Capitol View Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Bible is full of unreasonable stories!  Who in their right mind would believe all of this?  From the first verse to the last verse, it’s just packed with things that boggle the imagination!

Take for example the thought that “God” existed before anything (“In the beginning God”), and that He created all that we see on earth, PLUS what we see in the sky (“God created the heavens and the earth”). How can it possibly be true that a “Being” can be alive in a vacuum, and that He “created” everything from nothing, even light?  And to make things even more unbelievable, He wasn’t alone.  And all it took to create things was for Him to just speak and things just popped into existence.  Really?

And then, of all things, it tells of a snake that ate apples and TALKED so clearly and convincingly that a lady understood and believed it!  Then it’s claimed that this was a bad thing, and that all evil on earth came from that one act of this lady.

There’s just more and more of this same kind of unreasonable stuff. The Bible tells of people living almost a thousand years.  And there’s a story of a huge boat that saved lots of created stuff from dying in a massive flood that covered the entire world. It tells of how, after 120 years of working on this boat to get it ready, suddenly wild animals came out of the woods in pairs and just walked right onto that boat.

It all sounds so made up, but who would make up stories of a stone skyscraper, and suddenly different languages caused people to separate into groups and leave that skyscraper behind?  How and why would someone make up such unbelievable stories; stories like three men being thrown into a furnace and not being burned, stories like a man being put into a den of lions over night and coming out alive, or a man who is swallowed by a big fish, lives in there for 3 days and then lives to tell about it?

Why would anyone believe that this “God” would allow “His Son” to become a human just to save us from ourselves by dying so that we can live forever? How ignorant does this “God” think we are anyway?  The Bible says that we are made in “HIS IMAGE”.  Really?

People may say that I am foolish for believing all of this and more, but I DO believe!  Why?  Because I have proof that goes beyond any reasoning that might say otherwise!  Mathematical proof beyond any reasonable doubt, and personal proof from my own experiences tells me that the Bible is what it claims to be.  I KNOW that the Bible is true!  I KNOW that these unbelievable stories are real! I believe in the unbelievable!  I believe in Jesus as the Messiah!  I believe that He is God, the Creator!  My Creator.

Let me share just one of these proofs with you.  For me just this one alone is mathematical proof that is beyond any reasonable doubt. Check it out!  (Be truthful with yourself.)

Professor Peter Stoner in his book, Science Speaks, gives us an illustration, but because most everything was too large (including an atom) he chose to use just the electron that orbits the nucleus of the atom. 

By using only 48 of the hundreds of prophecies pointing to Jesus as being the Messiah it was calculated that the chances of one person fulfilling them all by sheer chance would be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷. 

To help us understand how huge this number is he suggested taking 10¹⁵⁷ electrons and pressing them into a solid ball.  This ball, made entirely of electrons, would fill, not just our galaxy, but the entire known universe (MANY* TIMES OVER).  We would mark just one electron, blindfold a man and send him out to find that one electron on the very first try.  (In 1952 when Peter Stoner's book was originally published the universe was believed to be about 6 billion light years in all directions.)

* That universe would need to be filled with electrons about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times.

Professor Stoner then wrote:

"To the extent, then, that we know this blindfolded man cannot pick out the marked electron, we know that the Bible is inspired. This is not merely evidence. It is proof of the Bible's inspiration by God--proof so definite that the universe is not large enough to hold the evidence."

Why do I believe the Bible to be true?  Why do I believe that there is a God that knows me and still loves me?  Why shouldn’t I?  These 48 prophecies prove it mathematically.  (If I were to take every prophecy in the Bible and give each one a ridiculously low probability of only 1 in 4 of coming true by sheer chance I would end up with even more proof.)

But that’s not all.  I have received answers to my personal prayers in such a way that there can be no other explanation.  God is REAL, and His Word, the Bible, is TRUE!  You don’t commit intellectual suicide by believing in the Bible.  Actually, reading and studying the Bible makes you smarter.  And asking God to give you wisdom and understanding certainly does not sound like you are giving up your l thinking to someone else.  On the contrary, you become wiser than you could ever have been otherwise.

And there’s more!  God Himself tells you to personally test Him by taking a tiny fraction (1/10^th, or 10 cents of every dollar, the Bible calls this a “tithe”) of your hard-earned money, give it to Him, and then see if the money you have left (9/10ths) doesn’t go farther than if you had not tested Him.  He actually tells you that you will be so blessed that you will not be able to accept all of the good that He will send your way.  Check this out!

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!”

Sounds like a win-win situation!  Even if you gave a 1/10^th of all your increase to God and nothing happened then at the very least you would know that there isn’t a God at all.  That’s a very low price to pay for that kind of knowledge actually, but I know that you will not regret giving Him a tenth of all your increase.  It’s like betting $1000 on God, and then getting so much in return that your bank won’t have enough room to hold it all (though it may not always be cash, and probably won’t be), but the challenge is there.  Put God to the test!  He wants you to.  Try it for yourself.  You cannot lose!

So, what happens after we prove to ourselves that God is real?  Then what do we do?  How should we act, think or speak?  The problem is, we humans cannot change ourselves any more than a tiger can change his stripes.  We are helpless, but we are not without hope.  We are told that if we ASK God for help, He will change the way we think and act.  We cannot pick ourselves up with our own bootstraps, but He can.  We just need to ask.  We may even fear to let go and to let God do what He needs to do, but if we are willing for Him to make us willing then He will make it happen.

God is not only real, but He cares about you!  So much so that He died for you.  That goes beyond just caring.  That’s LOVE!  God loves YOU, and because He loves you like that you know that He can be trusted.  He wants the absolute best life for you, and He knows how to make that happen.

Are you willing to let Him prove to you that He is real?  It doesn’t matter if you have $1 or $1,000,000.  You can still put God to the test the way He wants you to.  Just be honest with Him.  If you only have $1 of true increase then give God 10 cents.  Are you ready?  Put God to the test for yourself, and then you will KNOW that He is real and can be trusted. 

"To the extent, then, that we know this blindfolded man cannot pick out the marked electron, we know that the Bible is inspired. This is not merely evidence. It is proof of the Bible's inspiration by God--proof so definite that the universe is not large enough to hold the evidence."