WHO IS JESUS:
Is He really God?
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“Jesus is known and worshipped today around the world, more than any man. I’d like most of all to interview Jesus”. - Larry King on CNN. 1/7/00)
Usually at Christmas and Easter, News Magazines carry cover stories such as: The Search for Jesus; Who is Jesus?; ‘Is Jesus God? Rory Leishman – who is a Jewish Christian – a columnist for the London Free Press referred to Jesus as Christ and God!
He wrote: “God was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own – in the over-ripeness of the most splendid and Sophisticated empire the world has ever seen”.
When St. Thomas saw the living resurrected Christ, he exclaimed: “My Lord and my God”. (John 20:28). Almighty God called Jesus, Lord and God: “And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith…But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands: And as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.” (Heb. 1:6,8,10,12)
JESUS CHRIST SAID: I AM THE RESURRECTION & THE LIFE!
And Jesus said of Himself: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev. 1:8)
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11:25, 26)
Jan Calvin, the French Reformer – who founded the Presbyterian Church in Switzerland declared: “I gave up all for Christ, and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ”.
Hans Denk exclaimed: “O my God, how does it happen in this poor old world that Thou art so great and yet nobody finds Thee, that Thou callest so loudly and nobody hears Thee, that Thou art so near and nobody feels Thee, that Thou givest Thyself to everybody and nobody knows Thy name?
Men flee from Thee and say they cannot find Thee; they turn their backs and say they cannot see Thee; they stop their ears and say they cannot hear Thee”.
Here is a touching account of the life and death of world famous medical missionary David Livingstone in Africa: He wrote in his diary dated January 14, 1856: “Lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour so there’s an end of it! I feel quite calm now, thank God”.
He faced the most savage fear, believing that this promise was absolutely true. No man lived a lonelier life than he, and yet no man had such a sense of the companionship of his God. He buried his wife Mary with his own hands, and in anguish wept like a child. He says for the first time in his life he feels willing to die. “I am left alone in the world by one whom I felt to be a part of myself”.
When he died, he died alone, discovered by two natives, on his knees beside his bed among the bogs and marshes near Chitambo’s village in Ilala. Among the last entries in his diary is written: “He will keep His word, the gracious One, full of grace and truth; no doubt of it. He will keep His word and it will be all right. Doubt is inadmissible, surely!” - selected
Famous Missionary C.T. Studd testified: “If Jesus is God and died for me, there is no sacrifice too great for me to make for Him”
RUBENSTEIN CONFESSES JESUS CHRIST ON ISRAEL TV
JERUSALEM – World famed pianist Arthur Rubenstein took Prime Minister Golda Meir and a national audience aback here when he professed faith in Jesus Christ last fall over Israel television.
According to a report in the Mount Zion Reporter, the incident took place last November (1974) while Mrs. Meir was interviewing the American Jewish virtuoso on television. She asked him to name “the greatest event in your life”.
“When I received Yeshua Hammashiach (Jesus the Messiah) into my heart”, he replied. “Since that, my life was changed. I have experienced joy and peace ever since”.
The report went on to state that at the comment Mrs. Meir leaned back in her chair with an expression of complete surprise. - Selected
THE RESURRECTION IS CERTAIN!
Dr. Harry Ironside wrote: “A Hungarian countess, a professed unbeliever, commanded that her body be interred in a stone casket in a mausoleum that was to be built about it. A plate was placed on the foot of the mausoleum giving her name and some particulars of her death, and then the words, ‘Not to be opened for eternity’.
'But while they were building that mausoleum and before sealing the body in that tomb, an ACORN dropped into the tomb, and today there is an oak tree rising out of the center of it. It is broken asunder and the casket is exposed. An acorn under the hand of Almighty God opened it."
You cannot thwart God; you cannot hinder God’s omnipotent working. Pilate said, ‘Make it as sure as you can’, and they did everything that human ingenuity could suggest to keep the body of Jesus in that grave in Judea. All their effort was overthrown. He who had yielded up Himself to death, took His life back again by commandment from God. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.”
WORLD POPULATION MUSHROOMS!
According to the ‘Population Reference Bureau Inc.’, the world population will escalate by at least 50% and may possibly double between 2000 and 2030 A.D. And it may even reach 9.5 billion by that time.
Have you ever considered such huge numbers? With more than 6.7 billion people presently living on this planet (more than all the people who have lived since the beginning of time up until the 20th Century), it’s frightening to think about the masses that die every day without knowing Christ or even hearing His Gospel!
I remember when I first began preaching the Gospel 60 years ago, we calculated that – at that time – about 120,000 people died every 24 hours And that was a staggering sum! Now, according to the world population clock, that figure has grown to more than 140,000 per day which breaks down to about 58 per minute and one every second!
For the past more than 60 years my heart has cried out to the Lord for lost souls and my voice has been heard pleading with lost souls over TV, radio, literature, in our crusades and through personal evangelism, to give their lives to Jesus Christ!
William Shakespeare wrote: “There is a line by us unseen that crosses every path, the hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath”.
John Wesley, in a vision in the night, found himself, he thought, at the gates of Hell. He knocked and asked who were within. “Are there any Roman Catholics here?” he asked. “Yes”, was the answer. “Any Church of England people?” “Yes”, was the answer. “Are there any Presbyterians?” And again, “Yes, a great many”. “Are there any Wesleyans here?” “Yes, we have some of those too”, came the answer.
WHO WILL BE IN HELL; WHO WILL BE IN HEAVEN?
Disappointed and dismayed, especially at the last reply, he turned his step upward and came to the gates of Heaven. Here he repeated the same question. “Any Wesleyans here?” he inquired anxiously. The answer was “no”. And as he named off the other denominations, to his dismay, each ime the answer was, “no”. “Then whom do you have here?” he asked in desperation. “We know nothing here of any of those names you have mentioned”, said the angel.
They are all CHRISTIANS in here – born again people. Of these we have a multitude which no man can number, gathered out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues”.
Let us remember that Heaven is a spiritual country for a spiritually born people. Heaven knows no denominational lines! - Author unknown
The love of God reaches out today to a lost, confused, dysfunctional and fearful humanity and Jesus’ kind voice speaks over the tumult and the storm:
“Peace be unto you My son, My daughter. Be not afraid. I will never leave you or forsake you. Come to Me and lay your cares upon Me. I will carry your burdens and forgive your sins. I will give you rest. Fear not – Only believe.”
Blaise Pascal in his ‘pensies’ wrote: “It is good to be tired and weary from fruitlessly seeking true good, so that one can stretch out one’s arm to the Redeemer”.
Remember, that Jesus said in His Word, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out”. (John 6:37).
Thomas Arnold stated: “The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after man”.
Solbrekken World Mission Box 44220 RPO Garside Edmonton, AB T5V 1N6. Email: [email protected]; comehometojesus.ca; Facebook; Youtube; Donations can be made by e-Transfer; make your donation to [email protected]; May God bless you.
