How I Know the Bible is the Word of God

The Bible has many areas that are highly controversial and are subjected to heavy interpretation. This tends to lead skeptic to think that the Bible is unreliable.

The way to verify that the Bible is authored by God Himself is to look at prophesy. Some were fulfilled to the exact day, something that no man could predict.

There are many prophesies about the various Jewish captivities, the fall of Jerusalem, etc. that have been foretold by prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others and then later fulfilled. These are easy to find and to verify through any archeological commentary. Nevertheless, I’ll give you three off the top of my head starting with the most important of any OT prophecy, the first coming of the Messiah.

In Daniel 9:25 we are told that from the time of the command to restore the walls of Jerusalem, to the arrival of Messiah, there would be 69 weeks of years (the Hebrews used the term “week” to refer to a 7 year period much like we use the term “decade” to refer to a 10 year period) and these Biblical years were 360 days in length.

The command was given March 14, 445 BC. Counting forward the required 173,880 days we arrive at April 6, 32 AD. The exact day that Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on the day we call “Palm Sunday”.

It is important to realize that this is a very clear and very specific prophecy (not one of the more obscure or complex ones we can find here and there but one that is very straight forward). It is so clear that Jesus actually said that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed because its people did not specifically acknowledge the prophecy. Because they disregarded it, His prediction was fulfilled in 69 AD. The Romans had their way with the symbol of the Jewish religion, Solomon’s temple, and at that moment, Israel was no more.

Now, if you are asking whether there is an independent record of the April 6, 32 arrival date, there is no need. All four gospels record the event and all four gospels were in circulation shortly after the crucifixion. Many of the early readers of the gospel accounts certainly would have been present during the events of the first Palm Sunday. It defies logic or reason to accept that FOUR false accounts of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with such supposed fanfare would have withstood the scrutiny of the many Jewish skeptics who were alive at the time.

The reality is, that everyone knew that Jesus came into town on the prophesied day. This is why there is no record of the Gospel accounts being challenged.

Furthermore, in all the ancient writings available to us, only Jesus Christ is recorded to have fulfilled the prophesy of Daniel 25:9. While there may have been others who might have thought to be pretenders to the fulfillment of that prophecy, only Jesus actually fulfilled it.

A couple of other amazing prophecies:

In chapter 4 of his book, Ezekiel predicted that the tribes of Israel would shortly be sent into servitude/captivity but also prophesied that Israel would rise again 907,200 days (2,520 Biblical years) after this “servitude of the nation” (which occurred on July 17th, 606 BC.) Counting forward 907,200 days we land on May 14, 1948, the day David Ben-Gurion announced on international radio, the name of his rebirthed country, “Israel”.

This prophesy references the servitude of the nation and then it’s rebirth. They are connected events both in time and in type. The period begins with the nation going into captivity and ends with it being reborn. Ezekiel predicted it exactly and I think there are plenty of independent sources to verify the date that modern day Israel came into being.

What is even more provocative is that the same prophesy by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:3-6) talks about the “desolation” of Jerusalem (which happened 19 years later in 587 B.C.) where they lost control of the city (going into Gentile hands) and then the subsequent recapture of Jerusalem 2,520 years later.

Would it be any surprise to learn then, that Jerusalem was recaptured by the Israelies from its Arab enemies exactly 19 years after Israel was birthed and exactly 907,200 days after the desolation of Jerusalem in 587 BC?

Probably just a coincidence.

The Goracle Claims he is "Carbon Neutral"

At the recent hearings on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) before the Senate, Al Gore made this proclamation about himself:

“We live a carbon-neutral life.”

The sleazy thing about this statement is that not only does it refer to a charade but one that is built on an emperor’s-new-clothes-type system that his Al-ness helped develop in order to amass further wealth and power.

I can just hear Gore talking to his staff many years ago when he first started hatching this scheme:

“Ok people”, announced the Goracle, “We all know that political power is gained through fear. Reagan gained his by playing on the fears of the Soviets. That creepy guy, and former boss of mine, Bill Clinton, gained his by playing up fear of Republicans. And so on. But the future, my friends, is in hyping the ultimate fear. The fear that we will use up our planet, boil its oceans, and it will end in fire. Hey, the Bible predicts it right?”

“So I say, we start pushing this environmental disaster, not like the old guard did with fears of DDT and fish kills. That’s kid’s stuff. Too easy to actually solve. No, what we need is something that can never really be solved! We need an environmental catastrophe caused by the very existence of an industrialized society itself! And need I mention that this looming catastrophe can only be addressed by bringing the full force of government to bear?”

But the Goracle’s minion’s asked, “What could possibly be so bad that even the full weight of massive, punitive, and even the Stalinist government tactics that we love so well, will hardly help?”

“I’m talking about global climate change here people.” spake the Goracle. “As our evil, white, Christian, bigoted culture spews billions of tons of steam, I mean hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, it is spelling the end of the world as we know it. It must be addressed and only I, (and a few other well-connected liberal venture capitalists) can ever hope to stop it.”

“What ARE we going to do to stop it?”, the slavering suck-ups asked.

Then the Goracle responded, “We must first lay the groundwork for how the atmosphere will overheat if something isn’t done about SUVs. We’ll call it the “Boiling Stratosphere” problem, or some such thing. We bribe (or coerce) the scientific (*snicker*) community to go along with us. These days they are so beholden to the almighty government grant (not to mention that some of them are just plain simpering cowards) that getting most of them onboard will not be difficult. Our apologists in the media can be relied upon to squelch any mention that there are “Boiling Stratosphere” skeptics but they’ll just call them homophobes and holocaust deniers and that should put them in their place.”

“But, but”, stammered a Goracle minion, “Won’t the oppressive government measures you recommend to deal with the “Boiling Stratosphere” problem be a problem for us too? I mean, sure, it will enrich you and your select capital venturists, and sure it might mean you will finally be crowned king, I mean elected President, but we don’t want to curtail our driving of SUVs, our flying of G4s, our living in 30K sq. ft houses, our trips to Cancun.”

“That’s the beauty of this plan people”, spake the Wonderful Wizard. “I, and a few of my friends have developed a system where you simply buy the rights to output carbon emissions that are over the “limit” (*snicker*). Besides, hydrocarbons, as we all know, are not pollutants anyway. They’re harmless, but they are the perfect boogie-man for my plan. We don’t have to feel guilty about producing more of them with our lifestyle but they can, through scientific consensus, media disinformation, and educational “documentaries”, be shown to be the source of the “Boiling Stratosphere” problem.”

“But even better, because everyone will believe that they are producing the “Boiling Stratosphere” problem, they will gladly yield to my “Boiling Stratosphere” carbon offset program. What I intend to so is set up one or more companies that trade in these carbon offsets. Essentially, we buy the rights to as large of a carbon footprint (*snicker*) as we want through the sale of offsets to Hollywood imbeciles and corporations who have onerous regulatory requirements to meet my carbon output criteria. It is a beautiful thing! We make money on the buying and selling of phony offsets and we get to still live our lives of luxury. Not only that, I’ll set myself up as the physician to Gaia Herself and as the savior of the planet while you people get to worship me without hardly any cost.”

At this, Al thought to himself, “and people call ME a moron.”

The Fall Of Western Civ

Don’t be distressed by the impending fall of western civilization. It was predicted!

I am a firm believer in the accuracy of Biblical prophecy. It’s not been wrong yet (and thousands of prophecies have already been fulfilled), and because of this, I believe what it says WRT the future.

Personally, I don’t see the end of the world as we know it to be very far off, and I’ll give you one specific reason why: the looming abandonment of Israel.

The Bible is very clear that in the Last Days, Israel will eventually have to stand alone with no one to protect her from her enemies (and she has many). When that day happens, Israel will have to turn to the one political leader who steps forward and says “I’ll protect you”. This leader will be from some European country (typically considered to be west European by eschatologists but could also be south-eastern European and still fit the prophecy).

The notion that one day, the US would abandon Israel seemed like a ludicrous idea not that long ago so very few people understood how this European political savior of Israel could arise. It was theorized that maybe America would one day, be destroyed, thus leaving no one left to stand by Israel. That would create the power vacuum necessary for this leader to step in. (Keep in mind that, despite the left’s whining about “blood for oil” most of our middle eastern policies rest on a long-standing role as the protector of Israel.)

We now realize that all it would take for the groundwork for this prophesy to be fulfilled would be for someone like a John Kerry (who openly admitted that he thought we should lift our support for Israel in the last election cycle) to come to power.

So here is how the Bible explains the political scenario of the Last Days:

-Israel re-establishes itself “in a single day” (happened in 1948)
-Jerusalem is re-established as its capital city (happened in 1967)
-All of Israel’s previous protectors are either destroyed or abandon her (I think the latter given the current political climate).
-Israel is attacked by an army “from the north” (typically considered to be a coalition of nations including Russia and Iran).
-Israel supernaturally survives this attack but in so doing realizes that can’t survive on its own and seeks a new protection treaty.
-The person known as the “son of perdition” (a charismatic political leader we typically call the “antichrist”) steps up and offers his aid.
-Israel accepts his offer
-The “antichrist” breaks his treaty 3.5 years later.
-All hell breaks loose

Libs Don't Get the whole "CO2 is Good" Thing

The Gore acolytes seem perpetually confused on the issue of C02 and clean energy. From a recent conversation:

If we can develop a cleaner source of energy that doesn’t rely on a dwindling supply of fosil[sic] fuel that another country can hold over our heads then how can you be against it?

Setting aside for the moment that Oil is probably not a "fossil" fuel, no one IS against energy independence, in fact, we are FOR the best alternative power source known to man: NUCLEAR. The problem with the AGW debate is that, crying "the sky is falling" using a lie actually HINDERS the process of decreasing our reliance on middle eastern oil because no major advance in science can be built on a false assumption. But this is a much more nuanced issue than the typical Liberal seems able to grasp:

1. Oil, as it is refined and used in manufacturing, is a very clean energy source. Yes, the burning of oil produces sulphers and carbon monoxide, both of which are poisons (unlike C02) but in new vehicles the catalytic converters deal with this issue. At factories, smokestack scrubbers deal with that issue. Most pollution that comes from the burning of "fossil fuels" is because the thing that it is burning it is old. For example, a new Hummer produces MUCH less pollution than some Lib's old Volvo Station wagon or VW van. This is why wealthy countries are cleaner. We can afford the newer technologies that make fuel burning clean.

2. Oil (and NG) are the lifeblood of modern civilization, and for good reason:

-It is plentiful (we could support ourselves and be a net exporter of oil if we drilled for our own - offshore and Alaska being the most notable),
-probably renewable (the abiotic production of oil is an unsupportable scientific hypothesis),
-we have the pipelines already built (which would need to be duplicated nationwide if we went to any other form of fuel such as hydrogen),
-it is absolutely REQUIRED for the production of heating oil, lubricants and plastic, the production of which results in a waste product called GASOLINE! (many people do not realize that before the advent of the IC engine, gasoline was dumped after the refining process because there was no use for it),
-it is inexpensive (and if we drilled for our own oil on a wider scale, it would be even less expensive than it is now).

Be honest, if it weren’t for the oil in the Middle East, we wouldn’t think twice about that region. They would forever be stuck in the seventh century and we could care less.

I can be even more than honest, I can be educated. Setting aside the issue of the protection of Israel for now, if Iraq or Iran have WMDs then their oil makes no difference to us, we would still care about them. As a matter of fact, one of the strategies being promoted by conservative military experts is to mine Iranian harbors and blow up their refineries. This would bring them to a halt, kind of a modern day seige. But this would reduce the oil supply from the ME, something you claim that we can't abide. Also, need I remind you that ME oil on the world market reduces the price of Texas and other American produced oil?

Granted, developing alternative energy sources will be costly at first — but far less costly now than if we have to wait until we reach the time when we are forced to move to another source for any reason.

If companies want to develop "alternative energy" I'm all for it. However artificially raising the price of oil (or subsidizing AE research) so that companies can do the development is fascistic (dictionary sense) and completely unnecessary. The lifeblood of civilization is oil and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. In fact, I could make a case that if we were currently running on expensive solar and biomass energy sources we would be looking for an "alternative" and oil would have to be one of those given that it is inexpensive, relatively clean, is easy to transport, and is more versatile as a fuel than pork is as a food.

Personally, I can’t say if Gore is right or wrong on the issue of global warming or climate change. But the one thing he is doing is getting people to talk about it and explore different solutions.

I always have to laugh whenever I see this kind of statement. How about: "Personally, I can’t say if David Duke is right or wrong on the issue of race. But the one thing he is doing is getting people to talk about it and explore different solutions."

If someone is clearly wrong as is obvious with what Al Gore is promoting, then his portion of the dialog is just misleading people.

Too much oxygen will kill you also. It’s about balance, not whether any particular gas is benign or not.)

Leading researchers on the subject C02 as a pollutant demonstrate that IT IS NOT. If you want to resort to the "anything is bad in enough quantity" argument then you have already lost the argument. WATER in too much quantity is very dangerous but we are not outlawing it (yet).