Is There A God? - OnlyJesusSaves.org Ministries

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…die.
Now what? Is it nothing? Is it reincarnation? Is it
heaven or hell? What actually happens after you
take your last breath? If you were going to live forever, wouldn’t you want to know where you were
going and what that place would be like? What if there
were enough clues given to us to find out exactly
what that moment will be like? What if we can actually know with certainty what happens after we
die? Would you want to know that? Of course you
would. You would want to know so that, 1) you knew
where you were going after your last breath, and 2)
you would make sure your family and friends had
the correct information as well, so you would all
wind up at the same destination.
An Italian proverb says,
“When the game is over, the
king and the pawn go
into the same box.”1
1 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/mortality/
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Never forget that death is the great equalizer.
Whether rich or poor, black or white, Asian or Hispanic, tall or short, educated or not, we are all heading to the grave. The question is: Where are we going after that last breath?
When I travel, one thing I am looking for is evidence. When I fly out of Atlanta, I want to know what
my gate is, and how I get to it. So let’s say on this trip,
I am going out of Gate E1. I look at my ticket, and
it says E1. I get on the underground trains. I don’t
get off at Terminals A, B, C, and D. Why? The evidence is pointing me in a different direction. As I go
up the escalators, I check the monitors to make sure
my flight is still going out of gate E1. I start heading
that way. I hand the gate agent my ticket, and they
scan it. It scans for me to get on this flight. I walk on
the plane and sit down. I talk with the person next
to me, and they say they are going to the same destination I am. The flight attendant and pilot both announce that we are headed toward my final destination. At this point, I am pretty sure I will be heading
to my destination for the day. How do I know that?
Because all of the evidence to this point has led me
to get on this plane. Now there are tons of planes at
the Atlanta airport today, but I got on this one based
on the evidence.
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One time, I got on a plane and sat in seat 8C before the plane took off. A gentleman walked up and
said that I was in his seat. I politely let him know that
I was in the correct seat. He showed me his ticket that
said 8C. I showed him my ticket that said 8C. (I enjoy being right!) He said, “Where are you flying to?”
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I responded, “Buffalo?” The gentleman next to me
began to laugh. The guy wanting my seat began to
laugh. I said, “What is so funny?” They said that the
plane wasn’t going to Buffalo! It was heading somewhere else!! So did I sit there and say, “You know, I
really think this plane is going to Buffalo, so I will
stay in my seat?” You better believe I didn’t! Why?
The evidence told me that I was on the wrong plane!
I got off that plane as quickly as I could, because
I didn’t want to miss my flight. We must always let
evidence be our guide and follow where it leads.
Let’s take a look and see if there have been enough
clues left to us to figure out what our journey into
eternity is going to be like. But remember, when you
find a clue to answer a certain question, it will lead
you in a certain direction. It will eliminate other possibilities and narrow down the choices until we can
find that right answer.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi, the 13th century poet said,
“All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where
did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m
sure of that, and I intend to end up there.”2
So put on your thinking cap. Let’s take a quick
look at some evidence. Whether it is Sherlock Hol2 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/spirituality/
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mes, Inspector Clouseau, or a modern day detective, you always look for clues to help you solve the
problem. You investigate. The problem is: I am dying. The question is: Where am I going? What happens on the other side? Let’s see if we can find any
evidence for this journey
into eternity that we are
all going to take, and
ensure that you can
catch the right flight
out of here when
you take your
last breath.
Is There A God?
‘Does God exist’ is one of the
biggest questions that we all wrestle
with. But the real question should be:
Is there evidence for a God?
Every time you see a creation, like a building,
you know there is a creator. Every time that you
see design, like a cell phone, you know there is
a designer. Every time you see art, like a painting,
you know there is an artist. Every time you see order, like 20 plates in a row, you know there was an
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orderer. If you look around the universe, what do
you see? You see creation, design, art, and order. If
every other thing has a creator, designer, artist, and
an orderer behind it, does it not make sense to think
there is a Creator, Designer, Artist, and Orderer behind this universe?
If you look at the complexity and precise nature
of the universe, it just boggles the mind.
The Earth
“The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth’s size
and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of
mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases [that only extend]
about 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. If Earth
were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible,
like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter.
Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain
plant, animal and human life.
The Earth is located the right distance from the
sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees [Fahrenheit]. If the Earth were any further away from the
sun, we would all freeze. Any closer, and we would
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burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth’s
position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from
the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of
nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly
warmed and cooled every day.
And our moon is the perfect size and distance
from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon
creates important ocean tides and movement so
ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive
oceans are restrained from spilling over across the
continents.”3
Water
“Water...colorless, odorless and without taste,
and yet no living thing can survive without it.
Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of
water (about two-thirds of the human body is water). You’ll see why the characteristics of water are
uniquely suited to life:
It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing
point. Water allows us to live in an environment of
fluctuating temperature changes, while keeping our
3 http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
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bodies a steady 98.6 degrees. Water is also chemically neutral. Without affecting the makeup of the
substances it carries, water enables food, medicines
and minerals to be absorbed and used by the body.
Water has a unique surface tension. Water in
plants can therefore flow upward against gravity,
bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top of
even the tallest trees.
Water freezes from the top down and floats, so
fish can live in the winter.
Ninety-seven percent of the Earth’s water is in
the oceans. But on our Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and then
distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the ocean waters, leaving the salt, and
forms clouds, which are easily moved by the wind
to disperse water over the land for vegetation, animals and people. It is a system of purification and
supply that sustains life on this planet, a system of
recycled and reused water.”4
The Brain
“The Human Brain...simultaneously processes
an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes
4 http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
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in all the colors and objects you see, the temperature
around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor,
the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth,
even the texture of your [computer] keyboard. Your
brain holds and processes all your emotions, thoughts
and memories. At the same time, your brain keeps
track of the ongoing functions of your body like your
breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and
movement of the muscles in your hands.
The human brain processes more than a million
messages a second. Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows
you to focus and operate effectively in your world.
The brain functions differently than other organs.
There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to
produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action,
and relate to other people.”5
The Eye
“The Eye: The human eye is enormously complicated – a perfect and interrelated system of about 40
individual subsystems including the retina, pupil,
iris, cornea, lens and optic nerve. For instance, the
5 http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html
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retina has approximately 137 million special cells
that respond to light and send messages to the brain.
About 130 million of these cells look like rods, and
handle the black and white vision. The other seven
million are cone shaped and allow us to see in color.
The retina cells receive light impressions, which are
translated to electric pulses and sent to the brain via
the optic nerve. A special section of the brain called
the visual cortex interprets the pulses to color, contrast, depth, etc., which allows us to see “pictures”
of our world. Incredibly, the eye, optic nerve and
visual cortex are totally separate and distinct subsystems. Yet together, they capture, deliver and interpret up to 1.5 million pulse messages a millisecond! It would take dozens of Cray supercomputers
programmed perfectly and operating together flawlessly to even get close to performing this task.”6
DNA
“DNA: There is enough information capacity in a
single human cell to store the Encyclopaedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times over.”7
“Just as the Britannica had intelligent writers to
produce its information, so it is reasonable and even
6 Lawrence O. Richards, It Couldn’t Just Happen, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1989, 139-140.
7 Dawkins, R., The Blind Watchmaker, W.W. Norton, New York, p. 115, 1986.
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scientific to believe that the information in the living
world likewise had an original compositor/sender.
There is no known non-intelligent cause that has ever
been observed to generate even a small portion of the
literally encyclopedic information required for life.”8
“The amount of information that could be stored
in a pinhead’s volume of DNA is equivalent to a pile
of paperback books 500 times as high as the distance from Earth to the moon, each with a different,
yet specific content. Putting it another way, while
we think that our new 40 gigabyte hard drives are
advanced technology, a pinhead of DNA could hold
100 million times more information.”9
The human body has such complexity to it. Who
is the One that designed this wonderfully, magnificent, efficient body?
The complexity of this universe and its vastness
is just as amazing. Galileo said, “The Sun, with all
the planets revolving around it, and depending on
it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had
nothing else in the Universe to do.”10
We can tell you the exact day of a full moon,
exactly how long it takes to make one revolution
8 Grigg, R., Information: A modern scientific design argument, Creation 22(2):52–53, 2000.
http://www.creation.com/dna-marvellous-messages-or-mostly-mess
9 Gitt, W., Dazzling design in miniature, Creation 20(1):6, 1997.
http://www.creation.com/dna-marvellous-messages-or-mostly-mess
10 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/universe/2.html
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around the sun, when Haley’s comet is coming by,
etc. This universe has great precision to it. Who is
the One who put this grand universe together?
Carl Sagan said, “Somewhere, something
incredible is waiting to be known.”11 I think Mr.
Sagan was on to something there!
“I can see how it might be possible for a man to
look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I
cannot conceive how he could look up into the
heavens and say there is no God.”12
– Abraham Lincoln
Evolution
One question that
many people wrestle with, because it is
promoted so much, is if one kind of life form
evolved into another kind of lifeform.
It is something called macroevolution. Did sea
creatures evolve into land animals? Did apes evolve
11 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/universe/2.html
12 http://www.thoughts-about-god.com/quotes…
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into mankind? This is actually one of the main reasons
I hear from people why they do not believe in a God.
Something to remember: Just because you hear
something over and over, doesn’t mean it is true.
There must be evidence to back things up.
“Charles Darwin said, ‘To suppose that the eye,
with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the
focus to different distances, for admitting different
amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical
and chromatic aberration, could have been formed
by natural selections, seems, I confess, absurd in the
highest degree.’”13
As we mentioned before, the eye is way too complex to have evolved, and even Darwin knew that by
his own admission.
Eugenie Scott, an atheist and the leader of the
National Center for Science Education, tacitly admitted that if students heard criticisms of evolution,
they might end up not believing it!
“In my opinion, using creation and evolution as
topics for critical-thinking exercises in primary and
secondary schools is virtually guaranteed to confuse
students about evolution and may lead them to reject one of the major themes in science.”14
13 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/evolution/2.html
14 Larry Witham, Where Darwin Meets the Bible, p. 23, Oxford University Press, 2002.
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What we all need is more critical thinking and
not less!
Dr William B. Provine, Professor of Biological
Sciences, Cornell University said, “Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear…There are no gods, no
purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There
is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely
certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end
for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics,
no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either.”15
This is truly what evolution means. It is the conduit
to get atheism into the minds of those who believe in it.
Boyce Rensberger, an anti-creationist science
writer on science and bias said, “At this point, it is
necessary to reveal a little inside information about
how scientists work, something the textbooks don’t
usually tell you. The fact is that scientists are not really as objective and dispassionate in their work as
they would like you to think. Most scientists first get
their ideas about how the world works not through
rigorously logical processes, but through hunches
and wild guesses. As individuals, they often come to
believe something to be true long before they assem15 Provine, W.B., Origins Research 16(1), p.9, 1994.
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ble the hard evidence that will convince somebody
else that it is. Motivated by faith in his own ideas and
a desire for acceptance by his peers, a scientist will
labor for years knowing in his heart that his theory
is correct, but devising experiment after experiment
whose results he hopes will support his position.”16
“I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied,
will be one of the great jokes in the history books of
the future. Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy
and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with
the incredible credulity that it has.”17
–Malcolm Muggeridge, well-known
British journalist and philosopher
Charles Darwin also said,
“Why then is not every geological
formation and every stratum
full of such intermediate
links? Geology assuredly
does not reveal any such fine
graduated organic chain; and this,
perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection
which can be urged against the theory.”18
16 Boyce Rensberger, How the World Works, William Morrow, NY, 1986, pp. 17–18.
17 Pascal Lectures, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. From the Revised Quote Book, containing
130 quotable quotes on creation/evolution by leading authorities. Published by Creation Science
Foundation, Australia [no longer in print].)
18 http://www.thinkexist.com/quotations/evolution/3.html
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Even Mr. Darwin knew that he needed evidence
to back up his theory. If you can’t find millions of
missing links, this theory falls flat on its face.
Here are four amazing quotes on the lack of fossil evidence to support macroevolution:
“Darwin admitted that millions of ‘missing
links,’ transitional life forms, would have to be discovered in the fossil record to prove the accuracy
of his theory that all species had gradually evolved
by chance mutation into new species. Unfortunately for his theory, despite hundreds of millions
[of dollars] spent on searching for fossils worldwide
for more than a century, the scientists have failed
to locate a single missing link out of the millions
that must exist if their theory of evolution is to be
vindicated.”
–Grant R. Jeffery, The Signature of God
“There are gaps in the fossil graveyard, places
where there should be intermediate forms, but
where there is nothing whatsoever instead. No
paleontologist…denies that this is so. It is simply a fact.
Darwin’s theory and the fossil record are in conflict.”
–David Berlinsky
“Scientists concede that their most cherished theories are based on embarrassingly few fossil frag-
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ments and that huge gaps exist in the fossil record.”
–Time magazine, Nov. 7, 197719
“The evolutionists seem to know everything about
the missing link except the fact that it is missing.”20
–G. K. Chesterton
Remember what Darwin said. If you can’t find
the transitional forms between species, his theory
completely falls apart. And as you are seeing, it is
completely falling apart.
In his 1983 book The Intelligent Universe, astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote the following infamous passage:
“A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a
Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is
the chance that after its passage, a fully assembled
747, ready to fly, will be found standing there? So
small as to be negligible, even if a tornado were to
blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole Universe.” (p.19)
19 http://www.thewordout.net/pages/page.asp?page_id=56527
20 http://www.thewordout.net/pages/page.asp?page_id=56527
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If you took all of the pieces of a watch and put
them into a shoebox and shook them up for a day,
would all the pieces ever come together into a functioning watch? What if you shook them for a year?
Five years? 100 million years? You end up getting
the same answer: No. And if it can’t happen to a
watch by luck and by chance over time, you can
be rest assured it can’t happen to this intricate human body or this amazing universe by luck and by
chance over time!
After spending forty years searching for evidence of evolution and failing to find any, Nils Heribert-Nilsson wrote: “The fossil material is now so
complete that it has been possible to construct new
classes, and the lack of transitional series cannot be
explained as being due to the scarcity of material.
The deficiencies are real; they will never be filled.” 21
–A rthur C. Custance
Dr. Colin Patterson, director of the British Museum of Natural History and a highly respected evolutionist, wrote a book about evolution. When asked
why his book didn’t include any illustrations of transitional fossils, Dr. Patterson, who has seven million
fossils in his museum, replied, “I fully agree with
your comments on the lack of direct illustration of
21 Arthur C. Custance, Evolution or Creation? (Ottawa: Doorway
Papers,1988.)http://www.custance.org/Library/Volume4/Part_I/chapter6.html.
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evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any,
fossils or living, I certainly would have included it…I
will lay it on the line. There is not one such fossil for
which one might make a watertight argument.”22
And there you have it. Time and time again, the
evolutionists themselves are admitting there is not
any evidence of transitional forms to back up their
theory. Remember where we started. Take a look
at the evidence, and follow it wherever it leads. Since
there is no evidence of animals and man transitioning into another kind of creature, we had to have
gotten here some other way.
Remember as a kid that we
were taught that a frog turned into
a Prince. It was a fairy tale then,
and it is still a fairy tale today. It will
never be a scientific fact.
Law of Cause
and Effect
One of the concepts that I learned in a philosophy class in college was the law of cause and effect.
And what it means is that every material effect had
to have an adequate cause before it to make that ef22 http://www.custance.org/Library/Volume4/Part_I/chapter6.html.
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fect occur. In other words, it takes something to make
something. You can’t get something out of nothing.
So if your parents made you, and your grandparents made your parents, and your great grandparents
made your grandparents, etc., you eventually have
to reach what is called the first cause or an uncaused
cause that got the whole thing started. So when you
reach that Cause, you now have your answer on
who God is.
Stephen Hawking said, “The conclusion of this
lecture is that the universe has not existed forever.
Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang….”23
–Stephen Hawking, The Beginning of Time
Most scientists now believe that the universe
had a beginning. Of course that is a real problem to
many of them. Why? Because if it had a beginning,
it had a Beginner! It is really that simple.
Albert Camus stated, “I would rather live my life as
if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live
my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.”24
Mr. Camus has nothing to worry about. The evidence is all sitting right before us that there is a Creator to this magnificent universe that we live in.
23 http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/beginning.html
24 http://thinkexist.com/quotations/living/2.html
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But now the question becomes:
Who is that God?
When you begin to study different religions, you
begin to find out that God is looked at very differently in those religions. You have the religions
of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that believe in
one God. You have Hinduism that believes in many
gods. You have Mormonism where you can attain
godhood. You have Buddhism where there really is
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not a creator God. So my question is, how do you
know which one of those religions, or if any of
those religions, has the correct answer?
I was chatting with a long-haired hippie type one
day. During the conversation, he looked at me and
said: “When it comes to the topic of God and religion, everybody can’t be right.” That man was so
correct. All religions and all beliefs can’t be true at
the same point. He knew it, I know it, and I hope
you do too. So that means we have to find out which
one is true, and actually it is pretty simple to figure
out. All you have to do is look at the religious texts
that support each religion, and when you can find
out which one is accurate, you have then found the
right God.
As I began to study these different religions,
there was one book, above all other books that can
prove that it contains factual information and eternal truth. That book is called the Holy Bible. Let’s
see what that evidence is that supports this book.
The Uniqueness of the Bible
“If just 10 people were picked who were from
the same place, born around the same time, spoke the
same language, and made about the same amount of
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money, and [each one was] asked to write about just
one controversial subject, they would have trouble
agreeing with each other. But the Bible stands alone.
It was written over a period of 1,600 years by more
than 40 writers from all walks of life. Some were
fishermen; some were politicians. Others were generals or kings, shepherds or historians. They were
from three different continents, and wrote in three
different languages. They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects yet they wrote with agreement and
harmony. They wrote in dungeons, in temples, on
beaches, and on hillsides, during peacetime and
during war. Yet their words sound like they came
from the same source. So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and
agree, God picked 40 different people to write the
Bible—and it stands the test of time.”25
Historical Accuracy of the Bible
“Because the Bible details historical events, its
truthfulness and accuracy are subject to verification
like any other historical document. Through both archaeological evidences and other writings, the historical accounts of the Bible have been proven time
25 http://www.pinpointevangelism.com/The_Bible_Stands_Alone.pdf
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and time again to be accurate and true. In fact, all the
archaeological and manuscript evidence supporting
the Bible makes it the best-documented book from
the ancient world.”26
“I know of no finding in archaeology that’s properly confirmed which is in opposition to the Scriptures. The Bible is the most accurate history textbook the world has ever seen.” 27
–Dr Clifford Wilson
cientific Accuracy
S
of the Bible
Even though the Bible isn’t a science book, it does
make scientific claims. So if this book really is the
word of God, those claims need to be true.
The Bible states that the earth is a sphere (Isaiah
40:22). Science taught us back in the day that the earth
was flat. But now we know the Bible was correct in
its claim that the earth is round.
26 http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-God-Word.html
27 Dr Clifford Wilson, formerly director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology, being interviewed
by radio by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR radio transcript No. 0279–1004).
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The Bible says the earth was free floating in
space (Job 26:7). Nothing was holding it up. And of
course, modern space exploration has shown that to
be true.
The Bible states in Hebrews 11 that the earth is
made up of invisible elements. And, with the discovery of atoms, that statement has been proven true.
The Bible teaches that air has weight (Job 28:25).
Science had taught that air was weightless. But now
it has been proven that air has weight.
When people got sick many years ago, they would
‘bleed’ the patient. They would actually remove some of
the patient’s blood hoping this would heal them. They
did this up until the 19th century. The Bible states that
that the blood is the source of life (Leviticus 17:11). And
of course, we know that to be true in science today.
Even though you can count only a few thousand
stars with the naked eye, the Bible states the stars
are innumerable (Jeremiah 33:22). And with the invention of telescopes, we are discovering new stars
and galaxies all the time. And God also says He has
a name for every one of those stars!
As you can see, the word of God is completely
accurate in its scientific statements.
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Fulfilled Prophecies
The one thing that stood out the most when I
was trying to see if the Bible was truthfully God’s
word, was fulfilled prophecies. The basic definition
of a prophecy is something said today or in the past
that predicts something in the future. Anyone can
prophesy anything. We see that with magazines at
the checkout counter in the grocery store all the
time. The key though is can you get your prophecy correct! That is what sets apart a false prophet
from a real one.
This is where I was blown away. Not only did
the Bible have hundreds of very, very detailed
prophecies in it, they came true! That is what truly amazed me.
There are prophecies in the Bible about certain
people, nations, the end times, etc. But some of the
most fascinating ones have to do with who the coming Messiah would be. It gave very specific details
on who that person is. The Old Testament has over
60 prophecies and 300 references, so you wouldn’t
need luck or chance to figure out who this person is,
but you could know with 100% accuracy!
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The Bible says the Messiah would be of the house
of David, born in the very small town of Bethlehem,
and be from the tribe of Judah. He would also be born
of a virgin. Now that is not an easy one to do! Yet
that has come true in only one Man. This Messiah
would arrive while the Temple was still standing in
Jerusalem. It was destroyed in 70 AD, so the Messiah had to come before that. The Old Testament says
the Messiah would perform miracles, ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and be betrayed by a friend. He
would be sold for 30 pieces of silver and pierced in
His hands and feet. Along with all of these prophecies, it also says in the Old Testament that this Messiah would rise from the dead!
Those are some very detailed prophecies! These
aren’t general predictions like you see in horoscopes
or from Nostradamus; but very, very specific accounts. Either God can get all of these correct, or this
book is not reliable. And yet to 100% accuracy, all
of these prophecies have come true in the birth, life,
death and resurrection of a man called Jesus Christ!
Can you imagine someone predicting all of these
right now to happen in some person in 3000 AD? It
is almost ludicrous to think about, but that is what
has happened here.
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A man named Professor Peter Stoner figured out
that the chance of one man fulfilling just eight of
those prophecies was 10 to the 17th power. Professor Stoner gave this illustration to explain it:
“If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all the
tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then
ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of
getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that
we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the
face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet
deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir
the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as
he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and
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say that this is the right one. What chance would he
have of getting the right one? Just the same chance
that the prophets would’ve had of writing these
eight prophecies and having them all come true in
any one man, from their day to the present time,
providing they wrote in their own wisdom.”28
Now that we know there is overwhelming evidence for the truth of the Bible, our investigation
really begins to narrow. The God of this book is absolutely amazing!
One of the first things we see is that God is the
Creator of this universe:
Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God…”
Psalm 89:11 “The heavens are thine, the earth also is
thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast
founded them.”
Isaiah 44:24 “Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and
he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD
that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens
alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;”
Revelation 4:11 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
28 Peter Stoner, Science Speaks, Chicago: Moody Press, 1969, 106-107).
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Not only did God create you; He created you for
His pleasure!
Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
Psalm 14:1 “…The fool hath said in his heart, There
is no God…”
What God is saying is that it is really foolish to look
at all of the evidence and come to the conclusion that
there is not a God who created this whole universe.
I was sitting on a plane flight going to Los Angeles, and struck up a conversation with the man
next to me. Mark told me during the conversation
that he was an atheist. I asked him what the best
piece of evidence was that there was not a God.
He said, “I don’t have any. I just don’t want there
to be a God. Because if there is a God that means
that I can’t do what I want to do.” That is actually
true for many atheists. Even though the evidence
is overwhelming that there is a God, they don’t want
there to be one, because it is a control issue. They
want to be in control and not God. Remember what
we said up front–look at the evidence, and let it
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take you to the right answer.
One definition of the God of the Bible I read said,
“the Supreme Being; the Creator and Ruler of all
that is; the Self-existent One who is perfect in power, goodness, and wisdom.”29
Psalm 95:1-8 “O come, let us sing unto the LORD:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving,
and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For
the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all
gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the
strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he
made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come,
let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the
LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the
people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To
day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart…”
Just think about how amazing this God is and what
it will actually be like to be in His presence!
The Bible says that God is infinite, incomparable,
unchanging, exists everywhere, is all-knowing, allpowerful, loving, just, merciful, truthful, compassionate, forgiving, and holy.
29 http://www.gotquestions.org/who-is-God.html
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Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the
seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and
with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole
earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house
was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I
am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for
mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Do you see how great and awesome God is?
Think again about that scene just described in Isaiah. Wow! Do you see how little and small each one
of us is compared to God? He is worthy of our worship and devotion.
Take your favorite adjective:
awesome, magnificent, tremendous, superb, fantastic, etc. Then,
multiply those adjectives by about
a couple of million, and you are
just getting close to the coattails of
who God really is!
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Destinations
The Bible is very clear in stating that when you
die, you will go to one of two possible destinations.
Heaven
It is a place where believers go when they die; it
is where God lives and is worshipped; you can store
up rewards and treasures in heaven; it is a place of
exceeding joy; you will know others there; God prepares a place for you there; it is home (and don’t we
all like going home!); there is no pain, suffering, sorrow, or tears in heaven; it is a place of glory, holiness,
beauty, perfection, immortality, light, and love.
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Now you know why Paul said in Philippians 1:21,
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It is
a much better place than this earth is! We should be
yearning to go to this place.
But always remember the best part about heaven
is that is where God is, and you will finally get to be
with Him (actually meet God face to face!)! Here is
an illustration of that:
“Suppose that you were the wife of a prisoner
of war, held captive for many years. You knew your
husband was alive and hoped to see him soon.
Finally, after many false hopes and setbacks, an
agreement was negotiated with the enemy, and the
release of your husband was at hand. The United States government had made arrangements for
you to meet your beloved in Hawaii, where you
would be with him for two weeks before returning
home. Now Hawaii is a very beautiful place, I am
told, and I am sure that most of us would love to
go there. But, for you, the place is very secondary
to the person. If you were to meet your husband
in the Sahara desert it would be no disappointment.
While the place of heaven is beautiful, the Person
should be our greatest joy.”30
30 http://bible.org/seriespage/heaven-seek-revelation-211-225)
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John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent.”
The best part to heaven is going to be Who is there!!
But the Bible also describes another place that
many people will choose to go to for all of eternity.
Hell
It is a place that was originally made for the devil
and his angels; it is eternal and irreversible (you aren’t
getting out once you go there); there is conscious
torment, weeping and gnashing of teeth; it is a place
of sorrows; it’s described as a lake of fire where the
fire is never quenched; your memory works just fine
and you will remember all the worldly pleasures you
chose instead of choosing Jesus; it’s a place of hopelessness and suffering; a place for those who reject
what Jesus Christ has done.
Now, it is very simple. I want to go to heaven and
so do you. Hell is not a place that I want to go to for
even five seconds let alone for eternity. The other special thing about it is that God wants you in heaven as
well! 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slack concern-
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ing his promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
God wants me in heaven, and I want to go there
as well. So the next question is what do I have to do
to get there?
Let’s go back to one of the character qualities of
God called holiness, and figure this out. The word
holy means ‘sacred’ and ‘separate from.’ It also means
‘moral purity.’ It means ‘perfect in goodness and righteousness.’ Now herein lies the problem for all of
us: God is holy, and we are not.
I was talking with a man named Tim on a plane
flight recently. I asked him if he considered himself a
good person. He said, “A very good person!” I love
people’s humbleness! Proverbs 20:6 says, “Most men
will proclaim every one his own goodness…”
But it says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God;” People say
they are good, and God says we have all fallen short
of His standard. Let’s see what His standard is, and
then we can find out if that is true.
Romans 7:7 states, “What shall we say then? Is
the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin,
but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the
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law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Just like we have
earthly laws that we are supposed to abide by, God
has laws Himself. This Law is what God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai. These Ten Commandments that God
gave are the moral law. Let’s take a look at these laws
and see how we stack up against them:
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the
LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:1-3
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Does the God of the Bible have the preeminent
spot in your life as whom you worship? I mean the
number one spot and no god, no person or thing is
even close to that?
“ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth:” Exodus 20:4
We are not to worship God through any images,
statues of Mary or anyone, etc. We are not to show
them undue honor or respect. Have you set up
sports, money, a boyfriend or girlfriend, a TV show,
a musical group, etc. as an idol in your life? That is
also how people break this commandment.
“ Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God
in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that
taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7
Do we say we are a believer in God but act differently than we should, i.e. hypocritically? Do you
make a covenant with God and then break it? Do you
use God’s name as a curse word or even carelessly
or flippantly? If any of those are true, you have broken this commandment.
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“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Exodus 20:8
We are supposed to honor God everyday, but one
day is set aside especially for our dedication to
Him. One interesting thing to think about is that
no matter how you personally define the act of
keeping the Sabbath, you have broken it at some
point or another.
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days
may be long upon the land which the LORD thy
God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12
We are supposed to give honor, respect, and show
gratitude and graciousness toward the two people
that God put above us to raise us. Loving our parents
and obeying them go hand in hand. Have you ever
broken this commandment by not giving your parents
the proper honor and respect that they deserve?
“Thou shalt not kill.” Exodus 20:13
I have met murderers before. I met a guy on the
train the other day that had shot someone 17 times!
He spent many a year in jail for his crime. He sat
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there and cried as we talked. He knew what he had
done was so wrong. Abortion is the murder of a
child. Paying for an abortion is murder as well. Jesus said even being angry without a cause is the
same as murder. God is in the business of checking
out our insides as well as our outsides. Have you
ever been angry without cause? You have broken
this commandment.
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14
We all know deep down that cheating on one’s
spouse is wrong. Jesus even said if you look upon
another woman in lust it is the same as committing adultery. Have you ever lusted after someone
that is not your spouse? You have broken this commandment.
“Thou shalt not steal.” Exodus 20:15
If you have stolen one thing, no matter if it was a
paper clip or a diamond ring, you have broken this
commandment. Ever cheat on a test in school? You
stole an answer off of someone else’s test.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour.” Exodus 20:16
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That means you shall not lie. Telling one lie,
whether it’s a big one or a small one in your opinion,
breaks this commandment. A holy God says ‘no’ to
all lying. Deceiving people is wrong. Period. Here
is how seriously God takes lying:
Revelation 21:8 says, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
God takes lying very seriously. Do you?
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou
shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” Exodus 20:17
An irregular appetite or desire for something that
is not yours is how we break this commandment.
Coveting opens up the door to break so many of the
other commandments.
Looking at those commandments should be very,
very sobering. It is pretty easy to figure out that I am a
liar, thief, adulterer, murderer and blasphemer at heart.
Once again, the Bible is true in stating that our
hearts are deceitfully wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 states,
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“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
James 2:10 says, “For whosoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
Won’t God grade on a curve, hold me up next to
other people and see how I did compared to them?
Nope. If I break one of the commandments, it is
just like I broke all of them. A holy God’s standard
is perfection.
Now a huge problem arises. I had thought in the
past, and I hear from so many people that I can be
‘good’ enough to go to heaven. Won’t my good works
cover up my bad deeds? Won’t the good actions
in my life outweigh my bad thoughts and actions on
Judgment Day?
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all
do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away.”
Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his
face from you, that he will not hear.”
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What actions could I ever do: going to church,
performing the sacraments, giving all my money
away, helping an old lady across the road, etc. that
could take away these iniquities that I have committed? My efforts are literally useless.
Hebrews 3:13 “But exhort one another daily, while it
is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin.”
You see that sin is a mere cheat. While it tries to
please us, it actually destroys us. Sin looks like a bargain, but literally proves to make us bankrupt.
You want to know how all of us should look at
sin? Read what King David writes after he committed adultery and murder:
Psalm 51:1-4 “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge
my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this
evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when
thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
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You see that all sin is really against the God who
created you.
Psalm 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Psalm 51:9 “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out
all mine iniquities.”
When you fully realize how sinful and nasty you
are in front of a holy and pure God, this is what each
of us really wants.
Don’t forget that God is holy. He is without sin. He
is pure. God doesn’t grade on a curve. If you put white
icing on a burnt cake, it may look good on the outside,
but it will still taste horrible on the inside when you
take a bite. Good works aren’t going to cut it with a
holy God. What must I do to get rid of these sins?
Repent
As one man put it, repentance is when we are inwardly humbled and outwardly reformed. Seeing your
sin, hating your sin, confessing your sin, and turning
from sin are elements of what repentance is. Remember that you are not comparing yourselves to others,
but to the perfect, holy God who created you.
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Psalm 38:18 “For I will declare mine iniquity; I will
be sorry for my sin.”
Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto
the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to
our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach,
and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.”
Acts 20:21 “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to
the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The question is: Do you want a different life?
That doesn’t mean just adding God to the life that
you currently have, but do you want Him to rule over
and change your life? If that is what you want, you
are going to enjoy what you are about to read!
Even if we could repent from all sins, and from
this day forward never sin again, we still have a big
problem. How do we get rid of all of those past sins?
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The Answer to our sin problem has now arrived!
Jesus
We have already found out that Jesus is the Messiah, long predicted in time past, but now the question is, can He get rid of all of these sins that you
and I have committed?
As a matter of fact, that sin is so repulsive to God,
it is what will cause your death. Romans 6:23 states,
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
If God has a gift He wants to give me, and He
does, I think I need to accept this gift!
In the Old Testament, there were animal sacrifices
for people’s sins. Why? God demands a blood sacrifice for the sins that we commit.
Leviticus 17:11 “For the life of the flesh is in the blood:
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make
an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that
maketh an atonement for the soul.”
Hebrews 9:12 “Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
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Jesus’ crucifixion is enough to satisfy God for
your sins. Period.
Hebrews 9:22 “And almost all things are by the law
purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is
no remission.”
John 1:29 “The next day John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.”
Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace;”
As you can see, Jesus is that blood atonement or
sacrifice for the sins of the world. Animal sacrifices
are no longer needed. The blood of Jesus is sufficient
to cleanse you of all of your sins!
Jesus said in Mark 1:15 “And saying, The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent
ye, and believe the gospel.”
1 Peter 1:19 “But with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”
1 Peter 2:24 “Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
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2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.”
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”
Remember, sin has a price tag. There are consequences for our sins on earth, but will you also be
paying for them in eternity, or will you let God pay
for them in eternity? His death on the cross is sufficient payment for the sins that you have committed.
You also have to realize a very interesting contrast in the Bible.
Psalm 5:5 “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight:
thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”
Psalm 7:11 “God judgeth the righteous, and God is
angry with the wicked every day.”
Psalm 11:5 “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the
wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”
If God is angry with the wicked every day, both
you and I do not want to be in that category.
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Psalm 145:8 “The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.”
But the great news is that God has a very compassionate side as well.
Jesus says in John 3:16 “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.” God has a very loving side, and that
is the side that I want to see for eternity.
Romans 5:6-10 “For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet
peradventure for a good man some would even dare
to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life.”
Gospel means good news, and the good news is
that all of your sins can be forgiven by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them!
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But there is one more thing about the life of Jesus
Christ that is so, so important to understand.
The Resurrection
Jesus said He was going to conquer death and
rise from the grave, and He did!
Luke 24:46 “And said unto them, Thus it is written,
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from
the dead the third day:”
1 Corinthians 15:3-6 “For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he
was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part
remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”
1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ be not risen, then
is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is of utmost importance. If that event didn’t happen, Christianity is
a myth and a hoax. But think about something for a
minute:
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If over 500 people told you that they saw the red
car run the stoplight and hit the green car, would
you believe them? Everyone that I ask that question
to, always tells me yes. If over 500 people told you
with their own eyes that they saw this teenager make
100 straight free throws in a gym recently, would
you believe them? You have over 500 eyewitnesses,
which is still the best testimony that we have today in
a court of law, and they say that they saw with their
own eyes Jesus walk on planet earth, get nailed to a
cross, and then rise from the dead three days later.
Are you going to believe these eyewitnesses? It is
very important to think about because your eternal
destination is riding upon it. Jesus is either the only
One who can wash away all your sins, or He is the
greatest hoax ever perpetrated on planet earth. The
question to you is, which one is He?
Born Again
The Bible says that you must be born again to enter the Kingdom of heaven. John 3:3 says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.”
And how does one become born again? It is re-
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ally rather simple, but it will cost you a lot. As a matter of fact, it will cost you your whole life, but He is
definitely worth it.
A jailer said in Acts 16:30, “And brought them
out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And Paul replied in the next verse, “And they said,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved...”
Ephesians 2:8,9 “For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Can you earn a free gift? Nope. The only thing
you can do with a gift is to give it away or to receive
it. If you paid for it, it would no longer be a gift. God
is giving you the opportunity to be born again by
His Son Jesus Christ. You can either accept the gift
or reject it. Your choice.
I was selected for a jury trial recently. We found
the man guilty of burglary. Let’s say his punishment
was either $500,000 in cash, or five years in jail.
Well, the man would obviously have to take the five
years in jail, because we know he doesn’t have the
money, because he was stealing! But if someone
came to the judge and paid the $500,000 fine for
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him, could the judge accept that payment? Well of
course he could. Why? Because the man’s debt was
to society, so once the debt was paid, he would then
be free to go.
The same is true for each one of us. We all stand
in a courtroom before God. We are all very, very guilty
because of the multitude of our sins. He will drop the
gavel and determine we are guilty. He will then assess
the punishment. Someone must pay your sin debt. Either you will pay for it for eternity in hell, or you will
let God pay for it with the blood of His Son. Seems
like a very easy decision to me.
Romans 10:9-13 “That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all
is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The thief dying on a cross next to Jesus couldn’t
come down off that cross and go to church, do good
works, bow down to a statue, take the eucharist, go
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on a retreat, etc. He could do one thing and one thing
alone: call upon the Lord Jesus Christ! And that was
sufficient for him to enter paradise for eternity with
the Lord!
There is one thing to remember before you make
this decision. Never believe upon Jesus for a better life.
You don’t come to Jesus so life will become smooth.
2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Actually your
life might get worse in the world’s eyes. You come to
Jesus because your sin has offended God, and He is the
only one that can wash you clean of them.
It is time to repent of your sins, believe in your
heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, and
confess with your mouth that Jesus, and Him alone,
can wash you clean of your sins, and that is how you
become born again. And when you become born
again, your sins have been washed away. Your sin
debt has been paid in full. You owe nothing to a holy
God for those sins for all of eternity.
Time
Time is something you have to think about. You
don’t have as much of it left as you once did. As a
matter of fact, the clock is ticking in all of our lives
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as we speak. The problem is you do not know when
the final bell tolls in your life.
2 Corinthians 6:2 “…behold, now is the day of
salvation…”
Can you guarantee me that you are going to wake
up tomorrow morning? Neither can I. What you never want to do is say, ‘when I get older, I am going
to get right with Jesus.’ Since He is the right answer
when you get older, He is the right answer today.
John 3:36 “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
God must punish sins. He has a wrathful side.
You do not want to see that side of God.
Jesus told the story of a rich man in hell who
said in Luke 16:27,28 “…I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s
house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify
unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” People in hell are begging and crying out,
“please don’t come to this place of torment.”
They know that no drink, no drug, no dollar bill,
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no lust, and no pride will ever be worth going to the
place where they are for all of eternity.
So who is going to win in your life: you or God?
Will you be stubborn like that atheist on that plane flight,
or will you be humble and believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Your eternal
destination depends upon your decision.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 “So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength
of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Timothy 1:10 “But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to
light through the gospel:”
Death has been destroyed by the cross of Jesus
Christ. You are about to graduate from this life into
eternity. The only question is whether you will graduate into heaven or into hell for all of eternity.
57
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve
the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and
my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Voltaire, the famous skeptic, made the wrong
choice about Jesus Christ.
Voltaire died a terrible death. His nurse said:
“For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see
another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for
forgiveness.”31
Rev 20:15 “And whosoever was not found written in
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Remember that God does not send sins to hell, but
sinners to hell. Please, please, please don’t go to hell for
all of eternity. Repent and believe before it is too late.
Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment:”
Eternity and Judgment Day are rushing at you.
Are you sure you are ready for what happens one
31 http://users.belgacom.net/gc674645/grave/lastword.htm
58
second after you die?
The story goes that a stone cutter was walking
through a cemetery. He saw a tombstone that had
written on it:
“All you people passing by;
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you must be;
prepare for death and follow me.”
The stone cutter then took out his chisel and
added these words:
“To follow you, I will not consent,
until I know which way you went.”
Either you are born again or you choose to spend
eternity in a lake of fire. Seems like a pretty easy decision if you really stop and think about it. Remember that eternity is a very, very long time to have the
wrong answer.
John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to
whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Peter knew that Jesus had the words for eternal
life and that is what Peter wanted. He knew no matter
what the consequences, there was nowhere else to go
but to Jesus. Have you reached the same conclusion?
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Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 “I call heaven and earth to
record this day against you, that I have set before you
life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose
life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou
mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest
obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him:
for he is thy life, and the length of thy days…”
The famous Christian, Dwight Moody, awoke from
sleep shortly before he died and said:
“Earth recedes. Heaven opens before me.
If this is death, it is sweet! There is no valley
here. God is calling me, and I must go.”
And Moody’s son said, “No, no, Father. You’re
dreaming.”And Moody replied, “I am not dreaming. I have been within the gates. This is my triumph;
this is my coronation day! It is glorious!”32
John A. Lyth, who was born again, said this as he
was dying:
“Can this be death? Why, it is better than
living! Tell them I die happy in Jesus!”33
The Bible says in Matthew 7 that there is a wide
gate and a narrow gate. There are only two roads out
32 http://grace-qa.blogspot.com/2008/01/famous-last-words-or-tales-before-crypt.html
33 http://grace-qa.blogspot.com/2008/01/famous-last-words-or-tales-before-crypt.html
60
of here: the wide path toward destruction, or the narrow path toward heaven. Which one will you take?
eath–the last sleep? No, the final awakening.34
D
–Sir Walter Scott
The Catholic Cardinal Borgia said, “I have provided in the course of my life for everything except
death, and now alas, I am to die unprepared.”35
Don’t make the same mistake this Cardinal did.
Socrates said, “The hour of departure has arrived
and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which
is better? Only God knows.”36
The time of departure is arriving. Your plane into
eternity will be leaving soon. Remember that it is
not safe to die without being born again. And what
Socrates didn’t know, but you now do, is that dying
as a believer in Jesus Christ unlocks the door into
eternity to be with Him and the Father forever and
ever and ever.
I neglected to tell you something at the beginning. At this airport to eternity, there are only two
gates. E1 is Eternity-Heaven. The other is E2, Eternity-Hell. To go to E2, you don’t have to do anything. You are already heading toward that gate. To
34 http://angel-on-my-shoulder.com/quote1.html
35 One Heartbeat Away p.230
36 http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=295
61
go to E1 and get on the right plane, you must be born
again. Your choice. Make a decision. Your flight
is taking off soon. And if you don’t become born
again you can’t get on the plane at E1, you will
62
instead
step onto
the plane at E2.
Your ticket must be
stamped in the blood
of Jesus Christ, or you
can’t get on the correct plane. The clock is ticking. Your plane is departing very soon. There will
come a moment that will be one second before you
die. And a few moments later, you can be certain
you will still be alive one second after you die. The
question is where will you be forever and ever and
ever……
63
•
If you have chosen to become born again, read
your Bible every day. One of my friends says,
“Read and heed.” Read your Bible, and
obey what you read.
Get plugged into a Bible believing church
that teaches the word of God and be baptized.
•
If you have not become born again, you can pick
up a free copy of a book I wrote called, “One
Heartbeat Away” at www.oneheartbeataway.org.
It takes a look at all of the previous topics
in much greater detail and with much
more evidence to back it up.
•
If you are saved or have just become saved,
you can pick up more materials that will
encourage you to be bold for Jesus
as you reach the lost at:
www.markcahill.org.
•
Mark Cahill
P.O. Box 81
Stone Mountain, GA 30086
64
All Scripture is from the KJV Bible.
Copyright, August 2010
•
Cover Design & Page Layout:
Russell Barr, BARRgraphics
www.barrgraphics.com
Over
300,000 Copies
in Print!
You were born. You learned to walk
and talk. You went to kindergarten
and then elementary school. You
learned to play sports. You went to
junior high and high school. You
were overly concerned about your
grade point average. You got your
driver’s license. You went to college.
You went to some concerts. You
got a job. You cheered your favorite
sports teams. You got married. You
had some kids. You retired.
Your life is a journey that will
end — sometime and somewhere.
Is that all there is? This life and
nothing more? Why are we even
here? In this booklet, you will
find the answers to all of
these questions.
Enjoy!