1. The Gospel Message


2. How is the Bible Different?


3. What is the Bible?


4. Who is Jesus Christ?


5. When was the Messiah expected to come?


6. Where did the ministry of Jesus take place?


7. Why is Jesus different?


8. How can we recieve the Good News of Salvation?

The Gospel Message

The Gospel Message

The Gospel Message is a message of "Good News." It is the story of Jesus Christ and his plan for our salvation which leads to eternal life.

None of us were born a Christian. We each have our unique stories of how and why we came to the decision to follow Jesus Christ.

I used to argue with people who tried to share the Gospel Message.

My military assignment in 1968 was in South Korea with the Air Force.

There was another soldier who shared the Gospel Message with me and we would have long discussions. I would argue his logic for believing in what he was sharing. One day he challenged me to read a copy of "Good News For Modern Man - the New Testament in easy-to-understand English." Upon finishing the book, I told him that I couldn't find anything within the pages to argue about. It was morally and ethically in alignment with what I already believed to be true. I asked him where we were headed in our conversations now that his message was more acceptable to me. He told me to pray about it and ask God for answers. That prayer changed my life.

The Bible became alive and my eyes were open to things I had been blind to.

You may ask someone why they believe in Christ. I would like to offer a "Who, What, Why, When, Where, and How overview.

How is the Bible Different?

How - How is the Bible different from other books that claim to be the inspired Word of God?

There are over thirty religious books that claim to be inspired by God.

The Bible (Christianity), the Quran (Islam), the Vedas (Hinduism), the Torah (Judaism), The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads, The Torah: The Five Books of Moses, The Apocrypha, and many more

How do you choose which one is right?

All these books focus on two questions: (1) If life is important, then how should we live it? and (2) What happens after death?

Many of the books are fundamentally moral and ethical. They give guidelines on how to live good lives.

Buddha was a searcher of truth and finally he claimed to be enlightened. His disciples asked him to speak to them of God. Buddha answered, "I speak not on that which I do not know." His disciples deified him anyway.

Christ said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6

Many of these books gave opinions on what happens after death. Only one person ever died and came back - the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;" John 11:25

What is the Bible?

What - What is the Bible?

The Bible is a collection of books written by over forty authors across 4 continents spanning 1,500 years.

The Old Testament contains 39 books and the New Testament contains 27 books for a total of sixty-six books.

Consider how you could find a single person on the entire Earth. You would need their (1) first name, (2) last name, (3) street address, (4) city, (5) state, and (6) area code. If you wanted to pinpoint a specific date when this person lived, you could include (7) the year.

Seven pieces of information will pinpoint any individual over the course of human history.

The Old Testament gives over three hundred prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah.

Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus made several significant claims about his identity. He claimed to be the Son of God and the Son of Man, positions that, in Jewish understanding, implied divine authority. He also declared himself to be one with the Father and claimed to be the "I AM" (a name associated with God in the Old Testament). Furthermore, Jesus asserted that he was the "Way, the Truth, and the Life", and that no one could come to the Father except through him.

When was the Messiah to arrive?

When was the Messiah to arrive?
Was Jesus' Arrival Accurately Predicted in the Bible?
Source

In 538 BC, the angel Gabriel gave Daniel a prophecy pinpointing when the Messiah would arrive. "Know and understand this," Gabriel told him (Daniel 9:25). While Daniel may have understood it, somewhere along the way that insight has been lost. Old Testament scholars have long been debating the prophecy's meaning, but one scholar, Harold Hoehner, had a particularly astounding interpretation.

While in Babylon, Daniel read the Scriptures, learning that Jeremiah had foretold both the Babylonian captivity and the Israelites' return to their homeland after 70 years. In response, Daniel confessed the sins of the nation in prayer, inciting the angel Gabriel to visit and deliver this message:

Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

Breaking Down the Daniel Prophecy

In taking a closer look at the Daniel passage, one thing is clear: it is about the Messiah. We see that the term "Messiah," or "Anointed One," is capitalized. It is also clear that a formula of sorts is provided to calculate when the Messiah will appear. The difficulties come in interpreting the formula. One such difficulty is determining the meaning of "weeks," which is used in a number of translations. (NIV uses the term "sevens" instead of "weeks.") In ancient Hebrew, "weeks" had a number of meanings, which scholars can determine by the context. The context in the Daniel passage shows that "weeks" means "seven units." Using this definition, we can calculate when the Messiah will arrive: (7 x 7) + (62 x 7) = 49 + 434 = 483 years.

The prophecy further says that after the Messiah arrives, he will be "put to death and will have nothing." The word "after" is very important. After the Messiah arrives, he will be put to death. Jesus' crucifixion fulfills that prophecy.

We now know that the Messiah would arrive 483 years in the future. But does the prophecy specify a beginning date? The prophecy tells us: "From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem." So, who ordered this decree to restore Jerusalem, and when was it ordered? There are several possibilities, but the decree that best fits the evidence was made by the Persian king Artaxerxes to Nehemiah on March 5 of 444 BC (Nehemiah 2:1-8). (In this article, a number of biblical dates are used, all of which have been under debate by scholars for hundreds of years. Harold Hoehner makes a strong case for each of the dates. For those details, please refer to Hoehner's book Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.)

Before we can make some calculations, we need to know how Daniel's civilization counted time - by a solar year or a lunar year. A solar year has 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, or 365.2422 days. A lunar year has exactly 360 days: 12 months of 30 days. [A lunar year has 12 rotation periods, or lunar months, which equal 354.367 Earth days (12 x 29.53059). However, ancient peoples rounded off the lunar month to 30 days. Thus, their lunar year would equal 360 days (30 days x 12).] Since the lunar year was commonly used in ancient biblical times, it makes the most sense to use the lunar year in calculations.

We must also decide how to define the arrival of the Messiah. Do we use Jesus' birthdate, the date he began his ministry, the date of his crucifixion, or some other date? The date that many scholars have accepted as the time of the Messiah's arrival is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The reason for choosing this date is that this is when Jesus publicly declared that he was the Messiah. Before then, he told only select people, like his disciples, and he often reminded them to keep his identity secret. History chronologists have estimated that Jesus' triumphal entry fell on Monday, March 30, AD 33.

Calculating Gabriel's Formula

Now we're ready to do some math to determine if Gabriel did in fact predict Jesus' arrival. We'll start by determining how many days are in 483 lunar years: 360 x 483 = 173,880 days. Next, we'll convert those days back into solar years: 173,880 / 365.2422 = 476.068 years. After converting the decimal part (0.068) to days (0.068 x 365.2422 = 24.8 days), the time prophesized for the Messiah to arrive comes out to be 476 years and 25 days.

Adding this number to March 5, 444 BC - the date on which the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued - brings us to March 30, AD 33, the very day of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Is this match not remarkable? The remarkable accuracy of the predictions in the prophecy in Daniel [assuming the estimates are correctly interpreted and accurate] supports the truth of the prophecy, which in turn builds confidence in the authority and reliability of the Bible.

SUMMARY - When will the Messiah arrive in Jerusalem? 538 BC, the angel Gabriel gave Daniel a prophecy pinpointing when the Messiah would arrive Daniel 9:25 From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death. (7 x 7) + (62 x 7) = 49 + 434 = 483 years Beginning date: The Persian king Artaxerxes grants permission to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem on March 5 of 444 BC (Nehemiah 2:1-8) How did Daniel's civilization count time? Their lunar year would equal 360 days (30 days x 12). The date that many scholars have accepted as the time of the Messiah's arrival is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. History chronologists have estimated that Jesus' triumphal entry fell on Monday, March 30, AD 33. Now we're ready to do some math to determine if Gabriel did in fact predict Jesus' arrival. We'll start by determining how many days are in 483 lunar years: 360 x 483 = 173,880 days. Next, we'll convert those days back into solar years: 173,880 / 365.2422 = 476.068 years. After converting the decimal part (0.068) to days (0.068 x 365.2422 = 24.8 days), the time prophesized for the Messiah to arrive comes out to be 476 years and 25 days. Adding this number to March 5, 444 BC - the date on which the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued - brings us to March 30, AD 33, the very day of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Beginning date: March 5 of 444 BC (7 x 7) + (62 x 7) = 49 + 434 = 483 lunar years (360 x 483 = 173,880 days) Solar years: 173,880 / 365.2422 = 476.068 years 476 years 24.8 days) = 476 years and 25 days

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Daniel 9:24-26

82. Gabriel tells Daniel when the "Anointed One" will be "cut off."
This is the exact time Jesus is crucified.

Daniel 9:24-26
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 "Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

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Zechariah 9:9 - The Coming of Zion's King

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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Where?

Where did the ministry of Jesus take place?

Jesus' public ministry primarily took place in Galilee and Judea, with some activity in Samaria and Perea. He spent a significant amount of time in Galilee, particularly around the Sea of Galilee, where he based his ministry in Capernaum. His ministry also included visits to Jerusalem for various religious festivals and events.

Why is Jesus different?

Why is Jesus different?

Jesus Christ is the only person to die and come back to life.

"For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many." (Matthew 24:5)

Christ separated himself from all religions by saying, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

Further distinction is found in the book of Acts. "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

The leaders and prophets that inspired the world's religions today and dead and buried, except for one.

Christ was crucified and buried for three days until his ressurection.

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." (1 Corinthians 15:14)

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;" (John 11:25)

No one else has ever risen from the grave. Christ's resurrection is the foundation of Christianity and the hope for all who believe.

All other texts claiming to be inspired by God are speculations without evidence that eternal life is attainable.

How can we recieve
The Good News of Salvation?

In Christian theology, salvation from physical death, or eternal death, is achieved through faith in Jesus Christ. This faith involves believing in Jesus' death and resurrection as a sacrifice for sins, and accepting him as Lord and Savior. This belief leads to forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" - Ephesians 2:8

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”" - Acts 4:12