{"id":57760,"date":"2025-09-02T21:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T01:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57760"},"modified":"2025-09-02T21:59:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T01:59:02","slug":"john-3-16-believe-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/09\/02\/john-3-16-believe-what\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN 3: 16; BELIEVE WHAT?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Van Yandell<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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Romans 10: 9-10 \u201cThat if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we are witnessing in our world today, many of the happenings are based on what people believe. Good or bad, belief triggers a multitude of attitudes and actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A village we worked in East Africa believed a little boy was saved from death because the witchdoctor cut holes in his stomach to let out the evil spirits. A Nepalese friend believes in reincarnation and a man in Brazil told me he had eternal salvation because he was baptized when he was two weeks old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many American Christians believe they have eternal salvation because they are a member of a particular denomination or because they\u2019ve been \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beliefs are determined by our teachings, our environments and our personal mindsets toward many things. I am a Christian. Had I been born in Mecca, I probably would be a Muslim. Had I been born in Kathmandu, I would probably be a Hindu or Buddhist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in Nashville Tennessee and raised in a small Western Kentucky town by parents that read and studied the Holy Bible and went to church every Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of my upbringing, the firm conviction that John 3: 16 is, in my mind, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most any sentence\/verse we may read, say or hear has a key word. John 3: 16 has several key words, one of which is \u201cbelieves.\u201d Following that word are the words, \u201cin Him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions may arise in the minds of any non-believer or critical thinker. Two of those are \u201cbelieve what?\u201d, and \u201cwho is Him?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, our answers to those questions are influenced by our teachings. One\u2019s religion belief (or lack of) is generated by the environmental factors of each of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few over eight-billion people on planet earth. Christians must keep in mind that only one-third of those profess Christianity as a belief. The other two-thirds claim another belief or believe nothing at all about a supernatural spiritual being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A question someone may have at this point is \u201cHow can I be sure the Holy Bible is, in fact, true and the Word of God; the only Creator God?\u201d This is, of course, a legitimate question if one had not been exposed to the teachings of Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question \u201cBelieve what?\u201d could be considered a reasonable question for anyone, both believers and non-believers. The focal character in Christianity is Jesus Christ. To the second question \u201cWho is Him?\u201d is the name above all names; Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philippians 2: 9, 10a, 11 \u201cWherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another question that arises occasionally is \u201cHow can I be sure the Bible was actually written centuries ago and not in the last few hundred years?\u201d If prophesy isn\u2019t written until after the fact, how can it be called prophesy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the carbon dating of those verifies the Bible was written between 1900 and 3500 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is by the prophetic information in the Holy Bible and the science in the Bible that mankind could not possibly have known centuries ago, that offers compelling evidence that only a supernatural spiritual God could have directed those writings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The questions remains, \u201cBelieve what?\u201d The Bible teaches there is only one eternal salvation. That is by a faith based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) that Christ Jesus was crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (Romans 4: 25), resurrected (Matthew 28: 6) and ascended alive into Heaven (Acts 1: 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ephesians 2: 8-9 \u201cFor by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith is a method of believing. We have faith in the chairs on which we sit; the water we drink and in the pilot and crew of the airliner we may fly in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have faith in the safety of products we buy, our bank and our plumber. These things considered, why is so difficult to have faith in the God that created us? (Genesis 1: 27)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you prefer to believe your ancestor was an ape or washed up on an ancient sea shore 100 million years ago in the form of a piece of green slime? Can you seriously believe that you are a freak of nature, a mutation having been determined by an accidental combining of heat, moisture and a few chemical elements that accidentally combined to make you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you really prefer to believe your life has no purpose, no calling, no grand design? Jeremiah 1: 5 \u201cBefore I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.\u201d We may not be Jeremiah but God is omniscient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you believe is your choice! Choose wisely and base that choice on credible information. Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and missionary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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