"I ONCE WAS LOST...

...but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."
Before Jesus the Messiah saved me I had many unflattering opinions about Him. Before I truly knew who God is, I had decided who and how He is.
Before I had ever picked up a Bible I had a lot to say about it.
Before I knew a single thing about the evidence that supports the reliability of scripture I just knew that the Bible was error filled. I didn't understand how a person could base their whole lives on a book (actually the Bible is 66 books).
Before I had ever heard the Lords plan clearly explained I knew that it was unfair, after all doesn't every road lead to God? I arrogantly expounded opinions based on nothing but what I heard from someone, who heard something from someone, who heard it from someone else. These things were always negative. They were accepted because they suited my purpose.

THEN AND NOW

THEN: I thought that Jesus was one of many super prophets. These include such people as Buddha, Zoroaster, Krishna, Mohammed and sometimes others depending on the group promoting this belief. All these masters that were sent by God Himself contradict each other irreconcilably to no end. However, to reject one over the other meant rejecting some ones beliefs and that is politically incorrect (except for Christianity, it is perfectly acceptable to bash us). Therefore, I had to accept all things no matter how diametrically opposed they are.

NOW: Not knowing where to draw the line left me unrooted because believing all things means believing nothing. After I floated around long enough I could no longer accept the uncertainty any more. Jesus said, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). I had been hearing a lot about Jesus and so I asked God to relieve my confusion as to who He was.
By His infinite wisdom God waited about two months until an opportune moment when I was feeling pathetically weak and defeated. The one and only true Messiah was made clear and I was saved from death unto everlasting life by what the sacrificed lamb had done. "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ" (Hebrews 10:20).

THEN: I was deciding truth from falsehood, wrong from right. I would decide who and how God is and the things that He would and would not allow. I put myself in the place of ultimate authority yet, during moments of clarity, moments of honesty, I knew that I did not belong there.

NOW: I realize that God has revealed Himself in His word and His creation. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by all things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that men are without excuse" (Romans 12:2). His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours (see Isaiah 55:9). "The foolishness of God is wiser than men" (2nd Peter 3:9). and "the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God" (Luke 15:10). He has clearly provided doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, That the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work (see Matthew 25:41). Do's and don'ts, right and wrong, good and evil, do exist. God loves and is forgiving but we must ask for His salvation.

THEN: I thought that the books of the New Testament were not written until centuries after the Messiah's death (like Zoroastrian or Buddhist scriptures were) so there was no way of assuring an accurate account. Worse even, I thought that the Bible has been translated so many times and from language to language that who knows how much error had crept in? No way could I accept the Bible as the word of God, especially considering one of its main teachings, that there is one narrow way to salvation. Narrow minded seemed more like it.

NOW: God does things that are beyond our ability to rationalize or intellectualize. Such a case is the teaching in scripture that the Holy Spirit gave to the writers of the New Testament the ability to recall and understand passed events. The Dead Sea scrolls prove that the word of God has been passed on for thousands of years without error.

The only changes from translation to translation is the spelling of a word, a difference in writing style, or the clarification of a thought without changing the original meaning, there are no changes in doctrine. Here is one example of similarity and difference through a span of two millennia. Of the 166 Hebrew words in Isaiah 53, only seventeen letters in Dead Sea Scroll 1QIsb differ from the Masoretic Text. 10 letters = spelling difference. 4 letters = stylisctic change. 3 letters = added word for "light" (vs. 11). 17 letters = no affect on biblical teaching.1 The Masoretic Text is 800 to 1,000 years old and the Dead Sea Scrolls are about 2,000 years old.

If we give a number of people a written paper and have them rewrite it, naturally some will misspell words, others leave words out, some will change the order that some words appear, others might pass on the original thought but update the language. We could then collect all the error filled copies and since not everyone will make the same mistakes we could compare them and by collaborating evidence piece together the original intact. Such is the case with the Bible we have today.

For the New Testament there are 5,664 Greek manuscripts. 8,000-10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts. 8,000 Ethiopic, Slavic, Armenian manuscripts. For a total of about 24,000 manuscripts!!!!!2

The Bible is sixty-six books written by forty writers on three continents over thousands of years. The Bible covers a time span from the creation of the universe until around two thousand years ago and prophetically it goes on to cover history until the end of time and on into eternity.
The Bible contains a signpost that points to the savior. He saves us from sin and death and gives us eternal life, the promised, prophesied, and fulfilled Messiah Jesus. After His resurrection He met two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus and gave them the greatest messianic prophecy study ever, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27). In other words the whole of the Old Testament speaks of the Messiah. The Talmud-Sanhedrin 99a states, "All the prophets prophesied only of the days of the Messiah."

THEN: I used to think that Christians have no brains, no personal opinions. Ask them anything and their response is, "Well book, chapter, verse so and so says the following." How sad I thought to have no personal views or original thoughts.

NOW: I have become one of them. I too have come to rely on the word of God for showing, "a new and living way which He consecrated for us" (Galatians 2:15). "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 1:20). Realizing that the world teaches deceptions; morally, scientifically, historically, etc. We come to rely on the scripture, which has been proven as true by prophetic, manuscript, scientific, and archeological evidence.

Scholars Norman Geisler and William Nix conclude, "The New Testament, then, has not only survived in more manuscripts than any other book from antiquity, but it has survived in a purer form than any other great book. A form that is 99.5% pure."3

THEN: I thought that all things, all religions lead to God. I try to be a good person, so why would God reject me forever just because I didn't call Him Jesus? (For a discussion of goodness see our article Oh, My Goodness!!!).

NOW: The truth is that the world is literally saturated with proof that the Bible is divinely inspired. We ought to submit to its authority. The truth as laid out by Jesus is, "Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13). Moreover, the Lord is, "_not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (1st Corinthians 3:19). He also says, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die" (Ezekiel 33:11). "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (1st Corinthians 1:25).

We condemn ourselves to eternal separation from God by rejecting His salvation, by appearing before God with sin all over us like a plague. There are really two ways to heaven, one is to be one hundred percent perfect one hundred percent of the time and the other is to accept the payment which has been paid by Jesus.

The Bible says that hell was not made for humans, "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (2nd Timothy 3:16). God is so loving that if we live our whole lives proving that we want nothing to do with Him He won't force us to spend eternity with Him because then heaven would be hell. Be careful what you wish for you just might get it. Free will can be a terrifying thing. "lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1st Timothy 2:2-4).

God gives us salvation as a gift, which we cannot earn, purchase, work for, nor deserve. So how can we be have the assurance of everlasting life with God in heaven?
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8).

"Until now you have asked nothing in my name.
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full"
John 10:24

1. 1. Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General introduction to the Bible (1968; reprint, Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), p. 382
   
2. 2. Lee Stroble, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), p. 81
   
3. 3. Geisler and Nix, p. 361