Discover Jesus
The hope of the gospel
Whatever your life is like right now, there is good news for you. God loves you very much, and He wants to have a relationship with you, and to give you the eternal hope of heaven.
How To Be Saved And Know God
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The Bible teaches that God loves us, and He created us to have an eternal relationship with Him, and to bring glory to Him. That is why we exist. God loves us and He has a plan for our life. But what went wrong, is that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our sins cause a separation between us and God (Isaiah 59:2), because sin is rebellion against God. Sin is evil, and God is holy. Sin cannot dwell in the presence of a holy God. If a person dies in their sins, they will be eternally separated from God in hell.
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But God loves us, and He has provided a way for us to be saved, forgiven, and made right with Him. The Bible says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16. God came to this earth and took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ to save us (John 1:1,14). Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. Jesus is fully God, and fully man. Jesus is God in human flesh (Colossians 2:9). Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, and He lived a perfect life without any sin. Then Jesus voluntarily died on the cross to pay the full penalty for our sins, and rose from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). When Jesus was on the cross, God the Father placed on Him the sins of the world. Then the Father poured out His holy wrath upon Jesus (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus took the punishment that we deserve on the cross so that we can be saved and forgiven (Ephesians 1:7). Then on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, proving that He is God and that He is able to save us from our sins.
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God offers salvation to us as a free gift, we can never earn it or deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-7). But we must receive His free gift of salvation by placing our trust in Jesus Christ (John 1:12). If you will sincerely Repent and Receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord of your life, He will come into your heart, save you, forgive you, and give you eternal life (Mark 1:15, Romans 10:9). To “repent” means that you are genuinely sorry for sinning against God, and that you decide to turn away from your sins to follow Jesus. Repentance is a decision that you make, to turn away from sin and to turn to Jesus in faith (Isaiah 55:6-7). And you can “receive” Jesus by praying to Him with a sincere heart, asking Him to forgive you, and to be Lord (King) of your life (Romans 10:9-13). For Jesus to be your Lord means that you let Him take control of your life, as King over your life (Matthew 16:24). In the moment you place your trust in Jesus, He will come into your heart, save you, forgive you, and give you eternal life. We are saved by grace alone, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are saved by what Jesus Christ has done for us, not by our efforts. When we place our trust in Jesus, our sins are washed away, and the perfect righteousness of Jesus is credited to our account, thus making us right with God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Bible calls this justification. In the moment you place your trust in Jesus, you will become a child of God forever (Ephesians 1:5-6). The Bible says: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” – Ephesians 1:7.
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Once you are saved, your salvation will be eternally secure, and you will never lose your salvation (John 5:24, John 10:27-29, Philippians 1:6). God will be your Heavenly Father forever. The evidence that we are saved, is a changed life and obedient living (2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 John 2:3). Not perfect obedience, because Christians still sin sometimes (1 John 1:8). But if you are truly saved, there will be a change in your life, and you will see an increasing pattern of obedience in your life, and spiritual growth. But we need never fear losing our salvation, because we cannot (John 10:27-29).
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If you are ready to give your life to Christ, you can go to a quiet place by yourself and pray to Him with a sincere heart, trusting Him to save you and to be Lord of your life.
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Here is a simple outline of how to be saved and know God:
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Believe that Jesus is God, and that He died on the cross for your sins, and rose from the dead- (John 3:16).
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Decide to turn away from your sins (repent)- (Mark 1:15)
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Sincerely ask Jesus, through prayer, to forgive you, and to be Lord of your life- (Romans 10:13)
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“For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:13
How We Know The Bible Is True
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There are many different evidences for the Divine inspiration of the Holy Bible. Manuscript evidence, historical evidence, archeological evidence, scientific evidence, and fulfilled prophecy all demonstrate that the Bible is God’s word.
Manuscript Evidence
​The Old Testament was written between c.1500 BC to 400 BC. Then the New Testament was written between c.45 AD to 95 AD.​ When scholars compared the earliest extant manuscripts (copies) of Old and New Testament text with much later manuscripts, they found that the text has remained virtually unchanged throughout the centuries. In other words, the text of the newer manuscripts is virtually the same as much older manuscripts from many centuries earlier. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain copies of Old Testament text, including a complete copy of the book of Isaiah, dating to c.200 BC. When they compared the Dead Sea Scrolls text with the much later Masoretic Text (OT copies) dating to c.600’s AD-1,000 AD, they found that the text was virtually the same. That means that the text of the Old Testament manuscripts had remained the same over a period of many hundreds of years.
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The same is true of the New Testament. With the New Testament, we have over 24,000 manuscripts, compared to only 643 for Homer’s Illiad, 20 for Tacitus, and a dozen for most other ancient writings. The time gap between the original writing of New Testament text to the earliest NT copy (manuscript) is only about 30 years. Whereas the time gap between most other secular writings and their earliest extant copies are about 1,000 years. The best outside of the Bible, is 500 years for Homer’s Illiad. [1] So we have far better manuscript support for the New Testament than for any other ancient writing. Due to the large number of New Testament manuscripts, there are variations found in the manuscript texts, but 75% of these variations are only spelling differences, that do not affect the meaning of the text at all. Only 1% of NT textual variations affect the meaning of the text, and even these do not affect any theological truth in the New Testament. [2] So we can be confident that the Bible we have now, is what was originally written, and God has faithfully preserved His word for us.
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Historical Evidence
Historical and archeological evidence give powerful testimony to the historical accuracy of the Bible. History and archeology have confirmed the Bible over and over again. History and archeology confirm both the Old and New Testaments. An example from the Old Testament, is the Tel Dan Inscription, which is a writing on a stone slab mentioning the “House of David”, dating to the 9th Century BC. Another example from the Old Testament are the Isaiah and Hezekiah bulla, which are clay seals, which were discovered only 3 feet apart at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. [3] These clay seals have the names of the prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah. The Bible says that Isaiah was a prophet during King Hezekiah’s reign. Isaiah had a relationship with King Hezekiah where he prophesied and counseled King Hezekiah.
Regarding the New Testament, look at the historical and archeological evidence for Jesus outside of the Bible. There are around 30 different independent sources that mention Jesus outside of the Bible within a century of His life. [4] Some examples of ancient writers outside of the Bible who wrote about Jesus within the first couple of centuries after His life include: Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Suetonius, Mara bar Serapion, the Jewish Talmud (eg. Babylonian Sanhedrin 43a), Irenaeus, Ignatius, Clement, Thallus, Origen, and others. [5] Then of course there is the New Testament itself, which was written by people who knew Jesus and their close associates, within just a few decades of the life of Jesus. If the New Testament writings were not true and there were no Jesus, nobody who lived in the time and place of first century Israel would have believed them.
Archeology has confirmed people and places surrounding Jesus, and including Jesus Himself. For example the Pontius Pilate inscription from the first century AD, the Ciaphas Ossuary (bone box) that contained the actual bones of Ciaphas the high priest who sentenced Jesus to die, and the house of Peter, the disciple, have all been found. The house of Peter located in Capernaum, also contains graffiti that mention Jesus and Peter. There is also a cave southwest of Jerusalem, in an area called Bait Loya that was used as an underground church, which has an inscription reading “Jesus is Present”, with two crosses carved next to the inscription. This inscription dates to the end of the second century AD. [6] These are just a few examples of historical and archeological evidence that confirm the Bible.
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Scientific Evidence
There is abundant scientific evidence for God and biblical creation. The Big Bang, the extreme fine-tuning of the universe, the early, complex, and abrupt appearance of life, the design found in life, all point to a Creator. Take for example the Big Bang. The Big Bang shows that the universe had a beginning 13.8 billion years ago. The Bible also says that the universe had a beginning (Genesis 1:1). The Big Bang shows that the universe is expanding, the Bible also says that God “stretches out the heavens” (Isaiah 40:22, Job 9:8, Zechariah 12:1). [7] A beginning to the universe implies a transcendent Creator, since the universe could not have created itself.
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Also, science shows the universe is extremely fine-tuned on a razor's edge in order for life to be able to exist in the universe. Gravity, for example is fine-tuned to one part in 10^60. That is a 10 with 60 zeros after it. The expansion rate of the universe is fine-tuned to better than 1 part in 10^120. The mass and energy of the early universe was evenly distributed to one part in 10^10^123. A number that is incomprehensible. If any of these finely-tuned parameters were off by just one part, life could not exist. And these are only 3 examples. How did the universe get so fine-tuned? It couldn’t have happened by accident. Astrophysicist and cosmologist Fred Hoyle said "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics ... and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion beyond question."[8]
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Then consider the early, abrupt, and complex appearance of life in Earth’s history. For example, before 3.8 billion years ago, the early earth environment was too hostile for life to exist. But then as soon as it was possible for life to exist, 3.8 billion years ago, the first life appeared as cellular organisms. [9] These cellular organisms were complex. In Darwin’s time, he thought that cells were just simple blobs of protoplasm, but now scientists know that cells are very complex. There was no time for the first life to evolve from a primordial soup. It must have been created. According to the mathematics of probability, a universe even 100 billion years old, is still not enough time for even a single cell to form by chance, yet as soon as it was possible for early life to appear, it appeared.[10]
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If you look at the Cambrian Explosion, which occurred around 540-520 million years ago, 50-80% of the major animal body plans (phyla) to ever exist on earth appeared abruptly, without any previous evolutionary links appearing in the fossil record.[11] This scientific evidence points to a Creator, rather than a gradual process of evolution. The explosive appearance of life in the fossil record sounds a lot like the first chapter of Genesis, when God created the different life forms.
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Furthermore, consider the genetic code found in DNA. A single strand of human DNA contains the equivalent of about 8,000 books of information.[12] Microsoft founder Bill Gates said “DNA is like a computer program, but far far more advanced than any software ever created.”[13] Where did this design and information come from? It certainly could not have occurred by accident, as Darwinian evolution claims. It must be the product of an Intelligent Designer.
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Fulfilled Prophecy
Finally, you have the fulfilled prophecies in the Bible. In the Bible, there are 2,500 prophecies. So far, about 2,000 prophecies have already been fulfilled. Jesus Christ, fulfilled over 100 messianic prophecies in His first coming. The remaining 500 prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled in the future, or are currently in the process of being fulfilled. The Messianic prophecies about Jesus, were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and over 100 were completely fulfilled in His first coming. Many of these prophecies are very detailed, prophesying all the major events in Jesus’ life, such as where He would be born, who He would be descended from, the exact time of the beginning of His 3-year ministry, that He would perform miracles, that He would speak in parables, that He would be betrayed by a close friend for 30 pieces of silver, that His hands and feet would be pierced, and that He would die for our sins, and rise again, that He would be God with us. All these and more were prophesied about Jesus in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.
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According to astrophysicist, Dr Hugh Ross, on his website reasons.org, the odds of the Bible’s 2,000 prophecies being fulfilled by chance, would be “a number far greater than ~ 1 in 10^1000". In other words, one chance in 10 with 1,000 zeros after it! “One chance in 10^1000 is equivalent to the probability of winning the California lottery 125 consecutive times purchasing just one ticket each time”![14] It is impossible that all of the Bible’s prophecies could have been lucky guesses. The Bible must be Divinely inspired.
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If you are convinced that the Bible is indeed the word of God, and you are ready to give your life to Jesus, you need to repent and place your trust in Jesus to save you. Please read my article on how to be saved and know God. But if you are not sure yet, I encourage you to examine the evidence for God and the Bible.
A good introduction to the evidence for Jesus and the Bible is the book “More Than A Carpenter” by Josh and Sean McDowell. A more in-depth book I recommend, is “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist” by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler.
Some good websites I recommend are: reasons.org (evidence for God), biblehistory.net (historical evidence for the Bible), and crossexamined.org (evidence for Christianity).
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Footnotes/References:
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[1] Manuscript Evidence For Ancient Writings Chart- Christian Apologetics by Norman Geisler, p. 307, and Evidence That Demands A Verdict By Josh McDowell, pp. 42-43
[2] More Than A Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell- Chapter 6, pp 76-77
[3] Biblicalarcheology.org- On View: Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered
[4] Wikipedia- Sources for the historicity of Jesus
[5] The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence For the Life of Christ by Dr Gary Habermas
[6] Expedition Bible- Cave Inscription Reveals Archeological Evidence For Jesus, Joel Kramer. YouTube.
[7] The Big Bang- Reasons To Believe pamphlet, Dr Hugh Ross
{8} The Fine-Tuning Of The Universe- Dr Craig Videos, YouTube
[9] How Did Early Life On Earth Emerge?- Reasons To Believe pamphlet, Dr Fazale Rana
[10] Answers To Evolution- Rose Publishing pamphlet
[11] Answers To Evolution- Rose Publishing pamphlet
[12] 77 FAQs About God and the Bible by Josh and Sean McDowell, pg 29
[13] Bill Gates, elevatesociety.com
[14] Hugh Ross, reasons.org- article “Fulfilled Prophecy and the Reliability of the Bible”
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