out of this deadly philosophical trap is to admit the overt and
free-will commission of one act that is morally wrong.
When we realize we have been morally
imperfect, at least once, we can then begin to understand that the
imperfection would not even be apparent without the conviction of a
perfect moral law. That perfect moral law is revealed in the
Bible. We know the Bible is the Word of God because of the
foreknowledge it exhibits. It says sin must be punished.
Through the Bible we also know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
and His hand is extended, offering a pardon.
"Come to Me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew
11:28
Finally, there are those who say
they just can't drum up enough faith, even though they assent
intellectually. This is just another smokescreen. Faith
is not an emotion like ecstasy. It is a choice, an
intellectual commitment, and every human has been given the capacity
to view evidence and choose to exercise faith or not one person
would ever submit to invasive surgery, follow a guide down a
dangerous trail or board an airplane. Exercising faith in the
person and work of Jesus Christ is no different. But Christ,
like a surgeon, will not provide healing unless that faith is
exercised.
Our examination of the evidence has
led to an inescapable conclusion - Jesus Christ is the way, the
truth and the life, just as He says, and He offers the opportunity
to know Him. Each time His offer is met with apathy or
rejection it grieves Him but according to the Bible, the entire
“host of heaven” rejoices at the salvation of one lost
soul.
In this book we have emphasized the
absolute authority and unwavering nature of God. That is
because many today are deluding millions into believing that God is
not concerned with sin and will overlook it. He will
not. But God is also loving. His love surpasses our
comprehension. It is a love that is faithful, reliable,
protective, nurturing and generous. We must have faith in His
plan of redemption in order to partake of it, however.
Someone we would not hesitate to
sacrifice our lives for is someone we must love very much.
Correspondingly, someone who would lay his life down for us must
love us just as much. Jesus Christ did that for the very
people who killed Him, Jewish and Roman men who symbolically
represent any of us who have rejected and scorned Him at some point
in our lives. Please do not continue rejecting Him. Meet Him now by
admitting to your sin and asking for mercy - tomorrow may be too
late.
"Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there
is no deceit." Psalm
32:1,2 |