THE ANSWER BOOK

1 Peter 1:22-25, 2:1-3, 3:15, 4:11, 5:1                      

Pastor Rick Jackson [adapted from sources long ago- in other words I don't remember for sure but I think mainly from the Handbook of Personal Evangelism by A. R. Stanford]

For centuries man has asked questions. The great philosophical questions are, "Who am I?" "What am I?" "Why am I here?" "Where am I going?" Man has tried to answer the questions only to come up short time and time again. The answers are of course found in The Answer Book, the Word of God, The Holy Bible. Many laugh and say they have the answers only to realize to late that all they had was more questions. Let's look at the Bible once again and see some answers.

I. THE BIBLE IS NOT A HISTORY TEXTBOOK BUT IT'S THE ONLY BOOK WHOSE HISTORY IS 100% ACCURATE

1. The Bible has been used as a guide by archaeologists and historians (the book of Mormon fails this test)

2. Much of what is now history was prophecy when given in the Bible. When it comes to God's Word, prophecy is history written in advance!

Deut. 18:21, 22, And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath NOT spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the Name of the Lord, if the thing FOLLOW NOT, NOR COME TO PASS, that is the thing which the Lord hath NOT spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Ezek. 12:25, For I am the Lord: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak SHALL COME TO PASS

Isaiah 46:9, 10 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the END from the BEGINNING, and from ancient times the things that are NOT YET DONE, saying, My counsel SHALL STAND, and I WILL DO all My pleasure.

John 14:29, And now I have told you BEFORE it come to pass, that WHEN IT IS COME TO PASS, ye might believe.

Isaiah 48: 3-5, I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I SHEWED THEM: I DID THEM suddenly, and THEY CAME TO PASS. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass, I have even FROM THE BEGINNING declared it to thee; BEFORE IT CAME TO PASS, I shewed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

"EVERYTHING that the Bible said would happen up to this point HAS HAPPENED! History itself has already proven the Bible to be the Word of God." Handbook of Personal Evangelism

3. These prophecies are specific, reliable, and verifiable. The prewritten history of the world given in Daniel, the history of the Jewish people, the "address" of the Messiah, just to name three general topics that prove to the sincere seeker the Bible has the answer!

"Suppose," says Dr. Olinthus Gregory, "that there were only 50 prophecies in the Old Testament (instead of 333) concerning the first advent of Christ, giving details of the coming Messiah and all meet in the person of Jesus . . . the probability of chance fulfillment as calculated by mathematicians according to the theory of probabilities is less than one in [one quadrillion, 125 trillion) 1,125,000,000,000,000. Now add only two more elements to these 50 prophecies, and fix the TIME and the PLACE at which they must happen and the immense improbability that they will take place by chance exceeds all the power of numbers to express . . ." (Messiah in Both Testaments, by Meldau, page eight).

II. THE BIBLE IS NOT A SCIENCE TEXTBOOK, BUT IT'S THE ONLY BOOK WHOSE SCIENCE IS 100 % ACCURATE!

A few examples should suffice:

Lev. 17:11 -blood is necessary for life

Job 25:5 -the moon doesn't have its own light

Job 26:7 -empty place in the north

Job 26:7 -earth is hung on nothing

Job 28:5 -the earth has lava inside

Job 28:25 -air has weight

Ps. 8:8 -ocean currents

Ecc. 1:6 -the wind travels in circuits

Is. 40:22 -earth is spherical

Is. 50:3 -Heavens are black

Jer. 6:22 -The earth has sides (not flat like a plate)

Jer. 33 :22 -The stars cannot be numbered

Lk 17:34-36 -rotation of the earth

I Cor. 15:39 -all "flesh" is different

Heb. 1:2 -multiple planets

III. THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORD AND TELLS US THE ANSWERS TO THE GREAT QUESTIONS

1. Man was created by God [Gn. 1]

2. Man sinned [Rm. 5:12, 3:23]

3. Man is either going to Hell or Heaven [Rm. 6:23]

4. Man must accept Christ and His Work to go to Heaven [Rm. 5:8, 10:9-13]