July 28, 2017
Many people do not believe that the Bible is reliable. Therefore, (to them), there is no need to read it nor respond to what God is saying to them. They live their lives blissfully ignoring the God who created them and graciously chose to speak to them through His written Word.
But there are many reasons we can believe the Bible is Divinely inspired and without error. One of the most compelling is the Old Testament prophetic passages regarding the coming Messiah, and how they are minutely fulfilled in the New Testament in Christ.
PSALM 22
... is a Messianic Psalm. It was quoted by Christ on the cross (""My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Psalm 22:1). It is a Psalm that describes the intense suffering of the cross by the coming Messiah.
One of the most amazing passages of this Psalm speaks of some things that Christ could not have orchestrated. Some things about Him that came true historically, but could not have been staged because its execution was out of His hands.
7 All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8 “Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”
16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;
18 They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.
Read the account of the crucifixion in Matthew 27, and you will see that this is exactly what happened--one more evidence of the Divine inspiration and reliability of God's Word.
STATISTICAL ODDS
Josh McDowell in his tremendous book, ""Evidence that Demands a Verdict,"" took a group of scientists and theologians to study multiple areas of Christianity that have undeniable proof. He took 33 of the Old Testament prophecies that were perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and calculated the statistical odds of this happening in one man. It was an astronomical probability. (If I remember, it was 10 to the 33rd power).
To illustrate what that probability was like he gave this illustration. Take the state of Texas, cover it two feet deep in silver dollars; mark one silver dollar and throw it in; blindfold someone and give them one chance to pick out the marked coin. This is the probability that these 33 prophecies could be fulfilled in one man.
YOU MUST MAKE A CHOICE
Every man is faced in this life with the choice of whether he will accept God's Word and let it be the final authority for His life. He must decide if he will live by ""Every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.""
To fail to believe the Bible is to lose the premier source of light, truth, and life that leads man to the resurrected and living Christ and an eternity with Him. It that road is taken, it is his most fatal, eternal mistake.
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