Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12 ESV)
The Bible talks about life and death. He who believes in God lives. He who does not believe in God dies. The Bible is a very thick book. But I believe this is a good summary.
And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31 ESV)
Jesus (יֵשׁוּעַ) means God saves, or more specifically, Yahweh saves. God's salvation is the theme of the Bible.
We are saved by who we believe, not by what we do. God told the people they will be saved if they believe Him. But God revealed His plan of salvation progressively. But at every stage, the underlying theme is always to believe God.
To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26 ESV)
And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. (Genesis 15:6 NLT)
From Adam and Eve, through the antediluvian period till Moses, men thought they were saved by offering animal sacrifices to God.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." (Exodus 19:5-6 ESV)
The Law was given to the Israelites through Moses. From the time of Moses till Christ, the Israelites thought that offering animal sacrifices in the Temple was how they were saved.
The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.
But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,
"You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.
You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin.
Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God - as is written about me in the Scriptures.'"
First, Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. (Hebrews 10:1-10 NLT)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18 NIV)
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28 ESV)
Finally Jesus (יֵשׁוּעַ) came and died for our sins. The revelation of God's salvation is now complete.
This is the achievement of a guy who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
After 8 Years Of Unbroken War, Obama Hands Over Conflicts To Trump : Parallels : NPR
This is the achievement of a guy who did not win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump: Sudan to recognize Israel - POLITICO
Conclusion, the Nobel Peace Prize is a sham.
For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (Romans 15:18-19 NASB)
I stand amazed at what Paul the apostle had accomplished during his times when transportation was primitive and a day's journey by foot was probably about 40 km. Yet he was able to spread the gospel in about 12 years from Jerusalem to Illyricum (modern day Serbia / Croatia) via Syria and Galatia.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10 CSB)
When will the perfect come?
Perfection make sense only when referring to new heaven and new earth. It is only then all prophecies, knowledge and tongues will cease.
Even during millennium, there is still an unfulfilled prophecy of Gog and Magog (Revelation 20:8).
There is still a new knowledge of what new heaven and new earth is going to be like.
Nations still exist in the millennium (Zechariah 14:16-19).
On 14th August (9th Av) 586 BC Jerusalem was destroyed and the Temple of God was burnt to ground. The God of Abraham had lost. Marduk (i.e. Baal), the chief god of Babylon had won. If you were an Jew at that time, you would be wondering why God had failed to defend His land and His city. Yet it was during this dark age that the God of Abraham announced through Daniel the prophet the blue print for the times of the Gentiles.
Likewise today people ask, if God is perfectly good, almighty and all-knowing, why does He permit evil to exist? The answer is actually found in the Bible.
God had His plan laid out before the foundation of the earth. Just as the Jews can stop worrying about being wiped out, we can stop worrying about the end of the world. The prophetic blueprint laid out in the Bible will come to pass. The next coming events will be rapture, the tribulation, the second coming of Christ and the millennium. After that, the old heaven and old earth will be destroyed and a new heaven and new earth will be created. This will be eternal. So we do not have to worry about the end of the world.
