I Thessalonians Chapter 2 Believes the Bible as Word Of God. I Peter 3:15 Always be ready to defend the hope within you....
Evidences - 7 Reasons To Trust The Bible Fulfilled Prophecy.
Something that sets the Bible apart from every other religious book is "fulfilled prophecy". There are 27 religious books that people of faith believed to be divinely inspired writings. NONE CONTAIN FULFILLED PROPHECY. The Bible is filled with hundreds of specific detailed prophecies written hundreds of years before fulfillment. 27% of the Bible contains predictive prophecy at the time it was written. That’s about 1 out of every 4 verses (references to Nostrdamus [1503-1566] and Jeane Dixon [1918-1997] as false prophets). See: Old Testament Scripture Genesis 12:1-3; 22:18; 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:12; refers to Seed of Abraham, Tribe Of Judah, Lineage of David, written 600 years before Micah 5:2 wrote being born in Bethlehem, Isaiah 7:14; Malachi 3:1; Virgin Birth & 1st century Temple stands at time of Jesus’ birth, Isaiah 35:5-6; Psalm 118:22; Daniel 9:24-26 refers to Jesus’ miracles, and rejection and precise year of Jesus’ death. (Also see Matthew 21:42 & Acts 4:10-12) 483 years { that's 69 yrs x groups of 7 yrs} after declaration to reconstruct the city of Jerusalem in 444 B.C. (occurs approximately 32 A.D.), there are prophecies written 500 years in advance of the Messiah’s “CUT OFF” or Murder or being Executed. See Psalms 22:16-18, Isaiah 53, Zacheriah 12:12-see how these men, King David, Prophets Isaiah and Zachariah wrote how Jesus would die hundreds of years prior to development of crucifixion. Psalms 16:10 and Isaiah 53 also refers to how Jesus would conquer death before His body would experience decay which starts at 3 days. This shows that there could be no doctoring or manipulation of the Bible to fit the story of Jesus Christ. The existence of hundreds of manuscript copies of old testament predating Jesus’ birth. These are manuscripts dating back to 3rd century B.C. and verifies prophecies of the Messiah were already in place. Dead Sea Scrolls found in 1947 in Qumran, which is north and south of the Dead Sea in Israel; a shepherd boy found a cave containing the scrolls while looking for sheep on a hillside. The scrolls were untouched for 2,000 years. They were hidden by the Essenes, a Jewish sect at Qumran during that time. This represents every book of the old testament except for the book of Esther. Found scrolls dating back 100 years before Christ within the cave. This proves that an all knowing and powerful God orchestrated the Bible’s completion.
Archaelogical Evidence - shows the Bible is not a book of mythology. For the past 150 years, archaeologists have been verifying exact truthfulness of the Bible and that it’s so accurate, it’s refered to as a “Reliable Guide” when digging at new locations. An archaeologist, Dr. Nelson Gleuck, (not a Christian) who made 1,100 discoveries was quoted saying, “It may be stated that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Bible reference". Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail, historical statements in the Bible. And by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries. More than 25,000 archaeological discoveries have been found in the region known as “The Bible Lands”. 1a. Replica of original stone displayed in Israeli museum inscription - Pontius Pilate Prefect of Judah, has been presented the Tiberium to the Caesareans. This affirms Pontius Pilate as a real human being. 2a. Parchment found with date of King David as King of Isreal in Dan. Which is in northern Isreal, north of the Sea of Galilee. Found in 1993 dated 900 years before Jesus Christ. Time Magazine wrote an article referring to it on 12-18-1995. This makes skeptics denial of King David hard to defend. 3a. Caiaphas Ossuary, see Matthew 26:57, was found in 1990. The entire family burial site was found. 4a. Hezekiah’s tunnel was found, see 2 Kings 20:20. 5a. Ruins of Babylon as describe in Daniel 1:1 are found. 6a. Pool of Silom as mentioned in John 9:1-7, was found in 2005 and was covered by Fox news. 7a. Jacob’s well as mentioned in John 4:1-6 was found. 8a. Pool of Bethesda as mentioned in John 5:2 found. 9a. Capernum Synagogue as mentioned in Mark 1:21 where Jesus often taught, was found. 10a. On 11-05-2005, the Megiddo Church which is the oldest church ever excavated and was dedicated to “the God Man, Jesus Christ” as found written in the mosaic tile. JW’s say doctrine of the Trinity was invented in 4th century by the Nicene Council. But, this proves the Christian church was refering to Christ as “the God man” 100 years before the 4th century began. Book of Morman - not one piece of evidence has ever been found to support none of the large cities named, no ruins, no coins, letters or documents, not in writing, no rivers, mountains, none of the topography it mentions were ever identified. Nothing which demonstrates the Book of Morman is anything other than an early 19th century piece of American fiction, invented by Joseph Smith has ever been found (Joseph Smith [1805-1844]). These are just 11 of 25,000 pieces of archaeological evidence found to validate the Bible.
The Bible’s Internal Consistency - 5 Factors of Internal Consistency. 1a. The Bible addresses life’s most controversial questions: "How Did the Universe Come Into Existence"?, "Does God Exist,and if So, What is He Like"?, "Why Do People Exist"?, "Why is There Evil and Suffering in the World"?, "What Happens to People After They Die"? 2a. The Bible is a collection of 66 different documents (books), that all are consistent with many authors, Qur’an is one author, one book that contains the teaching of one man, Mohammad who was born 600 years after Christ. 3a. The Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors, more than one man. 4a. The Bible was written over a period of approximately 1500+ years and covering some 60 generations. 5a. Authors were separated by hundreds of miles geographically on 3 different continent; Africa, Asia, and Europe. Summary: 40 Different Authors, 60+ Different Generations, 3 Different Continents, 3 Different Languages, 66 Different Document Books Answers Life’s 5 Most Controversial Issues, yet inspite all factors, the Bible is a perfectly harmonious, consistent account of how God is seeking to reconcile sinners to Himself through the person and work of His Son. Old and New Testaments point to God’s Son, Jesus Christ. There's evidence of extra Biblical writings/literary evidence in ancient literature. There are dozens of writings outside of the Bible that verify the historical accuracy of many persons, places, and events mentioned in the Bible. External sources verify that at least 80 persons mentioned in the Bible were actual historical figures (50 people from old testament and 30 people from new testament). At one time, some critics suggested that Jesus, Himself, never existed. That He was an invention of some clever deceivers in the 1st century. Flavious Josephus, was a 1st century Roman historian. He mentions more than a dozen individuals mentioned in the new testament including John the Baptist, Herod the Great, even Jesus Christ our Lord & Savior. He was not a Christian, but said, “At this time, there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And His conduct was good. And He was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and other nations became His disciples. Pliate condemned Him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become His disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them after His crucifixion and that He was alive". -Flavious Josephus Antiquities 18:63-64. There are 39 sources outside the Bible within 150 years of Jesus’ life, that reveal to us more than 100 facts about the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Evidence of the Bible’s Amazing Scientific Accuracy and Foresight, the Bible was completed 2,000 years ago long before the invention of microscopes, telescopes, and satellites. The fact that it was written so long ago and yet does not contain errors in science may be thought as miraculous itself. Every ancient religious writing as certain unscientific views of astronomy, medicine, hygiene, etc. A1) Hindu Vedas - Teach earthquakes are the result of elephants shaking their bodies underneath the ground. A2) The Qur’an - Speaks of a man, Alexander the Great, traveling until he actually finds the place that the sun decends down into the earth (18:86). This was the prevailing view in Egypt hundreds of years before Mohammad. People living in Saudi Arabia Pennisula adopted the view of the sun sinks into the earth daily. Egyptians believed the sun to be a god who would die and descend into the eart then rise itself up again and come back to life. Qur’an-Surah 18:86 - Till when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring. The Bible steers clear of these kinds of errors. Not only that, but it makes known amazing facts about our world and the universe thousands of years before scientists discovered actual truth. A3) The Sun - contrast to the Qur’an, the Bible teaches the sun was on a circuit in space, 1,500 years before Mohammad was born, King David wrote: “Its rising is from one end of heaven; and its circuit to the other end”. Psalms 19:6. A4) The Shape Of The Earth - When the rest of the world believed the earth was flat, Isaiah declared the earth was a round sphere. “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth”. Isaiah 40:22. The word “circle” in Hebrew is -chug- (shug). It indicates something spherical, rounded, or arched. From the Hebrew Lexicon Dictionary - not a flat circle like a pancake, but a sphere like a ball. Isaiah wrote these words somewhere between 740-680 years B.C. at least 300 years before Aristotle suggested in his book, “On The Heavens”, that the earth might be a sphere. Also, in 1492 A.D., more than 2,000 years after Isaiah penned those words, some people thought Christopher Columbus was going to sail off the edge of a flat planet. F) The Suspension Of The Earth- Before Isaac Newton discovered gravity, Hindus believed that the earth rested on the back of an elephant who stood on the back of a turtle that was swimming in a great cosmic sea of milk. The Greeks believed that the mythical god, Atlas, carried the earth on his back. Job wrote "He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” Scientists did not discover that the earth hangs on nothing until 1650, more than 3,000 years after Job wrote those words. The Stars - In the prevailing thoughts before the invention of the telescope, mankind believed the stars could be counted. They numbered all and made star charts, and then gave names. Hipparchus (190-120 B.C.), the Greek astronomer and mathematician, said they were exactly 1,026 stars 1-2 centuries before Christ. Then Ptolemy, (c. 85-165 A.D.) astronomer and mathematician, said there were 1,056 about 1,000 years after Christ, until the German astronomer, Johannes Kepher, (1571-1630 A.D.) counted only 1,006 stars. When Galileo, a Christian scientist, pointed his telescope to the heavens in 1608, he discovered that these previous counts were way off and that the Bible was actually right. Jeremiah 33:22, “The host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured” (written by Jeremiah over 2,000 years prior to Galileo making his discovery). People mocked Jeremiah until Galileo. With the help of powerful telescopes and modern satellite photographs, scientists estimates the universe contains approximately 100 billion galaxies containing approximately 200 billion stars each. Hubble Space Telescope has returned thousands upon thousands of photos of distant galaxies. Carl Sagan, (1934-1996 A.D.) a world famous astronomer, said: “The total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.” (Cosmos p.196) He was not a Christian. He further stated, “My two hands can pick up more than a million grains of sand in one scoop. Imagine the beaches all around the world on all 7 continents. An idea 100 billion x 200 billion equals about the amount of grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. Staggering thought when you think about the size of stars. If we hollowed out the sun like a pumpkin, we could fit 1,306,000 planet earths inside the sun. A single star in the milky way.” Our God is Greater, and more powerful than we could ever imagine. Scientists say that there are enough stars in the universe that every single person could own more than 2 trillion stars each (buy a star @ star registry for $75.00 each). How did the authors of the Bible know the earth was a round sphere, hangs on nothing, stars were uncountable, and sun on a circuit through space? Were they guessing? Their accuracy rules out guessing. II Peter 1:21, “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. The God who knows all there is to know about the universe, superintended the writing of the Bible to make sure that what He wanted written, was written (see II Timothy 3:16).
Framework to remember topics: Fulfilled Prophecy Archaeological Discoveries Consistency External Writings Scientific Accuracy and Foresight Evidence of Manuscript - Mormons and Muslims like to say that the Bible cannot be trusted because of the text of the Bible has not been accurately transmitted down through the centuries. Book of Mormon was published in 1830 A.D. Qur’an was published 600 years after completion of the Bible. What is manuscript evidence? A manuscript is any surviving hand written copy of an ancient document that preceeds the invention of the printing press in 1455 A.D. Until 1455, the Bible had to be translated and transmitted by Christian monks and Jewish Scribes who took very good care of their scripts and the Bible. As a matter of fact, today there survives some 24,000 partial and complete ancient hand written manuscript copies of the new testament, not to mention hundreds of copies of the old testament. These manuscript copies of the Bible have allowed Biblical scholars and textual critics to go back and verify that the Bible is the same Bible that the early church had 2,000 years ago. The British museum, Oxford University, and Israeli Museum in Jerusalem are places where manuscript writings may be found. Even if manuscript copies of the Bible were not available, there is still another way of verifying that the Bible has not undergone corruption. And that is by examining the writing of the “Church Fathers”. They are the leaders of the church of the first 3 centuries A.D. following the original disciples (Justin Marytyr, Tertulian, Eusebus Polycarp). These men and others, in their commentaries of the Bible, correspondence with each other and letters to different churches, preserved the Bible for us, by quoting what the Bible said in their writings. They quoted the new testament alone more than 86,000 times. Their writings survived until today. Go to Amazon.com and buy an encyclopedia size set of the writings of the “Church Fathers”, 38 volumes, and see with your own eyes their numerous quotations of the Bible. There are enough quotations from the early Church Fathers that even if we did not have a single manuscript copy of the Bible, scholars could still reconstruct 99.86% of the new testament we have today from their writings. 2,500 years ago, Isaiah gave us this assurance in Isaiah 40:8, “The grass whithers, the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever”. Jesus confirms Isaiah in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Words will by no means pass away”. Ask the Mormons; what evidence do they have? Say it in love. I Peter 3:15, ...."Always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is within you. Do this with gentleness and respect.”
The Willingness of Jesus’ Disciples to Suffer CountlessThousands of Christians in the 1st century chose rather to die, preferring to be crucified, eaten alive by wild animals, or burned alive on stakes, than renounce Jesus as Lord or deny that they had seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion. Question: Were they deceived? Lying? ...... People lie to get out of trouble, not to get into trouble. Which is what happened to these Christians. Historians, such as Flavious Josephus, Eusebus, and others, record for us that Jesus' disciples went to their graves, one by one, suffering and dying painful deaths, for their on going belief and preaching that Jesus is Lord and risen from the dead. Matthew was slain with a halbred, (similar to an axe) in Ethiopia. Mark died in Alexandria, in northern Egypt, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of the city. Luke was hung to death upon an olive tree in Greece. James was beheaded in Jerusalem with a sword (mentioned in the book of Acts) .Phillip was hung up against a pillar in the city of Heiropolis and stoned to death. Bartholomew was flayed alive (skin pulled off while still alive). Jude was shot to death with arrows. Andrew, Peter’s brother, was bound to a cross and left to die from dehydration and exposure (one of the original disciples). Barnabus was stoned to death. Paul, after varieties of torchures, floggings, persecutions, and imprisonments, was beheaded in Rome. (Approximately 62 A.D.) Thomas was run through the body with a lance, (spear), in southwest India and thrown into a fire. Peter was crucified in Rome, upside down. Were these men lying? People may be willing to die for something that they think is true, (e.g. Kamakaze pilots, Muslim Terrorists), but nobody is willing to die for something they know is a lie. Jesus’ disciples were a unique place in history. They lived in and around Jerusalem in the 1st century where Jesus was publicly crucified and buried in a tomb. They were in a place to know for certain whether or not they had seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion. Muslim terrorists are not. They die for something they think is true. If they lived back in the 7th century at the time of Muhammad, and knew for certain that he was not a prophet of God, that he never performed any miracles, they would not be strapping explosives around themselves. They lay down their lives for something they hope is true, but have no way of verifying. They are hundreds of years removed from the time of Muhammad, but Jesus’ disciples knew for certain whether they had seen Him alive or whether they were making it up. Jesus’ disciples sealed their testamonies with their own blood, claiming all the way to the end that the long awaited Messiah and Savior of the world had lived amongst them and He had risen from the dead. This another compeling evidence they were telling the truth.
Evidence #1 Hundreds of Fulfilled Prophecies, #2 25 Thousand Archaeological Evidence, #3 The Bible’s Amazing Internal Harmony and Consistency, #4 Many Extra Biblical Writings Affirms Facts, Persons, Places, and Events, #5 The Bible’s Amazing Scientific Accuracy and Foresight, #6 Manuscript Evidence Verifies Accurate Copies of Originals, #7 Willingness of Jesus’ Disciples to Suffer What’s your verdict? A- The Bible is Trustworthy, B- Still Not Convinced. If A, ask: are you reading, are you trusting, are you recieving comfort from it’s promise? Are you standing upon the Word of God? Are you obeying it? Many will say Lord Lord. Read and be a doer. If B, Still not convinced, ask: what's it going to take? How long are you willing to wait? LIFE COULD COME TO A HALT. A pastor’s son from his faith tried to commit suicide by committing a head on collision. The four people in the other vehicle were all Christians and almost went over a cliff. All four ran to the other car and prayed for the driver who caused the accident and was bleeding to death. He received Christ and he lived. Rev. 20 - Great White Throne and Romans 3:10 None But the Righteous.
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Charlie Campbell's email address: info@alwaysbeready.com
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