Why Believe?
Experiences and Scripture Provide Evidence
Why Believe?
Here I wish to give personal testimony that may encourage others in their belief in Christ, and to offer some reasons for a non-believer to accept as truth as I do that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God, just as he himself claimed to be.
What is that belief?
I believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible Word of God. I believe that there is one and only one God, eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the son, and God the Holy Ghost. I believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in his resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal future return to the earth in power and glory to rule over the nations. I believe that the only means of being cleansed from sin is through repentance and faith in the atoning work of Christ on the cross.
Rather than present a rigorous proof of these basic Christian principles, which has been done many times by others (and such proofs are readily available in nearly every Christian book store), I want to share a few of my own experiences and those of people close to me. At this time I do not want to present experiences of people I do not know. I want to share experiences of members of my family, because I know they really happened. Perhaps at some future time I will post some experiences of other trustworthy people.
My father (Lawrence Winton Felt) once told me about an experience he had as a youn man. He had been attending the evangelistic meetings of Aimee Semple McPherson. I am not sure of the exact date, or whether the meeting my father attended was held in a tent or at Angelus Temple, in Los Angeles. He told me at one time, but I no longer remember that detail. During the meeting, McPherson led everyone in prayer. During the prayer, my father looked up and saw Christ standing to the right of McPherson. His right hand was extended to the congregation. The left side of his body was not there. My father could see only the right half of Christ, and he could see right through the left half of Christ’s “body.” After the prayer, somebody on the other side of the tent or auditorium stood up and said, “Sister McPherson, while you were praying I looked up and saw Christ standing next to you. His right arm was stretched out toward the congregation, and his left hand was on your shoulder. My father told me that the description given by the man on the other side of the assembly exactly matched what he himself had seen, except that my father had seen only the right half of Christ’s body.
My mother-in-law had a missionary friend who, after a late night prayer meeting at their church, left for home. She had to drive on a narrow lonely road. It was about 11:00 in the evening. Up ahead of her there was a car blocking the road. It was parked crosswise on the narrow road with no way to get around it. On the right side was a hill ond on the left a drop off. In front of the car and facing her were about 5 men in leather jackets with chains, waiting for her to stop. She said a quick prayer “Lord help me” and when she blinked, they were gone. When she looked in her rearview mirror, se saw the car behind her and the men looking at her over the top of her car. She said “thank you Lord” and drove on. The woman later told my mother-in-law about the incident.
My brother was working on his car, when he said the Lord impressed him with the notion that something was wrong and needed his attention. He knew it had nothing to do with his car, so he looked around. Down the street was another car, and he could see the feet of somebody standing on the other side of the car. The impression he got was that he should talk with the person. However, he thought to himself that he could not leave his expensive tools unattended so he continued to work on his car. The urging to go talk with the person became more intense. Again, my brother convinced himself that he had too much invested in the tools to walk away. The urging became even more intense, and he got the assurance that the tools would be safe. He decided he had better see what needed his attention. The other person was a man, also working on his car. My brother asked what the problem was. The man said, “nothing, why do you ask?” My brother said, I know something is bothering you and that is why I came. The man said, “I have been thinking about my wife. I have told her she needs to accept the Lord as her savior, but she keeps asking questions for which I have no answers.” My brother asked, “What questions?” The man responded with a list of questions. Now, my brother had previously been memorizing a lot of passages from the King James version of the Bible. While he was doing so, he kept asking himself how useful that would it be, since people don’t really think in King James English any more. However, when he heard the questions asked by the man, passage after passage came out of him in modern English. It was almost as if he was a bystander as the words flowed out of him. At the time, he did not even realize (until later) that the passages he quoted were those he had memorized. When he finished answering all the mans questions, the man said “thank you, you have given me all I need to help her. I had just asked the Lord to send me some help so I would know how to respond to my wife. I had just finished praying, and suddenly you were standing there” My brother responded, by telling the man how he did not want to leave his tools unattended, but the Lord had insisted that he come.” They agreed that the Lord had answered prayer. He had answered the man’s request for help, and He had shown my brother that He can use memorized scriptures to help someone regardless of the translation memorized.
There is much more to share, but we now have to focus on restoring this Website. The recent change in hosts has damaged many links and altered areas that will take time to restore.