I Would Still Be Running...

In Part One of this two-parter, I have given reasons why I have questioned the Christian faith, attempting to put myself in the atheist's line of reasoning. Issues, such as how could God forgive a serial killer, just because he now believes in Jesus, after sending the souls of his victims into a lost eternity, they have not heard the Gospel or properly understood the good news? Or that of a baby born in a non-Christian country apparently doomed for all eternity right from birth just for growing up under a different religion. Or reading Biblical stories vindicating God's victory over Israel's enemies, the Amalekites, by ordering King Saul to have the entire tribe slain - men women, their children and even their newborns - all destined for the kill, including their livestock - cattle, sheep, donkeys and camels - neither they nor any of the younger children and infants having any awareness of the tribe's violent history against Israel.

Or the case of the natural world where carnivores prey on their helpless victims, whether it's a spider rolling up a bug caught in its web as the latter makes its final struggle. Or a crocodile drowning a zebra in the river, or a pride of lions chasing and surrounding a herd of fleeing cattle. And that dreadful creature, the box jellyfish thriving off the Australian coastline. Such is the creation of a loving merciful God, yet, its sting can be fatal to an adult without treatment with an antidote, let alone a child screaming in pain - for daring to venture into the jellyfish's territory.

But, what I didn't mention in last week's blog was the two cases of talking animals, both found in the Old Testament. The first one was the snake who spoke to Eve in the language she understood. As this was in the brief period of innocence, Eve took in the conversation as something normal, to be expected. The fear and dread of the serpent weren't initiated until after the Fall when God pronounced judgment on all the three subjects - the snake, Adam and Eve.

The second occasion occurred when Balaam the prophet was riding on a jenny donkey to deliver a curse on Israel's campground, under the command of the Moabite king Balak in return for a rich reward. As the prophet was on his way to deliver his curse, an angel of God stood in the way, and the donkey ended up lying on the ground with Balaam, consumed by the anger of his journey frustrated, beating the beast to coax it to proceed. The donkey then cries out, also in a language understood by the rider, asking why she was beaten three times when, up to then, she was always loyal to him - Numbers 22:21-41.

It's here that I'm pondering on Balaam's reaction to the donkey's protest rather than the speech itself. Suppose that I was riding that donkey when it suddenly spoke in a clear English language. I would cry out, What the... then dismount and run - and keep on running!

Instead, Balaam answers the donkey's question as if in a normal day-to-day conversation - as if it's perfectly natural for donkeys to talk all the time. It's Balaam's casual reply to the supernatural manifestation, rather than the manifestation itself, that stumps me, sending my head whizzing!

It needs to be realised that all the above are contributions delivered by a host of different atheists, and not from just one. Hence, I feel it's relevant. For example, I have taken the total views of just five different atheists on YouTube. Between them, there are at this moment, 207,438,554 views and rising rapidly, and by using the comment forums as a yardstick, I could see the vast majority of visitors agreeing with them rather than defending their faith. Then not to mention TV naturalists such as staunch evolutionist David Attenborough with his first series, Life, broadcasted in 1979, it was watched by up to 500,000,000 viewers worldwide, with up to 6,840,000 in Britain alone. Not to mention later series, such as The Blue Planet with its beautiful background music, released on air in 2001 and watched by more than 12,000,000 viewers in the UK.

And so, I feel a bit of a plonker trying to convince anyone that the Bible, with its Young-Earth creationist theory, even a spurious flat-Earth theory, two talking animals, and a vengeful, vindictive God authorising the slaying of young children for their ancestor's sins - as all historic events. Added to this, the concept of just one man atoning for an unnumbered quantity of believers is perceived by them as utterly foolish and inept. 

As one who believes in Jesus Christ as Saviour, I take it that the world sees me as someone who is reasonably harmless but addle-headed, an eccentric, one who is out of touch with the real world of science, and considered untrustworthy in all most other matters. If I was to say that I believe in a talking snake, a talking donkey, that a shadow cast by the sun on a sundial went backwards, and that there was an extra-long day with no record of a corresponding long night, and that dead people had been resurrected back to life - all as historic, then hardly anyone would take me seriously. Especially when there's a small group of Christians who, despite their insignificant numbers, have mouths so loud in declaring that the Earth is flat, is covered by a dome and saying that the Bible endorses this fallacy, makes me look utterly foolish in the eyes of a well-educated group of YouTube atheists with their 208,000,000 viewers - around three times the entire UK population.

Therefore, how can I defend my faith in God and verify the historicity of the Bible?

Well, no other book, religious or secular, contains any fulfilled or unfulfilled prophecies. Thus, for a book to contain prophecies in the first place makes the book very unique. And even the Old Testament points to Jesus, his death on the Cross, his burial and his Resurrection just three days after his Crucifixion, making the Bible unique, placing the Cross as the most important event in the whole of human history. Old Testament prophecy can be hidden in apparently unrelated stories, such as Samson's riddle given to the Philistine elders: Out of the strong came something sweet. The answer to the riddle is the lion is strong and from its carcase, honey was provided.

Can honey be extracted from a lion?

Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He was crucified, and from his death, the sweet honey of salvation is now freely available to all who wants it. Or the case of Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar. Here, God intervenes and provides a ram whose horns were caught in some nearby bushes, to take Isaac's place. Thus, the patriarch's own phrase, the Lord will provide, is a direct reference to Jesus Christ and his own death taking our place instead of us having to face eternal death.

Or the case of the Passover Lamb, an annual custom celebrated by all Jews across Israel and scattered worldwide. It's a remembrance of the evening when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt. On their final evening in Egypt before their exodus, Moses instructed them to slay a lamb, one without any blemish, and paint their doorposts with the lamb's blood. Then they were to roast the carcase and eat it hurriedly without breaking any of its bones. The Passover foreshadows the Crucifixion. As the blood of the lamb spared the death of their firstborn that was inflicted upon the Egyptians, so the shedding of Christ's blood atoned for us. As the bones of the slain lamb were not broken, neither was the Lord's bones broken either, even if those of the two thieves were.

Other customs we practice without further thought originated from the Bible. Are you married and raising a family? That was the first commandment God gave to Adam and Eve. Are you dressed? Soon after the Fall, God supernaturally clothed Adam and Eve with the fur taken from a slain animal as a substitutionary offering for atonement. Another foreshadow of Jesus Christ. Do you rest from paid work at weekends? That was from a command from God for Israel to observe the Sabbath, itself connected to the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is, we now worship on a Sunday, the day of the week Jesus had risen from the dead, thus symbolising the eternal rest God gives to all believers.

However, the Bible contains direct prophecies of the coming Messiah. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 11:12-13 are striking examples of the foretelling of Christ's first coming. For example, how could both King David and the prophet Isaiah describe with stunning accuracy the suffering of Jesus while he was hanging there on the cross - and then Isaiah then saying afterwards that he will prosper, and be given a portion with the great, and also divide his spoils with the strong. A complete contradiction within one chapter? Not if the Resurrection is to be believed!

Also worth considering here is a prophecy of Almighty God actually sent by Almighty God. It's found in the whole 2nd chapter of the prophet Zechariah, the last-but-one book of the Old Testament. For the Jews, who have always believed that "God is one, there is just one God" - this prophecy I find astonishing to see it there in the Hebrew scriptures written by Jews, for Jews. That means that the Christ crucified is non-other than Almighty God himself, God the Son, or the Son of God. That was why the Atonement was effective enough to cleanse the whole world from sin. For it to be made, Jesus Christ had to be not only sinless but had to be God himself.

And all this is endorsed by mathematics, the science of space and quantity. Back in the late 1940s and into the 50s, Californian professor Peter Stoner gave his students a set of Old Testament prophecies and assigned them the task of finding the probability of these prophecies fulfilled purely by chance and without divine intervention. For example, Micah 5:2 says that the future Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. But why there, if there are many other towns in Israel where the Messiah could have been born? On top of this, Mary and Joseph didn't live in Bethlehem when she became pregnant, but at Nazareth, a three-day journey north of Bethlehem.

Oh, what a coincidence that the Roman Emperor orders everyone to return to their original home towns for registration. It was the timing of this call, to coincide with Mary's arrival into Bethlehem with her time of delivery. Furthermore, the Emperor knew absolutely nothing about Mary and her pregnancy!

The probability of such prophecy being fulfilled without divine intervention was added to 47 other Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah's first coming, including the few I had already mentioned. Using the factoring of probabilities, the experiment revealed that the chance of all these prophecies fulfilled purely by coincidence is one chance in one, followed by 181 zeros! 

To see the significance of this enormous number, imagine a ball of tightly-packed tiny electrons many, many times larger than the known Universe. A single election is so small, that it would take billions of them to form a line just one centimetre long, but here is a ball of them so huge to even try to imagine. Mark out one electron to distinguish it from the rest, and stir it thoroughly into the ball. Then send a blindfolded man into the ball. If he comes back with the marked electron on the first try, then it would be safe to say that the Bible isn't inspired by God.*

Little wonder that many who were convinced that the Bible was divinely inspired and historical willingly gave their lives, even to the extent of being burned alive at the stake. The story of Ridley and Latimer, two bishops who were burned alive at the stake at Oxford University on October 16th, 1555, is one of the most striking stories. They gave their lives to uphold the truthfulness of the Bible.

And to this day, we see church buildings all around us. A brick-and-mortar testimony of the historicity of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Just as mosques exist because Mohammed once lived. And Buddhist temples exist because Buddha the monk was once alive. But these two died and their bones are with us to this day. By contrast, Jesus rose from the dead, thus proving to be the promised Messiah.

Indeed, the stack of evidence to believe outweighs any reasons to remain an atheist.

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* Henry M. Morris, The Bible and Modern Science, 1951, Moody Press, pages 119-120.