Let's be honest, there are millions of opinions in the world about what men say is required for admission into Heaven.  Who is right and what is there authority?

The Bible claims to be the Word of the Living God, without error, totally reliable and incontrovertible in it's authority. For more than two thousand years men have poured over the pages of the Bible trying to point out it's seeming inconsistencies and inaccuracies.  Upon deep and extensive scrutiny and examination, the Bible has never been found to have a single error or inconsistency.  Those who have made such claims of inaccuracy have been proven wrong and those who have written of the errors of the Bible have themselves been found to be in error.

One of the most stunning proofs of the accuracy of the Bible is the fact of its amazing ability to predict future events with one hundred percent accuracy.  Of the 3,500 prophecies contained in the Bible, nearly 2,500 of these have already been fulfilled with perfect accuracy in every detail.

Years Ago, Peter Stoner calculated that the odds of one person in all of history coming to the earth and fulfilling just 8 of the 300 Old Testament Prophecies about the coming Messiah, would be ten to the seventeenth power.  Ten to the seventeenth power is the estimated number of seconds in the age of the universe from the Evolutionist theory of the age of the universe.

When we calculate the odds of one person fulfilling 48 of the these Old Testament predictions, the number jumps to ten to the forty eight power.
 
Mathematicians today agree that any odds over ten to the fiftieth power is beyond the possibility of chance or randomness.  Of course Jesus fulfilled all three hundred-plus of the Old Testament Prophecies about the coming of the Messiah in perfect detail.  It is beyond the realm of possibility that Jesus is not the One who the Old Testament wrote in advance would come and be qualified to be the Savior of the World.

The Bible called Cyrus King of Persia by name, one hundred and fifty years before He was born. The Bible Predicted the destruction of the city Tyre with such precision and detail that no one could have known of these events in advance without prior knowledge of the events from outside of the time domain.

The Bible accurately described the major world wide kingdoms of Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greeks, the Romans, and even those in the final days of the earths history.  The Book of Daniel which writes of these kingdoms, is so accurate in it's depiction of the events of these kingdoms, that skeptics have said that it was impossible that the Book of Daniel could have been written before the events took place, it must have been written after the fact.  

The problem with that statement is that when we compare the Septuagint copies of the Old Testament which were translations of the old Testament Hebrew into Greek, 300 years before Jesus came to earth, with the copies of the Bible that we have today, 2,300 years later, these copies are virtually identical.  This proves that the events in Daniel that describe the world wide kingdoms of the earth in detail was written before the events took place.  Only someone with knowledge from outside time could have written these things with such accuracy.  This is what separates the Bible from all other human literature and gives us confidence that we can trust what the Bible says.

From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible claims that there is only One God, and One Savior of all Men, Jesus Christ who died upon a Cross 2,0000 years ago to pay the price of redemption for the sins of all persons who have ever lived on the earth.

Jesus was the One perfect Sacrifice which completely satisfied the righteous requirement of God to pay for all of man's sin and make Him perfect and Holy and ready to enter Heaven.  This principle of the "Sacrifice" is our next topic of discussion:

The Sacrifice

If you have read the Old Testament portion of the Bible, then you know that there is this strange principle that is established called "The Sacrifice".  

Beginning in Genesis chapter three, the Lord established the principle that in order for sin to be covered, there must be a sacrifice.

Genesis 3:21
Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Imagine the horror that Adam and Eve felt when they witnessed the sacrifice of the animal in front of them and saw the blood flowing from the sacrifice and the skins of the animal covering them because of their sin.

In the Book of Leviticus, the doctrine of the sacrifice was expanded and explained in detail.  

Leviticus 1:2-4
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock.
3 “If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.
4 Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.

The sacrifice must be:

1. A Male
2. Without Blemish
3. You must place your hand on Him.
4. It will be acceptable to the Lord.
5. It will make atonement at-one-ment for you.

Later in the Old Testament the fact that man is separated from God because of His sin, and the fact that all those who sin will die eternally is established.

Ezekiel 18:4
“Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.

When The Lord gave instructions to Moses in the desert for how he was to construct the Tabernacle, a place to come and meet God for worship, the Lord told Moses to be very careful how he constructed the Tabernacle, because he was making a copy of the true Tabernacle in Heaven.

Every measurement of the Tabernacle, every color, item in the Tabernacle was a picture and an illustration of something that Jesus would do for us when He came to the earth to make His One sacrifice for us on the Cross.  Which brings us to our next principle, The Tabernacle itself:

The Tabernacle

Exodus 25:9
According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.

Every part of this strange tent in the desert was to be a picture of something that Jesus would do for us in His sacrifice upon the Cross.

The Perimeter of the Tabernacle was made from pure white linen, a picture of Holiness and purity, that when you came into this tent, you were coming into a place of Holiness.

There was only One entrance into the Tabernacle, the only way that you could enter the place where you sacrifice would be offered and your sin would be removed, was through One Door.

John 10:9
Jesus said: I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

There was only one reason that any person would come to the Tabernacle at all, to have their sin covered, so that they could proceed into the inner court of the Tabernacle and have fellowship with God.

However, You could not proceed any further into the Tabernacle into the inner court and have fellowship with God unless you first came through the One Door, the One entrance, and came by the One Sacrifice that you would make for your sins.

4,000 years before Jesus ever came to the earth and claimed to be the One way to heaven, the Bible established the fact that there is only One Way into the presence of God, by the illustration of the Tabernacle with One door.

If it was the intention of the Lord of Heaven to allow many ways into heaven, then He would have allowed more than one entrance into the Tabernacle.  The fact that there was just One Door into the Tabernacle and that Jesus was clearly alluding to the fact that he was this One door that the Tabernacle was illustrating, is clear proof that there is really only One way to Heaven, the Blood of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the Cross.

The Bible established that there was to be only ONE Savior who would come into the world to remove sin and allow man admittance into heaven.

The Savior

The fact that man is a sinner and in need of a Savior, is a well established principle in the Bible.

The very first prophecy in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 3, immediately after man sinned and fell, God promises a Savior who will crush the head of satan and reign victorious over life.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

1. "Her seed", will be Jesus who will come to save all those who believe in His sacrifice.  Also by the statement "her Seed" since a woman does not have seed in herself, but the egg, this amazing verse speaks of the fact that Jesus will be born of a miraculous virgin birth, without the seed of a man.
2. "He" who shall bruise your head", is Jesus who shall destroy the devil and his work, by Jesus sacrifice on the Cross.
3. "He shall bruise your heel", will be satans attempt at stopping Jesus by carrying our the death of Jesus on the Cross, which obviously satan did not understand would win Jesus the victory.

1 Corinthians 2:8
which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Isaiah wrote more than 600 years before Jesus was born that when He came, Jesus would be dying for our sins, bearing the burden of our failures upon Himself, so that anyone who believed in His Sacrifice would be given eternal life.

Isaiah 53:1-5
1  Who has believed our report?
    And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2  For He (Jesus) shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
    And as a root out of dry ground.
    He has no form or comeliness;
    And when we see Him,
    There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3  He is despised and rejected by men,
    A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
    And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
    He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4  Surely He has borne our griefs
    And carried our sorrows;
    Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
    Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5  But He was wounded for our transgressions,
    He was bruised for our iniquities;
    The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
    And by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah also recorded that the brutality that Jesus would suffer for you to pay for your sins, would leave Him so disfigured that Jesus would no longer be recognizable as a human being.

Isaiah 52:13-14
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;

There are many today who claim that Jesus was not born of a Virgin as the Bible fortells.

Is this an important fact that needs to be believed or is the virgin birth of Jesus an insignificant minor detail?

Again, in the Old Testament, the principle was established that the sacrifice must be:

1. A Male
2. Without Blemish
3. You must place your hand on Him.
4. It will be acceptible to the Lord.
5. It will make atonement at-one-ment for you.

The term "Without Blesmish" refers to the fact that the sacrifice must be "Sinless"

One of the important facts that Jesus establsihed in His 33 1/2 years upon the earth was that He was "Without sin".

John 8:46
Which of you convicts Me of sin?

Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Peter 1:19
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

If Jesus was not born of a Virgin, then He would have inherited the sin nature that all men posses.  In essence, Jesus would have been born a sinner just like all men.

Since Jesus was born of a Virgin, He did not posses the sin nature that all men have.  If he could remain sinless throughout His entire life, then He could be qualified to be the Savior of all men. If Jesus had sinned a single time, He would have been just like every other man, and could not save anyone.

This is why only Jesus is qualified to be the Only Savior of the world, because He was "Without Sin".  All other men born on the earth come into the world with the sin nature and continue to sin throughout their life.  According to the principles established in the Bible, the sacrifice must be "Without Blemish", therefore, since all other men are sinner, no other man except Jesus is qualified to be the Savior of the world.

If Jesus was not born of a virgin, He is is sinner, and He cannot be the Savior of the world.  This is why it is so important that we believe what the Bible teaches, that Jesus was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life.  This is again further proof that Jesus is the Only way to heaven.

The New Testament

The New Testament is filled with eye witness testimony of the fact that Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best documented event in all of human history.  There is no other event in the history of the world that has more eye witness testimony and written text of that testimony, than that of Jesus Christ.

When critics of the Life of Jesus Christ say that He did not exist or that He existed but that Jesus do not rise from the dead, they are not basing that opinion on the facts of History.

Dr. Simon Greenleaf was a professor of Law at Harvard Law school.  He was an atheist and did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Dr. Greeneleaf was challenged to try and disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the historical record.

Upon Dr. Green leaf's ddetailed and extensive examination of the historical record, he determined that the eye witness testimony contained in the New Testament, was the most accurate and reliable testimony that he has ever seen regarding any material fact.

As a result of his examination of the historical record, Dr. Greenleaf became a believer and follower of Jesus Christ.  He wrote several books that today are used in courts of law to establish whether eye witness testimony is credible.  This basis for the courts of law today, came from Dr. Greenleaf's examination of the New Testament and the eye witness accounts of Jesus death, burial and resurrection.

The New Testament is filled with verses that prove that Jesus Himself claimed that He was the only way to heaven, and that others whom heard Him and believed in Him, also believed that Jesus was the only way to heaven.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 8:24
Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Acts 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

What will you do?

The Bible defines "Grace" as favor from God that we do not deserve.

The Bible defines "Mercy" as not receiving from God what we rightly deserve.

Every one of us were born into this world with a tendency to sin.  We sin because that is our nature, we are a fallen race of beings who do not have the capacity to not sin.

In God's Grace towards us, instead of we bearing the consequences for our own sin, Jesus volunteered to take our place at the judgment.

Before the world was ever created, Jesus had already known everything about you and how many times you would fail to keep His law.  In His compassion for you, Jesus offered to pay the price that you owed by dying for you as a sacrifice, the innocent for the guilty.  Just as had been established in the Old Testament, an innocent could offer their life for the guilty, if the one offering the sacrifice believed that the sacrifice would meet the requirements that God had for sin to be covered.

When you believe that Jesus died for your sins and ask Him to forgive your sins and be your Lord and Savior, then the entire record of you sins are erased and you exist for eternity as a sinless being.

This is what qualifies you for heaven, since no sinner can ever enter Heaven.  Now having had your sins removed as though they never existed, you become perfect because of Jesus Sacrifice for you.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He was dying for the sins of every person that has ever lived on the earth.  In essence, the sins of the whole world have already been paid for.  Now any person who wants to have eternal life has to do, is ask Jesus for forgiveness for thiner sins, be willing to repent and turn away from their old life style of sin, and begin to live for Jesus.

You might ask, "If Jesus has already paid for the sins of the whole world, then why doesn't everyone have eternal life?"

The answer is that God will not force anyone to accept His offer of Forgiveness and eternal life, so He leaves the decision up to you.  If you do not want to accept Jesus as your Savior, that is your option, God will not force you to have eternal life in Heaven.  However, at the moment that you ask Jesus for Forgiveness for your sins and take Him as your Savior, you have the assurance that when you die you will immediately be in the presence of the Lord forever.

Why would Jesus die for me?  I have no idea, I don't understand it, it makes no sense to me why Jesus would give up His life for someone like me, but that is what the Bible says that Jesus did.

The Bible says that the thief on the Cross next to Jesus, at the end of his life of sin, when he was dying because he had made such a mess of his life, he cried out to Jesus who was hanging on His own Cross, "Lord remember me when you come into you kingdom.".  Jesus immediately said to him: "Today you will be with me in Paradise".

If you have made a total mess of your life and you think there is no way that God could ever forgive you and give heaven to you, then think again...

Jesus has already paid the price for ALL of your sins.  If you pray right now and ask Him to forgive your sins, He will remove them all and you will have heaven.  It's just that simple.  that is why God chose ONE Way to heaven, through Jesus, because it is so easy for you...

If you would like to know that your sins are forgiven and that you have eternal life right now, just pray this simple prayer and mean what you say.  God will hear you and you will be forgiven.

"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me.  I want to accept you as my Lord and Savior Jesus.  Please come into my heart and begin to live Your life through me.  I repent Lord of all of my sins, I turn from them right now, and turn to you.  Cleanse me of all my sins Lord and make me a new Creation.  Thank you Jesus for dying for me, I pray this in Jesus name, Amen."

According to the authority of the Word of God, if you prayed that prayer and meant it, your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life.  Congratulations!  You are a Brand New Creation.  All the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.

If you prayed that prayer, please send us a short e mail and let us know of your decision to accept Jesus as your Savior so we can continue to pray for you. 

1.  Find a Bible teaching, Bible believing church and begin to study verse by verse through the Bible every day.

2.  Pray to the Lord every day for all your needs, questions and to daily ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to help you live this new life.

3.  Stay in fellowship with other believers in Jesus Christ so you can be encouraged and remain strong.

4.  Begin to tell others what Jesus has done for you and ask them if they would like to invite Jesus to forgive their sins and Save them also.

May the Lord continue to bless you as you follow Jesus and study His word.

Pastor Rob