(Dedicated to the Skeptics, Scoffers, and Deniers)
This part of the series is dedicated to those who think Christianity is an archaic, misogynistic, biased, racist, intolerant, homophobic, obtuse, and outdated belief system. You think that Christianity is the cause of all the world’s problems. From your perspective, Christianity is responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisitions, slavery, Jonestown, and global warming. You may have no issue tolerating other belief systems such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Wiccan, Islam, atheism, etc., but Christianity, oh that just gets your blood boiling. You strongly believe that all religions essentially are the same and need to coexist. You also believe that “true” Christianity is not about sharing the good news that Jesus died for your sins, but about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless. In your view, tolerance is everything and the only thing you cannot tolerate, is intolerance.
This is the 21st century after all, and if a man wants to marry another man, so be it. If a man wants to identify as a woman, or vice versa, so be it. Women should be paid the same as men, regardless of the job they do, because of gender equality (even though you believe gender is a fluid concept). If a woman wants to marry her cat or the Pacific Ocean, so be it. If people want to come into this country “illegally,” they should, because nations shouldn’t have borders. Perhaps you think life doesn’t begin in the womb, but only when a parent and a doctor agree that it begins (even if the baby is already born). Love doesn’t have gender (or age), and objective truth is just some racist construct meant to oppress minorities. In the 21st century, post-modern, post-Christian America, emotions trump facts, and truth is relative. Truth is whatever you want it to be.
For the Bible Deniers
Since I (a simple blogger) will not be able to appeal to your common sense and reason to show you why the Bible is true, let this then be a warning. There is coming a day that you cannot escape from, either through death, or the apocalypse. It is coming whether you think truth is relative or irrelevant in the 21st-century. If, after looking at some reasonable and concise points regarding why Christianity and the Bible can be trusted, you still do not want to believe…that is on your head.
The Holy Bible (both the Old and New Testament) predates every nation and organization on the planet currently in existence by millennia (beginning with the book of Job – circa 2000BC). It predates the US Constitution, the English Magna Carta, and the Roman and Greek Empires. The Bible predates the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and is probably on par (timeline-wise) with the first Egyptian dynasty. Needless to say, the Bible then also precedes all of these cultures and their associated philosophies and belief systems.
We here in the 21st-century believe that we are superior to all who have come before us, not because we are collectively smarter (we aren’t), but because technology has lifted mankind out of the morass of having to grind out a living. But this has also freed up mankind to pursue other things, such as higher education, entertainment, and careers that do not entail manual labor. Along with all that extra time and education, man began to develop philosophies regarding where he came from, why he is the way he is, how we should live, and where he is going after he dies.
It is true that every great empire has had their philosophers. It is also true that every empire had arrived at a level of comfort so that a particular class of their citizens (the wealthy) had more free time on their hands than others. Albeit, this selective freedom usually came about through the use of slaves. However, we (the world collectively) have never enjoyed a time such as the one we are in now, where we take things like electricity, motorized machinery, heating and cooling, food production, instant communication, and the Internet for granted. All that to say, man has collectively arrived again to a time where the general consensus is that God is dead, man is god, and everyone does what they think is right in their own eyes. However, the Bible details a time before the global flood in antediluvian history where mankind arrived to a similar conclusion.
Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5
So if you are a skeptic or scoffer reading this, I understand you do not see the Bible as an authoritative source document. However, even the most ardent skeptic must come to a conclusion; either the Bible is true, or it is not. If you believe the Bible is not true, then quit reading this and go on about your life. However, if it is true, then it has to be 100% true, or it is not true at all; it cannot be both, because the Bible does not give you the option. The reason for this dogmatic position of either/or, is because the Bible claims it is 100% perfect, and is far too interwoven to be both true and false. In other words, every book within the Bible connects with every other book within the Bible in such a way, that it would be impossible to separate them or have them contradict each other.
Want proof?
The last canonized Old Testament book, was written by the prophet Malachi (circa 450-424 BC). This was over three-hundred years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. However, nothing in the Old Testament conflicts with anything in the New Testament. So how can that be? Furthermore, the Old Testament was largely written by the Jewish people who practiced Judaism, to the point their descendants killed the prophesied Messiah (of whom they still deny to this day). The New Testament was largely written by Jews who practiced Christianity because of this same Messiah (of whom they affirm to this day). So the same system of worship Jesus Himself kept, Judaism, ended up killing Him because He fulfilled the things that system said the Messiah had to fulfill?
Yes.
A sacrifice was necessary. (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 53; Matthew 26:28; John 1:29; Revelation 5:9-10, 13:8)
Paradox abounds.
However, when you understand one simple principle, it all begins to make sense.
They are two parts of the same whole. Christianity, is Judaism fulfilled.
From Creation to the Patriarchs, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, Proverbs and so on, are all part of the foundation for the New Testament. Furthermore, the Old Testament does not and could not exist in a messiah vacuum. Beginning in Genesis 3:15, the Old Testament requires and demands a Messiah figure to come as its culmination point.
The first century Pharisees and Sadducees believed that the Messiah who would come, would only be a man like Moses or David. This man would throw off the shackles of Gentile domination that had hounded them for centuries. What they wanted, was the kingdom that was promised to them all throughout the Old Testament (Isaiah 2, 11, 66; Ezekiel 40-48; Daniel 2; Psalm 2; etc.). However, Jesus was not just trying to free the Jews from Gentile oppression, He was freeing all of mankind from the bondage of sin and death. When Jesus the Messiah did come, His primary mission was to make them (the Jews) a people fit for the kingdom. That is what the eight Beatitudes were all about in Matthew chapter five’s Sermon on the Mount. Of course, these were impossible to keep, so they killed Him by having the Romans crucify Him naked on a wooden cross instead (Matt. 27:27-55), as foretold by King David a thousand years earlier.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent…
6 But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”…
….Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.
13 They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
Psalm 22 1-18
Christianity finds the culmination of all the Old Testament Law and Prophets fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ (Hebrew- Yeshua Hamashiach, or the Greek rendering of the name, Iesus Cristos). Of all the would-be messiahs who have come and gone in Israel’s four-thousand years of history, only Jesus of Nazareth a) fits the prophesied timeline perfectly (Daniel 9:24-27) and b) fulfilled over 108 specific prophecies concerning His coming. Furthermore, this denial of His Messiah-ship (authority) would continue (and has) until the end of time. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus foretells one other prophecy concerning the length of His departure,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” Matthew 23:37-39
And from 70AD until 1948AD, Israel’s house was in fact, left desolate and a wasteland (e.g., the Jewish Diaspora as prophesied in Deuteronomy 30:1-5). But this divine abandonment was not permanent, because God had also made unconditional promises to their forefathers (i.e., the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) in Genesis 12, 15, 17, 28, Jeremiah 31:40, and so on. He will give them the kingdom here on earth with Jesus reigning from Jerusalem for a thousand years, because God cannot lie, and what thing He has determined, He will do (Isaiah 46:9-10) However, because that generation (Jesus’s contemporaries) rejected Him as their Messiah, He says…
I will return again to My place
Till they acknowledge their offense.
Then they will seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Hosea 5:15
That time of His return has many names and is broken down into several segments. Collectively it is known as the day of the Lord, which encompasses both the before and after of this specific period of time. The official name for the seven-year period that makes up the core of the day of the Lord (the official start and ending) is Daniel’s 70th Week. However, it is commonly referred to simply as the Tribulation. This seven-year Tribulation therefore will be comprised of two, three and a half year segments; the latter becoming the ultimate affliction (see verse above) of the Jewish people by the Antichrist known as the time of Jacobs’s Troubles (Jeremiah 30:7-11). It is at the end of this 70th Week of Daniel, that the Jews (or a remnant) will finally recognize Jesus as their Hamashiach.
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. Zechariah 12:10-11
Conclusion
As you can see, this world is passing away, and our current state of affairs is not destined to last forever. It had a beginning and it will have an ending. The world, and all its current geopolitical complexities and dramas exists presently, to keep God’s promise to one particular group of people, the Jews. If that were not true, why is there so much hatred towards them? Why have they been the most persecuted group/ethnicity in the entirety of human history?
- Egyptians enslaved them
- Canaanites continually attacked them
- Philistines continually attacked them
- Assyrians conquered them
- Babylonians conquered them
- Persians kept them under Gentile rule
- Greeks kept them under Gentile rule
- Romans kept them under Gentile rule
- Romans destroyed Jerusalem, exiled the remnants
- English expelled them in 1290
- French expelled them in 1306
- Spanish expelled them in 1492
- Russians allowed pogroms against them
- Germans tried to exterminate them
- Arabs/Muslims been at continual war/aggression with them
- Leftist Progressives have increasingly turned against them
All of these have at one point or another, persecuted, attacked, laid siege too, imprisoned, conspired against, confiscated the wealth of, and expelled the Jewish people from their lands. Since the Bible comes from the Jews (both Old and New Testaments), Jesus Christ was Jewish, and the Bible states Satan hates the Jews and is currently running this planet (Luke 4:4-6, 1 John 5:19), it only makes sense that Satan has been in a perpetual state of war against them.
The book of Revelation (written in 95AD) foretells a time when a one-world government will come into power, ran by two men, the False Prophet and the Antichrist. These would kill all who do not worship the Beast, or who gives aid to Israel. In the meantime, God has opened up an opportunity for salvation and is currently working through His body of believers here on earth known as the Church to accomplish just that. It would be impossible for me to persuade you to believe that the end of this age is coming and very soon, but simply look around and ask yourself three questions:
- Can the Bible really know the future?
- If the Bible isn’t true, when was it disproven and by whom? That would be a story for the ages!
- Does the technology exist today for a one-world government to effectively run the world?
The Bible warns that there is coming a time so terrible, that there would be nothing in history that could even compare to it. Worse than the Flood. Worse than the Bubonic Plague. Worse than World Wars I and II. After the Rapture (the catching up to heaven of the Church) half the world’s population will die (around 3.5 billion people) due to war, famine, plague, pestilence, and increasingly severe judgments. At the end of that, Christ will visibly return in the air to destroy all who have gathered at Armageddon against Israel and Himself. Then, He will judge the nations (those who have survived thus far) and separate the Sheep (who go into the Kingdom) from the Goats (who are cast into eternal torments) (Matt. 25).
So regardless of your beliefs, philosophies, college degrees, wokeness, political correctness, gender identity, stratification on the victim identity chart, anyone who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior personally, will die in their sins, and be eternally separated from God (John 14:6). This is what you have to look forward too,
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10-15