There are many things that I love
about God, but I want to share with you this one thing in particular. I was
listening to the audio Bible today by Alexander Scourby, and I heard John
1:29-34...
John 1:29-34, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”
First some introduction to the story. God had sent John the Baptist as a predecessor to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. God sent John to Baptize with water. (by the way, my middle name John is named after John the Baptist. My first name, David, is named after king David in the Old Testament. I like the names that my parents gave me). God sent John to baptize, and the people came confessing their sins. Mark 1:5, “And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.”
By
receiving John's water baptism, the people were acknowledging that they were
helpless sinners in need of the coming Messiah, Who would forgive their sins
and baptize them with the regenerating Holy Spirit. Remember, John's purpose
was to prepare the people to receive their coming Messiah. Salvation is the
same today thousands of years later. The first thing that a soul-winner does
to get someone saved is to show them from the Holy Bible that they are a
guilty sinner, so then they'll realize their need for the Savior and trust
Jesus Christ to be cleansed of their sins and saved.
Something That I Love About God
And
now for the thing that I love about God in this Scripture passage. God
didn't expect John to guess Who the Savior would be. John didn't have to
wonder Who it was, and hope that He got it right. The Bible says that God
let John know in advance Who the Messiah would be.
John 1:33, “...Upon
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is
he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” John 1:34, “And I saw, and bare
record that this is the Son of God.”
God always does things in a fair and verifiable way when it comes to His
Word. I love that about God!
God didn't just hand His Word to a saint in the Old Testament and say, “Tell the world to believe this Book.” God could have handed His complete Word to Moses and said, “Here it is!” Did you ever stop to think about how amazing God and the Bible are, that God chose to use the history of His chosen nation, Israel, in the Old Testament—and then the history of His Church in the New Testament—to give us His Word.
By the way, God chose the nation of Israel as His holy nation, not the Jewish people (who are unholy). Christ-rejecting Jews go to burn in the fires of eternal Hell just like unbelieving Gentiles do. Jews are not entitled to any special claims or privileges just because they're to some degree biologically, ethically or culturally Jewish. I do not believe in Replacement Theology, that is, that the Church replaces Israel in prophecy. However, the future regathered legitimate nation of Israel will be comprised only of born-again Christians Who have received Jesus Christ as their true Messiah (Galatians 3:26-29). The idolization of the present counterfeit state of Israel is known as the false doctrine of Zionism. Today's counterfeit Israel (controlled by the Illuminati, aka, “The Great Whore” in Revelation 17) is awaiting their counterfeit messiah (the Antichrist) to reign over his counterfeit world government (aka, the New World Order). Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, Who will establish true Israel at His Second Coming (7 years after the Rapture of the saints), to reign from the literal throne of David in Jerusalem over His true millennial world government (when Satan will be imprisoned, and the world will know peace as never before, when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together in green pastures). Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
The Lord has made it possible for us to confirm and form solid conclusions concerning the legitimacy of the Bible based upon solid historical and archaeological evidence. The miraculous manner in which the Bible was given to humanity is solid proof of the Bible's divine origin. Approximately 40 different writers (God is the sole Author), penned the Scriptures over a 1,500 years time period. These men were of varying educations. Some, like the apostle Luke (a medical doctor) and Paul (a former Pharisee) were highly educated. Others, like the apostle Peter, a fisherman by trade, were more base men. Some authors were from the city, like the apostle Matthew, who was a tax-collector. Others were country boys, like some of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. Moses was from both the city of Egypt, and out in the country where he spent 40 years in a barren desert wilderness. Daniel was highly educated. Peter was unlearned. Most of these writers never met one another.
“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” ―Mark Twain
How could all these widely diversified men—with vast differences in education, personality, writing style, language, country of origin, background, geographical location, lifestyle and age—pen 66 books that all perfectly harmonize into ONE BOOK which contains 29% prophecy? It is not only insanely improbable, but astronomically impossible! The only logical answer is that the Bible is truly the inspired Words of God, which is exactly what the Bible claims. 2nd Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
I love that God made it so that any man, women or child can research the history of the Bible and come to the logical conclusion, based upon irrefutable concrete evidence, that the Bible is of divine origin. Do you see what God has done? God has made it possible to KNOW, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the Bible is genuinely from God. Men could not have did this. Over 5,000 manuscripts (fragments and complete books) have been unearthed of just the Greek New Testament. Men couldn't possibly have buried all these thousands of manuscripts for safe keeping in various caves and underground, separated by centuries between, to deceive the masses. When I hear some fool saying that rich men wrote the Bible to control the masses, I know that they haven't done even the slightest bit of research into the history of the Bible.
If rich
men wrote the Bible to control the masses, then they would have had to
expand their conspiracy over 1,500 years. They would have had to infiltrate
dozens of nations and understand their languages. I could list a hundred
reasons why the very notion of rich men writing the Bible to control the
masses is absurdly untrue. Why would a humble shepherd like Amos, a minor
prophet in the Old Testament, write his words to control anyone? It's
ludicrous to say that the Bible was written by wealthy men to control
people. In fact, the Bible has been targeted by many tyrants in fascist
government throughout history to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
Rich people hate the Bible, because it condemns their covetousness and
greed. Here's some
information on the prophets of the Bible.
God's Awesome Greatness is Displayed in Front of Us at All Times
I love many things about God, but I especially love that He doesn't expect us to blindly believe Him without some form of evidence to substantiate His Word. God has made and set things in order, in such a way that there is an abundance of proof for honest truth-seekers to be convinced that God is the Creator, the Author of the Bible and Jesus is the Savior of mankind. Amazingly, many people (unbelievers) look at the very same evidences and refuse to believe any of it came from God. They even deny God's existence.
If you want to experience proof of God, simply open your eyes, your ears and your heart. To ask for proof of God is like asking for proof of a fire while the entire forest is burning in front of you. Life couldn't have just happened. Due to perplexing unanswerable questions that anguish the unbelieving mind (like where did the universe come from?), atheist scientists have been forced to concede that the universe came from nothing. Although they attempt to logically explain their foolish position, at best they utter complete bogus nonsense. Evolution is not legitimate science, it is a false religion that unbelievers and skeptics CHOOSE to believe. Christians likewise choose, but we choose to believe the Bible; however, in drastic contrast, Christians have an abundance of historical and archaeological proofs to support their faith in the Holy Bible. Evolutionists have nothing to support their retarded claims other than more retarded claims. I'll stick with the time-tested, historically-accurate, archaeologically-supported, Word of God!!!
Nothing is more ridiculous to me (and heartbreaking), than to see a professed atheist who enjoys God's wonderful creation (eating His delicious foods, enjoying His spectacular sunsets, adoring His incredible animals and plants, beholding His majestic universe with all its stars, et cetera) and then deny that God had a part in any of it. Instead they foolishly choose to believe that the amazing universe around us evolved from random cosmic chaos, cataclysmic coincidence and accidental aftermath. Literally, that's what Discovery channel teaches the world. Evolution is the ultimate satanic hoax!!!
I love that God gave mankind the Bible in such a way that we can research its incredible origins, and how the Bible endured from generation-to-generation, just as God promised in Psalms 12:6-7. The Bible's content is beautiful interwoven with secular history, so that the honest student of the Bible can compare, research and prove the legitimacy of the Bible. Please don't misunderstand me, we don't need to use secular history to prove that the Bible is God's Word. The Holy Spirit Who indwells me as a born-again Christian (Romans 8:9; 1st Corinthians 3:16-17) bears witness with my spirit that the Bible is the perfect, inerrant, infallible, uncorruptible, preserved, inspired, Words of God almighty!!!!!!! Albeit, if you are an unbelieving skeptic, God loves you so much that He has graciously provided you with a way to confirm the legitimacy of the Scriptures.
In fact, that's exactly what an unbelieving skeptic named Lew Wallace did. Lew set out in a determined attempt to disprove the Scriptures. He aimed to prove that Jesus is God incarnate (in the flesh) as the Bible claims. While in the process of trying to disprove Christianity, Mr. Wallace fell under conviction of the Holy Spirit in lieu of the evidence he found. Lew Wallace accepted Jesus as His personal Savior and got born-again!!!
Here's the story of Ben Hur and it follows in the last two paragraphs with the salvation testimony about Lew Wallace...
If you were born after 1950, you might not know the story of Ben Hur. This classic book written by a Civil War general, Lew Wallace, in 1899, was turned into a movie starring Charlton Heston, which won the Academy Award for best movie in 1959. It is a towering story of love, of suffering, of the struggle of good against evil, and finally of triumph. Judah Ben Hur, the story’s hero, grows up with his boyhood friend, Marsalla. They are ancient, Mideastern Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Judah is, of course, a Jew, and Marsalla, a Gentile. Judah is the heir of a very great and wealthy house in Jerusalem. Marsalla is a promising military man who trained in Rome as a soldier, then returned to Jerusalem as the leader of the Roman occupation forces.
During a parade, a tile falls from the roof of Judah Ben Hur’s house and strikes the new Roman rule. Judah is falsely arrested and sent to row as a slave in a Roman military ship. Marsalla knew it was an accident and could have prevented Judah’s arrest, but because of his lust for power, didn’t. In addition, Judah’s mother and sister are imprisoned in Jerusalem.
Judah hates Marsalla, and while in the belly of the military ship, providing the power for naval warfare, he vows that he will live, return to Jerusalem and free his mother and sister. Slaves in such ships rarely lived for more than a year. Judah had been rowing for three years when, in the heat of a naval battle, his ship was sunk. He saved the commander of the ship, and as a reward, was given his freedom and adopted by the commander, who was the top naval officer in the Roman navy, a very powerful and wealthy man.
He returns to Jerusalem with all the wealth and power of his new identity, and confronts the astonished Marsalla, who assumed he had been dead for years. Ben Hur demanded that Marsalla find and release from prison his mother and sister. Marsalla finds them in prison, but they have leprosy, so he whisks them away to the leper colony outside Jerusalem to live out a pitiful existence. Ben Hur is told that they are dead. His hate for Marsalla grows, and in a chariot race in which Marsalla and Judah Ben Hur are the primary figures, Marsalla is killed. With his dying breath, Marsalla, out of spite, tells Judah the truth about his mother and sister.
Judah’s hate now no longer has an object to focus on. He generalizes his hatred and becomes a bitter shell of his former self. Finally, in desperation he goes to the leper colony to get his mother and sister to take them to Jesus, this great preacher who has been performing miracles. When they get to Jerusalem where they think they will find Him, they discover that He has just been crucified. Now, all hope is gone, and despair settles over them. However, in the hours and earthquakes rocked the city, Judah’s mother and sister are healed of the leprosy, and Judah’s heart, along with his mother’s and sister’s, is turned to Jesus. Their faith, their health and their lives are restored.
It is a towering story, deeply moving, and an exquisite portrayal of the power, grace and love of Jesus. Why did I tell you about Ben Hur? Because of this interesting twist. As Paul Harvey would say, this is “the rest of the story.” When Lew Wallace set out to study the life of Christ, he was not a Christian. In fact, writing a story such as Ben Hur was the farthest thing from his mind. Wallace was antagonistic toward Christianity, and determined he would study the life of Christ so thoroughly, and then write so convincingly, that he would be able to kill the story of Christ. He wanted to prove that Jesus, if He had lived, was not God, but merely a man, that He never rose from the dead, and that Christianity was a hoax.
So he studied. This great and enormous subject drew him further and further into his research until the evidence overwhelmed him. He dropped to his knees and cried out to Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. Then, instead of writing a book to prove to the world that Jesus was not God, he wrote Ben Hur, to try to prove to the world that Jesus was God.
Isn't that precious!!! Hallelujah. Praise God Jehovah!
I love God so much for making it easy for people to get saved. Any child can be saved by simply realizing that they are a sinner (you've got to know what you're being saved from), and believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and raised up from the dead three days later. If that's your personal hope for Heaven, then you are saved securely and permanently. Salvation is a new birth (a second, spiritual, birth) and not a religious experience, not adopting some Christian philosophies, nor is it joining some religious group. Our churches are filled with religious people who Satan has conned into living the Christian life without ever being born-again!!! 1st Peter 1:23 teaches that we are born-again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (specifically, by believing the Gospel). Christ died, that's history; Christ died for me, that's salvation!
I love that God has made it easy to be saved, so easy that even a small child can be saved. I love that God speaks to mankind through His wondrous creation, as taught in Psalms 19:1-3 and Romans 1:20. We are all without excuse if we refuse to believe the Holy Bible and take heed. True science is the discovery of God's creation. I cannot even imagine some nutty professor attempting to teach a science class without centralizing everything around our omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (all-present) and omnibenevolent (all-loving) Creator.
John
the Baptist knew exactly Who to look for to be the Messiah. God told John
that he would see the Holy Spirit of God descending upon the Lamb of God,
signifying Who He is. In the same way, God has given us His inspired Word in
such a manner that we can easily verify that is it indeed the very Words of
almighty God. It makes perfect sense that our Creator would also give us an
instruction manual. It's been said that when all else fails, read the
instructions! I recommend reading the instructions first, before we mess up
our life. Albeit, it's never too late to read God's instruction manual if
we're still alive and breathing. The Bible was authored by God to meet all
of our needs in this life. The Bible teaches us what life is all about,
where we came from, where we're going, what we're supposed to be doing while
here on earth, how to deal with problems, how to pray, how to cope with
suffering, et cetera. I know, it's always easier said than done, and it
truly is that way in life; but God knew what He was doing when He wrote the
Bible, and He wrote it for you and me. Life is a test, and we are all in the
maze. The Bible is a lamp unto our feet (Psalms 119:-105).
Beware of the New Age “god of forces”
New Age heresy teaches that God is in everything, a life force, and everything is in God. This is satanic mumbo-jumbo. We learn in Daniel 11:38 that the coming man of sin, the Antichrist, will worship “the God of forces.” Don't ever fall for the demonic lie that God is some type of energy in the universe. The Bible teaches that God is an individual, a being, Who exists in the three unique persons of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20). There only one God, but He exists in these three persons, Biblically referred to as the “GODHEAD” (Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9 - King James Bible).
Modern corrupted Bible completely remove the word godhead to attack the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. Although the word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible, neither is the word “Bible.” The word Trinity does no injustice to the Scriptures; however, I prefer to use the word godhead since it is in fact in the King James Bible (and in the Greek Textus Receptus from which the King James Bible was translated in 1603-1611). The word godhead is in the Bible, if you have an uncorrupted Bible. Some errant scholars falsely claim that the Trinity originated in pagan religions; but in fact, it was the pagan religions that imitated the truth of God into a lie to deceive the masses (Romans 1:25). This is the work of Satan, to deceive (2nd Corinthians 11:13-15). We see this deception even more today. Many Jews have been deceived to believe that the coming Antichrist will be their messiah. Meanwhile they totally reject their true Messiah, which is the Lord Jesus Christ!
It doesn't surprise me that Satan is corrupting the Bible to eliminate the teaching of the Godhead. New Age presents God is an energy force, which will be the religion of the Antichrist. The Bible teaches that the Godhead was manifest (revealed) to mankind in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1-3,14; 1st Timothy 3:16). We come to the Father through the Son (John 14:6). Satan does not want people to think that they can come to God for salvation through Christ, so he redefines God into an energy force that supposedly permeates the universe, some cosmic entity that cannot be approached or known personally.
Biblically, Christians are taught to walk with God in continual sweet fellowship. James 4:8, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...” God invites us to draw nigh to Him, and He promises to draw nigh to us. Only man's pride keeps him from drawing nigh unto God. Of course, only a child of God may draw near to God on the basis of Christ's sprinkled blood on the mercy seat in Heaven. Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” You'll never hear this truth from a New Ager. The Bible gives us the solution to all of life's problems... CHRIST IS THE ANSWER!!!
“As a blind man has no idea of colors, so we have no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things.” —Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
