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REASONS TO BELIEVE

See Also My Bible Studies (Linked Above) "GOD, PROOF OF (HIS EXISTENCE)" & 

"CHRIST, PROPHECIES FULFILLED OF FIRST COMING;" < (: This One Is Amazing.

A) LET US REASON HONESTLY.

B) PROPHECY.

C) THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE.

D) THE NUMBER SEVEN.

E) THE BIBLE.

F) THE FORETELLING OF FUTURE EVENTS.

G) THE INVENTION OF JESUS.

H) THE ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIBLE.

I) LIES AND MORE LIES.

 

 

A) LET US REASON HONESTLY

 

A Lot Of People Are Able To Reason, But Few Can Be Reasoned With Or Are Reasonable.  Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States of America once stated:  “We resort to ridicule when reason is against us.”

 

First, You Must Be Reasoning With An “Honest” Person If You Hope To Achieve Any Sense Of Reasoning.  And The Ones You Can Hope To Reason With May Lack The Last Ingredient Of The Two Ingredients Needed To Convince Anyone Of Anything.  The Other Ingredient?  Common-Sense.  Only Common-Sense Can Overcome What One Truly Believes To Be True.

 

That nothing could come from nothing is absurd.  That there has to be a Creator in order to create is rational thinking (John 1:3; 1Co. 8:6).

 

If the Creator cares how we live He will give us Guidelines (Exodus, Chapter 20) that are “good” for all to live by.  Man changes his thought process of what is righteous, is changeable and changes all the time.  Whereas God never changes.  See Numbers 23:19; Psalm 89:34; Psalm 102:27; Ecclesiastes 3:14-15; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:11-12; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; First Peter 1:23.  We can count on what we know to be true today will be true tomorrow.

 

 

B) PROPHECY

 

 

There are 197 prophecies in the Bible about the First Coming of the Messiah (471 if you add up all of them; considering that another prophet had the same prophecy; disregarding that they were, in some cases, centuries apart from each other).  For any jury, i.e., yourself, to ignore this evidence is to be insane.  And these are just prophecies about the FIRST Coming Messiah; let alone prophecies of verifiable future events that have already happened.  See my Bible Study:  “CHRIST, PROPHECIES FULFILLED OF FIRST COMING.”

 

Nostradamus is touted as the most famous predictor of future events of all of mankind.  Yet, it is honestly argued that only 5 to10 percent of his predictions have been fulfilled with 100 percent certainty.  Most of them have either missed the mark by a wide margin or have been somewhat subjective and open to interpretation.

 

Therefore, based upon the overwhelming prophetic evidence of Biblical accounts, historical accuracy (verified by archaeological finds), and scientific evidence (although very little), you, the honest juror in this trial, have to convict the Bible as being guilty-as-charged.

 

For any one person to fulfill even 10% of these would be a near impossibility.  In fact, the probability of a man fulfilling 12% of these is as astronomically impossible as the “Big Bang Theory” (both state that something came from nothing).  Yet Jesus Christ fulfilled every last one of them to the letter.  The only way to explain this is to ascribe to the Bible what It claims to be, the very Word of God, and to Christ that which the Bible and He claim to be, and that is that He was the Living Messiah.

 

That the Bible is 100% correct, let me prove it this way.  Since the Bible has made over 200 verifiable future prophesies which turned out to be 100% correct, any other unfilled prophesies, such as the Second Coming of Christ, must be considered as plausible.

 

Psalm 19:1:  “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork.”

 

Romans 1:20-21:  “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 [QUIT MAKING EXCUSES]: (21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

 

 

C) THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BIBLE

 

 

Whenever determining the authenticity of any document, you apply what is called “Bibliographical Tests.”  Bibliographical Tests ask questions of any book.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the Bible or whatever.  There are two questions you must ask of a manuscript to find out if it is what you have today -- what was written down at first -- the first being, What is the number of Manuscripts that you have available for comparison?  You see, the more manuscripts you have, the easier it is to check out any errors, variant readings, or whatever, in order to verify without question that this was (is) the original text, the actual autography.

 

Now if we compare the Scriptures with other historical literature of antiquity, we find a tremendous gulf.  When producing evidence for Caesar in the “Gallic Wars,” there are only 10 manuscripts; of Herodotus there are only 8 manuscripts; and Plato, 7 manuscripts.  Now, many people say Thucydides, the Greek historian, is one of the most accurate in history.  Yet of his works, we only have 8 manuscripts.  Therefore, anything you know about Thucydides’writing a history of anything can only come from one of eight manuscripts.  Of Aristotle Poetics, we have 49 manuscripts.

 

However, when we come to the New Testament, we now have 24,633 Manuscripts (5,843 Greek New Testament Manuscripts considered to be authentic copies of the originals).  Interesting enough, that is of just the New Testamentalone.  Add in the over 5,000 Manuscripts of the Old Testament, and you have a tremendous amount of evidence for establishing the Bible’s authenticity.  But if you would rather put your faith in 10 manuscripts at best over 5,843, then stay an atheist.

 

The next argument that someone might bring up is, What was the length of time between when the Biblical Book was reportedly written and the earliest Manuscript that history reports.  This is the second question.  Remembering the first question -- How many Manuscripts do you have?  We here notice that the New Testament has 24,633.  The number two book in all of history in Manuscript authority is “The Iliad,” by Homer, with 643 Manuscripts.  That is almost a 24,000 difference between the New Testament and the number two book in all of history, “The Iliad.”  Yet Homer is NEVER questions, while the Bible is.  I think you can figure out why.

 

Now we come to the timeline that may be brought up as an objection.  Because the rule of thumb historically is, the closer the copy is to the original, the greater the accuracy.  Of course, the more errors in the document, the less likely it is genuine, no matter how close it is in history to the original.  Again, it comes back to comparing with secular literature.

 

From the time Homer wrote to his closest Manuscript, we have 400 years difference; Thucydides, 1,300 years difference; Demosthenes, 1,400 years difference.  Aristotle wrote his poetics around B.C. 343, and the closest Manuscript that we have to that is in 1100 A.D.  That is over 1,400 years distance.  With the New Testament, we now go back within 80 years of the original, and with some of the new discoveries that are still being played out, some of these new discoveries could well take it back between 40 to 50 years of the very time of Christ.  Time wise, what this says is that we can recreate a text that is 99.5 percent pure, based upon the distance from the original Manuscripts alone.

 

If there is even only one chance in a million that I am right about everlasting life, isn’t it worth looking into?  Are you willing to gamble on eternity that there is no chance that the Bible is true?

 

 

D) THE NUMBER SEVEN

 

 

The Number “7” (Seven) in the Bible is considered to represent God.  Setting aside that Biblically established fact, let’s look at some evidence that proves the existence of God’s hand in the Scriptures.  There are over 600 passages that speak specifically of the number 7.  Some are very obvious, some are overt.  Such as stating that there are 7 of this, or 7 of that, 7 hundred of these, or 7 times this, etcetera.  Some of them are structural, and these are the ones I want us to look into.

 

Before I do, let me explain that each Greek and Hebrew words have a numerical value.  As an example, using the Greek, Alpha equals one, Beta equals two, Gama equals three and so forth.  The proper name of this is called “Gematria,” meaning, that each word has a numerical value.

 

Therefore, what I am going to show you is that some of these heptastich structures are, and can only be, from the Creator Himself.  Let’s look at the Genealogy of Christ in Matthew (and this can be done with Luke also).  Following the Greek, structure, we’re going to notice some things.  First, let us understand that the Greek is a precise language.  As an example, every verb has to meet five conditions in order to be used properly in a sentence.

 

Here is where things begin to become remarkable.  First, each name in Matthew’s list, in the Greek, adds up to 7.  Therefore, as we add a name to the list -- two names, then three names, etcetera -- they are also continuing to be devisable by seven.  In other words, the first name equals 7 which is divisible by itself.  The second name than ads up to 14, which is divisible by 7; and the third name brings us to 21, which is divisible by 7, and so on and so forth.  Then there is the fact that each name has seven letters in the Greek.  If you tried to do this in the English language, you can fudge around with it until you get your list to work; but with the added rule of all the names being divisible by seven, most people will tend to quit trying.

 

The next observation is that after you have seven names, then 14 names, etcetera, we notice that the number of vowels used add up to seven, and the number of consonants used add up to seven.  In a side note, if this list were done randomly, you have six chances of losing and only one chance of winning.  But let’s go further.  The number of words that begin with a vowel are divisible by seven; which only follows our first observation in that each word must add up to seven.  And of course, our next rule is that each word that begins with a consonant is divisible by seven.  And, by the way, all the names that start with a consonant in Matthew’s list are divisible by seven.

 

What I am doing and observing here is that the more rules I add the more difficult the list becomes and is impossible to be random.  But wait!  Here is still another rule, or observation, of God’s list of names in the Book of Matthew.  The number of words that occur more than once must be divisible by seven, and they are in both Matthew and Luke’s lists.  Still another rule:  Those names that occur in more than one form or another are divisible by seven.  And obviously, those names that occur in only one form are divisible by seven.

 

Therefore, the entire list in Matthew’s rendering has the total number of names being divisible by seven.  Another obvious observation is that the number of male names are divisible by seven, and the number of generations are also divisible by seven.  By now you should be overwhelmed.  This is a description of the first 18 verses in the Book of Matthew.  Don’t fault me on the “18 verses,” for the verses were divided out non-inspirationally.

 

Let’s look at another Gospel.  Mark, Chapter 16, verses 9 to 20.  You can probably do this with all of the Book, but I’m just going to take the last verses Mark writes for the sake of time and the fact that the newer versions of Bibles today, such as the “NIV,” have a side note stating that these verses do not belong in the Bible.  The Gnostics do not believe in the Deity of Christ and leaving these verses out would finish Mark’s Gospel with the disciples being confused and with no resurrection of our Lord.  The “NIV” translators were influenced by Westcott and Hort, who were famous Bible translators known to learn towards Gnosticism. Sorry about the deviation here; but people messing with the Word of God get to me.

 

Continuing, we can count the number of Greek words in these 12 verses which adds up to 175.  175 is guess what?  Of course, divisible by seven.  Of these words, 98 are different; again, 98 being divisible by 7.  The number of letters is 553.  You guested it, divisible by 7.  Also, the vowels and consonants are divisible by [hello], 7.

 

Of these 98 words that are different here, 84 of them are used earlier in Mark’s Gospel.  Need I point out that 84 is divisible by 7?  14 of these words used by Mark are only found in this section of his work; 14 being divisible by 7.  42 of these words are our Lord speaking; and 56 are not our Lord speaking, both 42 and 58 being divisible by 7.  By the way, the introductory to Mark’s main point, before this section of his work begins, comprises 35 words; divisible by 7.

 

Let’s back up.  If I use only one rule to form Matthew’s list of names, you have 6 chances of losing and only one chance of winning.  If we have two rules, it’s seven squared to get it right.  In other words, I have 48 chances of losing and only one chance of winning.  Three rules would be the cube of that, or 343 chances of losing.  I’ve given you only nine rules and there are more.

 

Now let’s see how Matthew came up with his list of names randomly.  Let’s assume you work on this project not randomly, but having a computer that specializes in graphic design.  Using only these nine rules, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, and only 50 weeks, with 2 weeks for vacation, would mean that you would have 120 thousand minutes put into this project per year.  Let’s assume it takes you 10 minutes to form a chart or draft.  When the first one does not work you would attempt the next draft.  After 3,362 years [based upon the 10 minute factor], you would come up with Matthew’s design.  Congratulation’s, I’m so glad we all and Matthew live longer than that, and that Matthew had a computer.  In other words, he had the Holy Spirit right by his side.  Plus, you could not do it without the knowledge that the key number needed to put into the computer is 7.  Without knowing that, and guessing at the number, you may not have ever figured it out.

 

Now here is the substance.  There are a total, so far discovered, of 34 different structures, or rules, that are followed in the forming of the Gospels.  For this to happen randomly, would be 7 to the 34th power, which is roughly 5 to the 28th tries to be needed, understanding that this is a huge obstacle to overcome in your chart, or list.  With the best graphic design computer that we have today, with its calculated speed to form this list, it would take this computer 4.3 million years to complete.  To come up with this result randomly, we would need about 1 million computers working for 4.3 million years to come up with this formula randomly, if it even could be based on random chances.  In other words, some Divine hand was involved and no computer in the world [ever] could come up with Matthew’s, or anyone else’s list.

 

The New Testament consists of 27 Books.  Each Book begins and ends with a word, right?  Logical.  So, 2 times 27 equals 54 words.  Of those 54 words, 28 of them are divisible by seven; 28 also being divisible by 7.  The value of the shortest word of these 54 equals 7.  The longest word, in our English, “Apocalypses,” is divisible by 7.  In the Book of Matthew, there are 42 words in the Greek that only are used by Matthew.  Of those words, they add up to 126, which is divisible by 7.

 

These discoveries of the hidden, if you will, qualities of seven are found in all of the Four Gospels, the Books of James, Peter, Jude, and all the letters of Paul; and most likely the other Books, such as the Book of Revelation(which a lot has been discovered based upon the study of John’s writings in his Gospel); but scholars are still working to discover them.  There is only ONE explanation that works for me mathematically and sensibly, and that is that God has His hand on His Word, and that the Holy Spirit inspired every Word and every Letter.

 

See also my Bible Study:  “GOD, PROOF BIBLICALLY OF HIS EXISTENCE.”

 

 

E) THE BIBLE

 

 

The Bible is the only Book throughout history that has been banned from any certain countries, continents, or regions.  Meaning, It must be a pretty powerful Book, because It is not banned for moral or ethical reasons.  Think about that for a minute (or two).

 

Also consider, if I believe that men can have babies, you would think I’m being silly or whatever.  But you wouldn’t kill me over it (maybe put me in an insane asylum).  But if I believe in the Bible being 100% the Word of God or accurate, you then want to kill me!  Who cares what somebody else believes as long as they don’t what to kill you for that belief?

 

The fact that some do care means to me that it must be true, when in most cases what someone else believes is usually shrugged off as non-important.

 

 

F) THE FORETELLING OF FUTURE EVENTS

 

 

The Foretelling of future events is an attribute belonging to God alone that clearly distinguishes the Scriptures as Divinely inspired.  No other book has even come close to the unerring accuracy -- proven throughout history -- of God’s promises, and 100% fulfillment (so far, why not farther) of Its prophecies.

 

Also, it is important to note that the purpose of prophecy is not to predict future events.  Otherwise, divination could be considered to be inspired.  No!  The purpose of prophecy is to prove to the human mind that there is a God and that He exists and that He has an unending interest in you.

 

Most notable (other than the prophecies of the Coming of the Messiah; First Coming; mentioned above and below) are the listing of the future nations in the Book of Daniel.  Daniel 8:20 specifically lists the next kingdom to come onto the world seen after Babylon would be “the kings of Media and Persia.”  While Daniel 8:21 also specifically lists the next kingdom after that, that being, “the king of Grecia.”  These are literally hundreds of years before the events, especially when you include Daniel, Chapter 11, that covers the history between the Old and New Testaments.

 

Also, the personal naming of “Cyrus” by the prophet Isaiah (44:28 & 45:1) hundreds of years before he was even born, tends to open most sensible minds to the existence of a Supreme Being.

 

 

G) THE INVENTION OF JESUS

 

 

If Jesus had been an invention, the ones who invented Him would never have written in their Gospels that they themselves had doubts about Him, especially after His resurrection (see Mat. 28:17 & Mark 16:14).  The Bible is the only religious Book in the world, which expresses the truth together with doubts about this same truth (Mat. 11:2-3).  Therefore, it is truth.  However, the bigger question is:  Was what was written down true?  Ten (one killed himself knowing he had condemned an innocent man/God) of the 12 (died of natural causes after being persecuted his entire life) disciples died martyred deaths for two things, an empty tomb and the appearance (resurrection) of a man named Jesus of Nazareth.  Few men will die for another man, but how many will die for a lie?

 

Of all of the witnesses of the resurrection, whom saw Jesus:

[1Co. 15:5], “was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve [apostles]:

[1Co. 15:6] After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

[1Co. 15:7] After that, He was seen of James; then [again] of all the apostles.

[1Co. 15:8] And last of all He was seen of me [Paul] also.”

 

To then understand that all of these witnesses were willing to die for a lie is a ridiculous conclusion.  But the world [Satan; and his followers; don’t be one of them] hated Christ, and most, if not all, died a martyrs death for their seeing of Christ arisen.

 

Considering the resurrection, the changed lives of the disciples of Jesus are a testimony to that fact.  In other words, the disciples were fearful before He was crucified, such that at His trial Peter denies that he even knew Him (Mat. 26:34 & 74; Luke 22:57 & 60), and “all forsook Him, and fled,” Mark 14:50, when Jesus was arrested; and later, begging the body of Jesus, “Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews,” John 19:38.  Whereas, after the resurrection they preach Jesus “boldly,” Acts 9:27 & 29; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; specifically, Peter even being imprisoned for doing so (Acts 5:18; how many will go to jail for a lie [yes]; but an unsupportable, unsustainable lie [not many if even any]).

 

The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Christ, His execution by Pontius Pilate, and the existence of early Christians in Rome in one page of his final work, “Annals,” (written in 116 A.D.), book 15, chapter 44.  Josephus, a Jewish historian, mentions Jesus as a real figure in many of his historical works.  Both were secular historians and had no “Christian Promoting” agendas.  See my Bible Study:  “Christ In Secular History.”

 

Almost all of Jesus’ personal friends died a martyr’s death.  No one goes to death under torture for what he himself knows to be a lie.  If the corpse of Jesus were in the hands of the disciples, certainly one of the martyrs would have broken down and confessed this truth.  Or even better, if the corpse of Jesus was in the hands of His adversaries, Christianity would never have arisen, because when the Apostles preached the resurrection of Christ, the chief priests would only have had to open the tomb and show the body of Jesus.

 

According to Luke 24:16, John 20:14, and 21:4, Christ’s closest friends and disciples did not even recognize Him to be Jesus.  Imagine, if you will, that several persons plot to pass the made-up story that Jesus rose from the dead.  Then, even though Jesus appears to them, they did not even recognize Him.  Now forgers are usually very shrewd or intelligent people.  If Jesus’ associates were forgers, why would they have done the unforgivable action of a forger and say that what they forged they did not recognize, and go on to say that they did not recognize the Person before them as the resurrected Christ?  The answer is simple:  because they were lovers of truth, and things had happened just as they said that they did.  Therefore, it is true that Christ rose from the dead.

 

All of the Gospel writers have women as the first ones to see the risen Christ (Mat. 28:1; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1 & 10; John 20:1 & 18) and to proclaim His resurrection to others.  Biblical apologists have been able to use this fact to help affirm the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which some people deny or question.  Why is the role of women here so important?  Because if, as some claim, the stories of Jesus’ resurrection were fabricated by the authors, why would they have put women, who weren’t highly regarded in that society, as the first ones to see and to proclaim Jesus?  And a woman’s testimony in that culture had to be backed up by a man; or else it was not acceptable in a court of law.  Think about that for a minute (or two).

 

If they were making up stories in order to try to get people at that time to believe, why use women as opposed to the then accepted more authoritative men?  Any fabricated reporting so important as the resurrection of Christ would most certainly at the very least had the men arriving there first as a testimony that could be validated.  Such details scream and argue for the traditional scenario as something only the Bible could accomplish for Its truthfulness and the writers of the Bible as only telling the truth.

 

The historical fact that the Jewish authorities, throughout history, never go to the gravesite of Christ and report, “Here is the supposed resurrected body of Christ, why say His Disciples that He is risen when His body is still here,” is worth something.  You might say, well it was reported that the Disciples stole the body.  Do you honestly believe that the Jewish authorities could not find one Disciple of them all that they could not torture or bribe into telling where the body was?  And even if they couldn’t, why is it not reported that they tried?

 

 

H) THE ARTIFICIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIBLE

 

 

Because the Bible has accounts in It that do not coincide in every detail, this gives us clear evidence that the Book is not artificially constructed.  A conjured-up book would never allow itself to seem to contradict itself.  When the Word of God seems to oppose Itself, praise the Lord, for it is at this point that if you will commit this contradiction to prayer, you are about to discover a hidden Biblical truth and learn more about our loving Father.words, the truth.

 

We live in a universe not only with physical laws, but with moral laws as well.  If we violate the physical law of gravity for example, and jump off a cliff, we can expect some consequences for our actions.  So it is with moral laws.  Consequences for breaking them become apparent.  Keep eating candy for lunch and see what happens.  Keep feeding yourself with hate towards Jews and see what happens.  This screams for a Designer of those moral Laws.

 

The Bible never tries to prove that there is a God.  In fact, it aspires to the opposite, in that it approaches the subject as being FACTUAL that there is a God, i.e., “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”  Psalm 14:1.

 

What is interesting to note is that if you were to say that you believe in the fairy godmother, or the tooth fairy, or that the world is flat, etcetera, etcetera, no one will persecute you.  They may laugh at you, but not persecute you.  By contrast, once you confess faith and belief in Christ, persecution fallows.  In fact, the world does not care if your religion is Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism, or any other religion except Christianity.  Once Christ is mentioned, persecution follows.  This proves that there are powers of Good (God) and evil (Satan) in force.  The fact that someone wants to kill me for carrying a Bible, whereas they could care less (Couldn’t Care Less) if it were any other book, religious or not, is an amazing fact.  Try it out in China, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, or Saudi Arabia for example.  As stated above, Seriously think about it this way: “Whenever the truth is a threat to your lies, then it must be true.”

 

Finally, a changed life -- one that was selfish and corrupt, but is now full of love for his fellow beings, strikes a chord in the heartstrings of any honest individual.  There is a distinction between the powers of the will to quit smoking, while this change of a life’s habit does not necessitate love for one’s fellow beings.  That behavior is born from a Superior Being Who created us out of love (1Jo. 4:8).

 

 

I) LIES AND MORE LIES

 

 

Most cultures will not include bad things in their history.  Even the U.S. is losing its Christian values of telling the truth about its past because liberals want history as they want to see it.

 

If there were ever a people group who do not want to tell you how badly they revolted against their Deity, it would be the Jewish economic system of rule.  Yet in their recorded history they tell things no other nation will openly admit to, acknowledge, or not cover up or explain away in some way.  In fact, they have done their best to preserve what we now call, Scripture, The Holy Word of God, The Bible, the Torah.

 

 

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