Reasons To Believe...

What Does The Bible Really Say?

2006-12-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

The Message of both Old and New Testaments distilled to their simplest message is this:

God created the heavens and the earth and man.
Man sinned and was separated from God.
God gave the Jews the law (10 commandments) which no man has or can or will fulfill, except Christ.
Christ came to earth as God in the flesh.
Christ was sacrificed to pay the sin debt, once for all, and his death is the all appropriation for sin.
He was resurrected and has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God and will return.
The only way to be cleansed from sin and to receive eternal life is to receive and believe in Christ.
That we should be baptized, confess our sins regularly and partake of the sacraments at least once and improve our walk, as best we can, before God.

That’s it. That’s the main message, and anybody can understand it. Yet, there are thousands of books written, both pro and con, about God, Jesus and the bible. All of man’s ideas, theologies, speculations, details, doctrines and denials are irrelevant and cannot alter this message to those who will believe it.

We each must choose to accept or reject it.

The Key To Being Born Again--Life After Death

2006-12-03T09:46:00.000-05:00

The term "born again" is often used by Christians to explain the phenomenon of the change of character that often (but not always immediately) accompanies a person when they accept Jesus into their life. While this is a widely used and accepted term to describe the change of mind and behavior a person experiences when they accept Jesus, it was not how Jesus described the term born again.

In the New Testament, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus (a Pharisee) confronted Jesus as follows:

Joh 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
Joh 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus saith to him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said to thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Looking at what Jesus said it is clear that the term "born again" is a "literal requirement" to enter the kingdom of heaven. Consider:

Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Jesus was very specific that we must

1. Be literally born again.
2. Have a new body, which is constructed of "water and spirit".

Jesus reinforced his statement by saying:

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.

Is this a radical idea? No. Our flesh body is about 60 percent water, the brain is composed of 70 percent water, the lungs are nearly 90 percent water and about 83 percent of our blood is water. Water is critical to life and our cells are full of water, helping to digest our food, transport minerals and regulate our temperature. Without water there would be no life. Let’s be clear:

You (a spirit) were born into this world and live in a body that is about 60% water and 40% minerals. The inner you, your spirit, is living in this world in a flesh body made mostly of water now! If you are alive now, in a body composed mostly of water then why can’t you be literally born again, into the kingdom of heaven, in a new body composed of your spirit and a 100% water body?

Remember Jesus said:

Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said to thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

In other words, to get into heaven you have to leave your minerals behind when you die here on earth! It’s that simple! Now, just because you will have a new, spiritual body, does not mean you won’t like it! A spiritual body is vastly superior to our present bodies!

Jesus also said:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that reviveth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Let’s think about something together: We have no idea where we came from before we were born, right? As far as we know, we did not exist until we were conceived through the act of procreation. But our conception was a competitive event—we fought our way into our mothers egg amongst thousands and thousands of other sperm cells all competing to get into the egg as they struggled for life. Sperm cells are pre-programmed to get into the egg—that is their singular mission, to get LIFE! Out of the batch of thousands of sperm, you were the most successful sperm (or you may be a twin, etc). The key is that you fought and got into your mothers egg—whatever you did in your fight for life was successful because you are here, reading this article and thousands of potential brothers and sisters are not.

Now, during the time we were in our mother’s womb, we were well fed, loved, cared for, warm and secure. During the 9-month gestation period we had it made! All our wants and needs were met and, we probably didn’t want to leave the world of our mothers stomach that we were so familiar with, where we were warm and secure, the only life experience we knew.

But we had to leave the world of our mothers womb to be born into this world! We didn’t want to leave! And we came out kicking and screaming, born into a harsh, cold, world of unknowns—we had no choice! We had to die to our mother’s womb to be born into this world!

Now we are here today and whatever your age, you know you are going to die someday.

We don’t want to leave this world which we are so familiar with, where we are loved, where we have everything we need like water, air, beautiful skies, changing days and all that mother earth offers. But we will. And most people are scared of leaving this world—of dying and all the unknowns we face in death.

The point I am trying to make is this: We struggled successfully as sperm to find life. We spent the first 9-months in the world of our mothers womb. We died to that world to be born into this one. And our present life is similar to the path we took as a sperm cell and the gestation period in our mothers womb. Here’s how: We have to find the path to life again or we will die forever, like the unsuccessful sperm cells. And if you stand back and look at all the people in the world as if you were 10,000 feet in the air, we would look like bacteria, like sperm cells running around here and there on the planet earth. Everyone is struggling to survive and figure out the spiritual path to eternal life through various concepts and religions.

Just as we had to penetrate our mothers egg to fertilize the egg and get life, we must be injected with God’s Holy spirit to get life. Just like the way we got this life, only in reverse. The only way God can penetrate us and fertilize us with the Holy Spirit is if we accept Jesus as our personal savior. We must have the pure Holy Spirit of God, only available through Jesus Christ. Every other form of faith and religion, while they may be very meritorious, do not lead to the pure Holy Spirit of God (required for life) that is only available through accepting Jesus as God’s Son who died for your sins on the cross, was resurrected and lives. Jesus said:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me.

If you think about what has been shared with you in this article compared to every other perspective, you should understand this message is the message that leads to new life after death. You were successful as a sperm cell to find the life that God provided for you in the beginning. Will you be successful in finding the life God has provided you now? It is simply a matter of opening your heart and mind to the concept of Jesus, asking Him to come into your life, and accepting Him as your personal savior.

My sincere desire is that you are able to lay down your intellect and be open-minded to things that require faith and not facts. Whatever you choose will be either the right or wrong decision.

The Coming Of Jesus Foretold In The Old Testament

2006-11-29T18:47:00.000-05:00

Did God foretell the coming of Jesus through the prophets in the Old Testament? The answer is yes… Let’s take a look at some scripture that first point to the plurality of God and then some of the key prophesies pointing to Jesus Christ.

The plurality of God:

Gen 1:26 And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

The term "let us" and… "Make in our image" specifically indicates a plurality of God. Otherwise He would have said: Let Me make man in My image… The question then becomes what is meant by the term "us"? Common sense dictates that it means God and someone else and this can either be one other person, more than one person, a race or life form similar to the image of God.

It could also be the Holy Trinity of God-The Father, God-The Son and God-The Holy Spirit. The obvious question then becomes: how can God be three persons in one? Theologians have struggled over this issue for a long time but it is generally held that the Godhead is much like a three-leaf clover. While a three-leaf clover is one plant, it has three unique and independent leaves which are each dependent on the one stem. While the answer is not known for sure, we can assume that each person of the Trinity (The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit) are one and the same God.

The first prediction of Jesus when God was talking to the serpent Satan in the Garden of Eden:

Gen 3:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.

In this prophetic statement God indicated that there was going to be a conflict between Satan and Jesus (Jesus being born from the virgin Mary-the woman’s seed). God further states that "he" (meaning Jesus) would wound Satan’s head when Satan bruised Jesus’ heel (at the cross). In other words, Satan thought he won the battle with Jesus when he killed him at the cross (bruised Jesus’ foot) but Jesus delivered a crushing blow to Satan’s head through the resurrection and redemption of mankind. How is this known? There are many prophecies pointing toward Jesus coming to earth, the most clear are from the prophet Isaiah:

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.

And,

Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

And,

Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 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.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
Isa 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death: because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

And, (from the book of Psalms)

Psa 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Psa 22:18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

You might say this is just circumstantial…keep in mind the book of genesis describes the events of creation over 6,000 years ago and the prophet Isaiah wrote his prophecies about 800 years before the appearance of Jesus on earth. Coincidence? Circumstantial? Or prophecy?

The biblical description of the crucifixion of Christ so accurately portrays Christ’s suffering that it can not be chalked off as a "lucky" prediction.

The 5 Most Important Questions and Answers

2006-11-29T08:58:00.000-05:00

I do not claim any special authority or insight for my perspectives regarding the questions and answers set-forth below. The answers are based on my study of the bible, contemplation of the issues and general reliance on known science to support my position, all of which are an attempt to offer a reasonable proposition from which your own conclusions may be drawn.

How can Jesus be both God and Man?

The fleshy body of Jesus was man, a vehicle that contained and housed His life-spirit, which was the spirit of God. This is not a radical thought—our mind, spirit, soul—our inner person is independent of our own body. Our body may be injured and crippled and this does not necessarily change the inner person. The exception to this would be brain damage. In this case, our mind would not have the same cognitive process but our spirit and soul would be undamaged. Simply, the body of Jesus was man and the spirit, soul and mind of Jesus is God in the flesh.

How could Jesus be born of virgin birth?

This question was more profound in earlier days before man had the science to artificially inseminate a woman with the sperm of a man. Even further, our science and understanding of DNA allows us to clone cells and animals and, one can presume, even a human. Given that information doesn’t it seem rational to think that the God of all creation could easily artificially inseminate Mary? The New Testament says:

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God

Mary, Jesus’ mother was a descendant of King David and was simply an incubator to serve the mechanical function required to give birth to Jesus in this world.

Why did Jesus have to be born of virgin birth?

Jesus had to be born a virgin birth to be free of the "original sin" of Adam and Eve when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that sin all mankind inherited a sin nature and a natural inclination toward sin. Through that one sin, that single act of unrighteousness of Adam, death came to all men. In order for Jesus to be free of this natural inclination toward sin inherited by human flesh, He needed to be born of the same flesh God created for the original Adam, which was originally free from the corruption of sin. The very act of procreation is initiated by some degree of lust (which is technically a sin of the flesh) and would have only provided a cursed and corrupt body for Jesus to inhabit and that is unacceptable. God needed to create Jesus as the "second Adam" who would be free from the curse of human flesh to give Jesus a fighting chance against Satan. There was no guarantee that Jesus would not fall into temptation by Satan when He came to earth—there was risk involved. In order to give Jesus a fighting chance at defeating Satan, He needed a body that was not predisposed to sin. This is why a virgin birth was required.

How could Jesus come back from the dead?

This is tough for most people and it is easier to understand than what you may think. First, the premise is that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, raised Him to life. Theoretically, this would be a snap for the creator God, right? Secondly, when Jesus was killed on the cross, it was early spring and his body was put in a tomb. The tomb was built into the side of a hill where the room temperature was very cool due to the time of year and the construction of the tomb. The tomb was cool enough to prevent and slow the molecular process of the body, preserving the cell structure from decay during the three days Jesus was dead. This is line with the Old Testament prophecy of David in Psalms:

Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption.

Jesus fulfilled this prophecy by dying, not decaying and being resurrected by God.

Why was Jesus necessary for God to redeem man and forgive us our sins?

Adam sinned and God told him he was going to die for this single act of unrighteousness. Not only was Adam going to die but all humans would die as a result of his sin. As a result, we have all inherited a sin nature, a bent toward sin. Everybody has broken one of the Ten Commandments at some point in their life and is guilty under the law and the penalty is death. We cannot defeat this law of sin ourselves. There was only one acceptable sacrifice that God could accept to remedy the problem of sin in the human race. The only sacrificial payment that would cover the price of sin was the death of God’s only son. By sending Jesus to earth in the form of man, Jesus was in fact a new Adam, a second chance for a man to live righteously before God and resist the devil to the point of death. Jesus was successful in His mission. Just as death came to all people through the single act of unrighteousness of Adam, so life came to all men through the single act of righteousness of Jesus Christ. By his sacrificial death Jesus paid the price of the penalty of sin. The price of sin was the terrible death of God, the son, on the cross.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.

There is no other way for you, your friends or your family to be saved from eternal death other than by believing that Jesus came to earth, died for your personal sin, was resurrected by God and is alive in heaven.

If you do not accept this message or if you reject this message your future is certain. Many people reject the message and do not believe Jesus is who He claimed to be. God loves you so much that He gave you the right to choose…

But there is no cost to accept the gift of life through Jesus—it’s free. All you have to do is ask Jesus to come into your life. If you have a hard time believing, tell God you don’t believe and ask Him to help you with your unbelief. He will help you…he will lead you to understanding and belief. Ask Jesus now…