JESUS birth prophesied by Micah

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“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to ME the ONE to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” Micah 5:2 NKJV

This prophecy impacted history in a powerful and tragic way. In Matthew 2:1,2 we read “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him”. The next verse says “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him”. He called together his chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They of course searched the OT scrolls and found this verse in Micah . The prophecy is very specific. It said the baby must be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah. Since there were two towns called Bethlehem, one near Nazareth and another south of Jersualem in the region Ephrathah, the distinction was important. What else did the prophecy reveal that shook Herod to the core? It clearly said that the one to be born had lived from everlasting. Even secular history records the following event: Herod ordered the death of all male children under the age of two. Satan through Herod did his utmost to kill Jesus.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on PROPHECY, it is one of the most powerful evidences of the TRUTH of the BIBLE. We have 300 more prophecies of Jesus birth, life, ministry, death and RESURRECTION in the OT which clearly reveals it is GOD breathed. The authors were led by the Holy Spirit to write the TRUTH.

The Nativity Scene pictured is up on top of “The Place” in Evergreen, Colorado. It is 30m x 12 m high with 2,600 light bulbs. It was an effort by my son Brett to put Christ back into Christmas.

Sitting on the Fence

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I have just finished reading the banter back and forth between John L, USA and Don Batten, AUS http://www.creation.com. John is living as an atheist but does not want the label atheist. I love the way Don handles John’s arguments for why he won”t accept the authority of the Bible and whilst John L acknowledges Jesus as a real person he was no more than “a social activist – not a god-man”.
Don does a great job and I would encourage you to read this article “Sitting on the Fence” on the website I gave for Don Batten.

Evidence to support the bible: PROPHECY

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What the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:19 is very significant. He says that we have something more sure to the truth of the Bible than them being eye witnesses to the events and that is the PROPHETIC WORD.

2 Peter 1:19 ESV

“And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place ………. , knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of scriptures comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but from men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”.

Note well; there are 300 plus prophecies in the old testament that have come to pass in amazing detail concerning the birth, life, death and resurrection of JESUS.

A number of very significant prophecies are in Isaiah 53, written some 700 years before Christ. A complete manuscript of Isaiah was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls (dated between 100BC – 335BC) which authenticates without doubt these prophecies.

There are about 3,000 prophecies in the OT, most have come to pass in the NT enough to understand why Jesus said in Matthew 5: 17-18

“Do not think I have come to abolish the Law (first five books of the OT) or the Prophets (rest of the OT): I have not come to abolish them but fulfill them”.

THE GREATEST BOOK IN THE WORLD

In the Bible we have a book that defies belief: 66 books penned by 40 very different, divinely guided authors over 1,500 years, to narrate a skilfully designed inspired story of the Creator and His creation from its beginning to prophesied fiery end. It reveals our Creator is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerfull) and omniprescent (present everywhere at the same time). He knew the outcome of His Story before the beginning.

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega”, says the Lord God, who is, who was and is to come, the Almighty.”

It relates the greatest drama of all time and the world should recognize its hero as He divided history into BC and AD.

It tells the miracle of our origins and the mystery of our destiny.

It has survived all attempts to destroy it and many people have sacrificed their life to defend it. It tells us of unseen realms and beings, of a cosmic battle that is going on, of which we are the major players.

It talks of the timeless past and an eternal future.

It tells us of time travellers – Elijah departed this planet in 900BC, returned at the time of Christ on Mt Transfiguration and is scheduled to return again in the near future.

It reveals that there are other than our visible space dimensions – King Belshazzar sees “a human hand writing on the palace wall”.

It tells of a time past when the world/universe was perfect, no death, animals ate grass fruit and herbs.

Man was made in the image of His Creator to be friends with God and to rule over the earth but also to OBEY and TRUST GOD.

Enter God’s adversary Satan (also created by God), deception and rebellion follow causing God’s promised judgment – The Fall.

Adam and Eve are banished from Eden and it appears they lost the ability to operate in another dimension where they could walk and commune with God.

Death, pain and suffering are now part of life but at least the first 10 generations from Adam all lived 900 years or more, giving us a glimpse of what was meant to be.

The Cosmic Battle heats up with the appearance of Nephilim (hybrid angel/man) to thwart God’s Plan of Redemption. Corruption and evil are rampant.

God sends a world wide catastrophic flood but with Noah’s Ark God provided a way out for one family along with the animals (fossil fuels and remains of dead things buried in rocks all over the world is ample evidence for Noah’s Flood but for the majority, evolution and billions of years is a preferred option rather than face the fact our Creator judged and destroyed all mankind other than Noah and his family).

Just two generations on and mankind again rebels against God, building the Tower of Babel. God confuses their languages (at least 12 new languages at that time), scatters the people and the nations are formed. (Anthropologists have no explanation for the origin of languages and therefore the nations).

God next creates a nation with whom He makes an eternal covenant. This nation will be His witness to the other nations of the world – enter Abraham and the nation of Israel. He will bless it as long as they keep His commandments and follow Him. They learn from the Sacrificial Sysytem that God set up, that forgiveness of sin can only be achieved through the shedding of blood. Sadly they don’t obey God and we know their chequered history including the Dispersion, the Holocaust but also their New Beginnings. God has not finished with Israel. It is amazing how this little nation is still at the centre of world events. Satan is still doing his best to wipe them off the face of the earth.

The rest of the BC part of His Story is of God’s dealing with the nation of Israel, its Judges, Kings and Prophets. We are introduced to many wonderful, memorable characters and their amazing stories.

Wonderfully woven throughout the story are many prophecies  of a coming Messiah (Saviour, Liberator, King).

Finally our HERO emerges as predicted – JESUS, the MESSIAH – IMMANUEL (GOD with US).

In the NT, His followers (disciples) tell of His birth, life, death and RESURRECTION.

All that He taught is documented so everyone can be told the GOOD NEWS that leads to Eternal Life. God himself, JESUS, shed His blood to offer forgiveness of sins to all who would acknowledge Him as Lord and repent of their sin (rebellion against God and His ways).

By His death, Jesus provides the way back into a relationship with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). We are born again in the Spirit.

The foundations of our Lord’s church are established and its amazing growth but also its struggles are documented.

Jesus sits on the throne in heaven alongside the Father and has been given all authority over heaven and earth.

He will return to the earth in the not too distant future as King of Kings, Lord of Lords and we know that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord whether they want to or not.

We will all face judgment before the Great White Throne of God where our eternal destiny is determined. For all those who repented of their evil ways when on earth,  and accepted JESUS as their Lord and Saviour there will be a new heaven and a new earth – paradise with no pain, death or suffering. What a great ending but not for everybody.

  • It is no wonder this book is the best selling book in the world.
  • It is a literary masterpiece: it tells the greatest drama, the greatest evils, the greatest good, the greatest mysteries and even the greatest romances.
  • It has influenced cultures and nations for good like no other. It contains the words of LIFE – God breathed.
  • It reveals the true HISTORY of the Universe. It tells us who we are and how much our Creator loves us. It tells us what went wrong and the extent God went, to put it right.
  • It reveals our purpose and gives our lives meaning.

Above all it reveals the awesome nature and character of our GOD.

Evidence to support the Bible: Archaeology

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We have looked at evidence/arguments to support the existence for GOD. Let’s now take a look at the evidence to support God’s revelation to us of HIS STORY as revealed in the BIBLE (derived from the Greek meaning simply”The Books”).

The Bible is a historical document so let’s first look at the archaeological evidence, does it support the history presented in the Bible concerning its characters and places?

It can be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a single bible reference.

When compared against secular accounts of history the bible always demonstrates amazing superiority.

Biblical scholar R.D.Wilson (author of A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament circa 1919)  meticulously analysed 29 kings from 10 different nations each of which had corroborating archaeological artefacts. Each king was mentioned in the bible as well as documented by secular historians thus offering a means of comparison.

Wilson showed that the kings names as recorded in the bible matched the artefacts perfectly, down to the last jot and tittle. The bible was also accurate in the chronological order of the kings. The secular accounts were often inaccurate and therefore unreliable.

Famous historian and archaeologist Sir William Ramsay offers one of the most amazing testimonies regarding the depth of archaeological evidence for the New Testament.

Initially Ramsay was very sceptical of the accuracy of the NT and he set out to refute its historicity. He especially took interest in Luke’s accounts in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts which contain numerous geographical and historical references.

Dig after dig, the evidence without fail supported Luke’s accounts. Governors mentioned by Luke that many historians never believed existed were confirmed by the evidence excavated by Ramsay’s team.

Without a single error Luke was accurate in naming 32 countries, 54 cities and 9 islands.

Ramsay became so overwhelmed with the evidence he eventually converted to Christianity.

“I began with a mind unfavourable to it but more recently I found myself brought into contact with the Book of Acts as an authority for the topography, antiquities and society of Asia Minor. It was gradually borne upon me that in detail the narrative showed marvellous truth.

Luke is a historian of the first rank, not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy .. this author should be placed along with the great historians.”
Discoveries ranging from the evidence for the Tower of Babel, to Exodus, to the walls of Jericho, all the way to tombs of contemporaries of St Paul have greatly enhanced the believability of the Bible. Though this vast archaeological evidence does not prove God wrote the Bible, it surely must compel the honest skeptic to at least acknowledge its historical veracity.
For more in depth study go to http://www.BibleEvidences.com/Archaeological Evidence.

Our best witness for the existence of God

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As outlined in the last few blogs there are good arguments that God exists but
as I mentioned in my first blog Christians KNOW God exists. Why, because God the Father sent God the Holy Spirit to indwell us. We don’t live the Christian life on our own. God (Holy Spirit) himself takes up residence in the believer. Now it is up to the believer how much He allows the Holy Spirit to direct his/her life but we and non believers can tell simply by observing the person’s life. To what degree is the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit evident in their life; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Goodness, Kindness and Self Control? Moreover are they using any of the GIFTS of the Holy Spirit to build up the Church and themselves; Prophecy, Gift of Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Words of Wisdom, Words of Knowledge, Discerning of Spirits, Gift of Healing, Miracles. Sadly too many of us still want to do our own thing and the Holy Spirit is not as evident in our lives as He should be. What a different world it would be if we Christians were all truly giving the Lord His rightful place as King and meant it when we pray “your Kingdom come your will be done on earth this day as it is in heaven”.
It is important to remember our best witness to non believers for the existence of God is our life’s walk and our testimony not the arguments we can muster.

Arguments for the existence of GOD

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Yesterday we looked briefly at two arguments for the existence of GOD: the Ontological and Cosmological arguments. Today we will look at the TELEOLOGICAL (intelligent design) and MORAL arguments.
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: This argument has come roaring back into prominence in recent years. As mentioned in my first blog, eminent scientists such Dr Dean Kenyon have turned to intelligent design as an explanation for the breathtaking complexity of the DNA (instruction manual) and mico-machinery of a single cell. Evolution’s mechanism of natural selection and mutation can’t explain where the complex information (instruction manual) came from for the first cell let alone add all the new complex information to go from “goo to you”. In addition, the incredible degree of cosmic fine tuning in the universe has led scientists to conclude that such a delicate balance of physical constants and quantities as is requisite for LIFE cannot be explained in any other way than intelligent design. By “LIFE”, scientists mean that property of all organisms to take in food, extract energy from it, grow and adapt to their environment, and reproduce. In the absence of fine-tuning, not even atomic matter or chemistry would exist, let alone planets where life might evolve. Prominent atheist, Richard Dawkins’ (author of The God Delusion) red herring “who designed the designer” has no bearing on the fact that the best explanation of the obvious appearance of design in the universe is a designer. Therefore of the only three possible alternatives/explanations: physical necessity, chance or design – the most plausible of the three is the hypothesis of INTELLIGENT DESIGN.
MORAL ARGUMENT: This is a very convincing argument particularly the argument for God on the basis of the objectivity of moral values and duties.
A very straight forward formulation of this argument is as follows:
1. If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
2.Objective moral values and duties do exist.
3. Therefore God exists.
When we talk of moral values we mean, is it good or bad (evil) whereas with moral duties, is it right or wrong. To say that something is objective is to say that it is independent of what people think or perceive e.g. the Holocaust was objectively wrong even though the Nazis thought it was right. To say that there are objective moral values is to say that something is good or evil independetly of whether any human believes it to be so.
As Richard Dawkins says “There is at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference …. We are machines for propogating DNA… It is every living objects sole reason for being”.
Without GOD there is NO basis for the objective moral values that do exist. We also know that God’s moral law is “written on the hearts” of all men as “their conscience bears witness to them” Romans 2:14-15. hence even the Richard Dawkins of this world know that murder is morally wrong but their world view can’t explain why.
In summary, on an atheistic , naturalistic world view, there is no basis for affirming the existence of objective moral values and duties.
In short, the moral argument brings us to a personal, necessarily existent being who is the locus and source of moral goodness.
The Moral Argument with the Cosmological and Teleological arguments provide powerful evidence for the existence of GOD.

Natural Theology

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Last blog, I said I would introduce some of the arguments for the existence of God by natural theology, that branch of theology that seeks to provide warrant for belief in God’s existence apart from the resources of authoritative, propositional revelation (bible). Most of the material I am quoting today comes from William Lane Craig’s excellent book “Reasonable Faith”.

ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: Plantinga argues that “Man” has an innate, natural capacity to apprehend God’s existence even as he has the natural capacity to accept truths of perception (like “I see a tree”). God has so constructed us that we naturally form the belief in His existence under appropriate circumstances (such as moments of guilt, gratitude, or a sense of God’s handiwork in nature), just as we do the belief in perceptual objects and for example, the reality of the past. Hence belief in God is among the deliverances of reason, not faith. Many philosophers even Plato have tried to provide a rational basis for belief in God. Plantinga is only one of many that have used the ontological argument that God exists: basically if God is conceivable, then he must exist. Check them out in Craig’s book Reasonable Faith or on their website www.reasonablefaith.org.

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: In contrast to the ontological argument, the cosmological argument assumes that something exists and argues from the existence of that thing to the existence of a First Cause or a Sufficient Reason of the Cosmos. It has been defended by great minds such as Plato, Aristotle, al Ghazali, Maimonides, Anselem, Aquinas, Scotus, Descartes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Locke and Leibniz. Quoting from al Ghazali (1058-1111) who argues for a FIRST CAUSE ” Every being which begins has a cause for it’s beginning; now the universe/world is a being which begins; therefore, it possesses a cause for its beginning (at a certain moment in time)”. Since the discovery by Hubble that the universe is expanding which led to the Standard “Big Bang” Model of the beginning of the universe, it is accepted that the cosmos had a beginning and “based on the second law of thermodynamics, it is stuck on a one way slide of degeneration and decay towards a final state of maximum entropy, or disorder. As this final state has not been reached it follows that the universe cannot have existed for an infinite time” quote from Paul Davies, “The Big Questions: In the Beginning”, ABC Science Online, interview with Philip Adams, http;//aca.mq.edu.au/pdavieshtml.
Since the universe had a first cause then its cause had to be outside of the Space, Matter, Time, cosmos that it brought into being. This being according to Aquinas; God is Pure Being itself subsisting and is the source of being to everything else, whose essences do not involve their existing. G. W. F. Leibniz (1646-1716) does not argue for the existence of an Uncaused Cause, but for the existence of a SUFFICIENT REASON for the Universe. Nothing happens without a sufficent reason – why is there something rather than nothing. He argues that the reason for the universe’s existence must be found outside of the universe, in a being whose sufficient reason is self contained. God is a metaphysical necessary being. These are the two most prominent Cosmological Arguments for God but there are others.

Tomorrow let’s look at the TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT and the MORAL ARGUMENT.

living eternal

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As I mentioned in my opening blog “Why I started this blog” I know God exists because the Holy Spirit indwells my spirit, but the real issue is do you know God exists? I do know that if you honestly seek God you will find Him.
God also tells us that just by looking at HIS creation we should know that He exists. Moreover as I also mentioned in my first blog, eminent scientists like Dr Dean Kenyon are increasingly coming to realise they can’t ignore the amazing design in the universe which allows life as we know it to exist on Earth.
The founder of the probability theory, the Christian french mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) argues that when the odds that God exists are even then the prudent man/woman will gamble that God exists. This is a wager we all must make. Which then will you choose – that God exists or He does not? Pascal argues that as the odds are even then the choice should be made pragmatically in terms of maximising one’s happiness. If one wagers that God exists and he does then one has gained eternal life and infinite happiness. If He does not in fact exist then one has gained nothing. Hence the only prudent choice is to believe God exists.
There are many good arguments that God exists and it is interesting that in the secular philosophy magazine PHILO 4, No 2, 2001 carried an article by leading atheist philosopher Quentin Smith lamenting what he called the desecularisation of academy that evolved in philosophy departments since late 1960’s. He writes: “Naturalists passively watch as realist versions of theism, most influenced by Alvin Plantinga’s writings, began to sweep through the philosophical community, until today perhaps 1/4 to 1/3rd of philosophy professors in the major USA universities are theists, with most being orthodox Christians………….in philosophy it became, almost overnight, “academically respectable” to argue for theism, making philosophy a favored field of entry for the most talented theists entering academia today”.
In tomorrows blog, I will introduce some of the arguments for God exists but if you want to pursue them now may I suggest William Lane Craig’s site http://www.reasonablefaith.org or go see some of Alvin Plantinga’s videos on You Tube.

GOD – a TRINITY of PERSONS

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This is the best visual I have seen on the TRINITY. It shows clearly that the TRINITY comprises three persons.
I was guilty of not treating the Holy Spirit as a person, the third person of the TRINITY who indwelt my spirit and was prepared to be my Counsellor, Comforter, Teacher and even Healer.
You need to develop a relationship with the HOLY SPIRIT which takes time and effort. The scripture cautions us strongly about not grieving or quenching the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Think about it, if GOD was not a TRINITY there would be no salvation for us sinners. The Father sent the SON, the second person of the TRINITY to save us from our sins. Our sin separates us eternally from GOD but JESUS was prepared to pay the price and die in our place. As long as we repent of our sin and accept JESUS as our LORD and SAVIOUR we can be certain of eternal life now

Why I started this blog

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I am a mid life crisis Christian. What does that mean? I lived “my way” for 47 years and did very well thank you. I had a waterfront home with boatshed on Gunamatta Bay – 7 Bell Place, was MD of the largest Surgical/Medical, Dental, Scientific Supply House in Australia – The Ramsay Group (Ramsay Surgical). Married for 24 years with three boys all doing well at school or university. Who needed God?

The big questions came with a mid life crisis.  What is life all about? Is this all there is? In reality, life without God is absurd, without meaning, value or purpose.

At the time of the mid life crisis, my eldest boy was 21 and doing an honours degree at Sydney University in Geophysics. He had become a Christian at the age of 16 and was very active with his church, even holding a bible study in our rumpus room. God used Brett to reach me. Evolution had been a stumbling block for me taking the bible seriously and it was only through Creation Ministries that I came to realise that any rational thinking person who observes everything in the universe including its beauty and the fine tuning of the laws that govern it realises somebody made it. As Dr Dean Kenyon, Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University and author of two evolutionary bichemistry textbooks said after embracing intelligent design, “the discovery of DNA and the electron microscope rang the death knell of evolution”. The information on the DNA is highly complex. Information is neither matter or energy so where did it originate? It, and the design of even a simple cell with its nano machines and transport devices speaks of an intelligence we can’t comprehend.

I embraced Christianity at aged 47 and I know Christianity is true because God’s spirit lives in me and assures me it is true. Once you accept Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, He sends the Holy Spirit to be your comforter, cousellor and teacher. You are not on your own.

With the years I have left on this planet I would like to introduce as many people to “living eternal” as possible hence the name of this blog http://www.livingeternal.net.