A Better Basis for Belief - FULFILLMENTS IN OUR DAY

 But can we rely upon these predictions concerning Armageddon and the new world of righteousness that will follow?  Well, if someone has told you the truth a hundred times, are you suddenly going to doubt hi when he tells you something new?  If you have never found him to be a falsifier, if he has been correct a hundred times, will suddenly doubt his integrity for no cause?  How unreasonable   and illogical that would be!  Jehovah has caused to be recorded many prophecies, and  if remarkable ways many of them have been fulfilled, as we have seen in this studty. The fulfillments of some of these prophecies are  yet future.  Can we not confidently  rely upon their  coming to pass in is due time, in view of the record he has built up, hte reputatio for truthfulness he has earned despitee the opposing views of scientists and atheists and higher critics?  They have been wrong so often, but Jehovah  never.  So when men dispute his Word and judge him false, we know the men are false and God is true: "Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, even as it is written: 'That ou might be vindicated  in your words and might win when you are being judged." - ROMANS 3:4. NW. 

When the wisdom of his word ranges itself against the Bible it can only mean defeat:  "It is written:  'I will make the wisdom of the woise  men perish, and I will shove above the intelligence of the intellectual aside.' Where is the wise man?  Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this system of things?  Did not God make the wisdom of the world foolish?" (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20. NW) Scientists have used their knowledge  to down the Bible, but their own further finding shatter their theories and they have to  concoct more.  On the gallows of science that they make  to hang the Bible their own theories perish.  (Esther 7:10)  Atheists and higher critics use their secular   history to prove the Bible  false, but as more historical facts are dug up their own weapon turns on them and vindicates the Bible.  "They set up a net to catch my feet, and they were caught in it themselves; they dug a pit in front of me, and they fell into it!"  (Psalm 57:6, Mo)Fundamenalists accuse us of denying God by our teachings, and their own teachings are pagan.  They try to use the Bible to prove us wrong, and it boomerangs and proves them pagan.  "The pagans have sunk in the pit they dug; in the net they set, their feet are snared." - PSALM 9:15, Mo.

 The multitudious assaults against our faith that come in these moder times may test it, but if it is founded on the knowledge and not credulity it will endure.  "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet with various trials, knowing as you do that this tested quality of your faith works out endurance."  (James 1:2, 3; 1 Peter 1:6, 7, NW)  To the Hebrews Paul wrote:  "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, . . .without faith it is impossible to wind his good pleasure." (Hebrews 11:1,6, NW)  So we must have it, and our expectations concerning it must be held  with assurance, confidence, without waverings or doubts.  (James 1:6-8) Unshakable faith comes from knowledge.  Paul said: "Anyone that calls upon the name Jehovah  will be saved."  However, how will they call upon him  in whom they have not put faith?  How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? . . . So faith follows the report." (Romans 10:13, 14, 17, NW)   It is through the words preached that new disciples  to come would put faith in Jesus. Fulfilled prophecies now learned about confirm faith and butteress the basis for belief.

The world spoken by Jehovah endures forever," quotes the apostle Peter.  (Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:25, NW) Jehovah God assures us that his Word will be fulfilled, that it will not return unto him void, but will accomplish the purpose for which it is sent out.  (Isaiah 46:10, 11; 55:11) Yes, God's Word will endure.  But will we endure with it?  Will we by our study of it and works in harmony with it make our faith strong enough to endure all trials, to withstand all the assaults that come against it in these last days?  We can if we study. for though worldly men like to smear us and say only the ignorant believe the Bible, advancing knowledge is proving the reverse to be true!  It is the willfully ignorant that shut their eyes to its vindication by means of scientific findings and archaeological diggings, and above all to its vindication made manifest by the increasing number of fulfilled prophecies  illuminating our times. So study God's Word, act in accord with it, build on rock foundation, and your faith will stand the assaults of men now and the storm of Armageddon later.  Thus we can endure along with God's Word to enjoy life in the foretold new world of righteousness.

Next time: How Bible Principles Apply to Your Life

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