Unbeliever, No More!

By Dr. Mike Salahshurian, PH. D

There are over ten thousand religious beliefs in the world today! No doubt, your belief will be among the myriad of beliefs. How sure are you that what you believe is actually true? If you cannot offer reliable proof to substantiate your belief, you need to read this book. Today, we have been bombarded by false information from media, our environment, our peers, not to mention the influence of our upbringing. So we have been taught to adopt a relativistic belief and not to think critically about subjects but rather accept the popular mindset. At times, you have probably wondered and asked many questions pertaining to the very essence of your being and the truth about your belief. In this book, you will find your answers based on the absolute, infallible, and inerrant Word of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662473364

Book preview

Chapter 1

How Do You Know Your Faith Is Founded on Truth?

(What You Believe Regarding Your Faith Is Real and Now, as Eternity and the Afterlife Are Real and Forever, You Cannot Change It!)

The Holy Bible is the living Word of God! It is absolute, authentic, inerrant, and infallible, prevailing daily!

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV)

The phrase by inspiration of God means God spoke, and it came into existence. We were created.

In the Hebrew language, the word create is bara, which means God spoke, and they were created. It is found in Genesis 1:1, 21, 27.

As we shall see in the next paragraph, bara was used for the most fundamental elements of the creation.

In the Hebrew language, the word meaning to do or to make is asah. This word asah is found in Genesis 1:7, 16, 25, and 31, including Genesis 2 and 3. But the word meaning to create from nothing, just by speaking it into existence, is barah, which is found in the following verses (Genesis 1:1, He created heaven and earth, just by speaking).

In Genesis 1:21, He created the sea creatures and birds by speaking, and in Genesis 1:27, He created Adam and Eve just by speaking.

There are other of His creation that He made just by speaking, which I will mention in the following chapters of this book.

Second Peter 1:20–21 (KJV) states,

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

It’s clear what these verses are saying (God wrote the Bible; men only held the pen)!

Before I expound further as to why the Holy Bible is superior to all other holy books, I need to establish why the God of the Holy Bible is superior to all other gods of other religions.

Truly, the Holy Bible needs no defense. Anyone who has read the Holy Bible through knows full well that the Bible is the greatest defender of itself.

The very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1 (KJV), In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, alone speaks of the authority and inerrancy of the Bible!

Psalm 90:2 (KJV) states, Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Both verses mentioned above set the stage, reminding us that from the beginning, God Himself set the stage and commenced all creation, while He Himself always existed.

So Genesis 1:1 attests to the fact that God Who had no beginning and no end, the God who had always existed, from the beginninglessness of time to the endlessness of time, always existed! No man knows when that beginning was.

The Holy Bible begins with Genesis 1:1 with no defense or any arguments and continues through all the books of the Bible that the God of the Bible is the Creator of man and the universe. And as we continue reading through the Bible, this apparent assumption becomes fact through all the multiple miracles, signs, wonders, and the proven prophecies! This sets the stage for all the claims that the Holy Bible makes.

So the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, is telling us that an omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), yet a loving Personal God created all things!

The Holy Bible also reminds us that God created the universe by His spoken Word!

Hebrews 11:1 and 3 (KJV) states, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

The very first verse of the Holy Bible, Genesis 1:1 KJV, also tells us something else.

The Hebrew word for God in this verse is Elohim, YHWH, which is plural while the word created is singular, stating that God is a Trinity.

The Trinity tells us that within the nature of God, there are three eternal Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, while these three distinct Persons are one God!

Matthew 28:18–20 (KJV) attests to this fact. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Speaking of the Trinity, thus far, we have learned that God has been the creator of all things, but John 1:3, Colossians 1:16–18, and Hebrews 1:2–3 remind us the Lord Jesus, the second Person of Trinity, God the Son was also the creator of all things!

A true Christian believes the doctrine of Trinity. This is to say, our God eternally exists as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those who deny this truth either are grossly uninformed, or they are not a believer!

It is so alarming to note that there are over ten thousand various religions with ten thousand different beliefs. What you believe right now is also among those ten thousand beliefs.

It is also a fearful thing to realize, what we now believe, we cannot change after we die.

So for a moment, can you be honest with yourself and give a definite, positive, reliable proof to substantiate what you believe is founded on truth, which is given to us by God, in His Living Word, the Holy Bible?

What you believe now is going to determine where you are going to spend the afterlife, eternity, which is forever. You cannot change it after you leave this earth.

Today, there are many millennials and even some from other various generations who have adopted a relativist mentality, a viewpoint that everyone has the right to his own opinion and his own religious beliefs. Such reasoning and rationale is dead wrong!

If someone reminds them otherwise, he is accused of being critical and being intolerant of other people’s rights and other people’s beliefs.

Such groups would rather follow and accept the popular mindset, the current trend and popular beliefs, rather than accepting the faith, which is founded on truth, even when it is presented with factual truth.

I—How do we know the Holy Bible is God’s Word?

A—The best defense, the Bible itself!

The writings of William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain were not God-Breathed and were not inspired!

I would like to draw your attention to the previous pages, mainly pages 8 and 9, how God spoke, the heaven, the earth and all the air and the sea creatures came into existence! In 2 Peter 1:21 (KJV), we read that, But the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

This verse reminds us that the prophets only held the pen, while the Holy Spirit of God was directing them what to write.

Although, we need to keep in mind that God did not write as if someone punching the keys on a typewriter as the biblical view of inspiration is being espoused by some. As God, the Holy Spirit inspired them. He allowed each writer to have his own style of writing through man’s own instrumentality and human personality.

We find a distinct difference between the writing of the apostle Peter, Paul and John, including the writers of the Old Testament.

There are also other indications that the prophets and the apostles did not speak or write by their own whim and wisdom; they were all God’s mouthpieces.

In Jeremiah 1:4 (KJV), we read Jeremiah saying, Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying…

Jeremiah 2:1 (KJV) says, Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying.

First King 6:11 (KJV) says, And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying…

Jeremiah 1:9 (KJV) states, The Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, behold I have put my words in thy mouth.

King David said in 2 Samuel 23:2 (KJV), The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul clearly states that what he is saying is coming from the LORD and is His commandments, as in 1 Corinthians 14:37, we read,

If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

It is important to note that the Bible we use today was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, then in Greek, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. The New Testament was written in Greek.

So today’s Bible contains sixty-six (66) books, consisting of thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and twenty-seven books of the New Testament. They have been written over the span of 1,600 years, approximately between 1,500 BC and AD 90.

These books had at least forty authors; they were from three different continents.

During this span of time, the 1,600 years, the authors had no means of communicating with one another (no phone, no emails, no texting, no proper and reliable mail delivery systems). Yet when we read from the Genesis to the book of Revelation, the message and all the verses of the Bible dovetail!

No other books of other religions can claim that.

Furthermore, the Bible lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, totaling 1,817.¹

The Fulfilled Prophecies

According to J. Barton Payne, the author of Fulfilled Prophecies, cited earlier, the most important and popular evidence for the Bible reliability and authority is the evidence of fulfilled prophecy.

He states, There are over twenty other books whose authors or followers claim to be divinely inspired. Among these are the Hindu Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Avesta, Pali Tripataka, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenant, Pearl of Great Price, and Koran. It is important to note that out of all these, not a single one contains any fulfilled prophecy but the Bible itself.

He continues by saying roughly 27 percent of the Bible contains prophecy that at the time of writing were future events that had not yet taken place. That is more than one out of every four verses! Many of these prophecies were not simply vague predictions like those of Nostradamus or Jeanne Dixon, which have been shown to be false numerous times. But they were in many cases extremely detailed!

Of those prophecies, 1,239 are in the Old Testament and 578 in the New Testament. From the Bible’s 31,124 verses, 8,352 of them contain prophecy.

Eighty-seven percent of the prophecies have already come to pass, and of the remaining 13 percent, 98 percent of those will be fulfilled during the seven-year tribulation.

Following are some examples of prophecies relating to Israel:

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. (Leviticus 26:44 KJV)

For all through the history, people have tried to destroy Israel. Yet even after being forced from their land, and returning roughly two thousand years later, God’s people still remain.

Ezekiel 37:21 (KJV) states,

Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.

This was fulfilled on May 14, 1948, when Israel became a nation again, and ever since then, Jews have been flocking back to their land, sometimes with nothing more than a strong feeling telling them to do so.

Ezekiel 36:30, 35 (KJV) states,

And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

For two millennia, Israel, which was previously Palestine, was nothing short of a wasteland. But ever since 1948, Israel has undergone agricultural transformation. Now Israel is one of the leading exporters of goods such as fruits and flowers. However, most of the neighboring countries are still almost entirely a wasteland.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:2–3 KJV)

You don’t have to do much research to see how many friends Israel has. The United States has been allied with them for years, but our government has been trying to pull ourselves back from them lately.

In Genesis 12:3, God is telling Abraham about the land that He will give to His people and that He will bless those who bless the land of Israel and will curse those who curse the land of Israel. I think it is interesting how the more we try to pull our support from Israel, the more our country collapses.

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Matthew 24:1–2 KJV)

This was fulfilled precisely as it was written in AD 70, when Rome destroyed the temple.

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. (Isaiah 46:9–10 KJV)

There is no one in existence who can foretell such things—no one but God Himself.²

We’ll continue with the heading, How Do We Know the Holy Bible Is the Word of God?

Going back to the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible, we cannot ignore the miraculous birth of Christ and man’s redemption, including the prophecies as to how and why He was rejected by His own.

Concerning His Birth, in Isaiah 7:14 (KJV), we read, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

This prophecy of Isaiah, which was prophesied approximately 750 years before Christ’s birth, was fulfilled in Matthew 1:23 and Luke 2:11 (KJV).

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (Matthew 1:23 KJV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 KJV)

This was fulfilled in Luke 2:11 (KJV), For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Today, both secular and religious historians attest to the fact that Christ would be born on the specific time and place, in Bethlehem, as we were told in Micah 5:1–2 (KJV).

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Read the fulfilled prophecies in Matthew 2:6, Luke 2:4–7, Matthew 26:67, Matthew 27:30, Mark 15:19, and John 18:20–23.

It is interesting to note, soon after the fall of man, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:1–14, God put His plan for man’s redemption into motion. In Genesis 3:15, God gave the promise that He will put enmity, a mutual discord, hatred, and hostility between Satan and the seed of the women until the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4–5). This promise was fulfilled in Matthew 1:18 when God implanted His own pure sinless seed, the seed of Holy Ghost in woman’s body.

Matthew 1:18 (KJV) states, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Later, that precious, pure, sinless seed became a propitiation, a substitution for fallen man to take away man’s sin. Romans 3:25 (KJV) states, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

Upon closer reading of Genesis 3:15, we shall find that God is saying, there is a price and penalty for sin, and He is willing to pay for it by His own sinless blood.

This exact prophecy was fulfilled in 1 John 3:8 (KJV), He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (cf. Hebrews 2:14, Matthew 27:33–35, Luke 24:38–40).

Concerning His Death

Reading through the Old Testament, in Psalms, in Psalm 22 alone, we find eighteen prophecies listed that were all fulfilled in the New Testament!

What is so amazing is that King David predicted one thousand years before these prophecies were fulfilled.

In verse 1 of Psalm 22 (KJV), we read My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? from the Old Testament. We read the exact quote by the Lord Jesus Himself in Matthew 27:46b.

The statement He made in Psalm 22:2 was echoed by the Lord Jesus during the three hours of darkness upon Calvary’s cross! This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 27:45 of the New Testament!

The statement of verse 7–8 (KJV) of the Old Testament states, All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Both verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 22 of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Matthew 27:39–44 of the New Testament.

Seeking His death, suffering the agony on Calvary, and the pouring of His blood are mentioned in Psalm 22:12–14 (KJV) of the Old Testament.

We read the exact fulfillment of these exact prophecies in John 19:6, 34; and Mark 15:34–37 (KJV) of the New Testament.

As we continue reading through Psalm 22, namely, verses 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 27, and 31 of the Old Testament, we find they were all fulfilled accordingly in John 19:28; John 19:34, 37; John 20:27; Luke 23:34, 35; John 19:23–24; Luke 23:46; Hebrews 2:14; John 20:17; Colossians 1:16; and John 19:30 of the New Testament.

Truly, man in his finite mind cannot conceive the probability of approximately eighteen prophecies being fulfilled by one man, and in one psalm alone.

Speaking of amazing probability, the chance of even one prophecy being fulfilled, Dr. Peter Stoner, author of Science Speaks writes,³

He demonstrates by applying the principle of probability, the chance of even, only only one prophecy to be fulfilled, what the probability would be.

In this case, one man, the Lord Jesus Christ, if He had fulfilled even eight of the three hundred prophecies that pertain to Him in the Bible, what the probability would have been. The result is amazing, as we shall learn soon!

He continues, stating, If the chance of one thing happening is ‘1 in M,’ and the chance of another independent thing happening is ‘1 in N,’ then the chance that they shall both happen is ‘1 in M x N,’ as it pertains to fulfillment of Biblical prophecies.

He adds, Keep in mind, the time span between the prophecies of the Old Testament and the New Testament fulfillment is hundreds, even thousands of years.

Then Dr. Stoner gives us his scientific chart related to the fulfillment of the Old and the New Testaments’ prophecies, and the probability of their fulfillment.⁴

To answer the question what the probability of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies is, the principal of probability is applied. Therefore, multiplying all eight probabilities together (1 times 2.8 × 10⁵ × 10³ × 10² × 10³ × 10³ × 10⁵ × 10³ × 10⁴) gives us 2.8 × 10²⁸, or for simplicity sake 1 × 10²⁸ or 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Given this and the time span between the writings of the Old Testament and the fulfillment by Christ in the New Testament, the prophecies were either given to the prophets by God, or the prophets just wrote them down as they thought they should be. With Christ fulfilling all eight prophecies, what are the odds the prophets were just guessing?

Can you just imagine, when we consider the probability of all the eighteen prophecies of the Old Testament mentioned earlier, in Psalm 22, and their fulfillment in the New Testament?

This is not to mention the total three hundred prophecies pertaining to Christ!

No other religion can make such a claim. The Lord Jesus summed it well, in John 14:6 (KJV), when He Himself said,

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Continuing with fulfilled prophecies, there are three specific fulfilled prophecies in the book of Zechariah that are worth mentioning.

First comes from Zechariah 11:12–13 (KJV).

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.

The above prophecy, Zechariah 11:12–13, which was foretold five hundred years earlier by Zechariah, was fulfilled in Matthew 26:14–15 (KJV).

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Second comes from Zechariah 12: 10 (KJV).

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

This above prophecy was fulfilled five hundred years later in John 19:33–37 (KJV).

But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

Note: V-36 (This is the fulfillment from the Old Testament, Psalm 34:20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.) For, the soldiers broke the bones of the other two next to Jesus according to the Roman Law, but, they did not break Jesus’ bones!

And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

Third comes from Zechariah 13:6–7 (KJV).

And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 26:31 (KJV).

Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

Why God Used Prophecies

Again, all through this chapter, we have learned that no other religion could even come close to claiming the fulfillment of over three hundred prophecies about their savior!

I have shown only a handful of those three hundred fulfilled prophecies with such accuracy and with such unprecedented probability as it has been documented in the Holy Bible.

From the beginning, the Lord God Himself, starting from the book of Deuteronomy, set a very high bar for the prophets and the fulfilled prophecies.

He was trying to use the fulfilled prophecies and the prophets as the evidence of His omniscience, His omnipotent power, and His omnipresent existence through the ages, as we read in Deuteronomy 18:22 and in Isaiah 46:10–11 (KJV).

Deuteronomy 18:22 states, "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not