Jesus Foretold: False Witnesses (MP 68)

Did God seal the fate of Jesus His Son, By dulling the Jews’ spiritual insight? False witnesses told guilty things He’d done; They were not believed to testify right! Speaking of His body, Jesus had said, “Destroy this temple; it’ll rise in three days.” Two testified He meant the building instead— That it was the temple He claimed to raise! To explain His words, Jesus did not try; By God’s Master Plan, He had to be slain; At the hands of Israel, Jesus must die, So being God’s Son He did proudly claim! False witnesses did not Jesus convict; “I am God’s Son!” caused the “Guilty” verdict! Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added] Israel dulled: Isaiah 6:9-10—“He [the Lord, to Isaiah] said, ‘Go and tell this people [Israel]: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.’ “ (Written in the 7th century B.C.) Prophecy Made: Psalm 34:11—“Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.) Prophecy Fulfilled: Mark 14:55-59—“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Then some stood up and gave this testimony against him: 'We heard him say, I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another not made by man.’ Yet even then their testimony did not agree.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.) Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: False Witnesses” No human tribe may have been capable of meeting God’s standards of obedience to the Mosaic Law; certainly Israel wasn’t, and by Isaiah the prophet’s time, God decided that Israel was incapable of becoming a “nation of priests” for Him. Therefore, His Master Plan included instructions for Isaiah in about 700 B.C. to tell them that He (God) was dulling their spiritual insight so that they would be unable to recognize and accept Jesus (God) when He came to redeem all people from condemnation (See Isaiah 6:9-10). In Jeremiah 31:31 God announced a new covenant; this new covenant was not based on absolute obedience to laws, but on the grace of God through the faith of men. To be saved from condemnation, all a man or woman was required to do was to believe that Jesus was sent from God; also, He turned from offering salvation to Jews only but also to Gentiles; instead of the nation of Israel becoming a nation of priests, God would establish His “church”, composed of believers in Jesus, and commanded to preach the gospel to all the world. Israel is not rejected from salvation, but a Jew must believe in Jesus as the Messiah in order to become saved, exactly as do Gentiles. Most of the common people of Israel believed Jesus was sent from God. Most of the Pharisees, Saducees, priests, and leaders of Israel were too spiritually dull to understand the spiritual truths He taught; they had failed to interpret the Mosaic Law and the prophets correctly; they had twisted and perverted God’s words until the Law as interpreted was nothing like God had intended it to be. Jesus castigated them vehemently, especially in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and His accusations to the Pharisees in the temple, and they hated Him and plotted to kill Him. David had prophesied that false witnesses would be used against Him in their attempt to slay Him, and there were many false witnesses heard in His trial before the Sanhedrin. However, none of the testimony of the false witnesses held up under cross-examination. Jesus was determined to die at Israel’s hands, for that was His mission to earth—His death would atone for Adam’s original sin that brought condemnation, as well as all the sins committed by all men and women who ever lived. If Israel did not kill Jesus to show their rejection of belief, His coming would have failed. So when the high priest asked Him point blank if He was the Son of God, He clearly answered “Yes”. That claim, that Jesus was the Son of God, was the evidence that killed Jesus. When modern-day people reject Jesus as God’s Son, they, too, are condemned for disbelief, just as Jews were of that day. They, too, are voting Him guilty of death. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Lots Cast For Clothes (MP 67)

Fully clothed, He would have been shamed enough, But they stripped Him nude, and then nailed Him down, Leaving Him bare, wearing none of His stuff, Lifted on view with naught but thorny crown! The piercing hurt less than being unclothed; His enemies jeered and mocked His manhood, While His friends wept, with eyes downcast or closed, To spare Him shame by as much as they could! His clothes were divided when lots were cast Among the soldiers who had brought Him there; His seamless tunic was held until last— Made of one piece, it was very rare. God revealed the lot-casting in advance, Jesus’ credentials as His Son enhance! Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added] Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:18—“They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.) Prophecy Fulfilled: John 19:23-24—“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, divided them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment [tunic] remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who gets it.’ This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said: ‘They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.’ So this is what the soldiers did.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also, Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:34) Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Lots Cast For Clothes” Jesus was crucified naked, which must have shamed and embarrassed Him even more than being nailed to the cross. In Psalm 22, King David prophesied that His clothes would be divided and lots cast. This had to be revealed to David by God, for there is no way he could have guessed it or made it up. Jesus wore an outer full-length robe, an inner linen garment next to His skin, a loin-cloth inside, a sash about His waist, sandals, and a turban-type head covering normally, There were four Roman soldiers who divided the clothes. The tunic, called an “undergarment” in scripture, was very unusual. It was woven in one piece, starting at the neck; it had sleeves and reached below the knees. The High Priest of Israel wore such a tunic (See Exodus 39:27). It is prophesied in the Bible that Jesus Christ will be the High Priest as well as the King of Israel during the 1000-year reign (See Hebrews 4:18). Was Jesus wearing such a tunic as His due? If so, where did He get such a rare garment? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Roman 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: No Bones Broken (MP 66)

Blood and water flowed from the Savior’s side,
Pierced by a spear to make sure He was dead;
Else His legs be broken so that He died—
One or the other would be done instead!
No broken bones, had David prophesied,
So the spearman the prophecy fulfilled;
A vital role had the Roman guard plied,
In proving Jesus did God’s Kingdom build!
The blood of Jesus blots out all men’s sin,
And redeems from hell any that believe;
Eternal life that precious flow gives men,
And into the gates of heaven receive!
That spearman did more than broken legs saved—
The pathway to enter heaven he paved!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:17—“I [Jesus] can count all my bones; …” Also, Psalm 34:20—“he [God] protects all his [Jesus’] bones, not one of them is broken.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: John 19:31-37—“Now it was the day of Preparation [the day before the Sabbath, when Jesus was crucified], and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken [to bring sudden death] and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. … These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones would be broken.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: No Bones Broken”
It was no accident that Jesus died late in the afternoon of Preparation day, the evening before the Jewish Passover. Maby things about the life of Jesus was prophesied or pointed to in the Mosaic Law. Passover was a memorial celebration observed annually to commemorate the “passing over” the homes of Israelites by the death angel in Egypt, when the firstborn son of every Egyptian family was slain. It was the tenth and final plague God brought upon Egypt because of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart in freeing Israel from slavery. Every Israelite family was told by God to kill a lamb on the day before the angel was to pass over the land. They were to put a mark of the lamb’s blood on the door of each Israelite house and eat every bit of the meat of the lamb, being careful to break none its bones, For 1500 years they had followed this custom, killing and eating a Passover lamb, and breaking none of its bones. Jesus was Israel’s Passover lamb in 32 A.D., slain on Preparation day; His blood is shed to atone for the sins of all mankind, redeeming men and women who believe in Him as being sent by God.

Don’t think the Jewish high priest, Pharisees. and elders were unaware of the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross that day and the fact of no bones being broken, knowing that His followers would put Him forward as God’s Passover Lamb. They had hounded and pressured the Roman governor until he had given in to His execution early that same morning. The Jews were back before noon, asking permission to break the legs of all three crucified men, so that they would die suddenly, and be removed and buried before 6 p.m., which was the time the Sabbath began. A person nailed to a cross has difficulty breathing. His entire weight is pressing down on his lungs, therefore, to inhale air, he must push himself upward on his pinioned ankles, causing horrific pain. A crucified man usually required about three hours to die of suffocation, when he can lift himself no more and cannot breathe. If his legs are broken, he cannot draw only a single breath, because he has no means of pushing himself upwards.

Pilate gave his permission; the two thieves had their legs broken, but not Jesus, for He was already dead. A Roman spear pierced His side, and a large amount of His blood gushed out. Yes, Jesus was God’s sacrificial Lamb; He complied to every requirement of the Law, and He had no bones broken.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Crucified (MP 65)

Three six-inch nails pinioned Him to the cross;
When lifted up, Jesus could barely breathe;
Pushing up on torn ankles at horrid cost,
He inhaled, His air-starved lungs to relieve!
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do,”
Jesus spoke, a gracious, forgiving plea,
For the Romans who’d driven the nails through
His hands and feet into the wooden tree!
The agony which possessed His Being,
Did not compare with that flooding His mind—
That men He’d created enjoyed seeing
Their Maker unmade by mere humankind!
Seven times He spoke, dying on the tree;
Not one curse was uttered for you or me!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:1, 16—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? … Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.” (Written by David in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Luke 23:33-34—“When they [Roman soldiers, those to be executed, and onlookers] came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D., also Matt. 27:35, Mark 15:14, and John 19:16-18)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Crucified”
When David wrote Psalm 22, crucifixion had not been invented, so his use of “they have pierced my hands and feet” is truly prophetical. The ingenious but diabolical mind that invented this cruel way of execution should win the blue ribbon for fiendishness. It is horrible to consider the victim’s pain of having six-inch nails driven through the palms of his hand and his ankles into the cross of wood, so that, spread-eagled, he can be lifted upright to a standing position, but that is nothing compared to the pain of drawing breath. The weight of his upper torso presses his lungs closed, so that to draw fresh air he must push upward to raise his full weight on broken and bloody ankles several inches to open the lungs and air can be inhaled. The person crucified usually dies in three hours or less, not from blood loss but from suffocation. Since more air must be inhaled in order for him to speak, the seven times Jesus spoke was remarkable.

The custom in Israel at that time was when a person died, he was buried the same day. The friends of Jesus there faced a special problem, for this was on a Friday—at 6 pm the Sabbath day began, and if they could not complete the burial before that time, the penalty was stoning to death. At about 3 pm, the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves crucified with Jesus; this was customary, for it brought immediate death, and allowed sufficient time to bury them. However, when they investigated Jesus, they found that He was already dead, so they didn’t break His legs. This was of particular importance, for another Old Testament prophecy foretold that Jesus would die with no broken bones.

One of the spoken lines that Jesus voiced on the cross was identical to the first line of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some modern scholars have surmised that He spoke these exact words as a reminder to the Jews present, friends and enemies, to make sure they recognized that David had written the psalm 1000 years before, and that God intended that it be a prophecy of His death. However, most theologians believe that His saying these words was a demonstration of His great mercy, that He literally desired them to be forgiven for the sinful thing they were doing. Regardless of what Jesus meant when He spoke the words, they represent a great witness to non-believers. You may wonder, “How could His Father forsake His own Son?” Remember, Jesus Christ died in atonement for all the sins of the world; at some point in His execution, God did “forsake” Him, by turning His face from His suffering Son. The Bible makes it crystal clear, that God despises sin, even if His own Son is bearing on His back all sin, and He will not look at it; therefore, He turned His face from Jesus at some point, and for that awful moment, God did forsake Jesus. That moment was the crux of what God did for you and for me. Won’t you acknowledge Him by believing in His Son, Jesus?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in you heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Mocked And Ridiculed (MP 64)

The stones of Golgotha tremble and shake,
Aghast at sacrilege men do and say
To their Creator, lest He them unmake,
Open earth and let it swallow them away!
How can they sneer, mock, and despite the One,
Who left behind the glories of His throne,
Who came and suffered for nothing He’d done,
But to pay their debts and naught of His own?
They knew He was coming to them some day,
But blind and deaf to prophecies of God,
They killed Him rather than do things His way,
And stubbornly to hell they chose to trod!
David must have watched sad and with dismay,
His psalm coming true on that awful day!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:7-8—“All who see me [see Jesus, as foretold by David] mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him [from being nailed to the cross]. Let him [God] deliver him, since he delights in him,’ “ (Written in the 10th century)

Prophecy Fulfilled; Matthew 26:39-41—“Those [people] who passed by [Golgotha] hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God.’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him if he wants him, for he said, I am the Son of
God.’ “ (written in the 1st century A/D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Mocked And Ridiculed”
The Roman soldiers who put a purple robe on Jesus after flaying the skin off His back; who cruelly pressed a crude crown of thorns into and around His head; and then mockly bowed and addressed Him as “Your Lowness”; could not have known the enormity of sacrilege of which they were guilty. However, it would not have been so with the priests, teachers of the law and elders that publicly made sneering statements to Him, such as, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we will believe!” They would not have let themselves believe, no matter what miracle He performed; they proved that, for they had already seen and knew for a fact of dozens of miracles Jesus had already performed in full view of them or their trusted agents, including raising people from the dead. The truth is that they must have known by now that He was who He said He was; they could not afford to accept Him as the Messiah without admitting their false teachings and perversions of prophecy from God, which had led the common people far from the spirit of the law into slavery to a system that poured riches into their coffers.

Besides, there was already a miracle well known to them concerning their very own mockery—it was the prophecy of their most famous King David, who had written into the words of one of their hymns about this very heresy 1000 years ago, found in Psalm 22 quoted above, They could not pretend ignorance—the psalms were sung over and over through all those years, and they had spent entire lives studying and discussing them. It would be like me denying Jesus had died on the cross after 85 years of singing “The Old Rugged Cross” in church. The words and tune are so familiar to me or any other older Baptist who was raised singing hymns in church that it would be unthinkable to us that Jesus died in any other way. However, I’m afraid the younger generation is being deprived of that very dear privilege, for modern Baptist churches have switched from hymns to “praise” choruses, whose major characteristic is a jungle beat and whose words constitute a phrase repeated many times over. Hymns are more majestic and worthy of worship of God than rap or beat music, no matter how popular those forms are with younger people.

Many Old Testament prophets made prophecies without being conscious that the words they were writing were prophetical. God knew, however; He purposely revealed glimpses of future events in the words spoken or written hundreds of years earlier.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected (MP 63)

If only men could live and never die,
Has been the greatest wish of humankind;
Jesus died, but lives again, in the sky,
The wish became truth, in believing mind!
“I must die,” Jesus said, “but live again;
He who believes in me will never die;
When I call, graves will vomit up their slain—
Most to live in hell; saved to life on high!”
O death! Where is thy sting? You are no end,
But the beginning of eternal life;
New bodies of old He’ll ev’ry one mend,
To live forever, whatever the strife!
Jesus rose, first man to overcome death,
Leading all people to regain their health!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 16:9-10—“Therefore my [Jesus/
Christ’s] heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you [God] will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One [Jesus/God] see decay.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Mark 16:5-6—“As they [Mary, mother of Jesus, Magdalene, and Salome) entered the tomb, they saw a young man [an angel] dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene [of Nazareth], who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also Matt. 28:5-9; Luke 24:5-7; John 20:11-16; Acts 1:2, and 2:22; etc.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected”
God’s Plan not only included his coming to earth as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, and dying on a Roman cross for all the sins of men, but also included His miraculous resurrection from the dead. In Psalm 2:7 (quoted above) King David of Israel wrote a hymn of praise to God which contained the prophecy that God’s Holy One, His only begotten Son, would not be allowed to decay, meaning He would be raised to live again. Jesus had told His disciples that He would die, but that He would also be raised on the third day,

God created Adam and Eve and their descendants to live forever. He did not intend for us to ever die. However, God hates sin so much that He commanded Adam (and all of us) not to eat of one particular tree in the Garden of Eden. He had decreed that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Adam and Eve ate fruit from the forbidden tree, God condemned them to die; and since Adam represented all of his descendants, including you and me, his sin was imputed to us all; Adam died physically, and so do we. That is why Jesus of Nazareth (who was God in the body of a man) also died, but His was voluntary, because Jesus committed no sin, not even the imputed sin of Adam (His mother was a virgin, His Father God). Death could not hold Jesus/God; He arose and still lives today. He is now in heaven directing all the affairs of men and the universe. When Jesus lived, He offered to all men and women everlasting life as a free gift with one condition—whoever BELIEVES that Jesus is sent from God will be given life after physical death; those who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday; He died about three or four o’clock in the afternoon; since the sacred Sabbath began at 6 p.m., after which no work could be done, not even burial. He was hurriedly placed in a nearby tomb. I believe He was brought back to life immediately; in any event, 36 hours later, early on Sunday morning, the ladies (See above) found the tomb empty. You see, the Jews’ counted Friday as one day, Saturday as one day, and the pre-dawn hours Sunday as one day. He was resurrected in the same body, because He showed His disciples the nail scars in His hands after He arose. Do you recall that when God created the first man, he was made in the image of God? Hence, when we, too, are resurrected, our bodies will look much the same as they did when we lived; there will be no handicaps such as might be the case before our deaths. There will be no decay.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: The Son Of God (MP 62)

God came to earth as His only begotten* Son;
During that time, as Father, God remained;
Though two, He was ev’ry bit God, each One;
E’en Three, at times, when the Spirit constrained**!
Let not the mystery of God-in-Three
Obstruct your belief in Jesus as Lord,
For each new babe***, in time, knows all that be;
God will explain it, of His own accord!
Whether you know Him as God or the Son—
This Jesus, who died for us on the cross,
And did all those things the Book says were done—
Be saved: Believe that Jesus paid the cost!
There is no other name given to men
By which man can be saved from His sin!****

*begotten = fathered; **constrained = convicted of sin;
***babe = untaught believer; ****Acts 4:12

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 2:7—“I [Jesus, the Son of God] will proclaim the day of the Lord: He [God] said to me [Jesus], ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ “ (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Luke 3:21-22—“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized, too. And as He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: The Son Of God”
God’s Master Plan required for him to come to earth and remain continuously in the body of a man for a period of 33+ years, in order to justly nullify the condemnations of some. He would not be considered just in carrying out His own laws if He failed to meet some particular conditions: He had to exist as a man, with no supernatural help in resisting sin; He had to be sinless, including the sin of Adam, under which all other men were considered sinful and condemned because Adam imputed his disobedience to them; and having lived a sinless life, He had to be rejected by Israel as the Messiah, or Christ, the promised One of God, and slain by them, as Israel had annually slain a lamb and sprinkled its blood on the ark in the Holy of Holies as atonement for all their sins.

But how could God vacate His throne where He was actively engaged in managing the affairs of the universe for such a long period of time? It was easy for God, because for Him, nothing is impossible, as He told Abraham, and proved to the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt and settled them in Canaan. He “cloned” Himself, or divided Himself into Three beings; God stayed in heaven on the throne as the Father; God came to earth as His own Son, born miraculously of a virgin as a baby in Bethlehem, and lived 33+ years as Jesus of Nazareth; and God continued His work as the Holy Spirit, entering the hearts of lost men and women, convicting them of sin. Bible scholars have named this the Trinity, God-in-Three beings. In this way men and women can more easily understand how God could do all these things simultaneously, as illustrated at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan. When Jesus emerged from immersion in the water and prayed to His Father in heaven, a dove landed on His shoulder, which was God, the Holy Spirit; and a voice spoke from heaven, from God the Father. Many Israelites saw and heard this divine depiction of the Trinity. Islam refuses to accept that Christians worship one God only, saying that these are three Gods.

While Jesus lived on earth as the Son of God, He taught men and women how to escape the condemnation brought upon them by Adam. He said that if any man or woman believes that God sent Him from heaven, he or she would be saved. He chose 12 men to be His apostles and taught them to spread the good news of their salvation from condemnation to all corners of the earth. All these men, except Judas Iscariot that betrayed Jesus, remained faithful and, with the help of many new believers, these apostles spread the word that Jesus taught everywhere. Christianity was started by Jesus of Nazareth! God is especially adamant about a person’s believing in Jesus to be saved. The modern cultural pressure of postmodernism is keeping most people from “putting all their eggs in one basket”, insisting that there are many ways to be admitted to heaven. This is contrary to the truth of the Bible, which holds there is only ONE road to heaven. Jesus Himself said in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Dear reader, you will not have eternal life if you do not believe Jesus came from heaven.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Roman 10:9)