John 14:10-11

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me— or at least believe on account of the works themselves.”

Psalm 19: 1-3, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.”

Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

I saw an interview with a prominent brother in the Lord the other day, and he expressed how he has questions at times about his faith. Did I ask all the right questions? Did I check under every rock? Did I really think this through? Some of us, me included, at times have the same questions. We are never called to have ‘blind faith’ in the Lord. Our faith is evidence-based. The very word believe is an action word, and in particular, it is the idea of taking action. So, I believe the chair can hold me up; therefore, I sit in it; this is the idea of Biblical faith. It is more practical than hypothetical.

I see so many challenges to the Bible and its authenticity; the mere fact that they constantly challenge it like no other ‘religious’ book is, to me, the best evidence of its truth and longevity.

If one were to take the time to look through all the archeological finds that support the scriptures, like the many copies of the Old and New Testament, either in part or whole, artifacts prove the existence of King David. The fragments show Pontius Pilate and other officials of the time.

There are many evidences of the Bible’s authenticity. However, I was watching a short video yesterday, and it mentioned two things that have been well-known for some time. It just so happens that I am reading in Deuteronomy, as I am at the end of the Torah. And so, I wanted to share these two things; maybe some of you have a few doubts or questions, and this may help. As the text shows, Jesus and God the Father called us to faith based on evidence and believe because of what we do or because of what we see. When John the Baptist’s followers came to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, He told them to report what they had seen. When we get up in church or to share the Gospel with someone, we are speaking about what Jesus has done for us. There is a relationship that is tangible.

As mentioned, I was watching a short video with Dr. John Bergsma, and he was laying out two things from the exodus that we know for sure and how they authenticate the timing of the events in the exodus from Egypt.

The first was the construction of the Tabernacle; the Egyptian kings lived in Tabernacle-like compounds when they went to war. Their dwellings would have an outer and inner court, and they would have a box like the Ark of the Covenant with the cherubim on either side. In-between was their god, Pharoah. There are actual pictures of this in the engraving, and even some of the dimensions are very similar. In fact, there is a box like the Ark of the Covenant in the tomb of King Tut. The box has two cherubim on it, and in between, there is the god Anubis on it.

So, the God of Israel set up a similar Tabernacle, and in this, He dwells between the cherubim as a Spirit. The 2nd Commandment forbids any kind of image being used to represent God. He is the Unseen God; there is nothing that can describe Him, and no image can portray Him. So here we have a setup like we know for sure that Egyptian kings used when they went to war. We know that these things are true and that they are real, but many of us, myself included, have not heard this, nor do enough of us research to find out the truth that the world system tries to hide from us.

He goes on to add one further bit of evidence for us: from the Egyptian 2nd Kingdom period, we have a set of Treaty documents between Egyptian kings and the kings of the Hittite Empire; there are several copies in Egyptian, Hittite, and other languages. The structure of the treaties looks like the book of Deuteronomy. So, we have a kind of prologue about the parties involved, then some major constitutional principles, then we lay out specific laws, and then we end with instructions on how to store the treaty document, how often it should be read publicly, a list of blessing for following the covenant, and then a list of curses for breaking the covenant.

This has been known since the 1950s, but I bet a lot of us have never heard of this; I surely had not. But we are to recall that Moses was brought up in the royal court where he would have seen these documents being written, and his story tells us that these formats date back to the time of the exodus.

These kinds of incidental and cultural confirmations are truly authentic; this is not name-dropping but rather shows the influence of the time on the people. Moses was a Jew, but he was raised as an Egyptian; he learned their ways, and it was a part of who he was. God used that because it was also familiar to the people, the Jews who had been raised in Egypt. They saw the Pharoah’s war tabernacles, and then surely Moses saw the treaties. Thus, God used the familiar to teach the unfamiliar.

We are not called to ‘blind faith.’ Not once does God call us to faith that is not based on evidence. Jesus called the disciples out of the boat even as He was walking on the water past them. Jesus calls us to love others sacrificially because He loves us that way and showed it to us.

As we get closer and closer to the call home, the Bible tells us that many will turn away from the faith (Matthew 24:10). Now, no one is saved because of evidence; they are saved by hearing the word of God. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).

But once we are saved and begin to explore the scriptures and hear the criticisms, the Holy Spirit has a plethora of evidence out there and a host of Godly men who are both saved and scientists, highly educated, who can help us see the firm foundation that we stand on in Jesus more clearly.

Keep reading, keep searching, and keep finding the little pieces of evidence that God has graciously given us to bolster our faith.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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1 Corinthians 1:18-25

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

“For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Happy New Year to you all! I pray that you had a wonderful time remembering the birth of our Savior and enjoying friends and family. I sure did.

Just a few days ago, I had the chance to see a short video collage of some of the Christmas services that some of the ‘churches’ in the USA did. There were some very ‘interesting’ shows (I would not call them worship services) attended by millions of people. One of the shows was alleged to have cost about $3,000,000. Wow, just wow! Some were entertaining, others very cringe-worthy. But they all speak of the ‘churches’ desire to make the Gospel more palatable to the masses.

There is a famous saying to the effect that ‘true Christianity is not popular, and popular Christianity is not true.’ I have attended well-produced Christian pageants; one of the local Pentecostal churches here in Mississauga used to put one on every year. Thousands came to see it, and I took many to see it. It covered from the manger to the cross to the empty tomb. It was wonderful. The Gospel was clearly laid out and an invitation to receive Jesus at the end. It has been years since I went there, and I am not even sure that they still do it. While this was professionally done, even using real animals and the like, there was no sensationalism to detract from Jesus as the focus.

In our passage today, Paul tells us an eternal truth – the Gospel in its pure form sounds like foolishness to the natural man. Only when we speak the truth of the scriptures and the Holy Spirit opens a person’s eyes can they see the sheer beauty of the Gospel. For those of us who have seen the truth, it never gets old. Those of us in church have heard the Gospel over and over again; I teach about it over and over. There is never a service where we do not speak of the Gospel. Even when it is not the main focus of a message, we always bring it back to this one central thing: Jesus and Him crucified.

I love the study of languages like Greek and the way that words are deliberate. I love the study of archeology and how many, many artifacts have confirmed the Bible. I love that they have discovered thousands and thousands of manuscripts over the centuries that confirm the scriptures; these are all wonderful. But for millennia, all that the Christians had was the word of God. Some had the Old Testament; some had fragments of the New Testament letters. It is unlikely that all of the churches had access to all of the epistles like we do today. But they had enough of the word of God to say it and for the Holy Spirit to take that and convert billions over the last 2 millennia. Romans 10:17 says this:

“So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

Our only tool is the Bible, the word of God. We are called to speak it often, speak it clearly, and let God do the work that only He can do. Only He can open the eyes of spiritually blind men and make the Gospel make sense. No amount of pageantry, lighting, and performing will make it less foolish. It makes us look foolish.

We are fools for Christ; there is nothing that you can do about that. The very nature of the Gospel is foolish. Supreme Court Justice Scalia once said:

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed. If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

Paul told us this 2,000 years ago, and it still stands true. To the lost, the Gospel is foolishness. But to the saved, it is the greatest thing ever. Now, with our eyes opened and our hearts re-born, we can see the hand of God everywhere, and we can rejoice in the way He superintends our lives for His glory and for our good.

It is okay to be seen as a fool for Jesus. Just don’t be a fool. Stop trying to make the Gospel tastier to the masses; it is not and never will be. Stay the course; as Paul says, we preach Christ crucified, nothing less and nothing else. Stop the shows and the pageantry. Speak the clear, unadulterated Gospel in the simplest terms possible so that a child can understand it, and maybe, just maybe, some of the adults will get it, too.

Go! Be a fool for Jesus, repent, attend church, love your enemies, give to the work of the kingdom, forgive those that hurt you, and pray for the ones that hate you. Trust Jesus when things don’t work out, give Him the glory when they do, and trust that He has everything in His control. Godly wisdom is more than all the degrees in the world.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook (live broadcast of Sunday’s Message at 11 am): https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Online: https://www.mmbchurch.ca

Email: support@mmbchurch.ca