Study the Word

Narrator: Pastor Thom Keller poses this question next: Would someone die for a lie?

Pastor Thom Keller: There were 11 apostles that died for their faith. Rather than recant, rather than turn away, they were killed for their faith. Now here's the point, and this is really important. A second-generation, a third-generation, a fourth-generation person who someone told them, they never saw it, but someone told them and so they believe it on the convincing argument of the one that told them.

That would be second generation or beyond. These were first generation. All of them. They knew Jesus firsthand. If Jesus did not do the miracles, they would have known it. If Jesus was not who he said he was, they would have known it. So again, would someone die for a lie?

Narrator: Welcome to Study the Word online at ccleb.com. Today we'll pick up where we left off in our discipleship series. We return to the subject of evangelism, and if you've ever shared your faith with the lost, it's likely you've encountered some resistance and objections. We'll look into some of the most common objections here now. 1 Peter 3:15 encourages us to always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So what do you say we get ready? Here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: We are looking at the area of evangelism. And so if you have your books, we're going to look at 9.2 in your book. 9.2 is the handout. So we're going to look at some of these. These are kind of excuses or objections you might encounter when you witness to people. If you witness to people, you will certainly run into some of these. These are some of the most common ones that come up.

The first one says when someone says, "I don't believe in heaven or hell." Do you think many people say that? A fair number of people say that. God forbid that if you die tonight, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven? "I don't believe in heaven. I don't believe in hell. I think when you die, you die."

So a good way to approach that is to say something like, "I appreciate that. I understand that. But if you think about it, some people believe in heaven. Some people believe there's a heaven and a hell. Some people believe that they're going to die," the reason I have these, I can use all kinds of things, but some people believe that when they die, they're going to come back as a butterfly. Some people think they're going to come back as a cow. Some people think they're going to come back as a nurse in Argentina, or they were a nurse in Argentina. Or some people say that when I die, I die.

Some people say, "I'm going to heaven." Some people say, "I'm going to hell." Some people say there is no heaven. Some people say, "I'm coming back." Some people say when I die, I die. And then the question is, can a person create their own eternity? Can a person create their own reality? Can I choose to believe what I choose to believe and that becomes reality, just for me, but not for everyone? Or is there one reality that applies to all people?

And then, if someone challenges you in that, they say, "Well, look, so you believe in heaven, what says that you're right?" And I say, "No, I'm not saying I am. All I'm saying is that you can't choose your own reality. There's one thing that happens to people when they die. Since I can't create my own reality, it really causes me, it should cause me, since this is eternity we're talking about, to do some research and look into what does come after afterlife."

And then these life-after-life stories, there are a lot of books about people that died and had heaven experiences. Have we talked about this yet? I don't think we did. Okay. So let's talk about that. You will run across a lot of stories of people that said they died and went to heaven. You don't find as many stories of people that died and went to hell, but there are.

There's a book in our bookstore. It's called, I can't think of the name of the book. Anyway, this man was a cardiologist and an agnostic. But he kept encountering people that died in the operating table and came back being in heaven or being in hell. It was compelling. And he said, "I need to do research on this." Because again, he was honest enough that if there is something after death, he wanted to know what it would be.

His name was Rollins. That's it. Rollins. What's the name of the book? To Hell and Back. To Hell and Back. So what he discovered is that he actually encountered more people that went to hell than went to heaven. And he said what was fairly common about the hell experiences, now listen closely to this, that the hell experiences were so horrific that within a day or two or less, they didn't remember it. Their mind repressed the memory. They couldn't remember it.

So he'd encounter people in his profession. They came back from life, they were in hell, screaming, "I'm in hell, I'm in hell." And two days later, he'd go in to get more information and they'd say, "What are you talking about?" "Well, you said that you were in hell." "I don't remember anything about that." So he said because of that, he thinks there are a lot of people that have experienced it but don't remember it. But the book is compelling.

I also am not sure about the accuracy of a lot of the stories. I don't think I'm not implying that people make up the stories, but I think there may be a fair level of deception. I'm just going to tell you one story. The most compelling story I ever heard of someone who died was a physician, a medical doctor, who fell off a high balcony and his body bled out, completely bled out. And he was in the morgue with a tag on his toe.

And the doctor came in to certify him, and he started talking. The dead man, the dead physician started talking to the doctor. And the physician who he was talking to wasn't a believer. And he said, "Hey," he said, "I'm not dead." He said, "Yes, you are." He said, "No, I'm not." He said, "Yes, you are. I don't know what's going on here, but your body's bled out, you're dead."

Anyway, this man then went on to tell about what had happened in heaven. He was in heaven. So, a bright mind, and he's talking about the experiences, the colors, the octaves, the sounds, I mean, it was incredible. People that he saw, it was just astounding. The detail he went into. But this is what he said. He said, "And I was with the Lord, and the Lord took me." Very credible story.

And he said, "And the Lord said that I would not die again because I would be coming back to heaven alive in the Rapture, that the Rapture's going to happen during my lifetime." Well, that's a pretty strong claim. So I have a file at home called prophecies. And I stick when I read crazy prophecies that Las Vegas is going to go up in fire or all these self-proclaimed prophets, I stick them in a file and pull it out every so many years and look at what didn't happen.

But I stuck that in a file. And a couple years ago, I pulled it out and Googled his name and it talked about him and his account, but he died. So that shot a hole in that whole story. Do you get it? Because whoever was in heaven telling him he wasn't going to die, Jesus can't lie, God can't be wrong, the whole thing was a lie. Now, I don't think he created it. I don't think he made it up. I think there was a level of deception there.

So the reason I share all of this is, I do think there are some commonalities in stories both on the heaven side and the hell side. But if I were you, and I'm 70 years old, I've lived in this world listening to these stories for a long time. I'm 69, I want to be accurate. I would encourage you to face those like Mary did, when the prophecies were made spoken to her about her son Jesus, and it said she treasured these things in her heart, right?

And that's what we should do. Put them someplace, hold it, but don't build your life around it. Don't stake your future on it. Does that make sense? There's nothing wrong with holding it somewhere and observing it. But that one story really made me back away from being sure about any of those stories because I'm telling you, I never heard a story as compelling as his. He was dead. There's no question.

So I would use that as an example. You can't create your own reality. There is one thing that happens to all people. The next one is "I don't believe in the Bible." And this one you'd almost need to have this little paper locked away because you probably won't remember these details. When someone says, "I don't believe the Bible," and if they persist, I appreciate that. What do you understand the Bible says about eternal life?

So you can just circumvent it. Because if you're witnessing, you're talking about eternal life. Do you know for sure that if you died tonight, you'd go to heaven? And they say, "Well, I don't believe the Bible." Oh, I appreciate that but what do you think the Bible says about eternal life? What do you think the Bible says a man has to do to get to heaven? What do you think they're going to say? Works. Yeah, a good life. You have to live a good life. That's probably where they'll go. And then you're back on track. Do you get it?

But if it really is an intellectual, genuine, sincere question and you can't skirt it, here's some things to say. There are 20,000 manuscripts of the New Testament dating to the oldest 80 AD, all in harmony. 20,000 manuscripts, different pieces, sections of manuscripts, the oldest one going back to 80 AD, so 50 years within the life of Christ, and all in harmony.

Now, in comparison, Aristotle's writing is the next earliest manuscript, which is 343 BC. And there are only five manuscripts, and the earliest one goes back to 1100 AD. So there's 1,400 years separating Aristotle from the earliest writing. 1,400 years separating him and the earliest writings. 50 years separating Christ and the early writings.

20,000 manuscripts with Christ, five manuscripts, and how many people question what we read about Aristotle? Question his writings. The Iliad is the second highest number of manuscripts at 643. Who questions that the Iliad is a truthful writing? And that's a lot of manuscripts, 643, but it's not 20,000.

And then this is a great quote, Sir Frederic Kenyon, the director and principal librarian at the British Museum and second to none in authority on authenticity of manuscripts, said this: "The interval then between the dates of the original composition and the earliest existent evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established." And if I remember right, I think Kenyon studied the New Testament to try to prove that it was false and he came to the opposite conclusion.

So those are some good things to have tucked away. And then if somebody says the Bible is just a book of legend written by men, or if someone says, "Well, I don't believe in anything paranormal. I just believe in the natural world. I'm a naturalist. I'm a secularist. I don't believe there's anything outside of the natural world. Nothing supernatural, nothing outside of reason and logic would permit. No room for anything outside of that."

Well, where you get them is in prophecies. If someone were to say to me, "I don't believe in God," I would go right for prophecies. That's where I would go. Because when someone says they don't believe in God, you might picture Jesus seated by the right hand of God the Father, and whatever your vision of God is, that might be your picture.

But that's too narrow for what that person just said to you. They said they don't believe in God. And God is anything that's outside of the natural. It could be an energy force, it could be whatever. It would have to be something that is outside of the natural world. Supernatural.

So if it's true that there's nothing except the natural realm, then prophecies are impossible. Prophecies can't exist because that moves into the realm of supernatural. That moves into the realm of knowledge outside of natural knowledge because it's known in advance.

So that's why if I get to someone who says, "I absolutely do I refuse to acknowledge there's a God," I go right to prophecy. Then explain prophecy. If there's nothing outside of the natural realm, there's nothing but science, then how do you explain prophecy?

The first one here is there are eight prophecies. There are eight major prophecies that point to Jesus being the Messiah. That's what it refers to. The odds of it from the time of writing until today, applying all eight prophecies to one person at one time, is 10 to the 17th power.

So that is 10 with 17 zeros behind it. One chance in 10 with 17 zeros behind it. That would be like taking the entire earth and covering it, water and land, with one and a half inch square tiles. The whole earth covered with one and a half inch square tiles. And one of those has a star under it, just one. And the odds of you picking up that one by chance is 10 to the 17th power.

And so that's just eight prophecies. Just eight major prophecies, that this Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, that his garments would be split among the guards. Eight of those major prophecies, 10 to the 17th power. Now, there are actually 48 prophecies that point to Jesus's birth, life, death, and resurrection. 48. The odds of those applying to any one person would be 10 to the 157th power.

So that's 10 with 157 zeros behind it. That is like finding an atom, one atom in a trillion trillion trillion trillion billion universes our size. So now you've moved from finding one tile on the earth to finding just one particular atom in a trillion trillion trillion trillion billion universes our size. And they say we have a mindless faith. We have a meaningless faith.

I remember I heard Chuck Missler say this on the radio one time and I went digging for it and I found it. He said that in physics, there's a Borel's Principle that says that anything beyond 10 to the 50th power is impossible. It's effectively not possible. And this is 10 to the 157th power, and 10 to the 50th power's impossible. So when you get into DNA, some things with DNA and evolution, they're beyond the 10 to the 50th, and yet evolutionists still hold out hope that it could have been by chance, and it's just not.

And then if someone says that Jesus was just a great prophet, and some of you heard us teaching this, some of you heard this before. None of this is original to me. But the idea is that Jesus claimed to be God, right? He claimed to be God. Now, that only leaves three options open to us. Only three.

Either he was God, that's one possibility, right? Because everybody has to decide who Jesus was. I love Pilate, where he said, "What shall I do with this one who is called Christ the King?" Well, you'll have to come to that same decision. What shall I do with this one who is called Christ the King?

Well, you can skip over it and just move on, but if you're going to be honest with the question, he claimed to be God. So that's one possibility. But if he wasn't God, then he was a liar because he knew he wasn't. Do you know you're not God? Anybody here think you're God? Okay. Either he was a liar trying to make money, a scam, popularity, or he was crazy and really thought he was God. So he was either crazy or a deceiver or he was God.

But if somebody says, "I think Jesus was just a great man," see, this is what Jewish people will say. The Jews will say, this is their party line, "We believe Jesus was a great teacher." That's what they'll say. And it's kind of a concession to Christians so that we don't beat them up verbally. But it's not possible. He could not have been because he claimed to be God.

Then I say to people, "Now you read the Gospels. After you read the Gospels, does he look like he was a liar? After you read the Gospels, does it appear to be that he was crazy?" Because if that's not who you find in the Gospels, you've got only one option left. And C.S. Lewis said it so beautifully, he said, let's give up in the nonsense that he was just a great prophet. He said Jesus did not leave that option open to us. He did not intend to. It's not an option. He was just a great prophet.

The other thing in that is that there were, and really listen closely to this because this is important. There were 11 apostles that died for their faith. Rather than recant, rather than turn away, they were killed for their faith. I have a book that describes how all of them were killed. James was sawn in two with a wooden saw. Peter was crucified upside down. Horrible deaths.

Now here's the point, and this is really important. A second-generation, a third-generation, a fourth-generation person who someone told them, they never saw it, but someone told them and so they believe it on the convincing argument of the one that told them. That would be second generation or beyond. These were first generation. All of them. They knew Jesus firsthand.