We lead busy lives. We don't all have time to read all we might want to read. For this reason, this message has been designed so that you can read it in one minute flat.   In fact I hope you can finish it in less time than that.

What is life all about? Each of us is born and then goes to school, gets a job, gets married, has a family, continues to work, retires and dies. Is this all there is?

What is life's purpose? What is my destiny? How can I be fulfilled and have the emptiness in my life filled with true meaning? The following will help answer these questions, and give a clearer understanding of how the true meaning in life is found in Jesus Christ alone.

What do you believe about the existence of God?
If you believe that God exists - - click here

If you believe that God may or may not exist - - click here  
If you think God doesn't exist - - click here

When we examine the questions about God, 'Who is He?' and 'How can I know Him?' we encounter the limitations of a finite mind as it attempts to understand an infinite being, person or God. Because of our limited and finite minds, mankind has developed many different opinions.

The stars above, their order and magnificence are a testimony to the existence of God. When you open the bonnet of a car and look at the complexity of the engine, obviously it just did not happen. It was designed. What about a flower or a new born baby? The chance that life forms emerging unaided is comparable with the change that 'a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein' said Fred Hoyle professor of astronomy at Cambridge University.

Even, when a person says there is no God, that person violates a basic philosophical principle. He is a person with a finite understanding making an absolute statement about the nature of infinity. It would be like asking how much total knowledge mankind possesses. Albert Einstein, the Nobel Prize Winner in physics has said that mankind grasps less than one percent of total knowledge, would it not be possible for God to exist in the other ninety-nine percent?

You can see that it is impossible for a person with a finite mind to make an absolute statement that there is no God because to do so would need to possess total knowledge; therefore, it is very difficult for people to think about what God is really like and be confident that their opinions are correct. It is not possible to say 'I am an atheist' and agree that humanity has less than one percent of total knowledge. Most atheists are really agnostics who disclaim any knowledge of God.

No one can prove that God does not exist
The following conversation between a man and a lady provides further insight into the world of the agnostic.

MAN: I am a definitely an agnostic.

LADY: Are you a hard agnostic or a soft agnostic?

MAN: What do you mean?

LADY: A hard agnostic says, 'You can't know if there is a God' and a soft agnostic says, 'I don't think there is a God'.

MAN: OK I am a hard agnostic.

LADY: So, you say for certain there is absolutely and definitely no God?

MAN: No, I suppose I can't say for sure, that there is definitely no God.

LADY: So you are really a soft agnostic?

MAN: All right, yes, I guess that is true - I don't know if there is a God.

LADY: You just don't have evidence that there's a God.

MAN: That's right. I haven't seen any evidence that there is a God.

LADY: Is it also true that you have never seen any evidence that there is no life after death.

MAN: OK I suppose that's true also.

Now back to our panel of religious experts. Suppose someone in this group stood up and said, 'I am God Almighty - I am the Creator of the heavens and the earth. I made you and if you are ever to experience true meaning in your life you must know me in a personal way and have a relationship with me.' If this happened, we would at least have a place to start. We could look at the evidence of His life to determine the truthfulness or falseness of that statement. And that is exactly what we have in the person of Jesus Christ.

I agree that it is not possible to scientifically prove that God exists in a test tube experiment, but fortunately there is a large amount of evidence regarding his son Jesus.

As you will see, there is more evidence regarding the existence of God, through the life and death of his Son Jesus, than there is evidence of the non existence of God.

During his earthly ministry two thousand years ago, Jesus said that He was the maker of the heavens and the earth and that only through Him could mankind experience true peace and be given eternal life. He not only issued this dramatic declaration. He had the credentials to back up those claims. The record shows that Jesus was not crucified because He raised the dead or because He made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be the Son of God. That makes the question of His relationship to God of utmost importance.

Buddha simply said, 'I am a teacher in search of the truth.'

Jesus said, 'I am the truth.'

Confucius said, 'I never claimed to be holy.'

Jesus said, 'Who convicts me of sin?'

Mohammed said, 'Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope.'

Jesus said, 'Unless you believe in me, you die in your sins.'

Your decision about Jesus Christ is more important than your ideology. It is more important than your career. And it is more important than the mate you choose. If Jesus is the Son of God, then you must decide what to do with that information. If he is not God then we should have nothing to do with him.

I hope that when you have finished reading this, you will not continue to say that Jesus was just a good man. If you wish to be honest in the interest of intellectual integrity you cannot assume neutral ground. Jesus is either the Son of God or He is a liar. You may conclude that Jesus is not the Son of God and choose to dismiss Him, but as Professor Lewis said, please do not say He was just a good moral leader.

One day Jesus asked some of His followers two questions, 'Who does the world say that I am?' and 'Who do you say that I am?'

Those two questions are our starting point. First, who does the world say that Jesus Christ is? If you have already investigated Jesus Christ, you probably agree with most thinking people that Jesus is the most unique personality the world has ever known. Jesus is not simply a great man among men; He's the greatest man who has ever lived. The more you study His life, the more you are impressed.

Rousseau, another French thinker, compared Jesus with Socrates, saying, 'If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage - the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.'

Napoleon said, 'I know men, and Jesus Christ was no mere man.'

Renan, the French thinker has said, 'Whatever surprises the future may bring, one thing is certain, Jesus will never be surpassed.'

More recently one writer described His influence in this way: 'That of all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were built, and all of the parliaments that have ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life, Jesus of Nazareth.'

Remember our question: 'Who does the world say that Jesus Christ is?' Some people say that Jesus was a legend or a myth, that He never really existed.

Historian Phillip Schaff says, 'The certainty of Jesus Christ is as certain as my own identity.'

Dr F F Bruce has said, 'Some people play with the myth, legend, ideal of Christ; those who do so, do not do so on the basis of historical investigation!' Even secular historical sources such as Cornelius Tacitus, the Roman historian of the first century, speak in detail of the person of Christ.

Flavius Josephus, the well known first-century Jewish historian, speaks of the life and death of Jesus and how He went about claiming to be the Messiah and performing great works.

Sceptic H G Wells, in The Outline of History, devotes over 20 pages to Jesus Christ, substantiating His life and death from a historical perspective.

Before we continue about the life of Jesus Christ, it is important to examine the authenticity of the Bible because the Bible is the major (but not only source of information) about Jesus.

Is the Bible reliable?
If you believe that the Bible is reliable - - click here

If you think the Bible is not reliable - - click here

In The Evidence for Classical Literature , Professor Barnes lists three standard tests used to determine the reliability of historical documents: A bibliographical test, an internal test, and an external test.

The Bibliographical Test looks at the number of manuscript copies of the original and the length of time between the writing of the original and the writing of the existing copies when none of the originals still exists.

The Internal Test looks at internal consistencies and inconsistencies within the manuscript.

The External Test looks at other historical materials to determine if they confirm or deny statements within the manuscript, ie, archaeological evidence.

Here is how the bibliographical test works: Caesar wrote his history of the Gallic Wars between 100 and 44 BC. The earliest copy that we have is one produced 1,000 years after his death, and we have only ten copies of that document. Plato wrote from about 427 to 347 BC; the earliest copies of his writings that we have were produced around AD 900, nearly 1,200 years after the original. And we have only seven copies. 

Aristotle lived and wrote between 384 and 322 BC We have only five copies of his manuscripts today, the earliest copy being produced around AD 1100, over 1,400 years after the originals. Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote in the first century. The only copy we have of his writings is from around AD 1100, over 1,000 years after the original.

The New Testament Greek scholar J Harold Greenlee adds: 'Since scholars accept as generally trustworthy the writings of the ancient classics even though the earliest manuscripts were written so long after the original writings and the number of exact manuscripts is in many instances so small, it is clear that the reliability of the text of the New Testament is likewise assured.'

Did Jesus exist or was he a legend?
If you believe that Jesus lived - - click here

If you believe Jesus was just a legend - -  click here

Remember our question: 'Who does the world say that Jesus Christ is?' I often find that the intelligentsia tend to say that spiritual and religious interests are only to help the less educated people, that only ignorant and unlearned people are interested in how they can know God and are the only ones who need God.

Let me just share what some of the leading intellects of our past and present have said about their pursuit to find God through the person of Christ.

Perhaps the most sophisticated of the German literary figures, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German poet and dramatist, called Jesus 'The Divine One ... the Holy Man,' and wrote, 'If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the person of Christ.'

Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recognised by the world for his great literary achievements, talks openly about his faith in Jesus Christ and how, while he was in the Gulag, a Jewish doctor won him to Christ.

Writers like Leo Tolstoy, have described the work of God's Spirit in utterly transforming their lives. Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer, lived most of his life as an atheist but made this statement toward the end of his life: 'For 35 years of my life I was, in the proper acceptation of the word, a nihilist - not a revolutionary socialist, but a man who believed in nothing. Five years ago my faith came to me. I believed in the doctrine of Jesus, and my whole life underwent a sudden transformation - life and death ceased to be evil. Instead of despair, I tasted joy and happiness that death could not take away.'

Probably the greatest literary genius of all time, William Shakespeare, before his death said, 'I commit my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, most assuredly believing in Jesus Christ, my Saviour.'

Professor Ambrose Fleming, voted England's most outstanding scientist and professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of London, said as he talked about his faith in Christ, 'There's nothing in the Bible that would cause a man of science problems with Jesus Christ.'

Karl Barth, one of the leading intellects of this century and known as 'The Great Swiss Thinker', was asked what was the most profound thought he had ever had. His reply was, 'Jesus loves me. This I know.'

Professor Charles Malek, former Secretary General of the United Nations, speaking of his faith in Christ, said, 'We must eliminate the division between Christ and the universe, between the intellect and faith.'

Christmas celebrations, Easter time and the date on the coins in our pocket all testify to the profound impact of a single life 2,000 years ago.

So please do not say that Jesus never existed and that He was just a myth. And please do not think that it is only ignorant and unlearned people who are interested in who Christ is. I do not think you will be fair to the pursuit of truth if you do.

Was Jesus just a good man?
If you believe that Jesus is more than a good man - that He is the son of God - - click here

If you believe that Jesus was just a good man - - click here

We have to ask ourselves if there is sufficient evidence to warrant an intelligent belief in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. You see, my heart cannot do something that my mind rejects. So before we are through this evening, you will have to answer the question, 'Who is Jesus Christ?' with your heart. Many times in my own experience I have encountered some mental obstacles that had to be worked through before my faith could have the intelligent foundation that God desires. If God is there and not silent - if Jesus Christ is the answer to the needs of the human heart - God wants me to understand with my mind His plan to bring man into a relationship with Himself. Christianity is built upon the solid foundation of knowing and being able to substantiate the claims of Jesus Christ.

SOME OF HIS UNIQUE CLAIMS
Allow me to review some of the statements of Jesus as we set the stage to look at the implications of one specific claim. This is no ordinary man we are considering.

When Jesus made a blind man see, He said, 'I am the light of the world' (John 9:5).

When He fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread, He said, 'I am the bread of life' (John 6:35).

When He was appearing before the man who would have executed Him and was asked if He was the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus said, 'Yes, it is as you say' (Matthew 26:63, 64).

Thomas, the disciple who had doubted that Jesus really had risen from the dead, responded, 'My Lord and my God' when he saw Jesus and felt the wounds in His hands and side (John 20:28), Jesus said, 'He who has seen Me has seen the Father.' (John 14:9). And after He had raised a man from the dead, He said, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though he dies.' (John 11:15). So Jesus' claims of being the Saviour of the world and the uniqueness of His ministry and work are very clear. Probably one of the most important aspects of His claim is His right to forgive sins on earth, a claim that was reserved for God alone. Listen to one of the accounts that addresses this claim.

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralysed man was lying on. 

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.' Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like this? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Immediately Jesus knew in His spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...' He said to the paralytic, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.' He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, 'We have never seen anything like this!' (Mark 2:1-12).

Jesus was not a legend. He was more than a good man and must have been either a liar or a lunatic to make the claims he made. For instance consider one of the most profound statements that Jesus ever made. He said, 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through me' (John 14:6) .If this statement is true, you are confronted with the decision about how you choose to live life - either with Him or apart from Him. This is so significant we will come back to it later.

In response to the claims of Jesus Christ we have only four alternatives:

There would then be two opinions: Jesus knew that it was false, or He did not know that it was false. Lewis then said that if Jesus claimed to be God and that statement was false, Jesus was a liar. Not only was he a liar, he was a fool because he got himself killed for it. And not only was he a fool, he was a demon of hell because he told people to put their faith in him for eternal life. Lewis concluded that to consider that the greatest influence for good the world has ever known could live such a colossal lie was not a rational position to hold. C S Lewis emphasised that one cannot be neutral with Jesus Christ. 

Lewis wrote: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be the Son of God.' That is one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be of the devil. You must make your choice. Either Jesus was and is the Son of God or else a madman or worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Commenting on the idea of Jesus being a liar and living a lie, the nineteenth-century historian W Lecky, who was certainly not a believer in revealed religion, nevertheless wrote of Jesus: 'The character of Jesus has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exerted so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of the philosophers and all the exhortations of the moralists.'

But remember we have another option. If Jesus' claim to be God was false but he really thought that he was God, that would make him mentally unbalanced with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Yet none of Jesus' characteristics indicates schizophrenia.

Most psychiatrists tell us that if the world would just live by the teachings of Jesus we would have no war or murder or hatred. That does not sound like schizophrenia. Psychiatrist J T Fisher summarised the problem well saying

THE LIFE
The next issue of His statement is the key to the other two claims.

Jesus said, 'I am the way, and the truth.' And then He said, 'And I am the life.' This is the most important aspect of Jesus' claims. Jesus' claim to be 'life' implies that He must live for eternity if He is to give me eternal life or life everlasting. This claim had to do with His resurrection, the most important aspect of the credibility of Christianity. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, He is not the truth and He is not the way. The whole basis for the credibility of the life of Christ is found in the resurrection.

If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead and conquer death, Christians are the biggest fools in the world. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, I am communicating nothing but lies to you. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, your faith and my faith and the world's faith is useless and in vain.

The whole focus of the life of Christ related to substantiating his claims was His statement that He must be rejected and 'must be killed and after three days rise again' (Mark 8:31).

Historian Philip Schaff, who wrote The History of The Christian Church, said, 'The infinite test question to Christianity is the resurrection. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records.'

Dr William Lyon Phelps of Yale University has also said, 'The test question for the life of Christ is the resurrection'. Even well-known atheist H L Mencken said, 'There is no way to reconcile theology and science'. But he added, 'If Jesus Christ rose from the dead, that makes Christianity possible.'

Did Jesus rise from the dead?
If you believe that Jesus did rise from the dead - - click here

If you believe that Jesus did not rise from the dead -  - click here

Evidence leading to proof usually is gathered in one of two ways. First is the scientific method - an experiment conducted in a controlled environment, usually a laboratory. This means exact circumstances may be recreated and the experiment repeated. Scientists form hypotheses from the data gathered.

Historical events, on the other hand, occur at one moment in time and may not be duplicated. We cannot use the scientific method to prove that Julius Caesar existed. So we apply another method of proof, the legal historical method. It is used in courts of law to prove guilt or innocence. It is also used to verify the reliability of reported historical events. To safeguard our intellectual integrity, we should not be afraid to apply this method to our study of Jesus Christ, to help us to substantiate the claims He has made of being the Saviour of the world and the personal Saviour and Lord of them who receive Him. After all, His life, death and His resurrection are reported in historical documents.

The New Testament was written within 70 years of Jesus life so there would have been people still living who lived during the time of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection.  (If it were not true, it would be as equally convincing as a newspaper story today about Robert Menzies rising from the dead.) 

Professor Wolfhart Pannenberg of the University of Munich says, 'Whether the resurrection of Jesus took place or not is a historical question, and the historical question at this point is inescapable. And so the question has to be decided on the level of historical argument.'

If our knowledge of the past is always based upon evidence and testimony from the past, then the next logical question related to that premise is whether the testimony is reliable. Is testimony regarding the resurrection reliable?

When testimony is being evaluated, it must be open to both verification and falsification for those evaluating it. If I say it is snowing outside, that statement is open to verification or falsification. So when I begin to deal with the testimony regarding the resurrection, those same principles must be applied as in a court of law or the examination of the reliability of any historical evidence. Listen to what some legal experts whose thinking is guided by these principles have to say about the evidence related to the resurrection.

Professor Thomas Arnold, for 14 years the Lord Master of Rugby University, author of The History of Rome, and holder of the Chair of Modern History at Oxford University, was well acquainted with evaluating evidence to determine historical fact. After carefully sifting the historical evidence for the resurrection of Christ, this great scholar said,

Lord Darling, who was another chief justice of England said, 'there exists such overwhelming evidence positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.'

I wish that everybody would try to refute the resurrection of Christ because that would mean that each would conduct his own investigation. I think of some sceptics in history who started out to disprove the resurrection but when confronted with the evidence came to faith in Christ.

One was Professor Simon Greenleaf. He was professor of law and head of law department at Harvard University, one of the finest universities in the United States. He had written the famous legal volume, A treatise on the law of evidence, considered by many to be the greatest legal volume ever written, and three of his students challenged Professor Greenleaf to take his book and apply it to the resurrection of Christ and investigate the reliability of the evidence of Jesus rising from the dead. Professor Greenleaf accepted their challenge being determined to expose the myth of the resurrection once and for all. After thoroughly examining the evidence he came to the opposite conclusion. He wrote a book entitled, An examination of the testimony of the four evangelists by the rules of evidence administered in the courts of justice in which he wrote, 'There's no better documented historical evidence than that for the resurrection of Christ.' And he added, 'I am convinced that you can convince any jury in England or America that Christ rose from the dead.'

I think of two others who were professors at Oxford University. One was Lord Lyttleton and the other was Dr Gilbert West. They wanted to destroy the 'myth' of Christianity. They knew that they must disprove first the resurrection of Christ and, second, the changed lives of the disciples. Dr West intended to show the fallacy of the resurrection and Lord Lyttleton was to explain away the radical conversion of Saul of Tarsus who had tried to destroy first century Christians. One year later both men had become Christians. West then wrote about their investigation in the book, Observations on the history and evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Gilbert West concluded, 'Reject not until you have investigated.'

Frank Morrison, a British lawyer who set out to write a book repudiating the resurrection of Christ, did write a book, but it was not the book he had meant to write. As he examined the evidence for the resurrection of Christ, this sceptical lawyer found it so overwhelming that he was forced to accept it and became a believer. The book he did write, Who Moved the Stone?, sets forth the evidence for the resurrection of Christ.

Lew Wallace also set out to write a book disproving the deity of Christ and His resurrection and ended, instead, defending it in his famous book, Ben Hur.

I think I need to say that there are some people who, no matter what the evidence presented, would refuse to believe it. Many people reject the claims of God and the person of Christ based not upon intellectual investigation but upon philosophical presuppositions. Often on the university campus one can find that a person says he does not believe in the resurrection because he does not believe in God, or in the supernatural, or in miracles. Instead he adheres to a closed system of thought. 

The philosophers Spinoza and Hume said that even if presented the evidence for the resurrection, they would not believe in it. Why? Not because of a lack of evidence, but because they already believed that there is no God, no supernatural, no miracles. I need not add that such thinking is not intellectual integrity, but philosophical myopia. 'Even if all evidence says 2 + 2 = 4,' the closed mind argues, 'I choose to believe it can only be three. So my appeal is to earnest seekers, those with genuine desire to know God. I appeal to your intellectual integrity, like that of earlier sceptics who set out objectively to disprove God.

And on that stone was placed the Roman seal, which had a psychological effect, much as if the KGB put their seal on a door. They say, you break that seal, and we will break you. A Roman guard was then placed in front of the tomb to make sure nothing happened to the body. That Roman guard consisted of between four and sixteen well-trained military men. Yet the tomb was empty three days later. Some sceptics, attempting to explain the empty tomb, present theories that actually require more faith to believe than the resurrection itself.

One theory is called the 'Swoon Theory', set forth by Venturini. It suggests that Jesus did not really die on the cross; He was taken down off the cross, and when He was put in the tomb, the dampness of the tomb revived His body. He moved the large stone, tiptoed around the guards, appeared to His disciples as a triumphant God, and then went off and died somewhere. Even most sceptics do not embrace that, but some use it to try to reinforce their positions that Christ did not rise from the dead.

Another theory says the women went to the wrong tomb. If the women went to the wrong tomb, that means the Roman guards also went to the wrong tomb. That means the Jewish leaders went to the wrong tomb. Otherwise, Jesus' body would have been found in the right tomb. The alternative to these and similar theories is the empty tomb and the disciples proclaiming, 'He is risen! Jesus is alive! He forgives sins and gives eternal life to those who believe.' If this had been a lie, the Jewish officials had only to go to the tomb, get the body, and display it in the middle of Jerusalem, saying, 'There is your risen Saviour,' and the Christian movement and resurrection proclamation would have been over. But they were unable to produce the body. The tomb was empty.

John Warwick Montgomery, Christian apologist and former dean of Simon Greenleaf School of Law, writes, 'It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus.'

Paul Althaus of the University of Erlangen in Germany adds, 'The resurrection could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.'

The explanation for the empty tomb can be that it was either natural or supernatural. If Christ was truly raised supernaturally from the dead by God, I can rightly and truthfully call you to repent of your sins and trust Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord, for that is the logical response. But if the explanation is natural, someone had to remove the body. But who? The Roman soldiers? No, the Roman soldiers were placed there to keep the body in the tomb. The Jewish officials? No, they would just have brought it out and declared, 'There's your 'risen' Saviour,' to refute the disciples' claims.

Perhaps the disciples removed the body and perpetrated the lie that Jesus was God and rose from the dead. But evidence found by those who investigated suggests the opposite. First, the disciples did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead. Jesus had told them over and over that He would die and three days later rise from the grave, but they did not understand Him. Once Jesus died, the disciples were eleven fearful men, hiding, running for their lives. Their leader was dead and their dreams were shattered.

Yet, within several days after the resurrection this same group became bold, courageous and visionary. What caused such a great change? It was not because they had seen an empty tomb - it was because they had seen Christ alive from the dead.

What would the disciples have to gain by fabricating a story about Christ's resurrection? Prestige? Wealth? Power? Position? Let me tell you what they gained. All but one died martyr's deaths. Some were decapitated. Some were crucified. Some were stoned to death or beaten to death, all because they claimed Jesus was alive and offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Here is a list of what the eleven apostles and early Christian leaders gained by holding on to the declaration that Christ has risen:

In his history text, Harold Mattingly writes, 'The apostles, Peter and Paul, sealed their witnesses with their blood.' Tectallin wrote that no man would be willing to die unless he knew he had the truth. It is true that a lot of people have died for a lie, but only when they believed it to be the truth. People do not die for a lie that they know is a lie. If the disciples did lie, they were deliberately deceiving the whole world, but this certainly is not in line with their teachings and writings in Scripture or with the moral conduct they were telling people to live by. They taught honesty, integrity, and truthfulness.

Edward Gibbon in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, lists five reasons for the spread of Christianity in the first century, one of which is 'the pure, honest, sincere and truthful behaviour of the disciples.' The whole message of Christ is to love one another, to be kind and to speak the truth. Could they have been lying a colossal lie? No, I believe they had seen the risen Christ, their lives were radically changed, and they went to the world to tell the 'Good News' of Christ's love for each person, of His death as their substitute, of His resurrection that conquered death, and that He was and is now alive. He stands ready to give life - because He is THE WAY and THE TRUTH to all who trust in Him.

Paul Little asks in his book, Know Why You Believe, 'Are these men who helped transform the moral structure of society consummate liars or deluded madmen? These alternatives are harder to believe than the fact of the resurrection, and there is no shred of evidence to support them.'

As I stated earlier, the other option of explanation for His resurrection is supernatural: God raised Him from the grave and He lives today. That I believe to be not only the truth but rational truth.

What are the ways to get to Heaven?
If you believe that the only path to Heaven is through Jesus - - click here

If you think there are lots of paths to Heaven -  - click here

Any path is legitimate because we are all climbing the same mountain, right? Not if you consider a principle of logic called, 'The Law of Non-Contradictions' which states, If 'A' contradicts 'B' or 'B' contradicts 'A', then either one is right and the other is wrong, or they are both wrong. For example, if I say all pens on this table write with black ink, and you say some pens write with blue ink, both of these statements cannot be true. Either I am right and you are wrong; or you are right and I am wrong; or we are both wrong.

Many people think that they can get to Heaven by:

• always being kind and helpful
• being a nice person
• being a better person than your friends
• always being sincere
• giving to charity
• being a church member
• regularly attending a church
• paying your taxes
• being religious
• keeping the ten commandments
• not being as bad as a really bad person
• regularly giving financially to a church
• doing lots of good works
• being thoughtful of others
• being always ready to help others
• being generous and/or
• doing something similar.

Here is another example. The Muslim says, 'Jesus was just a prophet; he was a good moral man. But he did not die on the cross, and he did not rise again on the third day. To get to God one must obey Mohammed.' The Christian agrees with Jesus who said He is the Saviour of the world. The Christian believes that Jesus died on the cross and three days later rose again from the dead. Both of these positions cannot be true; either one is right and the other is wrong, or vice versa, or they are both wrong. Furthermore, Jesus said, 'I am the way.' not 'a way,' and that is an exclusive statement. If Jesus' words are true, He eliminates all other paths up the mountain to God. If Jesus is the way, the only way that I can come to God, then no one else - not even Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, or self is a way to God.

I did not come to you with that statement. Jesus said it. If there exists any other path to God other than through Jesus Christ, then Christ's death on the cross loses all meaning. If there exists more than one path to God, He did not need to send His only Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross in your place.

Does that seem too narrow? Exclusive? Rigid? Perhaps so, but God said it clearly and no ambiguity because it is very important. There is another way to view Jesus' statement that He is 'the way'. When you consider that God is perfect, the overriding reaction is amazement that we can have a relationship with Him at all. That there is any way to this holy and righteous God is what is unbelievable to me when I consider the state of man.

Look at mankind's precarious position. We have violated the standards and laws of a perfectly holy, perfectly righteous and just God. How? In the words of the Bible, we have all sinned and fallen short of God's standards (Romans 3:23). Those of you who know Greek, know the graphic origin of the word 'sin'. Originally 'sin' was an archery term. When an archer fell short of the target, a checker on the archery range called back 'Sin', meaning he missed the mark or target.

God who is perfect must have perfect righteousness and perfect holiness in His presence. Those are His standards. That is the mark we must hit. And because we all fall short of that standard, we are all sinners. If we are honest, we must acknowledge that our lives are not perfect. We have lied, stolen, coveted, envied, we have been jealous, angry, full of lust and greed. We have not been perfect in any relationship. We may compare our lives to someone else to feel better - certainly we have not committed the crimes of Stalin or Hitler. But that is a futile exercise. No matter who we are, the best of us morally have fallen short of the perfection of God's standards. And because of our sin we are completely separated from God who loves us. When God says 'yes', we say 'no'. When God says, 'no', we say 'yes'. Most people, if they are honest with themselves, will agree that something deep inside is wrong and missing. That emptiness and aloneness we have is because we are separated from the one who made us. And He alone can give us peace, purpose and joy for living.

Let me put it another way. Most people think in terms of earning our way to God on the points we get for doing good. Certainly that is how people think in Australia. If I work hard, I get promoted. If I study hard in school, I get good marks, if I work hard at football practice, I make the first team. We reason that we can reach God in the same way. Because He is a good God, mankind must work hard at doing good things to get to Him. But that is where the logic breaks down. God is perfect goodness, and our good works can never raise us to His level.

Here is a mental picture of what I am saying. Suppose God is in New Zealand and God says to everyone in Canberra that , 'If you want to have a relationship with me, you must swim from Batemans Bay to New Zealand across the Tasman Ocean.'. So everyone dives in. Some people can swim only one kilometre. Some, ten kilometres. Some strong athletes may get as far as 100 kilometres. An Olympic swimmer might even cover 300 kilometres. But no one can swim all the way to New Zealand, it is impossible.

Like the different levels of swimmers, we can compare our goodness to that of those around us. We can say, 'I never cheated on my wife' or 'I rarely lie' or 'I'm no murderer'. But ultimately we are not ranked in comparison to others. We are judged against the perfection of God's goodness, and we fall short of the mark - we cannot swim the distance. We are sinners according to the standards of the God who made us. And because of our sin, we can anticipate nothing but separation from God. Even though our goodness when compared to other humans may be like the Olympic swimmer, who will fall short (or drown) when trying to swim to New Zealand or meet God's perfect standard of holiness and righteousness.

Now it stands to reason that if swimming from Batemans Bay to New Zealand is impossible by my own power, I do not need swimming lessons. Instead I need another way to cross. I need a lifeboat or a bridge.

Well, Jesus said He is the bridge that brings a holy God and a sinful mankind together. That is why Jesus Christ died. That is why the cross of Christ is the focal point of human history. The New Testament says in 1 Timothy:

The second thing that Jesus said was, 'I am the truth.' Pretty narrow, isn't it? The truth, by definition, is very narrow. You may say, 'that may be true for you, but it's not true for me.' But that is not the way truth works.  Our Prime Minister, John Howard was born in Australia.  That is true for me.  It is true for you.  It is true for the rest of the world.  It can not be "not true" for you. 

If Jesus Christ is 'The Truth', then it is true not only for me but for the world. You may say that as long as you just believe something to be true, then it will be true for you. Believing that 'What is true for me is true', is not rational either. Just believing something does not make it truth. Even if a person believes with all his heart that John Howard was born in New Guinea, that does not make it true. And just not believing something does not make it a lie. My belief does not establish truth or destroy truth. The key is what the truth is.

Suppose there is a thin sheet of ice over Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, but I believe that the ice will hold me so I will be able to cross the lake. I begin walking across the lake with great faith in that ice. But I am believing a lie. No matter how strong my belief, if I walk out there on thin ice, it will break and I will end up in the water.  My faith in that ice will not establish what I believe to be true, that the ice will hold me up. Conversely, the person who walks on thick ice that covers the river may have only a little faith but be able to walk on the ice safely. It is their faith that creates the safety or a lack of it. 

The issue is whether my faith is in the truth or in a lie, the thick ice or thin ice. If my faith, even though it is small, is in the thick ice, I will experience the reality of a safe walk. And even though I may have great faith in the thin ice, I will experience the reality of destruction. And so it is with Christ.  If He alone is my way to a holy and righteous God and that is the truth of the universe and God, all I need to do is to trust in who He is and what He did to know God's love and forgiveness for my life.

Jesus said that He was the only way to a relationship with God and the only truth that could set men free. He is the only path up the mountain. Only through Him can man become whole and know the true and living God. And only through Jesus Christ does man gain life - Jesus said He was 'the life' conquering death on your and my behalf.

You may know, Pascal was a brilliant sixteenth century French mathematician, a prodigy who dazzled Europe with sophisticated mathematical equations when he was yet only sixteen years old. By age thirty-one Pascal had penned the now classic truism: 'There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person. And it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.'

That statement by Pascal made an impact on my life. I recognised that vacuum in my life. I was asking questions such as, 'Who am I?', 'Where am I going?', 'What am I doing here?'. And no matter what I accomplished, my life was still void of meaning. I gave my life to intellectual pursuits, but no matter what I accomplished there at the university, I had a sense that there was something missing in me.

You see, my friend, God has made you and me in such a way that we will never have a sense of completeness and fullness and meaning until we come to know Him in a personal way. God has made us in three parts. He has made us physical beings and He has given us our mental capacity. He has also given us a spiritual capacity. Yet most of us go through life as only two-thirds of a person. We develop ourselves physically and mentally, but not spiritually. We will never be complete until we come to know God personally, and that is through the person of Jesus Christ. That is the only way that the spiritual void of emptiness within us will ever be filled.

In my closing remarks may I stress the most important aspect. If you remember anything from this book, I would like you to remember how you can know Jesus personally. First, you must understand that God loves you. We are told that God loves the world so much that He gave us Jesus Christ (John 3:16). God loves us so much that He provided a way for us to reach Him. But to reach Him - and this is the second point - we must acknowledge that we need Him. We must acknowledge that because of our rebellion, there is a chasm between us and Him. That brings up the third point: Jesus said, in Luke 13:3, 'But unless you repent (or turn from your former ways) you too will all perish.' Repentance simply means a change of mind. All of life you have moved in a direction away from God. God desires to have a relationship with you; He wants you to turn around and move towards Him. We do this by acknowledging before God that we are sinners and that we wish to change our thinking about Him.

Then you must understand that Jesus died on the cross for you. To illustrate the sin issue let's say you and I each have a debt of sin. A debt means I have an impossible debt to God that we cannot pay back to Him. I cannot pay your debt because I have my own debt. You cannot pay my debt because you have your own debt. In Romans 6:23, the Bible says, 'For the wages of sin is death.' In other words a wage is something I earn - I work so I receive the wage of so many roubles. What I have earned (the wages I receive) for my sins is - DEATH - eternal separation from God.

It is as if you owe someone ten million dollars, and you are paid only one hundred dollars per week. There is no way that you can pay off that debt. You need someone who has the capacity to pay your debt because the wages of sin have a consequence, that of eternal separation from God.

When Nicholas II was Czar of Russia, a father enlisted his son in the military, with the hope of instilling discipline and direction in his life. Among other things, the young fellow had a weakness for gambling, and the atmosphere of army life seemed to hurt rather than help. His army job was bookkeeping. As his gambling debts grew, he borrowed money from the outpost treasury to pay his debts. He kept losing instead of winning and sank deeper and deeper into debt.

One night, contemplating his situation, he added up his debts. When he saw the immense total, he wrote across the ledger, 'It is impossible for me to pay this debt'. He took his army revolver and while contemplating taking his own life, he fell asleep, the Czar was inspecting the outpost that night. When he entered the bookkeeper's office, he saw the sleeping man, the loaded gun, and the revealing ledger. When the soldier awoke, he stared at the ledger and read under the words he wrote, 'Paid in full, Czar Nicholas II'. You see the Czar had the resources to pay the debt.

A debt is what I owe someone. A penalty is what I receive when I can't pay my debt or when I break a law. If I break the speeding law in my car, I receive a penalty, that of having to pay so many dollars for breaking the law. If I kill someone I receive a more painful penalty. The greater the law broken the greater the penalty. The reason there is eternal separation from God (the wages of my sin being death) is because of the severity of the law broken - that of not living according to the standards of a perfectly holy and righteous God. The greatest violations in the universe carry with them the greatest consequences.

Will you accept the salvation freely offered?
I know that I am a sinner - I have already accepted Jesus and know my sins are forgiven and know that I am saved though His finished work on the cross.  I know I will be going to Heaven - - click here

I am interested in being saved right now -  - click here
  I am interested, but maybe later.   However before you go, you might - - click here

If you are can not answer that question, with the greatest respect and love, I would encourage you to - -  click here

Tell me about 'salvation'
That is why God the Son became a man and lived a perfect life. He had no sin. He had no debt. So what God did with the debt we owe for our sins was to put it on Jesus Christ, and Christ in His love for us paid our debt by dying in our place. God now can forgive you and give you a new life if you choose to receive Christ. Romans 5:8 says, 'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'

Suppose your friend was dying of cancer, and because you loved and cared so much for your friend you asked the doctor to do a transfusion that would take the cancer cells out of his body and put them in your body. What would happen? He would live and you would die. Why? Because that which was causing his death was placed in you and you would die in his place and he would live. That is what Christ did for you at the cross. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, 'God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.'

But just accepting your sinfulness and Christ's death, and understanding it intellectually, does not bring you into a relationship with God. You must make a decision. The Bible says (John 1:12): 'But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.' So each person individually must receive Christ in order to become a member of God's family.

What we accept from God is a gift because there is nothing we can give God in return. We cannot say, 'Here are my good works. I want to cover my debt with my good works; they should get me into Heaven.' The Bible says, 'For it is by grace (unmerited kindness) you have been saved (made a child of God), through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Bible also says that 'the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Romans 6:23).

Suppose I say I have a pen that I wish to give you as a gift. You may say it is a beautiful pen, and you may want to have the pen. What must you do to have it? You must take it. You may believe in the pen and personally have great intellectual information about the pen. But the pen is not yours until you accept it.

Of course, you can stay where you are right now, separated from God. Regarding that decision, He says the wages of sin is death. Then He adds, 'But the gift of God is eternal life.' The gift is free, but you must accept it to make it yours.

How do you receive the gift? You must make a decision, a choice to reach out and take the gift. It is as if I were to knock at the door of your home. You might choose to remain seated and say, 'That's John, I don't want to see him.' I finally would go away. Or you might choose to come to the door and say, 'John, I don't like you and don't want to see you. Goodbye.' And I would leave. Or you could choose to open the door and say, 'John, good to see you, come in. Join me in my home.' And at your invitation I would come into your home. You made a decision to receive me into your home.

That is exactly the picture Jesus Christ paints of His relationship with you. He says, 'I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.' (Revelation 3:20).

This decision is by faith. It is trust in the truth of God. This faith in Jesus Christ involves three things. First, you must have knowledge of the fact of what God did through Jesus Christ because of His love for you. Second, you must believe that fact and accept it as true. But third, and most important, to have true faith you must put your personal trust in the facts and rely on Christ's work on the cross to be the sufficient payment for your sins

If you would like more information on any matter here please contact the people whose names are given on the last page of this book.

TRUE FAITH
True faith requires:

• Knowledge of the Facts
• Belief of the Truth
• Personal Trust

JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE TODAY
Jesus paid a fantastic price so that you and I could have a relationship with God. He loves you, and He offers you forgiveness as a free gift. All you need to do is to thank Him for dying in your place, to trust Him, and to make the decision to receive Him. You must make the choice by opening the door of your heart and life to Him who knocks and wants to come in.

Would you like to come to know Jesus Christ today? I have presented, I hope, that the Christian faith is an intelligent faith, that it has a rational basis. It is not a leap into the dark; it is a step into the light. And I have told you that Jesus Christ is alive. It takes a little faith to bring you and God's love for you together. You don't have to understand everything. But once you say, 'Yes, Jesus, thank you for dying for me; I ask you to come into my life,' then Christ is free to come into your life. Then you will begin to experience what I have been talking about. I stayed many years just on the intellectual level before I ever understood how to receive Christ. But today I can testify to you of God's love and forgiveness that can be found in Christ.

The Bible summarises the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, 'For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.'

LET'S REVIEW

GOD'S POSITION:

What is God like? God is both loving and perfect.

What are we like? We are sinful and separated from God.

This is a prayer that would allow you to become a member of God's family and be given total forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. Read it slowly.

God, I admit that I am a sinner and I understand that my sin separates me from you. I believe that I am a sinner and I understand that my sin separates me from you. I believe that Jesus, being God, paid the penalty for all my sins when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I repent of my ways and want to change the direction of my life. And now Lord Jesus, I open the door of my life and ask you to come into my life as Saviour and Lord. I trust you alone for the forgiveness of my sins and the free gift of eternal life. Amen.

- - click here to return to the above prayer

If you have now prayed this prayer, I want you to read firstly in the Bible the third chapter of the Gospel of John and then read the rest of John's Gospel.

Contact names and addresses are on this web site, and I encourage you to write or ring. We are very interested in your thoughts as you read this and prayed the prayer of salvation. You may also have questions. We have additional information to sent you that will help you grow in your relationship with Christ.   The following information is to clarify for you what has happened in your life if you have prayed that prayer to receive Christ.

RECEIVE CHRIST

So when does our eternal life start? For all of us, eternal life begins the moment we believe. And please note: these statements are based upon the fact of God's Word, not on how you may feel.

DO NOT DEPEND UPON FEELINGS
The promise of God's Word, the Bible - not our feelings - is our authority. The Christian lives by faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word. This train diagram illustrates the relationship between fact (God and His Word), faith (our trust in God and His Word), and feelings (the result of our faith and obedience) (John 14:21).

The train will run with or without the caboose. It would be useless to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way, we, as Christians, are not to depend on feelings or emotions, but instead we are to place our faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God and the promises of His Word.

The fact is, if you have received Christ, He has come into your life whether you feel it or not. Your faith must rest upon the assurance of God's Word no matter what your feelings might say. The moment you received Christ by faith was an act of your will; and the moment you did, many things happened.

1  CHRIST CAME INTO YOUR LIFE

'I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned: he has crossed over from death to life.' John 5:24.