You want to go here first.
Tat,
I wanted to know how you think about jihad because that concept is unique to Islam. There is no equivalent among followers of Jesus and I really don’t think there is among Jews though in those days there were conquests and they, the Jews were conquered many times in their history.
You asked me to read the Qur’an. I have already read much of the Qur’an. I have been reading it for the last two years. I have about 4 copies of it in different translations right here. As I said in my Authenticity of the Bible for Muslims series, it reads very differently from the Greek and Hebrew scriptures.
There are many great admonitions in there. The call to holiness is fantastic. Muslims live clean and upright and are to be commended for that. Yet, I am baffled by the seeming contorted concept of sin;in that, it is not a sin if only committed in the heart or if not discovered by an authority as sin.
True Christians have a very explicit understanding of sin. Sins are both acts and thoughts. but that is a subject for another day.
I don’t think you received a good understanding of the person of Jesus. He is wonderful, He is Savior, He is Lord and deserves worship because, unlike the claims of so many today, he is the God-Man. He is not just humanity. He took on flesh but existed eternally with the Father and Spirit. Also He is the bestower of grace with a capital G. One cannot understand the grace of God apart from Him.
The journey with Jesus starts at His cross. He did go there–well documented–biblical and secular. And as John Yoder says, “…at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him.” He as a suffering servant was an example for all of humanity whether considered a prophet or not, Ah, but he is so much more.
In addition to the Hebrew and Greek, I love Biblical archaeology. Did you know that no archaeological discovery has ever brought into question any history of civilizations in the Bible?
I took on the study of Biblical archaeology to show to myself that the writing of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures are accurate. The have proved themselves over and over. I’ve also pursued the historical Jesus and researched and evaluated His claims. I would not say that I am through with any of these because archaeological discoveries are being made every day. But, based on what I have studied thus far, I have found the Bible(Hebrew and Greek) to be absolutely reliable. Jesus has proven Himself over and over, in my own life, my wife’s life and in hundreds of people around me.
I have been a follower of Jesus a long time but Jay, a new friend of mine, has not. He came to our church with his fiance. He told me that when he first came he was floored–”these people are all fake, they can’t be as happy as they appear or claim to be.” Today, Jay follows Jesus, has real joy, and he understands what all these people around him understood before.
So, just like Jay, a person must submist to and come to know Jesus as the Lord God and the Savior from sin. It is impossible to know the joy that He gives without knowing him in this way. AND, how to know Him is described in detail in the New Testament.
Following Jesus is liberating and freeing. There is no law to follow, there is only grace from Him which then gives the motivation to willingly obey Him. Law is easy, grace is difficult. Law is binging, while grace is liberating. It is not an easy life but it has been and will continue to be so rewarding. I don’t assume that other people have an unrewarding or unfulfilling life–no. But, since I worship, serve and submit to The God, I feel my life is the best one I could have been given or ever lived. Jesus said that He is the giver of life. He has certainly given richly to me and I am not disappointed.
I hope you can say something similar about your submission to Allah.
Have a great day!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Holy Scripture, Injeel, Injil, Qur'an | 4 Comments »
The greatest of all our problems is that although God is our primary need, we are faced with an impossible dilemma : Sin separates us from God’s presence and His gifts to us. The results of sin can be seen everywhere. I worked in a hospital at one point in my life. I saw health problems that resulted from sin. Gun shot victims in the Emergency Room. Murder, rape, selfishness, idolatry and many other things are all around us to point to the fact that man is sinful.
The New Testament tells us that the results of sin in our lives is death – Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 6:23 says the wages or payment of our sin is certain death… And Galatians 6:7, what we sow we will reap.
THREE SINS A DAY
Suppose I sinned only ten times a day, or even five, or even just three. Why, I would be practically a walking angel. Imagine if no more than three times a day did I think unkind thoughts, or lose my temper, or fail to do what I ought towards God and man – I would be a pretty fine person, would I not?
Even if I were this good, I would still have over 1,000 transgressions a year! If I lived to be the age of 70, I would have 70,000 violations of the law of God on my record. Think what would happen to a habitual offender in a criminal court with 70,000 transgressions on his record.
This illustrates that not only am I a sinner, but also that my sin is a very serious issue.
Some people say there is no sense of sin in the Qur’an. But they haven’t read Suras 51: 59-60 and 29:40.
These verses have much to say about the progression from sin to judgment. Surah 51 indicates that those who are evil and do evil will get their punishment. But Don’t rush God to punish them, because it will be a terrible day for them when God starts giving them their punishment. In Surah 29 we see that God catches each person for all the sins that person commits. Some of the people referred to in this aya were stoned and others were seized by a plague. Some were swallowed up by the earth, and some were drowned. The point here is that God deals with sin. Everyone is dead in his sins. God does not wrong them when He punishes them, but they wrong themselves by sinning, which inevitably bears the fruit of the punishment.
Some of you may be saying who is this guy calling us sinners. I tell you now, I am chief among sinners and I know that I can never do enough to earn God’s favor, so what do I do?
It is interesting that every religion follows ritual practices, which signify cleansing? They are essentially no more than symbolic tokens and obviously do not really effect anything by themselves. While we may clean our body by such rituals on the outside, we are well aware that water can never wash away sin nor create a clean heart!
Jesus once made a very remarkable statement when confronted about the ritual washing of hands before meals:
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’.” (Matthew 15:16-20)
Rituals are really no more than a reminder of our need for purification—because we know that we are impure.
After having committed a particularly ugly sin, David expressed his longing beautifully in one of his psalms:
Wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only have I sinned…Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God! (Psalm 51:1-4, 9-10)
You may be Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jew, Christian, agnostic, or other, and have a need for forgiveness from sin. Truly, this is our greatest need.
I am reminded of the story of Dr. Paul Gupta, born is a very high caste in India and carried the name of a Hindu god. Though he had from his family inheritance everything he could want in life—a home, land and a thriving business, he was over and over again from childhood made keenly aware of his sin. Though he searched, he could not find freedom from His person sins. Early in his life he sought ways to relieve the pain and guilt of sin. Those included swamis and Hindu teaching about how to deal with the problem of sin. His life illustrates that many people are well aware of their personal sins, and even burdened down with those sins.
Now, If you want to get into heaven by your good works, then all you have to do is to be perfect (quote Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”). God’s standard is complete obedience to Him in all things and at all times. Guess what!! We all fall short of this. There is a better way than trying to be perfect.
Do you see now why it is impossible for anyone to get into heaven by their good works?
I invite you to get in touch with me and let’s discuss our way out
Thanks and have a wonderful day!!
Posted in Sin separates, The Fall of Man | Tagged Fall of Man, repentance, Sin | 2 Comments »
Authenticity of the Bible
According to Muhammad, the Bible is a scripture from God. He knew that the Jews were the keepers of the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament. He knew that the followers of Jesus, Christians, were the keepers of the Greek scriptures, New Testament. He knew that the Christians honored and claimed the Hebrew scriptures also.
He never spoke anything against either scripture and only once maybe twice accused Jews in his land only of speaking bad interpretations of their scriptures.
This is amazing since he was ‘unlettered’ and since He spoke Arabic and neither the Greek or the Hebrew scriptures had been translated into Arabic during his life.
Muhammad is commanded in Sura 10:95:
…”upon doubt concerning what we revealed to you, then ask those who read the Scriptures that were before you.”
The guidance was that Muhammad should consult Christians and Jews about what is in their scriptures. There is evidence that he did that. In fact, we know he did that according to Ibn Ishaq, One of his closest consultants and relative was Warqa bin Naufal who remained Christian throughout his life.
Yet, we have those out there, mainly in Islam, who claim for some reason that the Bible, the Hebrew, kept by the Jews and the Greek scriptures, kept by so many different groups who were early believers in Jesus, have been corrupted. I have seen in all my research on this topic, not one example of how it happened or a specific example of what was corrupted. It is strange that both sets of scriptures, each set having a unique history and yet both were corrupted?
I am a follower of Jesus but I am interested in the history of all religions and because of that I recently took a tour of Temple Mickve in Savannah, Georgia in the USA. This Temple was populated by a group of Jews from England which sailed over in 17 hundreds. They were given by the Jews in England a scroll of the Towrah as they departed (1733). That same scroll rests in the Temple in Savannah and in probably as good a condition as it left England. Jews are dedicated to preserving their scripture like no other group on earth.
By the 2 hundreds, the Greek scriptures were in several languages. Today we have 24,000+ manuscript of the Greek NT. Five-thousand of those are Greek manuscripts and the remainder in early languages other than Greek such as Syriac and Coptic.
The point of all this is there is tremendeous manuscript evidence of both sets of scriptures and to the point that it would have been very difficult in any point in time to corrupt either or both. And what would be the point? What value/advancement happens by corrupting, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, atheist or other? There is no reasonable logic that would bring any group to the conclusion that they could even pull such a stunt off.
You see, how could all available manuscipts of the Bible (scattered all over the world) have been corrupted so completely that not a single authentic copy survived? See how illogical that theory is? If anyone had attempted such a heist, they would have been detected and exposed.
Let me summarize what I am implying above with all the facts.
Though today, many Muslims “say” that the Bible is corrupted there is no proof.
The Qur’an makes no hint that any scriptures were corrupted. There is an accusation of the Jews in Arabia that they were mishandling their scriptures but nothing that implies that any corrupting of the written scriptures had taken place.
One, If they were corrupted at that time and God was forsaking former Scriptures, that would have been revealed to Muhammad and included in the Qur’an. And it was not.
Two, manuscripts dating from the 2 and 3 hundreds all agree with each other with some minor variations. Those manuscripts line up and agree with the codices which were created in the 4 hundreds or late 3 hundreds. Since all these manuscripts and translations agree with one another excepting minor variations, this lends strong credence to the belief that these manuscripts do agree with the original manuscripts.
Thirdly, we are confident that the translations we have today in many, many languages aline and agree closely with the original manuscripts.
So, there is no defense of a claim that the Bible has been corrupted—either set of scriptures, Hebrew or Greek, have come down to us well preserved and in tact.
If you have any questions about these wonderful scriptures, please be in touch by email.
Posted in Injeel, Qur'an | 3 Comments »
The Cross is the Bridge to Life
Though we find ourselves in the seemingly impossible situation of being doomed in a cesspool of sin & death, there is still hope. This is where we come to see the vital importance of Principle 4 – God has provided a solution to our dilemma.
Realize that your destiny does not rest in you abilities but solely on what God has done for you. Our only hope when we’re in an impossible situation is to turn to the only One who can do the impossible. The following explains what God has done for all of us.
One of the reasons why God created the universe was that He wanted to commune with creature who were like Himself, who bear His very image. God cared so much about us that even after Adam and Eve ushered us into the darkness of sin, He worked out His own plan to save us since we couldn’t save ourselves. There are many passages in both the Bible and the Qur’an that emphasize the fact that God did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves: He solved our sin problem—but at great cost to Himself.
Towrah Isaiah 19:20—When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue (Deliver) them.
Zabur Psalm 49:7-8—No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough.
Isn’t it interesting that it is impossible for a person to do enough to ransom oneself from the just punishment for his sins? It’s too big a job. (see also Romans 3:20)
Injeel Ephesians 2:8-9—It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.
Qur’an Rangers 37:107—We (God) ransomed him (Abraham’s son) with a mighty sacrifice.
The term “mighty” is Arabic also means priceless without any limit. Since God is the only one able to provide for man’s ransom, man must look to God in order to be saved. Can you think of a way in history that God has provided this ransom for us? When I survey history from the Far East to the West I don’t find but one example of how this ransom might have been accomplished.
Listen to this story. A man was brought to court for stealing money from his company. As the judge asked him the usual questions, he discovered that this man had been his childhood friend. That put the judge in a predicament. The tender spot in his heart for his friend made him want to not condemn the man to the imprisonment he deserved. But to free him would be unfair to his employer, who had been wronged.
After much thought, the judge himself repaid the company all the money the man had stolen. The representatives of the company were satisfied. The man himself was freed, and was grateful to the judge for the rest of his life.
In the same way, although we stand rightly condemned for our sins, God, in His love for us, took our punishment by giving Himself as a mighty sacrifice for us at the cross.
It is vitally important to recognize the significance of the Cross. The underlying concept is one of paying a ransom for another person. A ransom is the necessary price to pay for the release of a captive. We are all captives of our own sins. We need to be set free but that is only accomplished by having the ransom paid for our sins and as Rangers 37 stated the ransom MUST BE a “mighty” / priceless sacrifice.
The following verses from the Bible and the Qur’an further document that God should be trusted to provide man’s ransom from his sin.
Towrah Genesis 22:13 – Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he was a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Exodus 12:13—“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”
Notice in these verses that just as God designated that the blood of a pure lamb (Without defect) would be a sign to protect the Jews in Egypt from being destroyed by a plague of death, so trusting in the pure blood of God’s mighty sacrifice at the cross protects us from being destroyed in hell because of our sins.
Leviticus 17:11—“It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
Pure blood is necessary for our sins to be sufficiently paid for in God’s sight—life for life. Pure blood covered the sin of Adam and Even when God killed an animal and used its skin to cover their nakedness (see Genesis 3:21).
Isaiah 63:8—(God) said, “Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me;” and so he became their Savior.
The point here is that God Himself is the savior of His people.
Zabur Psalm 34:22—The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 31:5—Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
Psalm 56:13—You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
We see in psalm 34 that taking refuge in God will save you from condemnation. In other words, God alone can redeem and deliver us, which we see clearly in Psalm 31 and 56. We can’t redeem ourselves by trying to make our good deeds outweigh our bad ones. Since God Himself is singled out as the One who redeems and delivers, obviously He recognizes that we need that for our lives—being delivered from the power of sin, from having to continue sinning.
Psalm 107:6-7—Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way.
Many Muslims ask God to lead them in a straight path at least five times a day. Psalm 107 shows that the bible agrees with this prayer, and that indeed we have to look to God alone for our salvation and not trust in ourselves.
Injeel Matthew 26:28—“This is my blood (Isa’s blood) of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Romans 3:23-25—All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.
In Matthew 26:28, Isa Himself explains that pure blood is necessary for forgiveness (That concept is fully explained in Hebrews 9.)
Romans 3:23-25 goes on to emphasize that we are all fallen sinners who need the redemption that is available in Jesus not in our own efforts. The necessity of Pure blood is mentioned again. This shows how amazing God’s plan for us really is, for because of His might sacrifice of Himself through Christ, He cancels out our past sins so that we do not have to pay for them. Why? Because Isa (Jesus) had already done so. (See also I Peter 1:18-19)
Qur’an Story 28:16—He (Moses) said, “My Lord, I have wronged myself. Forgive me!” So God forgave him, for He is the All-forgiving, the All-compassionate.
Some people say that prophets (like Moses) do not sin. But this verse shows that even a prophet needs to be rescued from sin.
Cow 2:38—“There shall come to you (Adam and Eve) guidance from Me (God), and whosoever follows My guidance, no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.”
There was guidance even for Adam and Eve when they sinned—if they looked to the Lord for it. ‘That is, the Lord Himself was their salvation. They couldn’t depend on their own works.
Women 4:110—Whosoever does evil, or wrongs himself, and then prays God’s forgiveness, he shall find God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.
People often believe that their good deeds must outweigh their bad deeds to win God’s favor and to go to heaven. This verse says they must repent and ask for God’s forgiveness of their bad deeds.
Here’s a story that can bring this point home. To get rid of her anger every time her son hurt her, a widow pounded a nail in the back of her kitchen door. One day the son opened the door and saw all the nails. “What is the meaning of these?” he asked her. Reluctantly, she told him. Amazed that he had hurt her so much, he asked her to forgive him. And he removed all the nails.
But the holes remained, reminding him that he had hurt her so much. The nail prints served as a sign to keep him from hurting her again.
We have to come to God ourselves for forgiveness, according to Cattle 6:69. Even when He forgives us, we still have the memory of what we have done to be a deterrent to repeating the same sins.
I know that some of the verses may seem to be repetitive to you and that is for a purpose. They are all to drive home the point that God’s plan for mankind is revealed through the Bible and the Qur’an. That we must submit to God’s plan for us to have salvation and to be delivered from our sin.
What do you think this means? Please comment by clicking the comment link below. Or, email me at jpound777@yahoo.com if you want to comment or have a question.
video: God Has a Plan for You — Part 4
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God’s Provision is a Person
Principle 5: The solution is not just the Cross but a divine person, Isa, who was anointed by the Holy Spirit and called the Word of God.
Exactly who was—and is—Jesus, the Christ (Isa)? I understand what Muhammad was trying to counter in his day. But based on the best research available today, the Jewish/Christian concepts of God in Saudi Arabia in Muhammad’s day differed greatly from what is presented in the Towrah and Injeel. Realize that there was not a translation of either Towrah or Injeel in Arabic at the time of Muhammad (MHRIP). (Allah, Allat and Ba’al (Lord) or son—separate vid)
Let’s look at what is revealed in the Bible and the Qur’an about Jesus. Both say Isa is the Word of God, who is anointed and aided by the Holy Spirit.
It’s interesting—and very logical –that God’s provision is not a philosophical or a religious idea, not a list of rules to follow or a way of life. It’s a person.
Towrah
Isaiah 61:1—The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the captives.
Here the prophet Isaiah talks about the coming Christ, or Messiah. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would come to proclaim freedom to the captives.
Zabur
Psalm107:20—He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.
God sent Christ—the Word—to the world to heal us from sin and so deliver us from sin’s destruction.
Injeel
John 1:1, 14—In the beginning was the Word, and the Ward was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only…full of grace and truth.
God’s Word was with Him for all eternity. After all, He was always able to speak. He sent this Word to us as a flesh-and-blood person to save us from our sins.
Qur’an
House of Imran 3:45—When the angels said, “Mary, God gives thee good tidings of a Word from Him whose name is Messiah, Isa, son of Mary; high honored shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God.”
Christ is the Word of God. He was highly honored when He was in this world and that now He is in the closest possible position with God, or, as the Injeel puts it, “at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).
Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary to tell her she would bear God’s Word, Christ. What other prophet has ever been born of a virgin? Pause. Chits is holy, He was placed on this earth in a holy fashion. It was foretold by God in the Towrah (Genesis 3:15) immediately after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God said the seed of the woman—not the seed of the man—shall crush Satan’s head.
When a word is uttered by God, it has not been severed from God. In this case we are talking about the Word of God. There is something extremely unique about Christ. As a “word,” He is an embodiment of what God wants to communicate to us. As an eternal person, He is now right next to God, never apart from God, and thus a part of God.
A man once asked his friend, “Which came first: God or His Word?” “God obviously came first,” said his friend. “Oh, was God dumb at the beginning and unable to speak?” “No, He could speak,” the friend insisted.
“Of course, because God is perfect. So at no time was He unable to speak and be without His Word. So Christ, the Word of God, has always been with God.”
(I know it is difficult for you to believe that Christ, who came in the flesh to our world, is the same God as the one God. This is because theologians who were commentators of the Qur’an legitimately hated the idols that were worshiped along with God (Allah) many centuries ago. As a result, they fell in the trap of building their theology on the doctrine that God is a monolith who cannot be explained or defined because nothing is like Him. In this way they present God as unfree, unable to do what He wants or to appear to His creatures in the form He chooses.)
Let’s continue by plowing through some verses that speak to who Christ is.
Towrah Micah 3:8—AS for me (the Messiah), I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin.
Zabur Psalm 139:7—Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
Injeel Revelation 19:13—He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
Acts 20:28—“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God which he bought with his own blood.”
Here we see that God purchased believers with His own blood. Can God bleed? That shows the oneness of God, His Word, and His Spirit.
Qur’an Cow 2:87—We (God) gave Isa son of Mary the clear sings (miracles and God’s words), and confirmed (sustained) him with the Holy Spirit.
In other words, God gave Jesus His words and sustained Him always with His Holy Spirit.
If you have questions or you want to comment you can get me at jpound777@yahoo.com
Video: God Has a Plan for You — Part 5
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Making Him Ours
After we realize the wonder and the power of God’s gift of Himself to us, our minds are boggled. We respond by asking ourselves, “what then should we do? How can this salvation from God become truly ours?” The answer is found in Principle 6: We must invite Jesus(Isa) the Christ and our substitute, to live in our hearts and be the master of our lives.
Here are passages which explain this concept.
Towrah Jeremiah 24:7—“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”
Zabur 13:5—I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
Injeel 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.”
Qur’an Thunder 13:27-29—“He (God) guides to Him all who are penitent.” Those who believe, their hearts being at rest in God’s remembrance (that is, when you think of God, trust Him and surrender to Him)—in God’s remembrance are at rest the hearts of those who believe and do righteous deeds, theirs is blessedness and a fair resort (a good end).
What good news!!! God will guide the repentant. Imagine that—repenting and believing will lead our hearts to be at rest. We should obey God and receive by faith the Person—Isa the Christ—whom He has appointed as Savior, Redeemer, and Mediator, both in this world and in the world to come.
Ask those to seek Him. You can pray to Him, repenting of your sin and asking Him to forgive you.
A man wanted to climb to a high mountain peak. He brought all the necessary equipment and hired a seasoned guide to show him the way. As they started, conditions were perfect. They stopped for a light lunch, then stated off again. The small path that they were following soon disappeared. Rugged cliffs loomed everywhere.
Suddenly they came to a deep gorge. The guide approached the edge and examined it. He found a sturdy rock and, after testing it, jumped from it to the other side. The other man wanted to follow him, but every time he got ready, his fear of falling to his death kept him from jumping.
So, the guide tied himself to a rock, planted his feet firmly I the ground, and stretched his arm out toward the man. He told him to hold on to his hand tightly and then jump. The man still hesitated in fear. The guide looked him right in the eye and said, “Sir, this hand has helped many climbers across this very passage, and it hasn’t failed a single one. Trust in it and jump over!”
That climber jumped. All at once, there he was on the other side, safe and full of joy that he was on his way again to the top of the mountain.
We, also, are on the path to a very high summit, leading us to the peace of God and His eternal life. We have to reckon with the question of whether we are refusing or hesitating to trust ourselves to His divine hand to help us. We need to trust in that hand, wounded for us on the Cross, letting Him save us. Ask your friend who the guide represents. The following verses in the Bible and Qur’an speak of our desperate need to risk reaching out for the steady, reliable hand of God, which is already reaching out to us.
Ezekiel 18:31-32—“Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die?…For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”
Zabur 119:145, 149—I call with all my heart, answer me, O LORD….Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your laws.
Zabur 28:7—The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy.
Injeel Romans 10:10—It is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Hebrews 10:22-23—Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience….Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Qur’an Disputer 58:22—He (God) has written faith upon their hearts, and He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.
God is the only one who gives faith. If He doesn’t, we will never have it. The Qur’an does not even mention good works here. When a man receives Christ in faith, God puts the Holy Spirit in him. That is the meaning of “He has confirmed them with a Spirit from Himself.”
Mutual Fraud 64:11—Whosoever believes in God, He will guide his heart. And God has knowledge of everything. In other words, God will guide whoever believes in Him.
Women 4:110—Whosoever does evil, or wrongs himself, and then prays God’s forgiveness, he shall find God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.
It is obvious in this verse that God will not cast anyone outside who comes to Him in repentance.
If you have a question or comment, you may get me at jpound777@yahoo.com.
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Islamo, you asked why do I believe my path is better than any other in the world, such as Islam, Hinduism, the Sikh way, Confucius, Zoraster, etc. I would rephrase that to say, Why do I follow the Path of Submission through Jesus Christ?
Let me start by saying I am fully submitted to God through the person of Jesus Christ.
We are commanded to do this in Romans 12: 1,2 “Present your bodies to God… a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God …”
Below you will find a brief explanation of why I believe the Way is made by the patriarchs and prophets of the Hebrews and Jesus and the apostles of the Greek speaking era. Uniquely, Muhammad in the Qur’an reflects back on all that had gone before him and point to this way as he referred to the Gospel and to the People of the Book.
First, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God who makes appearances on the earth. He appeared to the father of my faith, Abraham, in Genesis 18, and stayed with him in human form for several days. He appeared to Isaiah, the great Hebrew prophet, and he appeared to the elders of the Jews, and to Moses. There are many appearances of the God of Abraham recorded in the Old Testament. See here for more on His appearances: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFaf6lLF4I . Dr. Michael Brown here also deals with some issues related to the triunity of God.
Secondly, Jesus, the Christ, fulfilled at least 60 Hebrew prophesies. These are all well documented in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. See these videos for documentation of 8 of those prophesies: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zQZYwgomruk ; http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=soMHRpLFb5M .
Thirdly, I believe in the Hebrew Scriptures to be divinely inspired as the Word of God. Why do I accept the Hebrew Scriptures as divinely inspired scripture coming from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? A few of my thoughts are expressed here in this document: http://howtoknowgod.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/is-the-old-testament-historically-reliable/ I have been to the British Museum and have seen with my own eyes and have taken pictures of the artifacts which verify the existence of kings, events and places identified in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. No, the facts do not make it inspired but if you had lived in a culture like I have were, over time, myth from the Old Testament has not turned into fact in the Old Testament, then you could understand my perspective on the Hebrew Scriptures. So many discoveries in the last 40 years have put people, places and events exactly were the Hebrew Scriptures put them.
Next, Jesus, the God-Man, is the greatest man, the greatest prophet, and demonstrated God-like attributes while here on earth. Here is a short display of just some of those attributes: http://howtoknowgod.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/is-jesus-god/ Realize that this is a summary and not exhaustive. But, let it be a start to your own journey in discovering who Jesus is.
I believe that He did die by Roman execution in Jerusalem, in a place called Golgatha, and that He was buried in Joseph’s tomb as recorded in the Gospels and that He was resurrected from the grave as predicted in Scriptures, He predicted it as well as others. Here is a short treatise which represents a defense of His resurrection from the dead. http://howtoknowgod.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/the-resurrection-of-jesus-from-the-dead/ There is so much more evidence of these events which are critical to confirming that He is a historical person.
I have not completed my current research on New Testament archeology and reliability but I can rely on so many of my friends out there who have done some good work. Bezel333 on YouTube is a good friend who has some relevant info on the reliability of the Greek scriptures. What about the reliability of the Gospels? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6PfxifZX9dk and did the historical Jesus Exist? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrdRUSVPSBE . For a good text summary on the historical Jesus, the Gospels and of the Greek Scriptures’ reliability http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arch-nt.html.
This whole exercise is really of no benefit if we do not consider what the message that Jesus communicated. Here is my explanation of what is involved in becoming a follower of Jesus: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3218872/9093686. I have written another approach with the same message which includes references from the Qur’an. They are listed right here on this blog: Man’s Greatest Problem.
I believe that these are sufficient to show someone, specifically a submitter under Islam that their allegiance should be through Jesus, the Greatest Prophet/Man/God who set foot on the earth. All on earth should submit to God through Jesus because He is the caliph, ultimate representative, of God on this earth.
But if you will indulge me I believe also that the Qur’an gives Him the highest honor and that the Qur’an honors the People of the Book and that the Qur’an honors the Book.
Before I touch the Qur’an however, I should say that Muhammad(MHRIP) never hinted at the belief that the Book to which he refers is corrupt—far from it. No, as I said, he honors the book. I need to ask you: Do you believe that Allah is all powerful? Of course you do! Then isn’t He powerful enough to protect His own Word? Of course He is! There is no way that Allah would allow His Word to be changed. No, the Bible has not been corrupted. If you need more on this thought see here: http://howtoknowgod.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/has-the-new-testament-changed/ .
Here is just some of what Muhammad said about the former scriptures.
From the Qur’an:
O believers, believe in God and His Messenger and the Book He has sent down on His Messenger and the Book which He sent down before. Whoso disbelieves in God and His angels and His Books, and His Messengers, and the Last Day, has surely gone astray into far error. 4:136 Dawood
People of the Book, you will attain nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed to you from your Lord. 5:68 Dawood
Another translation: People of the Book, you do not stand on anything, until you perform the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to you from your Lord (Qur’an).
Sher Ali Say, `O People of the Book, you stand on nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and what has now been sent down to you from your Lord.‘ And surely what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will increase many of them in rebellion and disbelieve; so grieve not for the disbelieving people.
The Torah and the Gospel were not corrupt at this time, otherwise, Muhammad would not have encouraged us to observe them. Also, according to Muhammad I must observe the Torah and the Gospel because I am a person of the Book.
About Jesus:
The angels said: “…Jesus, son of Mary; high honoured shall he be in this world and the next, near stationed to God (nearest to God).” 3:45
Muhammad recognized the honor previously bestowed on Jesus and sought to give him the same honor. He is the Highest of all who has ever set foot on earth. He is to get the glory and the honor and no that is not idolatry because of who He is. I think it is clear but just to be sure, I don’t say anything here about Mary.
I love the passage in 37: 99-109 :
Sher Ali
99 And he said, `I am going to my Lord. HE will, surely, guide me.’ 100 And he prayed, `My Lord, grant me a righteous son. 101 So WE gave him the glad tidings of a forbearing son. 102 And when he was old enough to run along with him, he said, `O my dear son, I have seen in a dream that I offer thee in sacrifice. So consider what thou thinkest of it !’ He replied, `O my father, do as thou art commanded; thou wilt find me, if Allah please, steadfast in my faith.’ 103 And when they both submitted to the will of God, and Abraham had thrown him down on his forehead, 104 WE called to him, `O Abraham, 105 `Thou hast, indeed, fulfilled the dream.’ Thus, indeed, do WE reward those who do good. 106 That, surely, was a manifest trial. 107 And WE ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice. 108 And WE left for him a good name among the succeeding generations. 109 Peace be upon Abraham !
This is a picture of the plan of God—at the time of Abraham and through the ages. This passage mimics the Genesis account in the Towrah. God called Abraham to Himself. God calls us to Himself. He called Abraham to make a sacrifice. He calls us to make a sacrifice. All the while He knows that what He calls us to do is impossible for us to perform as it was impossible for Abraham to perform. Why is that? Because even if Abraham had offered his son, it would not have covered his and his family’s sins. God knew that it would require a “mighty”, some translations say “tremendous” sacrifice, to take away the sins of Abraham and his family. Per Genesis, God provided a ram, a lamb, and Abraham did the only thing he could do, he BELIEVED God and Genesis says “it was credited to him as righteousness.” My interpretation is that we must believe God and the sacrifice that He has offered in order to receive His salvation. That is the only way God will see us as righteous in His eyes. And we know that His view of us and the world is the ONLY view of us and the world that counts.
Thank you for reading this I hope it gave you a perspective on what is involved in following Jesus and fully submitting to Him. Have a blessed day.
Posted in the Need for Light | Tagged Abraham, Jesus, Muhammad, my faith | 4 Comments »
There are so many ways to approach this and I just simply had to choose one because we only have a few minutes to devote. I spent some of this summer looking at apologetic topics that I believe will help our faith grow. Some of these do help as we attempt to relate the Gospel to others.
Introduction
Why would God become a man? One reason would be to communicate with us more effectively.
Throughout human history, God has used numerous means of communication to reach humankind with His message.
He lastly sent God, the Son into the world. The opening verses of the book of Hebrews state, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers. By the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” Heb 1:1, 2.
John:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” John 1: 14, 18
The prophets gave us God’s words. But Jesus is THE Word of God in human form revealing God to us in person, not just in verbal statements. He is God Himself in a form we could touch, hear, and see. Jesus brought God to our level and lifted us up with Him in the process.
Not only did God want to communicate with us, He wanted to demonstrate to us just how much He loves us. For God so loved the world, Jesus said, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved John 3:16, 17
Revelation 19:13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
His made an utterly unique entrance into Human History
Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, and all other human beings were conceived by natural means: a male human sperm fertilizing a female human egg. Not so with Jesus Christ. His mother conceived Him while she was yet a virgin. He had no paternal father. The virgin conception and birth of Christ is utterly unique in human history.
Biblical Testimony for the Virgin Birth
The OT predicted the Messiah’s unusual conception hundreds of years before Matthew and Luke ever wrote their Gospels.
Isaiah 7:14 and Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 3:15
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
1. If God became a man, we would expect Him to be without Sin
a. Jesus’s View of Himself
To a hostile crowd:
“Which of you convicts Me of sin?” John 8:46 He got no answer. Though He invited scrutiny, no one could accuse him of anything. He was innocent. He could encourage this public examination because He was without sin.
John 8:29: “I always do those things that please Him.” He was in unbroken communion with His Father in heaven.
Did God become a Man? Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself…It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God. Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47
The best reason to consider Him sinless: “is the fact that He allowed His dearest friends to think that He was (sinless). There is in all His talk no trace of regret or hint of compunction or suggestion of sorrow for shortcoming, or slightest vestige of remorse. He taught other men to think of themselves as sinners, He asserted plainly that the human heart is evil, He told His disciples that every time they prayed they were to pray to be forgiven, but He never speaks or acts as though He himself has the faintest consciousness of having ever done anything other than what was pleasing to God. Charles Edward Jefferson, The Character of Jesus, 225
Another quality which has often been remarked was the absence of any sense of having committed sin or of a basic corruption of Himself…It is highly significant that in one as sensitive morally as was Jesus and who taught His followers to ask for the forgiveness of their sins there is no hint of any need for forgiveness for Himself, no asking of pardon, either from those about Him or of God. Kenneth Scott Latourette, Historian, A History or Christianity, 47
2. The Witness of His Friends
Jesus’ closest associates, Peter and John, attest to His being without sin:
1 Peter 1:19: “but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
1 Peter 2:33: “Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.”
1 John 3:5: “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”
While saying this, John also declared that anyone who declares himself to be without sin, he is a liar and he is calling God a liar also!!!
Even Judas—the one responsible for Jesus’ death—recognized Jesus’ innocence. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” Mt 27:3,4
Hebrews 4:15: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”
3. The Witness of His Enemies
One thief rebuked the other: This Man has done nothing wrong.” Luke 23:41
Pilate also found Jesus innocent of wrong-doing “You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him” Luke 23:14
The Roman centurion at the cross of Jesus: “Certainly this man was innocent” Luke 23:47
If God became a man, He would perform miracles
1. The Scriptural Witness
Jesus said, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: the blink see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them Luke 7:22.
Jesus miracles demonstrated a great variety of power:
Power over nature
Power over disease,
Power over demons,
Powers of creation
Power over death
His demonstration of power also fulfilled prophecy and pointed to Him as the Messiah predicted in Hebrew Scriptures.
Miracles of Physical Healing
Leperosy Matthew 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 5:12-15;
Paralytic Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 2:3-12; Luke 5:18-26;
Peter’s mother-in-law Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-31;
A nobleman’s son John 4:46-53; John 5:1-9;
A withered hand Matthew 12:9-13; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 6:6-11;
Deafness and dumbness Mark 7:31-37;
Blindness Mark 8:22-25; John 9; Mark 10:46-52;
Ten lepers Luke 17:11-19;
Malchus’s severed ear Luke 22: 47-51
Hemorrhage Matthew 9:20-22
Dropsy Luke 14:24
Miracles of the Natural Realm
Water converted to wine at Cana John 2:1-11
Stilling a storm Matthew 8:23-27
Supernatural catch of fish Luke 5:1-11
Multiplying food
5000 fed Matthew 14:15-21
4000 fed Matthew 15:32-39
Walking on water matthew 14:22,23
Money from a fish Matthew 17:24-27
Fig tree dried up Matthew 21:18-22
Miracles of Raising the Dead
Jairus’s daughter Matthew 9:18-26
Widow’s son Luke 7:11-15
Lazarus of Bethany John 11:1-4
Comments on His Maracles
All His miracles are but natural manifestations of His person, and hence they were performed with the same ease with which we perform our ordinary daily works. PC, 76-77 “His miracles were, without exception, prompted by the purest motives and aimed at the glory of God and the benefit of men; they are miracles of love and mercy, full of instruction and significance and in harmony with His character and mission. Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 91
Bernard Ramm:
If miracles are capable of sensory perception, they can be made matters of testimony. If they are adequately testified to, then the recorded testimony has the same validity for evidence as the experiences of beholding the events. !!!!
Here is what Bernard Ramm observes on Lazarus’s resurrection:
If the raising of Lazarus was actually witnessed by John and recorded faithfully by him when still in soundness of faculties and memory, for purposes of evidence it is the same as if we (who read John’s account) were there and saw it. Bernard Ramm, PhD, Protestant Christian Evidences, 140-141
If God became a man, then we would expect him to live more perfectly than any human who has ever lived.
Jesus’ Friends:
His life was holy; His word was true; His who character was the embodiment of truth. There never has been a more real or genuine man than Jesus of Nazareth. W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 11
Carnegie Simpson wrote:
Instinctively we do not class Him with others. When one reads His name in a list beginning with Confucius and ending with Goethe we feel it is an offense less against orthodozy than against decency. Jesus is not one of the group of the world’s great. Talk about Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is apart. He is not the Great; He is the Only. He is simply Jesus. Nothing could add to that…He is beyond our analyses. He confounds our canons of human nature. He compels our criticism to overleap itself. He awes our spirits. There is a saying of Charles Lamb … that “If Shakespeare was to come into this room we should all rise up to meet him, but if that Person (ie, Jesus) was to come into it, we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment
Quoted by John Stott, Basic Christianity, 36
Jesus was the most Jewish of Jews; even more Jewish than Hillel. Yosef Klausner, Jewish intellectual & scholar of Jewish religion and history, Yeschu Hanostri, 1249
It is universally admitted…that Christ taught the purest and sublimest system of ethics, one which throws the moral precepts and maxims of the wisest men of antiquity far into the shade. Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 44
Only a Christ could have conceived a Christ
Joseph Parker in Ecce Deus, from Martin, CC, 57
Napoleon Boneparte:
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Ceasar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we reast the creatsion of our enius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. Frank Mead, Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, 56
Antagonists to the cause of Christ:
I esteem the Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of Jesus Christ and of as Divine a kind as was ever manifested upon earth.
Frank Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief, 251
He was too great for his disciples. And in view of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who were rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange things, a swimming of their world at his teaching? Perhaps the priests and the rulers and the rich men understood him better than his followers. He was dragging out all the little private reservations they had made from social service into the light of a universal religious life. He was like some terrible moral huntsman digging manking out of the snug burrow in which they had lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and precendence; no motive indeed and no reward but love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and blinded and cried out against him? Even his disciples cried out when he would not spare them the light. Is it any wonder that the priests realized that between this man and themselves there was no choice but that he or priestcraft should perish? Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their comprehension and threatening all their disciplines, should take refuge in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and make a mock Caesar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness… Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?” — H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, 535-536
It’s an interesting thing to be convicted of Christ by an atheist.
If God became a man, then certainly He would speak the greatest words ever spoken
Jesus said about his own words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away” Luke 21:33
It was common for the crowds who heard Him to be “astonished at His teaching” Luke 4:32. Even a Roman officer exclaimed, “No one ever spoke like this Man!” John 7:46
Statistically speaking, the Gospels are the greatest literature ever written. They are read by more people, quoted by more authors, translated into more tongues, represented in more art, set to more music, than any other book or books written by any man in any century in any land. But the words of Christ are not great on the grounds that they have such a statistical edge over any body else’s words. They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken. And where is their greatness? Their greatness lies in the pure, lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast; namely, Who is God? Does He love me? What should I do to please Him? How does He look at my sin? How can I be forgiven? Where will I go when I die? How must I treat others? No other man’s words have the appeal of Jesus’ words because no other man can answer these fundamental human questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and the kind of answers we would expect God to give, and we who believe in Jesus’ deity have no problem as to why these words came from His mouth.
Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 170-171
Napoleon:
Never did the Speaker seem to stand more utterly alone than when He uttered this majestic utterance. Never did it seem more improbable that it should be fulfilled. But as we look across the centuries we see how it has been realized. His words have passed into law, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never ‘passed away.’ What human teacher ever dared to claim an eternity for his words? G. F. Maclean, Cambridge Bible for Schools, 149
Though without formal rabbinical training, He showed no timidity or self-consciousness, no hesitation as to what He felt to be truth. Without any thought of Himself or His audience, He spoke out fearlessly on every occasion, utterly heedless of the consequences to Himself, and only concerned for truth and the delivery of His Father’s message. The power of His teaching was also deeply felt. “His word was with power” Luke 4:32. The spiritual force of His personality expressed itself in His utterances and held His hearers in its enthralling grasp. And so we are not surprised to read of the impression of uniqueness made by Him. “Never man spoke like this man” John 7:46. The simplicity and charm and yet the depth, the directness, the universality, and the truth of His teaching made a deep mark on His hearers, and elicited the conviction that they were in the presence of a Teacher such as man had never known before. And thus the large proportion of teaching in the Gospels, and the impressions evidently created by the Teacher Himself, are such that we are not at all surprised that years afterward the great Apostle of the Gentiles should recall these things and say, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus” Acts 20:35. The same impression has been made in every age since the days of Christ and His immediate followers, and in any full consideration of His person as the substance of Christianity great attention must necessarily be paid to His teaching. W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 32
If God became a man, then we would expect Him to have a lasting and universal influence
The person of Jesus Christ has made such an impact on humanity that even after two thousand years the impact has not worn off. Each day, there are persons who have revolutionary experiences with Jesus.
I love what Philip Schaff has to say about Jesus’ influence.
Born in a manger, and crucified as a malefactor, He now controls the destinies of the civilized world, and rules a spiritual empire which embraces one-third of the inhabitants of the globe.
There never was in this world a life so unpretending, modest, and lowly in its outward form and condition, and yet producing such extraordinary effects upon all ages, nations, and classes of men. The annals of history produce no other example of such complete and astonishing success in spite of the absence of those material, social, literary, and artistic powers and influences which are indispensable to success for a mere man.”
Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 33
This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon;without science and learning,he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined;without the eloquence of schools,he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet;without writing a single line,he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times. Historian, Philip Schaff, The Person of Christ, 33
Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man towards the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across the chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks for that which a philosophy may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself; He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith His demand is granted. Its powers and faculties becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him experience that supernatural love owards Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable, it is altogether beyond the scope of man’s creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. Frank Ballard, The Miracles of Unbelief, 265
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or a home.
He didn’t go to college.
He never visited a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born.
He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.
He had no credentials but Himself.
He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him.
His friends ran away.
One of them denied Him.
He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property He had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.
All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not effected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
If God became a man, then we would expect him to satisfy the spiritual hunger in humanity
Christ claimed to do that. There are evidences in the New Testament that he satisfied the deep longings of man’s heart. There is much evidence around me and right in this church that he continues to do that today.
His Words:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6
If any one thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink John 7:37
But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst John 4:14
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid John 14:27
I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst John 6:35
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Matthew 11:28
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly John 10:10
Man has changed his world in a remarkable way, but has not been able to alter himself. Since this problem is basically a spiritual one, and since man is naturally bent toward evil (as history attests), the sole way that man can be changed is by God. Only if a man commits himself to Christ Jesus and submits himself to the Holy Spirit for guidance can be be changed. Only in this miraculous transformation rests hope for the atom-awed, radio-activity-ruffled word of our day and its inhabitants. George Schweitzer, Ten Scientists Look at Life, n.p.
Yet thousands and millions today, as in all ages, are testifying to the power and glory of Christianity in dealing with their sin and wickedness. These are facts which stand the test of examination and carry their own conclusion to all who are willing to learn. W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity is Christ, 119
Christian experience alone provides man with an experience commensurate with his nature as free spirit…Anything less than God leaves the spirit of man thirsty, hungry, restless, frustrated, and incomplete. Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 215
He [Jesus] rose above the prejudices of party and sect, above the superstitions of His age and nation. He addressed the naked heart of man and touched the quick of the conscience. Philip Schaf f, History of the Christian Church, 104-5
A Univ. of Pittsburgh student:
Whatever joys and gladness, all put together of my past experience, these can never equal that special joy and peace that the Lord Jesus Christ has given me since that time when He entered into my life to rule and to guide. Ordonez, I Was Blink but now I See, n.p.
Then I asked Jesus to come into my life and dwell there. For the first time in my life I experienced complete peace. The lifetime of emptiness I had known was removed, and I have never felt alone since. Frank Allnutt, Contact, 22
I have found happiness and the fulfillment of all I have desired in Jesus Christ. J. C. Martin, Converted Catcher, n.p.
If God became a man, then we would expect him to overcome humanity’s more pervasive and feared enemy–DEATH
A whole series will be devoted to overcoming Death.
See what a former atheist, Lee Strobel, says about Jesus’ claim to be God:
Evidence Jesus was God?
Jesus Rose from the Dead
Did Jesus Claim To Be God?
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Historical and Textual Evidence for the Early, Eyewitness Resurrection Reports, by Gary Habermas:
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