If you have ever read history history, you’ll know that it is so far removed from us it is often hard to even understand.
Obscure references, outdated language, unclear meaning, vague projections – even if we go back a hundred or so years.
Compare all that to what I read this morning in a book written a whopping 4500 years ago: IT NAILS IT…well it nailed me!
Despite the fact that we are oblivious to our own actions – that we all think that we are good, this old book has something far more ugly to state:
“All their activity is filled with sin,
and violence is their trademark.
Their feet run to do evil,
and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
Misery and destruction always follow them.
They don’t know where to find peace
or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.
So there is no justice among us,
and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
It goes on, and even eerily describes our whole society, not ‘just’ me specifically. How can that be?
Supposedly Outdated, Irrelevant, Inaccurate Historical / Religious writings, from a time far removed from us, describes to a tee the inner workings of my heart, the error of my ways and even the results of my wayward actions?
Amazing. Incredible! Maybe even ridiculous.
You may think that people who believe the Bible are blind, brainwashed fools – I know that’s what I used to think. But the fact is, there is incredible scientific and verifiable proof that the Bible is reliable.
FAR more reliable than any other philosophical, historical, archaeological, religious or ethical book – by a LONG way. If you disagree with this statement, if you are unwilling to accept or assess this, I would suggest that you may be prejudiced – either through bad experience, deliberate mis-information or both.
Imagine that – after passing judgment for years, being exposed that it is actually *you* who has been brainwashed!
But know this, you can no longer claim ignorance. The Bible is reliable.
It states clearly that:
1) You are a sinner in need of a Saviour
2) You are moving towards inevitable Judgment from an all knowingly, holy God.
3) Your punishment is final and, worse that, eternal.
4) Jesus, not religion or trying harder, is your *only* hope.
No peace. Evil.
Isaiah 59:6-21 (NLT) All their activity is filled with sin,
and violence is their trademark.
Their feet run to do evil,
and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
Misery and destruction always follow them.
They don’t know where to find peace
or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.
So there is no justice among us,
and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
feeling our way like people without eyes.
Even at brightest noontime,
we stumble as though it were dark.
Among the living,
we are like the dead.
We growl like hungry bears;
we moan like mournful doves.
We look for justice, but it never comes.
We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
For our sins are piled up before God
and testify against us.
Yes, we know what sinners we are.
We know we have rebelled and have denied the LORD.
We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
carefully planning our deceitful lies.
Our courts oppose the righteous,
and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
and honesty has been outlawed.
Yes, truth is gone,
and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
The LORD looked and was displeased
to find there was no justice.
He was amazed to see that no one intervened
to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
and his justice sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his body armor
and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
His fury will fall on his foes.
He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
In the west, people will respect the name of the LORD;
in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
driven by the breath of the LORD.
“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”
says the LORD.
“And this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the LORD, have spoken!