What’s truth? 

Check out this excellent message about truth.

Dwayne Moore, Connection Pastor                                              Mechanicsville Christian Center

 

What does the Bible say about Satan and Demons? Click here for details.

The notes are from my own research on Satan and Demons and are not put into a publishable format.

9 Old Testament Periods of Time – 3,607 Years of His-story

[Dates based on Bishop James Ussher calculations, in his classic survey of world history – The Annals of the World.]

A.M. counts up from the date of creation, B.C. counts down from the birth of Christ]

1. Pre-Patriarchal Era (Genesis 1-11) [0-1757 A.M.   4004-2247 B.C.] Creation – the creation of all things, Fall – the corruption of all things, Flood – the condemnation of all things, Nations – the confusion of all things. 1,757 years of His-story.

2. Patriarchs Era – (Genesis 12-50) [2083-2315 A.M. 1921-1689 B.C. ] – The Creation of the Hebrew Nation. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. 232 years of His-story.

3. Exodus Era –  (Exodus and Numbers) [2298-2513 A.M.  1706-1491 B.C. ] The Captivity and Deliverance of the Hebrew Nation.  215 years of His-story.

4. Conquest Era –  (Joshua) [2553-2578 A.M. 1451-1426 B.C.]      The Conquest of the Land Promised to the Hebrew Nation.                25 years of His-story.

5. Judges Era – (Judges; Ruth) [2595-2909 A.M. 1409-1095 B.C.] Those who ruled Israel after Joshua to Samuel (14).                                The Continual Conquest and Continuous Cycles of Israel’s Clamorous Climb to Nationhood. 314 years of His-story.

6. Kingdom Era– Israel’s rejection of God as King.                                         United Kingdom (1&2 Sam, 1Kings, 1 Ch, Ps-SOS)                                [2909-3029 A.M.  1095-975 B.C.] 3 Kings that ruled 40 years each: Saul, David, Solomon.120 years of His-Story.                              Divided Kingdom (2 Kings, 2 Ch, Isa-Zeph) [3029-3397 A.M.         975-607 B.C.] – Northern Kingdom goes into Assyrian Captivity 721 B.C. – never returned from captivity.                                               368 years of His-story.                                                         

7. Exile Era – (Ezekiel & Daniel) [3405-3475 A.M. 607-537 B.C.] Southern Kingdom goes into Babylonian Captivity. 606 B.C.          70 years of His-story

8. Return Era – (Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)        [3476-3615 A.M. 536-397 B.C. ]  3 Jewish remnants return to rebuild Jerusalem. 139 years of His-Story.

9. Silence Era – [3615- 4004 A.M.  397- 6-4 B.C.] God’s final preparation of the world for the promised Messiah/Savior.

5 New Testament Time Periods: 100-102 Years of His-Story

10. Messianic/Gospel Era – [6-4 B.C. – AD 33] Good News (God Offers Salvation Providing Eternal Life) The fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophecies about God’s promised     Deliverer/Messiah.

11. Gospel/Church Era – AD 33 – Present (1,986 years as of AD 2019) God prepares the bride of Christ – those who live for Jesus as Savior and Lord (Times of the Gentiles – Luke 21:24).  ***

12. Tribulation Era – 7 years (Antichrist in Israel) – Final preparation of Israel.  Armageddon – Jesus returns to earth, destroys Satan’s army and binds Satan for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3).

13. Millennial Kingdom Era – 1000 year reign of Jesus in Jerusalem.   Satan’s Final Battle – Satan is released at the end of the 1,000 years for one final battle where Jesus destroys Satan’s army by the power of His Word, then throws Satan and his demons into the Lake of Fire for eternity (Revelation 20:7-10).

14. Eternal Kingdom Era – Perfection Restored: New Heaven and               Earth (Revelation 21)

*** There are different beliefs about what is known as the “Rapture”. Some believe the followers of Jesus will be taken up to Heaven before the start of the “Tribulation Era” (pre-trib), and others believe it will take place at some point during the “Tribulation Era” (mid-trib, pre-wrath, and post-trib). Click here to read about the different “Rapture” views.

The information on these pages are man’s best guess at calculating the Bibles historical timeline and are therefore fallible, only the Word of God is inerrant and infallible.

Click here to make His-Story your story.

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Evidence That The Bible Is The Word of God:

1. God tells us that He is the Author  (2 Peter 1:20-21 & 2 Timothy 3:15-17)

2. The Old Testament and New Testament Authors understood they were writing the Word of God. Common Old Testament phrase – “Thus saith the Lord”. The Apostle Peter confirmed the Apostle Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:16).

3. Its Amazing Unity – written over a 1,400-year period by over 40 writers from different socio-economic, professional and educational backgrounds. Written in 3 different languages on 3 different continents, yet it tells one unified story of God’s love for the world – telling us that He would send a Savior who would save us and restore us to God by dying for our sins, which separates us from Him.

4. Its Historical Accuracy – as verified by archeology, which has never contradicted the Bible, but only confirms and silences its critics.

5. Its Prophetical Accuracy – as verified by the life and person of Jesus Christ, and His fulfilling the 300 plus messianic prophecies. The likelihood of one person fulfilling just 7 of the 300 prophesies is like picking out the only silver dollar with a red dot on it while blind-folded, standing knee deep in an area the size of Texas.  Fulfilling 48 would be mathematically impossible.  Prophecy is like an address, it points to one person or one event.

6. Its Scientific Accuracy – as verified by providing scientific facts three to four thousand years before modern science discovered them. (Isa. 40:22 – The earth is round; Job 26:7 – The earth is suspended in space; Gen 1:24 -Mendel’s Genetic Laws: kind reproducing after its own kind; Gen 3-5 (The fall) – The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, order to disorder).

7. Its Universal Influence Upon Civilization – life is as it is because of Jesus and the testimony of His Word. (Hospitals, schools, charitable organizations, equality for all people…)

8. Its Life-Changing Power – millions of lives universally transformed throughout history.

9. Its Indestructibility – it has survived mans numerous attempts to destroy it throughout human history (Voltare).

10. Its Care and Copy – The Jewish system for copying Jewish literature guarantees its accuracy as verified by the “Dead Sea Scrolls”.

11. Its Amazing Circulation – The Bible is the best selling, most read book in human history.

12. Its Absolute Honesty – The Bible tells the good, the bad, and the ugly about its people and their history.

3 Tests of Historical Reliability of Ancient Literature:

1. The Bibliographical Test – The number of manuscripts in existence and the length of time between the original manuscript and the existing manuscripts.

2. The Internal Evidence – What the document says about itself. Was the author(s) an eyewitness to the events they recorded, and did they know what they were talking about.

3. The External Evidence – Do outside sources confirm the events and accuracy of the events, such as literary sources and archaeological sources?

2 Reasons Why We Can Have Confidence in the Reliability of the Old Testament:

1. Its Care & Copy – the incredibly meticulous and accurate system that the Jewish scribes had for copying any type of literature.

2. The Historical Verification of the accuracy of Jewish literature as demonstrated by the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. When the “Dead Sea Scroll” manuscripts (125 B.C) were compared  with the oldest previous manuscript (A.D. 1008) –1133 year gap, they were virtually identical.

3 Reasons Why We Can Have Confidence in the Reliability of the New Testament:

1. Eyewitnesses wrote the New Testament.

2. The original audience were also eyewitnesses to the events recorded and would have rejected the documents if they were fraudulent – this was not the case.

3. The New Testament has 24,633 surviving manuscripts with the oldest manuscript being 125 years removed from the original events, which is far superior to any ancient literature in existence. The nearest competitor has 120 surviving manuscripts, a thousand years removed from the original document or event yet no one questions their validity.

 Some of the greatest skeptics have become some of the greatest defenders of the Christian faith because the evidence is incredibly convincing. 

Click here for more on starting a relationship with Jesus.

For more information check out the following resources:

• • “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”   Vol. 1, by Josh McDowell.
  • “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist“
  • “Cold-Case Christianity“
  • “The Case For Faith“
  • “The Case For Christ“

Click here for additional evidence resources or visit our home page.

 

by Tim Leahy

Short Answers:

• Because it’s God’s written revelation to us.
• Because it’s one of the main ways God speaks to us.
• Because it’s our instruction manual for successful living.
• Because it tells us who God is, who we are, and what He did, does and will do for us.
• Because it’s food for our soul.
• Because it’s our compass for life.
• Because it’s God’s love letter to us.
• Because it’s our story.
• Because it’s Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.

Short Answers Explained: 

Because it’s God’s written revelation to us: God has revealed His purpose and plan for us in the Bible (2 Peter 1:20-21 & 2 Timothy 3:15-17) which was written over a 1,400-year period by over 40 writers from different socio-economic, professional and educational backgrounds. Written in 3 different languages on 3 different continents, yet it tells one unified story of God’s love and plan for the human race – telling us that He would send a Savior who would save and restore us to God by dying for our sins, which separate us from Him.

Because it’s one of the main ways God speaks to us: God has revealed Himself though creation (general revelation) and the Bible (specific revelation). We can know general things about God through His creation (Psalm 19:1-2; Romans 1:19-20), and we can know specific things about God through the Bible (Genesis 1:1, John 3:16…). God communicates to us through His Word, and we communicate to God through prayer. If we are to have a healthy functional relationship with God we need to allow Him to speak to us daily, and we must speak to Him daily. Think of it this way, if you rarely spoke to people who are important to you or they rarely spoke to you, how healthy would our relationships be?

Because it’s our instruction manual for successful living: God wants us to succeed (2 Peter 3:9b; 1 Timothy 2:4b; Jeremiah 29:11). The whole Bible tells us how God wants us to live so that we will be successful, which means that we will not experience self-inflicted problems and consequences from making choices contrary to His Word. The Bible is like a safety fence, if we stay within it, we will be protected; but if we go outside God’s protective standards then we are open to the negative, destructive consequences of our ungodly choices (Galatians 6:7-8; 1 Peter 5:8).

Because it tells us who God is, who we are, and what He did, does and will do for us: God tells us that He is eternal, perfect, Creator, Sustainer, all-knowing, all-powerful, in control, and has a purpose and plan for the human race. God tells us that we are sinners who have rebelled against Him and that our sin has separated us from Him. But because He loves us perfectly He has provided a way for us to be restored back to the harmonious relationship He created us for. God tells us how it all ends and what our eternal fate is. God has not left us in the dark; we are without excuse because He has told us everything we need to know about Him, about us, what He did, does and will do for us. It’s all written out for us in the Bible (Psalm 90:2; Matthew 5:48;Genesis 1:1; Acts 17:25-26; Isaiah 46:9-10; John 3:16). Click here to see what Jesus did for you.

Because it’s food for our soul: Physically, God created us with the need for food and water to keep us physically strong and alive. The same is true spiritually. In order to be strong and alive we need to take in God’s Word on a daily basis (John 6:35, Matthew 4:4; 1 Peter 2:2). Without the nourishment of God’s Word we drift back to unhealthy living, reaping the negative consequences of our ungodly choices (Galatians 6:7-8).

Because it’s our compass for life: God’s Word shows us the right direction for navigating life according to the way he designed us to live. When we live life His way we experience all the joys and blessings of following God (Galatians 5:22-23). But if we don’t, we experience the negative consequences of those choices (Galatians 5:19-21; Galatians 6:7). Since God is the Creator of everything we would be wise to follow the One who knows the Way (John 14:6) that leads to a successful journey that leads us to the intended destination (2 Peter 3:9b; 1 Timothy 2:4b) .

Because it’s God’s love letter to us: God tells us how much He loves us (John 3:16), and demonstrated it by patiently and lovingly putting up with over 4000 years of rebellion by the human race against Him while He orchestrated His plan to rescue and redeem us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Because it’s our story: God tells us how He created us, provided for us, and how we rebelled against Him causing sin to enter the world. He tells how our rebellion damaged and separated us from Him, and how He fixed the relationship that we broke so we could come back to Him and live with Him forever.

Because it’s Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth: Our time here on planet earth is very short compared to eternity. God created us to live forever (Matthew 25:46). The question is will you live with Him in heaven or apart from Him in hell for eternity? God’s Word explains what we need to know about this choice, and when our time on earth is up He will honor our choice (Hebrews 9:27). Click here to choose Jesus.

Begin to read Psalm 119 (the longest chapter in the Bible) and discover the joy and benefits the psalmist found in reading God’s Word.

Click here for additional LMIQ Bible resources.

Questions? Email us at Reach.LMIQ@gmail.com

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