You may accept the Bible as being God’s inspired Word. But how strong is your acceptance, Would it hold up under test? The prophet Jeremiah said .............jeering all day long.” (Jer. 20:8) Would you be willing to suffer verbal abuse, physical mistreatment and even death for it? Under the pressure of suffering and opposition, even slight doubts about the inspiration of God’s Word can give rise to greater doubts, undermining faith and weakening a person’s resistance to temptation.
However, if you are truly convinced that the Bible is God’s Word and that living by it is the only right thing to do, you will be in a far better position to withstand pressure and to resist following a course of expediency.
Josephus was man who was not writing dead history from the vantage point of some imperial library; he was writing of the events of his day. Indeed, he was an eyewitness of most of the events he chronicled. His account is the more fascinating because he served actively during the Jewish-Roman war on both sides, beginning as a general of the Jewish forces in Galilee, and ending as an adviser to General Titus. So close did his friendship with Titus and his father Vespasian become that Josephus later adopted their family name, Flavius, which is why he is known to us as Flavius Josephus, and not by his Jewish name, Joseph ben Matthias.
Many who believe in the Bible have found that by applying its principles, they can develop patience. According to the Bible, a spiritual person is more inclined to display patience, along with other important virtues such as love, joy, peace, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22, 23) The Bible promises: “Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God; and the peace of God that excels all thought will guard your hearts and your mental powers.” (Philippians 4:6, 7) Study the Bible and learn how you can live less anxiously .
God guides the stars by his laws of motion and gravitation. Man cannot guide them. God guides the migrating birds by his laws of instinct. Man cannot guide them. Man cannot even guide himself. Jeremiah 10:23 (ERV) states: Lord, I know that our lives do not belong to us.
We have no control over what happens.
The stars heed God’s laws, the birds obey the migration laws, but men balk at God’s laws for them. But if God is capable of guiding the stars by natural law, of guiding the birds by instinct, then is he not capable of guiding man by the Bible? “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light on my path.”—Ps. 119:105,
It is of interest to note the correspondency of these Biblical points with what is known scientifically of the death to some long some short.
Observing how man’s declining years, the result of cutting himself off from God’s undeserved kindness. Dwelling in the land where death cast its shadow neither Adam nor any of his offspring lived a full one-thousand-year day. Longevity gradually decreased with several sudden drops in the lives of men. After the first ten generations from Adam to Noah no one attained an age reaching into the nine-hundred-year age bracket. Shem, who followed Noah, lived to only six hundred years. The three succeeding generations attained an age within the four-hundred-to five-hundred-year bracket. Then followed another sudden drop, for within five generations man’s life span was cut in half. The four generations that followed, reaching to Joseph, the son of Jacob, brought man’s maximum life expectancy down near the hundred-year mark. (Genesis chapters 5, 7 and 11) Death was ruling as king from Adam to Moses and man’s fading life spark was just like a mist appearing for a little while. The great conspirator had the ability to bring the plague of death through transgression but was without the power of life, for only in God’s hand is the breath or life power of all mankind.—Jas. 4:14
God had warned Adam: “In the day you eat from it [the forbidden tree] you will positively die.” (Genesis 2:17) Adam and Eve chose to die.
If a doctor were tell you that you were going to die in a certain number of weeks, would you leap for joy? Would you have a celebration? Would the arrival of your last day of life be the happiest one in your life may be for some.
But no person in his right mind would be happy about dying. It is only natural that you should want to keep living.
It is because of your love for life that God’s provision for salvation is of utmost importance to you? It is the means by which your life can be extended indefinitely. It is the means by which you can be made free from the curse of death, which, at this time, comes inevitably to all humans. Surely, something that can do so much for you is worth your consideration. It is worth the time it takes to learn about it. (John:17-3)
When you on the basis of the Scriptural knowledge he has gained, has belief in Christ as the Savior whom God provided and shows that faith by his works, he can consider himself as being on the way to salvation. It would be a mistake for him to think that he is now saved and cannot fall. He must show by his endurance in the Christian faith that he is worthy of salvation. (1 Cor. 10:12)
The is different views on salvation often develop a theory of their own. They conclude that as long as a person leads a good life and does not harm his neighbor, that is all that is required for salvation. They think that God expects nothing more from them.
The practice of “speaking in tongues” is a growing religious phenomenon. “Pentecostal” religious groups have long prayed in a babble of sound that others cannot understand.
It was Pentecost of the year 33 C.E. A change was due. A new covenant was to replace the ancient Jewish Law covenant. For what reason? To open up a better way to worship Jehovah God. How could people see that God’s blessing was upon this shift in worship? He would use an outburst of miraculous events, including the speaking in tongues, to move the hearts of righteously disposed people. These would see that the almighty God of their forefathers was indeed now conferring his approval upon Jesus’ disciples.
Only a little more than two decades after Pentecost, Paul served notice that the gift of tongues would eventually cease. (1 Corinthians 13:8) Why would this be reasonable? Because the miracles at Pentecost, as a confirmation of early Christianity, had served their purpose well and were no longer needed.
Yes