The Bible is the most popular book in the world, with 100 million books sold/given away each year. It was written over a period of 1,500 years; from around 1,400 BC (time of Moses) to 100 AD (after Jesus' Ascension into heaven). The entire Bible is made up of two distinct parts - an Old Testament part, and a New Testament part. The Old Testament part represents the first two thirds of the Bible and the New Testament the last one-third. The Old Testament provides a history of the great events and people from the beginning of creation, all the way up to about 450 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Some of these historical accounts include: 1) God's creation. 2 ) Noah and the Flood.
3) The lives and events of the early Patriarchs of Judah (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). 4) Moses' freeing of the Israelite slaves in Egypt, and their Exodus from Egypt and 40 year journey to the promised land of Canaan, and 5) The history of the people of Israel and Judah over the next 950-1000 years; including the events of the kings, prophets and notable figures of that period. The New Testament on the other hand highlights the accounts of the life of Jesus Christ as written by His apostles and disciples, and the accounts of many to grow the Christian church around the world.
The Bible is a collection of many thousands of manuscripts. The New Testament of the Bible alone represents a collection of just over 25,000 manuscripts that have been compiled over the years from around the world. These manuscripts were written in Greek (5,800), Latin (10,000), and a few other languages (9,300); and were written on papyrus, leather scrolls, parchment, and other forms of communication of the day. To give you some idea as to the volume of pages in just the New Testament alone, Josh McDowell Ministries states that the 5,800 Greek manuscripts (of the 25,000 manuscripts mentioned above) contains approximately 2.6 million pages, or 450 pages per manuscript. These 25,000 manuscripts have been translated by a multitude of scholars over time and amazingly found to support each other as to the life of Christ. The reason for this is best explained by 2 Timothy 3:16 of the New Testament which tells us that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true.”
Also amazing is the fact that the Old Testament of the Bible contains some 2,500 prophecies of things that were to happen in future times - of which 2,000 have already been fulfilled. This is truly an amazing fact. Also, many of the remaining unfulfilled prophecies relate to the end of times and the seven year Tribulation period.
The New Testament concentrates on Jesus Christ's birth, life, death on the cross, resurrection from the dead on the 3rd day, His 12 separate post-resurrection appearances to groups of 1 to 500 people each time, and then His ascension into heaven as seen by His disciples. What is so remarkable about Jesus's life is that many of the great prophets of the Old Testament (Moses, David, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Malachi and Others) foretold Jesus's life with amazing accuracy 450-1,400 years before Jesus was even born. These 300 prophecies of the Old Testament regarding a coming Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus's actual life. It should be noted that the Old Testament documents referred to here have been meticulously reviewed in detail by many authorities over the years (Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, and Josephus the Jewish historian, to name just a few), and the words of the Bible still hold true.
Many of the most famous and revered scientists over the last several hundred years have come to the conclusion that God created the Universe and life on earth. Noted scientists such as Collins, Descartes, Newton, Bacon, Pascal, Copernicus, Pasteur, Kepler, Kelvin, Boyle, Mendel, Marconi, Planck, Faraday, Morse, Linnaeus, and many others all came to this conclusion; and all of the scientists above also became Christians. Yet, today many still believe that current day scientists definitely do not believe in a God or in Christianity, but Wikipedia.org (the online encyclopedia) tells a different story. In an article "List of Christians in science and technology" it states, "A review of Nobel prizes awarded between the years 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. Overall, Christians have won a total of 72.5% of all the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, 65.3% in Physics, 62% in Medicine, and 54% in Economics." This article actually lists many of the noted and esteemed scientists by century and seems to show that many of the very best and brightest scientists over time have a profile quite different than what most people today have been led to believe.
According to the Bible, God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross as the sinless substitute payment for all of mankind's past and future sins. He did this so that we could have eternal life with him in Heaven, if we should accept His free gift, and believe and have faith in His Son. Jesus mentions several times in the Bible that not only is He the Son of God, but also the pathway to eternal life. In John 14:6 Jesus states that “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No One comes to the Father except through Me.” After Jesus's death, He is resurrected by His Father on the 3rd day, and comes back and appears on 12 different occasions to groups of 1 to 500 people. After several visits with His apostles and disciples, Jesus commissions them to wait for the Holy Spirit and then take His 'Name and Word', and spread them to all of the nations of the world. Today, a remarkable 2.4 billion of the 7.6 billion total people in the world call themselves Christians and say that Jesus is their Savior and Redeemer. Jesus Christ was truly Fully God (Son of God), and Fully Man. In my opinion, Jesus was the greatest man that ever appeared on earth and his hundreds of miracles (40 recorded in the New Testament alone) attest to this fact. Not only did he raise three persons from the dead (John 11:1-44, Luke 7:11-15, Luke 8:41,42,49-55), but he healed the sick (Matthew 9:35), healed the paralytics (Mark 1:12), healed the deaf (Mark 7:31-37), healed the mute (Matthew 12:22), healed the blind (John 9:1-7), healed lepers (Luke 17:11-19), performed exorcisms (Mark 5:13), turned water into wine at the Cana wedding (John 2:1-11), fed thousands from just a few fish and loaves of bread (Matthew 14:13-21), walked on water (John 6:16-21), calmed the winds and sea (Mark 4:35-41), etc. These, it would seem, were truly not the works of an ordinary man, but one given authority by His Father in heaven.
There are many reasons why I personally believe in the Bible and Jesus Christ: 1) I believe in the truthfulness and accuracy of the Old and New Testament of the Bible because of the 2,000 prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New Testament many hundreds of years later. The fact that Jesus' life fulfilled over 300 of these very specific prophecies is an incredible happening and one where the probability of this happening would be Absolutely Zero. But what makes all of this possible is that all of these prophecies, made by the greatest prophets of all time, were all God inspired; and forecasts of things to come that God wanted to be passed along to others as true.
2) I believe in Jesus because of the fact that the accounts of His life, by a multitude of his disciples at different times, show an incredible consistency in the stories told.
3) I believe in Jesus because of the 100's of miracles that He performed while on earth; of which 40 were reported in the New Testament of the Bible alone.
4) I believe in Jesus because of the fact that several times in the Bible He states that He was the Son of God, and was sent by His Father to do His will on earth. I also believe because of all the extraordinary events in His life other than the miracles: Jesus's resurrection from the dead on the 3rd day, His 12 post resurrection appearances, and His ascension into heaven on the 40th day after His resurrection in front of His disciples. These are all remarkable events that further attest to the fact that Jesus was in fact, who He had always claimed to be.
5) I believe in Jesus because when He came back after His death and resurrection, His disciples were all in hiding for fear of their lives, for the person that they loved and believed in had just been crucified. Jesus appears to them several times after His resurrection, and commissions them to take His 'Name' and 'Word' and make it known to all of the nations of the world. He advises them to wait for His Holy Spirit to arrive and give them the power to go forth on their journey. His apostles and disciples remember what Jesus had said when he had been with them – that He was the Son of God, and that He would rise from the dead on the 3rd day. Then, certain that Jesus was who He had always claimed to be, they go out to preach His Name and Word in an earnest and fervent manner; knowing that many of them would be (and were) killed for their beliefs and actions.
6) On a personal note, I grew up a Christian, yet never read the Bible and never really knew many of the important things about the life of Jesus Christ: and therefore never really fully understood what His death on the cross really meant. About seven years ago, I changed churches to one that stressed the Bible and the life of Jesus and it was the best thing I ever did. The new church and the subsequent reading of the Bible both changed me from an uninformed believer to one totally convinced that Jesus and the Bible were the answer to a better and more satisfying life. Both gave me a new life that has purpose and a total belief that Eternal Life in Heaven is mine.
Lastly, the life of Jesus Christ, as outlined in the New Testament of the Bible, is in my opinion the "Greatest Story Ever Told." If you have never read the Bible, and particularly the New Testament, I would encourage you to do so. I would start with the New Testament and the Gospel of Matthew and then continue on from there. If you do choose to start reading the Bible, you may want to refer to notes at the bottom of each page (by chapter and verse) for clarification of any passages that you need help to understand. If you have any questions as to how to proceed, feel free to seek advice from a Christian Pastor in your area or a knowledgeable Christian friend. Either would love to talk to you and give you any guidance and assistance that you may seek.
As a last note, if you feel you would like supporting information on either of the following two areas mentioned herein: 1) Jesus Christ's 12 Post Resurrection Appearances, or 2) Old Testament Prophecies of the Messiah Fulfilled by Jesus, please click on the 'GO TO HOMEPAGE' button below. On the Homepage you will find two articles (#11 and #12) addressing both of these issues.
References:
1. Bible (New King James Version). Old and New Testament.
2. Dr. Hugh Ross, “Fulfilled Prophecy: Evidence For The Reliability of
The Bible,” Reasons To Believe.
3. “Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus,” CBN.com.
4. “How Many Times Did Jesus Appear After His Resurrection,” Biblocality.com.
5. "List of Christians in science and technology," Wikipedia.com
6. Sheri Bell, "Ancient Manuscripts That Validate the Bible's Old Testament," Josh McDowell Ministry.
7. David Limbaugh, "Jesus on Trial"
8. Justin Taylor, "An interview with Daniel. B. Wallace on New Testament Manuscripts," Mar. 2012
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