No other man in history has had such an enormous influence on every single generation that followed His own. The one important point that separated Jesus from every other religious icon, is His bold statement that He was the Son of God, and that the only way to the Father was belief and acceptance of Him as the Son of God. It was that issue that led to His death.

That issue in itself is not enough to prove anything. There have been many who came and claimed divinity, but we do have circumstantial evidence to backup His claim. We have biblical prophetic history that was fulfilled by Jesus. There were as many as three hundred and sixty-five prophecies related to the Jewish Messiah in the Old Testament. And Jesus fulfilled every single one of them.

We have biblical proof from those who opposed Jesus in the Bible that Jesus did do miraclous, supernatural things, such as heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and more. The proof is in the fact that they claimed He did do these miraculous things through devil's. No where in Scripture do those opposing Jesus deny any of the supernatural events taking place. They just don't credit it as coming from God.

We have historical, non-biblical writings that specifically mention Jesus. One such historian was Flavius Josephus, who himself was a Jewish pharisee. The pharisee's were one segment of the Jewish leadership of Jesus' day. These also were the ones that orchestrated Jesus crucifixion. Yet, Josephus, it appears by his writings, was convinced that Jesus was who He said He was. One such statement by Josephus was that Jesus was a, "doer of startling deeds."

There were other historians, as well, that spoke of Jesus, but many detractors will say that most of those writings did not surface until some sixty years after Jesus' crucifixion. Based on that fact, they claim these writings should not be considered trustworthy. Yet, these same detractors, when it comes to someone such as Alexander the Great, will not deny anything the historians wrote about him. Yet, those historical writings were written some four hundred years after he died.

Even other religions do not deny, but recognize Jesus in some capacity. The Muslim faith considers Jesus a prophet and even goes so far as to say that He was born of a virgin birth. The Jewish faith recognizes Jesus as an 'admirable Jew.' Buddhism sees many similarities between Buddha and Jesus. Hinduism sees Jesus as a "self-realized saint who reached the highest level of 'God-consciousness.'"

One bit of evidence which I like to use, is the fact that twelve individuals who, if Jesus was a fraud, would have realized they were dupped into one man's egotistical charade, and would never have risked their own lives and come out after Jesus had died and still proclaim His divinity. That would be against human reasoning; and even if one were stupid enough to come and do so, the chances of all twelve doing this would have been highly improbable at best.

Leaving behind the fact that Jesus' body was never found, there is so much circumstantial evidence pointing to the divinity of Jesus, that if this was a case tried in a Federal courtroom, the jury would have no recourse, but to convict Jesus on all counts of Him being the Messiah!

For many years one of the targets for non-believers to attack, was the validity of Christianity; the fact that the earliest manuscript that was avaiable to man was written some twelve hundred years after the fact. Which means we had no choice but to trust the fact that the copies of Scripture we had were not forgeries, and were translated and written correctly over that time span. There was no evidence that these documents were authentic.

In those days there were no printing presses, every manuscript for all types of writings was written and re-written by hand, and took many months to complete. And to have a twelve hundred year gap with no evidence to prove authenticity, even had to make the most ardent believer, at least have a question as to whether those writings were authentic.

But, in the 1940's that all changed, when writings, later known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd, looking for a lost sheep; so the story goes. With this discovery, we now have documented evidence of the authenticity of these later manuscripts, right up to about 250 years within the time frame of the original writings. The most exciting aspect of these writings is that other than typographical type errors, there is really nothing that would contradict these later manuscripts, which quieted those detractors who used that twelve hundred year gap as a reason to discrediting the Bible.

As a matter of fact, the accuracy that is found in these later manuscripts to the Dead Sea Scrolls is absolutely amazing. Rarely, if ever, has there been a find of a literary writing with such a wide gap of time between manuscripts that one would find such accuracy.

I would also like to point out that the New Testament writings were written and distributed in the first century, when many who were alive during Jesus' time on earth, could have easily discredited the New Testament writings immediately upon their distribution, because of eyewitness testimony. Those looking for ways to discredit these writings during that first century would not have had a hard time finding people to prove them false, if these writings were not credible.

But, since there is no indication, whatsoever, that there was any movement to discredit the apostle's writings, would be more evidence to prove the Christian belief as well as the Bible.

Well, for one, Christianity is not a religion, it is a way of life. When I looked up the word religion in the dictionary, I came across Four definitions, each of which insinuates a doctrine decided upon by man.

The Bible references the term religion only six times in the New King James Version, all of which are in the New Testament. Each one of those times it is a reference to man's idea of an institution of faith. Never once is it used to define the true godly way of life. The only time it is used with any reference to God, is in James 1:26-27, where the apostle James is trying to explain to the people, a true godly way of life. He only uses the term religion, because that is the one way he could speak to them in a way they could understand.

There will always be divisions among Christian's as to which doctrine is the right doctrine. And some of those differing opinions are major differences that may cause a divide that cannot be bridged among those denominations involved. Other differing opinions are not as major and the denominations may co-exist without a great divide.

This is a problem that has plagued mankind since the fall of man; and is limited to the physical aspect or realm of man. In the book of Acts, we even read of divisions amongst the apostles of Christ, one of which led to a breakup of Paul and Barnabas. There was also a time when Paul and Peter had their differences amongst themselves.

The way of life according to God, is perfect and designed for man's best interests. But, man is not perfect and cannot fathom the depth of God's understanding. This in-turn creates an atmosphere of imperfection in Christ's Church. There are some denominations that call themselves Christian, but are so far removed from any kind of doctrine that resembles Christianity, that they should not even be associated with Christianity. But for the most part many of the mainstay denominations of Christianity are not that far apart on doctrine that we cannot just accept the fact that the main link between us is the most intergral part of Christiandom. That would be Jesus Christ.

So, since man will always have some kind of differences amongst our denominations, we should not get caught up in the differences, but come together on the most important issues of Christianity, and those would be our belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and the fact that He is going to return and take those who have professed their allegance to Him, whether their doctrinal issues agree or not.

Yes! Religion is the problem; man is responsible for religion. It isn't God when man goes to war in the name of their religion. In the past few years their has been a lot of talk about Islamic fundamentalism, and rightly so. Islamic fundamentalism has been the cause for much of the tumult in the world of late.

When the ideals of man clash, especially in the name of religion, man takes it personally and is willing to fight to preserve their ideals. When you have a fundamentalist mentality, there is no negotiation, just war.

God is no longer angry with man; His plan has been all but accomplished through Jesus. What man has destroyed through sin, Jesus has restored through His death and resurrection; accepting the penalty that was due man. Although God's plan through Jesus has defeated the enemy, Satan, God has still allowed Satan to reign on earth for a short time more.

So, in our perspective, things haven't changed. The world is still in turmoil, and the problems of man continue. What Jesus did accomplish was to defeat Satan and his demonic cohorts in the spiritual world. The physical world will not be rectified until Jesus comes back the second time and locks away Satan and establishes His one thousand year millennial reign on earth with no sin, sickness, disease, or any other ungodly thing to disrupt pure harmony between God and man.

So, it is Satan who is responsible for all this tumult and devisiveness through Christianity and other worldly religions. He does this to keep us from our true spiritual roots of our relationship with God. Satan is a master of deception; just read the story of Adam and Eve and you can see how he works. He tries to get us to think God says the opposite of what He really does. Satan, through his uncanny ability to deceive, twists the meaning of God's Word, so we go astray and worship something that is not real.

And mankind has fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. He has deceived man into thinking that the Bible is irrelavant today, because it is outdated. He has also deceived people into forming opinions on the meaning of the Bible without them even reading it. Satan doesn't want you to read the Bible, because he fears he will loose you to the truth.

Yes it has. But, again, it wasn't God who initiated the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades. Even though Christ preached peace, and displayed peace throughout His life on earth, Christianity has had its share of this fundamentalist mentality.

Regardless of what they claimed, they were not Christian. Jesus would have never condoned the atrocities that were performed by those proclaiming their faith in Him. In the day of judgment, Jesus will say to them, "I never knew you!"

I mentioned the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades, but they were only two of many outlandish acts of man in the name of Christianity. There were many so-called Christian churches who were guilty of prejudice and hate of all kinds. Not to mention the likes of Adolph Hitler, who tried to extinguish the Jewish people from the face of the earth. Yet, he proclaimed to be Christian. But, just because man interprets things his own way, doesn't mean it is God who initiated it.

As long as we live in this fallen world, with Satan at its helm, we will continue to see religion be the cause of death and destuction. But, does that mean we should take John Lennon seriously when he sung his song "Imagine," where he believed a world without God would be much better off?

No! Not at all. Those who believe that if God were removed from our societies, our world will be a better place to live, are sorely mistaken. Man will just find another reason to war with one another. Religion has been a main culprit to war, but there has been many other reasons man has gone to war that had nothing to do with religion.

If we remove God from our societies, we will also remove any notion of morality, compassion, and goodwill from our societies, because these are all atributes of God, that He has ingrained in our spirit of man, we would become an animalistic people and become more greedy and territorial, and war would be more prevalent than it already is.

When you read and study the Scriptures, you can't help but see the truth that is within its pages. The Bible prophesies the direction that our world is taking. Unfortunately, John Lennon's song is coming to fruition. Governments around the world are removing all aspects of God from our societies. Judges are overruling biblical law that has been incorporated within our societal laws.

The Book of Revelation describes a time of utter caos that will engulf the world. Why? Because of what I said above, what the result will be when God is removed from our societies. Man will ultimately loose the God inspired morality, compassion, and goodwill that is just a glimmer of what is left of God in the world. But, that too, will go away causing the coas described in Revelation.

But, God is patiently waiting and allowing man to realize that without Him, he cannot survive for long. God will ultimately step in and stop man just before total self annilation. It will be than that God will know man has had enough of his own reign and turn toward God in the realization that man needs to submit to God's ultimate authority.

Many wonder where God is in this world and why he has allowed so much pain and suffering. My news flash to them is that it is not God who has allowed it; man himself has determined to go this way, with disobedience in the Garden of Eden, and ever since the Garden of Eden.

That's a question that comes up many, many times with people who begin reading the Bible for the first time. A lot of ministers of the Gospel stay away from this truth in the Bible, but it should be dealt with, because it seems to be contradictory of this being a God of Love.

Of course, I am not going to go into any specific instances in Scripture, because this is just a brief answer to the question, but always remember, we live in a fallen world where Satan has had his way with people. When people walk away from God, we are out from underneath the protection of our loving Father. When you walk away and into the world, you are open season for Satan's attacks.

According to a 2007 Barna research, more than 57% of American's polled, believe Satan is not real, but just a symbol of evil. Why? Because Satan wants it that way. People do not realize the influence Satan plays in their everyday affairs. Satan is alive and well in America and around the world.

It has been that way since the Garden of Eden. The only time two recorded times in history that Satan has communicated with people directly, is when he was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and even then he disquised himself as a serpent or snake.

The only other known time he appeared to a man was when he came to Jesus after Jesus had fasted for forty days. He didn't disquise himself then, because he knew Jesus was the son of God and He would see right through the disquise.

I say all this to try and get you to understand why God had no choice but to send the Israelites out from time to time and destroy their neighbors. If they didn't their neighbors would have destroyed them. Why? Because they were corrupted people who were bent on wiping God's chosen people off the map. Just as the tyrant in Iran today, Ahmadinejad has recently stated he wants to do.

God had no choice but to protect His people through warring with those Satan-corrupted people around them. Many say even the 1967, six-day war was a miraculous victory for Israel. Even Israeli's themselves did not think that Israel would survive the threat of its Egyptian neighbors, as well as Egypt's allies who had Israel surrounded. Yet, Israel's victory was decisive and miraculous when Egypt's communication with it's military leaders broke down and war strategy was rendered useless.

Just as Satan is alive and well, so is our great and loving God at work to assure that His plan for Salvation is completed. And I assure you my friend, that it will be completed.

Not at all. In our finite human minds, that as I explained in the last question, has been corrupted by Satan, it is a lack of understanding to think that God is arrogant with His laws and commands.

When you by a new car, you receive with the car an owners manual. The maintenance schedule that is inside that manual, is designed so you can expect to get the most life out of that vehicle. For example; if a car is designed to get a lifespan of 200,000 miles when the proper maintenance schedule is followed, the opposite is true if you don't follow the proper maintenance. You could expect problems if the schedule is ignored. Most people do not even read the owners manual, and wonder why their cars breakdown so often.

God, on the other hand, is our manufacturer, and the commands and laws that are included in our owners manual (the Bible) are designed to give us the best life possible, with the state of the world that we live in. When the owners manual is ignored, you can expect a great amount of problems to come up along the path of your life.

Because the world around us is corrupt, even when we follow God's manual for our lives, we will still have problems, but those problems will not be as great and will not effect our lives as dramatically as when we are not in line with God's will. Regardless of what non-believer's think, the comfort that believer's get through their faith in God is real and tangible in their lives. And is something that a true believer will never be willing to give up.

So, when God says to worship Him, there must be some value to us when we worship. That value is the spiritual connection one receives in worship and praise with God. When we are in prayer time or in a time of worship and praise with God, our defense shield is up and in operation.

Recently, I heard a minister speak on this topic; he says when we are in a time of prayer or worship and praise, the noise level is so deafening to these evil elements because they cannot stand these forms of communication with God. You put them into a state of confusion while those lines of communication are open to God. Thus, they have no power in your life. So keep on worshipping, praising, and praying to your Father in heaven!

First of all, for a lack of a better word, the word jealous is used here. God is not jealous like a man would be jealous, because in reality, there is nothing for God to be jealous of, because any other god we may worship is just a man-made god, that is not even competition for the true God.

Satan and his demonic cohort's can fill the role of a god to people. For instance, when one dabbles in the occult, there is a real evil spiritual world out there that one is attempting to contact. Many get involved in this deadly venture, because they see things happen in the physical realm from this demonic activity. Many are under the assumption that this is O.K. or even worse, is from God, when it is not.

It's amazing to me how many people seek this form of contact with the spiritual world, but when you explain the truths of God, and the power of prayer, worship, and praise to them, they deny that that's real.

You can make anything your god. Money is a god to a lot of people; success can be a god; material possessions can be a god. Anything that you put before the one true God, becomes a god in your life. What the one true God is trying to get you to understand is that, these god's are not real and cannot love you and care for you the way He will, if you would just turn toward Him.

So, when God states that He is a jealous God, He is just trying to get your attention and get you to understand how much He loves and cares for you, and how much he doesn't want to see you go astray to worship things that will ultimately lead you to death without an opportunity for eternal life.

The Hebrew Scriptures, known to Christians today as the Old Testament, is made up of thirty-nine books. The Jews number these books as twenty-four, by combining Ezra and Nehemiah as one book, first and second Samuel as one book, first and second Kings as one book, first and second Chronicles as one book, and the twelve minor prophets as one book.

These books were written and compiled over the centuries, starting with Moses. According to Jewish tradition, a group of Rabbi’s met in Jamnia on the Mediterranean Sea in AD 90 to discuss the important issue of finalizing the list of recognized Scriptural books. Once again, in AD 118, Rabbi’s once again, met to go over this list and confirm this earlier decision.

The New Testament, on the other hand, was compiled as early Jewish believers in Christ, began to accumulate their own writings since the birth of Christ, whom was not recognized by the Jewish Pharisee’s.

Contrary to some skeptics who say that it was emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire who was the one to compile the New Testament, these early church leaders and witnesses of Jesus themselves began the process of validating Scriptural writings. This was because even before the last apostles of Christ died, fraudulent writings began appearing.

Over some time, four criteria were established in determining valid Scriptural writings. These four criteria include: 1) the book must be written by an apostle or based on his eyewitness testimony. 2) The book must credited as trustworthy and authoritative in its use. 3) The book must be accepted by unanimous vote of the overall church. 4) The approval process of church leaders.

The finalization of the list we have today was identified by Pope Athanasius in A.D. 367. His list was approved by church councils meeting at Hippo Regius in 393 and Carthage in 397. These councils did not impose anything new upon the church. Rather, they codified what believers had already come to accept and use as the word of God. By the time the councils approved the 27 books of our New Testament, they had already served as the established companion to the Hebrew Scriptures for generations.

There are other ancient writings, such as the Apocrypha, which did not pass this rigorous process of acceptance into our Bible today, but which have some valuable historical content. Yet, other writings are clearly fraudulent.

The word canon comes from the Greek word, Kanon, meaning, "a rod used to measure." When referring to a biblical canon, it is referring to those books of the Bible which are approved by a certain criteria of a particular religious community to be included as God-inspired books of the Bible.

I say religious community because, not all denominations of Christianity accept the same books as God-inspired. For example; the Catholics accept a group of books that they categorized as Deuterocanonical, meaning second canon. These books do not live up to all the criteria that is expected of canonical books.

The Protestant Bible, which is the most widely used and accepted among Christian's, classifies these books as Apocrypha, meaning "hidden books." These particular books of the Apocrypha are not necessarily considered fraudulent, but are considered valuable for instruction and spiritual edification, just not God inspired.

A standard set of criteria is not necessarily possible to nail down, because since there are many denominations of Christianity there is no 'one' authority to determine acceptance, since there are differing opinions among the denominations as to which books are canonical. For example; the Catholics have their authority, the Orthodox have their authority, and the Protestants have their authority. These may not be the only authorities, but just an example of the diversity of denominations.

With that said, a basic criteria would be evidential proof that a particular writing was of an eyewitness of Jesus or an apostle of Jesus, or a disciple who directly was trained and taught by an apostle of Jesus. Of course, this criteria is interpreted differently among authorities.

This does appear to sound as though we cannot be sure as to whether we have a fully God-inspired Bible. I truly believe that if you believe in the God of the Bible, you must also have the faith that He will not allow man to distaught His truth.

Finds such as the Dead Sea Scrolls has helped validate many misnomers that have attacked the validity of the Bible. Although the New Testament was not yet written when these scrolls were placed in the caves at Qumran at the foot of the Dead Sea, so no New Testament writings were found at Qumran, we do have other early church and historical writings to help validate New Testament books.

We also have the Holy Spirit who is vitally important in this process, although some books may not be agreed upon by man as to God-inspired, but even those books considered second canonical are not in any way contradictory. They also do not shed any new light on biblical information than the more accepted books of the Bible.

Of course, no one can be absolutely certain what language Jesus actually spoke, but most scholars say it was a form of Aramaic. Some say Jesus spoke Greek; others say He spoke Hebrew. I myself will side with the majority, not because I am a scholar in this field, by no means am I, but I do see that it makes the most sense. Although I also believed Jesus most likely spoke Hebrew and possibly Greek.

Those who believe Jesus spoke Greek, suppose this because the Septuagint, which was the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures, was believed by many to be the translation Jesus may Himself quoted from and read from in the synagogue. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek manuscripts that were found, scholars believe this to be evidence that the Greek language may have been more widely used in Jesus’ day than previously thought.

The case for those who say Jesus spoke Hebrew, may have a good case because, Jesus being a rabbi, would had to have had rigorous training and teaching in the area of the Levitcal priesthood. Scripture says nothing about Jesus’ training to be a rabbi, but when we look into Jewish law, we see that to become a rabbi, one had to go through an extensive learning in the Talmud, which are writings of Jewish Law in ancient Hebrew.

A clue that we receive in Scripture that Jesus had to have completed the process to become a rabbi, is found in the beginning of John 3. Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, came to Jesus and called Him rabbi.