Recently, I've been going through a lot of health challenges that really tested my faith in God. But God is helping me through by staying with me through my doubts and also by providing some wise counsel from one of the pastors at my church, Sammie Brooks. He encouraged me to write out the reasons for my faith and I am endeavoring to do just that.
If I were to talk with anyone about why I believe in God, I would have to start with the evidence in nature. The Earth is wonderfully made, situated the perfect distance from the sun traveling at thousands of miles per hour in a precise orbit. All the animals on the Earth are complex creations, designed with specialized body structure and organs that could not have evolved slowly over millions of years. On the underside of a tiny insect called the leafhopper nymph are microscopic structures that look very much like gears, containing “teeth” that range in height from just 15 to 30 millionths of a meter.
These gears mesh together to keep the nymph’s rear legs synchronized for an impressively powerful leap. For something so complex to be found in a living creature disproves evolutionary theory that suggests that slow change over time accounts for the huge amount of diversity in the animal kingdom. The legs and the gears that connect them would have had to evolve at exactly the same time, a possibility that is simply too far-fetched to believe.
Even more complex is the nervous system of the human body. "The individual neuron is only a small component in the interconnected circuitry of the nervous system. Information scientist Dr. Werner Gitt said, ‘If it were possible to describe [the nervous system] as a circuit diagram, [with each neuron] represented by a single pinhead, such a circuit diagram would require an area of several square kilometers … [it would be] several hundred times more complex than the entire global telephone network.’” (1)
And even the daily occurrence of a sunset reveals a beauty that could only have come from a loving God.
The reason I say this with such confidence is that there are the powerful examples of how God has proved his existence and love for humanity in the past. He inspired faithful men in Israel to write books of prophecies, which archaeology has proven were written long before the time of Christ.
So, let us explore just a few of the wealth of Messianic prophecies. The details of what the Messiah would be called is a good place to start.
Psalm 2:7: “I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: ‘He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.’”
Psalm 2:11-12: “Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”
Gabriel's announcement to Mary in Luke 1 makes it abundantly clear that Jesus would be the “Son” that David wrote about in Psalm 2 and many others. “‘You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end’” (Luke 1:31-33).
More significantly, two seemingly conflicting prophecies about Jesus' birth both come to pass.
Hosea 11:1 says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2).
I'm sure Jewish people who lived before the birth of Jesus thought: “How can the Messiah be born in Bethlehem, come out of Egypt and somehow be called a Nazarene?”
From our knowledge now, we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem before Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Egypt to flee the wrath of King Herod, events described in Matthew 2. In the final section of that chapter, an angel of the Lord told Joseph that was now safe to return to Israel. Joseph returned to Israel and settled in the town of Nazareth, which was why Jesus was called a Nazarene. God definitely brought all the details together in an exciting and complex way.
Even more eye-catching prophecies and their fulfillment surround Jesus' death and resurrection from the dead. For me, the wondrous nature of these prophecies begins in the facts of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples.
Zechariah 11:12-13 contains a prophecy that seems ambiguous at first: “I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.”
This was amazingly fulfilled when Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and the following details in Matthew 27 provide an obvious connection to the passage in Zechariah. "When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, ‘It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.’ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners” (Matthew 27:3-7).
The chief priests ended up purchasing a potter's field! What are the odds of that?! This was obviously no coincidence; God was orchestrating things to prove his reality.
The most important prophecy, however, has to be the one found in Isaiah 53:10-11: “Yet it was the Lord ’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”
These two verses provide hope for all of mankind. If we are honest with ourselves, we all can admit that we have sinned against God. Even a cursory reading of the Ten Commandments makes it obvious that we have broken God's Law and fall far short of his glory. We need our sins to be forgiven and cleansed to have a relationship with God and to experience his blessings rather than his wrath. And we have evidence that Jesus indeed rose from the dead, a glorious event that gives witness to the fact that he accomplished the mission God sent Him to do, redeeming everyone who trusts in Him.
“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord” (John 20: 19-20).
Can you imagine the depth of joy the disciples felt?! I can certainly relate. The hope I have in this life emanates from the fact that Jesus is alive!
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
Jesus then charged his disciples and those who came after them with the task of spreading the message around the world that all those who trust in Him would be saved.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).
If you look at the past 2,000 years of history you will find many examples that Jesus had indeed been with his followers, inspiring acts of astounding faith displayed by brave men and women alike. Although some claiming to be Christians have let their sinful nature get in the way of the spread of the Gospel, countless true believers have braved danger, torture, and even death to remain faithful to God and their mission to bear witness for Christ across the world. Even today, as persecution of Christians has risen dramatically over the last 100 years, stories of amazing bravery and commitment to the Gospel are becoming as plentiful as wildflowers in a meadow.
Richard Wurmbrand endured years of torture in a Communist prison for his Christian faith, yet never abandoned his faith in Jesus. After his release, he went on to found an organization that would eventually be called Voice of the Martyrs, a truly incredible organizations that comes to the aid of persecuted Christians all over the world. God used something that would destroy most men to shape Richard into a man who could change the world.
Even more counter-intuitive is the growth of the number of Christians in countries where governments try to violently suppress Christianity. In Nigeria, China, and even the hellish land of North Korea, the Christian church continues to survive and, in some cases, even thrive. Something so miraculous could only happen if Someone supernatural was at work. Isn't this proof enough that Jesus is who He said He is: the Savior of the World?
And so recounting all of these things has reinvigorated my faith. If you are a believer then I hope reading this has strengthened your faith, but if not, I pray my words would awake a desire in you to discover the amazingly loving God that I know.
References
1. www.answersingenesis.org
All verses are taken from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise specified.
