Some say the Bible is just another book. Wrong, the Bible is not another book, it is 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 continents, one story about one person, Jesus Christ. There has never been a book like it in history. Does that make it the Word of God? No. It just means it is worth considering over other books.
How about history? For hundreds of years archaeology has used the Old and New Testaments to find buildings, people, civilizations and kings, that didn’t exist, or they didn’t think they did. The Bible said they existed, and were found. Does that make it the Word of God? No. It just means it is worth considering because it’s historically accurate.
Then God gave 300 prophecies to point to one person, Jesus Christ who fulfilled all 300 prophecies. Some say that is impossible, they must have written the prophecies after the event. We know the first Greek translation of the Old Testament was created 250 years before Jesus was born. How could they possibly have known that Jesus was going to be born and crucified, when crucifixions didn’t even exist as capital punishment, and betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Does that make it the Word of God? No, but it is getting close.
Then Jesus said He would fulfill these things and did miraculous signs to prove who he was. Some believed and some didn’t. Then He said this, I am going to prove it to you. He died and came back to life. Nobody had done that one.
He died and the apostles who were with Him for 3 years ran and hid, as would all of us. They ran away and said I guess we were wrong about Jesus. Then something happened that made all of His apostles come back and be martyred, except for John.
What was their motivation? Did they think they were going to get rich? There were no riches here. The Roman Government hated them, and wanted to destroy them. They were kicked out to the Jewish community, so there was no value there. There was nothing good, nothing here to gain, and they all died for what.
Because they found a new religion, no, because they saw Jesus die and they saw Him come back, that’s it.
Why did He die, so we could have a perfect life, no, so we wouldn’t have to go to hell. Some say I don’t believe God would send people to hell. He doesn’t, people send themselves. If you are an atheist that is your dilemma.
The Bible, God’s Word, gives people a choice. Believe in Jesus or spend eternity in everlasting torment, hell.
Brad Stein, Christian Comedian