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“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5
5 But when he who had set me apart before I was born,[d] and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to[e]me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles
Galatians 1:15
Paul tells us here that God chose him to be an apostle before his birth. This gives us more insight that God predestined a path for us before we are ever born.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
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Wednesday evening podcast
Why the bible is True
4/6/2022
First, if any person tells you The Bible isn't true, and their reason is “it's written by men '' probably haven't read it, because anyone who reads this book will be hard pressed to make the argument that it was written by men.
Yes men physically wrote it, but through God speaking to them. It could not be any other way. The scripture goes against everything that is what man desires.
The want for revenge, the want for lust, the want for gluttony, and so on. So many of the things we WANT to do and we desire to do that come natural to us without teaching or example from others that God tells us is wrong and sinful and should be avoided at all costs.
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5:28… No man in his right mind would willingly write this. As any man with a pulse knows.
In fact could KILL US! As we see with the seven deadly sins.
No, if the bible was in fact written by man and only man and not through the voice of the almighty God the Bible would read much different than what we have today.
Not, love your enemies, but hate them and crush them?
Or..
Take only one spouse, and do not lust for another, in lieu of taking on multiple partners and feel free to go after the neighbor's spouse if you desire?....
You may chuckle at that last one, but there has been a recent rise and acceptance in American culture to be “polyamorous” or in a polyamorous relationship.
It is not hard to see into our own culture and the cultures of ancient civilizations to see that if man wanted to write a series of books to influence the world for all eternity he would of probably chose something far different than what we read today.
And thats just culture…
The prophecies alone are so mind boggling and strange that one, it makes almost no sense as to why they are there unless you understand why God put them there and two they actually came true…
There are over 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled in the bible, no other religion on earth has propecies that have been fulfilled, in the muslim relgion there is only one in theory, and it was Muhammed claiming to return to Mecah… but that is a far cry from claiming you will die and then raise from the dead in three days like Jesus did.
There was no way to prove Muhammad ever returned to Mecah… he just died. Poisoned by one of his wives. There are over 500 eye witness testimonies of Jesus’s resurrection.
Prophecies ranging from Jerusalem and its people to Babylon.. Prophecies spoken into existence and fulfilled in many cases over 500 years later. Long after Ezekiel or Jeremiah passed on. AND TO THE TEE, not just kind of or a little but exactly as God spoke it to be.
The example of Babylon is a fantastic one.
Considered one of the greatest ancient cities ever built.
The walls were fourteen to fifteen miles long
It was one hundred and ninety six square miles of architecture, hanging gardens, palaces and temples.
Babylon invented an alphabet, worked out problems of arithmetic, and invented implements for measuring time.
It was the most advanced nation ever in its time
And yet God made a great proclamation against Babylon in Isaiah 13
Read from the bible.
There are more than 100 specific prophecies concerning babylon's fate.
For instance in Jeremiah 51:58, 62 God said the broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and it shall be desolate forever.
The walls of Babylon were massive, 187 feet thick at its base with towers 300 feet in the air. For reference the Great wall of china is much smaller and not nearly as strong and yet it still stand today.
The walls of Babylon were completely destroyed.
God said that Babylon shall not be inhabited… Today? Its an utter wasteland. Nothing but heaps and huge mounds. Occupied by scorpions, jackals, and snakes.
The only thing left to show for the great city of Babylon is the ruins, composed of heaps of rubbish and impregnated with Niter.
The lands of Babylon were once so fertile that Herodotus refused to write about them lest people thought he was insane, now they are completely infertile because God doomed that area to perpetual desolation. As it was written.
It is now a barren desert, ruins are the only indication that it was once inhabited.
Babylon was situated in the most fertile part of the Euphrates valley, and yet twenty five hundred years later Babylon to this day remains an uninhabited waste land.
God said the city would not be built again, and it hasn't.
**Read the last paragraph from the book.
Beyond prophecies being fulfilled there are many other reasons to believe the bible to be true. I challenge anyone to read the book of Matthew and not fall to their knees in repentance to Christ afterward. It is really that compelling.
There is absolutely no denying Christ is our savior and lord after reading his story.
There are other books too, many pastors would point you toward Psalms if you never read anything else. I
Not to mention there are over 65000 cross references in the bible, somewhat like “Hyperlinks” in a website. There is nothing else like it in the world, it's not even close.
What makes it more amazing is that the bible was written by several different people in the course of thousands of years. And yet had 65000 cross references, all linking you to every chapter, and verse in astonishingly cohesive manner.
And it is no wonder that the chapters in the bible are like an onion with thousands of layers to be peeled back, no one can read the same verse and not understand something new that they did not know before. And yet the Bible is so easy to understand and absorb.
It is the easiest most complex piece of literature for a reader to understand.
It has deep rooted psychological meaning that transcends beyond the surface of what a story is teaching us biblically. In other words one can interpret the story of Kane and Abel from a godly and religious perspective, but there is also a serious scientific psychological truth there as well that not even an atheists therapist could deny…
This book is seriously deep. Its incomprehensible to try to understand how this book was put together and lasted untouched, unmanipulated for so long.
Math, science, these books are constantly updated and revised for students. And yet… the Bible has never changed.
Over Five billion copies sold, over 1500 different languages. It is the most influential and the most stolen book…
In the words of Jordan Peterson. The bible isn't just true, it's beyond truth.
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Sermon, 2/6/22 Why Christianity
Has anyone you know ever asked you. So why Christianity? Or what makes christianity true?
This sort of question can often catch us off guard, and in the moment we try to answer in such a way that is simple, but also impactful.
We want to make sure we answer right, for our own witness but also so that maybe we could convince the person asking the question.
But this sort of question does not provide a short and simple answer. Instead if anyone ever asks you that question you should first respond with, “Well, how much time do you have because that is not a question that can be answered in short order”
The second response may be a more difficult one, so oftentimes the best way to respond back is, “well why don't you believe christianity to be true?” This sort of question will allow the other person to be engaged with you and allow them to be open about their ideas while revealing to you exactly what it is they think and how you can best answer the original question. “Why Christianity”
After all that's a hard question to answer because it elicits multiple responses, and not all of those responses are relative to the person asking the question. We need pinpoint precision here. And the best way to get that is to turn it around and ask them back, why don't you believe christianity to be true?
This follow up always allows you to gauge where the person is on their journey to find Christ. The thing to remember here is you are not trying to save this person in this conversation. YOU DO NOT NEED TO SAVE EVERYONE YOU TALK TO ABOUT GOD. In fact you shouldn't be trying to. Instead it is our job as evangelicals to plant the seed, and let God water it.
Maybe eventually you do bring them to Christ, but its a process, and you must be patient and in prayer asking God for guidance.
Once we have a response we can move forward with an answer. Some times that response elicits a simple and quick answer, but more often you will need to sit down and explain it in detail.
So what are some common questions we may receive as followers of God and what could be the responses we give?
Bullet points:
What makes christianity true over other religions?Why do we need to be savedWhat does it mean to be savedOpening statements:
We have a world of information at our fingertips with the internet and things like google Today's non believers are closer to 0 than they are 10 (explain the level of belief)Society today, people are higher educated, in one way they are open to learning, but shut off from things that seem to be unexplainable (bring up joe rogan and breaking of bread as an example).People seem to need more proof today, almost a science like explanation. Apologetics helps with non-believers such as that, but what about people who are more agnostic? We encounter this quite often, not so much people who are atheist but maybe theistic that aren't necessarily rooted in any one religion. Or simply put, people who just don't know what to believe.One of the biggest questions we face is:
“What makes christianity true over other religions”
Oh how much time do you have?
This is probably the question that often requires the longest response, take your time with this one.
Generally we hear “what makes christianity true? Aren't all religions the same anyway?”
While it's true that Religions have superficial similarities, they have essential differences.
They differ on the nature of God, the nature of man, sin, salvation, heaven, hell and creation.
While religion is about people working their way to God, Christianity is God working his way to people.
For instance Jesus teaches us that we are to have a personal relationship with God
John Chapter 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus christ whom you have sent”
in the Muslim faith it is blasphemy to claim to have or want a relationship with Allah as he is unknowable, even in the afterlife you will never know Allah. (How can your creator not know you or you not know him?)
Jesus taught us that God is our father, but in islam its blasphemy to call alah your father.
Jesus taught us that we are made in the image of God, In islam Alah has no image and thus can not be made in his image.
And since I am on the topic of the Muslim religion, some key differences between our savior Jesus Christ and the muslims profit Muhammad:
Jesus never killed anyone, Muhammad killed over 3000 people
Jesus never led armies, Muhammad led armies, and conquered land.
Jesus never owned slaves. Muhammad owned slaves
Jesus never married, Muhammad had 11-22 wives including his favorite a 9 year old.
Jesus never lied, Muhammad permits lying
Jesus never forced anyone to believe or follow him, Muhammad killed those would not follow him.
Jesus never permitted rape, Muhammad did.
Jesus Conquered death, by the resurrection. Muhammad, he just died, in-fact he was actually poisoned by one of his wives. She said she was trying to see if he was truly a profit.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, Jesus teaches us to forgive one another, to seek God in all things.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you
Ephesians 4:22
The muslim faith is the most opposite of the christian faith, and is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Not because its true, but Muslims are having children at a higher rate than Christians… But its why I focused so heavily just now as an example of differences.
The corps principle of christianity is that you are to have an intimate and strong relationship with Christ, and seek to have your life resemble his as much as you possibly can. This is the key to salvation, is acknowledging that Christ is our savior, he came down from heaven to be our direct line to the father so that we could be saved from our transgressions and he did this by living a perfect sinless life and then dying for our sins on the cross and resurrecting 3 days later as he promised.
Your salvation in christianity is not based off works like other religions,
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2: 8-9
Other religions are formulated around your works as salvation. Judaism does not believe in a heaven or hell per say and believes that good works for the lord should be focus and that will lead you to a new world.
The same can be said about the muslim religion, if you can not know allah and allah cant know you, and this you must do all you can to have a prosperous afterlife, this corps of beliefs in my opinion is why its so easy to radicalize non moderate muslims into hanous acts of violence.
This is not to say that a christian is not supposed to live a good life and do good works. We are commanded by god to live a life that resembles that of Jesus, that means we are to help others, to do good works, and spread the gospel that is Jesus Christ, but those works wont be the deciding factor for your afterlife. Your relationship to christ is, and SIN destroys to soul and hardens the heart but it also leads us on a path away from Christ, that Sinful path will eventually lead you in an eternal separation that is hell.
The mere fact that Christianity is a religion of love for one another, but also a true and deep relationship with our creator over anything else leads me to believe that this is true over all other beliefs. This is not a religion of selfishness, this is not about me, its about all of us, seeking God and having a relationship with him.
Knowing that God knows us, because he created us, and that he is the omnipotent creator of the vast universe and desires to know you and me, and to help us, to guide us, and love us. And that Jesus sacrificed himself for you and me, when I do not deserve it, and I to this day do things that further prove that point… he still is there arms open to embrace me. That my friends is the truth.
But there's more, and I will touch on it in future episodes, For instance the chain of custody and how it affirms the biblical Jesus. We have a lot of evidence that proves the existence of Christ and what he did. And just how powerful the bible truly is, its incapable of being a creation of man. Thats why I said earlier, when some one asks why christianity, ask why not? And then follow up with “How much time do you have?”
Its not a simple question with a simple answer, there's hundreds of reasons why and very few arguments of why not…
A follow up response to the Why christianity? May be why do we have to be saved?
And I believe that this reason is another affirmation of the Truth of Christianity because we can see it in the world around us.
Simply…
The reason we have to be saved is because we are born of sin, we are sinners, living in a fallen world, inherently provoked by our fleshy desires.
When Eve took the bite of the apple and offered it to Adam in the garden when they were commanded not to this was the first sin, it opened our eyes to the true world that is the fallen world.
There was nothing Adam or Eve could do in that moment to redeem themselves for acting out against God. After all how could they? And what kind of God would he be if he allowed this sin or that sin.
GOD SAID YOU SHALL NOT EAT FROM THIS TREE! And they blatantly disobeyed God and for that we now live in this broken world, filled with sin, and eventually will return to it as the dirt from which we came.
No one is capable of their own salvation because no one is without sin. You see we can not do enough, say enough, or sacrifice enough to be saved from the sins that we commit. You may not think that you're a sinner but my friend you sin everyday and you probably dont even realize it.
And so because of that you can not save yourself by any means.
We had to have a perfect, sinless man sacrifice himself for all of us, to go as be a liaison between us and God. And that person was the son of God because thats the only way you could have a man on this earth live a perfect life, because a mere mortal of a man will certainly fall short.
So Jesus came, in the form of man to live amongst us a perfect sinless life and to lead us to God and eventually he would sacrifice himself and conquer death through his resurrection so that we may have everlasting life in heaven with the father.
Jesus said no one comes before the Father but through me.
That means the only way you’re getting to God is to seek Jesus, believe in him and what he did and follow him.
Now what does that mean to be saved?
This is important
This is third follow up question you may be asked.
To be saved means to accept who Jesus is, what he did, and that you are a sinner, and that you know that you need Jesus in your life and accept him in to it. You can say the sinner’s prayer it goes something like this:
“Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I believe You died for my sins so I could be forgiven. I receive You as my Lord and Savior. Thank You for coming into my life. Amen.”
But listen let me tell you something friend there are many people who said this prayer and are dammed to hell. Because theres more to being saved than repeating a few words you church has told you.
To be saved means to that you believe that prayer 100% in your soul and that you actively live it out every day of your life. You surrender your life to the lord, why? To be a slave to him? No…
To loose free will over your life? No… you wont lose that
But to understand that God has a plan for you. That your life has purpose, that you're not just some soul and bag of bones wondering the earth looking up and saying hey god every so often…
TO SEEK the lord in all things of your life, to Seek a relationship with him. That means making time every day for him, praying, and listening to when he speaks to you.
To be saved is more than a catch phrase it is an act of life, it is a change in you, you are born again, cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Does this mean you will never sin? No…
Does this mean you will never have hard times? No….
Life will always be hard thats the burden we bare for our fallen nature. But when you are saved and have a relationship with christ you now have the omnipotent, loving God who knows all and whats best fighting with you in your corner.
Its just that simple.
Theres no guessing, no wondering, you know that your soul is saved and that its written in the lambs book of life when you accept christ as your lord, and live your life for him.
Wrap up
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Giving my Testimony in the best way I can so that I can introduce myself to you all.
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Statement of faith, Mission statement
“No Apologies, Apologetics with David King” believes in the gospel that is Jesus Christ. I (David King) Believe that Jesus came to this earth in the form of man to rescue us from our sins. He sacrificed his life and arose from the dead as he promised, and now sits at the right hand of God.
He did this because we are his fallin children in need of saving from our sin. I believe that some one must be saved to enter the kingdom of God, but beyond that shall maintain a loving and in depth relationship with God during their lives.
I preach from a NKJV (New King James version Bible) and Interpret the gospel as literally as possible. You are welcome to follow along with any variation you choose, I just wanted you to know what bible I will be reading from.
It is my mission with this podcast to help christians to better defend their faith but more than that help them in professing and ministering to those who do not know Christ. So many people today know little or nothing about Jesus Christ and sadly get whatever little information they have from pop culture or the news. This can be very misleading or at best leave holes in the truth.
The Christian today has to be well prepared and ready at any moment to explain the gospel to someone who is completely unaware and at times may have a negative attitude. We must be patient with those who do not know Christ, or maybe have some hostility toward our faith.
It is my hope that I can help bring people to Christ through this podcast, help in growing closer to God and their knowledge of the Bible.
This is a podcast based in apologetics but will not always be on Apologetics. The message will change weekly but always be centered around God.
For More Information you can contact me at [email protected]
