Proof of God and the Bible Part 2

You know, we as human beings, we want meaning in our lives. We want purpose. We want to feel meaning, and we want to feel purpose. That's just natural, and God made us that way. But where does real meaning and purpose of life begin? Where does real meaning and purpose of life begin?

Where would it start? In order to have real meaning and purpose in life, where would it start? With the deep conviction that God exists. Because that is the bedrock, the foundation, square one of real meaning and purpose in life. It starts with your personal conviction that God exists. This is the central core issue of life. There's nothing more central and core to life than this issue. As I did two weeks ago, and I continue today, I want to go back to Hebrews 11 verse 6.

This is in the faith chapter, as we all know this chapter to be called, to be named. And in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, we understand this issue that without faith, it's impossible to please God. So we know that faith has to be a part of our lives, yes, if we want to please God. But notice what the faith towards God or the conviction or the trust towards God starts with. Where He that comes to God must believe that He is, that He exists, that He's there, that there is a God.

And of course, on the heels of that, added to that, but that which would not make sense if you did not believe God existed, then how could someone who doesn't exist or whom you doubt exist reward you? Well, I'm thinking God in case He is there, but I'm not sure He is. So again, the most central core issue is God's existence. For He that comes to God must believe that He is.

Three bold statements. I won't turn back to them, but I did cover them, as you know, previously. And those three statements are these. The first one was 2 Timothy 3.16. 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture, not 50% of it, but even only 90%. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

And the second bold statement is found in John 1717. John 1717, your word is truth. Your word is truth. And now that in every category that the Bible touches upon and gives information, no matter what the category is, it's accurate. And then the third bold statement is the line, a phrase that's found in John 10.35.

And in John 10.35, this phrase in that verse is, The Scripture cannot be broken. So you take those three, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Your word, the Bible, is truth. And the Scripture cannot be broken. If these three statements are true, then you have proven both God and the Bible. You're not just proving one, you're proving both God and the Bible. So again, the subject today and the title also is, Proof of God and the Bible, Part 2. Proof of God and the Bible, Part 2. When somebody says to me, Mr. V, you believe in God, right?

Sure I do. Well, I'm glad that you have that faith. I'm glad your faith is strong enough to believe that there's a God. And you believe there's a God strictly because of faith, right? No, no, sir, no, ma'am. I have faith. I live by faith, yes. But no, I don't believe there's a God just based on faith alone because that God who is there has given me concrete, tangible evidences that He's there, that He exists. And of course, I covered some of those things, obviously, two weeks ago when I was here in Part 1.

God gives us concrete, tangible evidence of His existence. Now, in proceeding today with some other examples, again, I'll say the Bible is physiologically, medically, and scientifically accurate. It truly is. Let's start today with Leviticus 11. Leviticus chapter 11. And being a student of the Bible, being students of the Bible, you may automatically recognize that that's one of the chapters that deals with clean and unclean meat. Because it's in this chapter here where God lays out, well, this is what I created that if you choose to eat it, you can eat it. This I have created. You're not to choose to eat it because I did not make it to be humanly consumed.

Now, if you want to eat meat, this here is okay. But this over here is not okay to eat. So, here in chapter 11 and verse 3, with the land animals, "...whosoever parts the hoof, divides the hoof, is cloven, footed, and chews the could, among the beast you shall eat." That's like cattle, a cow, deer, you know, they're certain animals. They have to have both. Now, some animals are cloven-footed, divided hoof, but they don't chew the could.

Some animals maybe chew the could, but they don't have a divided hoof. God made it easy to where you can look at the critter, you can look at the animals. They've got a divided hoof and they choose the could. It's clean. And if it doesn't have both of those, it's not. So, that is very easy to determine. He gives a way to identify, to recognize. Now, move to the sea life.

Verse 9, "...these shall you eat of all that are in the waters. Whosoever has fins and scales in the water, in the seas, and the rivers, them shall you eat." You want to eat fish? Okay, if it has both fins and scales, you can eat it.

Clearly marked. If you've got to skin the fish, you can't eat it. And you know, catfish, they don't have scales. But anyway, it's easy. It's everything of the sea that does not have both fins and scales can be eliminated as far as human consumption.

Now, that's God's design. And that's God's will. But here's what's interesting. Of course, the birds, he gives instructions about the birds. Here's what's interesting. Each listed as unclean has a disease or a parasite or a worm that's very difficult to kill by ordinary cooking or otherwise. My father-in-law, he died in 1998, Angela's father. He had a career with Swift Meat Company.

He wasn't called. He wasn't in the church. He didn't know the truth. Angela's mother did.

And Angela grew up in the truth. But her father would bring meat in for her mother to cook for him. She wouldn't eat it, of course, the pork he would bring in. But he would tell Angela's mother, cook it to blank death. You fill in the blank. But that was his statement. He wanted it like a burn offering, practically, because he worked with meat. And he knew that if you didn't cook it to death, you had no chance of killing some of the stuff that was in it that he wanted dead before he would eat it. And of course, we think, well, why even eat it to begin with, you know? But he understood about the meat. Do you know when slaughterhouses... of course, when they get a load of beef in to butcher in the process, and they've done it, they have to clean up after it before the next batch of animals come in. The measures they take for cleaning up after beef are much less than after pork. When they bring in a bunch of pigs and slaughter them, they have to go to extra measures to clean the place up before they bring in the beef.

Generally, as a basic rule in the slaughterhouses, as they work with beef or pork, they wear gloves.

And years ago, I knew a man whose brother worked at a slaughterhouse.

And he said that his brother had related how that when the beef comes in, and you're working with them, if you don't have a pair of gloves on and you've got a cut on your finger and you're working with this raw meat, it doesn't get infected. But how that if you're not working with gloves on with pork and you've got a cut, you risk getting your finger infected from the pork. Even his brother knew that there is a major difference. Now, I lay that out there because that's in the Bible, and this was written thousands of years ago before modern-day technology.

How did Moses know that? See, what I'm saying is, if there's no God, and Moses just made this up and wrote this, which is 100% accurate, and there's no God above, and it's just a man doing it, how did he know? How did he know? But if there is a God who's inspired Scripture, and it's accurate, and this is accurate, what I just mentioned is accurate. It's a proof of inspiration and insight above the human level. Moses was raised in Egypt. Where did he get his knowledge? There is a statement in Acts 7, verse 22, when Stephen was before the Sanhedrin, and he's basically preaching a message to them. But in Acts 7, and verse 22 is this phrase, Moses was learned, that is, educated, in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Think about it.

This Hebrew baby, this Israelites baby, put on the waters of the Nile there at a place where the princess hopefully would find the baby, and of course God obviously inspiring this, and for to find baby Moses, drawn from the waters, a babe who grew up in Pharaoh's court as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. Think about this. Moses was potentially in line to be Pharaoh. He had a shot at it. But here's the main thing about that. Because he was raised in Pharaoh's household, he had access to everything that the children of Pharaoh had.

All education, whatever education there was, he was taught all of the military arts. He knew how to use the sword, the spear, weaponry, the shields, how to command armies. He was taught as a general.

He was taught all the academics they had. He was taught all these things. This is why Stephen said he was learned. He was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Now, there is a book. It's out of print now, I'm sure. Some of you have a copy. I have a copy. You probably can still get it, maybe on Amazon or whatever, but titled, None of These Diseases by S. I. McMillan, M.D., medical doctor. S. I. McMillan, medical doctor. None of these diseases.

And here is an excerpt from that book, which is a quote from the Papyrus Ebers. The Papyrus Ebers was a medical book written in Egypt about 1552 BC.

This shows you some of the wisdom, quote, they had. And I'll just read. This is from chapter 1, and it's titled, Gray Hair and Rattlesnake Oil.

To prevent the hair from turning gray, anointed with the blood of a black calf, which has been boiled in oil or with the fat of a rattlesnake.

This prescription comes from the famous Papyrus Ebers, a medical book written in Egypt about 1552 BC. Since Egypt occupied the dominant position in the ancient medical world, the Papyrus is of great importance as a record of the medical knowledge of that day.

The book also contains prescriptions for people who are losing hair. When it falls out, one remedy is to apply a mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake, and the ibex. To strengthen it, anoint with the tooth of a donkey crushed in honey. An extra special hairdressing for the Egyptian queen, Seshes, consisted of equal parts of a hill of an Abyssinian greyhound, date blossoms, and donkey's hooves, boiled in oil. The choice preparation was intended to make the royal hair grow. To save victims bitten by poisonous snakes, positions of that day gave them magic water to drink, water that had been poured over a special idol. To embed splinters, they applied worm's blood and donkey dung. Since dung is loaded with tetanus spores, it is little wonder that lockjaw took a heavy toll of splinter cases.

Several hundred remedies for diseases are advised in the papyrus aeburs.

The drugs include lizards' blood, swine's teeth, putrid meat, sninking fat, moisture from pigs' ears, milk goose grease, donkey's hooves, animal fats from various sources, excreta from animals, including human beings, donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats, and even flies.

About the time this Egyptian medical book was written, Moses was born in Egypt. Although his parents were Israelites, he was raised in the royal court and was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. There is little doubt that he was well acquainted with the medical knowledge of his time. Many thousands of the Israelites also knew and no doubt had used some of the common remedies mentioned in the papyrus aeburs. So, if you go by the medical knowledge of the day, none of this in Leviticus 11, 5. And what's known now, again, about what is listed as unclean, but we didn't know until modern-day technology. But let's look at something else. Leviticus 17.

Leviticus 17. Leviticus 17. Leviticus 17. Leviticus 17. Leviticus 11. And in verse 14, it says, And in verse 14, it says, For it is the life of all flesh, the blood of it is for the life thereof. How did Moses know that the life of the flesh is in the blood? Your toes were covered with flesh. Your whole body is covered with flesh. Your whole body is made of flesh, made of matter, wondrously put together by God. And you have trillions of cells, and the life that's in every cell is dependent on the blood.

How did Moses know that the blood goes to every cell of the body? It gets into the individual cells eventually, going single file as cells in the tiny little capillaries, and through a process of osmosis, the blood, which has been oxidized with oxygen in the lungs and nutrients from the digestive tract, takes the fuel into the cell and the oxygen that's needed to combust it. The process is called osmosis, where it goes through the wall of the cell, into the cell with oxygen and fuel, and it combusts in a miraculous, miniscule factory.

It combusts in a way to produce energy, and then the carbon dioxide and the waste products are pressured out the other side of the cell, and into the vein system and back.

That whole process that's needed for life, and every cell is involved, and cells that cease to be involved die.

So how did Moses know how all that works? He didn't. He wrote it by inspiration.

Now, George Washington, called the father of our country, even as recent as the 1700s, and maybe slightly into the 1800s of waste, but certainly in the 1700s, the doctors almost killed George Washington. Because back at that time, there was a practice of, if you're sick, you've got a fever, you're failing, bleed him. They cut you. Because the theory was, you've got bad blood. And the bad blood is killing you. You've got bad blood.

So cut him, bleed him, he'll get better. So they cut George. I mean, that was standard medical practice. They cut George Washington, and he bled. He didn't get better. Well, we didn't bleed him enough. So they cut him some more and bled him some more. They got him pretty close to death before they finally realized, we can't cut him anymore. We've got to leave this alone. And he did recover, obviously. But medical knowledge was so far off base, period, to the way the human body works.

Let's go to Genesis 17.

These are things. There is knowledge. There is accurate descriptions.

There's accuracy, even in medical terms, in the Bible thousands of years ago that men were not aware of.

And sometimes, like with Abraham obeying God, he may or may not have been made aware of why it was to be done a certain way.

But now with technology, we know why certain things were done a certain way from a physiological standpoint. So in Genesis 17, verse 12, with the covenant of circumcision, that God gave to Abraham.

Notice here in verse 12 of Genesis 17, Why eight days? He that is eight days old.

Abraham, if there's no God and Abraham was just trying to set something up, why did he pick eight days?

He wouldn't have known, but God knew because God's the one who created us. There are two prime blood clotting agents. One is vitamin K, and the other is prothrumbin. Vitamin K is not formed in the normal amount until the fifth to seventh day of life.

The first safe day to perform circumcision would be the eighth day.

Now, many times they give a baby a newborn baby boy because it's convenient to do it this way.

Unless you've specified with them, checked it out, got it arranged ahead of time.

In most cases, what they do with the newborn baby, they give it a shot of blood clotting agents.

But this artificial method does not always mean it will be effectively assimilated, nor that the baby's body is ready to process it properly. But they give a shot of vitamin K and maybe prothrumbin because they know that the baby's blood is not prepared to coagulate like it should if they have any surgery or a cut-on.

Prothrumbin is only 30% of normal on the third day of the baby's life. Third day of the baby's life is at 30%.

It skyrockets to 110% of normal on the eighth day. It peaks and then thumbs on the eighth day. And vitamin K peaks. By the eighth day, it peaks. So the eighth day is the safest day to do it. Again, how did Abraham know that? It doesn't matter whether he knew it or didn't. And the only way he could have known it is if God told him because there was no way to technologically know.

But he knew he was told to do it on the eighth day, so he did it on the eighth day. Because God who created us, God knew.

Again, where did Moses get his knowledge and understanding? Because it takes microscopes to see some of these things. We're talking about not just microscopes, but very powerful microscopes, electron microscopes, and some of these cases. These things could not have been discovered at that time or known until these latter ages, many in this century, and some in these very recent times.

Notice with me Genesis 3 and verse 15. Genesis 3 and verse 15. This is the account where Adam and Eve are being corrected for their sinning that's costing them the garden. And God hits Adam. Well, it's the woman's fault. He hits Eve. It's the devil's fault. The serpent's fault. He hits the devil. Then he starts back up with Eve and with Adam. But when he's talking to the devil, here in verse 15, he says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. It shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise this hill. And as we know, this is the very first prophecy of the Messiah. Okay, that's a nice poetic way of putting it. Woman actually has no seed. It's just a nice way of speaking of a descendant or her descendants. But as far as actual seed of woman, everybody knows that's just poetry right there, the way it's expressed. Guess what? The first seed of woman was photographed around 1922. Around 1922, they actually got a photograph of the first seed of woman. The egg, the ovum, the seed, the ovum, plural. There's something else they have discovered too as far as the seed of woman. Every baby girl is born with all of the ovum that she'll ever produce in her lifetime, her childbearing years. What happens when she comes to puberty and they start maturing, then on the alternating basis, as we know, one month it's one ovary, the next month it's next, they alternate. But as those eggs or those seeds mature, they're released. They're already there. And as they mature, they are released. Again, things that could not have been known back then that are accurate, even by way of expression. But on the heels of that, let's look at Acts 17, 26. I want to point out something that's quite interesting and significant. Acts 17, this is Mars Hill, the Acropolis. All the philosophers, you know, they're in this Grecian area. And Paul takes opportunity to tell them about what they call the Unknown Guide. And Paul, the Apostle, starts speaking to them about the Unknown Guide. And here's one of the things he says about the Unknown Guide to them, but God the Father whom He knew and we know. He says of God in verse 26, and has made of, notice carefully, one blood, all nations of men, were to dwell on all the face of the earth. All nations from one blood, blacks, whites, reds, yellows, browns, all nations made of one blood. We all know there's only been one time when there was one blood that was Adam and Eve.

We all know that if you could and did trace back every person and people all the way back, you would eventually get back to Adam and Eve. Period. That's the one blood. How did God make from one blood all nations?

It's quite simple. Like I said, a baby girl, when she is born, she has the ova. It's not matured, but it's there in the ovaries. When God created Eve, He created her as a full-grown, developed woman.

She contained in her ovaries all the ova that she would ever release. For the Creator God, it was so simple for Him to make some of those ova. Black pigmented, white pigmented, yellow pigmented, red pigmented, brown pigmented. Eve had babies of all colors. Period.

Again, we scientifically know the eggs are there. We photographed them. It's a simple thing for God to start off the human races through Mother Eve by simply giving her differently pigmented eggs. How does life begin? Let me just refresh our minds a little bit. Two lifestyles come together, and now they have, with technology, when the male lifestyle and the female lifestyle come together, there's a spark.

That's interesting. But when they come together, those two lifestyles, at the very instant they come together at conception, a brand new blueprint of a brand new unique human being is created right then. It's a blueprint. You have two cells. They have united. There is conception. And the DNA is established right then at that very instant, whether it's going to be a boy or a girl, whether it's going to be curly-headed, blonde, brunette, all of that is in the blueprint right there at that time.

But what do you have? Do you have fingers? No. Do you have a beating heart? No. Do you have legs? No. Do you have eyes and ears? No. You've got two cells, and then what do they do? They divide. And in just a very little short time, you've got to clump the cells, right? You still have no fingers, no arms, no legs, no eyes.

And I think, what is it? 21 days when you get a heartbeat? But as this new life has opportunity to fill out the blueprint, it has in normal, healthy situations, it has nine months. And the baby develops over those nine months. There comes a point where little appendages begin to appear. There comes a point in the continuance of time and growth following the blueprint, that arms and fingers and legs and toes and eyes and nose and ears all begin to shape up and form.

That's how the process goes. And by a number of months before we're actually ready for birth, the baby is pretty well fully formed with everything, at least by view. Of course, it still needs time to strengthen lungs and other parts to grow stronger and all of that. And we know, of course, premis can, with technology to help out, they can survive. But the full length of a normal, healthy time of development is nine months. And then they're born.

But there's a whole process of continuity that flows along. And guess why? If we could somehow read that blueprint that's established of this brand new human being at conception, when it's only two cells that have come together and united, if we could read the blueprint and know, we could know, if it's a boy or a girl, we could know what it's going to be nine months later, as far as its development and all of that.

But it's also, with the blueprint, it's like a book. There's so much to it. Just like with some major projects in construction, you look at the blueprint, you're looking at like a book. You know, this high-rise building, here's the blueprint of it, what it's going to be. And you've got a book here, and of course, it really details everything out. Do you know that there's a place in the Bible that mentions DNA and the whole process? People don't think of it, they don't realize what they're reading.

But it is the DNA process. It's the process of conception and of the baby developing over time as you go through the nine months. It's in Psalm 139. David was the one that God used to write this. It is a description of the whole conception, DNA, blueprint, continuance, growth, development of a baby. Psalm 139, and let's pick it up in verse 14. David says, David says, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows right well.

Well, I know that. Notice, my substance was not hid from you. God can see the development in the womb. My substance was not hid from you when I was made in secret. You don't physically look at a pregnant woman and see the baby being formed in her. You know the baby is being formed in her, but you don't see it. And curiously, rolled in the lowest parts of the earth, and in part, to some degree, reference to of the sixteen elements of the earth were made.

Now, notice what he says in verse 16. Your eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, or that is, yet being incomplete, undeveloped. Because if you and I had the power to read the blueprint, we would know exactly what that baby is and it's going to look like nine months later. We don't have that power. Although with technology, they can determine very early if it's going to be a boy or a girl with certain technology.

But God is the one who created how this works. He can do that. And in your book, the way God created the DNA, the blueprint to work, in your book, notice, all my members were written. That's what you find in a blueprint. It's written down in the blueprint.

Which, in continuance, the fact that the clump of cells doesn't die, the fact that the clump of cells continues to divide, that another day passes, another week, a month, and in the continuance of things going on, they're fashioned. All my members were written which in or by the continuance of the process were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. It is a very accurate description of conception and development in the womb from the beginning through the process of all being developed. Read with me something in Jeremiah 1, verse 5.

How did David know that? There's no way that if God did, God inspired him to write it, and if God taught him and told him exactly what the process was, he knew obviously, but what is written, my point is, what is written is accurate to the process, and there's no way that human beings on their own could have known that. Notice when God picked Jeremiah and told Jeremiah that he was to be a prophet.

Notice what he says in chapter 1, verse 5. Before I formed you in the belly, how long does it take to be formed in the belly? It takes nine months. When is the beginning of that process? Conception. When has the DNA established the blueprint of you as a human being? At conception. Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. I said, God can read a blueprint and know exactly everything about you, your physical makeup and all of that. And before you came forth out of the womb, when did He come forth out of the womb?

When His mother went into labor and gave birth to Him, nine months after the beginning of His life at conception. I sanctified you, I set you apart, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Think of this. There came time when God wanted a certain prophet, and He wanted a prophet that He would ordain to go to the nations. It's a simple thing for God to take Jeremiah's parents and make it possible for them to get pregnant.

And by the way, God's the one who made it possible for Sarah to get pregnant. Sarah could not get pregnant, but God made it possible for Sarah to have a seed and Abraham to impregnate that and for them to have Isaac. And that was God making it possible for them to have a child between them.

God not only can make it possible for Jeremiah's parents to have a child that He is going to ordain as a prophet to serve His purposes, but God could also see that when those two life cells came together, in a certain specific way with genes and chromosomes, to equip this being that He is going to bring about into existence in that sense, that He's equipped with what He's going to need as a prophet.

And He can cause the right chromosomes and genes to come together in a way that there will be certain capacities and aptitudes and all involved with Jeremiah, for He is equipped with the tools necessary to be able. I mean, God could give him a photographic memory if He wanted to. Whatever. Anyway, it's interesting.

Let's go to Ezekiel 3. Have you noticed in God giving instruction to His prophets sometimes? Have you noticed a phrase that He sometimes uses? Not just with His prophets, it's with other human beings too, sometimes with the very carnal, the very stubborn and the very carnal. Notice Ezekiel 3 in verse 8. Talking to Ezekiel, behold, I have made your face strong against their faces. And notice what He says, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Now read verse 9. As an adamant, harder than flint have I made your forehead. Now, this is just a side point, but Ezekiel is converted. He's a prophet. He's got faith. You and I have faith. You ever stop to think how that sometimes you just have to have fortitude with your faith, that you've got to set your head to do what's right and come whatever? You're going to do what's right regardless? You set your mind. You set your will. As an adamant, harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not. Neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. Why does he mention the forehead? Because that's what holds the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe of the brain is your will. That's where your will is.

That's where your free moral agency is. That's where your decision-making service is. Now, your eyeballs, your looking, your seeing, the sight pictures is put on the back of your brain. And of course, you've got different places in your brain where things are stored. But your will, your will, your free moral agency, your power of choice resides in the frontal lobe of the brain.

That's the decision-making area. And that is why God is saying what He does to Ezekiel. And with technology, in what we call modern times, we have more than proven that that's the seat of the will.

In mental institutions and asylums, up until, I'll just say, fairly deep into the last century, there was a type of surgery that was done in mental institutions with some people. It's called a hot-wire lobotomy. And they would go up through the nose with what they called a hot-wire, and they would sever the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain and turn the person into a zombie.

Because they basically take away their will, their free moral agency. Make a zombie of them. Many years ago, when Jack Nicholson was a young man, he started in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And he was a very strong-willed individual. He was misplaced in the institution. And when he got out of hand, there at the end of the movie, they took him away to a location. And when they brought him back, one of his companions observed him when they put him to bed, because they'd made a zombie out of him.

And you could see in this case where they had done the surgery near the temples to go in, just small incisions to go in and sever the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain. And the movie ended with him being a zombie. And the big guy that was his friend did escape. But anyway, if you saw the movie, you know what I'm talking about. So, you read things like this in the Bible. And there's a reason it's worded that way, because it's accurate. When you set your will, you're dealing with the frontal lobe of your brain.

Your freemoral agency is in the frontal lobe, which is housed in the forehead. And why is it so many times if you get too hard a blow on the forehead, it affects your cognitive abilities? Psalm 104, verse 15. Psalm 104, verse 15. Oh, this is a nice little read. I understand this. I get this.

Psalm 104, verse 15. And wine that makes glad the heart of man. Have a nice glass of wine. Maybe a couple. And you know, you just feel better. We understand you don't need any special insight to know that, right? Anybody who has a glass of wine or two can understand, makes glad the heart of man. And this next one, oil to make his face to shine. You put oil on your face, it shines, and you don't need any special insight to know that, do you?

And what about this next one? And bread which strengthens man's heart. Oh yeah, you're feeling real weak and you're hungry and you've got to have something to eat. And bread or sustenance, whatever, you eat and you immediately feel stronger and feel better. You're strengthened.

Oh yeah, I get that. But let's take it down to another level on that last statement. Let's take it deeper. Does bread literally strengthen the heart? The most common source of bread throughout history, like Egypt, was the granary for Rome. It was wheat. Tremendous shipments of wheat to Rome. The Roman soldier marched for the cruise of water and many times two pounds of wheat and a bag on his side. Wheat has been the main staple of bread throughout history. Well, guess what? Wheat, the wheat germ especially, but in wheat you have vitamin E.

What does vitamin E do? Vitamin E strengthens the heart muscle. I mean, literally, physically, bread in the form of wheat with vitamin E literally strengthens the heart muscle. That's why people today, nutritionists, will recommend vitamin E for heart issues and stuff. Of course, you've got to be careful. You could overdo it. You can overdo it with anything. But again, look at that statement, and bread which strengthens man's heart. There's more to it than just making him feel better. It actually is nutritionally accurate. And let's just think about prophecy for a moment. In regards to, and I'm not going to turn back there, Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.

Those two chapters, Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. The four world-ruling empires. Okay, Daniel is writing this. And the first world-ruling empire, he obviously is a part of it. He's serving Nebuchadnezzar. He's serving in the court. He's serving there. It's the Babylonians. So they say, well, it didn't take any special inspiration for him to know about Babylon because he was part of it in the sense that he was a captive. He served in the court. He was there. So we'll give him that one. He lived to be an old man. And he lived to the time that the Babylonian was superseded by the second world-ruling empire, the Medo-Persian.

Now, we'll go ahead and give him that one. Because he served in the Medo-Persian court for a time. So we'll give him that one. But the next world-ruling empire, the third one, was Greek. Greco-Macedonian, Macedonian Greek, Greek. Alexander the Great. You can't give him that one because he was long dead before that one ever came along. So how did he know that? And it is accurate. How did he know it? How did he know about that one? And what about the fourth one, the Roman one? How did he know that which is going to come hundreds and hundreds of years later?

How did he know about that one? He didn't. He couldn't. And yet, those prophecies are accurate. Totally accurate. And how did he know about the seven revivals? He couldn't. But it could be given to him by God, who does. Talk about prophecy. And I will probably give a sermon or two at a later time regarding this subject.

But when you look at Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and the twelve sons of Israel, of Jacob, and you look at Joseph, and you look at Ephraim and Manasseh, and you follow the promises, you find that there were two brothers. This is in the Bible. It's in Scripture. There were two brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were promised to become the greatest empire that the world has ever seen, and the greatest single nation that the world has ever seen.

And the two brothers of Britain and America have fulfilled that promise. And nobody else in the six thousand years of human history has fulfilled that period. In Daniel, and I'm not going to turn back there, but in verse 4, I think I will turn back there. And if I go a bit of overtime, it won't be much. In Daniel 12, in verse 4, Daniel is told, he says, but you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end.

And he tells him in verse 13 of Daniel 12, he says, but you go your way to the end. You shall rest. You're going to die and stand in your light. Be resurrected at the end of the days. Because it's at the end of this age that Christ is coming back and the resurrection will take place. But notice what he told Daniel in verse 4, many shall run to and fro. Never have we been able to traverse this earth like we do now.

I mean, we run all over the earth. We fly here, we fly there. We know it's the jet age, the space age. But then notice also, and knowledge shall be increased. If we're not living in a time when knowledge has been increased, whenever will be. Because as you know, and as I know, I can get in tonight and if I think of something and want to research it or know or get a question, I just go sit down on my computer, hit a button or two, and okay, there's the knowledge I need.

It is the day and age of knowledge, and it was prophesied. Also, notice Revelation 11. Revelation 11 is about the two witnesses. It's about two individuals of God who will stand up and preach during the Great Tribulation to the whole world.

And they can't be shut up until their testimony is finished. And after three and a half years when their testimony is finished, they will be killed. God will allow them to die a martyrdom of death. And they will lie in the streets of Jerusalem, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified.

Chapter 11, verse 8, identifies it. It spiritually calls Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified, and we know that He was crucified in Jerusalem.

Notice verse 9, And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations, shall see, visually see, no matter where they are on the planet, they will be able to visually see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. It's only in the day of modern technology that that was even possible to be fulfilled as written. But now, as we know, it can be. One other thing to mention as I wrap this up. Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22. Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22. Two thousand years ago, the one who claimed to be the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Messiah, gave this prophecy two thousand years ago. Because He had been asked about what's the end of the age, what's the sign of your coming, and the sign of the end of the age. And He says, verse 21, For then shall be great tribulations, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, never shall be, and except those days should be shortened. If those days aren't cut short, if the course that is running at that time is allowed to run to its conclusion, and those days aren't cut short, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, the church's sake, those days shall be shortened. Otherwise, there should no flesh be saved. The year I was born, 1950. Four years previous to that, on July the 16th, actually five years before that, July the 16th, 1945, on the white sands of New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was exploded. That was the birth of the nuclear age. Five years later, the year I was born, 1950, there was enough nuclear weaponry already stockpiled by that point to destroy all life on the planet at least once over. And until the nuclear age, there was no way with black powder, smokeless powder, sticks, stones, swords, spears to ever kill all life. Because somebody would survive. That's no longer the case. If and when we ever have all-out nuclear war, there will be no survivors. Christ will come back before that actually happens. When I was living in Tallahassee, Florida, as a young man in my 20s and on into my 30s, and pastoring churches there in Tallahassee and Moultrie, Georgia, one day I received a phone call from this young lady. She was the student at Florida State University, and she was taking a course on religion, like world religions. She had grown up in the church, but she wasn't attending. I had never met her. But the reason she was calling me, she wanted to interview me on the phone regarding our church beliefs and all, and she was doing research for her project, her class. So we were on the phone about an hour, and I was answering her questions about doctrine and this and that. And then when basically we were through, I said, let me ask you something. I said 2,000 years ago, roughly, one who claimed to be the Son of God, who claimed to be the Messiah, prophesied the very time in which we are now living, that you and I are living. You know, we are living in the shadow of the bomb. I grew up in the shadow of the bomb. I said, when He prophesied that, it was not possible to destroy all life, period. Now, it is possible to destroy all life on the planet. If He were not the Son of God, if He were not the Messiah, how did He know this? She basically said, that's a good point, because she couldn't say anything else, because she didn't want to admit the obvious, and she couldn't deny it. And my point to her was about the undeniably and the inspiration of the Bible. See, the inspiration of the Bible, these things, and other things that are there too, that you could use, but the inspiration of the Bible proves both God and the Bible.