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It Is Written Canada

Beyond Questions

Chris Holland

What Is the Meaning of Life

God's book, the Bible, still relevant in today's complex world.

It is written, sharing messages of hope around the world.

Friend, I'm so glad you've made the choice to join us today on It Is Written.

But then there are bigger questions of life.

Philosophers and scholars alike have wrestled with these questions for ages, asking question after question after question.

Yet the challenge they face is often they just continue to ask questions and never find an answer.

But today on It Is Written, we go beyond questions to find answers.

And I am so glad to have joining me today, John Bradshaw, Speaker Director for It Is Written International.

John, so glad to have you here in Canada.

Now, John, you are with It Is Written International and we're going to talk about that in just a moment, but you've been doing a little traveling lately.

Where have you come to and from to get here in Toronto?

Before that in Malaysia, Eastern Malaysia, beautiful place.

Not too long before that we were in parts of Europe.

But the point is not traveling for traveling's sake.

It's to take the Bible and share Jesus and help people find answers.

Now, some of our viewers might be a little confused because It Is Written Canada, It Is Written International.

There's a little bit of history there, John.

How are these ministries similar yet different?

Well, about 60 years ago a man named George Vandermond began an organization called It Is Written and was inspired by God to head north of the border, meet up with a man named Henry Feyerabend, a legend, a giant in the Christian world who then began It Is Written Canada.

So, we're cousins or brothers or something, but I'm glad we're connected.

We operate in Canada for that Canadian audience.

It is written international, has a broader scope by going around the world, but headquartered down in the US, just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, with a distinct mission as well.

And so I'm so glad that we can partner together and work together to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus.

Now, John, you know, as we talk about pastors and preachers, 1 of the things that's very interesting is there have been a great deal of news stories done on pastors who preach the Gospel but then you find out their life outside of their preaching doesn't match what they've been saying.

And so I want to take just a moment to, and actually part of this show, this show where we ask the question, what is the meaning of life?

I want to take a moment just to get to know you a little bit.

John, did you come from your mom a preacher?

Tell us a little bit about where your beginnings and your start in life.

And you know, so you know, New Zealanders feel a strong kinship to Canada and Canadians.

We're both part of the British Commonwealth and we have some similar terms and frames of reference and we think warmly of Canadians, you know.

So, I was born and raised in New Zealand and had the benefit of being raised in a church going home.

I sense that you're going to make a distinction to help us understand what you mean by church going home.

Yeah, you know, I'd like to be able to say a Bible believing home but that's not really true.

We were religious and we went to church every Sunday and church was a very, very big part of our lives, no question.

And dad led by example, did the very best he could but it wasn't a place that was especially Christian.

You know, we did our thing and church was what you did on Sunday or perhaps on other days.

It was religiosity but it wasn't anything that really went to the heart and converted the heart.

We were followers of the church, no doubt, but I'm not sure we were followers of Jesus.

I think a lot of people can relate to that.

They say, boy, this really isn't anything.

I go through the motions, but that's all.

So, that's where I was, raised in a churchy home.

We were committed to that, but that's all it was.

I grew up in a home where we were also church-going people.

Now, I know at a very young age, I became disillusioned with the church because of some things that had happened.

Where did your course of life take you as you were in this church-going home?

I was an altar boy in my church, which meant that during the church service I assisted the priest.

We never had anything scandalous take place.

And that can happen in any denomination I know.

But we had good priests as far as we knew, good guys, great nuns.

Good people, you know, good salt of the earth people.

But I started having questions about what I was being taught.

We would hear various things spoken from the altar, from what I guess you'd say the pulpit.

But as I thought about them, they didn't seem to ring true, you know, even contradictory things.

And so as a kid I'm saying, this just doesn't add up.

Now, we were taught not to ask questions, but the questions are there.

What Are the Odds?

♪♪ Thank you so much for joining us today on It Is Written.

You know, questions form the very foundation of relationships and conversations.

That's how you get to know someone, by asking questions.

But if conversations were simply composed of question after question after question, and there were no answers, well, we wouldn't get to know that person.

And so we are on a journey with our series, Beyond Questions.

We need to go beyond just asking questions, but we need to find answers.

And during this series, I am privileged to have a dear friend of mine, John Bradshaw, Speaker Director for It Is Written International.

I'm so glad that you've been able to join me as we journey to find answers to some of the big questions in life.

You know, the Apostle Paul talked about people who are ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.

And many people have this experience where it's all questions, but I'm not finding anything I can really hang my hat on.

So as we open up the Bible and talk more, I think we'll share some things that will help folks understand that there's something really solid, trustworthy, and believable in the world today.

And you talked about this, you use those words, and I like those words, solid and trustworthy.

You know, last week as we talked, we talked about your personal journey and finding and asking that question, What is the real meaning of life?

And finding the real meaning in life is finding God's purpose for me as an individual, and then being obedient to the end of that purpose.

If there is a God, I believe there is, and if He was responsible for generating our lives, and no doubt about that, then he must have a purpose for us.

Otherwise, none of it really makes sense.

Some people quit because they're discouraged or dissuaded or can't find answers.

But if you don't quit, but you press on, determined to have God show you His purpose for your life.

And that's when life becomes filled with meaning.

And there are many people, some of them watching today, who are discouraged, who are discontented, because Just like in your story, maybe they've grown up in the church, or maybe they've observed church from the outside and seen that there aren't answers.

And I'm going to use a really strong word, but that word hypocrisy, where something's being said but not actually practiced.

You and I, I'm sure, have both heard many people say, there are too many hypocrites in the church.

Well, yes there are, but there are probably hypocrites in Canada too, but You wouldn't have someone from Saskatchewan saying, well, I'm leaving and I'm going to move to Australia because there are too many hypocrites in Canada.

It's when we find them in the church, they push us out of the church and that shouldn't happen.

And in fact, as I pastored churches, people would say that, especially young people would say to me, pastor, the church is full of hypocrites.

And I say, yes, I know that's why they're here trying to find God's purpose.

And so we talked about finding God's purpose in his word, But there may be someone out there asking the question, can we really trust God's Word?

Is God's Word, what are the odds that this book really is what it says it is?

That's a question that everybody should answer.

Even if you've been raised in the church all your life, you need to come to the place where you're convinced that the Bible is what it claims to be, or that you're convinced it isn't.

And people ought to know why they believe what they believe, or that they can believe what they believe.

It's an intelligent question, can we believe the Bible?

1 of the things I think it might make sense for us to do is to go to a Bible story, a Bible story, and in our next show, we're going to talk about prophecy specifically, but we're going to go to a prophecy today, a predictive prophecy, a prophecy that looks at the future.

If the Bible is what it says it is, then any prediction in the Bible should come true and give us a basis to believe what this book says.

People should be able to hold the Bible's feet to the fire, if I can mix my metaphors.

If the Bible is what people say it is, it should stack up.

So, the predictive prophecies ought to mean something, mean something valid.

Let's look at a classic predictive prophecy in the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 2.

And as we open our Bibles to Daniel chapter 2, we could spend a lot of time talking about the history of where we arrive at Daniel 2, but just to summarize, Jerusalem has been conquered by the Babylonians.

The Babylonians take a group of nobility back to Babylon, and Daniel is 1 of the young men taken back to Babylon.

We don't know exactly how old he is, but he is in his late teens, probably 17, 18, 19 years old, he goes to Babylon and I love the book of Daniel, so we could, but they go through a process of removing Daniel's identification by taking away his home, taking away his food, taking away his name, taking away his ability to reproduce.

But then he goes to the University of Babylon and the testimony of Daniel chapter 1 is, at the end of that, through prayer, through God's guidance, Daniel finds that purpose that we talked about in our last show, and his purpose is to be a wise counselor in Babylon.

And the Bible says that he's actually found to be 10 times smarter than the rest of his classmates who were from Babylon.

But now we hear appear in Daniel chapter 2.

And so John, maybe give us a little context.

King Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest man on the planet, has a dream.

Not just any old dream, it's an impressive dream.

It stirs him so much so that he wakes up.

And he wants to remember the dream, but he cannot recall it.

Now, why this is significant is because the monarchs believe the gods communicated with them through dreams.

And interestingly, God was communicating with them through this dream.

And he says, I've got to know the dream but I can't remember what it was.

And I want to know what it means, but how can I if I don't know what it was?" So, he calls his wise men together, and maybe I should read something here in verse 3, his counselors?

Daniel 2, verse 3, And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

They say in verse 4, so tell us what the dream was, and we'll interpret it.

Yes, and that's always been, I've always appreciated that of the astrologers and the wise men, Just tell us the dream, we'll give you the interpretation.

Well, all of us know, if I tell you a dream, you can just make anything up.

He said, the thing is gone from me, if you will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

We have no reason to doubt his seriousness.

And where this gets really interesting is that Daniel and his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were considered to be part of the king's cadre of wise men.

And when he said, execute them all, that included them.

Now, I don't know why they weren't present at that first interview, but they were not.

The executioner actually comes for Daniel.

Hi, I've come to kill you because of something the King has said.

He gets an explanation and he asks for a little time.

If you just give us some time, we'll get back to the King with an interpretation.

What Does the Future Hold?

Dear friend, I am so glad that you've made the choice to join It Is Written today.

There's no doubt in my mind that you will be inspired by the things that you hear today.

You know, a true seeker asks questions, lots and lots of questions.

But in order to seek, it means that eventually we'll find, and that means we must get the answers to those questions.

We've been in the midst of a series beyond questions, seeking to find an answer.

Today, I am so glad to continue this series of programs with John Bradshaw, Speaker Director of It Is Written International.

International Evangelist has just recently come from Malaysia.

It is not by accident that they have the same name.

30 years ago, George Vandeman, Henry Fire Robin, came together and said, how do we have a program that shares the love of Jesus, the truth of God's Word, with the Canadian audience, and thus was born, It Is Written Canada, 2 organizations that are rooted in the same principle, run independent of 1 another, 1 and each have the same goal of sharing Jesus.

I'm so glad that you've taken the time to be up here with us.

It's an honor to be here because I know what It Is Written Canada stands for and what you do and you're seeking to present the Bible and to guide people to Jesus Christ.

You know what would be easy for us to do as ministers and preachers and what not is tell people what to think.

Even though we'll share ideas, our role isn't to tell people what to think but to encourage people to think and find answers.

I believe the Holy Spirit that guides, has guided and guides you, guides me and guides somebody else and can guide that person, each of us, to the place God wants us to be.

So we'll share some things today that I pray God will use to guide people in their journey to where God wants them to be.

And we've been in the, we are now in the midst of our series, Beyond Questions.

We're going to go beyond the questions and actually look to God's Word to provide answers.

And we've kind of traced a course here where we've looked at your personal story, where we see and where we answered the question, what is God's purpose, what is the real meaning of life?

And what we find is that God has a purpose.

God has a purpose for every person and we need to find that purpose in his Word.

And then we ask the question, what are the odds?

What are the odds that this book truly is what it says it is?

And we found that God's book is reliable and authentic through prophecy.

Now we want to continue along that subject of prophecy today, John.

For 1, what prophecy does is it enables us to see that the God in heaven knows the future.

Now, that doesn't make God a cosmic clairvoyant.

But if he knows what's going to happen before it begins, it helps us to understand that God sees in ways we can't see.

There is a certain supernatural element to this God.

I don't know of another religious figure.

I shall not name any, but I don't know of another religious figure, a leader of 1 of the great world religions, who could ever foretell the future.

God claims to be able to do that and he demonstrates that he can.

If you don't mind, I'll look in a verse in the Bible here.

And while you're going to that verse, John, not only does he foretell the future, but he foretells the future with 100% accuracy.

The tabloids make their predictions every year.

He's seen in Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 9, 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.

See, God knows that we want reasons to trust Him.

Nobody wants to believe blindly and say, Well, the preacher, the teacher, my daddy said, We need to be able to have an intelligent faith in God.

And when you see, for instance, we've talked together about Daniel chapter 2.

Hundreds of years ahead of time, God predicting the rise and fall of kingdoms.

Now someone is going to say, Oh, That's chicanery.

Those arguments are age old and they're not true.

There's no evidence anywhere that suggests the Bible was written after the fact.

Daniel 2 was an invention after the fact.

God uses prophecy to say, you can trust me.

And you know, the amazing thing is, is because some people will go as far that Daniel wrote these things afterwards and some people try to say because most scholars, many scholars I should say, believe that Daniel was written sometime in the 6th century BC.

But some critical scholars to try to avoid this how did Daniel really know, bump his book all the way to the third century BC.

However, here's the important thing to remember.

Even if Daniel's book was written in the second century BC, or the third century BC, he's predicting things that happen well after that.

And so we have in Isaiah 46, God making this declaration of an age-old question that many ask, does God really exist?

And God makes a statement, I am God and there is none other, Which is, I mean, when you make a statement such as this, there is not a way to get around that.

And then the reason he gives is this declaring the end from the beginning.

And throughout the Bible, He declares that end from the beginning to demonstrate to us a people who are seeking that he is God and he can be trusted.

God says you can believe in God not just because to do so puts you in a group of moralish people, not to do so is going to have your kids raised around good values.

You can trust me and know that I hold the world in my hands.

You can know me." You know, the Bible makes this amazing statement.

It says, in God's presence, there is fullness of joy.

People try to get their thrills in Las Vegas.

They try to get their thrills in the bar.

They try to get their joy from myriad places.

You know, whether it's the Stanley Cup or the Grey Cup or the Tea Cup, people are trying to get their joy from some place.

What Is So Important About the Past?

It is written sharing messages of hope around the world.

You know, friends, questions can come in the form of a test.

Questions can come in the form of inquiry through email.

But the key piece with any question is a question deserves an answer.

Over the centuries, over the millennia really, people have asked questions, questions about the existence of God.

But there comes a point, friend, where we have to go beyond the questions and find answers.

We have been on a journey together, a journey where we have gone beyond the questions and looked for answers and found those answers.

And I'm so glad to have joining me again, John Bradshaw, Speaker Director of It Is Written International, headquartered just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, down in the United States.

John, thank you for coming and being a part of this study.

Well, we've been on this journey beyond questions.

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