A friendly challenge to the God-deniers

I saw a story on March 6 that caught my attention. I thought that it needed a serious response to treat it properly.

It came from a site entitled Faithwire and cited a podcast called "Starting Line." During a long interview, Scottish actor Brian Cox of the series "Succession" made a few critical comments about the Bible, Bible readers and believers.

I'm quite sure that Mr. Cox represents millions who have similar views, and his remarks need to be addressed with some clarity, light and facts. Basically, what Mr Cox said that stirred me is that he believes that the Bible as a book is one of the worst ever. Well, just as a side note, he's never read my unpublished book entitled, "Super Bowl 30."

Mr. Cox, like so many others that share similar disgust for scripture, are intelligent, bright people. So, I hope to show him that other intelligent, bright people think otherwise about the Bible.

First of all, the Bible isn't really a book; its a collection of 66 books written by 29 different authors. Contained within that collection written over more than 1,000 years of time, are many prophetic statements that tell us about events to come from the moment of creation to the time when eternity begins and human history ends.

One should think of the Bible as a unique book. It is the only self-authenticating publication in history. Its various books contain an integrated message about God's plan to redeem mankind and all of creation. It's collection of prophecies came from outside of time; it has a divine origin.

I will use a prophecy teaching by Chuck Missler, a brilliant engineer and physicist, to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is who he says and not a deluded, deceitful maniac.

Jesus came from a nowhere town called Nazareth. He was a builder, carpenter, stone craftsman and a resident of Israel under Roman rule. Why do we know anything about him at all, more than 2,000 years since he walked the earth? Why don't we know about other Jewish builders who worked in Israel?.

He was a nobody who became the most important person in history despite suffering the indignity of dying naked on a cross. Why do we know his story and not others who died on a Roman cross? That answer will come later. Right now, let's see what Chuck Missler has to say about Him that might convince some of you of his divine nature.

Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies found in the Old Testament of the Bible. They were written into history in various books over hundreds of years before he was to meet his death. Here's a perspective by Chuck Missler to make fulfilling 300 prophecies more meaningful:

If Jesus only fulfilled eight of the 300 prophecies the Jews were awaiting their messiah to fulfill, that would be astonishing in itself, no less 292 more.

Prophecy No. 1 is that the messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. It was about a 1 in a 100,000 chance to be born there, considering the population of Bethlehem and the world. Each new fulfilled prophecy lessens the chance of one man fulfilling all the prophecies.

The second prophecy of the eight is that he will be a king riding a donkey.

The third is he will be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

The fourth is he will be wounded in his hands.

Fifth is that the messiah would issue no defense against his charges.

Six is that he will die among other criminals.

No. 7 is that his grave would be among the rich.

And finally, eighth is that he would die by crucifixion.

The mathematical equivalent of all the odds against one man fulfilling all eight is one chance in 10 to the 17th power or 1 against 100000000000000000.00.

Let's turn that huge number into a lot of coins. If they were quarters, they would cover the state of Texas 2 to 3 feet deep. Let's take one of those quarters, mark it, and bury it somewhere in the Texas-size pile. We now give someone one chance to find that marked quarter. One man named Jesus did something equivalent to that in fulfilling just those eight prophecies, no less hundreds of others prophecies he fulfilled. He did it all by chance? I believe you would agree the odds are mightily against that.

Mr. Cox and millions of others are bright, intelligent, deep-thinking people: I encourage you to dig into the story of man named Jesus, the Christ. It is a fascinating, life-changing journey about the greatest truth to ever walk the earth.

Finally, an answer to those questions I posed at the beginning. Why do we know anything about a carpenter from nowhere who said and did a lot of things that got him nailed to a tree? This is why. Unlike all others who have died, He arose from his tomb with a body that could walk through walls, and hundreds of Israelites saw him, ate with him and talked to him. Many decided that the world should know about this God-man. He lives and is not to be ignored!

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