There are certain Biblical foundational doctrines and beliefs in Christianity that cannot be altered or played with if one is to be assured of being successful in Evangelism and in one’s faith. If they are, the meaning and integrity of the Christian message collapses.

Whenever I talk to a new congregation, the first thing I ask them is how do we know that the Bible is the only written word of God to man and that all that it teaches cosmologically, historically, theologically and scientifically is absolutely true? No one has ever had the knowledge to give me an answer. I ask the same question of Moslems and Mormons about their sacred books: "Why do You believe that the Koran is God’s Word and that Mohammed is God’s prophet?" More often than not they will say to me, "Because I have an inner witness and feeling that it is true!" I will then say to the Moslem in reply,

"That is interesting, because when I ask a Mormon why he believes that the book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, he will give me the same answer: ‘I have an inner witness and feeling that it is true.’ Which of you is right and which of you is wrong?"

One time one of these Moslems asked me in response, "Why do You believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus Christ is the only Way to God, God’s Son?" I answered him,

"I believe that the Bible is the only written Word of God to man and that Jesus is the only way to God, God Himself in the flesh, but not because I feel it is true. I may get up one morning and really feel and believe that God is alive and get up another morning and feel like God is dead. Our feelings are fickle and unreliable. The reason why I believe that the Bible is God’s only written Word to man and that Jesus is God the Son and the only way to God and God’s final revelation to man is because when Jesus was asked by His enemies what His proof to these claims were, He looked them straight in the face and said, ‘Okay, I will give you proof! Kill me! I will stay dead and then on the third day come back from the dead to prove to You that My claims about Myself and that what Moses wrote and the rest of the Old Testament are true!’"

I then go on to explain to the Moslem or Mormon that Jesus did rise physically from the dead with more than five-hundred and twelve witnesses to that fact who ate and visited with him for forty days after his resurrection and then witnessed His ascension to Heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand of power. I then open the Bible and show them what Jesus’ disciples’ response was to His Resurrection from the dead:

"When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture [Old Testament], and the Word which Jesus had spoken [New Testament]." (John 2:22)

I then go on to explain to them that no other religious founder of history ever gave any proof that the message they had to give really did come from God or that they truly were messengers of God. They all have died and their graves can be visited. I am then free to go on to share the claims of Biblical Christianity.

The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:12-18 that Christianity stands or falls on the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He wrote,

"Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." (1 Corinthians 15:12-18)

Getting back to our original question, "How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?" We know it is the word of God because Jesus came back from the dead to prove to us that it is His Word, His Word alone. The first Biblical foundation of Christianity which cannot be altered or played with, if we are to be successful in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, is that God’s Word: the Judeo-Christian Bible is God’s Holy Word, God’s written Word to man ALONE, and our proof to this is Jesus’ Physical Resurrection from the dead. The moment we question this truth, we are automatically defeated and Christianity and everything else that it stands for falls to the ground and dies. Jesus made this issue very plain to us in Matthew 5:17-19,

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one point shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Who ever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus did not just teach that the Bible is His Holy Word written to man, but that every single letter is inspired in the original Hebrew and Greek down to the smallest letter and mark. He further stated that anyone who spoke against even the smallest commandment in the Bible would be called least in the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be successful in Evangelism, and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the first thing you must do is accept by faith, founded on the Physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ, that the Judeo-Christian Bible is ABSOLUTELY the Word of God in all that it affirms down to the letter, His ONLY Holy inspired written Word to Man ALONE.

The first thing that is communicated on the first two pages of my Salvation Tract, What Is Eternal Life? (WEL), is the significance of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection which is that it proves absolutely that God exists; that the Bible is the only written word of God to man; that Jesus Christ really is God’s ONLY Son that He sent into the world; that death, eternal separation from God, is sin’s penalty; that God accepts Jesus’ death in our place for our sins; and that, finally, God will give eternal life to anyone who receives His Son as Savior and Lord of their lives.

Moses wrote in Exodus 20:11, "For in six days Yehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yehovah blessed the seventh day and made it holy." Moses taught that the heavens, the earth and man were created in six literal twenty-four-hour days. He taught, not that man evolved, but that he was created instantly by God with a spirit, soul and body and in God’s image. He taught that death was not a part of God’s Creation, that before Adam and Eve sinned there was no death in the world. This is diametrically opposed to the teaching of Evolution which teaches that life on earth evolved and that death has always been a part of the chain of life. Moses taught that death is the result of Adam and Eve’s sin, that before they sinned there was no death in the world. Moses further taught that, as a result of man’s sin, man’s spirit died and and his ability to have relationship with God died as a result. This means that now when man is born into the world, he is born soulishly and physically alive, but spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means to be without the means or capacity to have relationship with God. This is why Jesus, God the Son, became man. Why? So He could abolish the enemy, death, by paying sin’s penalty for us on the Cross. As a result of His death for our sins, when we receive Him as Savior and Lord, our spirits are brought back to life (2 Cor 5:17), back into union with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:17) and as a result back into relationship with God (John 4:23-24). Also as a result of Christ’s death for our sins, eventually death and the effects of sin on the rest of creation will be removed also (Rom 8:19-21).

The moment we separate ourselves from the Bible, man no longer knows that he was created to be a tripartite being with a spirit, soul and body and that the reason for his problems are because of his dead spirit and lack of relationship with God. When one accepts literally and understands what the Bible teaches about man’s creation and fall taught in Genesis Chapters 1-3, he then understands what his problems are centered in and why he needs Jesus’ Salvation for his sins.

Humanistic psychology teaches that man has a body and a soul and some only a body. Not only do they not teach or emphasize the spiritual aspect of man, neither do they understand it. This is because they do not take into consideration the counsel of God’s Word. Proverbs 21:30 states, "There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against Yehovah." God teaches us through Isaiah 30:1 that the only thing that will please Him is what we do that is out of His initiative through His Holy Spirit through our spirits; that anything we do, no matter how good it appears before man, if not done out of relationship with God and His initiative through the Holy Spirit is sin. The Bible’s definition of sin is anything we do without God period! Because man is born into the world soulishly and physically alive, but spiritually dead, everything he does is out of the initiative of his soul and therefore sin. This is what we mean by man being in totall depravity: not whether a person is good or bad but that whatever he does he does without God or God’s initiative. This is why anything man does cannot save or correct his lost condition because it comes from the initiative of his soul, not from the initiative of God. This is why secular psychology trying to solve man’s problems by focusing on his soul will not ultimately solve man’s problems. Man is dead and destined for hell and stays that way, no matter what his therapy is, until He receives Jesus Christ and is born again spiritually and comes back into relationship with God. Until man does this, he does not even begin to solve whatever his problems are because his trying to solve his problems through the reasoning of his soul, rather than through the initiative and counsel of God first, is the problem. Whatever man’s problem is, God’s will for him in the matter is the only solution. This is why Secular psychology is not the answer to any of man’s problems because they are not dealing with what is really man’s problem: his dead spirit and broken relationship with God, and what God’s will is for the person in the matter which when once known will solve the problem they are seeking counsel about. Understand that this is not an attack against the profession of psychology or psychiatry, but what it is based on. Psychology and psychiatry based on the Word of God and led and administered through the Holy Spirit is a very powerful healing tool. However, when based on man’s reason and the initiative of his soul alone is totally destructive and does not lead to any true solution to man’s problems or needs.

If man had not been created in God’s image with a spirit soul and body in perfect relationship with God, which was then later destroyed through man’s sin, that would mean that what man is today is what he has always been. This would mean that he is normal and that death is normal. This would also mean, therefore, that there is no meaning to Jesus’ death and resurrection for man because man is normal and therefore in no need of salvation. This is what happens when you do not take the first three Chapters of the Book of Genesis as literal historical fact: the Gospel loses all meaning and purpose and falls to the ground.

But if God did create man instantly with a spirit, soul and body and in His image and with everlasting life and man chose to rebel against God resulting in his spiritual and physical death (Genesis 2:16-17), then what man is today is not normal. Man is not what God originally created him to be. Death in the world is not normal. If this is true, then Jesus’ coming and death to save us from our sins and to deliver us from our fallen condition and spiritual and physical death have total meaning and an answer for the sinful condition that man is in. This is why we must take what the first three Chapters of the Book of Genesis teach us about the creation of the cosmos, the world and the creation, constitution and fall of man as being absolutely literally historically true and why we cannot alter these teachings of the Bible.

This is what page 3 of WEL does: first, it establishes that Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible. Jesus said "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me" (John 5:46-47), thus Jesus affirmed that Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible. Second, it establishes who Moses is writing about: Jesus said, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote of Me." Who was Moses writing about? About our Creator and His creating the world and man. What Creator? According to Jesus Christ, Moses was writing about Him. In saying this Jesus affirmed that He is Yehovah Elohim of the Old Testament our Creator in the flesh. Third, WEL affirms that what Moses wrote about the Creation of the world and Adam and Eve and about the fall of man and God’s judgment of man through the World Wide Genesis Flood and all other recorded events in the Old Testament, and what Jesus said, the New Testament: God’s Word is absolutely true and why: because Jesus came back from the dead Physically Alive! to prove to us that the Bible is true and that it is to be taken as literal historical absolute truth. Once you establish this, the person you are sharing the Gospel with will take to heart everything else you share in the pages that follow including that man is not normal but fallen sinful man and in need of redemption through Jesus Christ.

The third Biblical foundational truth that cannot be altered or played with, if we are to be successful in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, is what the Bible teaches us Jesus claimed about Himself: that He is fully God and fully Man. The significance of Jesus being God Himself who came down from Heaven and became man is all wrapped up in what is necessary for our salvation. I discuss all aspects of this thoroughly in Chapter 1 of Section 3.

Page four of WEL states clearly what the critical claims of Jesus Christ are concerning Himself. Jesus claimed to be God the Son, God’s ONLY Son. The Apostle John writes, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Jesus said about Himself, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). The Apostle Paul wrote concerning the significance of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection: "who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:3-4). Jesus claimed to be the ONLY Son of God, thus of the essence of God, God Himself.