How to Become a Christian

[Nottheworld]

Amen. Good work.

[Scriptur]

Plan of Salvation

What do you understand it takes for a person to go to Heaven?

Consider how the Bible answers this question: It's a matter of FAITH.

F is for FORGIVENESS

We cannot have eternal life and heaven without God's forgiveness.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Eph. 1.7a).

A is for Available

Forgiveness is available. It is-

• Available for all. “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3.16).
• But not automatic. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 7.21a).

I is for Impossible

It is impossible for God to allow sin into heaven.

• Because of who He is: God is loving and just. His judgment is against sin. "For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy" (James 2.13a).
• Because of who we are: Every person is a sinner. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3.23).

T is for Turn

Turn means to repent.

• Turn from something: sin and self. "Unless you repent, you will all perish as well!" (Luke 13.3b)
• Turn to Someone: trust Christ only. "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10.9).

H is for Heaven

Heaven is eternal life.

• Here. "I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance" (John 10.10b).
• Hereafter. "If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also" (John 14.3).

How can a person have God's forgiveness, heaven and eternal life, and Jesus as personal Savior and Lord? But trusting in Christ and asking Him for forgiveness. Take the step of faith described by another meaning of FAITH: Forsaking All I Trust Him.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and have displeased You in many ways. I believe You died for my sin and only through faith in Your death and resurrection I can be forgiven. I want to turn from my sin and ask You to come into my life as my Savior and Lord. From this day on, I will follow You by living a life that pleased You. Thank You, Jesus for saving me. Amen.

After you have received Jesus Christ into your life, tell a Christian friend about this important decision you have made. Follow Christ in believer's baptism and church membership. Grow in your faith and enjoy new friends in Christ by becoming part of His church. There, you'll find others who will love and support you.

[Churchwork]

Is Jesus God?

I am not writing to prove if God exists, because everyone knows that all things in nature have a cause; therefore, the universe can’t cause itself. Nor can it always have been, because due to the exponential progression in conscience, we would not still be sinning by now. And according to the same law, there cannot be an eternity of the past of cause and effects of gods creating gods or supernatural causes in the past. We are left with only one answer: there must be an uncreated Creator who intelligently designed everything except Himself, since He always existed.

I am also not writing to compare Christianity to other religions or world-views, because I have already done that and there is no comparison and little satisfaction in seeing how man makes “self” his center in so many different ways. If you have come to the point I am at after several years as a born-again child of God through Jesus Christ (the only way), you know your faith gets tested. The decision is between a Creator who doesn’t enter His creation and One who does. The technical name for not entering His creation is “deism”. The technical name for entering His creation is the theism of “Christianity”. Which one is right, where does the evidence lead us, is the evidence overwhelming, and can a plausible scenario be drawn up for how sin could have come into Christianity to create a false resurrection?

Second Hand Information

There are those church fathers and second generation apostles who knew the first generation apostles, but second hand information is not the all determining factor, especially secular sources. And there are competing religions which attempt at a resurrection after Jesus death and resurrection, even some accounts of something vaguely resembling a resurrection before Christ, but always fails on some point or another. Because 1 in 3 people call themselves Christian and the Bible is the freest book in the world, this accessibility to the Word of God is something you would expect from a gracious and loving God.

The prescient issue becomes what evidence as certain proof exists in the Word of God that is so solid, that it renders a final decision for or against Christ. The possibilities as I see it are, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or He is God. No other option is worthy of consideration, for He surely lived and walked the Earth. If He is God then the Bible for the most part at the very least is true. If He is a liar, then we need to reject Christianity for its main doctrine. If Jesus was a lunatic, Christianity likewise must be rejected because Jesus was a madman. But if He is God, then you ought to spend an incredible amount of time in your life in prayer, worship, fellowship, reading His Word and books on the Word of God to allow the revelation of the Holy Spirit to work in your spirit and to know God’s will.

Is it possible Jesus presented Himself differently than He was portrayed by the original apostles or second hand writers? No, because of many reasons, but for our purposes, we will sum up those reasons by saying almost all skeptical scholars admit Jesus lived, walked the Earth and was convinced He Himself was the Messiah. If Jesus is God, it would be no difficulty at all for God to enter into His creation. It seems quite clear He truly believed He was the Messiah.

What It All Comes Down To?

“God raised Jesus from the dead” passes all these tests:

1. There is great explanatory scope. The Bible explains why the tomb was empty, why the disciples saw postmortem appearances of Jesus, and why the Christian faith came into being.

2. There is great explanatory power. It explains why the body of Jesus was gone, why people repeatedly saw Jesus alive despite His earlier public execution, and so forth.

3. It is plausible. Given the historical context of Jesus’ unparalleled life and claims, the resurrection makes sense as the divine confirmation of those radical claims.

4. It is not ad hoc or contrived. It requires only one additional evidence which is…God exists.

5. It is in accordance with accepted beliefs. The hypothesis “God raised Jesus from the dead” does not in any way conflict with the accepted belief that people do not rise naturally from the dead. The Christian accepts that belief as wholeheartedly as much as God raised Jesus from the dead.

6. The resurrection of Jesus far outstrips any rival theories in meeting the above conditions. Down through history, various alternative explanations of the facts have been offered, but they all have been universally rejected by contemporary scholarship. No naturalistic theory has, in fact, attracted a great number of scholars.

(These six points are a summary from historian C. B. McCullagh in his book, Justifying Historical Descriptions.)

Therefore, the only explanation of the established facts seems to be that God raised Jesus from the dead and because Jesus is God. May you now do what your conscience is telling you to do.

As you mature in your faith, the only real challenge that comes up is His missing body, a resurrected body and then a raised up body witnessed visually. The reason this is so hard to fathom is because it just doesn't happen in the natural world, but with God all things are possible. If it was His intention to do it, He has already done it. And the evidence is overwhelming and unchallenged. We must go where the evidence leads us despite all emotional ties. That is what it means to be intellectually honest with oneself.

Troy Brooks

[Churchwork]

This is the bottom line.

Either Jesus was a liar, lunatic or He is God. If He is God and you refuse His atonement on the cross and resurrection, you are going to Hell.

If the disciples lied about seeing Jesus resurrected then Jesus was a liar or a lunatic, and you will just cease to exist, but does ceasing to exist effectively deal with your sins?

Wow!

12 Historical Facts (Most Critical Scholars Believe These 12 items)

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. He was buried.
3. His death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope.
4. The tomb was empty (the most contested).
5. The disciples had experiences which they believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus (the most important proof).
6. The disciples were transformed from doubters to bold proclaimers.
7. The resurrection was the central message.
8. They preached the message of Jesus’ resurrection in Jerusalem.
9. The Church was born and grew.
10. Orthodox Jews who believed in Christ made Sunday their primary day of worship.
11. James was converted to the faith when he saw the resurrected Jesus (James was a family skeptic).
12. Paul was converted to the faith (Paul was an outsider skeptic).

Now if you can't explain it away reasonably, then believe it, despite your heart pulling you away. Above all else the heart is deceitful. It is not that truth is unreasonable, but it is unloved. Living by feelings is not a principled life. Live by your intuitive conscience in your spirit in communion with God no matter how difficult it may seem sometimes.

God is choosing a people out of the world to be with Him in eternity. Those who are not are going to Hell since none of us can merely just cease to exist, for we are all made in His image. Where are you going?