1) Fulfilled prophecies: The Bible contains more than 2,000 predictive prophecies that have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled. No other holy book of any other faith has anything to compare with such a supernatural vindication by prophecy and fulfillment. Most sacred books of other faiths contain no predictive prophecies at all! Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies when He came to die for our sins! These 300 prophecies were written in the Old Testament centuries before His birth and gave details of His birth, ministry, teachings, death and resurrection. No other world leader in all of human history has anything like that supernatural witness! In the Old Testament in Isaiah 48:3-5 God explains that He has given predictive prophecy in order to prove that He is God and that Israel's idols are not God. In other words God said that He predicted certain events and then brought them to pass and this proves that He is God. Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. Many Jewish people are coming to recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. There is a whole movement of Jewish believers in Jesus called Messianic Judaism. These Jewish people see that Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies!

2) The love of God: The love of God is something that people in a postmodern society take for granted. Ask anyone on the street if they believe God loves them and you're sure to get a "yes" answer. Did you know that only the Bible teaches that God loves people? The Koran doesn't teach this. The Muslim concept of God is that He is so transcendent or so far removed from creation that He is unknowable. The Hindu Vedas don't teach that their supreme god Brahma loves you. Buddhism has almost no concept of a creator god at all. Buddhism is said to be an atheistic faith. This brings us to liberal Christianity and Deism and Unitarianism which do teach that God loves people but where do they get this concept? All of the liberal Christian groups ultimately get their views of a loving God from the Bible. These groups may deny Bible teaching on the wrath of God and hell but they adhere to the concept of the love of God. By the way, the Bible does not teach that God is "all loving." The Bible teaches that God both kind and severe (Romans 11:22). He loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins so that we can receive forgiveness and avoid hell.  

3) A Savior who actually saves us: In all of the major world religions you have to do good works in order to earn or qualify for a place in heaven. That's why Hinduism and the other eastern religions teach that you have to be reincarnated over and over again to keep on doing good works to balance out bad Karma and earn a place in paradise. The founders of the world's religions other than Christianity didn't die for the sins of the people but just taught the people to do good deeds. They pointed the way and in effect said "Go and save yourselves by good deeds." Jesus came in fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies and worked miracles among the people to show that He was sent by God. He not only taught the people how to do good and live rightly but He also suffered the horror of being tortured to death by means of the cross by which He bore the wrath of God upon Himself in our place. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24 NAS).

4) God is our Father: It may come as a shock to some to realize that the Bible is the only holy book of any faith that presents God as a loving Father. The Bible even invites us to call God "Abba," the ancient Hebrew equivalent of "Daddy." Again this is something taken for granted by liberal Christians and even by the unbelieving society at large but only the Bible teaches this precious and tender truth. The Koran and the Hindu Vedas are void of the concept of God as a loving and accessible Father.

5) A resurrected Savior: Jesus performed the greatest miracle of all by rising from the dead. He appeared to many people after His resurrection. His disciples witnessed His ascension into heaven. His resurrection and ascension were in fulfillment of predictive prophecies written centuries before in the Old Testament. Siddhartha, Zoroaster, Confucius and Mohammed all are dead in their graves. Only Jesus "destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:10 NIV). There are a few pagan resurrection stories in mythology but these tend to be void of any claim to having occurred in real history.

6) A good weekend: It might seem trite but the Bible gives us the concept of the weekend! The Bible in the Old Testament commanded that the people must do no work on the seventh day of the week. The ancient Romans saw this as laziness and one Roman writer claimed that the Jews were wasting one-seventh of their lives. No other holy book of any other faith shows the wisdom and compassion of giving all people from nobility to the lowest servant a day off at such a short interval. The Bible even commanded that animals be given the seventh day off! Your horse or ox were required to rest. The ancient "great" civilizations all worked their slaves to death seven days per week. The early church continued to rest every seventh day even though the Sabbath commandment was fulfilled and a literal rest was not commanded in the New Testament. The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day of the week caused many to regard this day, which we call Sunday, to be a day of rest and worship. Thus the custom in western civilization of resting on both the seventh day (Saturday) and the first day (Sunday) took hold. Let's give thanks to God for the weekend!

The above list of particulars is only a partial list of the many things that give witness to the truth and wisdom of the Bible and the Christian faith. Predictive prophecies are like God's signature on the Bible and proves that the Bible is inspired by God.   

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2009 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given

DEFENDING THE FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world. The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel. All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given. To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button. *Security: Write the characters in the image above (Case sensitive)