Foundations of Faith

Faith in God

Pilate, the Roman governor who consented to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, justified himself by asking, "What is truth?" (John 18:38). He was not sincerely looking for the answer, but rather he was insinuating in a scornful, offhand way that the answer is unknowable. He was declaring that his only creed was skepticism. The same creed is popular today, especially among the well educated, for the influential thinkers of the modern world have taught that doubt is the safest view of any attempt to solve the riddles of existence by means of religion or philosophy.

But Jesus says, "I am . . . , the truth" (John 14:6), and He promises, "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7). Thus, to find the truth in Jesus, a man must become a seeker. But many who pretend to be seekers after truth are not seekers at all. The attitude of many intellectuals today is that if God wants their allegiance, He must furnish them with satisfactory proofs of His existence and justice. A true seeker takes a very different attitude. He recognizes that we must allow God to reveal Himself as He chooses. It is possible, after all, that the God of the universe might behave in ways defying human comprehension. He might even perform signs and wonders in the sight of men, or provide salvation through the sacrifice of a divine man on a cross, or reveal Himself preferentially to the meek and unsophisticated rather than to the erudite. Indeed, He might allow contemporary knowledge (so called) to wander far from the truth because He wished to give the proud their excuses while reserving light for the humble.

To know God, we must first forsake all desire to dictate His manner of speaking to us. We must see ourselves as ephemeral nothings who are incompetent to prejudge the counsels of Almighty God. Only by taking a right view of ourselves can we give due consideration to the belief of Christians that God has revealed Himself through an obscure ancient book, the Bible. Rather than scoff at this belief, or regard it with indifference, a true seeker will examine the Bible seriously, with great hope of finding God.

The Bible says,

But without faith it is impossible to please him [God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

In other words, we cannot progress toward the knowledge of God unless at the outset we make two assumptions. The first is that God exists. The second is that He can be found. The assumptions required of us are not contrary to reason, for we find evidence of God everywhere around us and in our own minds. Where did this elegantly designed universe come from, if not from a divine Creator? If there is no God, how is it that we can even conceive, however inadequately, of an omnipotent, omniscient, all-righteous Being?

Someone might protest that the search for truth can be objective and scientific only if the seeker guards his neutrality, withholding judgment on whether God exists until he has examined all the evidence. But even a scientist begins research with a hypothesis, and a hypothesis is simply a guess as to the outcome. To refrain from making a first guess about God is neither possible nor desirable.

It is not desirable because the seeker who refuses to sketch out a likely picture of the truth will not know where to look. In science, a hypothesis serves to focus the search on a particular experiment or observation. So also in the search for God, a belief that He exists serves to guide the seeker to relevant evidence, such as the Bible. If God exists and is self-revealing, we ought to pore over a book that claims to be divine revelation and that is manifestly superior to all other books revered as sacred. But the typical atheist does not even bother to read the Bible. Instead, he wastes his time mulling over trivial daily experience. His knowledge, though it may soar into one or two bright regions of expertise, is otherwise confined to the murky ground of popular ideas, and he is ignorant of the facts that demonstrate the existence of God.

To refrain from making a first guess as to ultimate truth is also not possible. We are not computers that stay rigidly within fixed programs of data processing. Instead, as we conduct any long search, our minds are always leaping beyond the results before us and looking at all the implications. When those implications are profound, we cannot avoid a preference as to the outcome of the search, and a preference quickly grows to a hope and a belief. Thus, on the vital questions of life, every man has an initial bias. No one is capable of blank neutrality as a starting point. In every heart there is hope and belief leaning either toward God or away from Him.

In the passage already quoted (Heb. 11:6), the Bible says that God does not reveal Himself to anyone who, on balance, wishes that He did not exist. So, the man whose hope and belief lean away from God has no hope of finding Him. But a seeker after God who is willing to make the required assumptions—that God is real and discoverable—will certainly find Him.

I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

Proverbs 8:17

But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29

. . . The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you.

2 Chronicles 15:2

But these promises raise a distressing problem, for the Bible also says that no one is a true seeker after God.

2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 53:2-3

Everyone, in his native pride and folly, prefers reality to be Godless. The predilections of the human mind all pile up against the door to ultimate truth. How then can anyone attain knowledge of God?

Such knowledge would be impossible except that "with God all things are possible" (Matt. 19:26). Because God loves the world (John 3:16), He reveals Himself to us, His elect children, even though we innately resist knowing Him. His first overture is to place in our hearts a God-ward impulse, enabling us to believe that He might be real and might be found by searching. We then begin to seek Him with the diligence that He promises to reward (Heb. 11:6).

Yet here we must introduce a clarification. The texts we have quoted do not mean that it is impossible to find God except by a long and laborious search. Some children brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4) find Him at an early age and progress through life with essentially doubt-free confidence that He is their real companion. Also, some who hear the gospel for the first time when they are adults receive it gladly, with hardly any struggle in their minds over whether it is true, and after conversion they remain staunch believers through the rest of their lives. Why is the road to truth a quick stroll for some, a strenuous exercise for others? Past experience is likely the main difference between these two kinds of travelers. The more a person has been immersed in secular thinking on the one hand or in false religion on the other, the harder may be his passage to a Christian worldview. In contrast, a little child reared by loving Christian parents may be quick to accept what they have already found to be the truth. A pagan drenched in all the darkness and cruelty of a godless world may readily embrace the promise of escape to happiness forever.

This essay is addressed to all who have minds clouded by modern learning, which has reduced their concept of God to a mythical construct. To outgrow this brainwashing will require a decision to seek God diligently, with all their heart and soul. If they press onward in the pilgrimage of a true seeker, God will continually bring them new evidence of His existence, and the accumulating evidence will become ever more compelling until at last it prohibits doubt.

The decision to look for God on the assumption that He must exist is, in the language of Christians, a step of faith. To state an adequate definition of faith is a challenge. But since faith is the key to everything good, we must make the attempt. It is a deep inner bias in God’s favor, expressed both in a desire to know Him and in a willingness to believe Him. Although God Himself implants faith in the heart, it grows to maturity on the nourishment of facts. Indeed, facts are in its favor from the beginning.

Thus, faith is not a self-powered flight into unreality. Three features of faith distinguish it from wishful thinking.

1. Natural wishes are hostile to faith. The skeptic, of all people, should feel the force of this statement. Therefore, the wish for God must come from God Himself.
2. The wish for God does not make a believer less discerning and realistic than a skeptic, as if a skeptic were an impartial and dispassionate judge of the evidence. Actually, a skeptic has a strong emotional commitment to unbelief.
3. Christianity does not fear being undermined by facts, but welcomes all facts in the confidence that they will be supportive of faith. The Christian boldly asserts that his creed offers the only coherent, reasonable view of factual reality, and he maintains that his own personal faith rests solidly on historical and experiential evidence. The facts which point to God are set forth in the ancient form of Christian testimony known as apologetics. Apologetics is the use of reason to satisfy any seeker after truth that the truth lies in Christianity.

The sentiment, "I believe that I may know," accurately summarizes the philosophy of Augustine, who said,

By believing might I have been cured, that so the eyesight of my soul being cleared, might in some way be directed to Thy truth, which abideth always, and in no part faileth.¹

The knowing gained by believing is not simply an intellectual apprehension of truth in the abstract. Becoming a Christian is not essentially an intellectual commitment. No, it is essentially a commitment of the heart, a gift to God of our unconditional allegiance and love. It is coming into an intimate personal relationship with a personal God.

God has created man and summoned man to Himself because He wants to give and receive love. That is why God requires us to seek Him by faith, for faith is an expression of love. That is why the believer's life on earth is fraught with trials which have the effect of strengthening faith. That is why the message of truth is not so overbearing and undeniable as to exclude faith. For God does not treat us as robots by drawing worship from us against our will. Nor does He coerce our homage by bringing us into the overwhelming majesty of His presence. Rather, He gives us a true power of decision, and He puts us into circumstances requiring us either to accept or to reject Him. Accepting Him when the contrary is a real option is a step of love toward the unforced fellowship that He desires.

Faith in the Bible

Other religious writings

The writings held sacred by other religions are greatly inferior to the Bible. Hindus revere the Vedas, and Buddhists the Pali texts, but anyone who rejects the esoteric practices and philosophies that these writings promote would have no reason to read them. The other so-called scriptures are likewise uninviting. The Book of Mormon has no admirer outside Mormonism, and the Koran excites little interest outside Islam.

The Koran, based on visions of Mohammed, lacks both substance and imagination. The author’s conception of the afterlife, for example, is simply a fantasy that his own personal desires—desires conditioned by his own cultural experience—will be perpetually fulfilled. He says the blessed will dwell in a luscious garden filled with trees. Which varieties? He mentions lote-trees and plantains, both found in Arabia.² Also, the blessed will eat the flesh of fowls³ and the most delicious fruits,⁴ and for drink they will find rivers of wine, milk, and honey.⁵ In other words, they will dine on the best food and beverages available to a wealthy sixth-century Arabian. Another joy of the blessed will be to recline on couches and converse with each other.⁶ What kind of furniture is he talking about? The kind in his own house. It is obvious that Mohammed had no conception of anything better than what he already knew. But the real heaven will furnish nothing less than heavenly wonders.

What family life in the next world did Mohammed promise any man who is a loyal servant of Allah? He can expect a harem of beautiful girls, of course.⁷ What can a Muslim woman expect? Apparently no more than the privilege of belonging to somebody’s harem. But in the eternal family awaiting all Christians, men and women will have equal standing, and the binding force in all relationships will be the love of Christ.

Uniqueness of the Bible

After God makes us desirous of finding Him, He leads us to His book of self-revelation, the Bible. By every relevant test of credibility, the Bible appears worthy of our consideration.

1. Vision of man’s future. When conceiving of man’s afterlife, every non-Christian religion or worldview fails to rise above the limitations of human thought. All they see after death is a descent to nothingness, or survival as a ghostlike spirit, or reincarnation in this world, or removal to another world hardly better or clearly worse than ours, or passage into a nebulous existence without personal experience or identity. Only in the Bible do we find hope of a future transcending finite imagination (Isa. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9). The Bible’s exalted vision of things to come is therefore strong evidence that its author is not man, but God. For this reason alone we would be justified in accepting it as divine revelation.

2. Trustworthiness of its authors. Its authors were such pious men that no fair-minded person could seriously accuse them of deliberate lying or manipulation. Indeed, many Biblical writers, including perhaps all writers of the New Testament, went to a martyr’s death rather than recant their faith in God. According to credible traditions, both Paul and Peter were martyred by the Romans, Paul by beheading (the most humane form of Roman execution, reserved for Roman citizens like Paul) and Peter by crucifixion.⁸ The Jewish historian Josephus testifies that James was stoned to death after being tried and condemned by Jewish leaders.⁹ The Babylonian Talmud, which preserves the traditions of the Pharisees, reports that Jewish leaders also killed Matthew.¹⁰ The earliest account of John’s death is similar. Coming from Papias, a writer in the early second century AD, it remembers that John was martyred by the Jews.¹¹

3. Accuracy. No artifact or credible document from antiquity contradicts the Bible. Every discovery bearing on places, people, or events mentioned in the Bible has supported rather than contradicted what the Bible says.

At one time the critics alleged that there was never a people called the Hittites, as the Bible claims. But archaeologists discovered that the Hittites were a powerful nation in Asia Minor.¹² The critics once asserted that Bel-shazzar in the Book of Daniel never existed. Then it was discovered that he did exist.¹³ Also, the critics denied the existence of Darius the Mede in the Book of Daniel, but it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that Darius is the same as the man named Gubaru in ancient sources.¹⁴ Another claim of the critics has been that Luke used the wrong titles for some of the officials he mentions in the Book of Acts, but evidence has come to light proving that his titles are correct.¹⁵ In recent years one school of archaeologists tried to convince everyone that David and Solomon were legendary figures rather than real kings, but their contention has shipwrecked on two discoveries. In 1993 and 1994 archaeologists found an inscription dating from the mid-ninth century BC which refers to David by name. Subsequently, experts reexamined a previously discovered inscription from the same period and established that it too speaks of David.¹⁶

Especially alarming to critics has been the unearthing of a palace and tomb in northern Egypt that confirm the Bible’s story of Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham who became chief adviser to the pharaoh of Egypt (Gen. 37–50). Found amidst the ruins of a large city of Semitic people that had come from the northeast, this tomb, dating from the 12th Dynasty (roughly from 1950 to 1750 BC), is a small pyramidal structure that would have been appropriate for the grave of a high official. Inside are the remains of a statue portraying the deceased as a Semite wearing a coat of many colors. In the same burial ground are eleven other tombs of lesser distinction, each a vaulted chapel. Adjoining the burial ground are ruins of an impressive villa fronted by a porch with twelve columns.¹⁷ Joseph had, of course, eleven brothers who also came to Egypt. Together, these twelve were forefathers of the twelve tribes comprising the nation of Israel.

4. Realism of its point of view. The Bible in all parts has a down-to-earth truthfulness. It refuses to flatter the reader. In its accounts are no details that must be dismissed as mere imagination. Rather, the impossible is limited to divine miracles. Also, the Bible never turns heroes into supermen. The only one it recognizes as a true hero is God Himself. Nor does it gloss over the faults of people that it expects the reader to revere. Even in its portrait of Abraham, father of the Israelite nation, the Bible exposes conspicuous flaws, and such flaws as his cowardice in the face of Pharaoh’s desire to take his wife, Sarai, do not even arouse our sympathy (Gen. 12:10–20). The realism of Scripture sets it apart from Homer’s Iliad, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and all other ancient writings that tell stories about the distant past.

5. Treatment of the supernatural. If the Bible contained the thoughts of man rather than the thoughts of God, its backdrop would be ancient philosophy or mythology. But unlike Greek philosophy, which denied God’s existence or confined it to our universe, the Bible presents God as a real being who, in relation to created things, is distinct and transcendent. And unlike mythology, the Bible never ascribes personality to natural objects or forces. The angels that the Bible places higher than man but lower than God live within a spiritual realm rather than within the realm of nature. Also unlike mythology, the Bible gives us a God who is perfect in knowledge, absolute in power, and unfailing in holiness. In contrast, the Greek gods were just overblown human beings, full of faults and vices.

6. Internal consistency. Although the Bible is the work of many different authors spread over a great span of places and years, its spiritual teachings are marvelously self-consistent, as are its historical narratives.

An outstanding example of consistency in the Bible is the perfect symmetry between Genesis and Revelation. Despite the closing words in Revelation (Rev. 22:18–22), which clearly anticipate being read as the last words in the Bible, no secular critic imagines that the author intended his work to serve as the final book in a new collection of holy writings. Therefore, the symmetry between the two ends of the Bible, especially between the very opening chapters and the very closing chapters, creates a huge problem for all who deny the supernatural, for they have no way to explain and dismiss this evidence of a divine craftsman. Let us explore that symmetry.

1. Genesis records the creation of our universe (Gen. 1:1). Revelation foretells its destruction and its replacement by a new universe that will never pass away (Rev. 20:11; 21:1–4).
2. Genesis reveals that God intended mankind to multiply and become great in number (Gen. 1:28). Revelation reveals that His purpose will be fulfilled when a vast multitude of people from every nation, kindred, and tongue will enter heaven and live with God forever (Rev. 21:3; compare with Rev. 7:9).
3. Genesis reveals also that God intended man to exercise dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28). Again, the fulfillment appears in Revelation. There we learn that the eternal dwelling place of God’s people will be a new earth which they will govern (Rev. 5:9–10; 21:1–3).
4. Genesis records God bringing a woman to Adam and declaring them one flesh (Gen. 2:21–24). Revelation speaks of God bringing a bride to Christ (Rev. 21:2; compare with Rev. 19:6–9), whom Scripture identifies as the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45–47). He bears this title partly because He accomplished what the first failed to accomplish. When Eve sinned, what should the first Adam have done? He should have offered to die in her place. As a sinless man, he was an acceptable substitute. No doubt God would have raised him from the dead, as He did the second Adam, and the first couple would have remained in Paradise forever. Mankind would have been spared from the curses of sin and death. Instead, our forefather followed his wife in eating the forbidden fruit.
5. Genesis tells us the penalty that God laid upon the serpent for beguiling Eve into sin (Gen. 3:15). The only other text in the Bible that calls Satan a serpent is at the beginning of a passage in Revelation (Rev. 20:2) which shows his penalty being imposed. The final crushing of his head will be his permanent banishment to a lake of fire.
6. Genesis recalls the curse pronounced on mankind after Adam and Eve sinned (Gen. 3:16–19). Revelation foresees the future lifting of that curse (Rev. 21:3–4; 22:3).
7. Genesis and Revelation are the only sources of information about two remarkable trees. Looking into the remote past, Genesis tells of a Paradise where both were planted. One, the Tree of Life, provided life-giving fruit. The other, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, bore forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:9). After man sinned by eating the fruit that God had set off-limits, God denied him further access to the Tree of Life lest he escape sin’s penalty, which is death (Gen. 3:22–24). Looking into the future, Revelation tells of a Paradise called the New Jerusalem where God will replant the Tree of Life so that the saints may partake of its fruit and live forever (Rev. 22:1–2). But the same book says nothing about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Rev. 21–22). It will evidently be missing. Why? Because in the eternal Paradise, sin will no longer be possible.

All seven points of symmetry support the same message. Together, they show that the world to come will set aside the failures in our world and fulfill all of God’s original purposes in creation.

7. Caliber of its ethical teachings. The Bible teaches ethical ideals far loftier than those found in other religious writings. The oldest system of laws in the Bible is the law of Moses, which many people unfamiliar with its provisions wrongly suppose to be harsh and inhumane. The truth is quite otherwise. The Mosaic code displays many evidences that the author is a being of supreme tenderness and love. It spares a man from military service if he has recently built a home or planted a vineyard, lest he die before he can enjoy the work of his hands (Deut. 20:5–6). It even grants an exemption to a man on his honeymoon (Deut. 24:5). In the laws of what other society, ancient or modern, do we see such compassion? Some of the regulations in the Mosaic code demand kind treatment of animals (Deut. 5:14; 25:4). One that is especially remarkable requires an Israelite to help an ox or donkey in distress even if it belongs to his enemy (Exod. 23:4–5). Other regulations call for simple neighborliness (Deut. 22:1; 23:24). The code is imbued with concern for the poor (Exod. 23:6; Deut. 15:7–11; 24:14–15), as well as for the "stranger" (that is, the foreigner), the fatherless, and the widow (Deut. 10:17–19; 24:17–18). It enjoins farmers to pass over some of the crop at harvest time so that the needy can gather whatever remains (Lev. 19:9–10; Deut. 24:19–21). A terrible curse is pronounced on anyone who "maketh the blind to wander out of the way" (Deut. 27:18). The summation of Mosaic law is a supremely high standard that is without parallel in pagan societies: "Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:18).

A divine perspective transcending all human perspectives can be seen also in the moral teachings of the New Testament. The new conception of love that Jesus articulates in the Sermon on the Mount is the most exalted ever introduced to human thought. Love according to Jesus is a selfless love for all mankind including one's enemies (Matt. 5:44). The only valid proof of this kind of love is a willingness to perform every conceivable good on behalf of others (Matt. 7:12).

8. Resilience under attack. Many educated people have learned a smattering of so-called higher criticism, which treats the Biblical writings as mere story and fable written long after the time when their principal characters supposedly lived. Higher criticism makes some pretense to be a science, but it is really a highly speculative theory of history—a theory that has stubbornly refused to die despite a growing mass of contrary evidence. Although no archaeological discovery in the last century has proved incompatible with the traditional view that the Biblical writings are authentic, many discoveries have utterly contradicted some view of the higher critics. Yet higher criticism continues to be well respected because it is the only alternative to taking the Bible seriously.

When an ordinary person hears learned attacks on the Bible, he may assume that these spring from logic or evidence. In fact, they spring from another foundation—from the assumption that miracle and prophecy are impossible, even unthinkable. For example, the overarching reason for the late dates that critics assign to Old Testament books like Daniel and Isaiah is that with uncanny precision these books tell of certain future events. Isaiah reveals the name of Cyrus long before he lived (Isa. 44:28; 45:1). In Daniel 11, the prophet provides a detailed survey of Jewish history between 500 and 200 BC. So, in both cases the critics conclude that the predicted events must have come first.

Yet the God of the Bible offends many modern readers. They dislike thinking of God as a wrathful Being who pours vengeance upon His enemies. But their failure to understand the wrath of God proceeds from a more fundamental failure to understand the love of God. People today imagine that love never transgresses the elusive ethic, "Live and let live." But what parent who truly loves his child would not react angrily if a stranger perversely attempted to poke out the child’s eyes? Although human anger may be a form of animal defensiveness or a device for selfish purposes, it may also be a natural expression of love. God too has children. From humanity He has called out a people for Himself, and He has placed them in the position of sons. Because He loves them with the love of a perfect Father, He hates any enemy, human or superhuman, who would hurt them. As a perpetual threat to the children of God, the ungodly among men and angels will suffer divine wrath forever.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

Man’s predicament

Although God loves man, the entire human race has estranged itself from God by choosing to live contrary to His will. Instead of fully obeying the moral laws inscribed on the human conscience and specified in the Bible, they all engage in sinful (that is, wicked) behavior. A man may be a decent sort of person by the standards of men, but by the standards of God he is thoroughly bad. The law of God requires him to love God with his whole being and to love his neighbor as much as himself (Matt. 22:37-40). But rather than submitting to these demands, he exalts self to the place of god and pursues a life of self-centeredness. And there is nothing he can do to change what he is. No attempt at self-reform can bring him to the perfection that God requires (Rom. 3:23). So, the persistent flaw in his character disqualifies him from living forever in the presence of God. After he dies, he will not be granted an eternal abode in heaven. Instead, he must go to hell, a place of punishment for sin.

God’s solution

Yet because God loves us as His own creation, He wishes to afford us a way of escape from eternal damnation. Divine wisdom has resolved the dilemma in a manner difficult for us to comprehend. The Bible teaches that God is actually one Being in three persons named the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the omniscient counsels of eternity, God the Son was appointed to take the penalty for man’s sin upon Himself, a role He could fulfill only by entering this world as another man. Yet the man He became was different from all others, for He was fully divine as well as fully human. He was unique also in being wholly without sin.

Who was this man? He was Jesus, the main subject of the Bible. Jesus was a person of Jewish descent who lived two thousand years ago in the country of Palestine, then part of the Roman Empire. The story of His life appears in the four New Testament books called the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They tell us that His ministry as a prophet and teacher began when He was about thirty years old, and that for the next three and a half years, He walked throughout the land and challenged the people to seek the kingdom of God. Also, He presented Himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies foreseeing that God would send into this world a sinless man—in Hebrew known as the Messiah, in Greek as the Christ—who would provide a full remedy for the sins of other men. In proof of His claims, Jesus performed many astounding miracles. On several occasions He raised the dead to life. Once, in the presence of thousands, He multiplied a few loaves and fishes into a meal sufficient for them all. Rather than deny His ability to perform wonders, His enemies accused Him of being a sorcerer (Matt. 12:24).

Yet the mobs who followed Him at the beginning of His ministry soon turned away when they discovered that His mission was essentially spiritual, not political. They wanted a deliverer from Roman oppression. The leaders of the Jewish nation likewise rejected Him. Regarding Him as a threat to their own power, they brought Him before the Roman governor, Pilate, and falsely accused Him of trying to make Himself king (Luke 23:2), a capital offense. Pilate bowed to their will and condemned Him to die by crucifixion, one of the cruelest ways of killing a man ever devised.

In His last hours, Jesus went through agony beyond our conception. As He hung upon the cross, He bore upon Himself all the sins of mankind (1 Pet. 2:21–24). Therefore, to the suffering of His body on the cross was added the suffering of His soul when God the Father turned away from the sin-bearer and suspended the infinite love that had bound them together throughout eternity past (Ps. 22:1; Mark 15:34). Altogether, Jesus’ suffering amounted to full punishment for all the sins of all the people who will ever live on planet Earth. In other words, He endured a sum of pain equal to a just penalty for the entire mountain of human sin. Yet He made no attempt to escape, He uttered no complaint, and as He looked upon His crucifiers, He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

We can be glad that the story of Jesus does not end at His death. During His ministry, He had taught that after lying in a tomb for three days, He would rise again. And the prophecy came true. Beginning on the third day after the Crucifixion, He was seen alive on numerous occasions, once by no less than five hundred people (Luke 24; John 20–21; 1 Cor. 15:4–8). After another forty days, He left this world and sat down at the Father’s right hand in heaven. Many of His disciples witnessed His departure, known as the Ascension. As they stood amazed, He rose out of their sight into a cloud (Acts 1:4–11).

Then, according to Jesus’ instructions, they returned to Jerusalem and waited to receive the Holy Spirit, for they could accomplish nothing without the Spirit’s power. On the Jewish feast known as Pentecost, the Spirit descended with supernatural signs of His presence (Acts 2), and immediately the disciples began to preach the gospel, which is the message that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins so that we can have eternal life in heaven.

The gospel quickly spread far and wide. Within the next generation, Christian preachers carried it throughout the Roman world and beyond. Wherever people responded with faith, the new believers met regularly for prayer, study of God’s Word, and fellowship. The first local assembly of believers, the one in Jerusalem, was known from the beginning as a church, and the same term was used for the assemblies that sprang up in other cities. The entire body of believers everywhere was known as "the church" (Eph. 5:25). Eventually, all believers in Jesus became known as Christians.

Salvation by faith

In the language of Christians, having our sins forgiven so that we will go to heaven and escape hell is called salvation. The only requirement to obtain salvation is that we must gratefully believe that Jesus is our Savior and Lord. He is our Savior because He died for our sins, and He is our Lord because He is God. As God, He is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-righteous, and all-loving, and deserving of our obedience in all things. His full name from the perspective of saved humanity is the Lord Jesus Christ. As we said earlier, the name Christ signifies that He was the One anointed—or delegated—by the Father to be our Savior.

After believing in Christ, also known as putting faith in Christ, a person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and enabled to change steadily into the likeness of the sinless Savior. The great benefit of faith is that it brings the privilege of living forever in a perfect world governed by God (John 3:16), who has both the ability and the desire to give us joy beyond our imagination.

To obtain the wonderful gift of salvation, we must humble ourselves before Jesus even though we lack absolute proof of His preeminence. We must believe in Him even though no writing in the sky or voice from heaven affirms His identity. Yet faith in Jesus Christ is not an irrational leap in the dark. As we will show in this book, a multitude of evidences establish that Jesus was indeed God in the flesh.