Christian Essays

An American judge has been ordered to remove a copy of the Ten Commandments from the wall of his court room. American schools are not allowed to have morning prayers addressed to the ‘Christian’ God. A New Zealand drama group has been advised to omit references to angels when performing ‘The Happy Prince’ in children’s hospitals. The Australian government has been asked to remove prayers from pre-match events. The list goes on and on.

The main reason why all this pressure has come against anything Christian or Biblical in the Western world is because there are people who hold different beliefs, and, say these advocates of religious freedom, it is not fair on people who believe differently to have to hear or be included in prayers in which they do not believe. And from one point of view they are right.

But the whole argument is based on the assumption that no-one is right.

The Christian assumes that the Bible is the Word of God, and that there really is only One True God, and that angels are also real . . . these assumptions are the basis of the Christian’s confidence, and so, naturally, the Christian feels free to pray to the Biblical God and display Biblical texts. But there are other people who have no such assumptions. There are atheists, who assume that there is no God at all, and agnostics who say there is no proof one way or the other that God is there, and there are the evolutionists who assume that the universe is entirely material and the product of random events, and there are many religions, which all hold different views about the nature of God, which Book is the true one, and whether angels are real.

The atheist assumes that all religions are wrong. All the religions assume that the atheist is wrong. The Christian assumes that all atheists and all religions are wrong – although the Christian would concede that all religions do have some things in common with Christianity. One has only to look up headings such as Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism to notice the areas in which all the religions overlap.

But the new rules being brought in appear to be based on consideration of other people’s beliefs, and of course they are, but underlying this is the assumption that all beliefs are valid, and therefore no belief should have a monopoly over any of the others.

One cannot help agreeing with the logic of this, provided one assumes that the basis (the original assumption) of the new laws is correct. For example, Bible-in-schools teachers enjoy tremendous freedom, taking Bible teaching into schools, but who is to say that the Bible is God’s Word? And what right have these Christians to think that they and they alone should be allowed into schools? Surely, by the same ‘right’ any religion should also be allowed in?

And having opened the door to all religions, should we not also allow any cult through the door too – such as Mormons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Worldwide Church of God, or extreme cults, such as the Moonies?

The American law prohibits religious education (in state schools) within the doctrines of a particular church, because many years ago it was decided that the Church should be separated from the State. Something similar rules the policies in the Western world, with the result that there is great freedom from pressure on children to believe any particular doctrines.

In some ways this is a wonderful blessing, because it means that when Christian parents send their little Christian children off to school, they know that the teacher is not going to try and indoctrinate those children into any anti-Christian faith. Unfortunately, the practise of educating children without including the teachings of the Bible is directly opposed by the Bible, which commands parents to bring their children up in or with the Biblical teachings. (Prov.22:6, Deut.6:6-9, Prov.29:21, 2Tim.3:15)

Instead of teaching children Bible doctrines, secular, State-run schools educate children in evolutionary principles, pagan mythology and fantasy. Although there is much that is good about secular education, unless children are raised, trained and nurtured in the ways of God, they “gain the whole world, but lose their own souls”.

There is a commonly held assumption by most people – ‘No-one has all the truth’. Other forms or expressions of this assumption come out like :

“All religions are basically the same”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe – we’ll all get to heaven one day”

“Christianity came out of older religions so it’s not the best one”

“Its the same God, but He has many different names”

“All religions worship the same God”

“Jesus was just one of God’s prophets”

. . . and it must be admitted, what a wonderful thing it would be if all these assumptions were correct! How marvellous it would be if all the religions in the world could unite under a common banner. It would end all the conflicts, wars and divisions. And even better, if we might also include all the cults, then we would have such happiness and harmony. As John Lennon said “Imagine all the people, sharing all the world . . .”

If the Protestants and the Catholics could forget about their differences, there would be peace in Ireland. If the Popes hadn’t decided they were each the head of the one true Church, there would have been no Dark Ages, no persecutions, no 40-50 million people killed, and no Crusades.

So much comes from an assumption.

The assumption of evolution.

One of the most widely held assumptions in the Western world is the evolutionary one. This is not the place to write an extended article on the subject, so we will be brief.

The assumption goes like this : Random events caused chemicals to combine in such a way as to produce living cells, which gradually became more and more complex until whole organisms were produced. Thanks to natural selection (survival of the fittest) and mutations, all the living forms of life on planet earth today came about. Evolution also produced intelligence, creativity, love, compassion and other virtues, the conscience in Man at least, and self-awareness.

Like a cog in a vast machine, Man is therefore but an infinitesimal part of a whole universe. He is here because of random events. He has no ‘higher’ purpose because ‘God’ is just a figment of his own imagination. There is in fact no God, and there is nothing but total dissolution for Man when he dies. No past, no meaning in the present, and no future.

In my experience, no evolutionist is ever totally consistent with their assumption. Evolutionists are optimistic, hopeful, even happy. They love, enjoy life and have great pleasure in eating, playing and socialising. They can be creative, helpful, caring. They marry and show responsibility towards their wives and children. In other words, they live in direct contradiction to their own assumptions. They actually betray something else, something which shines out of them like light through tissue paper – they display the very thing which Christians has been saying all along : Man was made by God, and therefore Man has Godlike attributes.

So the evolutionary theory is contradicted by the very people who believe it, as well as by those who oppose it. In other terms, this is a bit like a ‘Flat-earther’ going round the world in a rocket trying to direct people’s gaze at the stars rather than the spherical planet in the window behind him. Or the man who thinks he can breath under water having to come up for air whenever he wants to make his claim that he can breath under water.

But evolutionary assumptions are not defeated only by the very proponents of the theory. Good science has also built up a solid army of facts which demolish the theory on all fronts, but these ‘soldiers of truth’ are not generally broadcast by the media, mainly because the media is still biased towards evolution. It may trumpet the findings of a new ‘missing link’ but it will not trumpet the comments by scientists who show that the bones are but the toes of a monkey. It may shout the news that recent carbon 14 dating has given a rock an age of 40 million years, but not a word is said about the built-in adjustments which scientists make in order to get the date they want.

President Clinton, an evolutionist, and most of his colleagues, made a grand show over some rocks found in Antarctica. NASA suggested that traces of fossilised bacteria may have been found in the rocks – perhaps from Mars – and the media was quick to publish the assumption that ‘proof of life on Mars’ had been found. But where was the media when, after careful examination of the rocks, NASA and others totally backed down, saying that the ‘fossils’ were simply mineral deposits?

One piece of good science, by way of example : If erosion continues at its present rate, all the above-sea land masses of the world would take approximately 10 million years to be completely eroded into the sea. There is also evidence to show that erosion has occurred at a much faster rate in the past. One counter-argument is that land is continually being pushed up, but the fact is, 80% of the land surface of the planet issedimentary rock, containing fossils. This kind of rock, because it contains fossils, must have been formed rapidly, in order to drown and bury the billions of living plants and creatures before they decomposed, which means that at some time in the recent past the world must have been totally inundated. This verifies the great Flood of Genesis.

But let us forget about Genesis for a moment and think about the erosion. If our above-sea land has only 10 million years, where is the time the evolutionists need for life to evolve? How can we fit all those hundreds of millions of years in?

Also erosion always produces alluvial fans, which spread out at river mouths, and extend under the sea for quite a distance. If the earth was as old as evolutionists say, there should be many vast alluvial fans. But there are only small ones, which, based on the present rates of erosion, give us a date for their formation as only a few thousand years.

Erosion of the land also produces an ever-increasing saltiness in the oceans. The rate at which the saltiness (salinity) is rising can be measured. Projecting backwards, and therefore reducing the salinity, we come to a date only a few thousand years ago when the oceans were barely salty – so how did all those animals evolve which are adapted to salt water? They should all be dead shouldn’t they?

Despite the many counter-arguments, evolution is taught in schools, from Primary, through Secondary, and on into Highschool. There are even University courses based on the theory, and many professionals actually make a living applying the theory to their work. It is obvious therefore that once people make an assumption, they cling to it despite the fact that every support is removed.

The idea that ‘natural selection’ drives evolution is totally defeated by genetics. Put simply, genetics shows that every organism passes on only the information it receives and no more. Sometimes information is lost – resulting in deformities or weaknesses. Sometimes information is scrambled – resulting in mutations. But the received information is never increased. This means that dogs will always produce nothing but dogs, and cats will produce nothing but cats. Mutations, the ‘straw’ grasped at by evolutionists, have no beneficial effect – usually they are lethal or sterile.

What some people claim as evolution, is merely variety within a species. Think of all the different varieties of cat – yet all cats, and all inter-fertile. The science of genetics has totally defeated Darwin’s theories, yet the media, mostly staunch believers, still labours under the assumption that Darwin was right, so the general public is never informed.

The assumption of religion.

Why do people believe things? This pushes us back to an evaluation of what exactly makes a human a human - something which turns out to be very complex in explanation.

One thing we know : we do not come into this world like blank sheets of paper, ready to be written on, nor do we arrive like empty sponges. We already have a tremendous amount of information already built into our brains – for example, it has been shown by good science that we have an area of our brain which is already ‘pre-wired’ for language. This is demonstrated by the way we organise our words automatically into what is called grammar (sentence structure, parts of speech) – the correct placing of the nouns with the verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and so on. No-one has to teach us precisely how to do this, although we do learn a great deal from others as we grow more proficient at using language.

There are three main influences on a human : 1. Nature (What we already are), 2. Environment (The influence of the world). 3. Nurture (What other people put into us).

1. Nature - what we already are.

Every child in a large family is different. Their disposition is never ‘cut and dried’, but most of us can be categorised as either more extrovert or more introvert. Our personality can be summarised as one of four or five main types, with several subtypes. Our intelligence can also be measured to a certain extent, and many other aspects can be noted statistically. The end result is a summary of what we are, and from this many things can be deduced, such as how we might react under certain circumstances, what sort of work we are suited for, the sort of friends we might make, the kind of man/woman we might marry, and what kind of lifestyle we might be happiest with.

2. Environment - the influence of the world.

Some children are born into a mansions, with everything they need to be healthy and well educated, while others are born into hovels, with never enough food or clothes or warmth. Some children are loved and raised in happiness, while others are dragged up by imbecilic parents who cannot tell the difference between a book and a log of wood. For some children education is a glorious time, while for others it is a hauntingly dark and weary ration. Affluence or deprivation, wealth or poverty, and all the shades in between.

There are people who claim that they are what they are because of their environment, but this is never completely true. People can rise above their environment, and even use adversity to their advantage. Some of the greatest creative work has come from people who grew up through some of the most trying childhoods, so it is not logical to assume that environment controls us – it simply comes at us like the weather, and what we do with it makes all the difference.

3. Nurture - what other people put into us. This, I feel, could be the most important factor of the three. A child naturally, even instinctively, respects adults and learns from them values, attitudes and doctrines. Religion grows by the family, as well as by the convert. Prov.22:9 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it”. All the religions, and denominations and cults practise nurturing, and the result is a new generation of children thoroughly indoctrinated in the beliefs and assumptions of the parents – who in turn repeat the process. Of course, within this system there are plenty of converts, backsliders, proselytes and heretics, but the principle still holds, and in fact the ‘exception proves the rule’.

Now let us make a hypothetical argument. Suppose, just for the moment, that the Hindu religion was the only true and correct religion in the world.

This religion began at least 4000 years ago so it makes Christianity appear quite young by comparison. Some people assume that the older something is, the more authentic it must be, so Hinduism is possibly more authentic than Christianity. It has some polytheistic aspects, but it holds that the one supreme spirit is called Brahman – consisting of three gods : Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma. Reincarnation is the belief that the spirit or soul moves into another plant or animal after death. Karma is the belief that each lifetime is carried forward to the next, resulting in a better or worse one depending on how each lifetime is lived. There are about 805 million Hindus worldwide.

There is no way anyone can scientifically prove or disprove Hinduism. Like most religions, the ‘evidence’ is not needed, and everything depends on the faith of the adherents. Each believer draws strength from the fact that others believe, and built into the religion is the thought that it is wrong to question it. Thus, safely fenced in by fear of doubting, and confidence in numbers, the Hindu believes that he (or she) is unquestionably right.

There is a story told of a man who went to catch an plane. By an honest mistake he took the wrong departure door. He sincerely believed that he was flying north as he took his seat. He looked at the other passengers and assumed that they too were flying north with him, and even when the plane began to land, he was sure that he was coming to his chosen northern destination, but of course he was actually south, and quite wrong. All the sincerity, faith and trust in the plane and other passengers was of no use to the man. He had assumed too much.

So when we come to examine Hinduism we find that 805 million people might have made some wrong assumptions. There might not, after all, be such a thing as reincarnation, and karma might be just a figment of their (sincere) imaginations. As we said, nothing can be proven scientifically one way or the other, so the whole Hindu religion rests entirely on the faith of the followers.

Born a Hindu.

Before we go any further, here is a testimony by a devout Hindu who became a Christian. The passage is a quote from the book Sadhu Sundar Singh ‘With and Without Christ’ New York : Harper and Row Publishers 1929. As you read it, you will notice how 1. Nature, Environment andNurture all play their part in determining the beliefs and lifestyle of Sundar Singh :

“I was born into a family that was considered Sikh by caste, and in which the teaching of Hinduism was considered essential. My dear mother was a living example and faithful exponent of its teaching. She used to rise daily before daylight, and, after bathing, read the Bhagavad Gita.

“I often used to read the Hindu scriptures till midnight that I might in some way quench the thirst of my soul for peace.

“I frequently asked the pundit to explain my spiritual difficulties for me.

“He said : “You cannot get to this grade of spirituality at once. To get to it, a long time is essential. Why are you in such a hurry? If this hunger is not satisfied in this life it will be satisfied in your next rebirths, provided that you keep on trying for it.”

“The loss of my mother and my elder brother within a few months of each other was a great shock to me. The thought that I should never see them again cast me into despondency and despair, for I could never know into what form they had been reborn, nor could I even guess what I was likely to be in my next rebirths.”

And so, nurtured and raised in an environment in which Sundar had little option but to adhere to the beliefs he was trained to accept, he was also given a nature which was open and honest enough to admit that the teachings he believed in were not satisfying his heart. At this time he was sent to a Presbyterian-run school.

“At that time I had so many prejudices about Christianity I refused to read the Bible at the daily lessons. My teachers insisted that I should attend, but I was so opposed to it that the next year I left the school and went to a government school . . .”

“To some extent the teaching of the Gospel on the love of God attracted me, but I still thought it was false. So firmly set was I in my opinions that one day, in the presence of my father and others, I tore up a Gospel and burned it.

After two days of despair . . . “I made up my mind that, if this prayer (that God would reveal himself to me) was not answered, I would . . . go down to the railway tracks and place my head on the rail . . .”

Hours later, at night, Sundar experienced a powerful vision of Jesus. “I fell to the ground before him. My heart was filled with inexpressible joy and peace, and my whole life was entirely changed.”

Sundar became a preacher of the gospel, first to his own people and then to the Tibetans, where he died while on a preaching journey there.

Granted not many people can claim such a dramatic and significant conversion, and granted there will be people who will question the authenticity of Sundar’s vision, the fact remains that his original beliefs were based on the assumption that his parents and others were correct. When he tore the Gospel up he was merely confirming the assumptions. When he began to search for peace in his heart, he still expected Hindu deities to help him. All his nurturing and environment had shaped him to accept the one religion he grew up with, despite the fact that, as he said himself, there was no way he could know if it was true.

It is possible for Christians to fall into the same trap. They can believe that the God of the Bible and the Christian faith are true without knowing any supporting evidence. The remainder of this essay is a refutation of this view – the Christian faith is, in fact, based on solid, verifiable evidence, and it is provable, to anyone who is looking for proof. Christianity is not based on assumptions, or blind faith. It is not based on the numbers who believe, or the importance of its advocates, nor is it based on circumstantial evidence. This is what makes Christianity credible, and its adherents can, without pride or arrogance, happily say “We are right, and our faith is the only consistent and reliable one.”

Christianity can be pictured as a stool with several stout legs. Each of the legs represents a branch of scholarship which supports the seat of the stool – something on which any believer may sit with complete confidence.

The legs consist of :

1. The reliability of the Bible prophecy. In every prediction – and there are hundreds – which has been fulfilled, not a single detail has been found wanting.

2. The Bible contains much chronology, history, geography, customs, personages and many other details – in all these areas it has been found to be absolutely accurate. This includes evidences for the great Flood – the vast fossil beds around the world, and the discovery by archaeologists of verifying artefacts which support the Bible.

3. The coming, work, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The reality of Jesus is recorded many times in secular historical documents confirming the Bible in every detail.

4. The changed lives of Christians over the last 2000 years up to today.

5. Bible numerics. Every Hebrew and Greek letter is also a number. i.e. A=1, B=2, C=3 etc. When the words of the Bible are broken down into their corresponding letters, and then converted to the numbers they also represent, and when these letters are added up, vast, complex patterns of numerics emerged. A brilliant mathematician called Ivan Panin spent years bringing this astounding phenomena to public view.

The Christian faith is therefore not a subjective one, but an objective one. The value of the Christian faith is not in the one who believes it, but in the object of the one who believes. This is so important to understand we need to put it another way – if every Christian in the world decided that they no longer believed in the reality of Jesus, the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus would still be an objective truth!

How does this relate to other religions?

The Moslem and the Buddhist may have fervent, intense, unparalleled faith in Mohammed or Buddha, but their faith does them no good, because it is not faith which saves but the object of faith, and neither the Moslem nor the Buddhist have a risen Saviour to believe in. All their faith is wasted effort. In the same way, no amount of faith can make reincarnation or karma true. Even if every human in the world believed in these doctrines, the doctrines themselves would not become ‘truer’ because of the numbers of believers.

Supports for the credibility of the Bible are as follows :

The Gospel is based on eyewitness accounts.

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but wereeyewitnesses of his majesty”. 2 Peter 1:16

By this statement we see that the writers of the New Testament knew the difference between myth, legend and reality. See also 1John 1:1-3, Luke 1:1-3, Acts 1:1-3, 1Cor.15:6-8, John 20:30-31, Acts 10:39-42, 1Pet.5:1 and Acts 1:9.

The credibility of the Bible is self-revealing.

In other words, one does not need to defend the Bible, because it can well defend itself. (In a similar way, we do not need to defend a lion) There are many ways in which the Bible can be seen as unique – or at least the most outstanding book ever written.

1. Its consistency. It was written over 1600 years, over 60 generations, by more than 40 authors, whose lifestyles included a fisherman, a herdsman, a military general, a cup bearer, a prime minister, a doctor, a king, a tax collector, a rabbi. It was written in the wilderness, in a dungeon, on a hillside, in a palace, in a prison, ‘on the road’, on an island, and during war. It was written on three continents – Asia, Africa and Europe, in three languages – Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. It covers a huge range of different subjects yet the overall theme which runs through it is the same. Yet despite the size, variety and age of the Bible, there are no contradictions and no mistakes – not even the smallest errors – which cannot be explained by careful investigation.

2. Its authority. Whenever the Bible makes a statement on any subject it has been shown to be correct, in prophecy, science and all other areas.

3. Its survival. No other book in history has been attacked, burned, criticised, sifted, vilified and written against, yet it survives.

4. Its teachings. No other book reveals so honestly and openly the good and bad aspects of all the people it speaks about – including kings, priests and leaders, and no other book contains as many accurate prophecies – which have (so far) all come to pass without missing a single detail.

5. Its influence. No other book has inspired and influenced the world as the Bible has done. It has been the basis of vast amounts of literature (i.e. Shakespeare refers to it many times), and technical books such as lexicons, dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and many other forms of presentation (drama, music, movies). It has been a good influence in every culture, at all times, and its message has provoked many reforms (i.e. the Reformation, the abolition of slavery, Christian education).

The credibility of Jesus Christ.

Christianity rests on this Man. If Jesus Christ was not real, then Christianity is finished. Believers may continue to believe in him, but if Jesus is not credible, then all faith in him becomes subjective, and is worthless.

Some people are under the wrong impression that the Bible is the only book which mentions Jesus. This assumption is quite wrong. Jesus existed in real-time history, and there are many references to him by writers other than Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter and Paul.

Some of these other writers include :

Cornelius Tacitus

Lucian

Flavius Josephus

Seutonius

Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Younger)

Tertullian

Thallus

Mara Bar-Serapion

Justin Martyr

The Jewish Talmuds

Incidentally, the Encyclopedia Britannia (1977s) uses 20,000 words to describe Jesus. The article takes up more space than the articles on Aristotle, Cicero, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Philip Schaff ( ‘The person of Christ’ New York : American Tract Society, 1913) wrote : “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money or arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon. Without science and learning he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined. Without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet. Without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, songs of praise, than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”

It is also noteworthy that all the religions in the world – except Christianity – consist of promises based on assumptions. Christianity consists of promises based on a demonstration. The fact is Buddha and Mohammed, to name but two, are still dead, while their followers believe all sorts of things about them – none of which can be proven. Jesus Christ died, but came back to life – so his followers have far more reason to believe in his promises.

Josh McDowell (‘Evidence That Demands a Verdict”, Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972) raises the question :

If God became a man, what might we expect that man to be like, or do?

The answer :

1. We would expect him to have an unusual entrance into this world

2. We would expect him to be sinless – perfect, the best example of humanity

3. We would expect him to have miraculous power

4. We would expect him to say amazing things

5. We would expect him to have a powerful influence over people

6. We would expect him to satisfy the hearts of sincere seekers for truth

7. We would expect him to have power over life and death.

Obviously, if you look through the New Testament, Jesus Christ met every one of these expectations.

The Bible defends itself through its accurate prophesy.

But what does it mean to us, when we find a book which contains hundreds of accurate predictions – predictions which were made sometimes hundreds of years before they were fulfilled?

First of all, it proves that there must be a Divine intellect in the universe, who is able to convert his knowledge of the future into words for people to read.

Second it proves that there must be a God. (Since Man unaided cannot accurately predict the distant future – to the smallest detail)

Third it proves that Jesus must be credible, since so many of the predictions focus on him.

Fourth it authenticates the Bible.

The Old testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah, covering his birth, time of arrival, work, effect on others, type of and time of death, burial, and resurrection. Statistically, the chances of one man fulfilling just a handful of these predictions gives us odds of several million to one.

The Old Testament also contains many prophecies about different leaders, nations and the movements of kings and their conquests. Out of all these hundreds of predictions, not a single detail has been missed.

Prophecy is God’s way of revealing his reality. No other religion in the world has a book with so many accurate predictions, and no other religion has a leader like Jesus. It is the fact that Jesus is not some dead leader, whose only legacy is a book of promises, which has drawn so many millions of people to follow him.

Changed lives

There is another proof that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life : the changed lives of his followers.

We are not here talking about hypocrites, or churchgoing traditionalists – adherents to a denomination rather than the Person. We are talking about people who have made the choice to repent of their sins, to receive Jesus as Saviour, and to obey him as Lord. These are the “born again” Christians (John 3:3) who truly represent Jesus, and who show by their lives that they are no longer living for themselves. Sure, they have faults, but they are determined to keep aiming at the example set by Jesus, and their lives show a pattern of faith and good works which indicates that something has happened to them.

We conclude this essay with an excerpt from ‘We Found our Way Out’, Grand Rapids, Baker book House, 1964.

“After two years of graduate studies at Stanford University, I went to work as a research physicist in 1956, studying the upper atmosphere of the earth . . . I became acquainted with the wonders of the universe – I also discovered that man had real problems on his hands with nuclear weapons of vast destructive power . . . life kept slipping by . . .I was not happy at all . . . I faced a strong possibility of becoming an alcoholic.

“I engaged a highly recommended psychoanalyst . . .I studied Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen. I was intrigued by the possibility of Nirvana. . . I wanted to die, but the thought that hell might await me kept me from suicide.

” . . .in 1962, some Christian friends appeared on the scene. I asked these new friends the same kinds of questions I had asked science and philosophy and psychology. I was surprised when they gave me satisfying answers from the Bible . . . Dr. Ralph Kraft, pastor of the First Baptist church of Los Altos . . . asked me “Are you a Christian?”

“No I am not.”

“Would you like to become a Christian?”

“The following days and weeks saw miracle after miracle of God’s working in my life. The bible is a supernatural book to me. Old problems and desires have faded away. For the first time I feel complete as a human being. After years of study and reading, which led me no place, I have begun to build a new understanding of reality on the foundation of the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ” (Lambert Dolphin, Jr.).