How Many Roads Lead to God? (Part 2)

In the previous post, I stated three reasons to consider why I choose to be a Christian. In this article, I delve into the third reason.

OPEN TEST FOR DIVINITY – How do I know you’re really God?

Can the supernatural be proven or is it just a concocted plot by humans? The next comparison I will be sharing is to check for evidence that the messages came to humans from a Source that can be termed supernatural in nature.

Is there anything in the religious books that say how we can test the divinity of the God taught in the books? Are we called to a blind faith, one bereft of reason?

Let’s see what each says:

Hinduism

“… we have to accept it as it is; otherwise there is no point in trying to understand the Bhagavad-Gita and its speaker, Lord Krishna”

• Test by experience

Buddhism

“… genuine realization of the emptiness of the phenomenal word is … a direct intuition of the highest truth. Absolute truth… is unconditional, undeterminate and beyond thought and word.”

• Test by experience

Islam

“Produce one chapter comparable to it. Call upon your idols to assist you, if what you say is true…. But if you fail (as you are sure to fail), …”

-Qur’an 2: 22,23

“If men and jinn combined to produce a book akin to this Qur’an, they would surely fail to produce its like”

-Qur’an 17:88

The test of divinity presented is linked to the writing. There are some blockers to execute this test though.

• What part is incomparable to any other book? What characteristics of the Qur’an is to be compared ?
• What is the method of comparison? Subjective? Objective?
• Who will be the judge that comes up with the verdict. If every individual that reads it is to be the judge then it becomes subjective
• What language is this comparison to be done? Only the Qur’an’s variant of Arabic is permitted and many people do not know the language, limiting the number of people that can objectively test.

Christianity

“ ‘Present your case’, says the Lord… ‘Let them bring forth and show us what will happen… declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods”(Italicise)

-Isaiah 41:22,23

The God of Christians says He proves that he is God by Predictive Prophecy

“We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all the forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data for analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect, nothing would be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes”

-Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749- 1827)

Testing Prophecy

How do we know a genuine prophecy? Here are some criteria for genuine prophecy

should be clear, with enough detail specifically describe the event to be fulfilled

should be unusual or unique and not a common everyday occurrence

should be made prior to the event that was supposed to be its fulfillment

should not be the sort that could be the result of an educated guess

should not be staged or manipulated to intentionally cause it to be fulfilled

– From the book, What is Atheism? A Short Introduction by Douglas E. Krueger

Few Example of Biblical’s Prophecies

1. Babylon

• Prophecy

Jeremiah 51:36 “I will make her springs dry”

Jeremiah 51:37 “Babylon shall become a heap… without an inhabitant”

Prophecy Date – ~595 BCE

• Fulfilment

Cyrus led an army who drained the River Euphrates and conquered Babylon in one night.

Fulfilment Date – 539 BCE

2. Jesus’ Place of Birth

• Prophecy

Micah 5:2 says Bethlehem

Prophecy Date – 500 BCE

• Fulfilment

Luke 2:4,5 says Bethlehem

Fulfilment Date – 4 BCE

3. Vinegar Given for Thirst

• Prophecy

Psalms 69:21 – “And for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink”

Prophecy Date – ~ 1000 BCE

• Fulfilment

John 19: 28,29 – “Said ‘I thirst’… and they filled a sponge with sour wine… and put it to his mouth”

Fulfilment Date – 31 CE

Other notable prophecies are the

• Rise and fall of the Medo-Persian Empire
• Rise and fall of Greece
• Rise and division of Rome
• Dark ages
• Rise, fall and resurgence of the papacy
• Rise of the United States
• Rise of modern spiritualism
• Overthrow of Jerusalem

Scholars have identified about six hundred (600) prophecies in the Bible. Three hundred and twenty two (322) refer to Jesus Christ. Twenty four (24) of them were fulfilled over the last weekend of his life on earth.

One Way

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

It is not as important to convince anyone of the existence of God as it is to convince myself. Each day, I see evidence of the existence of God and proofs of His wisdom and goodness. The reasons for my faith are distributed about in nature, in history, in reason and most especially personal and experiential lie lessons.

God, the One who is not limited by time and space came in our human form, did not sin, not once and still offers us hope for now and promises eternal life. He appeals that we accept this gift, He cannot force the gift on us? Have you considered Him? Will you accept His free gift ?

References