WHY SHOULD I
COMMIT MY LIFE
TO JESUS CHRIST?
Submitted by Michael Gill
The purpose of this set of study notes is NOT to answer that question FROM scripture. You will be shown vital claims and supporting evidences which set Jesus Christ apart from and far above all other philosophies and persons. Jesus is indispensable, completely necessary, and the only means to becoming acceptable to God!
Some subjects we will cover are:
· The Uniqueness Of The Bible
· How Was the Bible Prepared?
· The Canon (Why only 66 books?)
· The Historical Text of the Bible is confirmed.
· Archaeology Confirms the Bible.
· Jesus Is A Real Man of History.
· Jesus – God’s Son.
· The Trilemma (Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?)
· If God Did Become a Man, Then What Would He be like?
· Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled In Jesus Christ.
· The Resurrection (Hoax or History?)
· Prophecy Fulfilled In History
· Uniqueness of the Christian Experience.
· The Four Spiritual Laws.
“Christianity is either everything for mankind, or nothing. It is either the highest certainty or the greatest delusion. ...But if Christianity be everything for mankind, it is important for every man to be able to give a good reason for the hope that is in him in regard to the eternal verities of the Christian faith. To accept these verities in an unthinking way, or to receive them simply on authority, is not enough for an intelligent and stable faith.”
- F. R. Beattie
“The facts backing the Christian claim are not a special kind of religious fact. They are the cognitive, informational facts upon which all historical, legal, and ordinary decisions are based.”
- Clark Pinnock
The statement, “It does not matter what you believe, as long as you believe it enough” is not enough for the serious Christian. Christian faith is in Christ. If Christ is not who He says He is, and if Christ has not risen from the dead, then the Christian’s faith is in nothing! The object of our faith is the foundation of our faith.
- Michael L. Gill
Uniqueness of the Bible
The writers of the New Testament either wrote as eyewitnesses of the events they describe, or recorded eyewitness firsthand accounts of the events. Read this scripture list:
2nd Peter 1:16 1st John 1:1-3 Luke 1:1-3 Acts 1:1-3
1st Cor. 15:6-8 John 20:30-31 Acts 10:39-42 Acts 1:9
1st Peter 5:1 Acts 2:32 Acts 3:15 Acts 4:33
Acts 5:32 Acts 10:39 Acts 10:41 Acts 13:31
The people to whom they spoke had firsthand knowledge also. A person had better be careful when he says to his opposition, “You know this also.” If he is not right in the details, it will be shoved right back down his throat!
Acts 2:22 Acts 26:24-28
Most people reject Jesus Christ for one or more of the following reasons:
1. Ignorance Romans 1:18-23, Matthew 22:29
2. Pride John 5:40-44
3. Moral Problems John 3:19-20
The Bible is unique, different from all others in these and many other ways.
1. Written over about 1,500 years span.
2. Written over 40 generations.
3. Written by 40 authors of various walks of life and of various places. (Asia, Africa, and Europe hosted writers who were kings, herdsmen, soldiers, legislators, fishermen, statesmen, courtiers, priests, prophets, tax collectors, tent-makers, and physicians.)
4. Written in three languages. (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek)
5. Written in various literary types. (History, Civil Law, Criminal Law, Ethical Law, Ritual Law, Sanitary Law, religious poetry, biography, personal correspondence, memoirs, diaries, prophecy and apocalyptic)
6. Biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity, from Genesis to Revelation, with one unfolding story: “God’s redemption of man.”
7. The Bible’s survival through time (being written on perishable materials, recopied by hand for hundreds of years, copyists keeping track of every letter, syllable, word, and paragraph.) is unique.
8. The Bible’s survival through persecution is unique. (Declared illegal by Emperor Diocletian in A.D. 303, many copies were burned. Emperor Constantine had 50 new copies prepared just 25 years later. Voltaire of France predicted the Bible and Christianity would die out before 1870, but 50 years after his death the Geneva Bible Society used his printing press and house to produce stacks of Bibles. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized and vilified, or subjected to such venom and skepticism)
9. Unique in prophecy. (Islam cannot point to any prophecies of the coming of Mohammed uttered hundreds of years before his birth. Neither can the founders of any cult in this country RIGHTLY identify any ancient text specifically foretelling their appearance.
10. Unique in History. (The Table of Nations found in Genesis 10 is an astonishingly accurate historical account, standing absolutely alone in ancient literature. It shows such remarkable modern understanding of the ethnic and linguistic situation in the modern world.)
11. Unique in its influence. (Movies and books steal the “savior needed” theme of the Bible all the time. No other book has inspired people to fight to free slaves, to respect women, to educate the masses, and to liberate the oppressed. People who have rejected its truth have become the greatest villains of history!)
A person looking for truth would certainly have to consider a book that has these, and more such, qualifications.