"Standing"

Submitted by Lactantius Jr. (European Union), Dec 4, 2006 at 10:26

To Sohail,

The primary source of reliable, trustworthy information about the Lord Jesus Christ, is the New Testament record, containing 4 Gospels only, those of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, no other "Gospels" being recognized as Scripture by the early church, nor by Jesus' followers down to the present day, and your comment that, "Today there are more than 30 Gospels and more are being founded" (sic) does nothing to undercut the authority of the New Testament Gospels, the "Gospels" you refer to being later, spurious concoctions, which a 21st.century public, clueless about Christianity and the Bible, cannot distinguish from the genuine Gospels.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Word of God, "God's self-expression." "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. He came into the very world He created, but the world didn't recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son. John 1:1-5, 10-14 The Lord Jesus being, "The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think He rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to Him so He could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever!

And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." John 3:34-36 And accordingly, the standard of judgment is the Word He has already spoken to us "But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken." John 12:48 The Gospel given such massive and eloquent testimony by the Qur'an, being the documents now included in the New Testament of the Bibles we have, the documents from which they have been transcribed, predating Muhammad, and still being in existence. "You stand by the Torah" (the ‘Old Testament'), and so you should Sohail, it being given such eloquent testimony by the Qur'an, and containing much prophecy, fulfilled by the birth, the life and teaching, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fulfilled prophecy, especially as in Jesus' case, massive cumulatative fulfilment, gives us a valid basis to believe in and trust the author of the prophecy, and whilst Jesus had various credentials to support His claims to being the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, one often overlooked credential, one of the most profound, is the fulfilment of so many prophecies, in His life, death and resurrection from the dead. Over and over again, Jesus appealed to the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, to substantiate His claims as the Messiah. "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law." Galatians 4:4 And on the first resurrection morning, walking along the road to Emmaus, with Cleopas and his friend, we read that Jesus:- "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures." Luke 24:27 And when the risen Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem, He said:- "These are My words which I spoke to you whilst I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the law of Moses, and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Luke 24:44 and speaking to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, who criticised Him for healing a lame man on the Sabbath, Jesus said:- "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.

But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" John 5:45-47 And again speaking to the religious leaders, Jesus said:- "I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death. At this, the Jews exclaimed, ‘now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?' Jesus replied,-------------- ‘your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad.' The Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham!' ‘I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!' at this they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus slipped away from the temple grounds.' John 5:51-59 The Apostles, the New Testament writers etc.constantly appealed to fulfilled prophecy, to substantiate the claims of Jesus as the Son of the Living God , the Saviour, the Messiah. "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled." Acts 3:18 "And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘this Jesus Whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.' " Acts 17:2&3 "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Corinthians 15:3&4 In the Old Testament there are sixty major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ, with His precise lineage, the place, the time, and manner of His birth, people's reactions to His teaching, His betrayal, the manner of His death, and His resurrection from the dead. These are some of the details making up the CV identifying the Son of the Living God, the Messiah and Saviour of the world. Dr.Peter Stoner, Professor Emeritus at Pasadena College, describes, in his book "Science Speaks" ( Stoner Peter W. and Newman, Robert C Moody Press, 1976 ) how he took just 8 of the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and using the law of compound probabilities, calculated the probability of one man fulfilling them. Dr.Stoner wrote:- "we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time, and filled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 raised to the power 17." Written out longhand, this is 100, 000,000,000,000,000, and in order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Dr.Stoner illustrates it by supposing that:- "We take 10 to the power 17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas (267,000 square miles!! ~69.15 million hectares, ~170.9 million acres). They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now, mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel wherever he likes, but he must pick up one silver dollar, and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?

Just the same chance the prophets would have of writing these eight prophecies, and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them down in their own wisdom." H.Harold Artzler, of the American Scientific Affiliation, wrote:- "The manuscript of ‘Science Speaks' has been carefully reviewed by a committee of the American Scientific Affiliation members, and by the Executive Council of the same group, and has been found, in general, to be dependable and accurate in regard to the scientific material presented. The mathematical analysis included, is based upon principles of probability which are thoroughly sound, and Professor Stoner has applied these principles in a proper and convincing way." Fulfilling 48 prophecies by chance is just one chance in 10 to the power 157 (I won't attempt to write out all the noughts!!), but Jesus didn't fulfil just eight or 48 prophecies, He fulfilled over 300!!!.

How can one maintain intellectual integrity if this kind of evidence is ignored?? In saying, "I stand by the Torah because it doesn't say that they are trinity." You are saying you haven't found the word "Trinity," and you won't, it isn't there, but what is there, is the clear revelation of God's Unity in tri-Unity, the word "Trinity" being first used by Tertullian of Carthage, circa AD160 to AD 225, in an attempt to describe Jehova's self-revelation contained in the Bible. Our first introduction to the Holy Spirit is not on the Day of Pentecost , recorded in Acts 2:1-21 we first meet Him in the second verse of the Bible at Genesis 1:2, hovering there, speaking the world into existence. It's possible to begin here, and trace the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, through the pages of the Old Testament. We see the Third Person of the Trinity in the decrees of prophets and psalmists, in the actions of judges and craftspeople, in the anointing of kings and the promise of a new creation. Knowable and discernable in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is thus eminently knowable to us. The witness of the whole of Scripture, from its first pages to its last, directs us to a Holy Spirit empowering the people of God, and sustaining and renewing the face of the earth.

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