Hypocrisy Condemned
God is far more offended by hypocrisy than you are. The Bible contains the greatest condemnations of hypocrisy ever recorded. The Apostle Paul wrote about: “False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, and no wonder! For satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
 
Paul also wrote of: “false brethren secretly brought in…” Galatians 2:4
 
The Apostle Peter taught that we are to lay “aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking.” 1 Peter 2:1
 
The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts us to: “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience…” Hebrews 10:22
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ exposed and condemned hypocrisy most famously in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18; 7:1-5). Matthew 23 records our Lord devastating condemnation of hypocrisy: “All their works they do to be seen by men… woe to you, …hypocrites! For you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. …hypocrites! For you devour widows houses… hypocrites! You make him twice as much the son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides… fools and blind! …blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! …full of extortion and self-indulgence… woe to you… hypocrites! For you are like white washed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness… serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” Matthew 23:1-33
 
God clearly demands honesty and sincerity. Our yes must be YES! and our no, NO! Hypocrisy is consistently condemned throughout Scripture.
 
Medical Hypocrites
There are of course hypocrites and charlatans in the medical profession too, who violate their Hippocratic Oath to never give an abortifacient to a pregnant woman, nor to do anything to harm a patient. There are innumerable scandals of organ harvesting from prisoners in China to provide kidneys, livers and hearts for transplants to patients willing to pay enough. Doctors who kill babies through abortion and old people through euthanasia. However, none of us should allow the presence of tens-of-thousands of hypocrites in the medical profession to stop us from going to trusted doctors and dentists when we are ill.
  
Counterfeit Money
There are many counterfeit banknotes, but that doesn’t stop any of us from using genuine notes.
 
Infected Hamburgers
We have heard the reports of hamburgers contaminated with, amongst other things, the ecoli bacterium, but people still want real burgers.
 
Jesus Christ Alone
The church is not perfect. But Jesus Christ is perfect! Jesus Christ is probably the only person who has perfectly lived what He preached. He said what He meant. He meant what He said. He did all that He promised. He perfectly lived up to God’s standards of righteousness. You can point out many failings, and even frauds, in the established church. However, nobody could ever point out any such failure or fraud in our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Smoke Screen
Typically, hypocrisy in the church is used as an excuse for not repenting of our sins or surrendering our lives to Christ. By pointing out the sins of others, we try to justify our own sins.
 
Sinners in the Church
It needs to be pointed out that not everyone who attends church services is a true Christian. Many have no saving knowledge of Christ. The true church of Christ consists of born again believers regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit. By definition a Christian has to admit that he is a sinner and is not good enough for Heaven. By virtue of being a Christian one has to acknowledge one’s sinfulness and depravity. That one deserves the wrath of God in hell. The Christian church requires a public acknowledgement of sin as a condition for membership. The very ordinances of the church make this clear. Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, symbolising burial and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper reinforces this, emphasising that we are sinners needing God’s mercy and salvation by blood Atonement. The Lord’s Prayer includes the petition to forgive us our sins. The Apostles Creed includes the forgiveness of sins. The regular reading of the Ten Commandments in our churches reminds us of God’s standards and how we have failed. The General Supplication and other aspects of church liturgy emphasises the public acknowledgement of sin and pleas for God’s mercy.
 
Grace
The church has never claimed to be a fellowship of perfect people. That would be hypocritical. The church is a fellowship of sinners who acknowledge their complete dependence upon the mercy of their Almighty God to forgive and transform them. That is what grace means – God’s undeserved favour.
 
Wretched
The Apostle Paul claimed: “I am the worst of sinners.” Authentic Christians claim to be so bad that they deserved to be sentenced to hell forever. John Newton’s popular hymn begins: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” That is why Todd Friel’s Radio and T.V ministry is titled Wretched!
 
Repent
It may be a good thing that there are hypocrites in the church, they may hear the Gospel, repent of their hypocrisy and be saved. We don’t criticise hospitals for being full of sick people. That is exactly what hospitals are built for!
  
War Against Hypocrisy
Nowhere will one find more consistent condemnation of hypocrisy than in the Bible. No one condemned hypocrisy more effectively than Jesus Christ. No one has lived a more sincere and righteous life than Jesus.
 
Illogical
Therefore it is not logical to use the existence of hypocrites in the church as an excuse to reject Jesus Christ. No one could ever accuse our Lord Jesus Christ of being a hypocrite!
 
Face the Facts
If you allow a hypocrite to come between you and God, then the hypocrite is closer to God than you are!
 
Eternity
If you boycott church because you hate hypocrisy, then you could end up spending all eternity with all the hypocrites in hell!
 
Hypocrisy in the World
There is a lot of hypocrisy in this world. Islam claims to be a peaceful and tolerant religion, while many of its members declare Jihad, issue death threats, murder and mutilate vast amounts of people in the name of their religion. Newspapers claim to stand for freedom of speech while censoring pro-life obituaries. Communists condemn oppression and uphold themselves as “liberators” and “champions of justice” while communist regimes have been the most oppressive in all of history. No other regimes have imprisoned as many people, executed as many victims, deliberately starved so many millions, erected such huge institutions of oppression, employed more secret police, imprisoning whole nations behind an Iron Curtain of barbed wire, mine fields, electric fencing and machine gun towers. Just in the 20th century over 160 million people were killed by communist governments, even while they claimed to be devoted to “World Peace!”
 
Bizarre Hypocrisy
The African Union continually talks about “democracy” and “human rights” whilst the vast majority of government leaders represented at the OAU are dictators. Many in our own country condemn racism while consistently supporting the most racist regime on the continent, Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe.
 
Humanist Hypocrisy
Humanists claim to stand for “tolerance”, yet are thoroughly intolerant of Evangelical Christians. Humanists champion “diversity” and “pluralism”, and yet they work steadfastly to exclude Christian views from the public sphere. Teachers who believe in the sanctity of marriage are expected to go against their own conscience to teach their students “Situation Ethics” and perverse “Alternative Lifestyles”. Evolutionists who claim to be for “freedom of speech” regularly ban any dissension, or discussion, and fire those scientists who question Darwinian Evolutionism, or who seem to consider Intelligent Design. The fact is humanism is the most destructive religion of all time, and the most intolerant.
 
The Judas Factor
Even amidst the original twelve Disciples of Christ, there was Judas, the ultimate hypocrite and traitor. Yet that has not stopped millions of Christians, throughout the ages, from finding Grace and peace at the foot of the Cross.
  
Beyond Betrayal
If you have been let down or betrayed, by a professing Christian, do not let that come between you and God. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
 
Reject the Counterfeit
Many people despise and reject what they think is Christianity when they are merely rejecting the hypocritical churchianity that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself rejected and condemned. Do not let the counterfeit and the false keep you away from the genuine and the real.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
mission@frontline.org.za

The above message has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by
​Dr. Peter Hammond.
 
The book and Answering Skeptics MP3 Boxset are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, Tel: 021-689-7478, Fax: 086-551-7490, Email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and Website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
 
Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-Book.

Sin and Suffering
The friends of Job had a legalistic explanation that the reason Job was suffering so terribly was because he must be guilty of terrible sin. God severely rebuked these false counsellors and vindicated Job as a blameless man targeted by satan.

When the disciples saw a man who was blind from birth, they asked Jesus: "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him." John 9:1-3

The Fall
Suffering and evil is a result of the Fall. God made a good and perfect world. Before Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and give in to the temptation of satan, the world was without pain, suffering and death. Evil came into the world as a result of mankind's rebellion against the Creator.

All of Creation continues to suffer as a result of the sinfulness of human beings. Pain, disease, sorrow and death are the terrible consequences of human wickedness.

False Religions
We can also say that false religions cause most of the suffering in the world today:

Animism, witchcraft, or voodooism, has produced terrified, superstitious followers who have engaged in ritual killings, cannibalism and cruelty. Witchdoctors have routinely blamed individuals for natural disasters such as a bolt of lightning striking a hut, or a death by disease. With the drums playing and the witchdoctor swaying, in a trance, he will identify some poor innocent soul as responsible for any given event. That person would then be forced to jump off a high cliff, drink poison, be fed to crocodiles, or clubbed to death. In many parts of Africa young girls have been forced to have their front teeth sawn off by the witchdoctor as part of their "beautification" ceremonies. In one area that I know of the most beautiful girl in the district would be sacrificed to the crocodile god! Poor people have frequently sacrificed their last chicken to ancestral spirits, instead of providing nourishment to their starving children. There is no doubt that animism causes untold suffering.

Hinduism has produced idolatrous followers who have engaged in infanticide, widow burning and the burning of lepers. Missionary William Carey documented how widows as young as eleven years old were burned alive on the funeral pyre of their husband. On one occasion over thirty widows of one man were burned alive at the cremation of their deceased husband. Lepers would be burned in order to ensure "a better reincarnation!"  Many mothers sacrificed their children by throwing them into the Mother Ganges River to be eaten by crocodiles.

Because of Hinduism's belief in reincarnation, rats may not be killed. It would take a train five thousand kilometres long to haul the grain eaten by Indian rats in single year. And Hindu temples contain vast fortunes of gold, rubies, sapphires and other precious stones in their statues, which are worshipped as idols. It is actually Hinduism's reincarnation beliefs, protected rats, idols made of gold and jewels, wasted resources and superstitions that are causing much of the poverty and starvation in that country.

Islam has produced callous males who abuse females, engage in polygamy, slavery, slave raids, kidnapping, terrorism and suicide bombing.

Communism has produced commissars and comrades who have slaughtered tens of millions of people in the gulags and killing fields, in the name of freedom. Marxists have oppressed and impoverished millions more under their dictatorships, in the name of liberation.

Socialism has impoverished countless countries and eroded economies, in the name of uplifting the poor.

Secular humanist education is producing increasingly selfish, shallow, stupid and superficial socialists.

Ideas and Actions Have Consequences
All suffering ultimately is a result of mankind's sin and rebellion against Almighty God. Suffering is intrinsically related to the Fall. There was no suffering prior to sin. Suffering in this world is part of the complex of God's judgment on the world. Everything has consequences.

Sexual sin often leads to sexually transmitted diseases, herpes, gonorrhea, AIDS, etc. Gambling often leads to poverty and bankruptcy. Adultery often leads to divorce. Gossip separates friends. Our selfishness hurts others. Lies lead to bondage. Selfishness, cowardice, pride, greed, envy and hate cause untold suffering and pain. Passivity and neutrality causes even more suffering. Inactivity and a heartless refusal to get involved compounds the problem. "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."

But Why Do the Innocent Suffer?
We all have personally seen many examples of this principle of what a man sows that shall he reap. However, we also know many cases of people suffering as a result of no fault of their own. So, many people ask: Why do bad things happen to good people?

Many are innocent victims of other people's unrighteous behaviour. Yet the Christian, confident in the Sovereignty of God, can declare: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

What You Meant For Evil God Used For Good
In the book of Genesis we read of the treachery of Joseph's brothers selling him to slave traders. For twelve years Joseph suffered unjustly as a slave and as a prisoner in Egypt. Yet God raised him to being the Governor of Egypt to save the lives of millions from starvation. Later Joseph could declare to his brothers: "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive." Genesis 50:20

No One Is Good Except God Alone
Of course, we could point out that no one is really good, not in the light of a Holy God as revealed in His Law. "As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understands; there is none that seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.  ...For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:10-23

Instead of asking why do bad things happen to good people we should rather ask: why do so many good things happen to bad people? We generally receive much better than we deserve. God is most patient and gracious.

Why Did Jesus Suffer?
Another question which we should ask: Why did Jesus Christ have to suffer, He was the only truly good and righteous person who ever lived. Yet Jesus was misunderstood, slandered, falsely accused and lied about, hated and betrayed. He was forsaken by His followers, unjustly arrested, illegally tried and wrongly condemned. Jesus was mocked, beaten, whipped, insulted, slapped and crucified. Why did the Righteous One have to suffer? He suffered on behalf of us, He died for our sins. The just in the place of the unjust (1 Peter 3:18).

Love in Action
God is compassionate. He entered into this world and suffered everything that we have suffered, and much more. He even experienced the wrath of hell, so that we would not have to. During His ministry on earth our Lord Jesus gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, He made the cripples walk, cleansed the lepers, and even raised the dead.

The shortest verse in the Bible is: " Jesus wept." (John 11:35). The Bible tells us to weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh. Although Jesus was about to demonstrate His power to raise Lazarus from the dead, He was moved in Spirit and grieved over the suffering that His friends were going through. We do not serve a God who is unmoved by our afflictions.

Purpose in Pain
We need to recognise that there may be a purpose behind our pains. Yes, we may be the innocent victim of somebody else's unrighteous behaviour. The Lord may also be chastising me for disobedience to His Word. The suffering could also be part of the suffering for righteousness which all Christians are called to. The Lord does send circumstances and people to help us develop our spiritual muscle and character.

"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Timothy 2:3

Military training is designed to shape characters, and teach skills to save lives.

"Yes, and all who desire to live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuiness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour and glory at the Revelation of Jesus Christ  ..." 1 Peter 1:6-7

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James1:2-4

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His Glory is revealed, you will also be glad with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:12-13

Suffering can be used by God to purify us and to prepare us for special service. All of God's servants have known suffering while God purged and prepared them for His service. Moses was forty years in the wilderness before becoming the deliverer of Israel. David was an outlaw and a fugitive for many years before becoming king of Israel.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18

As pioneer missionary, C.T. Studd declared: "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."

Search Me O God!
When we experience trials we need to search our hearts to see if there are some wicked ways in us that could be grounds for God to be correcting us. This chastisement is designed to lead us to repentance and to full restoration of fellowship. Is there something God is saying to you? Is there an error of your life that needs sorting out? You may not know why you are suffering, but it is important that you respond in a Godly way.

"For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps." 1 Peter 2:21

Serving the Suffering
Our Lord, Jesus Christ taught in the parable of The Good Samaritan that we are to love our neighbour by alleviating the suffering of others. For this reason, throughout the last 2,000 years, millions of Christians have been rescuing abandoned babies, adopting orphans, opposing abortion, founding and maintaining hospitals in all corners of the globe (even in the most remote and dangerous areas), providing emergency relief, assistance and projects to uplift the poor and the needy. Christians have steadfastly opposed the slave trade and slavery, abolished infanticide, widow burning and cannibalism. Feeding the hungry and launching missions to bring countless millions to Christ are just some of the many ways in which Christians throughout history have worked to reduce suffering worldwide.

The Worst Suffering Possible
We also need to consider what is the worst suffering imaginable? The answer is nothing that we will experience in this life. The most extreme pain and suffering will be experienced in an eternity in Hell, separated from God forever. The Bible clearly teaches that those who reject Christ will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Some people raise issues of suffering and evil in the world as some kind of theoretical smoke screen that they can use to reject the free gift of Salvation from Almighty God. We need to warn people about the reality of a Holy God, whose Laws we have violated, and of the very real danger of an eternity of regrets in Hell. "...God...now commands all men everywhere to repent." Acts17:30

Making Sense Out of Suffering
All suffering ultimately is a result of mankind's rebellion against Almighty God. No one is sinless except Jesus Christ and He suffered so that we would not have to suffer eternally for our sins. There are no truly good people on the earth. We are all sinful in the light of God's Law. We can learn and grow through suffering. Pain can yield positive results in our character development. What others mean for evil, God can use for good. God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Jesus Christ came and shared in human suffering - He suffered more than any man. We can, and we must, help alleviate the suffering of others. Human suffering is ultimately caused by human sin and God nailed that problem to the Cross almost two thousand years ago.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
mission@frontline.org.za

The above message has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Dr. Peter Hammond.
 
The book and Answering Skeptics MP3 Boxset are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, Tel: 021-689-7478, Fax: 086-551-7490, Email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and Website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
 
Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-Book.

He became like us - that we might become like Him.
He was rejected - that we might be accepted.
He was condemned - that we might be forgiven.
He was punished - that we might be pardoned.
He suffered - that we might be strengthened.
He was whipped - that we might healed.
He was hated - that we might be loved.
He was crucified - that we might be justified.
He was tortured - that we might be comforted.
He died - that we might live.
He went to hell - that we might go to Heaven.
He endured what we deserve - that we might enjoy what only He deserves.
 
"In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10
 
God is a Holy God and His righteous standards are seen in His Law. We are sinful and need to repent from our wickedness and place our trust in Christ.
 
Have you acknowledged your sinfulness and failings before Almighty God?
 
Have you thanked Him for dying on the Cross for your sins?
 
Jesus died for you. Are you living for Him?
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
mission@frontline.org.za
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
www.livingstonefellowship.co.za

Jesus is the Messiah
Jesus is the Seed of the woman, born of the virgin, Emmanuel, the Son of God, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Prophet, Priest and King, eternal Judge. He made the blind see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk and the dumb to sing for joy. He cleansed the lepers, healed the sick and raised the dead. He taught in parables. At the appointed time He entered Jerusalem on a donkey and suddenly came to His temple, cleansing it. He was a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling to the Jews, but He became a light to the Gentiles. He was betrayed by a friend, for 30 pieces of silver, forsaken by His disciples, accused by false witnesses, wounded and bruised, smitten and spat upon, mocked and crucified. Yet He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven and He will come again to Judge the living and the dead.
 
He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the eternal Judge before whom each one of us will stand. Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, the fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecies.
 
Have you surrendered your life to Him?
 
Are you living in obedience to Him?
 
Do you love Him with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your strength?
 
Is Jesus Christ your Saviour and Lord, or is He your Eternal Judge?
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
mission@frontline.org.za
www.FrontlineMissionSA.org
www.livingstonefellowship.co.za

​To download this message as a tract, for printing and distribution, click here.
 
The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, Tel: 021-689-7478, Fax: 086-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
 
See also:
Who Killed Jesus? (for a PowerPoint, click here; for the tract in English, click here; for the tract in Afrikaans, click here.)
The Illegal Trial of Jesus and the Verdict of History (for a PowerPoint, click here; for the audio, click here; for the video, click here.)
The Cross of Christ (for the audio, click here.)
The Blood of Christ (for the audio, click here.)
Christ is Risen Indeed! (for a PowerPoint, click here; for the audio, click here; for the tract, click here.)

"And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead."
​Romans 1:4

The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is tremendously important. Death is man's greatest enemy, and it has conquered all men - but Christ. Cities and nations, like people, are born and grow for a season, and then fade away. Homes, clothes, even vehicles, wear out and eventually go back to dust, just as do their owners.
​
To Download the Risen  Tract Click Here
To listen to the Audio on Sermon Audio CLICK HERE

Decisive
The bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is tremendously important. Death is man's greatest enemy, and it has conquered all men - but Christ. Cities and nations, like people, are born and grow for a season, and then fade away. Homes, clothes, even vehicles, wear out and eventually go back to dust, just as do their owners. The Bible describes this universal reign of decay and death as "the bondage of corruption" (Romans 8:21). In science it is recognised as the Second Law of Thermodynamics - the Law of Increasing Entropy. Left to themselves, every system tends to become disordered, to run down and eventually die. All the founders of great religions and movements have died and you can visit their graves. Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, Muhammad, Marx, and Lenin. They are all dead and decayed in the grave. But Jesus Christ is alive!

So, what difference does that make? You may ask. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is vitally important because it demonstrates Christ's victory over death, it gives hope to all mankind, it shows that eternal life is available to believers, it points to the ultimate triumph of God over all evil, and it provides an indisputable proof that the message about Jesus Christ, as both Judge and Saviour, is true. "Because He has appointed a Day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." Acts 17:31

The Research of Skeptics
The Resurrection is so important and foundational to Christianity that it has been targeted for the most relentless attacks. Frank Morison, a lawyer, determined to disprove the Resurrection and thereby undermine Christianity. The result of his exhaustive investigations was his conversion to Christ and the publication of his book: "Who Moved the Stone?" which decisively demonstrates the overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection.

A skeptical university lecturer, Josh McDowell, determined to disprove Christianity by investigating evidence against the Resurrection. The result was his conversion to Christ and publication of the monumental: "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" which exhaustively and conclusively presents documentation and evidence upon evidence substantiating the historical truth, factual accuracy, archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence, fulfilled prophecies, transformed lives, and other indisputable evidences which support the fact of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and the truth claims of Christianity.

Thomas Arnold, Professor of History at Oxford University, one of the greatest historians of the 19th Century wrote: "I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better, fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair enquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose from the dead."

Simon Greenleaf, an unbelieving Jew, recognised as one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced, developed the Harvard Law School. He is recognised as the top authority on what constitutes sound evidence. After being challenged by a student if he had examined the evedence of Resurrection, Simon Greenleaf made a thorough and exhaustive examination of the objective evidence and the testimony of the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In his book: "The Testimony of the Evangelists" (Baker, 1874) he concluded: "It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact."

Simon Greenleaf declared that any court of law, if presented with the evidence of the Resurrection, would have to give a verdict in favour of the integrity and accuracy of the Gospel writers and the fact of the Resurrection.

One of the most popular books ever written, and most successful films ever produced, Ben Hur, was a result of a skeptical challenge to General Lew Wallace to the authenticity of Christ's Resurrection, and a careful examination of the evidence. As General Wallace was US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at that time, he explored archaelogical sites and manuscripts in the Holy Land.

What are the facts? The religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had campaigned and conspired to have Christ arrested and executed on trumped up charges, had a compelling interest in disproving any claims of the Resurrection. They had presumed that the execution of Jesus would eliminate this threat to their religious power base and silence His supporters. These Jewish religious leaders had great concerns about the corpse of Jesus and they approached the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, for a military detachment to secure the tomb (Matthew 28:62-64).

The Roman governor's priority in the volatile province of Palestine was to preserve peace and stability. He recognised the political problems that would ensue if anything happened to this religious Teacher whom he had three times declared innocent, and ultimately washed his hands in front of the crowd declaring, "I am innocent of this Man's Blood" (Matthew 27:24). His wife had warned him: "Do not have anything to do with that innocent Man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him." (Matthew 27:19)

Pilate was only too aware that a travesty of justice had taken place, and the last thing he needed was a review of his shameful conduct and dereliction of duty in this case. Ensuring that the victim's corpse remained buried was definitely in Pilate's political interests as well. "'Take a guard', Pilate answered. 'Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how'. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard." Matthew 27:65 

The Roman Guard
As the chief priests had approached the Roman governor, and as the Greek word Koustodia is used to describe the detachment of soldiers, it was evidently a Roman guard. If only a temple guard had been used, there would have been no need to approach Pilate to issue the order. Additionally the concern of the guards after the Resurrection to be protected from consequences from the governor (Matthew 28:14) confirms that those guarding the tomb were Roman soldiers. The detachment would have consisted of at least sixteen soldiers with four men placed directly in front of the entrance of the tomb, on duty, at any time. Under Roman military law any guard who deserted his post, or who fell asleep on duty, would face crucifixion. Typically, if Roman soldiers allowed a prisoner to escape they would face the same sentence as the prisoner - in this case crucifixion.

The seal placed on the stone at the entrance to the tomb signified the administrative authority, and only an authorised officer of Rome would be permitted to break the seal. Anyone breaking a Roman seal without permission would be tracked down and executed.

Although the intention of the religious and political leaders had been to ensure that the phenomenon of Jesus ended at the tomb, their extraordinary security measures have only served to confirm the truth that they had murdered an innocent Man and that Jesus Christ was truly the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, "the Firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth… the One Who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." Revelation 1:5,18

Christ's Victory Over Death
"Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, Who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold I have told you'. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word. And as they went to tell His disciples, behold Jesus met them, saying 'Rejoice!', so they came and held Him by the feet and worshipped Him. Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.'" Matthew 28:1-10 

Attempts to Avoid the Truth of the Resurrection
To explain away the empty tomb, the enemies of the Gospel have had to resort to some desperate deceptions. The first was to suggest that the disciples had stolen the body. This incredible theory suggests that those same disciples who had slept in the garden, fled at His arrest, denied Him before a young woman, were hiding in fear behind locked doors, could have unitedly overcome sixteen professional Roman soldiers, dared to break a Roman seal, moved a two tonne tomb stone, just to steal a corpse! A dead Messiah would have served absolutely no purpose for the disciples. What possible motivation could they have had, even had they possessed the ability to overcome the military, political and logistical obstacles? They had nothing to gain and everything to lose. Everyone of the disciples suffered severe persecution, most dying as martyrs for the Faith. Would you die for a lie? 

Did Jesus Really Die?
Others have questioned whether Christ had really died on the Cross. Perhaps He only fainted? This swoon theory would have us believe that the Roman soldiers, who were professional killers, (the centurion in charge, would most probably have alreadysupervised dozens if not hundreds of executions), had failed to ensure that this high profile political prisoner was not actually dead. Considering the vicious flogging which the Lord had already endured, the excruciating torture of crucifixion, and the spear thrust into His side, with blood and water flowing out, all provide convincing evidence of death.

Yet, those advocating the swoon theory would have us believe that One Who had endured such savage flogging, crucifixion, and a spear thrust to the heart, could not only have survived the legendary Roman military efficiency, but that He was revived on a cold slab in a cold tomb. Further that He somehow disengaged from the grave clothes, and one hundred pounds of spices, ointments and wrappings which had effectively mummified Him, rolled away the two tonne stone, overpowered, or eluded, the Roman soldiers, and somehow found and impressed the disciples with His Deity? These suggestions have only to be mentioned in order to be dismissed as unbelievable. 

The Empty Tomb
Another desperate attempt to explain away the Resurrection of Christ has been that they went to the wrong tomb. All of them. Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, the other women, all went to the wrong tomb. Somehow neither the Pharisees, nor the Sadducees, nor the Roman soldiers, nor Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was, thought to point out that the tomb was in fact still occupied! However, this theory is also impossible, as the tomb was not in a cemetery, but in a garden privately owned by Joseph of Arimathea. There was no other tomb in that garden. 

The Absence of the Body
All that the Roman and Jewish leaders had to do in order to end Christianity forever was produce the corpse of Jesus. But they couldn't do it. Even when the Apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36. "And with great power the apostles gave witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Acts 4:33. Many thousands in Jerusalem, including many Pharisees, came to faith in Jesus Christ.

The Crisis of Credibility
To the Jewish religious leaders, this was their worst nightmare, a disaster. The proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ undermined their power and credibility. Thousands of their followers now believed that they had condemned an innocent Man, the Messiah Himself. The new religion of Christianity was undermining the power base and credibility of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If the body of Jesus could have been found, Christianity could be stopped dead in its tracks and the threat to the religious status quo would have ended. Since they desperately needed Jesus' corpse, the Jewish leaders would have used every means at their disposal to hunt it down and find it - if that was possible. 

The Testimony of Eye Witnesses
However, we are not only dealing with the empty tomb, and the absence of the body, but the testimony of eyewitnesses. On at least twelve separate occasions Jesus Christ was seen after rising from the tomb. Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9); the other women (Matthew 28:8-10); Peter (Luke 24:34); the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35); ten of the disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-24); all eleven disciples, eight days later (John 20:24-29); seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberius (John 21:1-23); to five hundred at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6); to James (1 Corinthians 15:7); to all eleven apostles, and others, at the Ascension (Acts 1:3-12); Paul (Acts 9:3-8); and John (Revelation 1:12-18), all saw the Lord bodily raised from the dead.

To explain away the testimony of all these eyewitnesses, enemies of Christianity suggest that these were merely hallucinations, perhaps as a result of hypnosis or hysteria. However, while hallucinations tend to be unique psychological experiences of an individual, we are here dealing with a large number of individuals, who at different times, in different groups, in different places, both indoors and outdoors, on a hilltop, along a roadside, by a lake shore, all saw the Lord. They saw Him, they ate with Him, they saw the wounds in His hands and in His side.

Far from being gullible, it would appear that His disciples were very skeptical and slow to believe. Thomas declared that he would not believe that Christ had risen unless he personally placed his fingers in the nail prints in His hands and feet and his hand in the wound in His side. 

The Transformation of the Disciples
Not only do we have the testimony of the eyewitnesses, but the dramatic transformation of the disciples. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead transformed the disciples' grief to joy, their cowardice to boldness, their skepticism to faith and their doubt to determination. It turned Saul, the persecutor of the Church into Paul the Apostle of the Church.

The Transformation of History
It also transformed society and history. It changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Christian Lord's Day. What else could explain the replacement of Saturday as the Jewish day of rest into Sunday as the Christian Lord's Day? The Resurrection transformed a Jewish remnant into the worldwide Christian Church. Over 2-Billion people worldwide describe themselves as Christians who believe in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. The very existence of the largest religious movement in the history of the world is another powerful evidence of the truth of the Resurrection.

Prophetic Fulfilment
Jesus Himself had prophesied His Resurrection from the dead. Because of His fulfilment of this, we can be absolutely certain that Jesus Christ is God with us, as He claimed. By His Resurrection we can know that our sins are forgiven through His Blood sacrificed on the Cross of Calvary: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that Whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:14-16

Full Salvation
Because of Christ's death on the Cross we can rejoice that our sins are paid for - we are forgiven, justified by faith.

Because of Christ's Resurrection from the dead we can rejoice in the prospect of eternal life.

Because of Christ's Ascension we can know that He has all authority and that His Great Commission will be accomplished on earth.

Because of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we do not need to trust in our own abilities, but in His power alone. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord."

Proclaim It to the Nations
William Sangster - the church leader and hymn writer - suffered from increasing paralysis which finally prevented him from even being able to talk. On his last Easter before he died, he wrote: "How terrible to wake up on Easter and have no voice to shout, 'HE IS RISEN', far worse, to have a voice and not to want to shout!" 

We serve a risen Saviour! Death is defeated. Christ has risen - victorious over death, hell, satan and the grave.

Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Christ, though he may die, yet shall he live (John 11:25).

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
 
The above message has been adapted from a chapter in Answering Skeptics. This book, which answers 14 such questions, is available from:

Christian Liberty Books:
P.O. Box 358,
Howard Place,
7450,
Cape Town,
admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za
Website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za

To View a PowerPoint on Christ is Risen Indeed Click Here

Related Audios:

Risen
Christ is Risen
We Serve a Risen Saviour

An audio MP3 boxset Answering Skeptics with 32 sermons, lectures and radio programmes by Dr. Peter Hammond, answering such key questions is also available.

Christ is Risen Indeed! Evidences for the Resurrection, can be downloaded in a tract format for printing and distributing. 

Who is Jesus Christ?
During His ministry on earth, our Lord Jesus Christ performed acts that only God could do. Jesus Christ commanded the forces of nature, stilling the storm, walking on water, turning water into wine and multiplying a handful of food to feed thousands (Matthew 8:23-27; 14:22-33; Luke 8:22-25). Jesus Christ forgave sins (Mark 2:1-12); He claimed to be superior to the Sabbath Law (John 5:17-18); and He gave life to whomever He pleased (John 5:19-23). He raised the widow’s son to life (Luke 7:11-15), He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:25-44). 

The Apostle Paul taught that God purchased the Church with His own Blood (Acts 20:28). 

Paul also declared that the rulers of this world had unwittingly crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 2:9 

“God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the Word of His power…” Hebrews 1:1-3

In so many ways, our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the attributes of Deity:

Everywhere Present
“For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20 

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
 
All Knowing
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27

“I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” Revelation 2:23
 
Eternal
“Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’” John 8:58 

“I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” John 16:28 

“And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” John 17:5

All Powerful
“Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? ...For with authority He commands even the unclean spirit and they obey Him!’” Mark 1:27 

“So the men marveled, saying, ‘Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” Matthew 8:27 

“For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” John 5:21
 
Sinless
The holiness and perfection of Christ’s life confirms His Deity. The Scriptures clearly state: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ could say: “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” John 8:46
 
Jesus Forgave Sins
The Old Testament makes it clear that only God has the power to forgive sins, yet during His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus forgave sins. To the paralytic lying on his bed the Lord Jesus declared: “Your sins are forgiven you.” Matthew 9:2 

Jesus declared to one woman: “Your sins are forgiven.” Luke 7:48 

To the woman caught in adultery Jesus declared: “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” John 8:11
 
Saviour
The very Name of Jesus means Yahweh Saves. “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His Name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21 

“I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Saviour.” Isaiah 43:11 

“…And there is no other besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:21-22 

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 

Both God’s role, and His Name as Saviour, are attributed to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus claimed the power to forgive sins (Mark 2:7-10; Luke 7:48) and He is the Saviour of sinners (John 3:17; Acts 4:12; Gal 1:4; Hebrews 9:26). He raised the dead (Mark 5:35-43; Luke 7:11-17; John 11) and He gives eternal life to all who now believe in Him (Mark 10:21; John 3:16; 5:24; 1 John 5:11-12). 

“Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us...” Titus 2:13
 
The Eternal Judge
In the Old Testament Yahweh alone is the Judge (Daniel 7:9-10; Psalm 99; Deuteronomy 32). Yet Jesus Christ claimed this uniquely Divine function in the New Testament (Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:22-30). 

“For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10, (Matthew 25:31-32; John 5:22-24; Revelation 19:11-16).
 
Creator
Yahweh alone is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1; Psalm 33:6-9; Isaiah 42:5). The New Testament reveals that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-5 

“For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible… All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16-18
 
Worship
Yahweh alone is worthy of worship and to worship anyone other than the Lord God would be the worst and most fundamental of all sins (Exodus 20:3-6; Deuteronomy 6:4-16). Yet, prayers are addressed to Christ (Acts 7:59; 9:13; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20); doxologies are ascribed to Christ (Romans 9:5; 2 Timothy 4:18; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:5-6); Old Testament worship passages are transferred from Yahweh to Christ. For example: Isaiah 8:13-15 in “Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:33 

The disciples worshipped Jesus (Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:52). When Thomas declared to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), far from rebuking him, the Lord Jesus merely suggested that he should have believed earlier. 

The Book of Revelation presents the most unambiguous worship of Jesus Christ: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing!” Revelation 5:12-14
 
Yahweh
The name of Yahweh is ascribed to Christ. The sacred Name of God, YHWH, by which God revealed Himself to Moses in the Burning Bush, occurs 7,000 times in the Old Testament.  In the Greek New Testament Yahweh is translated Kyrios (Lord). This exalted Name of Yahweh is attributed directly to Christ. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 

Certainly the title Lord of lords cannot be interpreted in any other way that Jesus Christ is God incarnate (1 Timothy 6:14-15). 

“These will war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings.” Revelation 17:14 

There are many occasions where the New Testament applies Old Testament passages concerning Yahweh directly to Jesus: For example Psalms 110:1 in “The Lord said to My Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” Acts 2:34-35 (Romans 8:38; Hebrews 10:12-13; 1 Peter 3:22). 

Isaiah 45:23 in “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in Heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 

Joel 2:32 in “For whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 

Psalm 68:18 in “Therefore He says: when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to man.” Ephesians 4:8 

Isaiah 40:3 in “For this is He who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’” Matthew 3:3 (Mark 1:3; John 1:23). These passages unmistakably refer to Yahweh Himself.   

Of great significance is Jesus’ self-designations as the I Am(John 6:35; 8:12, 24, 58; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5; 18:5). These are deliberate identifications with God’s revelation of Himself in Exodus 3:14 as “I Am.” 

When Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus replied: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Phillip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” John 14:8-11 

When the high priest questioned the Lord Jesus under oath: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus answered, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power, and coming with the clouds of Heaven.” Mark 14:61-62 

When the Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy He responded: “… believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.” John 10:36-38 

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20

The Holy Spirit is God
The Bible clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is God. “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?…you have not lied to men but to God.’” Acts 5:3-4 

“…Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-17
 
God Triune
There are more than 60 Bible passages which mention the three Persons of the Trinity together.  For example: “When He had been baptised, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were open to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove that alighted upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from Heaven saying ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’” Matthew 3:16-17 

“For there are three who bear witness in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are One.” 1 John 5:7 

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one Faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Ephesians 4:4-6 

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” Titus 3:4-6 

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  Amen.”  2 Corinthians 13:14

God with Us
The very Names of Jesus (Yahweh Saves), Messiah (God’s anointed one), Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14), Emmanuel (God with us) and the Son of God, point to His Deity. His uniquely perfect and sinless life, and His teaching – which is unsurpassed, in authority, clarity, insight and power. All of this is conclusive, and the accumulative proof of all these evidences of the Deity of Christ is overwhelming. Yet even further proof could be sought in the Resurrection: “And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead.” Romans 1:4. The empty tomb, the eyewitness accounts of those hundreds who saw Jesus alive again (1 Corinthians 15:4-8), the transformation of the disciples and even the existence of the Church worldwide, can only support the Biblical claims for the Deity of Christ! 

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His Name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
 
Holy, Holy, Holy
The Trinity can also be seen in Isaiah’s vision of the Lord, in Isaiah 6 the angels were singing: “Holy! Holy! Holy! is the Lord of Hosts.” The Deity of Christ, the incarnation, the personality of the Holy Spirit, regeneration, justification, sanctification, the meaning of the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection cannot be understood rightly without understanding the doctrine of the Trinity. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3

The Incarnation
The glorious truth of the Incarnation is that God has made Himself known personally, specifically and fully by taking our human nature unto Himself, by coming amongst us, yet without ceasing to be the infinite, transcendent and eternal God. 

God in Christ has taken upon Himself the responsibility and penalty for the sins of the world. Yahweh has borne the brunt of suffering and evil by subjecting Himself to its cruelty and horror.  

The Incarnation reveals the reality, depth and costly nature of His love, holiness, justice and mercy. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who became incarnate to reveal God to us and to reconcile us to Himself. He is the second Person of the Trinity. God revealed in human form. Jesus is God, and so we have a full and final Revelation and Redemption in and through Him.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.frontline.org.za

The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, tel: 021-689-7478, fax: 0861-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.

Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-book.

​Who Moved the Stone?
The Resurrection is so important and foundational to Christianity that it has been targeted for the most relentless attacks. Frank Morison, a lawyer, determined to disprove the Resurrection and thereby undermine Christianity. The result of his exhaustive investigations was his conversion to Christ and the publication of his book: "Who Moved the Stone?"which decisively demonstrates the overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict
A skeptical university lecturer, Josh McDowell, determined to disprove Christianity by investigating evidence against the Resurrection. The result was his conversion to Christ and publication of the monumental: "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" which exhaustively and conclusively presents documentation and evidence upon evidence substantiating the historical truth, factual accuracy, archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence, fulfilled prophecies, transformed lives, and other indisputable evidences which support the fact of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and the truth claims of Christianity.
 
Facing the Facts
Thomas Arnold, Professor of History at Oxford University, one of the greatest historians of the 19th Century wrote: "I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better, fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair enquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose from the dead."
 
Examining the Evidence
Simon Greenleaf, recognised as one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced, developed the Harvard Law School. He is recognised as the top authority on what constitutes sound evidence. Simon Greenleaf made a thorough and exhaustive examination of the objective evidence and the testimony of the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In his book: "The Testimony of the Evangelists" (Baker, 1874) he concluded: "It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact."

Simon Greenleaf declared that any court of law, if presented with the evidence of the Resurrection, would have to give a verdict in favour of the integrity and accuracy of the Gospel writers and the fact of the Resurrection. 

One of the most popular books ever written and most successful films ever produced, Ben Hur, was a result of a skeptical challenge to General Lew Wallace to the authenticity of Christ's Resurrection, and a careful examination of the evidence.
 
What Are the Facts?
The religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had campaigned and conspired to have Christ arrested and executed on trumped up charges, had a compelling interest in disproving any claims of the Resurrection. They had presumed that the execution of Jesus would eliminate this threat to their religious power base and silence His supporters. These Jewish religious leaders had great concerns about the corpse of Jesus and they approached the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, for a military detachment to secure the tomb (Matthew 28:62-64). 

The Roman governor's priority in the volatile province of Palestine was to preserve peace and stability. He recognised the political problems that would ensue if anything happened to this religious Teacher whom he had three times declared innocent, and ultimately washed his hands in front of the crowd declaring, "I'm innocent of this Man's blood" (Matthew 27:24). 

Pilate was only too aware that a travesty of justice had taken place, and the last thing he needed was a review of his shameful conduct and dereliction of duty in this case. Ensuring that the victim's corpse remained buried was definitely in Pilate's political interests as well. ""Take a guard', Pilate answered. 'Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how'. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard." Matthew 27:65
 
The Roman Guard
As the chief priests had approached the Roman governor, and as the Greek word Koustodia is used to describe the detachment of soldiers, it was evidently a Roman guard. If only a temple guard had been used, there would have been no need to approach Pilate to issue the order. Additionally the concern of the guards after the Resurrection to be protected from consequences from the governor (Matthew 28:14) confirms that those guarding the tomb were Roman soldiers. The detachment would have consisted of at least 16 soldiers with 4 men placed directly in front of the entrance of the tomb, on duty, at any time. Under Roman military law any guard who deserted his post, or who fell asleep on duty, would face crucifixion. Anyone breaking a Roman seal without permission would be tracked down and executed. 

Although the intention of the religious and political leaders had been to ensure that the phenomenon of Jesus ended at the tomb, their extraordinary security measures have only served to confirm the truth that they had murdered an innocent Man and that Jesus Christ was truly the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
 
Theories
To explain away the empty tomb, the enemies of the Gospel have had to resort to some desperate deceptions. The first was to suggest that the disciples had stolen the body. This incredible theory suggests that those same disciples who had slept in the garden, fled at His arrest, denied Him before a young woman, were hiding in fear behind locked doors, could have unitedly overcome sixteen professional Roman soldiers, dared to break a Roman seal, moved a two tonne tomb stone, just to steal a corpse! A dead Messiah would have served absolutely no purpose for the disciples. What possible motivation could they have had, even had they possessed the ability to overcome the military, political and logistical obstacles? They had nothing to gain and everything to lose. Every one of the disciples suffered severe persecution, most dying as martyrs for the Faith. Would you die for a lie?
 
Did Jesus Really Die?
Others have questioned whether Christ had really died on the Cross. Perhaps He only fainted? This swoon theory would have us believe that the Roman soldiers, who were professional killers, (the centurion in charge, would most probably have supervised dozens if not hundreds of executions), had failed to ensure that this high profile political prisoner was not actually dead. Considering the vicious flogging which the Lord had already endured, the excruciating torture of crucifixion, and the spear thrust into His side, with blood and water flowing out, all provide convincing evidence of death. 

Yet, those advocating the swoon theory would have us believe that One Who had endured such savage flogging, crucifixion, and a spear thrust to the heart, could not only have survived the legendary Roman military efficiency, but that He was revived on a cold slab in a cold tomb. Further that He somehow disengaged from the grave clothes, and one hundred pounds of spices, ointments and wrappings which had effectively mummified Him, rolled away the two tonne stone, overpowered, or eluded, the Roman soldiers, and somehow found and impressed the disciples with His Deity? These suggestions have only to be mentioned in order to be dismissed as unbelievable.
 
The Empty Tomb
Another desperate attempt to explain away the Resurrection of Christ has been that they went to the wrong tomb. All of them. Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, the other women, all went to the wrong tomb. And somehow neither the Pharisees, nor the Sadducees, nor the Roman soldiers, nor Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was, thought to point out that the tomb was in fact still occupied! However, this theory is also impossible, as the tomb was not in a cemetery, but in a garden privately owned by Joseph of Arimathea. There was no other tomb in that garden.

The Absence of the Body
And all that the Roman and Jewish leaders had to do in order to end Christianity forever was produce the corpse of Jesus. But they could not do it. Even when the Apostle Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and proclaimed: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36. "And with great power the apostles gave witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Acts 4:33. Many thousands in Jerusalem, including many Pharisees, came to faith in Jesus Christ.
 
The Crisis of Credibility
To the Jewish religious leaders, this was their worst nightmare, a disaster. The proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ undermined their power and credibility. Thousands of their followers now believed that they had condemned an innocent Man, the Messiah Himself. The new religion of Christianity was undermining the power base and credibility of the Pharisees and Sadducees. If the body of Jesus could have been found, Christianity could be stopped dead in its tracks and the threat to the religious status quo would have ended. Since they desperately needed Jesus' corpse, the Jewish leaders would have used every means at their disposal to hunt it down and find it - if that was possible.
 
Eye Witness Testimony
However, we are not only dealing with the empty tomb, and the absence of the body, but the testimony of eyewitnesses. On at least twelve separate occasions Jesus Christ was seen after rising from the tomb. Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9); the other women (Matthew 28:8-10); Peter (Luke 24:34); the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35); ten of the disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-24); all eleven disciples, eight days later (John 20:24-29); seven disciples by the Sea of Tiberius (John 21:1-23); to 500 at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6); to James (1 Corinthians 15:7); to all 11 apostles, and others, at the Ascension (Acts 1:3-12); Paul (Acts 9:3-8); and John (Revelation 1:12-18), all saw the Lord bodily raised from the dead. 

To explain away the testimony of all these eyewitnesses, enemies of Christianity suggest that these were merely hallucinations, perhaps as a result of hypnosis or hysteria. However, while hallucinations tend to be unique psychological experiences of an individual, we are here dealing with a large number of individuals, who at different times, in different groups, in different places, both indoors and outdoors, on a hilltop, along a roadside, by a lake shore, all saw the Lord. They saw Him, they ate with Him, they saw the wounds in His hands and in His side. 

Far from being gullible, it would appear that His disciples were very skeptical and slow to believe. Thomas declared that he would not believe that Christ had risen unless he personally placed his fingers in the nail prints in His hands and feet and his hand in the wound in His side.
 
Transformed Disciples
Not only do we have the testimony of the eyewitnesses, but the dramatic transformation of the disciples. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead transformed the disciples' grief to joy, their cowardice to boldness, their skepticism to faith and their doubt to determination. It turned Saul, the persecutor of the church into Paul the apostle of the church.

It also transformed society and history. It changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Christian Lord's Day. What else could explain the replacement of Saturday as the Jewish day of rest into Sunday as the Christian Lord's Day? The Resurrection transformed a Jewish remnant into the worldwide Christian Church. Over 2 Billion people worldwide describe themselves as Christians who believe in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead. The very existence of the largest religious movement in the history of the world is another powerful evidence of the truth of the Resurrection.

Jesus Himself had prophesied His Resurrection from the dead. Because of His fulfilment of this, we can be absolutely certain that Jesus Christ is God with us, as He claimed. By His Resurrection we can know that our sins are forgiven through His blood sacrificed on the Cross of Calvary. 

Because of Christ's death on the Cross we can rejoice that our sins are paid for - we are forgiven, justified by faith. Because of Christ's Resurrection from the dead we can rejoice in the prospect of eternal life. Because of Christ's Ascension we can know that He has all authority and that His Great Commission will be accomplished on earth. Because of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we do not need to trust in our own abilities, but in His power alone. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord." 

We serve a Risen Saviour! Death is defeated. Christ has risen - victorious over death, hell, satan and the grave. Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25) 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.frontline.org.za
 
The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, tel: 021-689-7478, fax: 0861-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.
 
Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-book.

Be Prepared
The motto of the Scouts is: "Be prepared" Similarly, we as Christians must be prepared to answer those who would ask us to explain what we believe, and why we believe. ​

We are exhorted to: "…contend earnestly for the Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." Jude 3 

The apostle Paul declared that he had been appointed: "for the defense of the Gospel." Philippians 1:17 

"But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And the servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will."2 Timothy 2:24-26
 
Be Not Deceived
In the book of Revelation we are told that an angel will be sent to cast satan into a bottomless pit where he will be shut up and sealed "so that he should deceive the nations no more…"Revelation 20:3 

We are constantly warned throughout Scripture not to be deceived. The Scriptures make clear that satan is deceiving the nations. We are commanded to study to show ourselves approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15). To contend for the Faith, and to patiently teach and correct those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
 
The Battle for the Mind
We are involved in a world war of worldviews. The battle for the mind is at the heart of this war. It is a battle for truth. We need to know God's Word and God's work so that we can give carefully reasoned answers to those who are challenging the Christian Faith. Some of them are honest skeptics who are genuinely looking for answers. We need to patiently answer them, remembering that we sometimes took many years to come to the convictions that we now hold. 

How Can a Loving God Send Anyone to Hell?
One of the common objections that are thrown at Christians can be summarised in these words: 

How can a loving God send anyone to hell? What about the Eskimos and Pygmies and other primitive, remote tribes who have never heard the Gospel? Would God condemn them just because they haven't believed in someone they have not yet heard of? 

The short answer to that last most emotionally laden question is: No! Of course nobody is going to be condemned for not believing in whom they have never heard. We are all judged according to the light that we have received.
 
Those Who Suppress the Truth
"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to Salvation for everyone who believes… For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the Creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His Eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God; they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened…" Romans 1:16-21
 
General Revelation
Everyone has the benefit of General Revelation in nature. We can see something of the Creator in His Creation. "The Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork…" The existence of God is revealed and clearly perceived through the things that He has made. The invisible qualities of God can be understood by looking at the visible things of Creation. In the light of this General Revelation, the whole world is without excuse if they reject God. No one can claim ignorance of God as an excuse for refusing to honour Him, or to be grateful to Him. That is the main emphasis of Romans chapter one. We all have the light of Creation and the light of our conscience.

Eternity in Their Hearts
Perhaps you have read Don Richardson's book: "Eternity in Their Hearts." Don Richardson documents in case after case how even the most primitive tribes, in the mostremote regions of the world, have basic understandings of the Creator, Creation, right and wrong, and the need for Redemption.

More than Dreams
Perhaps you have seen the film: More Than Dreams. In these and many other testimonies we hear of Muslims who had no access to missionaries or formal evangelistic work. They had no access to the Scriptures. However, (no doubt in answer to the prayers of God's people) they came to great conviction of sin, and were confronted by the reality of Jesus Christ in vivid dreams. Their visions of the man with nail pierced hands and feet, with the spear thrust in His side, led them to seek Christian missionaries and the Scriptures, and they came to full Salvation. Of course, these examples are rare. Even though all people have access to the light of Creation and conscience, the vast majority still live in rebellion to Almighty God.
 
By what Standard?
When we have been engaged in personal evangelism in the streets and in the market places, we sometimes come across those who say that they do not believe in the Bible, or in the Law of God, or in the Lord Jesus Christ. At this point, I normally ask them by what standard they live? Generally these people will present some high standards of ideal conduct, often a variation on the golden rule of Christ found in the Sermon on the Mount.
 
Condemned Even by Their Own Standards
Then when I ask them if they have always lived up to these standards, they invariably answer: No! On no occasion have I ever found someone who dared to claim that they had never violated their own standards! So, while all people have the light of Creation and conscience, no one even lives up to this light.
 
Special Revelation
We need Special Revelation in Holy Scripture. The Bible is the Book of God's Words, just as Creation is the Book of God's Works. General Revelation leaves all men without excuse. We are guilty law breakers.
 
The Depravity of Man
"As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:10-18 

This is reality. The presupposition underlying the question of "How can a loving God send anyone to Hell?" is a misunderstanding about the nature of God and man. It portrays a lack of understanding of the holiness and justice of God and the sinfulness and depravity of man.
 
The Holiness of God
Unfortunately, many Christian ministers have presented such a consistently unbalanced portrayal of the attributes of God that most people only think of God as merciful and loving. However, the angels in Heaven are singing: "Holy! Holy! Holy!" The Holiness and the Justice of God demands that unrepentant murderers, blasphemers, rapists, thieves, liars and persecutors of the church be dealt with.
 
What do you Think God Should do With the Wicked?
Perhaps we should turn the tables and ask our enquirer: What do you think God should do about unrepentant murderers? Baby killers? Rapists? Blasphemers? Persecutors of the Church? Marxist mass murderers? Muslim terrorists? Wife beaters? Poachers? Cruel vivisectionists? Liars? Thieves? Hate mongerers? Gossipers? Two-timing hypocrites and deceivers?
 
The Wrath of God
How can a Holy and living God not punish evil? God is a God of love and light. He is a God of mercy and a God of justice. God is gracious, but He is also a God of wrath. 

"…for great is the wrath of the Lord that has been aroused against us, because our Fathers have not obeyed the Words of this Book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." 2 Kings 22:13 

"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little." Psalm 2:12 

"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36 

"…but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath."Romans 2:8 

"Let no one deceive you with empty words because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 5:6
 
But Doesn't God Love Everyone Equally?
Not only do most that question how God can send anyone to hell presuppose the goodness of man and fail to understand the Holiness and justice of God, but most tend to presuppose the egalitarian heresy expressed in these words: But doesn't God love everyone, equally?
 
The answer is clearly, No! The Bible is quite clear that there are actually many whom God hates. "These six things the Lord hates, yes seven are an abomination to Him; a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." Proverbs 6:16-19
 
Does God Hate You?
The proud, liars, murderers, the wicked, those who rush to do evil, false witnesses and those who sow discord among brethren are among those who God declares that He hates.
 
The Fear of God is the Beginning of Wisdom
"The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate." Proverbs 8:13 

"I hate the double minded, but I love Your Law." Psalm 119:113 

"Let love be without hypocrisy.  Abhor what is evil.  Cling to what is good." Romans 12:9 

"Who will rise up for Me against evildoers? Who will stand up for Me against the workers of iniquity?" Psalm 94:16
 
The Love of God
Of course: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
 
Common Grace
God does love the world in the sense that He sends common grace, He makes the sun shine on the righteous and on the unrighteous. He causes the rain to fall on the fields of the wicked and of the just. He loves the world so much that He came in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Everyone has benefited because of the coming of Christ and all the tremendous blessings that have come from the Word of God and the work of God's Holy Spirit. Hospitals, schools, the abolition of slavery, the rule of law, Christian charity, missions and so much more have immeasurably improved the life of everyone on earth.
 
Egalitarianism is Unbiblical
However, common grace does not mean that God loves everybody equally. Not even a declaration from the United Nations could enforce egalitarianism on God! Nothing in all of creation is equal. Pigeons are not equal to eagles and zebras are not equal to lions. No one is equal. Not in opportunity, nor in skills, nor in talents, nor in gifts. People are not equal in their abilities, in their energy, or in their motivation. Some people work hard and sacrifice much. Others squander their resources and energy in gambling and vices.
 
Forcing Everyone to be Equal is Unworkable
Secular humanist philosophers may wish that everyone be forced to be equal, but it has proven to be unworkable. As Winston Churchill declared: "Socialism could only work in Heaven, where it is not needed, or in Hell, where they already have it."
 
Socialism is Legalised Theft
As Margaret Thatcher observed: "The problem with Socialism is that sooner, or later you run out of other people's money."
 
Rewards and Punishments
Those who work hard are rewarded. Those who are unprofitable servants are cast into outer darkness. In the parable of the talents (Luke 19:12-27), our Lord taught that He would generously reward those who were faithful and wise in serving Him, but the unproductive, He condemned. "For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." Luke 19: 26
 
Freedom to Fail or Succeed
There is nothing egalitarian about the Bible. Equality before the law is commanded (Numbers 15:15-16). However no one can enforce equality of effort, nor equality of results.
 
Inequality in Scripture
In the Scriptures we read that Enoch walked with God, that Abraham was chosen to be the Father of God's people. Abraham is described as the friend of God. Moses spoke to God face to face. David was described as "a man after God's own heart". John, the Apostle is described as "the disciple whom Jesus loved". The Lord made it clear that there would be different degrees of judgment. He warned that it would be better for the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum on the Day of Judgment. How could that be? Because, evil as Sodom and Gomorrah were, they never had a Bible. Nor did the Messiah walk their streets. However, Capernaum had the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles working miracles in their streets and yet they rejected His grace and mercy.
 
The Day of Judgment
We will be judged according to the light that we have received. To whom much is given, much is required. To whom much more is given, much more is required. The Scriptures also make clear that there will be different degrees of rewards in Heaven. "Each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." 1 Corinthians 3:13-15
 
What About the Eskimos and Pygmies?
So, back to the question of what about the Eskimos and Pygmies and other primitive, remote tribes that have never heard the Gospel?
 
Actually there are many Pygmies in the Congo who have come to Christ. We've even had one at one of our Biblical Worldview Summits in Cape Town. There are many millions of Christians in the Congo. There are, in fact, many hundreds of times more Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians in the Congo than there are in Belgium, which once ruled this territory.
 
The Reality of Heathenism
If any one doubts the depravity of man they need to read David Livingstone's accounts of what central Africa was like prior to the advent of the Gospel, as well as Henry Morton Stanley's writings: Through the Dark Continent (1878) and In Darkest Africa (1890). The reality of heathenism before the advent of the Gospel and civilisation is clearly portrayed in the works by these pioneer explorers. Treachery, cannibalism and slavery were rife. In village after village down the original heart of darkness, the Congo River, Stanley and his companions saw villages decorated with the skulls and bones of tens of thousands of victims of cannibalism.
 
Hearts in Darkness
No, there are no sincere, good people, earnestly seeking God, who will be condemned just because they haven't heard the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has plainly manifested His eternal power, being and character to every human being on the planet. Through General Revelation in Creation, and through their conscience, every human being knows that there is a God and that he is accountable to God. Yet every human being disobeys God. Jesus Christ came into a world that was already condemned, lost, on its way to Hell. Christ came to redeem a world that was already guilty of rejecting the Creator and of violating His Holy Laws.
 
A Call to Action
The best form of defence is attack. The Gospel is under attack. We need to counter attack. We dare not be passive, neutral or inactive. The situation is desperate. The needs are urgent. Christian civilisation itself is under attack. The essential foundations for faith and freedom are being undermined.
 
War Against God
Everywhere we see evidence of the paganisation of society and of the criminalisation of our communities. In this battle for the mind, it is the battle for truth itself that is at stake. The war against the family includes attacks on the institution of marriage itself. There is a war against the unborn. Ultimately, all of these are symptoms of a greater war against God Himself.
 
The First Battlefield
Karl Marx declared: "The first battlefield is the re-writing of history." Secular humanist textbooks and Hollywood films are trying to rearrange reality and discredit our Christian ancestors. We need to know the Word of God and we need to know the Works of God in history. Study to show yourself approved unto God, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.
 
Contend For the Faith
May God grant them repentance so that they may know the Truth, come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil. Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the saints.
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.frontline.org.za

The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, tel: 021-689-7478, fax: 0861-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za.

Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-book.

A God Shaped Vacuum
Millions of frustrated people are trying to fill their hearts, minds and souls with everything except God. The resultant depression, disillusionment, despair, sense of meaninglessness, and hopelessness have become pervasive. Mental disorders and suicides are extreme examples of mankind's failure to find meaning and purpose in life apart from God. It is a fact that there is a God shaped vacuum in each one of us. We are created by God and we are created for God. Nothing and no one can fill that void, except the eternal Creator.
 
Frustration
You cannot substitute coca cola for petrol and expect your motor vehicle to still function effectively. Many people try to find fulfilment in fame, fortune and fun, but the end result is always frustration.
 
God and the Astronomers
Astronomer Dr. Robert Jastrow, a former Director for space studies at NASA, wrote in God and the Astronomers: "Strange developments are going on in astronomy. They are fascinating, partly because of their theological implications, and partly because of the peculiar reactions of scientists."
 
Emotional Reaction
The discovery that the universe had a beginning has been most shocking for Darwinian evolutionists. As English astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington declared early in the 20th century: "The notion of a beginning is repugnant." That is hardly an intellectual reaction, but rather an emotional one.
 
The Summit
As Jastrow observed: "The scientists have scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries!"
 
Life and Laws in the Universe
Cosmos, Bios, Theos (these are the Greek words for universe, life and God) is a monumental book from 60 respected scientists, including 24 Nobel Prize winners. The co-editor of the book, Yale Physicist, Henry Margenau, concluded that there was "only one convincing answer" for the intricate laws existing in nature. That one convincing answer is: "Creation by an omnipotent – omniscient God."
 
Irrational and Unprovable
Atheism is irrational. Atheism is a universal negative. It is impossible to prove. No one can possibly prove that there is no God in the universe. To do that they would have to be all-knowing and everywhere present. 
 
Cause and Effect
Every effect must have a sufficient cause to account for that effect.
 
Intelligent Design
We see proof of intelligent design everywhere. Every day and every night.

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day they utter speech, and night unto night reveal knowledge." Psalm 19:1-2

The Eye
We see evidence of the Creator's design everywhere. For example, the human eye contains 400 million cones, 300 million minute fibres and 50 million tiny nerves called rods. Every one of these millions of cones, minute fibres and rods adjust themselves automatically so that we can see a full range of colours, in intricate detail from both near and far.
 
Prophecies
The Bible contains more than 2,000 specific prophecies which predicted events which have already been fulfilled in detail. There is no close parallel in any other writings on the face of the earth. 
 
Pascal's Wager
French scientist Blaise Pascal proposed what has become known as Pascal's Wager. Pascal logically demonstrated that it is more intelligent to risk your life on God's existence than to bet against it. For, if there is no God, or eternal life, and we simply cease to exist when we die, then we have lost nothing by having believed in God. However, if there is a God, so that at death, Believers go to Heaven and unbelievers go to hell, then there is absolutely everything to lose, from gambling that God does not exist. Pascal concluded that no intelligent person should fail to see this. Christians have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Atheists have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
 
The Philosophy of Meaninglessness
Aldous Huxley, the famous 20th century humanist and evolutionist declared that atheism allowed for sexual liberation. By rejecting belief in God unbelievers could embrace "the philosophy of meaninglessness" and be freed from the old moral restraints. In Ends and Means, published in 1937, Aldous Huxley wrote: "For myself as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation …liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and at the same time justifying ourselves in our political and erotic revolt: we could deny that the world had any meaning whatsoever!"
 
Justifying Immorality
Those who reject God often have a very selfish reason for doing so. Normally to justify their sinful lifestyle. Bertrand Russell, one of the most prominent advocates of atheism in the 20th century, was also a flagrant adulterer. He said that his atheism freed him up to his erotic desires.

The Lord Jesus declared: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18:6

Hostility to God and His Law
It would appear that many who are fighting against God, against the Bible and against any public expression of Biblical ethics, such as public displays of the Ten Commandments, are doing so because they themselves are living in sin and breaking many of these Commandments.
 
Foolishness and Corruption
"The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God'. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good." Psalm 14:1
 
Darkened Hearts
Romans 1:18-32 summarises today's cultural war and the emotional reactions it evokes. Those who reject the knowledge of God and are not thankful to God, evidence darkened hearts and turn to idolatry, immorality and perversion.
 
Rejecting the Facts
For most people, their passionate rejection of Christianity and embracing of atheism has nothing at all to do with facts of science or history. Rather, it is often an emotional reaction to justify something in their own lives.
 
Without God
As Russian author, Dostoevsky wrote; if God did not exist then everything could be permitted. Historian Will Durant wrote: "The greatest question of our time is not communism versus individualism, nor Europe versus America, nor even the East versus the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God."
 
Excluding God
That, of course, is exactly what secularists are trying to achieve. They are trying to exclude God and His Word from educational institutions, from political institutions, from the judiciary and from the national news media.
 
Cheapening Life
However, atheism makes life cheap and it deprives life of any meaning or significance. Atheism also deprives life of freedom. Those who declare that there is no God also teach that there is no such thing as your mind. It is just the brain that secretes thoughts like the liver secretes bile. They teach that you have no real control over the brain bile that you ooze out. In Beyond Freedom and Dignity B.F. Skinner concluded that we are biologically determined in absolutely all that we do, we therefore have no dignity and no freedom, and we are not responsible. As we have no real freedom, we have no real guilt. Richard Dawkins suggests that Christianity is a "mind virus."
 
The God Who Would Not Die
However, in historian Paul Johnson's book The Quest for God, he writes of "The God who would not die": "From one perspective – the perspective of human spirituality - the most extraordinary thing about the 20th century was the failure of God to die. The collapse of mass religious belief, especially among the educated and prosperous, had been widely and confidentially predicted. It did not take place. Somehow, God survived, flourished even. At the end of the 20th century the idea of a personal, living God is as lively and real as ever, in the minds and hearts of countless millions of men and women throughout our planet."

"He has put eternity in their heart." Ecclesiastes 3:11

The Country of the Blind
H.G. Wells is best known for his science fiction books such as The War of the Worlds and his history book: A History of the World. In his classic short story The Country of the Blind, he writes about a tribe of people living in a large valley. A plague had rendered them all blind and this blindness was passed onto their children, to their children's children, to their great-grandchildren, for generations. For centuries the tribe had lived in perpetual darkness so that even the very concept and memory of sight had disappeared. They were cut off from the surrounding world by high mountains. But one day, an adventurous member of the tribe tried to find his way over a high pass in the mountains. He slipped and fell a long way until at last he lay unconscious on the valley floor. Because the hearing of the people in the valley was most acute, they heard his landing and hurried toward the sound. 
 
Delusional
When they found the man and revived him they were astonished to hear him babbling about sight and colours. Something must have happened to his head when he fell because he was talking about things that obviously didn't exist such as blue skies and colourful flowers. What on earth is 'blue'? What is a 'colour'? As he talked about his eyes, his vision, and what he could see, the people concluded that he was obviously out of his mind. He was delusional and the people learnt to put up with his continual babblings. He was treated as the village idiot.
 
Removing the Source of the Problem
As months passed the one seeing member of the community was much affected by the beauty of the chief's daughter and asked for her hand in marriage. Of course the request was denied. It just wasn't right for the daughter of the chief to marry the village idiot. Nor did she understand what he could be talking about by beautiful. However, as the daughter felt sincere love for him it was decided that they could get married, as long as the man's eyes were gouged out. As the man's eyes were the cause of his problem, they could restore him to his right mind by removing them. Then he could marry the chief's daughter. Incredibly, he agreed.

When the day approached for the surgery on his eyes and he lay on the operating table, the man came to his senses, jumped up, ran out, climbed the mountain and disappeared. 

Now, of course, this story is fictional. H.G. Wells was by no means a Christian. However, this story appears to be a most remarkable parable reflecting the reality of the world in which we live. 

Spiritual Blindness
Because of the Fall and the depravity of man, the whole human race has tumbled into a valley of the spiritually blind. Because of sin, the natural mind is darkened, the will corrupted. Through sin we have lost our spiritual sight and our spiritual hearing. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14
 
Psychosis or Neurosis
So Sigmund Freud declared that all religions are either "psychosis or neurosis". Secular humanists have worked hard to exclude spiritual reality from textbooks, films and news media, and to ridicule those who believe in God.
 
Generation, Degeneration and Regeneration
The natural man is degenerate, depraved, sinful, lost, deaf, blind and spiritually dead. In a nutshell, the Bible tells us of generation (Creation), degeneration (the Fall), and regeneration (Redemption and Restoration). Jesus Christ makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).
 
Disguised and Rejected
Author C.S. Lewis wrote that Christianity is the story of how the real King of the universe came to earth in disguise. "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." John 1:11
 
Where is God?
Those who reject God do so despite the witness of Creation. They reject Christ despite the witness of His Resurrection. They reject the Holy Spirit even when He convicts them of their sin. Then they protest: Where is God?
 
Rejecting God
Jeremiah the Prophet declared that the people had apostatised from God. They worshiped false gods, defied the Laws of God, ignored the Revelations from God, and when His Judgment inevitably fell they asked where God was!
 
Vain Hope
The Prophet Jeremiah's response was: "Let the idols you worship come and save you." Jeremiah 2:28

"A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord." Proverbs 19:3

Sin Separates Us from God
God is not hidden. He has been revealing Himself in Creation, through our conscience, and in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin makes God seem hidden. However, just because a blind man doesn't see something doesn't mean it isn't there.

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.frontline.org.za
 
The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, tel: 021-689-7478, fax: 0861-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za. 

Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-book.

A Hidden God
17th Century French mathematician and scientist Blaise Pascal wrote: "What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor His manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." 

"To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled, nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled." Titus 1:15 

To the wilfully blind God seems to be absent, or even worse if he is there, he is cruel. But to those whose eyes have been opened there are abundant evidences of God in Creation, in our conscience and in Jesus Christ.

The classic hymn: "Holy! Holy! Holy!" reminds us that the eye of sinful man does not see God's glory and the darkness seems to hide him:

"Holy! Holy! Holy!

 Though the darkness hide Thee,

 though the eye of sinful man,

Thy Glory may not see;

only Thou art Holy; there is none beside Thee;

perfect in power, in love and purity." 

God has not left Himself without a witness. There is nowhere on earth, or in the universe, where His fingerprints are absent.

Confrontation
However, we are confronted today by a most virulent and aggressive form of atheism. One of the great ironies of militant atheists is how their whole existence seems to be consumed in fighting against what they claim does not exist.

Confusion
If you have read many of these vicious atheist attacks on God you will notice how they tend to blur the distinction between Christianity and Islam. They cite horrible atrocities done in the name of religion (most of which is been done by Muslim extremists against Christians!) and then they argue that the problem is with God!

Condemnation
Firstly, it is completely unfair to blame the victims for what their persecutors have done. Secondly, these atheist writers ignore the vastly worse atrocities committed by atheists. Secular humanist, atheistic political regimes turned the 20th century into the bloodiest century in all of history. The death toll left behind by secular humanist, atheist dictators such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Haile Mariam Mengistu, Samora Machel, Agostino Neto, Fidel Castro and other communists exceed 160,000,000 victims. These were not soldiers killed in battle, but civilians killed in peace time, by their own governments, in the name of scientific socialism and atheism.

Contradiction
Now, we would not want to make every atheist share the guilt of what some atheists have done to slaughter multiplied millions. Neither would it be fair, or rational, for any atheist to blame Protestant Christians for what intolerant Catholic regimes and Muslim extremists have done to their forefathers.

The Reality of God
The fact is that there is a God. He made us. He has revealed his standards of right and wrong in the Ten Commandments. We are accountable to Him. One Day we will stand before Him and give an account of our lives.

Revelation
God is not hidden. He has been revealing His power and majesty and truth in so many multitudes of ways. It is clearly seen in His Creation. He has spoken through the prophets. He has spoken in and through His Son Jesus, Christ. 

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." Psalm 19:1

Watersheds
If you have ever climbed the great Drakensburg Mountains then you have seen one of the watersheds of our continent. You can imagine drops of rain from the same cloud can fall on the same peak and one will flow West and end up in the great Orange River, flowing relentlessly to the Atlantic Ocean, another will end up in the Tugela River and flow East, ending in the Indian Ocean. At one point these two drops of water are a meter apart, and then a kilometre apart, then a hundred kilometres apart. Eventually they're over a thousand kilometres apart. 

The Mountains of the Moon include the great Mount Ruwenzori which, although close to the Equator, has snow on the peak. From these Mountains of the Moon some of the water flows North into the Nile, the longest river in the world, stretching over 6,600 kilometres. It takes one drop of water over 4 months to travel the full length of the Nile River from Lake Victoria through to the Mediterranean Sea. However, some of the rain that falls on the Mountains of the Moon flows West into the Congo River and empties eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. In America the Rockies are the continental divide. In South America it is the Andes Mountains. In Asia the Himalayas. In Europe the Alps.

The Watershed Question
These watersheds are important in geography and one watershed in Theology which impacts key beliefs more than any other is the question: Is there a God, or not? That question is pivotal. 

The Bible begins: "In the beginning God Created the Heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 

Atheism is based on the assumption that there is no God.

Either one believes that the world created itself or one believes in a self-sufficient Supreme Being who always was, is and ever will be. Put another way, the question is: Is God self-sufficient and always existing? Or is the universe self-sufficient and self-existing? The point where you start will determine where you end up. 

"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." Psalm 14:1

The God Who is There
Every tribe and culture and nation has an idea about God and a name for God. Everyone knows that God exists, but some people foolishly try to suppress that fact. 

The Great Books of the Western World comprise 60 volumes of the greatest writings of the greatest minds in western history. Dr. Mortimer Adler, the Editor in Chief, observed that almost all of the authors of the great books, from the ancient Greek writers through to writers of modern times, deal in some way with the subject of God. 

"The reason", he said, "is obvious. More consequences for thought and action follow the affirmation or denial of God than the answering of any other basic question. The whole tenor of human life is affected by whether men regard themselves as the supreme being in the universe, or acknowledge a superhuman Being whom they conceive of as an object of fear or love and a force to be defied, or a Lord to be obeyed." 

More than anything else, what you believe about God will make the most difference in your thoughts, your life and your eternal destiny.

The Crumbling Foundations of Atheism
One of the reasons why we are facing such a militant and aggressive assault from atheists today is because all the pillars of atheism are crumbling. First they are crumbling from the tremendous advance of the Gospel as multiplied millions of people are being converted to Christ every year. Secondly, at the highest intellectual levels, increasing numbers of scientists are realising that, on every point, atheism is an untenable position.

Facts are Stubborn Things
In God, the Atom and the Universe, scientist Dr. James Reid, declares: "Science is preparing a surprise for mankind. At least it will be a surprise for those who have doubts about the Bible and its God. It will also come as a surprise for those who are labouring under the misapprehension that science undermines the Bible. In fact, it may even shock some scientists, who may be startled to find that their newly uncovered facts, or accepted theory, provide still another link in the chain of evidence that is showing that the facts of the universe support the Bible's statements – including Creation."

Purpose in Design
In 1973, on the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus, at a special celebration in Krakow, Poland, the birthplace of Copernicus, one of the key note speakers was the highly respected astrophysicist Professor Brandon Carter from Oxford University. Professor Carter startled many by pointing out that Physics and Astronomy all seem to indicate that our world – indeed the entire universe – has been constructed and maintained for a purpose. That purpose could only be the sustaining of intelligent life on this planet.  

Professor Carter noted such things as consistent symmetry in the mathematical equations for gravity and the fact that if the mass of the proton were just a fraction larger or smaller, the entire solar system would collapse. All of Physics points out the fact that somehow this universe appears to have been designed for mankind. This he called he called the Anthropic Principle. Now, to the evolutionists, purpose is one of the most repugnant of words. Evolutionism insists that everything is merely an accident. To recognise purpose in Creation is to acknowledge a Creator.

An Avalanche
So many other scientists have made similar discoveries and observations that one can compare it to multiplied snowballs turning into an avalanche, which is sweeping away the pillars of evolutionism.

The Privileged Planet
The Privileged Planet, written by scientists Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards, documents how earth has been uniquely positioned to sustain human and animal life. If the earth was any closer to the Sun, temperatures would be too high for any life to survive. If we were any further away from the Sun, the temperatures would be too low to sustain life. The atmosphere around planet earth is absolutely unique to sustain human and animal life. 

Celestial Mechanics
In his five volume work on Celestial Mechanics, Pierre Simon Laplace, concluded: "The proof in favour of an intelligent God as the author of Creation stands as infinity to zero against any other hypothesis of ultimate causation." It is impossible to give a greater contrast than infinity to zero. Pierre Laplace observed that it would be infinitely more probable that a set of writing implements, thrown aimlessly against a huge parchment, would produce Homers Iliad than that the Creation originated by any other cause than an all knowing, all powerful God.

Mathematical Genius
One of the greatest astronomers of all times, Sir James Jeans, observed that the more he studied the universe, the more the universe appeared to him to be one gigantic thought of a great mathematician. It has meaning, symmetry and reason.

The Moon
Those scientists who embrace Intelligent Design point to many examples, such as the moon. If there were no moon, there could be no life on earth. For the moon is God's appointed handmaiden for the earth. It cleans up the oceans with its tides. Without those tides, and without the moon, all our shores and bays would be filled with billons of tonnes of stinking garbage and debris. No one would want a seafront property and swimming in the sea, or fishing in the sea, would be unthinkable.

Oxygen
The moon mixes the atmosphere. Just as the gravitational pull of the moon affects the tides of the seas, it works on the atmosphere and mixes oxygen into the water as the waves break upon the shore. Upon that aerated water depends the life of the seas plankton, which provides the basis of the ground level of the whole food chain without which we would all die. All of the sea creatures depend upon the plankton which could not survive without the tidal pull of the moon.

Intelligent Design
For someone who believes in evolution it is inexplicable that the moon just "accidentally" happens to be there, and "accidentally" happens to be just the right size and distance from the earth for all of these things to happen in such a way as to sustain life on this planet.

Nitrogen
Then consider the nitrogen in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% of other components. We should consider the fact the nitrogen mixed with almost anything becomes poisonous. However, the atmospheric nitrogen around us is extraordinarily inert. What good is nitrogen? Without nitrogen there would be no plants. So, how does God get the nitrogen to mix into the soil for the plants to feed on without mixing it into the air we breathe, which would kill us?

Lightning
Scientists inform us that the hundred thousand strokes of lightening everyday around the globe are essential to alter the molecular atmospheric nitrogen into compounds like ammonia and nitrates which are carried into the ground by rain. That system produces 100,000,000 tonnes of nitrogen plant food every year and keeps this world going. Every time we hear the thunder, and see a bolt of lightning, we should stop and think that were it not for that lightening, life would not be able to be sustained on this planet.

Dust
Scientists also point to the intelligent design in dust. To many people dust is something unpleasant, which causes sneezing and runny eyes and various allergies. Why is there such an accumulation of dust on our desks, shelves and tables? Actually, intelligent design advocates points out we should Thank God for dust. If it wasn't for dust, we wouldn't be alive either.

Blue Skies and Rain
One of the benefits of dust is merely cosmetic. We are informed that the sky is not really blue, it only appears that way because of the effect of dust on light in our atmosphere. If you go 40km straight up into the atmosphere, where there is no dust, the sky appears pitch black. Perhaps you have noticed that photographs taken from the moon show black skies. But, we are informed by the experts, dust does something even more important: Every drop of rain contains approximately 8 million tiny droplets of water, and each of these droplets is wrapped around a tiny speck of dust. If it wasn't for the dust, it could never rain. If it never rained, this whole world would turn into something like the Sahara desert and all of us would die. Everything evidences design.

The Solar System
Athanasius Kircher, a devout Christian astronomer, constructed a complex working model of the solar system showing the Sun and the planets circling around it. One day he invited his atheist friend into his study to see this model. His friend was intrigued by the model's incredible complexity. He exclaimed: "How beautiful it is! Who made it?" 

Kircher responded: "No one made it. It made itself!" 

The atheist stared at him in disbelief: "That's absurd! You don't expect me to believe that!  Do you?" 

Kircher answered: "No. I don't. But what's even more absurd is that's what you believe about the real solar system, which is vastly more complex than this simple model." 

When we consider the complexity and magnificent design of God's Creation in the universe we can see that He is not nearly as hidden as skeptics assert.

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork."

Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Email:  mission@frontline.org.za
Website: www.frontline.org.za

The above article has been adapted from the book Answering Skeptics by Peter Hammond. The book and MP3 Audio Boxset Answering Skeptics are available from Christian Liberty Books, PO Box 358, Howard Place 7450, Cape Town, South Africa, tel: 021-689-7478, fax: 0861-551-7490, email: admin@christianlibertybooks.co.za and website: www.christianlibertybooks.co.za. 

Answering Skeptics is also available as an E-book.