How To Know God

admin — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 02:34:06 +0000

We can know certain facts about God – such as His wisdom and power – from what creation reveals. But the only way to have a correct view of Him is to accept what He said about Himself. We can never come to a true knowledge of God unless He reveals Himself to us through the infallible communication of the Bible which is His Word.

Only One God

The Bible clearly teaches that there is only one God. There are many verses in the old and New Testaments that declare this. One Old Testament verse says, “Know … and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39).

In the New Testament, Mark proclaims, “For there is one God; and there is no other but He” (Mark 12:32). James states, “You believe that there is one God. You do well” (James 2:19). And Paul writes, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men” (1 Timothy 2:5).

God’s Oneness

It is obvious that God’s oneness is very different from man’s oneness which limits him. Man cannot be in two places at the same time. But God can. The creator God, who made the laws of nature, is not subject to the laws of physics or mathematics.

If God wanted to be on His throne in heave, and here on earth at the same time, would that be possible for Him? Of course it would! And that is exactly what He did when Christ came to this earth. God was in heaven and also on earth in the person of Jesus Christ – at the same time.

Who is Jesus?

It was not Christians who decided to call Jesus the Son of God. It was God Himself. When Gabriel was sent by God to tell Mary that she would give birth to Jesus while she was a virgin, Gabriel said to her: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32).

And after Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven said: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This sonship, of course, is a spiritual relationship. No one in his right mind would think that God had a wife or a mistress. That would be blasphemy!

How To Know

From this we can see that Jesus is not a mere man. The Bible tells us that “in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). It also says that in Him “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Jesus came here as a Man for our sakes.

Dear friend, do you want to know God? You can only know Him through the Bible which is His Word, and through Jesus Christ who is His Son.

-Rafique

What is the Truth?

admin — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 18:05:11 +0000

Many of my religious friends are convinced that God could not possibly have permitted wicked people to kill Jesus Christ. Instead, they say, “Someone else was put on the cross and God made people think it was Jesus.”

But when I ask, “Who was it?” they have different answers. Some say it was Judas Iscariot. Others think it was a volunteer who was promised Paradise if he would take Jesus’ place on the cross. Still others say it was a passerby.

I have heard 12 different views in all. Many of my religious and moral friends believe their view to be true, but I cannot agree with their theories about the cross. And here are my reasons.

First, many prophecies, written hundreds of years before Christ came, speak of His death on our behalf. Although these prophecies condemn the Jews for killing Christ, they are still in their Holy Book. The Jews dare not change a word. For example, Isaiah says: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities … All we like sheep have gone astray … and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all … He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (53:5,6,12).

Most Jewish teachers tell their people not to read this chapter. But this is only one prophecy about the death of Christ on our behalf. The prophet David in the Psalms (El Zaboor) wrote about Christ’s hands and feet being pierced (22:16). This happened in the crucifixion.

Second, eyewitnesses recorded the death of Christ. They had nothing to gain in making up a story about insulting their beloved Teacher and Lord. They do not have 12 theories. They have the facts. They were shocked at His death, but when He rose from the dead they were overjoyed. Christ already told them this would happen. This alone is proof that no one else died on the cross.

Once my friends see there are definite proofs that Christ died on the cross they ask: “Could not God have delivered Him from the hands of the wicked?” I reply that Christ could have asked the Father to send twelve armies of angels to destroy these people (Matthew 26:53).

When they ask why He did not, I have a chance to present the most important point in the whole argument. Christ was not forced to die, nor was He defeated. Christ came to this earth to die for our sins. There was no other way for us to be saved from the eternal damnation we all deserve as sinners.

The Savior had to be sinless, and Christ is the only One who never sinned. He willingly died on our behalf and bore the punishment of our sins so “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission (forgiveness) of sins” (Acts 10:43). “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which men must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Dear Reader, our own efforts will never save us. The Bible clearly states this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Do you want God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life? Then receive Christ by faith in your heart!