ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
PART 27
(Mark Cahill's Book)
1. In the Old Testament, Isaiah 7:14
reads:
" Therefore the Lord Himself
shall Give you a sign ; Behold a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son! and shall call His name
Immanuel?"
This prophecy was fulfilled by Yeshua
( the Hebrew name for Jesus) , as we read in the New Testament:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins.
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord, by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son! and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Then Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
And he knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called His name JESUS. (Matthew: 1:18-25)
God said He would bring forth a Son from a virgin, and He did.
2. The Old Testament prophesies that
this Messiah, this Son Who would
be "Immanuel, God with us," would
truly be the incarnation of Almighty
God."
For unto us a child is born , unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace, (Isaiah: 9:6)
And the New Testament says:
(Jesus said) But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.
And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven , as He went up, behold two men stood beside them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven (Acts: 1:8-11)
Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.
(John 8:58)
God said that Messiah would be "The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father?"
In human form - and He was.
next post 4th September
T
gaai
IS JESUS RELEVANT TODAY
PART ONE
(copied from
Y-Jesus.com)
Many think that Jesus Christ wants us to become religious, They think Jesus came to take all the fun out of life, and give us impossible rules to live by.
They are willing to call Him a great leader from the past, but say He is not relevant to their lives today.
Josh McDowell, was a college student who thought Jesus was just another religious leader, Who set up impossible rules to live by.
Then one day, at a student union lunch table McDowell sat next to a vibrant young coed with a radiant smile. Intrigued, he asked her why she was so happy. Her immediate reply "Jesus Christ!"
Jesus Christ? McDowell bristled, firing back
"Oh, for God's sake, don't give me that garbage. I'm fed up with church, I'm fed up with the Bible, don't give me that garbage about religion."
But the unfazed young coed calmly informed him,
"Mister, I didn't say anything about religion, I said Jesus Christ."
McDowell was stunned. He had never considered Jesus more than a religious figure, and didn't want any part of religious hypocrisy. Yet here was this joyful Christian woman talking about Jesus as someone Who had brought meaning to her life.
Christ claimed to answer all the deep questions about our existence. At one time or another, all of us question what life is all about. Have you ever gazed up at the stars on as pitch-black evening and wondered who put them there? Or have you ever seen a sunset. and thought about life's biggest questions?
* "Who am I ?"
* "Why am I here?"
* "Where am I going after I die? "
Although other philosophers and religious leaders have offered their answers to the meaning of life,
only Jesus Christ proved His credentials by rising from the dead. Skeptics like McDowell who originally scoffed at Jesus' resurrection, have discovered that there is compelling evidence that it really occurred.
Jesus offers life with real meaning. He said that life is much more than making money, having fun, being successful, and then ending up in a graveyard. Yet many people still try to find meaning in fame and success, even the greatest superstars.
next post 6th September
ONE HEARTBEAT
AWAY
PART 26
(Mark Cahill's Book)
Fulfilled Prophecy supports the Bible.
The scientific evidence for the Bible is absolutely stunning, but it doesn't even begin to compare with the fact that it showed me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Bible is the Word of God.
What fact was that? What was it that would prove there is no way the Bible could be from man, but must be from the hand of Almighty God? One hundred per cent accuracy in fortelling the future. If we could find that in a religious text we would have the answer we are seeking.
Next question: What do you think is the only book in the world that contains hundreds of very detailed prophecies
and records the fulfillment of those prophecies? The answer is the Bible.
The Book of Mormon for the Latter day Saints doesn't; The Koran for Muslims doesn't; The Bhagavad Gita for Hindus doesn't; In all the writings of Buddha, Confuscius, and Lao Tse, you will not find a single example of prophecy being fulfilled. In the Koran the only instance of a specific prophecy is when Mahommed predicted that he himself would return to Mecca - a prophecy very easy for him to fulfill himself.
The Bible, on the other hand, contains more than 2,000 detailed prophecies in the Old Testament alone. In fact, twenty-five per cent of the Bible is predictive in nature. And except for the prophecies that tell about the End Time return of Jesus, every single prophecy - including those about political, religious, intellectual, and geographic events , leading up to the return of Jesus Christ to the earth - has been fulfilled down to the smallest detail.
One of the interesting things about the Bible is that it says that anyone who does not predict with 100% accuracy is a false prophet. The fact that people "predict" something in the National Enquirer, doesn't make them true prophets.
In Old Testament times, if someone claimed to be speaking for God, and the prophecy did not come true, the penalty was death by stoning. (God takes misrepresenting Him very seriously).
So when prophets spoke,
they made sure they
were properly
representing God's words, and not their own!
Prophecy is so important, because it demonstrates Who God is and that He
can be trusted.
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me.
.Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying My councel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure:
....Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it I will also do it. (Isaiah 46:9-11).
God says He will declare the end from the beginning. If He says through His prophets that He will do something
He will do it. Let us see if that is true.
The Old Testament was finished more than 400years before the New testament was written. To see how good God's prediction ability was, let us take a look at a small portion of those Old Testament prophecies that predict Who the Messiah, the expected Savior would be.
next post 31st August
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
PART 25
(Mark Cahill's Book)
In the Book of Job, written 3.500 years ago, we read,
"Canst thou take the lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, 'Here we are?'"
Job 38:35
The Bible here is making a scientifically ludicrous statement - that light can be sent, and then manifest itself in speech. But did you know that radio waves move at the speed of light? This is why you can have instantaneous wireless communication with someone on the other side of the earth. Science didn't discover this until 1864 when the British scientist, James Clerk Maxwell suggested that electricity and light waves were two forms of the same thing.
Once again the Bible is scientifically accurate.
2,800 years ago Isaiah also made an interesting observation, he said:
"It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain , and spreadeth them out like a tent to dwell in. "
Isaiah 40:22
Ray Comfort, in Scientific Facts in the Bible, said:
"The Bible informs us here (Isaiah 40:22) that the earth is round. At a time when science believed that the earth was flat. It was the Scriptures that inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world, he wrote;
"It was the Lord who put it into my mind. I could feel His hand upon me .... there is no question the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit because He comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures."
The Creator of the universe, of course, knows how His creation operates., and He has given us evidence of that fact throughout the Bible.
One day as I walked into a magazine shop in an airport, I noticed Vanilla Ice, a popular rap artist from a few years ago. I started a conversation with him, and at one point I said, " I heard that you had gotten into Christianity." He said "I used to be into that."
That's an interesting statement. As we continued to talk, he said that according to the Bible, someone who commits suicide will go to hell. He was trying to quote the Bible, but he didn't know what it said. I told him there are six suicides mentioned in the Bible and not one time is it said that it is the right thing to do. But it also doesn't say it is an automatic ticket to hell.
He also mentioned that he was really into science, so I shared some of the scientific evidence that the Bible contains. He was very interested in the evidence, and he even gave me his address so that I could send him a book with more information!
Our logic and our concience tell us that we really do want to know the evidence that will lead us to the right answer for this life - and the next.
Are your logic and conscience telling you that?
Next post 29th August
TWENTY SEVENTEEN
PART 22
When Ruth came back from town, family members had to be notified, which included Danny's two brothers, and his children from his previous two marriages.
When Ruth phoned her brothers she found that Steve was in the Cape on holiday until Friday 16th (Danny's 58th birthday, which he will no longer celebrate) but Andy was on his way from Gauteng. He would overnight with us and go with Ruth in the morning to do all the necessary things which needed to be done in a such tragic circumstances.
Danny's children and ex wife came from Johannesburg to offer condolences - it was a very cramped situation as we only have 2 kitchen chairs , my walker's seat and my typing chair.
Andy sat in the typing chair with his feet raised on a small footstool as he is semi crippled due to a car crash many years ago. I lay on my bed, and Ruth mostly stood against the wall as did the rest of the family.We only have two bedrooms, a small kitchen and a minute bathroom so we were rather cramped for space.
The visitors stayed for about two hours and when they left the three of us ate soup and bread. It was Ruth and my first meal of the day. After the awful news earlier there was no way we could eat anything and even now it was a battle to get the food into our stomachs.
Ruth then took my sleeping needs to her room and we shared her bed while Andy slept in my bed. We were all exhausted from the shock and all that went with it that we retired early.
Ruth offered me a sleeping pill which I declined as they only make me feel worse the next day. And before all of this happened I already hadn't been feeling well for days, and I didn't want to make it worse.
Although I was in a
warm, comfortable
bed I could not sleep.
I can't begin to describe
the pain and agony
raging in me of losing
"my child".
No matter what age your children are they are always a mother's "child." Only those who have been through it can truly understand.
The pain is inexpressible - if I didn't have Jesus in my life I don't know whether I would have survived this loss.
"I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 27:13
I console myself with the fact that God does not make mistakes and it was Danny's time to go. His suffering on this earthly journey has ended and he is in a better place.
I finally dosed off in the early hours but was awake again around 5am.
next post 3rd September.
MY FAVORITE PSALMS
PART SEVENTY -
EIGHT
Praise the Lord, all nations,
Laud Him, all peoples!
for His loving kindness is great
towards us.
And the truth of the Lord is
everlasting.
Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good
for His loving kindness is for everlasting
Oh, let Israel say,
"His loving kindness is everlasting"
Oh, let the house of Aaron say,
"His loving kindness is for everlasting."
Oh, let those who fear the Lord say,
"His loving kindness is everlasting."
From my distress, I called upon the Lord,
The Lord answered me and set me in a large place what can man do to me?
The Lord is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall look with satisfaction on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in man? It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to trust in princes.
All nations surrounded me;
In the Name of the Lord I will surely cut them off
They surrounded me, yes they surrounded me
in the Name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off
They surrounded me like bees;
they were extinguished as a fire of thorns;
In the Name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off
You pushed me violently so that I was falling
But the Lord helped me
The Lord is my strength and my song
And He has become my salvation.
The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is
in the tents of the righteous.
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
I shall not die, but live,
and tell of the works of the Lord.
The Lord has disciplined me severely
but He has not given me over to death.
Open to me the gates of
righteousness
I shall enter through them,
I shall give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord
the righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to the Thee, for Thou hast
answered me,
and Thou hast become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief corner stone.
This is the Lord's doing
It is marvelous in our eyes
This is the day which the Lord has made
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O Lord, do save, we beseech Thee
O Lord, we beseech Thee, do send prosperity!
Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord;
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and He has given us light
bind the festival sacrifice to the horns of the altar.
Thou art my God
and I give thanks to Thee.
Thou art my God, I extol Thee.
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good
For His loving kindness is everlasting.
next post 1st September
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY - PART 24
(Mark Cahill's Book)
Archaeological evidence supports the Bible.
There have been over 25,000 archaeological finds that provide support regarding people, their titles, and their locations mentioned in the Bible. Interestingly, not one of those
finds has contradicted the Bible. As a matter of fact, these discoveries reveal the Bible as being true. Nelson Glueck, the renowned Jewish archaeologist, wrote:
It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contraverted a Biblical reference.
That is amazing. The text is historically trustworthy.
Millar Burrows states:
The Bible is supported by archaeological evidence again and again. On the whole there can be no question that the results of excavation have increased the respect of scholars for the Bible as a collection of historical documents.
Scientific evidence supports the Bible.
One of the most convincing pieces of evidence supporting the truth of the Bible is the scientific nature of that book. I was always led to believe that science and the Bible did not and could not mesh together - that the two were in fact opposed to each other.
Now read how wrong I was:
Around 2,500years ago , science said that there were around 1,100 stars in the sky . But at about the same time, the prophet Jeremiah said (33:22) "...
the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured..." Jeremiah said they were uncountable.
And now, after looking
at the awe inspiring
pictures sent back to
earth by the Hubble
Deep Space Telescope,
we know that the stars
of the sky are
uncountable to man. (Of course, they are not uncountable to God, Who "telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names." Psalm 147:4
Science used to teach that the world sat on the back of a large animal. The reason scientists taught this was because they couldn't believe that the flat earth wasn't supported by something.
I recently read that a small boy, confronted with the awesome fact that the earth simply hangs in space, decided to believe instead that it rested on the back of a turtle. When asked what the turtle was standing on, he said, "Another turtle." When asked what that turtle was standing on, he said, "Its just turtles all the way down."
Job 26: 7 says of God, "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. "
That statement was written 3,500 years ago. The Bible has always said that the earth was hanging in space. And , of course, with our science and our space exploration today, we know that to be a fact.
In the book of Hebrews we read this statement : Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)
That statement was written almost 2,000 years ago. From this we see that the Bible has always stated that things that we see are made of invisible things.This never made sense to most people, - until, of course, it was discovered that there are really invisible elements called "atoms."
next post 28th August
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
PART 9
(copied from Y- Jesus.com)
Why did Christianity Win?
Morrison was bewildered by the fact that "a tint insignificant movement was able to prevail over the cunning grip of the Jewish establishment, as well as the might of Rome. "Why did it win, in the face of all those odds against it?"
He wrote, "Within twenty years, the claim of these Galilean Peasants had disrupted the Jewish Church ... In less than fifty years it had begun to threaten the peace of the Roman Empire. When we have said everything that can be said .... we stand confronted with the greatest mystery of all. Why did it win?"
By all rights, if there were no resurrection, Christianity should have died out at the cross, when the disciples fled for their lives. But the apostles went on to establish a growing Christian movement.
J.N.D. Anderson wrote, "Think of the psychological absurdity of picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could silence - and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more convincing that a miserable fabrication ... that simply wouldn't make sense."
A Surprise Conclusion
With myth, hallucination, and a flawed autopsy ruled out, with incontrovertible evidence for an empty tomb, with a substantial body of eyewitnesses to His reappearance, and with the inexplicable transformation and impact upon the world of those who claimed to have seen Him, Morrison became convinced that his preconceived bias against Jesus Christ's resurrection had been wrong. He began writing a different book, entitled "Who Moved the Stone?" - to detail his new conclusions. Morrison simply followed the trail of evidence, clue by clue, until the truth of the case seemed clear to him. His surprise was that the evidence led to a belief in the resurrection.
In his first chapter, "The Book That Refused To Be Written," this former skeptic explained how the evidence convinced him that Jesus' resurrection was an actual historical event. "It was as though a man set out to cross a forest by a familiar and well-beaten track and came out suddenly where he did not expect to come out."
Morrison is not alone. Countless other skeptics have examined the evidence for Jesus' resurrection, and accepted it as the most astounding fact in all of human history.
C.S. Lewis, who once had
even doubted Jesus'
existence, was also
persuaded by the evidence
for Jesus' resurrection.
He writes; "Something
perfectly new in the history of the Universe had happened. Christ had
defeated death. The door
which had always been locked had been, for the very first time been forced open."
Let's consider just one more skeptic who was persuaded by the evidence.
A Stunned Professor
One of those who originally thought the resurrection was simply a myth, only to reverse the position, like Morrison, was one of the world's leading scholars, Dr. Simon Greenleaf. Greenleaf helped to put the Harvard Law School on the map. He wrote the three-volume legal masterpiece A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which has been called the "greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure."
The U.S. judicial system today still relies on rules of evidence established by Greenleaf.
While teaching law at Harvard, Professor Greenleaf stated to his class that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was simply a legend. As an atheist, he thought miracles to be impossible. In a rebuttal, three of his law students challenged him to apply his acclaimed rules of evidence to the resurrection account.
After much prodding, Greenleaf accepted his student's challenge and began an investigation into the evidence. Focusing his brilliant legal mind on the facts of history, Greenleaf attempted to prove that the resurrection account was false.
Yet the more Greenleaf investigated the record of history, the more stunned he was at the powerful evidence supporting the claim that Jesus had indeed risen from the tomb. Greenleaf's skepticism was being challenged by an event that had changed the course of human history.
Greenleaf was unable to explain several dramatic changes that took place shortly after Jesus died, the most baffling being the behavior of the disciples. It wasn't just one or two of the disciples who insisted that Jesus had risen; it was all of them. Applying his own rules of evidence to the facts, Greenleaf arrived at his verdict.
In a shocking reversal of his position, Greenleaf accepted Jesus' resurrection as the best explanation for the events that took place immediately after his crucifixion. To this brilliant legal scholar and former atheist, it would have been impossible for the disciples to persist with their conviction that Jesus had risen if they hadn't actually seen the risen Christ.
In his book The Testimony of the Evangelists, Greenleaf documents the evidence that caused him to change his mind. In his conclusion he challenges those who seek the truth about the resurrection to fairly examine the evidence.
Greenleaf was so persuaded by the evidence that he became a committed Christian. He believed that any unbiased person who honestly examines the evidence as in a court of law will conclude what he did - that Jesus has truly risen .
But the resurrection of Jesus Christ raises the question. What does the fact that Jesus defeated death have to do with my life? The answer to that question is what New Testament Christianity is all about.
Did Jesus Say What Happens After We Die?
If Jesus really did rise from the dead, then He alone must know what is on the other side.
What did Jesus say about and our future.
next post 30th August
ONE HEARTBEAT
AWAY
PART 23
(Mark Cahill's Book)
What is the Bible ? It is a compilation of 66 books written by more than 40 writers over a period of 1,600 years that reads like one book by one author.
The unity, harmony, and accuracy of the Bible cannot be compared with that of any other book. The Bible is by its very existence, evidence of a Divine Hand writing through devoted men.
if you have a favorite holy book other than the Bible, you may want to argue that. Let me explain to you why the Bible is unique.
One Bible scholar stated it this way:
Consider for a moment the sheer miracle of the Bible. It was written by over 40 writers during the span of more than 60 generations (around 1,600 years) ! These writers were from a variety of backgrounds; kings, herdsmen, soldiers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, priests and prophets.
The writers wrote on the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe in the languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramic. Yet (the Bible) manages to present one unfolding drama of redemption. How is it possible that the Bible could have been written in the most complex and counterproductive way imaginable, and yet manage to fit together so accurately?
The Bible is the best selling book of all time.
Many books have sold thousands, some have sold millions, some have even passed the ten million mark.
By comparison, Bible sales are about 150 million per year, with approximately four million Bibles in print, in over 2,000 languages. No other book even comes close. There is something about it that draws people all over the world to want to read it.
Now, the fact that there are billions of copies around doesn't mean that the Bible is true, but because it is the best-selling book in history, shouldn't you take a look at it? You don't want to be one of those people who feel free to critique or claim to "know" the Bible without actually having read it.
The Bible claims to have been written by God.
All other religious texts were written by men who claimed to be speaking for God. Men wrote the Bhagavad Gita: men who knew Mahomed, or knew of him, wrote the Koran long after his death; a man wrote the book of Mormon, claiming that an angel gave him the translation of ancient golden plates; Mary Baker Eddy wrote the central book of Christian Science, 'Science and Health with key to the Scriptures.'
First published by Eddy in 1879.
Only the Bible claims to have been written by God speaking to men. Over 3,000 times the Bible says, "Thus saith the Lord." What other book ever written has ever said something like that so many times? In no way, shape, or form is that book claiming human authorship.
When I discovered this fact, my question was; "Is there any evidence to prove the supernatural origin of the Bible? I found out that there is a wealth of information - from history, archaeology, science and prophecy - that shows the Bible is indeed the Word of God.
Don't agree with me
until you read the
following evidence.
Then decide for yourself one way or the other.
Historical Evidence Supports The Bible.
To prove something historically, you have to look at several things. One thing to consider is the early or original manuscripts of that document. Then we must ask: How close to the original is what we have today? In the case of the Bible, today we have over 24,000 ancient copies of portions of the New Testament. The next closest in all of antiquity is Homer's Illiad, of which we have 643 ancient copies.
John Warwick Montgomery said: "To be skeptical of the resultant text of the New Testament books is to allow all of the classical antiquity to slip into obscurity,
for no documents of the ancient period are as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament.
Also among ancient writings, there is no other text that has manuscripts that come as close in time to the original writing as the Bible does.We would never dismiss the old texts of the Illiad
or the Odyssey, and we shouldn't dismiss the Bible when it has much better documentation to back it up.
In addition, the book must also be free of any known contradictions. If a book contradicts itself then it isn't reliable. Dr. Gleason Archer said: "As I have dealt with one apparent discrepancy after another and have studied the alleged contradictions between the Biblical record and the evidence of linguists, archaeology, or science, my confidence in the trustworthiness of Scripture has been repeatedly verified and strengthened."
Many people claim that there are contradictions in the Bible, but when asked to identify one, they can't. Some say they have read it cover to cover - but they only did it once, years ago.
This tells us some people are basing their eternal destiny on what they read when they were twelve. Be sure you don't just believe what other people say without checking out the facts for yourself.
The external evidence for the Bible is also amazing. Tacitus, a Roman historian, and Josephus, a Jewish historian, both support the historical accuracy of the Bible. For example, there were seventeen secular historians who wrote about the death of Jesus by crucifixion. This could not have been concocted by a group of men ; External historical records attest to the truth of the Bible.
The Bible accurately describes history down to the smallest of details, and history attests to the accuracy of Scripture. For example, the rise and fall of great empires like Greece and Rome (Daniel 2: 39-40) and the destruction of major cities ( for instance; Tyre, Sidon; Isaiah 23) are described in the Bible.
Tyre's demise is also recorded by other ancient historians. They tell how, after King Nebuchedezzar of Babylon failed in a thirteen year attempt to capture the seacoast city-Alexander the Great laid siege to it for seven months and completely destroyed it and its inhabitants.
Intensive and prolonged study have shown how historical accuracy of the Bible is far superior to the written records of Egypt, Assyria and other early nations.
next post 24th August
ONE HEARTBEAT
AWAY
PART 22
Mark Cahill's Book
On one of my many flights, a man sitting next to me was taking notes on an article titled "Spirituality in the Neighborhood." I noticed pictures of Buddha statues throughout the article and was curious what it was about.
He told me that he was a Unitarian Universalist minister, and that in his congregation were Jews, Christians, Buddhists, atheists, etc. He had a little bit of everything in his church.
When I asked him, "When you die, what do you think is on the other side?" He replied "I really don't know." He said he was hoping in reincarnation, but that people could believe they wanted to? His church was into social justice by doing good things for others, so they thought that whatever happens on the other side they would be okay.
I challenged him with this question, "Is it possible that a person could believe something is going to be on the other side after death, but when he dies he finds that what he thought was going to be there was not actually there?"
He answered : "Of course."
"You are right, " I said. "If someone believes there is nothing when he dies and there is something , then he is 100% wrong. But you can't have a wrong answer unless there is a what?"
He looked at me and gulped. He replied;
" A right answer."
"Exactly . There has to be a right answer for eternity, and you just said so. That means there is eternal truth. That being the case, then some people in your congregation have wrong answers for eternity. What are you going to do about it? "
His logic forced him to admit that there were right and wrong answers, yet he didn't believe in right or wrong. But either there is something when we die or there is nothing. We can't all be right when it comes to our opinions on eternity.
And if there can be
a wrong answer for
eternity , then there
has to be a right one.
Do you know what
that right answer is?
Since reincarnation is one of the popular beliefs (in Hinduism, Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation and various occult and New Age circles, among others), I'd like to take a minute to think through how it might work.
The mechanism of reincarnation is based on the supposed "law of karma,"
in which good deeds and bad deeds are tallied and used as the basis for determining a person's fate in the next life.
One's good karma may earn them a better status or some good fortune in the next life, while one's bad karma will bring suffering into that life that matches the wrong done in the past.
Reincarnation typically ends only when one has advanced enough to have neither good karma nor bad karma, but to be totally neutral. Then one will be absorbed into an impersonal " universal consciousness, " or " cosmic consciousness," in which the individual self ceases to exist . That is, the end result is the complete annihilation of the finite self. The individual becomes "one with the universe."
I've always wondered: Who or what is able to keep track of each deed of each person who has ever lived in order to make the karmic circle work? Such an entity would have to be :
* everywhere (omnipresent) - to be able
to see all people at all times and know
their thoughts and motivations.
* all-knowing (omnicient) - in order to
keep a running tally of all those
billions of individuals and their
actions, and to determine whether
someone deserves a cosmic
thumbs-up or thumbs-down for
the next life.
* all powerful (omnipotent) - able to
enforce its decisions.
* good - having a pure sense of
morality that knows exactly what is
"good " and what is "bad" in every
particular situation. It also must be
righteous enough to make a just
judgment in assigning how that
person will be spending that future
life.
Now we have defined what "the universe" would have to be like in order to implement incarnation. But it seems that rather than some impersonal
"cosmic force ," these requirements describe a separate, personal, all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful, moral, just, intelligent, righteous Being.
In addition, if individuals will have their actions rightly judged as right or wrong, they would have to know in advance what the definitions of right and wrong are.
They would also have to know in advance where they are on the karmic scale. After all, wouldn't a fair God let people know where they stand? It would be the height of cruelty for an individual to have worked hard for a lifetime to accumulate 7,258,206,418 good deeds - and then find out (in the next lifetime, as a cockroach) that he was just one good deed short of the amount needed for advancement!
That would be a shame. And wouldn't be a fair God at all. Surely a fair, righteous, just God would tell us very clearly Who He is, how we can know Him, and what we can expect in eternity. He would also give us clear guidelines as to what is right and wrong, and let us know how we are doing.
Unlike other religious writings , the Bible actually does that.
next post 22nd August
ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY
