As most of us know, the majority of people in the world do not understand who Jesus is and what He’s done to save us from our sins and give us eternal life with the Father, Himself, and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Why is that? Has invisible God not done a very good job of proving Himself to the world? On the contrary, next to visibly appearing here on earth, which He will do soon, He’s done the GREATEST job possible to not only save us but “prove” it to every human being in a way we ALL can understand.
But let’s not get the cart before the horse. Actually, this article is not fully meant for you Rapture Ready readers, only because most of you are “members of the choir,” and I hope this article will do far more than simply preach to the choir. I hope this article will be used as “strong proof” to reach out to friends and relatives to help them understand God and God’s plan to show them His love and prove to them that He’s done what needs to be done to save them to be with Him now and for all eternity.
So why does most of the world not get it and not understand what a far fewer number do get and understand? I think most of us know this answer – our sin nature that most of the world has “never” even recognized as the main problem that separates us from God. Since this article is mainly meant for unbelievers and for those searching for the truth, let me quickly summarize:
God created “everything.” It is impossible to get “something” from “nothing.” Only Something can create something. This should be recognized by all as Common Sense 101. “Anything” that is “visible” has a creator, whether the universe or a rocking chair.
God is a Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is a “Relationship” first and foremost, and relationship is what brings Him His greatest pleasure. He began by creating the angels to have a relationship with Himself and each other. Each was created by Him in heaven and lives in His presence. He loves them, and they love Him back. They do not need “faith” like we humans do. However, the unthinkable happened when God’s highest angel, Lucifer, sinned when he wanted to be worshipped like God. He and one-third of God’s angels sinned with him and now are forever lost. Since God is everywhere, He had to create hell to be a place where He would “not dwell.” This is a place reserved for anyone in eternity who sins or anyone who enters eternity with sin, meaning angels and humans.
After the fall of one-third of God’s angels, God decided to do something very different. Even though God knows “everything” in advance, it still saddened Him to see one-third of His angels reject Him while receiving everything He blessed them. Therefore, His new plan was to create a “physical” universe with planet Earth on which He would create “physical” human beings with which He would spend eternity. Of course, He knew Adam and Eve would sin, and every human being with a human father would be born spiritually dead from that point on (Gen 3:15).
God is holy, perfect, and without sin; that is His standard. Every sentient being He “directly” creates is also holy, perfect, and without sin at the moment of their creation. Notice I said “directly” creates. Each angel He created perfect, holy, and sinless individually. Adam and Eve were created holy, perfect, and sinless, and Jesus in human form was created holy, perfect and without sin, with God the Holy Spirit being Jesus’ biological Father. Every human born from a human father is “indirectly” created by God but “directly” created by man through procreation. Thus, all humans are born unholy, imperfect, and full of sin due to being born with a sin nature.
It takes sinful human beings to “directly” create more sinful human beings. Because of mankind’s sinful nature, mankind does not see and understand that our sin is the problem with the world, and the world does not “like” anyone pointing that out to them. Because of our sin, we do not now live in God’s presence, and He is invisible to us. So how are we supposed to “know” that God exists and has a plan for our lives?
Our “physical” existence in our physical universe makes us “natural” beings. Everything we think we know comes from the “natural” – things that we can only discern with our physical senses. But here is something that our “natural state of being” has failed to recognize: How is it that we humans can think, have emotions, use our minds in creative ways? This also applies to a far lesser extent with even animals, fish, and birds. From a “natural” standpoint, our human bodies, as well as all non-human bodies, are simply flesh. Flesh cannot think and have emotions. Where did that come from? How can natural humans who refuse to recognize there is a God “ever” answer that simple question of how it is possible for flesh to think and have emotions?
Since the obvious answer is ‘it’s impossible,’ that means man has to look and see if there is anything “beyond” the natural. And what is the first thing He sees? The universe. Where did that come from? Man certainly did not create it. Man quickly realizes there HAS TO BE something much greater than mankind to do such a thing, especially since we have learned so much about how the universe works. And common sense, as I mentioned at the beginning, should tell everyone that it is impossible for it to have created itself. Only a Creator can create the created.
God is Supernatural, which is far superior to natural. The Supernatural wants the natural to become supernatural and be with Him forever. Because of our sin nature, the natural would rather not even acknowledge the Supernatural. To repeat, everything wrong with people, our planet, and the universe is due to sin, period. So how does an invisible supernatural God make Himself visible to natural mankind?
First, the whole universe reflects His creation and His glory. Second, knowing that He would be invisible to us, He knew He had to find a way to “communicate” with us in a way that we can “understand.” He decided to do this in a way that can be preserved forever. He wrote down “everything” that He wants us to know about not only Himself and His plan for how everything begins and ends but also about how we are to “live our lives” in the very best way possible. He used approximately 40 different “natural” authors over hundreds of years to write down His supernatural “inspired” word we call the Bible.
From the beginning to the end, the Bible is all about how mankind sinned and fell from God’s grace and everything God has done to save us from our sin and make things right again. It is a plan of redemption, pure and simple, and much more. The Bible lays out everything – how everything began, how everything will end, and everything else God wants us to know in between.
WOW, this seems so simple! God created us, but we disobeyed Him by sinning. And now He has “told us in His written word” HOW He will save us from our sins, how He loves us, how we can come to know Him personally and be our best Friend, and that He will be with us each day from now on, forever. Problem solved, right? WRONG!
Why? Because natural mankind only sees things naturally and does not want to recognize anything invisible. This type of human thinking has produced hundreds if not thousands of different “religions” ever since the beginning. Many of them have their beliefs also written down, which explains their belief system. And herein lies the problem. With so many religions and different belief systems, how in the world can anyone know which is correct? Are they all correct when it comes to knowing God and being saved for all eternity? Are only a few correct? Is it possible that only ONE could be correct? Everyone should look at the SOURCE of their beliefs to determine what “proof” there is that their belief is the absolute correct truth.
Is there “anything” concerning religious beliefs that SEPARATES the truth from the untruth? Or said a better way, is there anything that comes from God that shows God’s truth vs. man’s truth?
Remember – invisible God KNOWS He needs to “communicate” with us in a WAY that we can UNDERSTAND that His communication is from Himself vs. mankind. This means by definition that His communication HAS to be “supernatural” vs. natural. How can He do that? Is there anything “different” about the Bible compared to all other religious writings in the world that proves it is the supernatural truth from God vs. the natural untruth from man. The answer is as plain as the nose on your face – PROPHECY!
Approximately one-third of the Bible is prophecy. Prophecy is simply the future written “in advance.” Everyone “should” recognize that man cannot know and predict the future and that only a supernatural God could do such a thing. The Bible is the only book in the world that has ever been written with 100 percent accurate future predictions.
The prophecies in the Bible include everything from people, places, and events, and all of them revolve around Jesus Christ in one way or another. Everything there revolves around Jesus Christ since the Bible tells us HE created it all. There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about the first coming of Jesus, and there are over 500 prophecies in the Bible about His second coming. We KNOW “when” these prophecies were written, and we know “when” they were fulfilled – prophecies concerning where He would be born, many events about His life, His ministry, His miracles, His death on a cross, His resurrection, and many other things.
Do you know the “odds” of predicting that 8 things will occur in the future and have all 8 happen exactly as you said? I heard David Reagan say one time that it would be like filling up the state of Texas a foot deep with silver dollars, and only one in the mix has a check mark, the only correct one. And we are not talking about 8 prophecies, but 300. Those kinds of odds are simply not calculable. It would be like saying it would be 1 to the number of stars in the universe multiplied by a trillion, or a better word is impossible.
Or how about we say it in a different way we can understand. What if there was a man who predicted 1,000 correct lottery numbers in a row in sequential order, and it was proven he was not cheating. Do you think you might actually “listen” to that person the next time he gave a lottery number and want to play the lottery with his numbers? In other words, he would have proved himself to be doing something “supernatural” and thus is someone to trust to show you the accurate numbers. The Bible’s prophecies are far greater than even my example of someone correctly giving out 1000 lottery numbers in a row, so don’t you think we should listen to what “it” says since it’s God speaking to us?
I was 34 years old before I even knew about prophecy in the Bible. Sure, I had heard Jesus died for our sins, and I thought to myself, Thank you, Jesus. I’ll see you in heaven because I’m a decent human being. Surely God would never send someone like me to hell. But finally, led by God, I’m sure, I read Hal Lindsey’s book The Late Great Planet Earth. And when I discovered all of the prophecies in the Bible, I “instantly” knew the Bible IS the word of God because only He can write thousands of future events in advance. I then “knew” that everything about heaven and hell is true, and everything about Jesus is true, and I did not want to go to hell. So I got on my knees and repented and invited Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. It’s been a growing relationship with Him from then until now.
I know we come to know the Lord by faith, but for me, seeing thousands of fulfilled prophecies is “scientific proof” that the Bible is God’s truth.
The world at large seems to recognize mankind’s scientific proof as more reliable than God, and especially God’s word. The world tries its best to refute the Bible and show that it’s full of errors while at the same time “denying” Bible prophecy, basically ignoring it or trying to say ridiculous things like they were written “after” the fact. Three hundred prophecies about Jesus’ first coming written hundreds of years before He was born blows that theory out of the water. There simply is no way to explain in “natural” terms the supernatural prophecies of the Bible; thus, they avoid them.
For unbelievers, God’s Bible, which is proven to be God’s supernatural truth, tells us that the ONLY way anyone can be saved is by getting rid of all of their sins. Good deeds are nice and wonderful, but they do nothing to get rid of the sin we all have. God solved that problem by becoming a human being, Jesus, who loves us so much that He was willing to die a horrible death on a cross to PAY the PRICE for our sins. He took our sins upon Himself and gave us His righteousness.
Think about that – God dying on a cross in order to save us for Himself. It is a GIFT from God, and it allows anyone who “takes the gift” to recognize that we are ONLY saved by what Jesus did for us on the cross, NOT by anything we could ever do to try to earn our salvation. It’s like being buried alive in a coffin 10 feet underground and knowing there is someone with a backhoe that can save you, but you say, “No, I’ll do it myself.”
When we “truly recognize” how God has saved us through Jesus, we come to love Him, desire to know Him personally, and begin a relationship with Him now and forever.
Let me ask you a long question: If you KNEW without a shadow of a doubt that God, who created everything, not only loves you but wants to come into your life, have a personal relationship with you now and forever and – even though He is invisible – can easily show you in a way you can understand that He will be with you and in you through His Holy Spirit every second of your life to help you and guide you on your journey through life until you get to join Him in eternity forever, would you DESIRE that? The good news is that is EXACTLY what God wants and has provided the way. He loves you and desires you to love Him back and enter into that eternal relationship with Him. His word of God Bible explains all of this in wonderful extensive detail.
To receive Him, all you need do is get on your knees and say something like this: “Lord Jesus, I recognize I am a sinner. I repent of all of my sins, and I invite you to come into my life to be my Lord and Savior. I love You and desire that you help me to live a life that pleases You. Thank you for saving me.”
By saying that simple prayer, you receive God Himself in you and receive His free gift of salvation worth MORE than all the money in the universe. Because how can you put a price on eternal life with God?
The most important thing to know here is that God is NOT listening to only your words but also your heart, and He knows when someone is sincere or not. The world looks at what we do and say, but only God can look at “why” we do it.
The title of this article is Undeniable Proof to Show Friends and Relatives. The undeniable proof is the Bible – God’s proven supernatural word He used to inspire around 40 men to write it all down in order to reveal Himself and His plan of redemption to the world. Yes, there have been thousands of religions in the world, but only Christianity reveals God’s truth. Of all of the major religions, Jesus is the only one who has ever said He is God and also proved it.
As most of us know, Christianity is not even a religion but is a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus. Only the Christian Bible recognizes sin and what needs to be done to save us from it. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And that is because only Jesus paid the price for our sins at the cross. For believers, He now has taken away our sins and given us His righteousness. When we die, we enter eternity with no sin and go straight to heaven. Unbelievers enter eternity with sin and are instantly separated from God forever.
God tells us we are first and foremost “spiritual” beings that live for all eternity, which begins after our physical body dies. Eternity and where we spend it is what true life is all about. What is one second in a human body compared to all of eternity in a spiritual body? Invite Lord Jesus into your life. The Bible tells us in 1 Cor 2:9 that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him. Visualize yourself in heaven with the Lord forever, enjoying “everything” He has in store for you. See yourself being held in Jesus’ arms and think about for that “moment” the Creator of everything is holding YOU in His arms. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.
Begin by joining a strong Bible-believing church. It’s sad, but not all churches are good Bible-believing churches. Ask the Lord for help to find one, and enjoy new relationships with fellow believers as you grow in your walk and relationship with Jesus. Your life will “never” be the same, and you will finally have the supernatural PEACE that only God can offer. It is impossible to convey how incredible it truly is. Many blessings, and I look forward to meeting you in eternity.
Maranatha; come quickly, Lord Jesus.
David Cogburn