by Bill Nugent
Article #213
Imagine that you’re in charge of judging a miracle contest. All of the world’s religions are paraded before you and they must present the best evidences of their supernatural power. Which faith has the best miracles?
There are hundreds of faiths and philosophies competing for the hearts and minds of people. Which one holds the answers for eternity? The politically correct notion that all faiths are equally true is absurd because all faiths and philosophies contradict each other at their core. The laws of logic tell us that two contradictory statements cannot possibly both be true. Hence if all faiths contradict each other only one faith can be true.
How do we know which faith is true? The ultimate meaning of life has to do with being reconciled to God. God is the Creator and the act of creation is the biggest miracle that ever took place. If creation is a miracle and surely it is, then God is the greatest miracle worker of all. It is therefore reasonable to infer that the one true faith will be the faith that is proven by the greatest miracles. The faith with the greatest miracles wins!
Fulfillment of Prophecies
One major type of miracle is predictive prophecy. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, contains thousands of predictive prophecies. I have often written that Jesus Christ came as the promised Messiah of Israel in fulfillment of over 300 predictive prophecies.
According to Dr. D. James Kennedy, these 300 prophecies include 62 major prophecies. No religious or political leader in all of world history besides Christ can make this claim. No holy book of any other faith can come anywhere near matching the Bible’s record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy.
The Miracles of Christ
Why did Christianity spread throughout the ancient world? Philosophers and historians wondered why this message spread. Jesus gives the answer as to why His message was accepted even though many of His words were difficult to accept. Jesus said to love your enemies, turn the other cheek and go the extra mile.
In John 15:24 Jesus said that He did “the works that no one else did” (NASB). The entire 9th chapter of the Gospel of John is about Jesus healing a man who was born blind. The man who was healed said in John 9:32 “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind” (NASB).
Centuries later Mohammed came along and he did no miracles. The Koran makes no claim that Mohammed performed any miracles. Mohammed preached a message that was in accordance with the world. He preached a macho message. He preached a message of warfare and conquest. It didn’t take miracles to get people to accept this. Mohammed preached a message claiming that you can earn your salvation by doing good works. He didn’t have to work miracles to promote his macho message.
Karl Marx preached his message exhorting workers to rise up and rebel against the rich. Marx did no miracles to promote his message. His message was in accordance with the jealousy and brutality of the world.
The Miracles of the Followers of Christ
The Bible says that signs and wonders follow those who preach the gospel (John 14:12). The apostles and the disciples went forth and they too worked miracles of healing, raised the dead and opened blind eyes and this caused Christianity to be accepted.
The ancient Greeks received the message of Christ because of the miracles. The Greeks were offended by parts of the Christian message, especially the resurrection. Greek paganism had a very low view of physical life.
Plato regarded the human body as the prison house of the soul. They were very negative towards physical things. The Stoics abused their flesh. The Epicureans indulged their flesh. They didn’t think flesh was important one way or the other. They could abuse it or indulge it.
Christ will redeem our flesh through the resurrection of all Christians. The Greeks were convinced and believed that God’s Son came In the flesh, in a human body. Why were they convinced? They were convinced by the miracles that proved that the apostles’ Gospel message were true words from God Himself.
Many miracles of healing still occur today in answer to Christian prayer. Other religions and cults have miracles or paranormal phenomena but Christian miracles are greater. The religion with the best miracles wins and that religion is Christianity.
The Christian message is a beautiful message. Paradise is a free gift given to those who turn to Christ and ask for forgiveness of sins and receive the benefit of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In His suffering and death, Jesus took the penalty of our sins upon Himself.
It is after we receive salvation that we go on to follow Christ as Lord and obey His commands. We do good works from a grateful heart that has received forgiveness. I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins.
Power in the Name of Jesus
I’ve written in several DTF articles about the testimonies of people who have stopped UFO abductions by calling out the name of Jesus. I’ve written about the evidence that points to the fact that UFOs are demonic manifestations. Since UFOs are demonic, the way to protect yourself from them is to resist them through the power of Christ. Demons must flee when we resist them in the name of Jesus Christ.
Getting back to the matter of predictive prophecies, I’m aware of what the critics say. The skeptics, atheists and other critics say that the predictive prophecies contained in the Bible are worded in a very general way and could infer or imply many things.
As for the general nature of the prophecies I freely acknowledge that many of them (not all) are worded in allegorical and poetic terms. That’s why there are so many. When you put all of the prophecies together, the portrait of Christ is clear!
Isaiah 53
By the way, not all of the prophecies of Christ are general or vague. Many of the prophecies are astoundingly specific. One example is the 53rd chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah the prophet. This chapter contains twelve references to the fact that Jesus would come to die for the sins of the people. Phrases like “He was wounded for our transgressions” and “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” occur over and over again in this passage. Jesus did indeed come and fulfill this clear prophetic passage in Isaiah.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament blood sacrificial system when He took upon Himself the punishment that was due to us for our sins. There are other specific predictions such as Zechariah 11:12-13 which predicted that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and that the silver would later be rejected.
In addition to the Messianic prophecies there are over 2,000 other Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled or are being fulfilled. These prophecies have to do with the restoration of Israel as a nation (which was fulfilled in 1948) and many other political and social events. Bible prophecies are being fulfilled in our own time!
The evidence just keeps piling up that proves the truth of the Bible. The prophecies and miracles confirm that the Bible is inspired by God. The Bible is the foundation of western civilization. The sanctity of life, freedom, human dignity and human rights are derived from the Bible.
Most important of all, Christianity gives the message of salvation by which we receive forgiveness of sins and entrance into heaven. Christianity has the ring of truth and this is confirmed by the fact that it has the best miracles. I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins.
(c) William P. Nugent, All rights reserved except permission granted to email or republish for Christian outreach.
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
- 1) Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
- 2) Believe that Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you, to take upon Himself the penalty of your sins (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18).
- 3) Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness of sins (Romans 10:13).
- 4) Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth (John 1:12, Acts 2:38).
- 5) Follow Jesus Christ as Lord (John 14:21).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!
(C) 2016 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish for Christian outreach.