Believe and You Shall Receive

Believe and You Shall Receive!

We have the oral tradition, written tradition and Paul's account of what happened, and a total of 42 sources (citing 129 facts) within 150 years of Jesus' death, four times more than Tiberius who died the same year as Jesus. Of the 17 non-Christian sources that talk about Jesus, 12 speak of His death, 7 of His deity. 24 sources talk about His resurrection. We have Paul saying he met with James, Peter and John on more than one occasion, and He said this is where He got His creeds from in the council held with the apostles who saw Jesus' resurrected as did he. He saw Jesus bodily with 2 years after Jesus died. He met with James, brother of Jesus, and Peter within 5 years after Jesus died. The gospel and testimony for the resurrection were on the hearts and minds of the apostles every day. People don't make up a lie knowing they will be martyred for it which would be a certainty considering James, brother of John, was put to death and so was Stephen, very early on. And during the ministry of Jesus, their lives were in constant threat; that is why they never stayed in one place for too long. As Jesus was reviled and people envied Him, they envy Christians who are His sons and daughters. Jesus said as He was hated, so you will be. Whatever we endure, He endured more. Paul had no reason whatsoever to turn to faith in Christ. It was Jesus' resurrection Paul saw with his own two eyes that convinced him. James was convinced his own brother was not God before the resurrection. Jude, the brother of Jesus, also wrote a book of the Bible and sometime later after Jesus died believed in the Son of God. John, Matthew and James (brother of Jesus) were eyewitnesses to the resurrection and wrote books of the Bible. John, Peter and Matthew were the original 11 disciples. Mark and Luke are as close to eyewitness accounts as you can get. They preserved the testimony of the apostles from the data they gathered and in speaking with the apostles. There was also this one man written about by Mark, name not given, that many scholars believe was Mark who had seen Jesus before he was resurrected. Mark is John Mark that Paul refused to take with him on the second trip, because Paul did no appreciate Mark's noncommittal attitude. But as the years went on Mark changed for the better, and Paul had very positive words to say about him. John is the same John who wrote John, 1,2,3 John and Revelation. It is the same writing style of love and the deity of Jesus emphasized.

Initially the apostles walked away from Christ. It was all over, because He died on the cross; they had no expectation of a resurrection. Only John believed Jesus was really resurrected when told by the women. Thomas couldn't believe until he finally touched Jesus with his own hands. They ate with Him, touched Him, and spent valuable time with Him for 40 days before they saw Him raised up. Only through His resurrection was their faith restored. Everything hinges on the resurrection. There is no considerable resurrections prior to Jesus and none after, and nobody saying they were God before or after worthy of considerable evidence and documentation by multiple attestation. We have the conversion of James, brother of Jesus after Jesus' resurrection when James said He saw Jesus' resurrected. We have the Jews who say that Jesus did walk this earth, there is no doubt about that, and that he did die by the cross. The prophecy in the OT is they would reject and kill their own Messiah, but that He would be resurrected as well. Since all this evidence is amassed in religio-historical context of 62 prophecies fulfilled from the OT of His working (impossible for any mere man to fulfill), wonderful and righteous miracles, deepest spiritual truths in teaching, this evidence stands unless you have something to overturn it. God has given His redemptive design in the 66 books of the Bible. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word is God. Today the freest book in the world is the Bible having reached everywhere around the globe as you would expect by God's mercy and grace. Christians, having common sense, do not go by the Napoleonic code assumed of guilty until proven innocent, but the common law approach of innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, Jesus is God unless you can show otherwise; the burden of the proof is on you because we have so much evidence in favor of the death, deity and resurrection of Jesus. He said He was God and proved it. Since all this evidence points to the authenticity of salvation through the substitution of Christ for your sins and co-death for power over sin and self and supernatural, then this is God's mercy to enter into His creation to die on the cross for your sins to give you eternal life if you receive His only begotten Son as your Lord and Savior. If you have no supporting evidence, your comments will be disregarded as selfish self-declarations. Christians work from the evidence; we expect you to adhere to this simple scientific method as well. Faith should not be blind, not even your faith in what you believe. The reasons Christians believe in Christ is because of the data. Self-declarations are for dullards! We only need to deal with any data you would like to put forth, for mere self-declarations are considered of no account. Still today after billions and billions of souls, no man has compared to the Christ, His sinlessness and selflessness. From a small boy He knew He was the Messiah and had to die on the cross to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world and all mankind. God loves you, and He wants to save you, but He can't if you don't want to be saved. He respects your right to refuse Him. To God you are not instrumental value, but intrinsic value, and shall be resurrected. Do not think that there is no consequence to sin. Do not think the worse thing that could happen to you is that you cease to exist; that is an easy way out, and won't be the way out anyway, for God holds everyone accountable through resurrection and righteous judgment. The question is where: for the new city on the new earth or for hell? I love you too, and tell you this plainly, so that you may be saved. You have a spirit of God-consciousness made in God's image, so you will be without excuse if by the time you die in the flesh, you still have not received Jesus. There is no more opportunity to receive the gift of eternal life after that. All you would would for is resurrection unto judgment at the Great White Throne for eternal separation from God.

Pascal's wager says you are placing the worse bet of your life if you don't accept Christ. If Jesus is not God when He said He was God, then no big deal for those who reject Him. If you are wrong though, nothing could be worse. But if you were to choose Christ and He is God, then nothing could be better. Because that is what He wants from you more than anything else is to accept His Son. Jesus said if you are not for Him, you are against Him. Nothing in nature happens all by itself, so the uncaused caused the universe. The body of "dust" (Gen. 2.7) has been formed over 13.7 billion years until about 6000 years ago when God breathed the breath of life into that fully formed body to create the soul life. The spirit of man was directly created by God's Spirit in the breath of life, producing the spirit life. Your spirit has the functions of intuition, communion and conscience. It is the seat of God-consciousness and where the Holy Spirit will indwell if you are saved. Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. It is where self-consciousness resides. And the body is the physical sensing you make contact the world with. It has the ability of world-consciousness. You are a tripartite being made in God's image whom God wants to save and walk with one day if you will have Him. Amen.