Questions Answered on the Bible & Christianity

Copyright 2010 by D. W. Cloud

Evidence that the Bible Is God’s Word

Following are some of the objective, time-proven reasons why we can have complete confidence in the Bible:

1. The Bible’s unique construction proves that it is the Word of God.

The Bible was written by 40 different authors representing some 19 different occupations (shepherd, soldier, farmer, fisherman, tax collector, medical doctor, king, etc.) who lived during a period covering some 1,600 years. That is approximately 50 generations. The first 39 books of the Bible were written in the Hebrew language over a period of about 1,000 years. There was then a 400-year gap when no Scriptures were written. After that, the last 27 books of the Bible were written in the Greek language during a period covering roughly 50 years. The writers could not have collaborated, because they did not live at the same time.

Yet the product is one book that fits together perfectly and contains no contradictions or errors. There is nothing else like this in all of man’s history. Some have claimed to have found mistakes in the Bible, but I have studied it for 38 years and each time I have examined a supposed error or contradiction, I have found that the Bible is true and the critic is wrong. (See our book Things Hard to Be Understood: A Handbook of Biblical Difficulties.)

2. The confidence and sincerity of the Bible’s authors prove that it is the Word of God.

The Bible testifies that “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21), and an examination of the lives of the Bible’s writers rings true to this testimony. These were serious men. They came from all walks of life. They were men of good reputation and sound mind. Many of them were viciously persecuted and killed for the testimony they held. They were not enriched by the prophecies they gave. Far from it; many were impoverished. Moses, the author of the first five books of the Bible, chose to live a life of terrific hardship in the service of God as opposed to the millionaire’s life he could have lived as the adopted son of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Many Bible writers made similar choices. Their motivation certainly was not covetousness and worldly advantage. These were not perfect men, but they were holy men. They claimed that God had put His hand upon them to speak His Word. The lives they lived, and the testimonies they held, and the deaths they died gave mighty evidence that they were telling the truth.

3. Fulfilled prophecy proves the Bible to be the Word of God.

The Bible contains a vast amount of prophecy, much of which has been fulfilled. The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecies by J. Barton Payne lists 1817 specific prophecies, 1239 in the Old Testament and 578 in the New. The predictions are precise and detailed, and the fulfillment is exact.

The Bible prophets use prophecy to prove that their message is from the true God (Isaiah 42:8-9; 46:9-10).

Prophecies Pertaining to Jesus Christ

Jesus’ entire life was written down in the Old Testament before He was born. There are 191 Messianic prophecies. The following examples are from three great prophecies: Psalm 22; Micah 5:2; and Isaiah 53:

• His birthplace (Micah 5:2 - Luke 2:4-7)

• His rejection by the Jewish nation (Isaiah 53:2 - Mat. 27:22)

• His betrayal by a friend (Psalm 41:9 - Mat. 26:14-26, 47-49)

• His trial and death:

- The perversion of justice (Isaiah 53:7-8 - Mat. 26:57-60; 27:11-14)

- Numbered with transgressors (Isaiah 53:12 - Mat. 27:20-22, 38)

- The piercing of his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16 - John 19:16-18)

- The words spoken on the cross (Psalm 22:1 - Mat. 27:46)

- The mocking of the people (Psalm 22:7-8 - Mat. 27:39, 41-43)

- The people sitting and staring (Psalm 22:17 - Mat. 27:36)

- No bones broken (Psalm 22:17 - John 19:33-36)

- The soldiers gambling for his garments (Psalm 22:18 - Mat. 27:35)

- His burial in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9 - Mat. 27:57-60)

We know that these prophecies were written before Christ was born, because copies of the Old Testament books were found in the Dead Sea caves dating to at least 100 and more years B.C.

Prophecies Pertaining to Israel

The continued existence of Israel is one of history’s most amazing stories, and it was prophesied in Scripture in great detail.

Israel’s history was prophesied by Moses and recorded in the book of Deuteronomy about 4,000 years ago. God warned that if Israel broke His law she would be “plucked from off the land” and scattered “among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other” (Deut. 28:63-64). There the Jews would “find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life” (Deut. 28:65-66).

This is an accurate description of Israel’s history from the first century until now. Jerusalem was conquered in 70 A.D. by the Roman armies under Titus. The Jewish temple was destroyed and the city walls were torn down. Sixty-five years later Jerusalem was plowed under on the order of Emperor Hadrian in response to the Jewish rebellion led by Bar Kochbar. The Jewish people were scattered to the ends of the earth and found no rest. They were hated by the Muslims and hounded and persecuted by the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church for a thousand years. Hitler’s regime tried to destroy them. Giving preference to the Arabs, England tried to keep them from returning to their land after World War II. They are the object of hatred until this very day. Most of the world is opposed to Israel and the reporting in secular publications about the Middle East crisis is generally slanted against her.

All of this was foretold in Bible prophecy, but the prophecy also said that Israel would be brought back into her land and that she would remain a nation even after all of this, and that is exactly what happened in 1948. Never before in the history of the world has a nation of people been scattered throughout the world and persecuted for 2,000 years and then come back together as a nation with their ancient language intact. This is a divine miracle.

Bible prophecy describes the restoration of Israel in two parts. First, she would return to the land in a position of unbelief. Then she would be converted. The amazing prophecy in Ezekiel 37:1-14 describes Israel’s restoration in these two stages. She is described as a valley of bones that are resurrected.

“Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:4-6).

In verses 11-14, Ezekiel states that this vision pertains to the restoration of Israel to her land and to her repentance toward God. The dry bones symbolize Israel in her scattered, spiritually dead condition. When Ezekiel prophesies, the bones are brought back together and given life and become a great army, and this happens in two stages (verse 7-10). First, the bones are given sinews and flesh, but there is no life, and next God breathes upon them and they live.

The first part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. Israel has been back in her land as a nation since 1948, but she is there in unbelief and spiritual death. She continues to reject her Messiah, Jesus Christ. She has no temple and priesthood and no true worship. She lives in constant fear.

But she is back in the land just as the Bible prophesied. In 1800 there were only six thousand Jews in Palestine, but by 2000 there were over five million (John Ecob, Amillennialism Weighed and Found Wanting, Herald of Hope, p. 44-45).

During the Great Tribulation God will grant repentance unto Israel and will breathe spiritual life into her and she will live.

The continued existence of Israel is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It is a very great miracle and an irrefutable evidence of the divine inspiration of the Bible.

4. The Bible’s factualness and scientific accuracy proves that it is the Word of God.

Everything the Bible says is true and factual.

For example, the Bible says man is a sinner, and that is not difficult to confirm. Just look at the world! When asked for his opinion on original sin, Samuel Johnson, the famous British lexicographer, replied, “With respect to original sin, the inquiry is not necessary, for whatever is the cause of human corruption, men are evidently and confessedly so corrupt, that all the laws of heaven and earth are insufficient to restrain them from crimes.” David Berlinski, a Princeton-educated “secular Jew,” says, “One need hardly be a Christian to appreciate the wisdom in these remarks” (The Devil’s Delusion, p. 33).

The Bible is true not only in its statements about man, but also in its statements about everything. Though the Bible is not a scientific manual, it is scientifically accurate, even from its earliest pages, which were written nearly 4,000 years ago.

Following are some examples of the Bible’s scientific accuracy, beginning with statements from the pages of Job, probably the oldest book in the Bible. The late Henry Morris, who had a Ph.D. in geology, said:

“These references are modern in perspective, with never a hint of the mythical exaggerations and errors characteristic of other ancient writings ... perhaps of even greater significance is the fact that in a 4000-year-old book filled with numerous references to natural phenomena, there are no scientific mistakes or fallacies” (The Remarkable Record of Job).

Job said the earth is hung upon nothing (Job 26:7). This is obvious to our modern generation, as we have seen the actual pictures of the earth hanging in space, but to previous generations it was not obvious and there were many commonly-held myths about the earth sitting on the back of Atlas or a turtle or an elephant, etc.

Job said the air has weight (“the weight for the winds,” Job 28:25). It was not until the 17th century that Galileo discovered that atmosphere has weight, and the modern science of aerodynamics is based on this scientific fact. Further, the weight of air is important in the function of the earth’s weather. “The ‘weight of the winds’ controls the worldwide air mass movements that transport the waters evaporated from the oceans inland over the continents” (Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job).

Job described the springs of the sea (Job 38:16). Man had no way to know about the fresh-water springs on the ocean floor by firsthand observation until recent times. Modern science has discovered that there are thousands of underwater springs that add millions of metric tons of water to the oceans each year.

Job understood that light has a way and that darkness has a place (Job 38:19). “That is, light is not to be located in a certain place or situation. Neither does it simply appear, or disappear, instantaneously. Light is traveling! It dwells in a ‘way,’ always on the way to someplace else. Though usually traveling in waves, sometimes it seems to move as a stream of particles, but it is always moving. When light stops, there is darkness. Thus, darkness is static, staying in place; but light is dynamic, dwelling in a way” (Morris).

The Bible says that the light creates wind (Job 38:24), but it is only in recent times that modern weather science has discovered that wind is created as the sun heats up the surface of the earth, causing the hot air to rise and cooler air to fall, creating weather systems.

Job describes the amazing hydrological cycle (evaporation, atmospheric circulation, condensation, precipitation, run-off) (Job 36:27-28; Ecc. 1:7; Jer. 51:16). The process of evaporation and condensation was not discovered until the 17th century and not well understood until the 20th.

The Bible says plants and animals reproduce after their kind (Genesis 1:11, 12, 21, 24, 25). This is in perfect harmony with everything that can be observed and tested by modern science. There is great variety within kinds, different types of roses and dogs, but there is no reproduction between kinds, between roses and dandelions or dogs and penguins. Breeding experiments have demonstrated that there are genetic barriers that restrict change. The fruit fly has been used in genetic experiments since the early 1900s. Tens of millions of fruit flies have been bombarded with x-rays, doctored, and poisoned. The result has been a variety of mutant fruit flies but no evidence that the fruit fly could evolve into some other type of insect or animal. This is proof of the Bible’s 3500-year-old statement that all creatures reproduce according to kind.

The Bible says the heavens cannot be measured and the stars are without number (Genesis 22:17; Jeremiah 31:37). Before the invention of the telescope, man could see only a few hundred stars with the naked eye, but the very first book of the Bible says they are without number. This has been confirmed by modern science. There are 300 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone. In 1999, observations by NASA astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, suggested that there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe. The most up-to-date star count was announced in July 2003 as 70 sextillion observable stars (70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). This was the conclusion of the world’s largest galaxy study, the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is considered 10 times more accurate than previous ones. The team of scientists did not physically count the stars. Instead they used some of the world’s most powerful telescopes to count all of the galaxies in one region of the universe and to estimate how many stars each galaxy contained by measuring its brightness. They then extrapolated these figures out to the whole universe visible through telescopes. This massive figure, of course, probably accounts for only a tiny percentage of the actual stars.

The Bible says there are paths in the sea (Isaiah 43:16; Psalm 8:8). Since the 19th century the ocean currents or paths have been charted and ships travel these paths just as trucks travel on roads. Writing in the mid-1800s, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Superintendent of the U.S. Navy’s Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C., observed, “There is a river in the ocean: in the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows; its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm; the Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream” (Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea, 6th ed., 1856, p. 25). Since then, other sea paths have been discovered.

The Bible says the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11). This was written about 3,500 years ago, but it was not understood scientifically until recent times. For centuries doctors used “blood letting” as a healing method. George Washington, America’s first president, probably died prematurely because of this bogus practice. Modern medicine has learned what the Bible has taught all along, that the life of the flesh is in the blood. The amazing system of vessels and capillaries transports the marvelous blood cells with their life-giving oxygen and other necessary elements to every part of the body. The blood also forms a major part of the infection fighting and clotting systems, which are necessary for the “life of the flesh.”

The Bible is not a book of science, but wherever the Bible touches on science it is accurate. This proves its divine origin, because all other ancient books are filled with gross scientific blunders. Even science books written a mere 100 years ago are filled with errors.

5. The Bible’s candor proves that it is the Word of God.

When men write biographies of their heroes, they commonly omit or whitewash their faults; but the Bible exhibits its divine quality by showing man as he is. Even the best of men in the Bible are described with all their faults. We read of Adam’s rebellion, Noah’s drunkenness, David’s adultery, Solomon’s apostasy, Jonah’s pity party, Peter’s disavowal of his Master, Paul and Barnabas’ petty strife, and the disciples’ unbelief in the face of Christ’s resurrection. The Bible was written by Jews, yet it candidly describes the faults of the Jewish people: their stubbornness and unbelief that caused them to have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years; their idolatry during the period of the judges; their rebellion that caused them to be rejected from the land and scattered throughout the earth for two millennia; their rejection of the Messiah.

6. The Bible’s indestructibility proves that it is the Word of God.

Above all other books combined, the Bible has been hated, vilified, ridiculed, criticized, restricted, banned, and destroyed, but it has been to no avail. As one rightly said, “We might as well put our shoulder to the burning wheel of the sun, and try to stop it on its flaming course, as attempt to stop the circulation of the Bible” (Sidney Collett, All about the Bible, p. 63).

In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to stop Christians from worshipping Jesus Christ and to destroy their Scriptures. Every official in the empire was ordered to raze churches to the ground and burn every Bible found in their districts (Stanley Greenslade, Cambridge History of the Bible). Twenty-five years later his successor, Constantine, issued another edict ordering fifty Bibles to be published at government expense (Eusebius).

In 1778, the French infidel Voltaire boasted that in 100 years Christianity would cease to exist, but within 50 years the Geneva Bible Society used his printing press and house to publish Bibles (Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, 1986, pp. 123, 124).

Robert Ingersoll once boasted, “Within 15 years I’ll have the Bible lodged in a morgue.” But Ingersoll is long dead, and the Bible is alive and well.

The communist regimes in Russia and China tried to destroy the Bible and its influence, but they have been completely unsuccessful. There are more churches in Russia today than ever before in its history, and the presses cannot print enough Bibles to satisfy the insatiable demand in communist China.

In fact, many who set out to disprove the Bible have been converted, instead. The following are a few examples:

Gilbert West, an English poet who was included in Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, while a student at Oxford set out to debunk the Bible’s account of Christ’s resurrection. Instead he proved to his own satisfaction that Christ did rise from the dead and published Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

George Lyttelton, an English Statesman, author, and poet who was educated at Oxford, determined to prove that Paul was not converted as the Bible states. Instead, Lyttelton wrote a book providing evidence that Paul’s conversion was real and that it is evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead. The book was titled Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul.

Frank Morison, a lawyer, journalist, and novelist, set out to write a book to disprove the resurrection of Christ. Instead he was converted and wrote a book in defense of the resurrection entitled Who Moved the Stone?

Simon Greenleaf, Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University and one of the most celebrated legal minds of America, determined to expose the “myth” of the resurrection of Christ once and for all, but his thorough examination forced him to conclude that Jesus did rise from the dead. In 1846 he published An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice.

William Ramsay, a renowned archaeologist and New Testament scholar, began his historical research in Asia Minor with the assumption that he would find evidence to disprove the Bible’s historicity. He concluded, though, that the book of Acts was written during the lifetime of the apostles and that it is historically accurate. His discoveries led to his conversion to Christianity.

Josh McDowell was a skeptic when he entered university to pursue a law degree, but he accepted a challenge by some Christians to examine the claim that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. He says, “I decided to write a book that would make an intellectual joke of Christianity.” He traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe to gather evidence to prove his case, but instead he was converted to Christ and wrote a book defending the Bible entitled Evidence That Demands a Verdict. McDowell concluded: “After trying to shatter the historicity and validity of the Scripture, I came to the conclusion that it is historically trustworthy. If one discards the Bible as being unreliable, then one must discard almost all literature of antiquity. ... I believe we can hold the Scriptures in our hands and say, ‘The Bible is trustworthy and historically reliable” (The New Evidence, p. 68).

Dr. Richard Lumsden, professor of parisitology and cell biology, was dean of the graduate school at Tulane University and trained 30 Ph.D.s. When he was challenged by a student about the evidence for evolution, he sought to refute the student by demonstrating evolution’s scientific evidence. Instead, he became convinced that the evidence is lacking. This led to an examination of the Bible, which led to his conversion to Jesus Christ.

Lee Strobel, who has a law degree from Yale, was an atheist when he worked as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune. After his wife’s conversion to Christ, he determined to use his investigative skills to prove that the Bible is not true. He says, “I plunged into the case with more vigor than with any story I had ever pursued. I applied the training I had received at Yale Law School as well as my experience as legal affairs editor of the Chicago Tribune.” Strobel became convinced that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He has written many books defending the Christian faith, including The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus and The Case for the Resurrection.

“Down through the years, the Bible has been a mighty anvil that has worn out the puny hammers of the scoffers” (Christian Home Bible Course).

7. The Bible’s doctrine of salvation proves it is the Word of God.

The Bible is the only religious Scripture that teaches the doctrine of salvation by grace. Every other one teaches salvation by works. Hinduism says salvation is through practicing dharma and working out one’s karma. Islam says salvation is by surrender to Allah and obedience to his commands. Buddhism says salvation is by reaching nirvana through life works and meditation and asceticism. If you visit the Buddhist monastery at Boudha in Kathmandu any time of the day you will find Buddhists walking clockwise, fingering their prayer beads and twirling their prayer wheels. They do this because they are trying to work out their salvation.

The Bible, on the other hand, says that salvation is God’s free gift to sinners. This gift was very costly for the Giver. It was purchased with a great price, which was the atoning sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross. But for the sinner it is free.

“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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

The Bible says there is nothing that the sinner can offer God in order to atone for his sins. What could we offer? Righteous works? The Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags before God’s great holiness (Isaiah 64:6). Money? What would the God of creation do with our pathetic currency? A pure heart? The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). How, then, could we purchase our own salvation?

“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 64:6).

No, salvation is the free unmerited gift of a loving and deeply compassionate God. As the Christian hymn says, “We owed a debt we could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe.”

“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” (John 3:16).

8. The Bible’s invitations prove it is the Word of God.

The Bible invites the hearer to partake of its spiritual realities and thus prove for himself its genuineness: “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8); “come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden” (Matthew 11:28); “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17); “ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ... come ye, buy and eat” (Isaiah 55:1); “look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).

The Bible promises that “he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself...” (1 John 5:10).

God will prove Himself to the sincere seeker.

We have looked at eight major evidences that the Bible is what it claims to be, the very Word of God.

Answers to Questions

What Is the Bible?

The Bible is the book that God has given to reveal Himself to mankind. It answers all of life’s important questions: Who is God? Where did man come from? What is the purpose of life? Why is the world filled with suffering? Why does man die? What happens after death? How can man get into right relationship with God? Who is Jesus? Why did He die? What will happen in the future?

The Bible consists of 66 individual books. Each one has its own special message, but all of the books agree in teaching.

The individual books of the Bible are further divided into chapters and verses for ease in locating passages. For example, John 3:16 refers to the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16.

The first book of the Bible is Genesis, which means “beginning.” It tells how the world began, how man was created, how man sinned against God, and how God made the nation Israel beginning with Abraham. Israel is also called the Jewish nation. Through this nation God gave the world the Bible. All of the writers of the Bible were Jews. Through Israel God also gave the world the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus was a Jew.

The last book of the Bible is Revelation. It contains prophecies of future events and describes the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom.

The main subject of the Bible is Jesus Christ and how men can be saved from the punishment of sin through putting their faith in Him and how He will establish His eternal kingdom when He returns to earth the second time.

Who Wrote the Bible?

The answer to this is given in 2 Peter 1:21--

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

The Bible was written by about 40 different men that God chose and to whom He gave His revelation. The writers of the Bible were prophets. They wrote the things that God showed them. They lived over a period of about 1,600 years, so they had no way to collaborate, but each book of the Bible fits together perfectly with the others and contains the same teaching about God, man, angels, salvation, the future, etc. The first part of the Bible was written about 1500 B.C., and the last part in about 90 A.D. The prophets who wrote the Bible were men of good character. They were not paid for writing the Bible. In fact, many of them suffered greatly for their faith and some were put to death.

Must We Accept the Bible Blindly?

Bible faith is not a blind leap into the dark. It is confidence in a believable record that God has given. We are told that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). The writers of the Bible explain to us that they were not writing cunningly devised fables but an inspired record based on “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3; 2 Peter 1:16). See the next question for some of these proofs. God invites men to reason together with Him (Isaiah 1:18).

Hasn’t Science Disproved the Bible?

Modern philosophy and science have attacked the Bible, but they have not disproved the Bible. I have studied the Bible for 36 years and have written 200 books on it, and I have never seen any kind of error in its pages, neither historic nor scientific. I cannot say this for any other book, though I have 6,000 books in my personal library and have read countless books.

In fact, the modern attack upon the Bible proves that the Bible is true, because this was prophesied in its pages 2,000 years ago.

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7).

Notice that these men are described as scoffers, and they walk after their own lusts. This means that they reject the Bible because they are rebels against God’s holy Law. They don’t want any divine restraints. Notice, too, that they are “willingly ignorant.” Their ignorance is not a result of weak intellect or lack of information. It is the result of willful rebellion against Almighty God. Notice, too, that these scoffers will deny the return of Christ and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. It just so happens that these are two of the doctrines of the Bible that are under special attack today.

Not only has modern science not disproven the Bible, but many scientists believe the Bible. We have documented this under the question, “Do scientists believe the Bible?”

When I visited the Creation Museum in 2009, I interviewed Terry Mortenson, who has a Ph.D. in the History of Geology from Coventry University in England. He has lectured and debated in universities and is the author of The Great Turning Point: The Church’s Catastrophic Mistake on Geology. He also contributed to the book Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth. I asked him if there are many scientists that believe the Bible, and he replied:

“There are literally thousands around the world. I personally know a geneticist in Hungary, a geophysicist and a geologist in the Ukraine and in Russia. There is an organization in the United States with 700 scientists who have a Masters or Ph.D. in the hard sciences. The largest creation organization is not in the United States. It is in Korea, with over 2,500 scientists, over 250, the last I heard, with Ph.Ds. So this is a growing movement, and there are many people who are not Bible believers, but they have become skeptics of evolution purely on scientific grounds.”

I also asked him if he knows of any scientific facts that contradict the Bible. He replied:

“I have studied a lot of arguments from evolutionists; I have had seven formal debates with evolutionary professors at universities, and I have never read or heard any scientific fact that contradicts what the Bible says. There are evolutionist’s interpretations of the facts, but the facts themselves are not contrary to Scripture.”

Modern science hasn’t disproved the Bible. Each fact that has been unearthed has supported the Bible’s teaching.

I would also add that oftentimes the Bible has been misrepresented. For example, it is commonly believed that Genesis 1-2 contains two contradictory accounts of creation. It is observed, for example, that whereas Genesis 1 says the animals were created on the sixth day before the man was made (Gen. 1:24-31), Genesis 2 seems to say that God made the man and then made the animals and brought them to him to be named (Gen. 2:18-19). The apparent contradiction disappears when one understands that the two accounts are meant to be complementary. They give two different perspectives. Genesis 1 is the floodlight, whereas Genesis 2 is the spotlight. Genesis 1 gives the big picture and describes the general events that occurred in the six days of creation, whereas Genesis 2 focuses on man’s creation. Genesis 1 tells us precisely when the animals were made, whereas Genesis 2 shows the association between the animals and man and describes what happened after they were made. Genesis 1 gives the general statement that God made man male and female, whereas Genesis 2 tells us exactly how this was done.

Do Any Scientists Believe the Bible?

High Schools, colleges, and universities typically teach only one theory of origins, that being evolution, and they are often given the idea that no true scientist today is a creationist.

Richard Dawkins says in his book The Greatest Show in Earth:

“Evolution is a fact. Beyond reasonable doubt, beyond serious doubt, beyond sane, informed, intelligent doubt, beyond doubt evolution is a fact. ... Evolution is a fact, and [my] book will demonstrate it. No reputable scientist disputes it, and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it.”

Dawkins has written very foolishly. According to Dawkins, if you reject evolution, you are unintelligent and your sanity should be questioned, and he proclaims that no reputable scientist disputes it.

In fact, modern science was invented by men who believed in divine creation. In his book Refuting Evolution, JONATHAN SARFATI, who has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, says:

“It is fallacious to claim, as many evolutionists do, that believing in miracles means that laboratory science would be impossible. In fact, most branches of modern science were founded by believers in the Bible’s account of creation.”

Consider some examples:

• Physics -- Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, Kelvin, Joule

• Chemistry - Boyle, Dalton, Ramsay

• Biology - Ray, Linnaeus, Mendel, Pasteur, Virchow, Agassiz

• Geology - Steno, Woodward, Brewster, Buckland, Cuvier

• Astronomy - Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Herschel, Maunder

• Mathematics - Pascal, Leibniz, Euler

Dr. Sarfati continues:

“Even today, many scientists reject evolution. The Creation Ministries International staff scientists have published many scientific papers in their own fields. DR. RUSSELL HUMPHREYS, a nuclear physicist working with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has had over 20 articles published in physics journals, while DR. JOHN BAUMGARDNER’S catastrophic plate tectonics theory was reported in Nature magazine. DR. EDWARD BOUDREAUX of the University of New Orleans has published 26 articles and four books in physical chemistry. DR. MACIEJ GIERTYCH, head of the Department of Genetics at the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, has published 90 papers in scientific journals. DR. RAYMOND JONES was described as one of Australia’s top scientists for his discoveries about the legume Leucaena and bacterial symbiosis with grazing animals, worth millions of dollars per year to Australia. DR. BRIAN STONE has won a record number of awards for excellence in engineering teaching at Australian universities” (Jonathan Sarfati, Refuting Evolution, 2007, pp. 26-28).

In 1979, Science Digest reported that “scientists who utterly reject Evolution may be one of our fastest-growing controversial minorities. ... Many of the scientists supporting this position hold impressive credentials in science” (Larry Hatfield, “Educators Against Darwin,” Science Digest Special, Winter 1979, pp. 94-96).

DUANE GISH, Ph.D. in biochemistry, worked for many years in pharmaceutical research at Cornell University, the University of California, and the Upjohn Company. “As a biochemist, he has synthesized peptides, compounds intermediate between amino acids and proteins. He has been co-author of a number of outstanding publications in peptide chemistry.” Gish lists the following scientists who reject evolution and believe in creationism.

“While it is true that creationists among scientists definitely constitute a minority, there are many creation scientists, and their number is growing. Among these may be numbered such well-established scientists as the late DR. W. R. THOMPSON, world-famous biologist and former Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control of Canada; DR. MELVIN A. COOK, winner of the 1968 E. G. Murphee Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and also winner of the Nobel Nitro Award, now president of the Ireco Chemical Company, Salt Lake City; DR. HENRY M. MORRIS, for thirteen years Professor of Hydraulic Engineering and Head of the Civil Engineering Department of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University, one of the largest in the U.S. DR. WALTER LAMMERTS, geneticist and famous plant breeder, the late DR. FRANK MARSH, Professor of Biology at Andrews University until his retirement; the late DR. J.J. DUYVENE DE WIT, Professor of Zoology at the University of the Orange Free State, South Africa, at the time of his death; DR. THOMAS G. BARNES, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Texas at El Paso; DR. DMITRI KOUZNETSOV, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., winner of the Komosmol Lenin Prize in 1983 as one of the two most promising young scientists in the Soviet Union, and winner of the Council of Ministries Prize of the USSR in 1986 for his research in biochemistry” (Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No, 1995, pp. 13, 14).

A.E. WILDER-SMITH (1915-1995), who defended creationism against evolution in his many books, had three Ph.D.s, one in physical organic chemistry from Reading University, England, one in pharmacology from the University of Geneva, and one in pharmacological sciences from ETH, a senior university in Zurich, Switzerland. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a NATO three-star general, Dr. Wilder-Smith was an expert on chemotherapy, pharmacology, organic chemistry, and biochemistry.

RAYMOND DAMADIAN, M.D., biophysicist, is the recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Achievement Award as “the man who invented the MRI scanner.” In 1988 he was awarded the National Medal of Technology, America’s highest award for applied science, and a year later, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame, an honor he shares with Thomas Edison, Samuel Morse, and the Wright Brothers. The first MRI scanner that Dr. Damadian and his colleagues built in 1977 resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Damadian is a Bible-believing Christian and attends a Baptist church. He has stated that “the highest purpose a man can find for his life is to serve the will of God.”

RICHARD LUMSDEN (1938-97), Ph.D., converted from Darwinian atheist to Bible-believing Christian at the apex of his professional career when, challenged by one of his students, he decided to check out the evidence for himself. A professor of parisitology and cell biology, he was dean of the graduate school at Tulane University. He trained 30 Ph.D.s., published hundreds of scholarly papers, and was the winner of the highest award for parasitology.

LEE SPETNER, author of Not By Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution, has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT. He was a researcher with John Hopkins University from 1951-1970.

JERRY BERGMAN, co-author of the book Persuaded by the Evidence, has five Masters degrees and two Ph.D.s, one in human biology and another in measurement and evaluation. He had a 4.0 grade point average for both Ph.D.s.

The CREATION RESEARCH SOCIETY membership consists of more than 600 men and women who hold advanced degrees and are committed to biblical creationism.

The KOREA ASSOCIATION OF CREATION RESEARCH membership includes 450 scientists, 150 of them with Ph.D.s in the sciences. The President of KACR, YOUNG-GIL KIM, Ph.D. in Materials Science, is with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and is the inventor of various important high-tech alloys.

FRANK MARSH has a Ph.D. in biology and is emeritus Professor of Biology at Andrews University. He is the author of “Variation and Fixity in Nature: The Meaning of Diversity and Discontinuity in the World of Living Things, and Their Bearing on Creation and Evolution.”

JOSEPH MASTROPAOLO, who has a Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Iowa, has taught biomechanics and physiology at the University of Chicago and California State University. He holds the patent for crew conditioning for extended manned space missions.

The speaking staff of ANSWERS IN GENESIS includes 10 men and women who have earned doctorates. DAVID DEWITT has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. DONALD DEYOUNG has a Ph.D. in physics. JASON LISLE has a Ph.D. in astrophysics. DAVID MENTON has a Ph.D. in cell biology from Brown University. TOMMY MITCHELL has an M.D. from Vanderbilt University. TERRY MORTENSON has a Ph.D. in the history of geology. GARY PARKER has a doctorate in education in biology/geology. GEORGIA PURDOM has a Ph.D. in molecular genetics. ANDREW SNELLING has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Sydney.

The book In Six Days, edited by John Ashton, contains the testimonies of 50 scientists with doctorates who believe in the Bible’s account of creation. These include JEREMY I. WALTER, Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University; JOHN KRAMER, Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota; PAUL GIEM, M.D. from Loma Linda University; ARIEL ROTH, Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan; KEITH WANSER, Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from the University of California, Irvine; JOHN R. RANKIN, Ph.D. in mathematical physics from the University of Adelaide; BOB HOSKEN, Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Newcastle; GEORGE JAVOR, Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University; DWAIN FORD, Ph.D. in chemistry from Clark University of Worcester, Massachusetts; ANGELA MEYER, Ph.D. in horticultural science from the University of Sydney; ANDREW MCINTOSH, Ph.D. in the theory of combustion from the Cranfield Institute of Technology and D.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Wales; JOHN MARCUS, Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan; NANCY DARRALL, Ph.D. in botany from the University of Wales; JOHN CIMBALA, Ph.D. in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology; E. THEO AGARD, Ph.D. in physics from the University of Toronto; KER THOMSON, D.Sc. in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines; JOHN BAUMGARDNER, Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics from UCLA and chief developer of the TERRA code; ARTHUR JONES, Ph.D. in biology from the University of Birmingham; GEORGE HOWE, Ph.D. in botany from Ohio State University; A. J. MONTY WHITE, Ph.D. in gas kinetics from the University College of Wales, Abery-stwyth; D. B. GOWER, Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of London; WALTER VEITH, Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Cape Town; DANNY FAULKNER, Ph.D. in astronomy from Indiana University; EDMOND HOLROYD, Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of New York at Albany; ROBERT ECKEL, M.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; JACK CUOZZO, D.D.S from the University of Pennsylvania; STEPHEN TAYLOR, Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool; ELAINE KENNEDY, Ph.D. in geology from the University of Southern California; COLIN MITCHELL, Ph.D. in desert terrain geography from Cambridge University; STANLEY MUMMA, Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois; EVAN JAMIESON, Ph.D. in hydrometallurgy from Murdoch University; LARRY VARDIMAN, Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Colorado State University; GEOFF DOWNES, Ph.D. in tree physiology from the University of Melbourne; WAYNE FRAIR, Ph.D. in biochemical taxonomy from Rutgers; SID COLE, Ph.D. in chemistry from Melbourne University; GEORGE HAWKE, Ph..D. in air pollution meteorology from Macquarie University; KURT P. WISE, Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University, where he studied under well-known evolutionist Dr. Stephen Gould; J. H. JOHN PEET, Ph.D. in photochemistry from Wolverhampton Polytechnic; WERNER GITT, Ph.D. in engineering from the Technical University at Hanover; DON BATTEN, Ph.D. in plant physiology from the University of Sydney.

Of course, even if every “reputable” scientist believed in evolution, as Richard Dawkins claims, this would not mean it is correct. The Bible says, “Let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4), and Jesus said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25).

What Is the Role of Faith?

If there is evidence for the Bible’s divine inspiration, what is the role of faith?

The Bible says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is not blind; it has substance and evidence, but it is faith because it is believing in something invisible. We cannot see God. There is plenty of evidence that He exists, but we cannot see Him, so we must accept His existence by faith.

Why Do Many People Disbelieve the Bible?

If the Bible has evidence, why do many people disbelieve it?

The answer to this question is that men are in rebellion against God and they are spiritually blind. Note the following verses from the Bible:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

This verse says man’s heart is dark and full of lies because of sin.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Romans 3:10-11).

This verse teaches that all men are sinners and that we do not naturally understand spiritual things.

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

This Bible verse says that men are spiritually blind because they refuse to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan blinds their minds. When men turn to Jesus and believe on him, the blindness is lifted and they are given freedom from Satan’s rule.

“And you hath he quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

This passage also teaches that men are under the power of Satan until they put their faith in Jesus. At that point they are given spiritual life and the blindness of their hearts is taken away.

The Bible also warns that in the end times before Jesus returns to establish His kingdom there will be many scoffers in the world:

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7).

Notice that these scoffers are “willingly ignorant.” Their ignorance is not a result of weak intellect or lack of information. It is the result of willful rebellion against Almighty God.

This describes the spiritual blindness that comes through willful rejection of God and His Word.

Isn’t Noah’s Ark A Myth?

The Bible teaches in Genesis that God destroyed the world with a flood and that only eight people survived: Noah, and his three sons and their wives. This is widely believed to be a myth, but there is powerful evidence for its truth.

Was the Ark described in the Bible capable of floating safely on rough seas?

The Ark was a modified box-shaped craft like a modern oil tanker. It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high (Gen. 6:15). The ratio of length to breadth was 6 to 1, which is a perfect dimension for seaworthiness. Some giant oil tankers are 7 to 1. A model made by Peter Jansen of Holland proved that it was almost impossible to capsize (John Whitcomb, The World that Perished, p. 24). A study by the ship research center (KRISO) in Korea in 1992 found that the Ark could handle waves as high as 98 feet. The leader of the study, Dr. Hong, is an evolutionist and had no interest in trying to prove the Bible true (The New Answers Book, p. 132).

Was the Ark was large enough to carry all of the animals?

Noah did not have to carry every sub-species, such as every kind of dog, into the Ark. He only had to carry a representative of each kind.

The following is a description of the Ark if the cubit was 18 inches: “Its carrying capacity equaled that of 522 standard railroad stock cars (each of which can hold 240 sheep). Only 188 cars would be required to hold 45,000 sheep-sized animals, leaving three trains of 104 cars each for food, Noah’s family, and ‘range’ for the animals. Today it is estimated that there are 17,600 species of animals, making 45,000 a likely approximation of the number Noah might have taken into the Ark” (Ryrie Study Bible).

The Ark was large enough to carry the dinosaurs, as well. The average size of the dinosaurs, based on the fossil record, was the size of a sheep or small pony (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book, p. 167, quoting M. Crichton, The Lost World, p. 122). Struthiomimus, for example, was the size of an ostrich, and Compsognathus was the size of a chicken. Thus, only some of them were overly large, and of these, Noah could have taken the eggs or he could have taken juveniles. Since reptiles can grow as long as they live, the large dinosaurs were probably very old ones (The New Answers Book). Even the largest dinosaurs were small when first hatched. “There were probably fewer than 50 distinct groups or kinds of dinosaurs that had to be on the Ark” (The New Answers Book, p. 168).

Is there evidence of a worldwide Flood?

There is geological evidence throughout the world that testifies to a universal Flood.

Two excellent books on this topic are John Whitcomb’s The World That Perished: An Introduction to Biblical Catastrophism and Whitcomb and Morris’ The Genesis Flood. The following is a summary of a small part of this evidence (some of this is from Willmington’s Guide to the Bible and Halley’s Bible Handbook):

Most of the earth’s crust consists of sedimentary rocks. “Over 70% of the earth’s surface rock is sedimentary rock (the rest of earth’s surface rock is volcanic igneous and metamorphic rock). Sedimentary rock was originally formed in almost all cases under water, usually by deposition after transportation by water from various sources. Sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces of rock or other material which existed somewhere else, and were eroded or dissolved and redeposited in their present location. Sedimentary rock results from moving water which lays down layer upon layer by what’s called hydrologic sorting (sandstone, siltstone, shale, limestone, etc). This means that over 70% of the earth’s crust has been moved by a great movement of water giving strong evidence for the flood” (Steve Carr, “Evidence for the Flood,” http://www.calvaryag.org/apologetics/apologetics_11-evidence_flood.htm/).

Marine fossils have been found atop mountains. Clam fossils have even been found on the summit of Mt. Everest. Many Ammonite fossils (sea animals with shells), some with a diameter up to two meters, can be seen at 12,000 feet in the Himalayans in the Kali Gandaki River in Nepal (http://library.thinkquest.org/10131/geology_visual.html/). Clusters of gigantic fossilized oysters were found atop the Andes Mountains in South America. A whale’s skeleton was found on the top of Mount Sanhorn on the Arctic Coast and similar skeletons found a mile high on California’s coastal range. Thus, just as the Bible says, in ancient days floodwaters streamed over the mountains.

Fossil beds containing plants, insects, and animals are found throughout the world, preserving the fossils in such a manner that can be explained only by a flood of biblical proportions. “Never does one find, in the present era, great ‘graveyards’ of organisms buried together and waiting fossilization. But this is the sort of thing that is encountered in fossil deposits in many, many places around the world. ... To attempt to account for these vast graveyards in terms of present-day processes and events, except via the most extreme and unscientific extrapolation, is absolutely impossible” (The Genesis Flood, pp. 156, 161). For example, the lignite beds of Geiseltal, Germany, contain fossils of plants, insects, and animals in pristine condition. The chlorophyll is well preserved in the leaves as are the soft parts of insects, the feathers of birds, even the stomach contents of beetles. Ivan Velikovsky observes: “When a fish dies its body floats on the surface or sinks to the bottom and is devoured rather quickly, actually in a matter of hours, by other fish. However, the fossil fish found in sedimentary rocks is very often preserved with all its bones intact. Entire shoals of fish over large areas, numbering billions of specimens, are found in a state of agony, but with no marks of a scavenger’s attack” (Earth in Upheaval, p. 222).

As for the extra-biblical accounts of the Flood, they are obviously untrue. In the best-known one, the Epic of Gilgamesh from Babylon, the ark is described as a cube shape, which would have been impossibly unstable in the raging ocean. All of the evidence points to the fact that the Bible’s account is the true account and the others are man-made exaggerations and fables based on the true account.

Was there enough water to cover the entire earth and the mountains?

There is enough water in the seas today to cover the earth to a depth of about 1.7 miles (The New Answers Book, p. 133). The Bible does not say that the mountains in Noah’s day were as high as they are today. In fact, the Bible might indicate in Psalm 104 that the mountains were raised up at the end of the Flood to make room for the water to return to the oceans.

What Is the Evidence for God?

The evidence for God is all around us for those who have eyes to see. Design requires a designer.

In spite of what evolutionists claim, the old watchmaker argument has never been refuted. In fact, it is only been strengthened through the discoveries of cellular biology. If you were to come across a watch lying along a pathway, you would know that someone made the watch, because it is obviously a product of an intelligent being. It could not have come into existence on its own. Likewise, when we see things far more complicated than any watch, things such as the human brain, the DNA molecule, the self-replicating living cell with its molecular machinery, or the butterfly, we can assume that these are the product of Intelligence.

Consider Mt. Rushmore in America. The faces of four U.S. presidents are carved on the face of the mountain. No one looks at that and thinks that the faces were the product of blind chance. Likewise, when you look in the mirror and see your own face, you should realize that you are not a product of mere blind forces. That is not a “religious” conclusion; it is supported by all of the established facts of science. It is supported by the law of cause and effort.

Indeed, the Bible says that men can know there is a God from the things He has made, and that men are therefore without excuse for not believing in Him.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalms 19:1).

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 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” (Romans 1:18-20).

In fact, all you have to do to know there is a God is to consider your own body. Consider, for example, the human brain. The following is an excerpt from the article “Thinking about the Brain” by Dr. Don DeYoung and Dr. Richard Bliss, 2004, Institute for Creation Research:

“The adult brain weighs about 1350 grams, just three pounds, yet it handles the information of 1000 supercomputers. The fundamental unit within the brain is the neuron, or nerve cell. Each cell contains a nucleus and branching fibers called dendrites and axons. When a cell ‘fires,’ it sends electrochemical impulses along its axon extension to neighboring neurons. Our brain contains about 10 billion neurons (1010). During the first nine months of life, these neurons form at the astounding rate of 25,000 per minute. ... Each neuron is in dendritic contact with perhaps 10,000 other neurons. The total number of neurological interconnections is on the order of 1014 (100 trillion). This number is equivalent to all the leaves on all the trees of a vast forest covering half of the U.S. The total length of the nerve dendrites in an adult brain is over 100,000 miles! ... the brain holds at least 1014 bits (binary digits) of information. Actually, it is a much greater number, since the neurons also show intermediate firing states, somewhat like a light-dimmer switch. The storage capacity of this supercomputer [the Cray-2] is 1,000 times less than that of the human brain. ... Note that the potential brain capacity is estimated as at least equivalent to that of 25 million volumes, a 500-mile-long bookshelf! ... The beautiful complexity of our brain contrasts sharply with all simplistic, secular attempts to explain it away. Our brain remains a frontier of science; we actually know very little about it, but what is known is overwhelming. In addition, every single neuronal cell within the brain contains a trillion atoms. This is like a microscopic universe within each cell, complete with order, purpose, and interdependence of components. ... The brain truly provides an ultimate design challenge for evolution. It should be a cause for humble praise in considering the wonder of the mind. It is a privilege to dedicate these minds to the Creator.”

The reason that some men cannot understand this evidence for God is that their hearts are blinded by sin. The Bible says, “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” (Romans 1:20). If the invisible things of God are clearly seen in creation, why can’t some people see them? The answer is that they are spiritually blind. I have a blind preacher friend who lives in the Himalayan mountains and has preached in our church in Kathmandu. If he were to say to me, “I have heard that there are beautiful snow-covered mountains nearby, but I don’t believe it because I haven’t seen them,” I would say to him, “Prem, you can’t see them because you are blind. I can describe them to you, but you still wouldn’t be able to see them.” The spiritually-blind atheist won’t be able to see unless he humbles himself before the Almighty Creator God, admits his fallen condition and rebellion against God’s Law and God’s just judgment, and casts himself upon God’s mercy in Jesus Christ. Then God will give him spiritual light so that he can see the truth.

In the face of the watchmaker argument, the atheist can only huff and puff with Darwinian myths and philosophical rants, but he cannot refute it. The mind-boggling complexity and design that we find in nature, even in a single living cell, cannot be explained by “natural selection” or “random mutations” or any other natural process.

Why Can’t We See God?

We can’t see God at this time because He requires that men seek Him by faith. When men did see God, in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, they rejected Him and broke His law. God now requires that men believe in Him without seeing Him. The Bible says,

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Don’t All Religions Lead to God?

There is a Hindu saying, “The truth is One, but different sages call it by different names.”

This is a conception that is held by many non-Hindus, as well.

But it can’t be true that “all paths lead to God” for the simple reason that they point in different directions!

Let’s say I was at the Kathmandu airport and wanted to go to Rani Pokhari, a major Kathmandu landmark. I stop a man and ask him to guide me to Rani Pokhari and he says, “Sure, we need to take the road to Bhaktapur.” A second man says, “We need to take the road to Patan.” A third man says, “We need to take the road to Boudha.” A fourth man replies, “We need to take the road downtown toward New Road and the palace.”

We know that all four of these guides can’t be right, since they are pointing in different directions. Only one of the suggested roads actually leads to Rani Pokhari.

Likewise, to get to heaven we must follow the right path, but the major religions are pointing in different directions.

The Bible ways that Jesus is the only right path to God and salvation and heaven.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Consider four ways that the major religions teach different doctrines about the most important things and therefore point in different directions:

The religions do not teach the same morality.

For example, Hinduism has a caste system that locks men into a certain status from birth, and the low caste are considered inferior to the high. In places where Hinduism is still followed in its purest forms, such as Nepal and rural India, the caste system is very strong. In Nepal, low castes are not even allowed into the homes of high castes. In many villages, the low castes are not allowed to drink out of the same wells and fountains as the high caste. In parts of India there is even an “unseeable caste” whose members are required to work at night. Though some Hindu scholars claim that the caste system is not an integral part of Hinduism, it has been practiced by Hindus for thousands of years and has support from the Hindu scriptures.

The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that all men are the same “caste.” We came from the same original father and mother, and God commands us to treat all men alike. God’s law as given in the Bible is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). If I love my neighbor as myself, I will not treat him as an inferior and try to “keep him down.” The Bible commands men to treat one another with perfect justice. “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's” (Deuteronomy 1:17).

In Hinduism, morality is largely relative. Take lying, for example. Even the Hindu gods themselves lie. Yet the Bible teaches that lying is a great sin. Consider the following commandment:

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25).

The Bible says that God hates the lying tongue (Prov. 6:16-17). It says that the liar is a wicked person (Prov. 11:18). It says that Satan is the father of lies and those who tell lies are following in his evil ways (John 8:44). The Bible even says that all liars who die without salvation will be punished in eternal hell.

“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” (Revelation 21:8).

Obviously, what Hinduism teaches about lying and what the Bible teaches are different and contradictory. If one is right, the other is wrong.

The religions also do not teach the same things about God.

The Bible teaches that God had no beginning; He is eternal. He made all things, but He is not all things. It teaches that God is not to be worshipped in the form of idols. It says that God is Almighty and omnipotent, that he can do anything, and he is omniscient, meaning he knows all things. The Bible says God knows the names of every star, how many hairs are on man’s head, and the thoughts of every man’s heart. The Bible teaches that God is holy. He never commits any wrong deed, never lies, never cheats, never commits fornication, never steals another man’s wife, never acts foolishly in a rage, never gets high on drugs. The Bible says God is love, that even though men have sinned against him and broken his law and turned to their own way, that God loves them and provided salvation for them by coming into the world and dying on the cross. The Bible says that God is “meek and lowly in heart.” He is not proud. He treats men equally and does not look down on some of them as “peons.”

No other religion believes in a God like this. Consider Hinduism. Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, is said to be “God Himself” (Upadhyay, Hindu Gods and Goddesses, p. 51). He is deceitful, disobedient, and lascivious. “As a child Krishna was playful and mischievous. Innocent and obedient in his mother’s presence, he missed no opportunity for mischief when her back was turned. He ... mocked and laughed at his elders and teased little babies until they cried, urinated in neighbours’ houses and stole butter and sweets. But Yasodha and Nanda, who had no control over him, just laughed at his antics. ... As a youth, Krishna enchanted and intoxicated the cowherd women with his flute playing. He teased them and made love to them” (Indian Gods, Kent: Grange Books, 1998, p. 45, 47). Krishna’s flute playing is said to “pull virtuous women from their homes and drag them to Krishna” and to make “chaste ladies forget their lords” (David Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute).

Since the religions’ teaching about God is different, how can it be possible that they all lead to the same God?

The religions also do not teach the same thing about Jesus.

The Bible says Jesus is the eternal God who created all things. He came into the world 2,000 years ago by the virgin birth. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross for man’s sins, spent three days in the grave, and rose from the dead. He ascended back to heaven and is coming again to rule the world.

The Islamic religion believes in a Jesus named Isa, but he is not God, did not die for man’s sins, and did not rise from the dead.

Hinduism teaches that Jesus was a great guru who learned religious wisdom and attained to an exalted status, but Hindus do not believe that Jesus is the only God and Creator and the only Saviour from sin.

Judaism teaches that Jesus was a deceived Jewish rabbi who falsely claimed to be the Messiah and who was crucified for his lies.

It is obvious that the various major religious do not teach the same thing about Jesus.

The religions also do not teach the same thing about salvation.

All religions except Bible Christianity, teach that salvation is by works. In Hinduism, the goal of salvation is to be released from the cycles of reincarnation (the “wheel of life”), and this is achieved in one of three ways: through working out one’s karma by rituals, giving alms, good deeds, etc., through yogic meditation and “self knowledge,” or through devotion to the Hindu gods by private devotions, temple rituals and pilgrimages. In Islam, salvation is achieved through praying five times a day toward Mecca, celebrating Ramadan, giving alms, going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, etc.

The Bible’s teaching on salvation is entirely different than any other religion. According to the Bible, salvation is not what man does for God; it is what God has done for man. According to the Bible, man cannot be saved by his “good works,” because he is a sinner and he cannot do the perfect works that God’s holy law requires. God Himself has provided salvation as a gift by coming into the world and dying on the cross to suffer the punishment that men deserve. According to the Bible, there is no reincarnation and no nirvana. There is either heaven or hell. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

In conclusion, we repeat that all religions cannot lead to God and salvation because they are pointing in different directions.

Don’t the Laws of Nature Disprove Miracles?

There is no established law of science that disproves miracles. Those who do not believe in miracles are not standing on science; they are standing on philosophy and personal prejudice.

The issue is not miracles themselves; the issue is God. Miracles are not difficult to believe if you believe in an Almighty God that made the heavens and the earth, as the Bible teaches, and the evidence of such a God is the universe and life itself. The Bible does not begin by trying to prove God’s existence. It begins by announcing His existence.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The God who made all things can do all things. The God who made nature is not bound by the “laws of nature.”

“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Why Does God Allow Suffering and Catastrophes?

To answer this we would say, first, that the trouble in this world is man’s fault, not God’s.

When God made man in the beginning, there was no suffering. God made a perfect world for man to live in and provided for his every need. God placed the first man and woman in a paradise called the Garden of Eden and gave them only one commandment. But they were not satisfied with God’s provision and they disobeyed God’s commandment and fell into sin. As a result, the world became a place of evil and suffering. This is man’s fault. It is men that lie and cheat and steal and rape and kidnap and bully and kill.

Second, God is holy. He is not only a Saviour, He is also a Judge.

God warned the first man and woman, that if they disobeyed His law they would be punished, and that is what happened. Because of sin, the world came under God’s curse. This is described in Genesis chapter 3. It is God’s curse that is the cause of sickness and death and violent storms and many other troubles that men suffer. Men are not innocent before God. All men have sinned and broken His laws; and all men, therefore, deserve to be punished.

Third, God has given light to men and they have rejected it.

John 1:9 says that God gives light to every man. There is the light of creation (Romans 1:19-20). Men can know that there is a God from the things that He has made. There is also the light of conscience (Romans 2:14-16). God has put a conscience inside of man that tells him there is a God and that convicts him when he does wrong. There is also the light of the Bible (Romans 3:1-2). This is the greatest light that God has given to men, and the Bible in whole or in part has been translated into every major language of the world, plus most minor ones--more than 2,450 so far.

From the very beginning, when men first sinned, God began to show them the way of salvation. But for the most part, God’s Word has been rejected and men have lived according to their own thinking and have traded the true and living God for false gods. Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, knew God and knew about His salvation (Genesis 3:15, 21). Adam lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5), so for the first millennium of man’s history the first man was still alive and was still testifying personally about the God who had created him. Adam’s second son, Abel, was a prophet and knew about salvation through the coming Saviour (Luke 11:50-51; Hebrews 11:4). Before the worldwide Flood, there were other prophets. Enoch was a prophet who preached about the second coming of Christ (Jude 14-15). Noah was also a prophet who preached for 120 years before the Flood (2 Peter 2:5). Job lived after the Flood and knew many things about God, including salvation through the coming Saviour and the bodily resurrection (Job 19:25-27). Solomon proclaimed the true God to many nations in his day (1 Kings 4:34). This was 1,000 years before Christ. King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian Empire preached about the true God to the nations of his day (Daniel 4:1-3, 37). This was about 550 years before Christ. Darius of the Medo-Persian Empire also preached about the true God to the nations (Daniel 6:25-28). The apostles preached the gospel throughout the Middle East, as well as in Asia, Africa, and Europe (Romans 1:8). From then until now Christian missionaries have been preaching to the ends of the earth, but most men have ignored this preaching. Men have no excuse for sitting in darkness and not knowing the true and living God.

Men are responsible to seek God (Acts 17:27). In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught that men are responsible to respond to God’s Word (Matthew 13:18-19, 23). Those who respond to the light are given more light (Proverbs 1:20-23). Cornelius is an example of this (Acts 10). He was seeking God and trying to follow the light of the Old Testament, and God sent a Christian to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same thing happened to the eunuch who was the treasurer of Ethiopia. We read about this in Acts 8:26-40. He had visited Israel and obtained the book of Isaiah, which is one of the books of the Old Testament, and he was trying to understand it when God sent Philip to him to explain the gospel.

God has been calling out to men for 6,000 years, but for the most part He has been ignored. God cannot be blamed for man’s spiritual ignorance.

Fourth, God has provided salvation and offers it to all men.

God’s great love and goodness is evident by the fact that He came into this world and suffered many things at the hands of His own creatures and allowed Himself to be crucified on a cross in order to save men from their sins. “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” (John 3:16). God wants to save men. That is His desire. If men are not saved, it is not God’s fault. The fact that God has gone to such great trouble and expense to provide salvation for those who believe is evidence that He is good and that He can be trusted to do that which is right.

Fifth, we cannot expect to understand everything about God.

To understand every mystery about God, you would have to be God. Though God has revealed many things to us in the Scriptures, He has not revealed everything and He has not answered every question we can ask. Deuteronomy 29:29 is a very important verse. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Sixth, God does not have to answer to man.

The Bible says: “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20).

As God’s creature, man is required to trust and obey the Creator regardless of whether he can understand him. God must be God. Yea, God will be God.

Why Doesn’t God Punish Crimes in This World?

The first answer to this is that God has placed the responsibility to judge crime into man’s hands in this present world.

He established rule by government, and He has tasked the government with judging crimes. Consider the following passage from the book of Romans:

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing” (Romans 13:1-6).

This passage says that God has given governments the responsibility to judge evil and to reward good, and men are required to submit to the government.

In some countries the government does a good job of fulfilling this task. In these countries, if you commit a crime, you will likely be punished. In other countries, the government is weak and unjust and criminals are rewarded rather than punished. In fact, in some countries the leaders themselves are criminals. That is not God’s fault; that is man’s fault.

Second, we must understand that if God judged every sin in this present world, He would judge every man every day!

This is because all men are sinners and they break God’s laws continually. If I want God to judge crimes committed against me, I must be ready for God to judge every crime that I commit against others. Do you want God to immediately judge you if you lie or cheat or envy or covet or lust or blaspheme?

Third, God does judge sin in this world.

He has put the world under His curse because of sin, and much of the trouble that men experience is God’s judgment. This includes disease, storms, floods, drought, earthquakes, preying animals, accidents, and many other things. Further, the Bible says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7), and, “be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Men instinctively know that there is a law of retribution that works in this world. When the apostle Paul was shipwrecked on an island and a poisonous snake bit him, the islanders said, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live” (Acts 28:4). In fact, the islanders were wrong about Paul and he was not harmed by the snake bite, but the point is that men know in their hearts that their crimes will be avenged in some way and they live in fear of this, and this is because God does act behind the scenes in this world to judge sin.

Fourth, God does not always judge sin immediately in this world because He has given men freedom to exercise their wills.

Men are not robots. They are made in God’s image and they are given choices, and they must take responsibility for those choices. If a man gets drunk and drives a bus recklessly through the mountains and has a wreck and kills his passengers, that is not God’s fault. That is man’s fault.

Ultimately, God will hold every man accountable for everything He does in this life.

The Bible says,

“... it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

Is the God of the Old Testament Cruel?

Unbelievers have long used Israel’s destruction of pagan nations in Canaan as evidence that the God of the Old Testament is unjust and cruel.

“When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire” (Deuteronomy 7:1-5).

But the following facts must be taken into consideration:

First, God waited 400 years before judging these wicked nations, which reminds us that He is very longsuffering.

“And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:13-16).

These nations had the light of creation and conscience, and they also had prophetic light. There were prophets in the region such as Melchizedek and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and his sons. The nations in Canaan who were destroyed could have repented like Nineveh did and God would have forgiven them (Jonah 3:5-10).

Second, the nations in question were devoted to every sort of vile moral perversion, including homosexuality, rape, incest, bestiality, and the burning of their children.

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. (Leviticus 18:1-3) ... Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: AND THE LAND IS DEFILED: THEREFORE I DO VISIT THE INIQUITY THEREOF UPON IT, AND THE LAND ITSELF VOMITETH OUT HER INHABITANTS” (Leviticus 18:1-3, 19-25).

“Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31).

The nations were destroyed for gross moral wickedness.

“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (Deuteronomy 18:12).

“Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:24-25).

Consider the condition of Sodom and Gomorrah hundreds of years before God ordered the destruction of these nations. The men of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house and tried to force themselves on the visiting angels (Gen. 19:4-9). These pagan nations were proud and bold in their sin (Isa. 3:9).

It is not morally wrong for a holy, lawgiving God to punish those who willfully, flagrantly, and unrepentantly break His laws. Those who charge God with injustice and cruelty for punishing wicked nations are hypocritical, because they themselves believe in law and order and support the punishment of those who commit crimes such as rape and child molestation and murder, particularly when those crimes are committed against them and their loved ones.

Three, God was merciful to those like Rahab who believed (Joshua 2).

The whole tenor of Scripture teaches that God delights in mercy more than in punishment. He “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He wants all men to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).

Four, it was necessary for those wicked pagan nations to be overthrown so that Israel could be established in that land as a light to the world.

Had they been left alone, Israel would have been corrupted morally and religiously within a very short time (Deut. 7:2-6). The destruction of those nations was actually an act of great compassion on God’s part. The pagan nations that were destroyed deserved what they got, and by exercising His righteous judgment on them at that time God was providing blessing for the whole world. Through Israel, God gave the world His divine revelation in the Bible, and through Israel He brought the Saviour into the world to provide salvation. “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” (John 3:16).

Those who charge God with injustice and cruelty ignore the fact that God Himself paid the price demanded of His own holy law so that men can be saved. The heart of God was revealed in the amazing words that Jesus spoke from the cross in regard to the people who had so terribly, unjustly abused him: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The God revealed in the Bible is the most compassionate Person in the universe. In fact, He is the source of all true love and compassion, but He is also a thrice holy, lawgiving God, and He cannot be judged by man’s puny, inconsistent standards.

Is It Possible to Know the Truth?

The good news is that it is definitely possible to know the truth. The following is what the Bible says about this:

First, it is man’s responsibility to seek God, and the Bible promises that those who seek Him will find Him.

“[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17:26-27).

“... if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever” (1 Chronicles 28:9).

“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early [diligently] shall find me” (Prov. 8:17).

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

These are wonderful promises. If a man seeks God earnestly, he will find Him.

Second, Jesus explained what a man must do to find the truth.

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).

Jesus said that if a man will continue in His Word, he will know the truth and be made free. His Word is found in the Bible. This means it is necessary to read and study the Bible and to learn how to interpret it properly.

Jesus also said,

“If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17).

Here Jesus says that a man will know what is true if he obeys God. Obedience is necessary. It is not enough to learn the Bible just for head knowledge, just as an hobby or an exercise in comparative religion. One must obey, and then he will know the truth.

What About Those Who Haven’t Heard the Bible?

Skeptics are very demanding of God. “Why does God do this and that, and why does God allow this and that?” they say. Robert Ingersoll, for example, asked, “If the Bible is the foundation of all civilization, of all just ideas of right and wrong, of our duties to God and each other, why did God not give to each nation at least one copy to start with?” (About the Holy Bible).

The answer is that God has given light to every nation, and those who respond to the light receive more light. The Bible says that God gives light to every man (John 1:9). He has given the light of creation that we might know that there is a wise and powerful God, and He has given the light of conscience that we can know that there is a moral God, and He has given the light of prophecy and Scripture that we might know who this God is and might have a personal relationship with Him. God has raised up prophets to the nations from the time of Abel to the present. “God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21), but they have been ridiculed and persecuted and killed far more often than they have been honored and believed. In the days of Solomon the kings of the earth heard the prophetic wisdom God had given him (1 Kings 4:34). Jesus commanded His disciples to carry the gospel to every nation, and even by the end of the first century it was preached in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Bible has been translated into every major language. The nations have heard, and if they have not heard it is their own excuse because they have not made the effort to hear. They will be condemned by the likes of the Ethiopian eunuch, the nation’s treasurer, who obtained a copy of the prophet Isaiah and sought Philip’s assistance in understanding it (Acts 8:26-39). When a man sincerely tries to comprehend the light he has, God will always send him a Philip. God requires that men seek after Him, and promises to be found of those who do (Acts 17:26-27; Jeremiah 29:13; Luke 11:9; Hebrews 11:6). It is not God’s fault that most people sit in darkness today.

Who is Jesus and Why Did He Die?

Jesus was born about 2,000 years ago in Israel in the town of Bethlehem. He was a Jew. Israel is in western Asia. It is located on the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Lebanon.

Jesus was not an ordinary man, though. He was the eternal Son of God and the Creator of the world. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, His entire life was written down in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

Jesus grew up in a fairly large family, with brothers and sisters, but his parents were not wealthy. His father was a carpenter and earned a common standard of living. By the time that Jesus was 12 years old he knew more than the Jewish religious leaders. When he was 30 years old he started his public ministry, traveling around Israel, preaching to large crowds, and doing amazing miracles. On two occasions he fed several thousand people miraculously. He healed every sort of disease, including the blind, the deaf, and the cripple. He raised the dead back to life. He walked on water and quieted raging storms.

The Jewish religious leaders became jealous of Jesus’ popularity and plotted to have him put to death. In those days, the Jews in Israel were under the authority of the Roman Empire, and the Jewish leaders didn’t have the power to put anyone to death without permission from the Roman government. Therefore, they told lies about Jesus, claiming that he was trying to overthrow the government, which was not true, in order to have him killed. Eventually the Roman governor ordered Jesus put to death. After they mocked him and beat him cruelly, the Roman soldiers killed Jesus by nailing his hands and feet to a cross and leaving him there to die. This was called crucifixion.

After Jesus died he was buried in the tomb of a wealthy follower. Three days later he rose from the dead, just as he had promised. He was seen by hundreds of people. One time 500 people saw him at the same time. After his resurrection He taught his disciples for 40 days, and then He ascended back to heaven.

Now we come back to the question, “Why did Jesus Die?” The answer is that Jesus died for man’s sins.

The Bible says that the first man and woman sinned against God by breaking His commandment. When that happened, man became separated from the holy God and his heart became dark and sinful. Since then, every person who has been born into the world has a sinful nature. This is why it is so easy for us to do wrong. This is why the world is filled with trouble, pain, fighting, war, and sorrow.

God could have destroyed mankind because of sin, but the Bible says God loves men and wants to save them. The most famous verse in the Bible tells us the following good news:

“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” (John 3:16).

God’s only begotten Son is Jesus. He came into the world, born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life. Then He died on the cross to bear the punishment that we owe God because of our sin.

We have broken God’s laws. God is a holy God and He is a God of law and justice. He gave His law to men 3,500 years ago and it was written down in the Bible, but all men have broken God’s laws. The first law of God says:

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 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: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me” (Exodus 20:3-5).

Because men have broken God’s laws, they must be punished. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

If I die without receiving forgiveness for my sins, I will be punished forever in a burning hell.

But Jesus took our punishment upon Himself when He died on the cross. Those who believe in Him and receive Him as Saviour will not be punished but will be forgiven and will receive eternal life.

Why did Jesus die? The good news is that He died for your sin. And three days later He rose from the grave. Today He is alive in heaven and He is waiting to receive you. He says:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The Bible also says:

“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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

“... 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” (Rom. 10:9-13).

Is There Evidence That Jesus Rose from the Dead?

The Bible says there are “many infallible proofs” of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 1:3). In fact, it is one of the best documented events of ancient history. Bible-believing Christianity is not BLIND RELIGIOUS FAITH!

Christ staked His authority on the resurrection. At least seven times He said He would die and rise from the dead.

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matthew 16:21).

See also Matthew 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; Luke 9:22-27; John 2:18-22.

Paul said that the Christian faith depends on Christ’s resurrection.

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14-17).

Three great evidences for the resurrection of Christ:

1. The character of the Gospel accounts

The Gospel accounts themselves give every evidence that they were written by eyewitnesses who believed what they wrote and who were speaking the truth without embellishment and myth-making. There is no hint of fiction, myth, or deceit.

Consider the details of the accounts.

“John’s Gospel is characterized throughout by the personal touch; it has all the marks of the evidence not only of an eyewitness, but of a careful observer ... The running of the disciples, the order of their arrival at the sepulchre and their entry, the fact that John first stopped down and looking through the low doorway saw the linen clothes lying, while Peter, more bold, was the first to enter ... the description of the position of the linen clothes and the napkin ... this can surely be nothing else than the description of one who actually saw, upon whose memory the scene is still impressed, to whom the sight of the empty grave and the relinquished grave-clothes was a critical point in faith and life” (E. Day, On the Evidence of the Resurrection, pp. 16-17).

Consider the candor of the accounts. When someone invents a religion, he glorifies its leaders, but the Gospels paint the founders of Christianity as very weak (e.g., Peter having to be rebuked by Christ as Satan--Mat. 16:23; Peter denying Christ thrice; the disciples fleeing and hiding; Thomas and others doubting Christ even after He appears to them).

Further, if men had made up the accounts of Christ’s resurrection, they would not have said that the women were the first to believe. In that day women had no authority in the eyes of society. They could not even testify in a court of law in those days, except in rare occasions (J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City, p. 168). The account of the women believing first is not something that would have been written unless it actually happened and the writers were committed wholeheartedly to recording the truth and nothing but the truth. This striking candor is powerful evidence that the Gospels are true, unvarnished accounts.

2. The empty tomb

That the tomb of Jesus was empty is proven by two facts:

First, the Jewish leaders had to invent the lie that the disciples had stolen His body (Mat. 28:11-15). If Jesus’ body was located anywhere, they would have searched it out and produced it.

Second, just weeks after the crucifixion, only a stones’ throw from the empty tomb itself, Peter publicly proclaimed the resurrection and 3,000 believed, followed a little later by “a great company of priests” and “a great number” more (Acts 2:37-42; 6:7; 1:21). If anyone could have produced the body or come up with a reasonable account for it being missing, they would have!

The following are theories that have been proposed to account for the empty tomb:

“The field of biblical criticism resembles a vast graveyard filled with the skeletons of discarded theories devised by highly imaginative skeptics. ... One might think that so many repeated failures ... would lead the opposition to abandon their efforts, but not so. They continue unabated, and men are still wracking their brains, working their imaginations overtime, and parading a vast amount of erudition and ingenuity in their, to us, futile attempts to destroy the impregnable rock of historical evidence on which the Christian faith in the resurrection stands proud and unshaken” (John Lilly).

Some say Jesus just swooned and recovered in the cool of the tomb

This is refuted by the fact that the professional soldiers had ascertained that he was dead (John 19:31-34).

Further, how could a near-dead man remove the heavy stone and convince his followers that he had risen from the dead? Consider what Christ endured: severe beating; nails piercing His hands and feet; spear piercing His side (John 19:34); great loss of blood and bodily fluids.

Some say that the women went to the wrong tomb

In The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Kirsopp Lake claimed that the women were confused in the dark and went to the wrong tomb. Not only is this contrary to what the Gospel accounts say, it makes no sense whatsoever. If the women had gone to the wrong tomb and reported that Christ had risen based on that mistake, the matter would soon have been cleared up. First, the disciples were not stupid. They would not have given their lives for the testimony of a few geographically-challenged women. They would have checked out the story thoroughly and would have come to the truth of the matter. Further, the Jewish leaders would have made certain that the matter was cleared up by producing the right tomb, and the body!

Some say the disciples were hallucinating

If they were hallucinating, it was a mass hallucination, because Paul said that the resurrected Christ was seen by above 500 people at once (1 Cor. 15:5-8)!

When Paul wrote the epistle of 1 Corinthians, most of these eyewitnesses were still alive. Paul was not writing about things that had happened long ago.

Josh McDowell observes: “Let’s take the more than 500 witnesses who saw Jesus alive after His death and burial, and place them in a courtroom. Do you realize that if each of those 500 people were to testify for only six minutes, including cross-examination, you would have an amazing 50 hours of firsthand testimony? Add to this the testimony of many other eyewitnesses and you would well have the largest and most lopsided trial in history” (“Evidence for the Resurrection”).

It has been rightly said that “this theory makes Christ a fraud and his disciples near idiots.”

“Somehow the rugged fisherman Peter and his brother Andrew, the characteristically doubting Thomas, the seasoned and not too sensitive tax gatherer, Matthew, the rather dull Philip, intensely loyal but a little slow of apprehension, do not fit easily into the conditions required for an absolutely unshakable collective hallucination. And if it is not both collective and unshakable it is of no use to us. The terrors and the persecutions these men ultimately had to face and did face unflinchingly, do not admit of a halfhearted adhesion secretly honeycombed with doubt” (Morison).

Some say they saw someone disguised as Jesus (Hugh Schonfield, The Passover Plot)

This is too ridiculous to waste time refuting. Having spent three years with Jesus, wouldn’t the disciples know Him? They might be confused for a moment or even a short while, but eventually they would recognize that the individual was an impostor.

Some say the body was stolen

This was the story invented by the Jewish leaders. They paid the guards to lie and to say that the disciples stole Jesus’ body (Mat. 28:11-15). This is an impossible story.

First, if they were asleep how could they know what happened to the body, or if stolen, who stole it?

Second, sleeping on guard duty brought the death penalty in that day. That one of the guards might fall asleep is perhaps conceivable, but that all of them would fall asleep is not. As Richard Dickinson observes:

“That without an exception all should have fallen asleep when they were stationed there for so extraordinary a purpose, to see that that body was not stolen, lest it should be said that the crucified Jesus had risen from the dead, may be possible; but it is not credible: especially when it is considered that these guards were subjected to the severest discipline in the world. It was death for a Roman sentinel to sleep on his post. Yet these guards were not executed; nor were they deemed culpable even by the rulers, woefully chagrined and exasperated as they must have been by the failure of their plan for securing the body” (The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Historically and Logically Viewed, 1865).

(That the guard was a Roman guard is clear from the passage. The Greek word for “watch” in Matthew 27:65, koustodia, is the word for a Roman sentry. A.T. Robertson says that “ye have a watch” is present imperative and refers to “a guard of Roman soldiers, not mere temple police.” In Matthew 28:12 they are called “soldiers,” which would not be the case if they were temple police. Further, Matthew 28:14 indicates that they were Roman guards, because they were afraid of what Pilate would do if he heard of the matter.)

Third, by their actions it is evident that the Jewish leaders didn’t believe their own story. They didn’t call the disciples to examine them when they found out the body was missing, and they made no effort to find the body. John Chrysostom, in the fourth century, observed that the story of the stealing of the body actually establishes the resurrection. “For this is the language of men confessing, that the body was not there. When therefore they confess the body was not there, but the stealing is shown to be false and incredible--by their watching by it, and by the seals, and by the timidity of the disciples--the proof of the resurrection even hence appears incontrovertible” (The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, p. 264).

Further, who could have stolen Christ’s body?

The Jews certainly didn’t steal it, because they wanted to prove that He did not rise.

The Roman government certainly didn’t steal it, because the government sealed the tomb and had no reason to steal it and thus allow the Christians to say He had risen.

Joseph of Arimathea certainly didn’t steal it. He was Jesus’ disciple and had no motive to steal His body. Further, he couldn’t have stolen it alone, because he couldn’t have removed the great stone, so he would have needed help, and doubtless someone would have reported the deed sooner or later.

The disciples certainly didn’t steal it. First, they were hiding in fear for their lives. Second, they had no opportunity, because the tomb was sealed and guarded. Third, they had no leader who could have envisioned and accomplished such a thing. Their leader, Peter, was a broken man at that point and had given up his discipleship to Jesus to go back to fishing (John 21:3). Fourth, they would have been fools to have suffered and died for a lie! The disciples didn’t suffer for what others had seen, such as Muslims who die for the Koran, but they died for what they had professedly seen themselves (Acts 4:18-20). Fifth, it would have been impossible for such a large number of people to have kept the secret hidden. “Even if it had been possible, and the disciples the men to do it, the subsequent history of Christianity would have been different. Sooner or later, someone who knew the facts would have been unable to keep them hidden” (Frank Morison, Who Moved the Stone?). Sixth, a great moral religion like we find in the New Testament, which exalts truth and honesty, could not have been founded upon a despicable deception.

“It is the complete failure of anyone to produce the remains, or to point to any tomb, official or otherwise, in which they were said to lie, and this ultimately destroys every theory based on the human removal of the body” (Morison).

We must not forget exactly what the early Christians suffered for their testimony that Christ had risen from the dead.

They were denounced by family and friends, hated by and considered the enemies of society, tortured, kept imprisoned for years in dark, rat-infested cells. Their property confiscated; they were crucified, burned alive, torn apart by wild beasts, chopped into pieces, roasted on racks; their tongues were torn out and their eyes put out. The also had to endure the torture and death of beloved family members.

“Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them. Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly a they knew any other fact. ... If then their testimony was not true, there was no possible motive for its fabrication” (Simon Greenleaf, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice, 1846).

Some say the disciples made up the accounts

This would mean that they all suffered and died on the basis of a lie, which makes no sense. It is one thing to found a religion or cult when you will benefit from it materially, but it is quite another thing to invent one if you will only suffer for it.

Further, as we have already noted, it is obvious from their very nature that the Gospel accounts were not made up. They are filled with lifelike detail and they are too candid to be mythical.

Some say Jesus rose spiritually but not bodily

Jesus specifically refuted this by eating and letting the disciples touch Him (Luke 24:37-43).

Frank Morison set out to discredit the Gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection, and instead he concluded that the only thing that can satisfy the historical facts is that Jesus actually did rise from the dead.

We agree and we find it much easier to believe in Christ’s resurrection, than to believe in the attempts to discredit it.

“The simple faith of the Christian who believes in the resurrection is nothing compared to the credulity of the skeptic who will accept the wildest and most improbable romances rather than admit the plain witness of historical certainties. The difficulties of belief may be great; the absurdities of unbelief are greater” (George Hanson, The Resurrection and the Life).

The reason why there are so many theories that attempt to discredit the Gospel accounts is that men are willfully blind sinners who do not want to submit to God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Further, the unbelief of “Christian preachers” such as Kirsopp Lake was prophesied in Scripture (2 Peter 2:1-2).

3. The changed lives

“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where THE DISCIPLES WERE ASSEMBLED FOR FEAR OF THE JEWS, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you” (John 20:19).

Something dramatic happened to turn the disciples from fear to courage.

Consider the testimony of Peter

After denying Christ the night of His arrest, Peter was a defeated man. He determined to go back to fishing (John 21:3). A few weeks later, the man who had denounced Christ before a handful of Jews on the eve of Christ’s crucifixion, preached boldly to a multitude of them on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 were converted. What could have wrought such a mighty change other than that he had become convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead?

Consider the testimony of James, Jesus’ half brother

Jesus’ brothers were opposed to Him during His lifetime (John 7:7), but after Jesus rose from the dead, James believed and became a leader in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; Gal. 1:19). James’ conversion was prompted by Christ’s resurrection appearance to him (1 Cor. 15:7).

Consider the testimony of Paul

What converted Paul from being a bitter enemy of Christ to being one of His most zealous followers? From an earthly perspective, Paul had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by following Christ. He admitted that he had “profited in the Jews’ religion above many” (Gal. 1:14). Paul testified that it was the resurrected Christ who convinced him (Acts 22:3-21).

As a zealous Pharisee and leader of Christ’s enemies among the Jews, Paul was in a position to know all about the story about the disciples stealing the body. Had he thought that Jesus’ dead body actually lay hidden somewhere, he would never have believed in the resurrection. It is obvious that even he did not give any credence to this story.

Did Jesus Go to India to Learn Wisdom?

Some books purport that Jesus went to India during his youth to learn the wisdom of the gurus. Before I was a Christian, I learned this from the book The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi Dowling, which I read in about 1972. At the time, I was convinced that it was true.

The book claims that Jesus spent 18 years of his life (called the “hidden” or “silent years,” between age 12 and 30) studying under Eastern religious gurus in India, Tibet, and Egypt. By this means Jesus achieved the “Christ” consciousness and then set out to teach others. According to this theory, Jesus and “the Christ” are different. Jesus was an ordinary man who learned how to be “the Christ” through initiation into the secrets of mystical wisdom.

In replying to this we would say, first, that it lacks any evidence. Levi, for example, claimed that he received this “knowledge” about Jesus from the “Akashic Records,” an immense energy field allegedly surrounding the earth that contains all knowledge. But there is zero evidence that the Akashic Records exist, and there is no evidence for this theory about Jesus from history.

Second, the “guru Jesus” is contrary to the Bible’s teaching about who Jesus was, and the Bible gives clear evidence of being the Word of God. Jesus was not an ordinary man who learned how to be an exalted guru. Born miraculously of a virgin, Jesus was the eternal Son of God from His birth. He trusted in God on His mother’s breasts (Psalm 22:9). Obviously this was no ordinary child! The Bible says that Jesus already knew who He was when He was very young. At age 12 He told His parents that He was God’s Son and explained to them that He had to accomplish the work He had been given to do (Luke 2:49). The Bible says that Jesus is the Creator and has all wisdom (Colossians 1:16; 2:3). As such He did not have to learn esoteric knowledge at the feet of gurus!

Third, the term “Christ” is not something that Jesus achieved but is something that He was from birth. It was His title as Israel’s promised Messiah. The name “Jesus” means Saviour (Matthew 1:21). The title “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning “anointed” (John 1:41). It refers to Jesus as the Messiah promised in Old Testament prophecy (Daniel 9:25-26; John 4:25; Acts 2:36). In the Old Testament God promised to send His Anointed (Psalm 2:2; Isaiah 61:1-2). The prophecies said that the Christ or the Messiah or the Anointed One would be God Himself (Psalm 45:6-7). Jesus was called Christ the Lord at His very birth. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). His name is Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Therefore, Jesus is Christ and Christ is Jesus.

Fourth, the idea of a “guru Jesus” contradicts the Bible’s teaching about why Jesus came to earth. According to the Aquarian Gospel, Jesus came to earth to be man’s example and teacher in order to show us the way of reincarnating into perfection. But according to the Bible, Jesus came to earth “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). This refers to saving men from the consequences of sin by dying on the cross to take the punishment that we deserve. By this means, Jesus provided eternal salvation to those who believe in Him. According to the Bible, there is no reincarnation. The Bible says that “it is appointed unto men ONCE to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). According to the Bible, there is no other way of salvation except through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Fifth, if Jesus had gone into India and learned from gurus, the Jewish leaders would have used that to discredit him. They were opposed to Jesus from the beginning of His public ministry at age 30 and they searched for every possible way they might discredit Him. The Jewish leaders considered all other religions as pagan and false, and the fact that they didn’t mention anything about Jesus going to India to learn from eastern religions is proof that He did not do this. The people in Nazareth where Jesus grew up knew Him. If Jesus had studied in the East, the townspeople would have known it and would have said, “He thinks he is a great pagan guru because He studied under them.” Instead, when Jesus started preaching they asked, “Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” (Matthew 13:54-56).

Why Isn’t the Whole World Saved?

If Jesus died for man’s sins, why isn’t the whole world saved?

Jesus died to make it possible for men to be saved, but they are not automatically saved. Each individual must personally believe in Christ. Every man has sinned against God and broken his law, and God requires that each individual come to Him and apologize for that and submit to Him. The Bible calls this repentance. It means to surrender to God’s authority. It means to turn from false gods and false religions and believe in Jesus alone as Lord and Saviour.

Even men require this type of thing. If a man commits a crime against you, you would want him to admit this and apologize and try to make it right. Let’s say that you had a friend who murdered your wife, stole a large sum of money from you, mocked your sorrow, and told lies about you all over the community. What if that person came to you one day and said, “I want to be friends again,” but he refused to admit that he had done anything wrong. Would you accept that? No, you would require him to apologize and to do everything he could to make the matter right.

Likewise, God requires that every individual repent of his or her sins against Him and submit to His authority.

If Jesus Died for Man’s Sins, Can’t We Live as We Please?

Jesus did not die so that men could live as they please. He died so that our sins against God can be forgiven and we can be brought back into right relationship with Him. After we come to Christ, it is God’s will that we live according to His law. That was God’s will for man from the beginning. He did not make man to live as he pleases. He made man to obey His law. Consider the following passage from the Bible:

“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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Here we see that salvation is a free gift. It is not something that we earn by our own good works and religious deeds. Salvation is a free gift because Jesus paid the price that God’s law demanded. Jesus took the sinner’s punishment. But after we come to Jesus and believe in Him, it is God’s will that we do the good works that are written in the Bible.

The believer lives to obey God, but he does not obey in his own strength. God comes into the believer’s life and lives in him and gives him the wisdom and strength to serve Him.

If Adam Was Guilty, Why Blame Me?

If we inherited the sin from the first man Adam, why does God blame me individually?

The Bible teaches that we inherit sin, but it also teaches that we also sin personally and volitionally. Consider the following verses:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Each man is accountable to God for his life on earth.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

No man can blame someone else for his sin against God. We make our own choices in life. Our conscience speaks to us and tells us that there is right and wrong, but we ignore the conscience and sin anyway.

The good news is that God loves us and He came into this world and suffered on the cross to make reconciliation possible. We sinned but God suffered for that sin. How can we blame God for any injustice toward us?

“The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD” (Proverbs 19:3).

Why Doesn’t God Just Forgive People?

God is a holy and just lawgiver and must exercise judgment when His law is broken. Otherwise, there would be chaos and anarchy in His universe, just as has happened on earth. When the law is not punished, it ceases to have any effect. We can see this in this world. In Nepal, for example, the streets are very dangerous because the drivers don’t follow any laws. The government has driving laws, but they aren’t enforced, so people drive as they please. Likewise, there are laws against stealing and bribery and other crimes, but it is often possible to bribe your way out of punishment. Since punishment is not properly enforced, there is anarchy.

God told the first man Adam that if he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Eternal death is God’s judgment for sin, and no one can give God a bribe or hire a clever lawyer to get out of this punishment. God’s punishment is sure. Every infraction of His law will be punished.

At the same time, God made a way of salvation by taking man’s punishment upon Himself on the Cross and He offers forgiveness to every man who will come to Him by faith. The cross of Jesus shows us that God is holy and punishes sin, but it also shows us that God is love and desires to save men more than to judge them.

What about Reincarnation?

The Bible does not teach reincarnation; it teaches resurrection. The following verse shows that man does not return to this earth in a cycle of reincarnation:

“And as it is appointed unto men ONCE TO DIE, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Man is born once and dies once and then faces God.

According to the Bible, man has no pre-existence before he is born into this world. Each individual’s existence begins at conception and he is formed by God in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139).

Every man and woman will be resurrected. This is a bodily resurrection, and it is a resurrection either to eternal death or to eternal life. There is a resurrection of the just and a resurrection of the unjust (Acts 24:15). There is everlasting punishment and everlasting life (Matthew 25:46). Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are forgiven and they will be resurrected to eternal life. Those who die without the Saviour will be resurrected to stand before the Great White Throne judgment and will be judged according to their works and then cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). This is because all men commit sins and break God’s law in countless ways, and each sin will be judged.

What Does the Bible Say about Poverty and Equality?

If the Bible’s laws were followed, men would not be poor. The Bible requires that men be honest and not steal from others, that they work hard and not be lazy, that they treat servants and employees justly and kindly, that they love other men as themselves, that the rich use their wealth to help others, that all men give to help those in need, that widows and orphans be treated with kindness and generosity, that judges dispense the law equally without favoritism. If these and other Bible laws were followed, there would not be poor people on earth. People would work hard and be rewarded with a decent living, and the needy would be well taken care of.

If the Bible was obeyed, the poor would not be abused by his fellow man. For example, I recently read about people in a district of Nepal who were dying of dysentery. Instead of having pity on these people and helping them, the national medical practitioners abused them and charged outlandish prices for treatment, so that some of them had to sell their land and livestock and were left penniless. The government made a show of giving a lot of money to help the sick, but much of the money was confiscated along the way by greedy people. The politicians spent more money flying around on helicopters to put on a pretense of concern and to have their pictures taken by the media than the amount of money that was given to help the needy. This type of thing would not happen if God’s law was followed, and the world would be a different place.

The Bible supports the right to private ownership of property. Two of God’s laws are “thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15), and “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). If it is wrong to covet or steal my neighbor’s money and property, then it is not wrong to own property. The man who owns property is obligated to use it in a just fashion and not ignore the needs of his fellow man, but the man who does not own property is not allowed to take that which belongs to others just because he is poor. The law says that if a poor man steals, he is still guilty of a crime and must be punished (Proverbs 6:30-31).

When Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom, His righteous laws will be enforced and there will not be any poverty.

Does the Bible Say Women Are Inferior?

Actually, the Bible is a liberating book for women. If you contrast Bible Christianity with other religions, it is far more liberating. It teaches that the man and woman are equal before God but different in their roles in this world. They are equal in that both are made in God’s image and both have eternal spirits. The husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Pet. 3:7), but they have different purposes. The husband’s business is to lead the home and to provide for his family while treating his wife with love and patience (Eph. 5:25-29; Col. 3:19; 1 Tim. 5:8). The man is the head of the relationship but this headship is to be exercised in Christ-like kindness rather than worldly severity. The woman is his wife and loving companion, not his slave or his doormat. She is his own body, and how foolish it is for a man to mistreat his own body. If the husband focuses his attention on his responsibilities before God and be the compassionate husband that God wants him to be, the wife will usually respond by being a better wife. The wife’s business is to submit to the husband and serve him (Eph. 5:23-24; Titus 2:5). If she focuses her attention on this, the husband usually responds by being a better and more loving husband. On the other hand, if the husband tries to force the wife to obey him and if the wife tries to force the husband to love her, it doesn’t work and no progress is made in the marriage.

The Bible teaches that the husband and wife are to “leave father and mother” and establish their own home (Genesis 2:24). Thus, the wife is to have only one head, her own husband, and is not to be a slave to her in-laws.

The Bible teaches that the man and woman are equal, but they have a different purpose in this world. The woman is not inferior to the man; she is different. She is very valuable. She was made to be man’s helper. She was made to bear and nurture children, and she is designed for that purpose.

Why Do Christians Force Their Beliefs?

Bible-believing Christians do not force their beliefs on anyone. We tell people about Jesus, but each person must make his own choice. Jesus commanded His disciples to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person” (Mark 16:15). Preaching is not forcing. Preaching is education. We believe in freedom of conscience. We believe that every man must make his own decision about matters pertaining to God. But a man cannot make a decision about Christ until he first hears about Him.

According to the Bible, salvation is a matter of the heart. Salvation is to believe in Christ from the heart (Romans 10:9). Thus, salvation cannot be forced or coerced. If we offered a large amount of money for people to convert to Christ or if we threatened dire punishment if they refused to convert, many would submit, but they would not be true Christians. They would only be imitating Christianity externally, but that is not true Christianity. True Christianity must come from the heart; it cannot be forced or purchased.

On the other hand, there are false Christians that have forced people to convert. Jesus warned that there would be many false teachers (Matthew 7:15). His apostles also warned that false teachers would create a false type of Christianity (Acts 20:29-30; 2 Timothy 3:13; 4:3-4; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 3-4). The Roman Catholic Church is an example of false Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t follow the Bible. Instead it follows its own man-made doctrines, such as submitting to the pope and praying to Mary and baptizing infants. The Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe and other parts of the world for a thousand years, and it forced people to convert to its brand of Christianity. It even persecuted and murdered Bible-believing Christians because they would not submit to the pope. This type of thing is wrong and it has never been done by true followers of Christ.

We preach to people because we are convinced that Jesus is the only way to God, just as He said. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). If we don’t preach this gospel, we show that we don’t care for men’s souls. If evolution is true, it doesn’t matter what a man believes or how he lives, because he is nothing more than the product of chance and when he dies he is finished. If Hinduism is true, there are many paths to God. But if the Bible is true, there is only one way of salvation. This is what we believe and therefore we are compelled to preach Christ.

Let’s say a terrible disease is spreading throughout the world but it is a disease that has few symptoms and the people are not aware that they are dying. In fact the disease has a strange symptom in that it gives the people a pleasant feeling that they are well and happy. Because of this, the people actually enjoy the disease. A doctor comes up with a cure and tells his associates to go out and warn the people that they will die if they don’t come and obtain the proper medicine. If his associates did not go and make this announcement, they would be doing the people a great disservice. But what if the people mock the messengers and even abuse and kill them? They think that the messengers are lying. They think that their own medicines are good enough. Should the messengers still go out and make the proclamation, or should they just let the people die?

Jesus died to provide salvation for mankind, and He sent His followers into all the world to preach the good news that people can be forgiven of their sin and have eternal life. For 2,000 years Christians have been obeying Jesus and going throughout the world to tell people that they are sinners and that they will be punished by God, but they can be saved if they put their faith in Jesus. Most people don’t like this message. They don’t believe that they are bad or that God will punish them. They don’t believe in the existence of hell. They think that their own religions are good enough. Therefore they have often hated the Christians and abused them. Yet the Christians continue to go and to preach.

This is because Bible-believing Christians want to obey their Master and they love the people and do not want them to perish in eternal hell.

Bible-believing Christians have paid a great price to preach Jesus to the nations. It is not an easy job. At best, people laugh at you and ridicule you for preaching. And countless Christians have been beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their preaching.

Aren’t Hindu Scriptures Older Than the Bible?

Many people think that the Bible is 2,000 years old, because that is when Jesus lived. But actually the Bible has two major parts, and only the newest part, called the New Testament, is 2,000 years old. The first book of the Bible, which describes the creation of the heaven and the earth, was written by Moses in about 1500 B.C., but it was based on written prophecies much older. The prophecy of Enoch, for example, was written in about 2,500 B.C. (4,500 years ago), which is only a few hundred years after the first man Adam died. God began to give prophecies to men as soon as Adam and Eve sinned and were evicted from the Garden of Eden. Adam’s second son, Abel, was the first prophet. That was 6,000 years ago!

The written Hindu scriptures are not nearly that old. The Vedas were written about 300 B.C. (though they are said to have been transmitted orally for a thousand years before that). The Upanishads were written between 800-600 B.C. The Mahabharata was written over a period from 400 B.C. to 400 A.D. The Bhagavad Gita, the most popular and influential of the Hindu books, was added to the Mahabharata in about the first century A.D.

Isn’t Christianity Foreign to Asia?

Christianity was originally a west Asian religion and it first came to India 2,000 years ago. Christianity began in Israel and from there it spread in every direction. It arrived in India at the same time as it arrived in Europe. One of Christ’s apostles, Thomas, first preached Christianity in India.

Why Have Christians Done Bad Things Such as Cause Wars?

The term “Christian” is a broad one that includes those who follow the Bible’s teaching and those who don’t. The fact that there have been “Christians” that have brought reproach upon the Bible and the name of Jesus is evidence that the Bible is true, because this was prophesied in its pages. Beginning with the words of Jesus Himself, the New Testament part of the Bible contains many prophecies that describe the entire period of time from when Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection to when He returns to establish His kingdom on earth. These prophesies say that many who will claim to follow Jesus will create a different type of Christianity than the one presented in the Bible. They will not follow the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. This is called “the apostasy,” or the falling away from the true Christian faith. Consider some of these prophecies:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (Matthew 7:15).

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23).

“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11).

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24).

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2).

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1 John 2:18-19).

In fulfillment of these prophecies, the nearer we draw to the return of Christ, the more we can expect to find large numbers of false Christians. One group of these is the Roman Catholic Church, which we have already mentioned. It was formed a few hundred years after Jesus returned to Heaven, and it does not follow the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church has a pope, a special priesthood, the Mass, infant baptism, prayers to Mary, and many other things that we do not find in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church ruled over Europe for a thousand years and required that everyone submit to the pope. Those who refused were persecuted and even put to death. The popes and priests lived very wicked lives. All of this is contrary to Jesus’ teachings, and it brought great reproach to Christianity.

Why Does America, a Christian Nation, Do Evil?

In some parts of the world, America is thought to be a Christian nation, but this is a misunderstanding. While many people in America profess to be Christians and in its earlier history many of its laws were based on the Bible, America has never been a Christian nation, as such. The number of true Bible-believing Christians in America has been a minority since its founding in 1776.

As we stated under the previous question, just because someone claims to be a Christian does not mean they are a true Christian. The Bible warns that there will be many false Christians and false churches.

What Is the Trinity?

The Bible teaches that there is one God, but He is revealed to us in three ways: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are not three Gods. The Father, Son, and Spirit are one in purpose and mind and character and ways. They operate in perfect harmony. Following are a couple of Bible passages that teach the Trinity:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7).

One way to understand the Trinity is to think of man. The Bible says man is body, soul, and spirit. Every man has these three aspects, but he is one man. Also, a man can have three roles. For example, I am a son, a father, and a grandfather, but I am the same person.

Another way to understand the Trinity is to think of H_2O. It can take the form of water, vapor, and ice, but it is still H20.

Another way to understand the Trinity is the Word. The Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God. A word is the expression of the person. The words you speak are the expression of yourself. Likewise, God expresses Himself in three different ways: as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity is entirely different from the Hindu concept of God. Though Hinduism claims to believe in one God or Supreme Deity, it is a God who has many faces, thousands, in fact. Many of the Hindu idols display this concept by having a multiplicity of faces.

Shiva, a member of the Hindu trinity (composed of Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva), has five manifested faces, but his faces are contradictory. He is said to be both benevolent and malevolent (Harendr Upadhyay, Hindu Gods and Goddesses, Varanasi: Pilgrims Publishing, 2004, p. 74). Shiva is “a bad-tempered god” who must be appeased so that he will become generous (T.C. Majupuria, Gods and Goddesses, Lashkar: M. D. Gupta, 2000, p. 40). Shiva is both “erotic” and ascetic. He has one wife and multiple wives. The Hindu god encompasses both good and evil.

According to Hinduism, God can be worshipped in any form and by any name. “Worship of any deity amounts to the worship of the ultimate deity or the Supreme Reality called Brahman. ... This means countless people can worship countless deities in their own countless ways” (Upadhyay, Hindu Gods and Goddesses, foreword).

This is entirely different from the God revealed in the Bible. He has only one face, and we see that face in Jesus Christ.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

The true God does not have different characters depending on the situation. He is always holy, always pure, always true, always honest, always love, always just, always Almighty. He does not change. He says, “I am the Lord; I change not” (Malachi 3:6). He has “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Jesus is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The true God is light and there is no darkness in Him.

The fact that we cannot fully understand the Bible’s teaching of the Trinity is not surprising. It would be unreasonable to demand that we understand everything about God. We do not fully understand man or the world in which we live. How can we expect to fully understand Almighty God?

In fact, the doctrine of the Trinity is an evidence of the divine inspiration of the Bible. “If man had written the Bible, he would have left the Trinity out of it; for it is too hard to understand; the mind of man cannot comprehend it. The only thing we can do is to accept it by faith” (Mark Cambron, Bible Doctrines).

Can Men Be Saved on Their Deathbeds?

A Hindu university student said to me one day, “Hinduism teaches that men can call on the name of Ram and other Hindu gods at the very end of their lives and be saved; does the Bible also teach this?”

The answer is three-fold.

First, the Bible gives the example of a man who was saved as he was dying. This was one of the two thieves that was crucified with Jesus. One of them repented and believed on Jesus as his Lord, and Jesus promised him that he would go to paradise or heaven that very day.

“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:39-43).

Therefore, it is possible for a man to be saved at the very end of his life, but there are other factors that come into play, as we will see.

The Bible warns against trusting in tomorrow and says that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The Bible warns us that we don’t know what the future holds. We only have the promise of today. We are told that it is foolish to brag about what we are going to do in the future, because “ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). We do not know when we are going to die or how. Many people die instantly of heart attacks, strokes, accidents and other things and don’t have the opportunity to repent and call on the Lord.

Finally, the Bible warns that there is a hardening process (Hebrews 3:15; 4:7). When men hear the gospel they respond to it one way or the other. If they respond in unbelief, the heart becomes hardened. Over time this hardening process continues. Thus, as men get older they become increasingly hardened to God’s truth. This is why very few old people come to Christ. Most people get saved when they are young. When I was a new Christian I spent time visiting a carpenter’s retirement home. I thought that the old men living there would be responsive to the gospel since they were near death. It turned out that they were very hard and unresponsive.

Those who think they can wait to the time of their death to call on Christ for salvation are very foolish and are gambling with their eternal souls.

What If I Want to Believe But I Am Having Doubts?

If you want to believe in Jesus but are having doubts, I suggest that you do the following:

First, give attention to the Bible. Faith comes by reading and hearing the Bible.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

“And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31).

Reading the Bible is the best way to get faith, but the Bible is a large book. I suggest that you begin by reading Genesis, Luke, John, and Acts.

Second, separate from unbelieving thinking and philosophy. Consider the following warnings:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalms 1:1-3)

“Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge” (Proverbs 19:27)

“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20).

You cannot believe if you continue to listen to unbelief and scoffing. You need to get alone with God and hear Him through His Word. I suggest that you set aside a month in which you read the Bible every day and meditate on its words and pray to God for wisdom. During this time, do not read books or listen to people who try to tear down the Bible and Christianity.

Third, consider the proofs of the Bible.

“To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Christian faith is not blind faith. It is based on “proofs” and “evidence.” We have listed many of these proofs in this report. Go back through those one by one and consider them.

Fourth, pray to Jesus. He is not dead. He is alive and can hear your prayer. Be honest with him about your doubts and ask Him to help you. He has invited you to come to Him. Take Him at His Word.

“Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

What Does the Bible Say about the Future?

The Bible contains many prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. These prophecies tell us what lies in the future. Since the Bible’s prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ were fulfilled exactly, we know that its prophecies of the future will be fulfilled in like manner.

Following are some of the Bible’s amazing prophecies about the future:

There will be wars and earthquakes

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:6-7).

The daily newspapers are filled with the accounts of wars and rumors of wars. As for earthquakes, they are coming with increasing frequency. More than 150,000 died in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti. About 40,000 people died in an earthquake in South Asia on October 8, 2005. The year 2004 ended with the death of 220,000 in Indonesia, while the year 2003 closed with an earthquake that killed 31,000 in Iran. These events prove that God’s Word is true.

There will be a time of great trouble that will last seven years

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

There will be fearful signs in the heavens

“... and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. ... And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:11, 25, 26).

There will be death and famine throughout the world

“And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:4-8).

The Antichrist will rule the world

The Antichrist is a man who will come to power with a false promise of peace. After he is in power he will rule as a harsh dictator. A false prophet will accompany the Antichrist and will perform miracles to deceive the world into worshipping him. No one will be able to buy or sell unless they take his mark. Anyone who refuses to obey the Antichrist will be put to death.

“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. ... And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Revelation 13:5-8, 13-18).

There will be terrible judgments that will destroy many of the people in the world

“And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” (Revelation 8:6-13).

“And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. ... And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ... And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great” (Revelation 16:1-4, 8-9, 21).

A mighty earthquake will move the mountains and islands

“And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:14-17).

Jesus Christ will return to earth and establish His kingdom

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

“He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him” (Psalms 72:8-11).

Those who die without faith in Jesus Christ will be raised from the dead and will be judged and cast into the lake of fire

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

The old heaven and earth will be burned up and replaced with a new heaven and earth

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:1-5).

Skeptics Who Were Converted Trying to Disprove the Bible

Above all other books combined, the Bible has been hated, vilified, ridiculed, criticized, restricted, banned, and destroyed, but it has been to no avail. As one rightly said, “We might as well put our shoulder to the burning wheel of the sun, and try to stop it on its flaming course, as attempt to stop the circulation of the Bible” (Sidney Collett, All about the Bible, p. 63).

In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to stop Christians from worshipping Jesus Christ and to destroy their Scriptures. Every official in the empire was ordered to raze the churches to the ground and burn every Bible found in their districts (Stanley Greenslade, Cambridge History of the Bible). Twenty-five years later Diocletian’s successor, Constantine, issued another edict ordering fifty Bibles to be published at government expense (Eusebius).

In 1778 the French infidel Voltaire boasted that in 100 years Christianity would cease to exist, but within 50 years the Geneva Bible Society used his press and house to publish Bibles (Geisler and Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, 1986, pp. 123, 124).

Robert Ingersoll once boasted, “Within 15 years I’ll have the Bible lodged in a morgue.” But Ingersoll is dead, and the Bible is alive and well.

In fact, many who set out to disprove the Bible have been converted, instead. The following are a few examples:

Gilbert West (1703-1756)

Gilbert West was included in Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. As a student at Oxford, West set out to debunk the Bible’s account of Christ’s resurrection. Instead, having proved to himself that Christ did rise from the dead, he was converted. West published his conclusions in the book Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1747). On the fly-leaf he had the following printed: “Blame not before thou hast examined the truth.”

George Lyttelton (1709-1773)

George Lyttelton was an English statesman, author, and poet who was educated at Eton and Oxford. Among other things he published a History of Henry II.

As a young man he set out to prove that Paul was not converted as the Bible states. Instead, he wrote a book containing evidence that Paul was indeed converted and that his conversion is evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. The book was titled Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul (1747). Lyttleton observed that from an earthly perspective Paul had absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by testifying that he had seen the risen Christ. Giving up his position and prestige as a Jewish religious leader, he joined the despised Christian sect and was hounded, mocked, and persecuted for the rest of his life, finally paying the ultimate price for his Christian faith, death by beheading.

The famous British lexicographer Samuel Johnson said “infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer” to Lyttelton’s book.

Albert Henry Ross (Frank Morison) (1881-1950)

Albert Ross was a lawyer, journalist, and novelist who grew up in Stratford-on-Avon, England. He was deeply affected by the skepticism of the times, particularly the attacks on the Bible by theological liberalism and Darwinism. After becoming a lawyer he set out to write a book to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead, he was converted and wrote a book in defense of the resurrection entitled WHO MOVED THE STONE? -- which is still in print today. He wrote the book under the name of Frank Morison.

“If you will carry your mind back in imagination to the late nineties [1890s] you will find in the prevailing intellectual attitude of that period the key to much of my thought. ... the work of the higher critics -- particularly the German critics -- had succeeded in spreading a prevalent impression among students that the particular form in which the narrative of His life and death had come down to us was unreliable, and that one of the four records was nothing other than a brilliant apologetic written many years, and perhaps many decades, after the first generation had passed away.

“Like most other young men deeply immersed in other things, I had no means of verifying or forming an independent judgment upon these statements, but the fact that almost every word of the Gospels was just then the subject of high wrangling and dispute did very largely color the thought of the time, and I suppose I could hardly escape its influence.

“But there was one aspect of the subject that touched me closely. I had already begun to take a deep interest in physical science, and one did not have to go very far in those days to discover that scientific thought was obstinately and even dogmatically opposed to what are called the miraculous elements in the Gospels. Very often the few things the textual critics had left standing science proceeded to undermine. Personally I did not attach anything like the same weight to the conclusions of the textual critics that I did to this fundamental matter of the miraculous. It seemed to me that purely documentary criticism might be mistaken, but that the laws of the universe should go back on themselves in a quite arbitrary and inconsequential manner seemed very improbable. Had not Huxley himself declared in a peculiarly final way that ‘miracles do not happen,’ while Matthew Arnold, with his famous gospel of ‘Sweet Reasonableness,’ had spent a great deal of his time in trying to evolve a non-miraculous Christianity?

“It was about this time -- more for the sake of my own peace of mind than for publication -- that I conceived the idea of writing a short monograph on what seemed to me to be the supremely important and critical phase in the life of Christ -- the last seven days -- though later I came to see that the days immediately succeeding the Crucifixion were quite as crucial. The title I chose was ‘Jesus, the Last Phase,’ a conscious reminiscence of a famous historical study by Lord Rosebery. ...

“Such, briefly, was the purpose of the book I had planned. I wanted to take this last phase of the life of Jesus, with all its quick and pulsating drama, its sharp, clear-cut background of antiquity, and its tremendous psychological and human interest--to strip it of its overgrowth of primitive beliefs and dogmatic suppositions, and to see this supremely great person as He really was.

“I need not stay to describe here how, fully ten years later, opportunity came to study the life of Christ as I had long wanted to study it, to investigate the origins of its literature, to examine some of the evidence at first hand, and to form my own judgment on the problem it presents. I will only say that it effected a revolution in my thought. Things emerged from old-world story that previously I should have thought impossible. Slowly but very definitely the conviction grew that the drama of those unforgettable weeks of human historywas stranger and deeper than it seemed. It was the strangeness of many notable things in the story that first arrested and held my interest. It was only later that the irresistible logic of their meaning came into view.

“I want to try, in the remaining chapters of this book, to explain why that other venture never came to port, what were hidden rocks on which it foundered, and how I landed to me, an unexpected shore” (“The Book That Refused to Be Written,” chapter 1, Who Moved the Stone?).

Morison concluded that the only explanation that can satisfy all of the historical facts was that Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead. Morison became a C. S. Lewis-type Christian, believing in Christ’s divinity and resurrection, but not believing in the infallible inspiration of Scripture, and his book Who Moved the Stone? is handicapped by this position. While Morison accepted the four Gospels as basically historical, he believed that some statements are more trustworthy than others and some things might have been added later. Thus, though he threw off the shackles of theological modernism pertaining to the person of Christ, he did not throw off the shackles of the equally erroneous “principles of modern textual criticism.” He held, for example, to the fallacy that Mark’s Gospel should end at chapter 16 verse 8.

Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853)

Simon Greenleaf, Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University, was one of the most celebrated legal minds in American history. His Treatise on the Law of Evidence “is still considered the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.”

As a law professor, he determined to expose the “myth” of the resurrection of Christ once and for all, but his thorough examination forced him to conclude, instead, that Jesus did rise from the dead. In 1846 he published An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice.

Thus, one of the most celebrated minds in the legal profession of the past two centuries took the resurrection of Christ to trial, diligently examined the evidence, and judged it to be an established fact of history! And this was in spite of the fact that he began his investigation as a skeptic.

One of Greenleaf’s points is that nothing but the resurrection itself can explain the dramatic change in Christ’s disciples and their willingness to suffer and die for their testimony.

Consider an excerpt:

“Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of a public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them. Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted; and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact. ... If then their testimony was not true, there was no possible motive for its fabrication” (Greenleaf, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence).

William Mitchell Ramsay (1851-1939)

William Ramsay was a renowned archaeologist and New Testament scholar from Scotland. He was knighted by the British crown for his work in archaeology.

He was raised an atheist, and as a brilliant student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and at Oxford University in England, he sat at the feet of theological modernists and skeptics who disbelieved the Bible. It was assumed that the Bible is not historically accurate and that it contains a large portion of mythology. It was thought that the book of Acts was not written until 150 A.D., about a century after the events it describes.

When Ramsay began archaeological and historical research in Asia Minor beginning in 1881, he expected and hoped to find more evidence against the Bible. Instead, he discovered fact after fact that supported the Bible. He eventually concluded that the book of Acts was written during the lifetime of the apostles and that it is historically accurate. His discoveries led to his conversion to Christianity.

"He had spent years deliberately preparing himself for the announced task of heading an exploration expedition into Asia Minor and Palestine where he would [find] the evidence that the book was the product of ambitious monks, and not the book from heaven it claimed to be. He regarded the weakest spot in the whole New Testament to be the story of Paul's travels. These had never been thoroughly investigated by one on the spot. Equipped as no other man had been, he went to the home of the Bible. Here he spent fifteen years digging. Then in 1896 he published a large volume, Saint Paul, the Traveler and the Roman Citizen. ... The book caused a furor of dismay among the skeptics of the world. Its attitude was utterly unexpected because it was contrary to the announced intention of the author years before. For twenty years more, book after book from the same author came from the press, each filled with additional evidence of the exact, minute truthfulness of the whole New Testament as tested by the spade on the spot. And these books have stood the test of time, not one having been refuted, nor have I found even any attempt to refute them” (Josh McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, p. 62).

Ramsay testified:

“The present writer takes the view that Luke’s history is unsurpassed in respect of its trustworthiness. At this point we are describing what reasons and arguments changed the mind of one who began under the impression that the history was written long after the events and that it was untrustworthy as a whole” (The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament, 1915).

Viggo Olson

The following is excerpted from “From Agnostic to Ambassador to Bangladesh,” Thanthropos.org:

Viggo Olsen was a brilliant surgeon who graduated cum laude from medical school and later became a diplomat of the American Board of Surgery and a fellow of the American College of surgeons. In 1951 he was challenged by his wife’s parents to examine the claims of Christianity for himself.

Olsen recalled, ‘Just alike a surgeon incises a chest, we were going to slash into the Bible and dissect out all its embarrassing scientific mistakes.’

After he started his investigation he ran into problems. He remembers that he had trouble finding scientific mistakes. ‘We’d find something that seemed to be an error, but on further reflection and study, we saw that our understanding had been shallow. That made us sit up and take notice.’

After examining the evidence, Olsen became a Christian and later gave his life to be a missionary in Bangladesh. He was later honored with Visa #001 for his contributions to the country.

This is a man who was extremely educated, a brilliant surgeon, someone who was not willing to take a blind leap of faith, and after exhaustive research he was willing to admit, like so many others have, that the historic Christian faith is much more than a religion, it is based on a man who walked this Earth as the Theanthropos, the God-Man. The evidence that supports the resurrection of Jesus is so overwhelming it demands a verdict and Christianity lives and dies by the fact of the resurrection--without it, Christianity does not hold water.

Olsen went from an agnostic to giving up his career, his entire life, to serve people in Bangladesh. Olson testified:

‘It was the greatest adventure we could ever have. When you’re in a hard place, when you’re in over your head again and again, when you’re sinking and beyond yourself and praying your heart out--then you see God reach out and touch your life and resolve the situation beyond anything you could have ever hoped. ... That’s living it up! In my opinion, finding the purpose for which God made you--whatever it may be--and then fully pursuing it is simply the very best way to live.’

Olsen documented his life in the famous book called Daktar.

Josh McDowell

Josh McDowell, the author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, was a skeptic when he entered university to pursue a law degree. There he met some Christians who challenged him to examine the evidence for the Bible and Jesus Christ. Following is his testimony:

As a teenager, I wanted the answers to three basic questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? ... So as a young student, I started looking for answers.

I thought that education might have the answer to my quest for happiness and meaning. So I enrolled in the university. What a disappointment! I have probably been on more university campuses in my lifetime than anyone else in history. You can find a lot of things in the university, but enrolling there to find truth and meaning in life is virtually a lost cause.

I used to buttonhole professors in their offices, seeking the answers to my questions. When they saw me coming they would turn out the lights, pull down the shades, and lock the door so they wouldn’t have to talk to me. I soon realized that the university didn’t have the answers I was seeking. Faculty members and my fellow students had just as many problems, frustrations, and unanswered questions about life as I had. A few years ago I saw a student walking around a campus with a sign on his back: ‘Don’t follow me, I’m lost.’ That’s how everyone in the university seemed to me. Education was not the answer!

Prestige must be the way to go, I decided. It just seemed right to find a noble cause, give yourself to it, and become well known. The people with the most prestige in the university, and who also controlled the purse strings, were the student leaders. So I ran for various student offices and got elected. It was great to know everyone on campus, make important decisions, and spend the university’s money doing what I wanted to do. But the thrill soon wore off, as with everything else I had tried.

Every Monday morning I would wake up with a headache because of the way I had spent the previous night. My attitude was, Here we go again, another five boring days. Happiness for me revolved around those three party-nights: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then the whole boring cycle would start over again.

Around this time I noticed a small group of people on campus--eight students and two faculty--and there was something different about them. They seemed to know where they were going in life. And they had a quality I deeply admire in people: conviction. But there was something more about this group that caught my attention. It was love. These students and professors not only loved each other, they loved and cared for people outside their group.

About two weeks later, I was sitting around a table in the student union talking with some members of this group. ... I turned to one of the girls in the group and said, ‘Tell me, what changed your lives? Why are you so different from the other students and faculty?’

She looked me straight in the eye and said two words I had never expected to hear in an intelligent discussion on a university campus: ‘Jesus Christ.’

‘Jesus Christ?’ I snapped. ‘Don’t give me that kind of garbage. I’m fed up with religion, the Bible, and the church.’

She quickly shot back, ‘Mister, I didn’t say ‘religion’; I said ‘Jesus Christ.’

Then my new friends issued me a challenge I couldn’t believe. They challenged me, a pre-law student, to examine intellectually the claim that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. I thought this was a joke. These Christians were so dumb. How could something as flimsy as Christianity stand up to an intellectual examination? I scoffed at their challenge.

I finally accepted their challenge, not to prove anything but to refute them. I decided to write a book that would make an intellectual joke of Christianity. I left the university and traveled throughout the United States and Europe to gather evidence to prove that Christianity is a sham.

One day while I was sitting in a library in London, England, I sensed a voice within me saying, ‘Josh, you don’t have a leg to stand on.’ I immediately suppressed it. But just about every day after that I heard the same inner voice. The more I researched, the more I heard this voice. I returned to the United States and to the university, but I couldn’t sleep at night. I would go to bed at ten o’clock and lie awake until four in the morning, trying to refute the overwhelming evidence I was accumulating that Jesus Christ was God’s Son.

I began to realize that I was being intellectually dishonest. My mind told me that the claims of Christ were indeed true, but my will was being pulled another direction. I had placed so much emphasis on finding the truth, but I wasn’t willing to follow it once I saw it. I began to sense Christ’s personal challenge to me in Revelation 3:20: ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.’ But becoming a Christian seemed so ego-shattering to me. I couldn’t think of a faster way to ruin all my good times.

I knew I had to resolve this inner conflict because it was driving me crazy. I had always considered myself an open-minded person, so I decided to put Christ’s claims to the supreme test. One night at my home in Union City, Michigan, at the end of my second year at the university, I became a Christian.

I said, ‘Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross for me.’ I realized that if I were the only person on earth, Christ would have still died for me.’ ... I said, ‘I confess that I am a sinner.’ No one had to tell me that. I knew there were things in my life that were incompatible with a holy, just, righteous God. ... I said, ‘Right now, in the best way I know how, I open the door of my life and place my trust in You as Saviour and Lord. Take over the control of my life. Change me from the inside out. Make me the type of person You created me to be’ (Josh McDowell, “He Changed My Life,” The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Thomas Nelson, 1999, pp. xxv).

(We must warn that Josh McDowell is New Evangelical in principle and despises biblical separatism.)

McDowell concludes:

“After trying to shatter the historicity and validity of the Scripture, I cam to the conclusion that it is historically trustworthy. If one discards the Bible as being unreliable, then one must discard almost all literature of antiquity.

“One problem I constantly face is the desire on the part of many to apply one standard or test to secular literature and another to the Bible. One must apply the same test, whether the literature under investigation is secular or religious.

“Having done this, I believe we can hold the Scriptures in our hands and say, ‘The Bible is trustworthy and historically reliable” (The New Evidence, p. 68).

Richard Lumsden

Richard Lumsden (1938-97), Ph.D., converted from Darwinian atheist to Bible-believing Christian at the apex of his professional career when, challenged by one of his students, he decided to check out the evidence for himself.

A professor of parisitology and cell biology, Lumsden was dean of the graduate school at Tulane University. He trained 30 Ph.D.s., published hundreds of scholarly papers, and was the winner of the highest award for parasitology.

The following is excerpted from “The World’s Greatest Creation Scientists” by David Coppedge, which is available from Master Plan Association, http://www.creationsafaris.com/products.htm --

“Dr. Richard D. Lumsden was fully grounded in Darwinian philosophy, and had no reason or desire to consider Christianity. Science was his faith: the facts, and only the facts. But at the apex of his professional career, he had enough integrity to check out the facts, and made a difficult choice to go where the facts led him, against what he had been taught, and against what he himself taught. His life took a dramatic turnaround, from Darwinist to creationist, and from atheist to Christian.

“All through his career he believed Darwinian evolution was an established principle of science, and he took great glee in ridiculing Christian beliefs. One day, he heard that Louisiana had passed a law requiring equal time for creation with evolution, and he was flabbergasted--how stupid, he thought, and how evil! He used the opportunity to launch into a tirade against creationism in class, and to give them his best eloquence in support of Darwinism. Little did he know he had a formidable opponent in class that day. No, not a silver-tongued orator to engage him in a battle of wits; that would have been too easy. This time it was a gentle, polite, young female student.

“This student went up to him after class and cheerfully exclaimed, ‘Great lecture, Doc! Say, I wonder if I could make an appointment with you; I have some questions about what you said, and just want to get my facts straight.’ Dr. Lumsden, flattered with this student’s positive approach, agreed on a time they could meet in his office. On the appointed day, the student thanked him for his time, and started in. She did not argue with anything he had said about evolution in class, but just began asking a series of questions: ‘How did life arise? . . . Isn’t DNA too complex to form by chance? . . . Why are there gaps in the fossil record between major kinds? . . . What are the missing links between apes and man?’ he didn’t act judgmental or provocative; she just wanted to know. Lumsden, unabashed, gave the standard evolutionary answers to the questions. But something about this interchange began making him very uneasy. He was prepared for a fight, but not for a gentle, honest set of questions. As he listened to himself spouting the typical evolutionary responses, he thought to himself, This does not make any sense. What I know about biology is contrary to what I’m saying. When the time came to go, the student picked up her books and smiled, ‘Thanks, Doc!’ and left. On the outside, Dr. Lumsden appeared confident; but on the inside, he was devastated. He knew that everything he had told this student was wrong.

“Dr. Lumsden had the integrity to face his new doubts honestly. He undertook a personal research project to check out the arguments for evolution, and over time, found them wanting. Based on the scientific evidence alone, he decided he must reject Darwinism, and he became a creationist. But as morning follows night, he had to face the next question, Who is the Creator? Shortly thereafter, by coincidence or not, his sister invited him to church. It was so out of character for this formerly crusty, self-confident evolutionist to go to church! Not much earlier, he would have had nothing to do with religion. But now, he was open to reconsider the identity of the Creator, and whether the claims of the Bible were true. His atheistic philosophy had also left him helpless to deal with guilt and bad habits in his personal life. This time he was open, and this time he heard the Good News that God had sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins, and to offer men forgiveness and eternal life.

“A tremendous struggle was going on in Dr. Lumsden’s heart as he listened to the sermon. When the service ended, the pastor gave an invitation to come to the front and decide once and for all, publicly, to receive Christ. Dr. Lumsden describes the turmoil he was in: ‘With flesh protesting every inch of the way, I found myself walking forward, down to the altar. And there, found God! Truly, at that moment, I came to know Him, and received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.’ There’s room at the cross even for know-it-all science professors, if they are willing to humble themselves and bow before the Creator to whom the scientific evidence points.

“Dr. Lumsden rejoiced in his new-found faith, but found out there is a price to pay also. He was ejected from the science faculty after his dynamic conversion to Christ and creationism. The Institute for Creation Research invited him to direct their biology department, which he did from 1990 to 1996. Dr. Henry Morris said of him, ‘He had a very vibrant testimony of his conversion only a few years ago and of the role that one of his students played in confronting his evolutionism with persistent and penetrating questions. He became fully convinced of the bankruptcy of his beliefs and realized that the only reasonable alternative was that there must be a Creator.’ Dick Lumsden was also appointed to the science faculty of The Master’s College, and used his intimate knowledge of electron microscopy to help the campus set up an operational instrument for training students. There was a joy present in his life and manner that made his lectures sparkle, and he loved to demonstrate design in the cell that could not have arisen by Darwinian processes. In discussions with evolutionists, he knew ‘just where to get them’ (he would say with a smile), having been in their shoes. His students appreciated the training his depth and breadth of knowledge and experience brought to the class and to the lab.”

Gary Parker

Gary Parker has an Ed.D. in biology/geology from Ball State University. Following is his testimony:

“I wasn’t just teaching evolution, I was preaching it. ‘It was millions of years of struggle and death that brought mankind and all the other animals and plants into being,’ I told my college students. I praised Darwin for being the first to understand how evolution worked. ... I let students freely express their religious beliefs, but would not let them use their personal faith to challenge what I considered the rock-hard science of evolution. I thought it was part of my duty as a science teacher to deliver my students from silly old superstitions, like taking the Bible literally and trying to refute evolution with ‘creation science.’

“The change began when Dr. Charles Signorino, a chemistry professor at the college where I was teaching biology, invited my wife and me to his home for Bible study. ... I started studying the Bible, primarily to criticize it more effectively. ...

“Make no mistake about it--creation/evolution is a salvation issue. I do not mean you have to have a detailed knowledge of creation science to be a Christian; I simply mean that belief in evolution can be for many, as it was for me, a powerful stumbling block to accepting (or even considering) the claims of Christ. Paul warned Timothy to avoid the oppositions of science falsely so-called, which some have erred concerning the faith (1 Tim. 6:20-21). Evolution is really ‘humanism dressed up in a lab coat,’ a man-centered worldview that uses scientific jargon to put man’s opinions far above God’s Word (as Eve did in the Garden).

“My extensive knowledge of, and zeal for, evolution certainly prevented me from even considering that God might be real and the Bible true. So what happened. Well, Dr. Signorino, the colleague who invited me to the Bible study, was not only a superb Bible teacher, he was also a scientist respected internationally for his work in chemistry. He challenged me to look again at the science I thought I knew so well. Confident that science would support evolution and refute biblical literalism, I gladly accepted the challenge.

“The battle began. For three years, we argued creation/evolution. For three years, I used all the evolutionary arguments I knew so well. For three years, I lost every scientific argument. In dismay, I watched the myth of evolution evaporate under the light of scientific scrutiny, while the scientific case for Creation-Corruption-Catastrophe-Christ just got better and better. It’s no wonder that the ACLU (actually the anti-Christian lawyers union) fights by any means to censor any scientific challenge to evolution! ...

“About that time, I got a copy in the mail of the first book I ever wrote, a programmed science instruction book called DNA: The Key to Life. Up until that time I thought people who wrote books, especially textbooks in science, knew what they were talking about. I had a nearly straight A average and earned numerous academic awards, and my book had been reviewed by experts on DNA, but I knew all the uncertainties that went into it. (Indeed, when I published the second edition five years later, I put the first edition aside and started fresh; so much additional knowledge about DNA had been gained.) It finally dawned on me: if experts in science can write books that have to be continually corrected, revised, and updated, perhaps God could write a Book in which He said what He meant and meant what He said: eternal and unchanging truth, an absolutely sure foundation for understanding life useful to all people at all times in all places!

“Looking now at the Bible as the truly true ‘History Book of the Universe,’ I was lifted out of the prison of time, space, and culture, and enabled to see past the shallow and ever-changing words of human experts to the deep and never-changing Word of the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth! I experienced who Jesus is and what Jesus meant when He said, ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free’ (John 8:32). ...

“I could now look at familiar facts in unfamiliar ways--ways that made more sense scientifically and helped me to solve some of the origins problems that had puzzled me as an evolutionist. As I looked at biology with the blinders of evolution finally removed, the biblical theme of Creation-Corruption-Catastrophe-Christ was reflected everywhere! ...

“... some said that if I only knew more about fossils, I would give up this ‘creationist nonsense’ and accept the ‘fact of evolution.’ Then the Lord did something fabulous for me: a fellowship from the National Science Foundation for 15 months of full-time doctoral study. With fear and trembling, I added a doctoral minor in geology, emphasizing paleontology and origins, to check out the fossil evidence firsthand. I had excellent professors, including some Christians, but all assumed evolution without question. However, what they taught me about fossils made it hard to believe in evolution and easy to accept the biblical record of a perfect creation, ruined by man, destroyed by the Flood, restored to new life in Christ. ...

“At the end of my geophysics unit on radiometric dating, the professor was going over the long list of assumptions are required to convert any measurement of radioisotope amounts into some estimate of age. Midway through the list of unwarranted assumptions and inconsistent results, the professor paused to joke that if a Bible-believing Christian ever became aware of these problems, he would make havoc out of the radiometric dating system! Then he admonished us to ‘keep the faith.’

“Keep the faith. At bottom, that is all there is to radioactive decay dating: a faith the facts have failed. At bottom, that’s all there is to evolution: a faith the facts have failed. Evolution was only able to get a toe-hold on science because of 19th-century ignorance of molecular biology, cellular ultra structure, ecology, and systematics. Discoveries in these fields completely crushed evolution as a science, but it persists only too well as a secular religion protected from contrary evidence by the anti-American censorship lawyers united” (Persuaded by the Evidence, pp. 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 258, 260, 261).

Lee Strobel

Lee Strobel has a law degree from Yale University and worked as an investigative reporter for one of America’s largest newspapers, the Chicago Tribune. He was an atheist. After his wife became a Christian in 1979, he was upset at her decision and determined to prove that the Bible is not true and that Jesus Christ is not the Son God. For two years he pursued this objective, using all of his legal and journalistic skills, but in the end he had proved to himself that the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus rose from the dead. He became a Christian in 1981 and has since written many books defending the Christian faith.

“It wasn’t a phone call from an informant that prompted me to reexamine the case for Christ. It was my wife. Leslie stunned me in the autumn of 1979 by announcing that she had become a Christian. I rolled my eyes and braced for the worst, feeling like the victim of a bait-and-switch scam. I had married one Leslie--the fun Leslie, the carefree Leslie, the risk-taking Leslie--and now I feared she was going to turn into some sort of sexually repressed prude who would trade our upwardly mobile lifestyle for all-night prayer vigils and volunteer work in grimy soup kitchens.

“Instead I was pleasantly surprised--even fascinated--by the fundamental changes in her character, her integrity, and her personal confidence. Eventually I wanted to get to the bottom of what was prompting these subtle but significant shifts in my wife’s attitudes, so I launched an all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the case for Christianity.

“Setting aside my self-interest and prejudices as best I could, I read books, interviewed experts, asked questions, analyzed history, explored archaeology, studied ancient literature, and for the first time in my life picked apart the Bible verse by verse.

“I plunged into the case with more vigor than with any story I had ever pursued. I applied the training I had received at Yale Law School as well as my experience as legal affairs editor of the Chicago Tribune. And over time the evidence of the world--of history, of science, of philosophy, of psychology--began to point toward the unthinkable” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, 1998, p. 14).

Strobel became convinced that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He has written many books defending the Christian faith, including The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus and The Case for the Resurrection.

(Sadly, we cannot recommend Strobel’s ministry. He is New Evangelical at best, was long associated with Bill Hybels and Willowcreek Community Church, and has spoken for the self-esteem heretic Robert Schuller.)

Jobe Martin

Dr. Jobe Martin is a dentist. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Dental School in 1966. While in the military, he served on Air Force One, the presidential jet. He worked for NASA in Houston, Texas, and held a teaching position at Baylor College of Dentistry.

A Darwinian evolutionist until he put his faith in Jesus Christ in 1976, he is the author of “Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution” and “The Evolution of a Creationist.”

The following is his testimony:

“In the fall of 1971 I went to Baylor University in Dallas and gave my first lecture. It was on the evolution of the tooth. I talked about how these fish scales gradually migrated into the mouth and became teeth. A couple of students came to me after the class that day and said, ‘Dr. Martin, have you ever investigated the claims of creation science?’ I had never even heard of it. So I said, ‘Sure, I’ll look into this with you.’ And I’m thinking, kind of as a cocky young professor, ‘I’ll blow these guys away.’

“Well, they asked me to study the assumptions that the evolutionists make. In all of my eight years of scientific education, I had never had a single professor tell me about an assumption. So we started looking at the assumptions. I began to realize that evolutionists are making some claims that are based on assumptions that aren’t valid, when they tell us that rocks are so old and these kinds of things.

“Then they asked me to start studying some animals and see if I thought they could have evolved. The first thing that we studied together was this little bug called the bombardier beetle. This little insect, which is about a half inch long, mixes chemicals that explode. I began to think, O.K. how would that evolve? If evolution is true it had to somehow evolve that. Let’s assume it is evolving this defense mechanism, but the first time that it finally produces the explosion, what happens to the bug? Well, it is destroyed by the explosion, and we know that splattered bug pieces don’t evolve. So I thought, how could this have happened? Well, [because of the intricate way it is built] it doesn’t blow itself up. It has another little factory inside itself and it manufactures a chemical that acts as a catalyst, so when it squirts that chemical into these other chemicals that are in a suspended state it produces the explosion. And it has an asbestos-lined firing chamber to protect itself. And it has two little twin tail tubes, and it can aim these tubes out the side, even out the front. Let’s say a spider is coming up toward its side and it doesn’t have time to turn around and shoot. It can just take its little gun turret, aim it out to the side, and shoot. If you are listening to the explosion all you hear is a single pop, but scientists have put that sound into slow motion, and it is like about a thousand sequential little explosions that are so fast that all we hear is one pop. So you think, why would that be? It was a curious thing for the scientists that are studying this little bug. A lot of them are at Cornell University and some other places. What they discovered was that if it were just one big explosion, the little bug would be jetted away by the force! But as long as it is a sequential explosion, the bug with his little legs can hang on. How would evolution explain a sequential explosion?

“This little bug messes with all of the theories of evolution. There is no way a slow, gradual process is going to produce this bug. There is no way, even, that the newer theories, such as punctuated equilibrium, can explain this bug. I began to realize that this little bug needed to have all of its parts there at once or you just don’t have the animal.

“And my stomach started to churn. My wife will tell you that my stomach churned for five years. It took a five-year struggle for me to begin to flip the way I think, from thinking in an evolutionary way to thinking that this creature was created fully formed just like it is. That went against everything I had ever learned” (Jobe Martin, Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution 1, ExplorationFilms.com).

Conclusion

Are you ready to meet God? During this present time God is offering salvation to sinners, but His offer will expire one day, and it could be soon, and His judgments will then be poured out upon this world.

Jesus Christ came into the world 2,000 years ago to die for man’s sins. The Bible says that all men are sinners and have broken God’s holy laws. The punishment for sin is eternal death in hell. The good news is that God loves men and does not want them to perish, so He sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to become man’s Saviour. Jesus took man’s punishment upon Himself when He died on the cross. He died for our sins, and three days later He rose from the dead. Today He is offering forgiveness of sin and eternal life to those who repent (which means to surrender to the true God and turn from false gods) and believe on Him.

“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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

“... 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” (Romans 10:9-13).

Questions Answered on the Bible & Christianity

Copyright 2010 by David W. Cloud

Table of Contents

Title Page

Questions Answered on the Bible & Christianity

Evidence that the Bible Is God’s Word

Answers to Questions

What Does the Bible Say about the Future?

Skeptics Who Were Converted Trying to Disprove the Bible

Conclusion