No! There are a multitude of religious books that claim to have the inside track to God. As an agnostic, I asked those Christians who wanted to engage me in conversations about God if they believed that the Bible is the Word of God. All, without exception, answered with an “absolute yes”! I would reply, “How do you know?” Most answered they grew up in a Christian home. “What happens if your parents were wrong? What about other parents who believe their religious book, the Koran, is the only true book of God?”
Might it be fair to say that unless we can prove the reliability of the Bible beyond all reasonable doubt, Christianity is a hoax, and we all have been fools to have followed Jesus Christ as our Savior? There are lots of religious books out there. How can we be sure that the Bible is the Word of God and stands apart from all other books? We must learn for ourselves and then teach it to our children and strongly encourage our churches and Christian schools to teach this as well.
Today, 90% of self-identifying Christians have walked away from their faith by the time they graduate from college or enter the workplace. If our youth have not seen Jesus lived out at home and in Christian schools, if they have not been encouraged to ask hard faith questions and receive biblical answers, and if they have not been taught the Bible and how to pray for each other, they will struggle with their faith. Christian schools are failing to meet the spiritual needs of students mainly because of the secular curriculum they are using and the lack of biblical worldview training by teachers and administrators.
Early in my search to see if the Christian Jesus existed, I listened to Josh McDowell, a former skeptic, who did massive research on the reliability of the Bible. He not only found the Bible to be historically accurate but life-changing. I was fascinated by what he had to say, but even more so by his confidence in knowing that the Bible is the Truth. He also noted that the Bible tells the story of God’s faithfulness in keeping His promise to send The Messiah, the Savior, to forgive us of our sins. He closed his talk by saying that if you seek the Truth, you will find it.
I devoured Josh’s book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, and was blown away by the evidence of God’s handprint in all disciplines of study. Be it in science, literary works, mathematics, history, writings of the Jewish Scribes during the time of Jesus, biology, and archaeology, all support the absolute proof of the scripture.
After God created the world, on the 6th day, He created man and woman to live with Him in His glorious new world. Genesis 3 tells about Adam and Eve sinning against God by trusting Satan. The penalty for their sin was death, eternal separation from God. God, in His love and mercy for all He created, promised all humankind that He would send a Savior to die for the world’s sins. From Genesis through all the books of the Bible, there are over 3,000 prophecies or foretellings about the coming Christ. This is amazing, as no other religious book has prophecies!
There are 48 unique prophecies about Jesus Christ, the Messiah that were made hundreds of years before they came true. What are the odds of one man fulfilling all of them?
To name a few of them:
- BORN AT BETHLEHEM
Prophecy: “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2, NAS). 750 BC
Fulfillment: “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea” (Matthew 2:1; John 7:42).
- PRECEDED BY MESSENGER
Prophecy: “A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God'” (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1, NAS). 433 BC
Fulfillment: John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'” (Matthew 3:1-3, 11:9-10; Luke 1:17; John 1:23, NAS).
- HE WAS TO ENTER JERUSALEM ON A DONKEY
Prophecy: “Rejoice greatly, 0 Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, 0 daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9, NAS). 520 BC
Fulfillment: “And they brought it to Jesus, and they threw their garments on the colt, and put Jesus on it. And as He was going, they were spreading their garments in the road” (Matthew 21:6-11; Luke 19:35-36, NAS)
Probabilities of one man (Jesus) fulfilling 48 Old Testament prophecies:
- The scientific threshold for the impossible is 1 in 1050
- Eight prophecies: 1 in 1017 Concept Model: Texas is covered with silver dollars, 2 feet deep. Blindfold someone, and they pick the one marked silver dollar.
When scientist Peter Stoner considers forty-eight prophecies, he says, “We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all forty-eight prophecies to be 1 in 10157.”
For anyone to fulfill forty-eight biblical prophecies is scientifically absurd, yet the Bible reveals that Jesus did just that! Anyone who rejects Jesus Christ as the Son of God rejects a fact proven more absolutely than any other fact in the world!
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
“Imagine if we started raising generations of children who stood uncompromisingly on the Word of God, knew how to defend the Christian faith, could answer the skeptical questions of this age, and had a fervor to share the gospel from the authority of God’s Word with whomever they met! This could change the world.” Ken Ham