Have you ever heard of The One Minute Apologist? It is a great new YouTube channel that posts very short one minute answers to some of the most common questions about Christianity. YouTube videos are a great way to spread the evidence about Christianity, and the videos on The One Minute Apologist channel are very well produced. An example of the kind of videos that you will find on The One Minute Apologist is posted below....
These videos are great because they can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs, websites and in emails. If you have some friends or family members that need to hear the truth about Christianity, then this YouTube channel can potentially be a great resource for you.
The Christian apologist featured in the video posted above is named Josh McDowell, and he is one of our favorite Christian speakers. If you have loved ones that need to have the evidence about Christianity explained to them, then you might want to consider giving them some of Josh's books....
Today, the vast majority of all scientists in the world believe in the theory of evolution. It is the overwhelming viewpoint of those in the academic community in almost every major industrialized nation. But is it true? Is there actually scientific evidence for evolution? Of is it necessary to accept the theory of evolution on blind faith.
Well, let's hear from a top evolutionist who wrote a book on the matter....
"I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualise such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?"
-Dr. Colin Patterson, senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History (and a hardcore evolutionist), in a letter to Luther Sunderland, April 10, 1979.
Do you understand what Dr. Colin Patterson is saying there? He is admitting that he did not know of a single transitional fossil that he could include in his book on evolution.
The truth is that the scientific evidence for evolution simply is not there. For much more on what the scientific evidence really shows, please read a nearly 4000 word article that I recently posted on The Last Days entitled "How To Disprove Evolution".
Once you learn the facts, you will be horrified that you ever believed in the theory of evolution. It is a complete and total hoax.
It is time to get educated. If you are new to the creation/evolution debate, we would very much encourage you to go watch Lee Strobel's great documentary entitled "The Case For A Creator" which is now posted on YouTube. The following is Part 1 of 10....
As we have explained so many times, there is a ton of evidence for Christianity and the facts always lead us to God.
If you are curious about how you can give your life to Jesus Christ and become a Christian, we very much encourage you to check out our article entitled "What Does The Bible Say About Salvation?" It goes into a great amount of detail explaining how you can have your sins forgiven and receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.
If you have any questions, please post a comment below and we will do our best to answer them.
Did you know that the gospel message is contained in the genealogy from Adam to Noah that we find in Genesis chapter 5? When we learned what you are about to read it blew our minds.
If you have a Bible, turn to Genesis chapter 5. That chapter contains a genealogical list that goes from Adam all the way to Noah. When you take the meanings of all of those names and put them together something amazing happens.
To learn more about where the meanings of the names come from, check out this excellent article by Chuck Missler. The Hebrew and the English for each of the names is reproduced below....
HebrewEnglish
Adam Man
Seth Appointed
Enosh Mortal
Kenan Sorrow
Mahalalel The Blessed God
Jared Shall come down
Enoch Teaching
Methuselah His death shall bring
Lamech The despairing
Noah Rest, or comfort
So when you put it all together into one sentence, it says this:
"Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the Blessed God shall come down teaching, and His death shall bring the despairing comfort."
That is the message of the gospel right there!
The following is a video clip of Chuck Missler explaining this amazing phenomenon....
Isn't that amazing?
But the truth is that there is stuff like that all throughout the Bible.
What other book in the world can you say that about?
Perhaps it is time to learn more.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and we will get back to you.
Lastly, we want to ask you a question.
If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?
If you are not 100 percent certain of the answer to that question, then we very much urge you to read the following article: What Does The Bible Say About Salvation?
Do you have questions about the Bible? The truth is that tens of thousands of people on the Internet every day are looking for answers to questions they have about what the Bible says about a particular matter.
So why are so many people looking for these answers? Well, part of it is that people simply do not know their Bibles. Why? Because hardly anyone reads them on a consistent basis. In fact, one recent survey found that only 16% of Americans say that they read the Bible every day.
In addition, the preaching in most American churches is so incredibly shallow that you could literally sit in some of these churches for years and years and only be exposed to a very small portion of God's Word.
Meanwhile, there are also thousands upon thousands of people from countries where it is very difficult to get a Bible who honestly want to know what the Bible says about a particular topic.
It is for those who are honestly searching for the truth that we have created our new website, "What Does The Bible Say About….", which answers some of the most common questions that people have about the Bible.
The following are just some of the questions which we address on our new site:
We hope that you will come on over and give our new site a look.
Also, if you have any particular questions that you would like for us to address on the new site, please leave a comment below with your suggestion....
The vast majority of Christians have absolutely no idea that the Biblical festivals in the Old Testament are actually extraordinary prophecies that contain amazing evidence for Christianity.
On our new site, Why God, we have posted an article that goes into great detail about the prophetic details of these holidays. This is material that you will NOT find in any Christian book store, so we encourage all of you to go on over and check it out.
But even though God had His people celebrate holidays of such prophetic importance for centuries and centuries before the coming of Christ, the reality is that very few people ever got it.
The Jews still celebrate the festivals but they never realized that the Biblical festivals were all about Yahshua (Jesus). The Christians tossed the festivals aside and started celebrating pagan holidays such as Easter and Christmas instead.
Oh, you didn't know that Christmas and Easter were pagan?
A spring festival for the fertility goddess involving Easter eggs and bunny rabbits was celebrated all over the world for centuries before Jesus was born.
And December 25th was the birthday of many pagan "gods" long before Jesus came to earth. Almost all of the current Christmas traditions can be directly traced back to pagan practices. In fact, there is nothing about December 25th in the Bible. For those not aware of the pagan origins of Christmas, we would encourage them you to watch this short YouTube video.....
After all, you don't hear the vast majority of Christians talking about it anymore.
You certainly don't hear about it from most of today's television preachers. Mostly they seem to be concerned about "living your best life" and getting as many "blessings" as possible.
So is the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful God that will ultimately judge all of humanity a concept that society is now moving past?
Certainly atheists, skeptics and other critics of traditional Christianity point to a "judgmental, wrathful god" as one of the most objectionable points of the Christian faith.
Would a loving God pass judgment on someone?
Would a loving God punish someone?
These are some pretty heavy questions to think about.
So let's think about them for a bit.
First of all, I would like you to imagine a scenario with me.....
Imagine a society where the police always caught the criminals. But after catching the criminals, the justice system of that particular society lets those criminals go every single time with absolutely no punishment for their crimes.
What kind of society would that be?
Would that be a just society?
Would that be a fair society?
What would it be like for criminals and murderers and rapists and child molesters to be running around knowing that even if they did get caught there will never, ever be any penalty for any of the crimes they are committing?
Would that be a society that you would want to live in?
What would you call a justice system that had results like that?
Even though justice in our current society is far from perfect, at least there is an attempt to catch criminals and bring them to justice.
But you know what?
A large percentage of Christians in America today believe that God is just like that justice system that never, ever punishes the criminals.
Today many Christians believe that God would never punish anyone for anything.
After all, "judgment" was an "Old Testament" thing, right?
Wrong.
The truth is that God is a God of perfect love AND of perfect justice, and according to the Bible the judgment of God is very real.
In 2 Timothy 4:1, the apostle Paul tells us that God will judge the inhabitants of this world:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead
In 1 Peter 4:5, the apostle Peter echoes the same sentiments:
But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
In Hebrews 13:4 it tells us that God will judge those who are sexually immoral:
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
In Revelation 11:18 we are told that God will destroy those who destroy the earth:
The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.
In Hebrews 9:27 we are reminded that we only get one life (no reincarnation) and after that we face judgment:
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment
Well, what about Jesus?
Wasn't his message all about peace and love?
Well, yes it was.
But also there was NOBODY in the Bible who talked about hell more than Jesus did. Just consider a few examples.....
Matthew 5:29
If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 23:33
"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
Luke 12:5
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
The reality is that the Scriptures consistently tell us that a judgment is coming. In John 3:36 it says this:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.
The Bible consistently teaches that without Jesus to pay for our sins that we remain under the wrath of God. The love of God is very powerfully portrayed in Scripture, but also the perfect justice of God is also very powerfully portrayed. Just consider the picture of God's justice that is painted in the following passage of Scripture.....
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
But most people today do not like to hear about God's justice. They don't WANT to hear that judgment is coming. In fact, the people of today sound very much like the people that the apostle Paul was describing in Romans 2:5.....
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
The reality is that most people today are terribly stubborn.
They think that they don't need God.
They think they can do whatever they want.
Even many people who "believe" that God exists think that He would NEVER judge them.
However, if we turn to the end of the book we read about the final judgment of humanity, and it should be sobering for all of us when we read what is to happen.....
Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
So is there any good news? Yes, there most definitely is.
Remember, God is a God of perfect love AND of perfect justice.
We stand guilty before God because of our sins, but God loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for OUR sins.
In John 5:24 it describes the destiny of those who are willing to accept Jesus into their lives and receive that forgiveness.....
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
If you are interested in learning more about how you can receive Jesus Christ into your life, then we would encourage you to read the following information.....
If Christianity is real (and it most definitely is - just read the rest of this blog), then the decision that you make about Jesus Christ is the most important decision that you will ever make in your life.
Remember, God is a God of perfect love and of perfect justice.
We all have violated God's laws over and over and over and those sins must be paid for.
Jesus paid for those sins on the cross and so you have two choices.....
#1) You can accept the payment Jesus made on the cross for your sins and ask Him into your life as your Savior and Lord.
Interest in atheism is surging all over the world - even in the United States which had been resistant to it for so long. The reality is that people in modern society are rejecting the concept of "god" more than ever before, and this is really starting to frighten major religious institutions.
In a 2008 Gallup survey, 15 percent of Americans claimed no religion at all. That is up from only 8% in 1990. That is almost a doubling in less than 20 years. That is stunning growth! In fact, the "non-religious" now outnumber all religious organizations in the United States except the Catholics and the Baptists.
But the U.S. cannot yet match the enthusiasm of British atheists. More than 100,000 people in the U.K. have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from a website that seeks to help the non-religious renounce their Christian faith.
The de-baptism certificates are being distributed by a group called the National Secular Society. This campaign comes on the heels of a highly successful bus advertising campaign by atheists in the U.K. that promoted the slogan: "There's probably no God."
One downside to atheism in the past was that there were a lot less holidays to celebrate.
Recently the following short YouTube video was brought to our attention.
This video is of part of a debate between an atheist and a Christian, and in this particular secton the two debaters are discussing the meaning of life.....
There were times in the gospels when Jesus was not very clear and even today we read some of His sayings and we debate endlessly about what they could mean.
There were other times when Jesus took His time to be exceedingly clear, and we find one of those moments in Matthew 5:17-19.....
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Now could this be any clearer?
Jesus says that anyone who breaks the commandments and teaches others to do the same "will be called least" in the kingdom of heaven.
Oh, but Paul said not to keep the Law?
When then did he keep it?
Acts 25:8
Then Paul made his defense: "I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar."
Acts 21:20-24
When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law.
Romans 3:28-31
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
So was Paul a hypocrite?
No, he lived what he believed.
He preached salvation through Christ alone.
He preached obedience to God's commandments.
He lived them both.
So did all of the early Christians.
Why were we all never taught these things in church?
Do you think it is something that the church just made up?
Well, it does actually exist.
The truth is that Jesus himself talked more about hell than anyone else in the Bible. The following are some of the terms that Jesus used to describe hell.....
"fire" (Matthew 7:19, 13:40, 25:41)
"everlasting fire" (Matthew 18:8, 25:41)
"eternal damnation" (Mark 3:29)
"hell fire" (Matthew 5:22, 18:9, Mark 9:47)
"damnation" (Matthew 23:14, Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47)
"damnation of hell" (Matthew 23:33)
"resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29)
"furnace of fire" (Matthew 13:42, 50)
"the fire that never shall be quenched" (Mark 9:43, 45)
"the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44, 46, 48)
"Where their worm dieth not" (Mark 9:44, 46, 48)
"wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42, 50)
"weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30)
"torments" (Luke 16:23)
"tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24)
"place of torment" (Luke 16:28)
"outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12, 22:13)
"everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46)
But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross so that you can escape hell and live with God forever:
Have you ever given much thought to these two questions?
There is quite a bit of confusion out there on the internet today about the origin of the four gospels.
The four gospels are essentially "biographies" of Jesus that describe the events of His life and ministry, and yet most people (including most Christians) do not know who wrote them or when they were written.
These are very important questions. It is vitally important to know if we can rely on these documents to be accurate sources of information about the historical Jesus.
The Christians Apologetics & Research Ministry has a really good article that contains some excellent background information for anyone who is just starting to research this topic:
Those who seek to try to debunk Christianity seem to have an endless supply of crackpot theories.
One of the latest trends is for these "skeptics" to pick up on the flawed theories of Kersey Graves, Acharya S and others who claim that the stories about Jesus Christ in the Bible can find their origins in the pagan religions which were around before Jesus was born.
We have explored this topic in other posts on this blog, but today we wanted to commend to you all a great webpage that examines these claims for 17 pagan "gods" and that does a great job of summarizing the truth in chart form. If you are interested in learning more about how to completely debunk "skeptics" of this type, then we would definitely recommend that you check this out:
Who decided what books were going to make it into the New Testament?
You know, most Christians have not even considered that question.
Most Christians don't even think about it.
Even though there has been a relentless assault on the Bible in movies, television, books and other media, most American Christians still stick their heads in the sand and won't think about where the Bible originally came from.
Rather than being able to defend the Bible, we have noticed in our interactions with America's pastors and spiritual leaders that most of them have NO IDEA where the Bible came from.
In particular, we have noticed that there is substantial confusion even among America's Christian leaders regarding the development of the New Testament.
Even most pastors have fallen for the misconception that a bunch of people sat around a big table during some grand "council" (such as the Council of Nicaea) called by Rome and picked out which books would go into the New Testament.
Hopefully after enough people read this article this question will be settled once and for all.
First of all, the canon of the New Testament was not even remotely on the agenda at the Council of Nicaea:
But that fact hasn't stopped Dan Brown, the author of the Davinci Code, and many others from trying to promote the claim that that New Testament books were not decided upon until the 4th century during the Roman Catholic councils.
So does this ridiculous claim have any merit whatsoever?
Well, for starters, Dan Brown is not a religious expert in the least. In fact, Dan Brown admitted in court that his wife did most of the research for the Davinci Code:
The truth of the matter is that the Davinci Code is interesting fiction, but the facts about the development of the New Testament tell us an entirely different story:
Fact #1) Paul's letters were already considered scripture in the mid 1st century. Take a look at how the apostle Peter himself called Paul's letters Scripture:
2 Peter 3:14-16
So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Fact #2) The apostle Paul, writing between A.D. 62 and A.D. 65, quoted Luke 10:7 and called it Scripture:
Luke 10:7
Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.
Now look at how Paul quoted Luke 10:7 as Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18....
For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."
This clearly establishes that the apostle Paul himself considered the gospel of Luke to be Scripture in the middle of the 1st century. It is not surprising that the apostle Paul had access to the gospel of Luke since it was written by his traveling companion Luke.
Fact #3) Irenaeus, writing about 170 A.D., tells us that the four-fold gospel was already a rock solid fact by then:
But it is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the church has been scattered throughout the world, and since the "pillar and ground" of the church is the Gospel and the spirit of life, it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing incorruption on every side, and vivifying human afresh. From this fact, it is evident that the Logos, the fashioner [demiourgos] of all, he that sits on the cherubim and holds all things together, when he was manifested to humanity, gave us the gospel under four forms but bound together by one spirit. (Against Heresies 3.11.8)
If the four gospels had already been well established by 170 A.D., then how in the world can anyone claim that the four gospels were picked out in the 4th century?
Fact #4) The fact of the four-fold gospel is also reflected in the "Muratorian Fragment" which was written about the same time (around 170 A.D.) that Irenaeus was writing. The Muratorian Fragment lists for us almost the entire New Testament canon. The document may have indeed been a complete list of New Testament books, but we only have a portion of the ancient document. While we do not have the very beginning of the document or the very end of the document, the portion of the document that we do have tells us that there are FOUR (and only four) gospels.
Fact #5) We have approximately 50 manuscripts of the New Testament that PRE-DATE the Roman takeover of the established church in the 4th century. So there WAS a New Testament before Rome ever called a "council".
Fact #6) We have more than 32 THOUSAND New Testament quotations from the early church writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In fact, we could recreate virtually the entire New Testament just from the quotes of the early church writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. We can be QUITE certain that the New Testament we have today has come down to us just as it was from the earliest days, and we can be QUITE certain what the early Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries considered to be Scripture.
Yes, the Roman government came along in the 4th century and corrupted and paganized the institutional church. There were many Christians who resisted this, and they were persecuted brutally. However, Christianity and the Bible were doing JUST FINE before Rome ever came on the scene. Anyone who says that the books of the New Testament were selected in the 4th century simply does not know their history.
All over the internet today, you will find neverending attacks on the deity of Christ. Whether it is Muslims, atheists, skeptics, pagans or liberal theologians, there seems to be a more intense assault on the deity of Christ today than ever before.
However, the truth about the deity of Christ and the history behind it is not what is portrayed in the Davinci Code and other distorted books and movies that have been coming out in the past few years.
The truth is that the historical Jesus always claimed to be God, and that Christians always believed that Jesus was God from the very earlies days of the church.....
Here are some of the scriptures where Jesus claimed to be God:
John 8:58
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
Compare the above scripture to Exodus 3:14....
God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
Here is another passage where Jesus claimed to be God:
John 10:30-33
"I and the Father are one."
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Jesus also accepted worship as God.
John 20:28
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Notice that Jesus did nothing to correct him.
In the scriptures, we see that whenever an angel is worshipped, the angel quickly corrects that person and tells that person not to do it, but Jesus always accepts the worship of men in the Scriptures.
Jesus also forgave sins, which is something only God can do:
Mark 2:3-7
Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
The New Testament writers also clearly testified that they believed that Jesus is God:
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So just who was "the Word"? It was Jesus.....
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
There are many other additional scriptures that show that the early Christians CLEARLY believed that Jesus is God:
Titus 2:13
while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ
2 Peter 1:1
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours
Hebrews 1:8
But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom
Hebrews 1:3
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Colossians 2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form
Romans 9:5
Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!
So we can clearly see that the testimony of the New Testament writers was that they believed that Jesus is God. In fact, according to Colossians 1:16, Jesus is your Creator:
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
For more information, we would urge you to watch the following YouTube video.
The YouTube video posted below clearly shows from the Scriptures that Jesus believed that He is God, and that the early Christians believed that He was God from the very beginning:
Today there are many "preachers" and "ministers" out there who try to convince people that if they become Christians their lives will become so much easier than they are now.
They make it sounds like everything is going to be rainbows, lollipops, ponies and endless goodies.
As a result, a lot of these same people who have tried Tony Robbins, the "Secret", and every other self-improvement course that they can get their hands on figure that they will try out this "Jesus thing" as well.
But these people find out that being a Christian can be really, really hard! When you decide to become a Christian, people may look at you weird, people may even start making fun of you and persecuting you, and possibly even your own family members may turn on you.
That doesn't sound "fun".
The truth of the matter is that if you decide to become a Christian you should expect to be persecuted.
This is what Jesus had to say on this topic:
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." -John 15:18
The truth is that if you do decide to become a Christian you may get a whole NEW set of problems. Following Christ is not always easy and it is full of challenges.
But there is nowhere else I would rather be.
Along with all of the challenges, God will give you more love, joy, peace, passion and purpose than you can possibly imagine.
When you become a Christian, God will forgive all of your sins and will give you eternal life.
Just imagine living forever!
Life is NOT always going to be easy as a Christian, but if you are tired of your sins and your rundown life, and if you want a life of passion and purpose beyond anything you can imagine, then I would encourage you to turn to Jesus Christ while you still have time.
To learn more about how to become a Christian, check this out:
One of the objections to Christianity that we have encountered on the internet goes something like this:
"Well, the early Christians believed that Jesus would return during their lifetimes, and since He didn't, then Christianity must not be true".
Now, those of us who know the Bible well know this is a totally false statement.
In fact, the New Testament Scriptures are VERY clear that Jesus would not return right away.
Below is an article that contains a very good study of this topic. I would encourage all of you to visit the website posted below and to read the full article:
The Early Church Knew that the Lord’s Return was NOT Imminent
There is significant Biblical evidence that the early church had good reasons not to expect His imminent return. Of course, they had the same words of Jesus that we have! So anything He said that we might think refer to His imminent return could not have meant His imminent return to them! Since we know that Jesus meant what He said to them as well as to us, perhaps we should come to the same conclusion that they did!
Here are some examples.
Peter Knew that He Would Die before Jesus Returned
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. (John 21:18-19)
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. (2 Peter 1:14)
Imagine that we had the opportunity to talk with the Apostle Peter after Jesus had died, arisen from the dead, and ascended into heaven. Remember, Peter had been very close to Jesus. He was obviously very familiar with what Jesus said in chapters 24 and 25 of the Gospel of Matthew. But, in spite of those words of Jesus, if you had asked Peter, “Peter, do you think Jesus might return today?” Peter would have replied, “No. Not today. Because He showed me by what kind of death I should glorify him, when I am old. He will not return in my lifetime.” (Then, I suspect, Peter would have given us the explanation of the passages that may seem to teach imminency that you will read in this paper!)
Paul Knew that He Would Go to Rome before Jesus Returned
And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. (Acts 22:21)
And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. (Acts 23:11)
If we had asked Paul before he went to Rome if he thought Jesus would return today, Paul would have said, “No. Not today. He has showed me that I must first go to Rome to bear witness of Him.”
The Early Church Knew that They Must Take the Gospel to the World before Jesus Returned
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8)
If you had asked a Christian shortly after Jesus ascended into heaven if he or she was familiar with what Jesus had said that is recorded for us in Matthew chapters 24 and 25, they would almost certainly have said, “Of course!” If you had followed that up by saying, “Then you believe that Jesus could return today, right?” They would have said, “No. Not today. He told us that we must take the gospel to the uttermost part of the earth first!”
Jesus Taught His Disciples Not to Expect His Imminent Return
And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. (Luke 19:11-15)
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept... After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. (Matthew 25:5, 19)
These disciples believed (and hoped) that Jesus was soon going to set up His kingdom on the earth. In Luke 19, Jesus corrects them. He compares Himself to a nobleman that went into a “far country” and gave instructions to “occupy” until he returned. He proceeds to remind them that they will have responsibilities to fulfill in terms of stewardship before He returns. In fact, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Luke tells us that the very reason Jesus taught this parable was because some people “thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.”
And even in Matthew 25 Jesus compares His coming to that of a bridegroom who “tarries” and who returns “after a long time.” He did not intend for them (or us) to expect an imminent return, but instead to plan on an extended time of serving Him on earth before His return.
Christians in Thessalonica Erred in Assuming the Return of Christ was Imminent
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5)
Some of the Thessalonian Christians had evidently become focused on the possibility that they were already far into the tribulation and that Jesus could return soon. It is reasonable for a suffering church to think that perhaps they are going through the last great tribulation. And certainly the Thessalonians were a suffering church (1 Thessalonians 2:14; 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-6). But Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, knew that they were being premature. He wanted them to learn to “stand fast” (2 Thessalonians 2:15) and to be “established in good words and works” (2 Thessalonians 2:17). He knew that they had work to do before the Lord returned. So he reminded them that there were some things that would occur before the Lord returned (viz., the revelation of the Antichrist and the great apostasy).
If the return of Christ were considered to be imminent, Paul would surely have reminded them that they and he would be raptured before the events described in these verses occurred.
Today atheists, skeptics and opponents of Christianity believe that they have the intellectual high ground when it comes to matters of logic, reason, science and faith. The reality is that the exact opposite is true, but our churches are doing a miserable job of equipping us to defend the faith. Hopefully blogs such as this will change all that. If you like what you see here, then please help spread the word about this site.
