Why They Don't Believe

It is written in 2 Peter 3:3-10,

“First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”


What Scoffers Have Forgotten
A scoffer is someone who not only does not believe in Jesus, but who in his or her unbelief makes fun of belief in Christ. They mock us, because they don’t believe in the Second Coming and impending judgment of the living and the dead. They say, “Where is this coming He promised?”

What is their proof that the second coming is not going to happen? “Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation”, they say. They are Uniformitarians. They believe everything goes on as it always has without interruption. They believe the laws of nature are eternal and unbreakable. They believe that the earth was formed through a series of natural processes, which created life. They believe through years of natural selection that we evolved. Just as it was yesterday, so it will be forever. It has been almost 2000 years since Jesus left, so He must not be coming back. They forget that with the Lord, time is relative and a thousand years are like a day.

It says, they are ignorant on purpose. They deliberately forget the creation story and the story of the judgment of God with the flood. Out of the thousands of people on the earth at the time of the flood, God only saved eight people. Never doubt God’s resolve to destroy the wicked majority and save only a believing few. They forget that a God powerful enough to create the earth is powerful enough to destroy it. A God, who destroyed it by water once, can destroy it by fire later. They have deliberately forgotten God’s Word. They are ignorant on purpose. The Bible plainly tells us of the creation and flood. Why have they forgotten these historic accounts? Why do they ignore God’s revealed Word?


The Real Reason People Don’t Believe
There are many erroneous reasons people give for discounting the Bible. Many people don’t believe the Bible because they have never studied it. Many people, such as C.S. Lewis, who set out to disprove the Bible have came to believe it through their study of the Scriptures. All of the reasons not to believe the Bible can be answered, if you will seek out those answers. But most people don’t seek, so they don’t find. They don’t ask, so they don’t receive. They don’t knock, so the door is not opened.

In the late 1800’s the scoffers destroyed the faith of many by discounting Biblical prophecy. The Old Testament, which consists of 39 books, was written between 1500 to 400 years before Jesus’ birth. In it there are over 300 prophecies of a coming Messiah, who would save mankind from their sins. From Genesis chapter three through Malachi there are hundreds of predictions about the coming Christ. Jesus Christ is known to have fulfilled all of them. So many scoffers, unwilling to accept the Bible as true, tried to say that the Bible was not, in fact, historical. They tried to say that the books of the Old Testament were not written when or by whom they claimed to be. They claimed that the early Christians doctored up the Old Testament to make it look like Jesus’ life had fulfilled the prophecies, but that originally the prophecies had not been there.

The problem with this theory, of course, is that we have copies of the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek several hundred years before Jesus’ birth. This translation is called the LXX or Septuagint version. This translation includes each of the prophecies of Christ, just as our Hebrew based Old Testament does today. Also, in the 1947a young shepherd boy discovered the DEAD SEA SCROLLS, which are ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament in Hebrew that pre-date Jesus by a few hundred years. Every Old Testament book except Esther was included in these manuscripts that predate Jesus’ life by hundreds of years. So, when we have 38 ancient books repeatedly making predictions about a coming Savior, of which Jesus fulfills each one, why wouldn’t the scoffers believe?

Since the Old Testament accuracy could not be discredited, they attacked the New Testament. They tried to say the New Testament was not written in the first century by the Apostles. They refused to believe that it was written by those who claimed to have written it and when they claimed to have written it. Of course, overwhelming evidence is against them. There are more than 5,400 complete and fragmented manuscripts of the New Testament. Some of these manuscripts date back to within a hundred or so years of the authors. Some fragments of manuscripts, which date back to the first century are from the very time of the original authors. The New Testament, like the Old, has been proven accurate in its account of actual historical characters, world events, cultural practices, and geographic locations. The New Testament was quoted so much in the late first century and early second century by skeptics and believers alike, that we know it was in existence within the period it claims to be written. There is not one place where the Bible contradicts known history, archeology, or the language practices of the time in which it claimed to be authored. With every test that historians give to verify the authenticity of an ancient book, the Bible passes with flying colors.

Why then do the scoffers mock it? When you read the writings of the scoffers, their general conclusion is that the Biblical account just can’t be authentic because it describes supernatural events. The miracles are what the scoffers can’t believe. They have never seen a miracle, and so falsely conclude that miracles cannot happen. Therefore, the Bible must be false. Historical evidence, archeology, and reason all say the Bible fits, but they won’t accept it, because of the miraculous events described within the pages of the Bible. They believe that “everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” They are Uniformitarians, who cannot accept a book which contains supernatural or miraculous events. It is similar to the Evolutionist who accepts evolution, because the only other option is creation. They refuse to believe in creation no matter how much evidence there is. They are deliberately uninformed about creation, because of their bias against it. Miracles, especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ, will be a stumbling block to them no matter how much proof there is. This is the true reason scoffers mock us. They don’t believe in miracles. They ignore all the evidence because of their unbelief in the
supernatural.

How I Know Miracles Can Happen
Miracles can happen. Though I have never seen someone raised from the dead with my own eyes, I believe that it will happen on the last day. How can I believe this? Well, I believe in God. If there is a God, and there is, then miracles can happen. If a being can create this universe, then he can destroy it. If he can make man from nothing, then he can also raise man from the dead or destroy him in Hell.

While in high school shop class, I made my father a lamp. I know I can destroy the lamp. The creator is always greater than the creation. It takes more knowledge and power to create, than to destroy. I could destroy a car by myself, but I couldn’t create one on my own. It is easier to destroy creation than to make it. If God made this world, he can also destroy it by fire. If God wrote the laws of nature, then He can break the laws of nature. If He set nature into motion, then he can interrupt or guide the motion. If there is an all knowing, all powerful, all wise God, which is what it would take to create this vast universe, then He can raise the dead, heal the sick and do any other miracle he sees fit to do.

I know there is a God and that miracles can happen, because of creation. Romans 1:20 proclaims, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” You can see by looking at the world, that it is too grand, intricate, and precise to be an accident. Where there is creation, there is a creator. Where there is design, there is a designer. Where there is order, there is someone who set it in order. And from the scale of creation and the complexity of life, you can see God’s qualities of wisdom, power, strength, love, justice, and limitlessness.

We might find a stone object in a field and know it is man made because it has been formed into an arrowhead. That design took intelligence, skill, and power to make it. Well if we can tell an arrowhead is created and not a natural formation, why can’t we see that this intricate creation that we call earth is the grandest piece of clockwork ever made. Its movements are so exact that we tell time with them. Its laws are so immutable we create many machines with them. The world God has made is grand. It tells of His wonders. Psalms 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” So from creation we see that there had to be a creator. Things don’t just make themselves.

If you set a Chevette in your front yard on blocks for a million years will it evolve into a Corvette or rust back to the root elements from which it was formed? Creation takes design, intelligence, wisdom, power, and force. Imagine the power and wisdom it took to create everything we see and know. These things are signs of a being so great He is beyond our ability to completely fathom.

How I Know The Bible Is True
Therefore, I know the Bible is true. The only substantive reason not to believe the Bible, is if you just refuse to accept the authenticity of the account, because of the nature of the story. The only reason to refuse to accept the Bible, is if you don’t believe in miracles, which logically means you don’t believe in God either. Certainly, if there is a God, then He can do miracles.

Most people believe in a creator, so why don’t they believe the Bible? The problem comes from all of the false information. These people, uneducated on the facts, give false statements that the Bible contradicts itself, history, or science. All these statements are lies. The Bible is made up of 66 books, written over a 1500 year period, in three languages, by forty authors on three continents, yet it never once contradicts itself . People make statements about the Bible that they can’t back up with proof and other people ignorantly accept them as fact without researching the issue. I encourage everyone to seek and find, ask and receive, knock and the door will be opened.

I know the Bible is true, because I can see there must be a creator from creation. My knowledge of God’s divine power and qualities from studying creation, shows me He would have the power to perform miracles, if He so desired. Therefore, the only real excuse to not believe the Bible goes down in flames with the uniformitarian philosophy. Scoffers are willfully uniformed due to their philosophical prejudices. Their philosophical prejudices are based upon their lack of faith in God and their wild assumptions about the origin of the universe.

But creation shows there is a God. This makes the Bible true. Jesus did die for my sins out of love. I can live forever if I come to Christ and remain faithful. There will be a Judgment Day. The earth will be destroyed by fire. 2 Peter 3:11-13 informs us, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it’s coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

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