Why is it necessary to become a Christian?

Yahweh, the God of the Bible, (who was introduced to you in this book) is a God of love. He does not want anybody, including you (the reader), to perish but to be saved.

1 Timothy 2:3, 4: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Becoming a Christian is, according to the Bible, the only way to salvation. To be saved means to be reconciled to God, have eternal life and be with Him in glory for eternity. The Bible says the following about this:

John. 6:47: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” (NKJ)

Acts. 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (NKJ)

Ephesians. 1:7: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (NKJ)

John. 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV)

Romans 10:9-10 “...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (NKJ)

No good deeds can save me. The Bible says the following about this:

Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NKJ)

Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” (NKJ)

1 John. 1:8: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (NKJ)

Isaiah. 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (NKJ)

What is sin? The Bible says the following about this:

1 John. 3:4: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” (NKJ)

It has been shown that the Bible teaches that the law is love. This means that unloving behaviour is lawlessness, and therefore, sin. We also know that we must love God above all. Accordingly, any behaviour to the detriment of God’s kingdom or honour is unloving, and therefore sin. Love towards my neighbour is never to do anything to him that I would not want to be done to me, and always do to my neighbour what I would want him to do to me in similar circumstances.

Why must I believe the Bible? No one can be forced to believe the Bible, but when the following facts are taken into consideration, one would expect any intelligent person to seriously consider the evidence before making a decision:

• Over a period of 1 500 years more than 40 writers (among whom were fishermen, shepherds, kings, doctors, etc.), in three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek), wrote down the revelation of God to mankind in 66 books, where hundreds of potentially controversial matters are discussed, without any real contradictions and in perfect harmony.
• All efforts over the centuries by critics to discredit the credibility of the Bible were unsuccessful. Many allegations about the so-called corruption of the Bible have been made without any proof.
• Sceptics have used archaeology in efforts to disprove the Bible, but each time they were proven wrong and the Bible true. One example is the fact that there was a time when there was no archaeological evidence for the existence of the Hittites, a powerful nation in the time of King David, which sceptics used to question the reliability of the Bible. To their dismay, evidence began to pour in, so much so, that there is presently an entire museum devoted to Hittite relics in Ankara, Turkey. There are many more such examples. The reliability of the archaeological record of the Bible makes it very useful to archaeologists and is used by many to locate ancient cities.
• The prophetical record of the Bible is impeccable. The Bible has many prophecies about world events as well as individuals, many years, decades and even centuries before the actual events that were accurately fulfilled. This includes prophecies about the first coming of Jesus Christ. This is proof of God’s existence and that the Bible is His revelation to mankind (His Word). There is no other religious book that can claim such an impeccable prophetic record. It is, therefore, certain that all the Biblical prophecies that are unfulfilled at present, will be fulfilled as prophesied.
• The Bible brought millions of people into contact with the living God, who changed their lives irrevocably forever. They experience the joy and the peace of God that surpass all understanding, even in the midst of precarious circumstances and serious persecution.

Source: (Hunt, 1996 & McDowell, 1979)