Last time we talked about the scientific probability that 322 prophecies prophesied in the 39 books of the Old Testament, over a period of more than 1200 years, by more than 30 different writers, are one in 10 to the 84th power. That is 1 followed by 84 zeros!

Yet our faith as followers of Jesus, as important as it is, is not based only on these fulfilled prophecies. It is not even based on everything that Jesus himself taught, how He lived, or what He did, or even that He was crucified.

No, the most important of all important things why we believe in Jesus is because this Jesus rose from the dead!

That is why 1 Cor. 15 says that everything we believe as followers of Jesus stands or falls on whether He really rose from the dead, and whether He still lives!

Listen to what it says in verses 1 to 7:

“I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and in which you also stand. By this gospel you are also saved, if you hold fast to the message I preached to you. If you hold to something else, you have believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to more than five hundred brothers at once, of whom some are dead, but most remain. After that, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, he appeared to me also, who was born out of time.”

That is why verse 14 says: ‘And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.’

Therefore, most of the attacks on what we believe as followers of Jesus and on the Bible have been aimed at trying to prove the resurrection of Jesus to be a lie.

So, in the 18th century, there was a man named Gilbert West who didn't like that many of his friends had become Christians. He set out to write a book disproving the resurrection, because if you can disprove the resurrection, you can disprove the heart of the Christian message.

Halfway through writing the book, however, he encountered a Living Jesus himself. Instead of disproving the resurrection, he ended up writing a book defending it.

In the 19th century, there was a famous atheist in America named Ingersoll. He was upset that Christianity was growing so rapidly worldwide. One of his friends was the famous general, General Leo Wallace. Ingersoll said to him, "Leo, you have to help me. Why don't you write a book that refutes the resurrection?"

That's how Leo Wallace began writing his book. His wife was a Christian, and she prayed for him while he worked. That's how Leo Wallace also met a living Jesus while writing his book about the resurrection of Jesus. Today, you and I know his book because it became the text of the famous film titled "Ben-Hur".

In the 20th century, a lawyer and journalist named Frank Morrison decided that he would destroy Christianity. He believed the only way to do this was to refute the resurrection. As a journalist, he knew how to do research, and as a lawyer, he knew how to examine evidence. Halfway through writing his book, he found so much evidence for the resurrection that he met a living Jesus himself! Eventually, his book would be published with the title: "Who Rolled Away the Stone?"

So, if you are in a hurry to meet a Living, Risen Jesus, try writing a book to refute the resurrection!

I want to end this section with an image.

Imagine life as this street in front of us, with a road ahead, and this fork in the road. You don't know whether to go left or right. However, in front of you are two men lying in the middle of the fork in the road. One is dead, but the other is alive. Which one would you ask for directions about life ahead?

I am a Christian because Jesus Christ is alive. So His resurrection confirms everything He said and everything He did.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent 40 days with His disciples there in Jerusalem and the surrounding area before He ascended to heaven.

During those 40 days, He added nothing new or took away anything He had taught them during the previous three years.

Therefore, we can trust what Jesus said about the past, the present, and the future.

I am a follower of Jesus and a Christian, because I believe there is undeniable logical and historical evidence that everything we believe is true, but especially because Jesus really rose and lives as the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

An intelligent person who seeks the truth cannot help but take a book with the unique historical qualities of the Bible seriously.

How many times have archaeology, science, and historical research shown that what is in the Bible, even to everyone's surprise, is exactly as it was written down in the Bible so many centuries ago?

Yet there are still people who ask in surprise, "Are you still reading the Bible?"

Even at school and university, without most of us realizing it, things are said and taught that directly contradict what is in the Bible. Just think about how easily the theory of evolution is used to explain to our children at school and at university the primal beginning of everything!

Therefore, it is time to tell each other again why we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and why we believe that it is reliable.

Let me show you some of the unique features of the Bible:

• Did you know that the 66 books of the Bible that we know were written by more than 40 different authors over a period of about 1400 years? They were from all walks of life, and some of them were even kings like David and Solomon; others were wise gurus, poets, and musicians, yes, even a doctor and historian, fishermen, and even a learned Scripture expert and interpreter of Scripture, named Paul. These authors wrote these 66 books on 3 continents: A portion in the Middle East and Africa, a portion in Asia Minor, and a portion in Europe.

• The largest part of it was written in 2 languages: The Old Testament in Hebrew (with a very small portion in Aramaic), and the New Testament in Koine Greek, the language of every man at that time.

• We find in this Bible all kinds of literature such as history, legislation of all kinds, civil, criminal, ethical and religious, but also poetry, psalms and other songs, prophecy, personal memoirs, and even apocalyptic.

• Yet, despite all that has been said above, there is this golden thread that is noticeable throughout the entire Bible that leaves scientists completely astonished and speechless.

• If someone were to ask you: What is the Bible mainly about, you could answer them as follows: In the Bible, we hear God speak and how He reveals Himself and His heart and will to us. Millions of people can testify how this God has met them somewhere in their lives, spoken to them, and shown them His face, His heart, and even His plan for their lives.

• In the 39 books of the Old Testament, we discover this God as Creator, but also as the God who creates for Himself a people who would ultimately be the womb from which the promised Messiah was born.

• In the 27 books of the New Testament, we read in 4 gospels the good news about Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, about His birth, His life, what He said and did, His death on the cross, burial, but also about His resurrection from the dead. Then we also read how He showed Himself alive to hundreds of people for 40 days, ascended to heaven, and 10 days later gave His people, as He promised, the Holy Spirit to dwell with and in them forever. In the rest of the New Testament books, we read how this radically changed the lives of thousands of people, so that they were even willing to die as martyrs for their faith in Him.

• Can you believe that 11 of Jesus' disciples eventually died as martyrs, because they were so sure about Him as King, Lord, and Savior in their lives!

• Even though the faithful followers of Jesus were persecuted, tortured, and killed throughout the centuries, this did not prevent faith in this Jesus and in this God from spreading like wildfire across the world and is still the largest religious movement in the world.

• Yes, despite so many who have tried, no one has ever been able to stop the printing and distribution of the Bible, and the Bible is and remains a bestseller worldwide today.

How sure are you of your facts as a believing follower of Jesus?

How sure are you that God has really revealed Himself to us and that He has spoken to us?

Well, of course, the answer to these questions is a choice that you have made somewhere in your life based on what you believe to be true and certain.

For me personally, it is extremely important that these faith choices that we have made as believing followers of Jesus are based on demonstrable facts that can be rationally and logically defended in any court or lecture hall around the world.

Let me tell you why I believe that in these 66 books of the Bible, we truly discover and hear the true God speak.

I don't know what to say to people who want to dismiss what you believe as short-sighted and even stupid.

Do you know that most of these people have probably never read the Bible themselves or tried to understand what we are dealing with in the Bible?

How does one explain the heart of everything we read in the Bible?

Here is how I usually explain it to people.

I then explain to such people that the essence of what is in the 66 books of the Bible can be summarized in one word, namely, in the name of Jesus in the New Testament, and in His Name in the Old Testament as the Messiah who is coming!

After all, the Bible contains these two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament consists of 39 books that were written by about 30 authors over a period of more than 1000 years, originally in Hebrew, with a very small part in Aramaic.

The first book in the Old Testament, Genesis, begins with the creation of everything, and how God created for Himself a new people, who we know as the Jews, and who will live in the land of Israel. These new people are important for only one reason, and that is because they are to be the womb from which the Messiah would be born years later. The last book of the Old Testament is the book of Malachi.

The second part of the Bible is called the New Testament and consists of 27 books.

This section was originally written in Koine Greek by about 10 writers over a period of about 40 years.

The New Testament begins with four stories by four different writers that talk about the 33 years of Jesus on earth, and ends with the book of Revelation.

The entire New Testament is about Jesus, about His life and everything He said and did, and everything that people believed about Him. It tells how the thousands who believed in Him during those about 40 years after His life on earth, testified about Him and lived for Him. Thousands of them were even willing to die and be martyred for what they believed about Him.

Yes, Jesus, according to the best historical data we have, was born in September, 3 BC, in Bethlehem, Israel, and was also known at that time as Jesus of Nazareth, because His parents lived in the village of Nazareth.

He would ultimately live only 33 years on earth, and on the day before the Jewish Passover that year, in April, 30 AD, he was crucified, buried, and, according to what we believe, rose from the dead three days later on Golgotha, just outside Jerusalem. For 40 days after that, He appeared alive to hundreds of people, and then ascended to heaven, to give and pour out the Holy Spirit on all His followers ten days later, so that they could testify about Him in His Name and be used by God.

Do you know that more is written about Jesus and his life here on earth as a historical person in extra-biblical sources than is written about people like Julius Caesar, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, or Napoleon Bonaparte in the history books of the world? Yes, we can read about Jesus of Nazareth in extra-biblical sources more than 10,000 times.

In other words, a person who really tries cannot have any doubt about the question of whether Jesus really lived.

The next question then is: How do we know that Jesus was really the One? How do we know that Jesus was who He Himself said He was, and what all the millions of His followers today still believe about Him?

This is one of the most important questions that you and I must answer for ourselves. Let me try to give you my answer to this question.

I said that the entire Bible, all 66 books of the Bible, and even the 39 books of the Old Testament, can all be summed up in one word, namely, the name of Jesus. However, in the Old Testament, He is not called Jesus, but the Messiah, the Anointed One, God who becomes man and comes to live among us on earth.

In the Old Testament, we find 322 verses called Messianic prophecies, in which the coming and life of this Messiah or Anointed King are prophesied in advance.

J. John, a well-known evangelist, preacher, speaker, broadcaster, and author, told the following story in this regard:

He tells how he asked one of his Jewish rabbi friends to read through all these Messianic prophecies with him one morning in a coffee shop.

After that, J John asked him: Hey, does each of these 322 prophecies remind you of someone?

How remarkable it is that we cannot help but notice how these 332 prophecies, down to the letter and in the finest detail, describe this Messiah: Where He would be born, in what area His parents would live, and yes, even how He would die, and even the exact number of coins used to pay for His betrayer.

Do you really realize how remarkable all of this is?

Do you know what the mathematical probability is that 322 prophecies, in one man’s life here on earth, described and prophesied precisely and in the finest detail in 39 books that could happen exactly as prophesied over more than 1000 years, could happen exactly as they were prophesied?

The probability that all of this would happen is 1 in 10⁸⁴—that’s 1 followed by 84 zeros!

In other words, to put it mildly, it doesn’t happen every day!

“So that God’s people can know for sure that what they believe is the whole truth…”

For me, one of the most important assignments I have as one of God’s team of equippers in His Body is to equip Jesus’ followers so that they can know that what they believe is truly the truth.

Out there, we are in a war. This is what the Lord Jesus warned us about, and what God’s Spirit tells us through Scriptures like Ephesians 6:12 when it says:

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this present world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly realms.”

In that same passage in Ephesians 6, the Lord also reminds us of the armor we must have on (= what must be in place) to ensure that we will come out of this war alive.

This is why TRUTH must always be our test and search, which, like a belt around our body, will ensure that everything will be nicely together and in place.

This is also why the only weapon that will be effective and “our sword” in this battle is God’s Word.

Need I remind you that…

• The Bible is in every sense of the word “WORD OF GOD”, of which you can know for sure that the Only, true God, speaks to us in it word for word!

• As Hebrews 1 rightly tells us: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at many times and in various ways, but now, in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.” In other words, God speaks to us, of course, through Creation, through events around us, but above all through the Old Testament books, through what is written in the Law, the Prophets, and the other Old Testament books. But, above all, He speaks to us through Jesus, God the Son, the Messiah, who became man and came to live among us for 33 years. So God speaks to us especially through Jesus, God the Son, who, through God the Spirit, in His life, words, crucifixion, and resurrection, but also through everything that is written about Him in the rest of the books of the New Testament.

Come sit here with me, and I will show you and your children why we can be so sure of what we believe as followers of Jesus!

I have made a short video for you about how I show you and your children, with an A4 page, the 4 most important reasons why you and I can be so sure of what we believe about Jesus.

Because I am completely convinced that the Bible, as you and I know it, with its 66 books, is the complete and inspired Word of God, and therefore is the foundation of the truth that we believe, I am going to briefly talk to you about why I am so sure of it.

Then I'm going to give you 4 reasons why 57 years ago, on October 10, 1969, I already chose to believe what I believe, and why I'm still so sure today of what I believe that I'm willing to give my life for it if necessary!

Did you hear? I'm so sure of what I chose to believe that I'm willing TO DIE FOR IT!

Are you so sure of what you believe that you would die for it today?

Let me help you make sure again of what you really believe.