Scripture for Today, 7-15-19: To Skeptics

To Skeptics, Scoffers and Deniers
Dedicated* to those who think Christianity is an archaic, misogynistic, biased, racist, intolerant, homophobic, obtuse and outdated belief system.
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Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled... There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God..."

Matthew 5:18; 2 Peter 3:3, 5
 
7-15-19, ** -- A warning: There is coming a day that skeptics, scoffers, deniers and agnostics cannot escape from, either through death or the apocalypse. It's coming whether you think truth is relative or irrelevant. If, after looking at some reasonable and concise points regarding why Christianity and the Bible can be trusted and you still don't want to believe…that’s on your head. [Ezekiel 33:1-11]

History

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The Holy Bible (both the Old and New Testament) predates every nation and organization on the planet currently in existence by millennia (beginning with the book of Job – circa 2000 BC). It predates the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians and is probably on par (timeline-wise) with the first Egyptian dynasty. It predates:

1. US Constitution
2. English Magna Carta
3. Roman and Greek Empires

Too many people today in the 21st-century believe that we’re superior to all who have come before us, not because we're collectively smarter (we aren’t), but because technology has lifted humanity out of the morass of having to grind out a living. This has freed up time so mankind could pursue other things: higher education, entertainment and careers that do not entail manual labor. Along with all that extra time and education, man began to develop philosophies regarding where he came from, why he’s the way he is, how we should live and where he is going after he dies.
 
The collective world has never enjoyed a time such as the one we are currently in. We take many modern conveniences for granted like: electricity, motorized machinery, heating and cooling, food production, instant communication and the Internet. However, mankind has returned to the consensus that God is dead, man is god and everyone does what they think is right in their own eyes. The Bible details a time before the global flood [1] in antediluvian history where mankind arrived at a similar conclusion: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5 [Judges 17:6, 21:25; Proverbs 21:2, 26:12]
 
Even the most ardent skeptic must conclude; either the Bible is true or it’s not. If you believe the Bible is not true, then quit reading this and go on about your life. However, if you have questions and only doubt … there’s more. Either the Bible is 100% true or it’s all a lie. It’s far too interwoven to be both true and false. In other words, every book within the Bible connects with every other book within the Bible in such a way, that it would be impossible to separate them or have them contradict [2] each other. Example: The last canonized Old Testament book, was written by the prophet Malachi (circa 450-424 BC). This was over three-hundred years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. We see that nothing in the Old Testament conflicts with anything in the New Testament.
 
How can that be?
 
The Old Testament was largely written by the Jewish people who practiced Judaism; to the point their descendants killed the prophesied Messiah Jesus Christ [Matthew 26:53] (of whom they still deny to this day). The New Testament was largely written by Jews who practiced Christianity because of this same Messiah Jesus Christ (of whom they affirm to this day). So the same system of worship Jesus Himself kept, Judaism, ended up killing Him because He fulfilled the things that system said the Messiah had to fulfill?? Yes, paradox abounds.

Almighty God requires a blood sacrifice of a perfect being for forgiveness of sin. (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 53:7-9; Matthew 26:28; John 1:29) We must understand one simple principle, then it all makes perfect sense: They are two parts of the same whole: Christianity is Judaism fulfilled.
 
From Creation to the Patriarchs, the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, Proverbs and so on, are all part of the foundation for the New Testament. Furthermore, the Old Testament does not and could not exist in a messiah vacuum. Beginning in Genesis 3:15, the Old Testament requires and demands a Messiah figure to come as its culmination point.
 
The first century Hebrew Pharisees and Sadducee’s believed that the Messiah who would come, would only be a man like Moses or David. This man would throw off the shackles of Gentile domination that had hounded them for centuries. What they wanted, was the kingdom that was promised to them all throughout the Old Testament (Isaiah 2, 11, 66; Ezekiel 40-48; Daniel 2; Psalm 2; etc.). However, Jesus was not just trying to free the Jews from Gentile oppression, He was freeing all of mankind from the bondage of sin and death.

When Jesus, the Messiah, did come His primary mission was to make them (the Jews) a people fit for the kingdom. That is what the eight Beatitudes were all about in Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" [Matthew 5:1, 7:29]. Of course, these were impossible to keep, so instead they killed Him by having the Romans crucify Him naked on a wooden cross [Matthew 27:27-55] as foretold by King David a thousand years earlier:
 
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not  silent…6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. 7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 “He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”…Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13 They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. 18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
Psalm 22:1-18
 
Christianity finds the culmination of all the Old Testament Law and Prophets fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ (Hebrew- Yeshua Hamashiach, or the Greek rendering of the name, Iesus Cristos). Of all the would-be messiahs who have come and gone in Israel’s four-thousand years of history, only Jesus of Nazareth:

a) fits the prophesied timeline perfectly (Daniel 9:24-27) and
b) fulfilled over 108 specific prophecies concerning His coming. [Matthew 23:37-39]
 
However, because that generation (Jesus’s contemporaries) rejected Him as their Messiah, He said: “I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Hosea 5:15
 
That time of His return has many names and is broken down into several segments. Collectively it is known as the day of the Lord. [Jeremiah 30:5-7; Zechariah 14:1-5;  Joel 2:1-17; Amos 5:15-24; Matthew 24:42-51; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9; Revelation 3:1-3]

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Conclusion - As you can see, this world is passing away, and our current state of affairs is not destined to last forever. It had a beginning and it will have an ending. The world, and all its current geopolitical complexities and dramas exists presently, to keep God’s promise to one particular group of people, the Jews. If that were not true, why is there so much hatred towards them? Why have they been the most persecuted group/ethnicity in the entirety of human history?

1. Egyptians enslaved them
2. Canaanites continually attacked them
3. Philistines continually attacked them
4. Assyrians conquered them
5. Babylonians conquered them
6. Persians kept them under Gentile rule
7. Greeks kept them under Gentile rule
8. Romans kept them under Gentile rule
9. Romans destroyed Jerusalem, exiled the remnants
10. English expelled them in 1290
11. French expelled them in 1306
12. Spanish expelled them in 1492
13. Russians allowed pogroms against them
14. Germans tried to exterminate them
15. Arabs/Muslims been at continual war/aggression with them
16. Leftist Progressives have increasingly turned against them

 
All of these have at one point or another, persecuted, attacked, laid siege too, imprisoned, conspired against, confiscated the wealth of, and expelled the Jewish people from their lands.
 
God had made unconditional promises to Israel’s forefathers (i.e., the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) in Genesis 12:1, 15:1, 17:1, 15-19, 28:1, Jeremiah 31:40 and more. He will give them the kingdom here on earth with Jesus reigning from Jerusalem for a thousand years, because God cannot lie, and what thing He has determined, He will do. (Isaiah 46:9-10)
 
Since the Bible comes from the Jews (both Old and New Testaments), Jesus Christ was Jewish, and the Bible states Satan hates the Jews and is currently running this planet (Luke 4:4-6, 1 John 5:13, 19), it only makes sense that Satan has been in a perpetual state of war against them.
 
Christ will visibly return judge the nations. So regardless of your beliefs, philosophies, college degrees, wokeness, political correctness, gender identity, victim identity, anyone who does not repent and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior personally [Psalm 86:5; Luke 13:3], will die in their sins, and be eternally separated from God (John 14:6). This is what you have to look forward too if you are not born again in Christ Jesus. [John 3:3, 7; Revelation 20:10-15]
 
I may not have persuaded you to believe that Jesus is Lord of Lords and King if Kings [1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14, 19:11–16]; that the end of this age is coming and very soon, but simply look around and ask yourself three questions:

1. Does the Bible really know the future?
2. Does the technology exist today for a one-world government to effectively run the world?
3. If the Bible isn’t true, when was it disproved and by whom? 

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*Dedication To those who think Christianity is the cause of all the world’s problems. Apparently you think Christianity is responsible for the Crusades, the Inquisitions, slavery, Jonestown and global warming. You may have no issue tolerating other belief systems such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Wiccan, Islam, atheism, etc., but Christianity, oh that just gets your blood boiling. 
 
You strongly believe that all religions essentially are the same and need to coexist. You also believe that “true” Christianity is not about sharing the good news that Jesus died for your sins, but about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless.
 
In your view, tolerance is everything and the only thing you cannot tolerate, is intolerance. This is the 21st century after all, and if a man wants to marry another man, so be it. If a man wants to identify as a woman, or vice versa, so be it. Women should be paid the same as men, regardless of the job they do, because of gender equality (even though you believe gender is a fluid concept). If a woman wants to marry her cat or the Pacific Ocean, so be it. If people want to come into this country “illegally,” they should, because nations shouldn’t have borders.
 
Perhaps you think life doesn’t begin in the womb, but only when a parent and a doctor agree that it begins (even if the baby is already born). Love doesn’t have gender (or age), and objective truth is just some racist construct meant to oppress minorities. In the 21st century, post-modern, post-Christian America, emotions trump facts, and truth is relative. Truth is whatever you want it to be.
 
[1] Dr John Osgood, Global flood, 2304 BC here https://creation.com/the-date-of-noahs-flood
[2] Contradiction Claims: https://www.allaboutgod.com/faq/contradictions.htm
 
*Excerpted and adapted full original report from Pete Garcia here http://rev310.com/2019/07/nowhere-to-hide-part-i-dedicated-to-the-skeptics-scoffers-and-deniers