Notes on Lesson Seven
Do All roads lead to God?
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
✔That Marshall Applewhite had spent a lot of time in mental hospitals.
✔He met his wife, Bonnie Nettles, while undergoing treatment in a mental hospital.
✔They abandoned their human names, instead calling themselves Guinea and Pig, then Bo and Peep, before finally settling on Do and Ti.
✔Ti died of cancer in 1985 but Do, claiming he was Jesus returned to Earth, said he continued to communicate with her.
Major world religions, although they sometimes share some moral & ethical codes, disagree on three important considerations: the nature of God, the condition of man, and its world view.
“Careful examination of the basic tenets of the various religious traditions demonstrates that, far from teaching the same thing, the major religions have radically different perspectives on the religious ultimate.”
“There is a growing consensus that it is seriously misleading to regard the various religious traditions of the world as variations on a single theme.”
“Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best-known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.”
Buddhism -doesn’t believe in any God.
Confucianism-doesn’t believe in God or address a higher power.
Hinduism-many gods-so many, in fact, you can choose the gods you want to believe in.
Taoism-pantheism-God is found as a force in nature.
Judaism-one God
Islam-one God, distant, unknowable and impersonal.
Christianity-one transcendent God, and more: a trinity.
A Common Lie in our Culture is that there are many paths to God.
“I consider myself a spiritual person. I believe in an idea of God, although it’s my own personal ideal. I find most religions interesting, and I’ve been to every kind of denomination: Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist. I’ve taken bits from everything and customized it.”
Is Jesus telling the truth when He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me?
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to find truth,”
Jesus says, “I am the truth.”
Religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you the way to salvation,”
Jesus says, “I am the way to eternal life.”
Religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you how to become enlightened,”
Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”
Religious leaders say, “Follow me and I’ll show you many doors that lead to God,”
Jesus says, “I am the door.”
Other religions are spelled “D-O,” but Christianity is spelled “DO-N-E”
Fact # 1: He was born of two parents and died of poison.
Fact #2: He confesses three times in the Koran that he sinned and had to ask forgiveness from Allah.
Fact # 3: He himself admits that he never talked to God, but would fall into a trance, fall to the ground and foam at the mouth and utter supposed words of Allah.
Fact #4: Falling to the ground and foaming at the mouth are biblical signs of demon possession:
Mark 9:17-18 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
Fact #5: He was asked by his tribe 25 times to perform a miracle. He answered them, “Am I aught but a man-a messenger?
Fact #6: There are no predictive prophecies in the Koran, not one.
Fact #7: Muslims claim that the present day Koran is an exact representation of Muhammad’s revelations without so much as a dot or stroke ever having been lost, changed or substituted in any way.
Basic Principles of Islam, p. 4 No other book in the world can match the Qur'an ... The astonishing fact about this book of ALLAH is that it has remained unchanged, even to a dot, over the last fourteen hundred years. ... No variation of text can be found in it. You can check this for yourself by listening to the recitation of Muslims from different parts of the world.
Evidence #1: Muslim scholars use seven different texts for the Koran and they are all different. In a comparison between just two texts: Muslim scholars themselves pinpointed 1,354 differences.
Evidence #2: Scholars tell us that there are over a hundred grammatical errors in the Koran.
Evidence #3: Archaeologists have found early mosques and all the early mosques didn’t point to Mecca but Jerusalem.
Fact #8: Allah contradicts himself multiple times in the Koran and when the people pointed it out to Mohammed, he told them this: When we substitute one revelation for another- and Allah knowest best what He reveals (in stages)- They say, "Thou art but a forger"; But most of them understand not. Surah 16:101
Fact #9: He forced his adopted son, Zaid, to divorce his beautiful wife, Zainab, at the behest of Allah so that Mohammed could marry her.
Fact #10: Mohammed married a nine year old girl, Ayeshe, approaching her family when she was seven.
Fact #11: He sent his followers into raids and holy wars more than thirty times. He himself participated in such attacks and expeditions twenty-nine times.
Fact #12: He exterminated half of the Arabian peninsula to convert it to Islam.
Belief must be based on evidence and truth.
John 18:37-38 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"
Evidence #1: Prophecy
Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’
The Bible has 8,352 verses out of its total 31,124 that are predictive (27%). Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors.
The prophecies about Jesus is the most frequently prophesied subject in the entire Bible.
32 books of the Bible and 936 verses are dedicated to his coming.
29 books of the Bible and 151 verses are dedicated to His sacrifical, atoning death on the cross.
20 books of the Bible and 63 verses are dedicated to His future reign over the earth.
29 books of the Bible and 63 verses are dedicated to His second coming.
That comes to a total of 127 predictions involving 3,348 verses deal with the Life of Christ.
Isaiah 7:13 prophesies that Jesus will be born of a virgin.
Micah 5:2 prophesies that Jesus will be born in the little town of Bethlehem.
Malachi 3:1 prophesies that His way will be prepared by a messenger (John the Baptist).
Daniel 9:24 was written 600 years before the coming of Christ, but he prophesied the very year that Jesus would be baptized and anointed with the Holy Spirit in the river Jordan
Zechariah 9:9 prophesies that Jesus will enter Jerusalem humbly riding on a donkey.
Psalm 2:1 prophesies that Gentile rulers will unite with Jewish people against Him at His trial.
Luke 23:6,7,12 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. That day Herod and Pilate became friends--before this they had been enemies.
Psalm 22 prophesies that the words that Jesus will say on the cross and even the words the people will say to Him.
verse 1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”
Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Psalm 22:6 “He trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue Him.”
Matthew 27:43 “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now”
Psalm 22:14-18 prophesies that Jesus will suffer from thirst and his hands and feet will be pierced, as men gamble for His clothes.
Isaiah 49:7 prophesies that Jesus will suffer, be rejected and slain, and be assigned burial with the wicked.
Hosea 6:1 prophesies that Jesus will be raised from the dead after the second day.
Isaiah 53:9 prophesies that Jesus will receive honorable burial in the tomb of a rich man.
"We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in ten (to the seventeenth power).
Evidence #2: Miracles-throughout the Bible God supernaturally intervenes doing impossible things so that we might know that He is God.
Exodus 9:14 "For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
Matthew 4:24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.
Luke 7:17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Luke 5:15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside
He answered them, “Am I aught but a man-a messenger?” Surah 17:93
“They say: why is not a sign sent down to him from his lord? Say: the unseen is only for Allah to know, then wait ye: I too will wait with you.” Surah 10:20
Evidence #3: Jesus commanded us, His disciples to go out and prove that God is alive.
Mark 16:17-18 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Mark 10:7-8 "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
Evidence #4: When you receive Jesus, God gives you a down payment of the Holy Spirit inside you.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Ephesians 1:13,14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.
