Let me start by answering the part about your friends father dying. When you read the Gospels you will find that Jesus never promised that everything would be all roses if you followed him. In fact He said you would have to "pick up your cross daily" to follow him. There is one thing that is 100% in life and that is that everyone will at some time have to die. What Jesus promised was that those who choose to follow him will only die once. And then we would take part with him in heaven for the rest of eternity. His death on the Cross paid the dept for the rest of us.
If you look on a post under the Bible accuracy section about the truth of the resurection I posted quite a few replies about the truth of the Gospels. This is one part of one.
1 Cor 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1 Cor 4:10 We [are] fools for Christ's sake, but ye [are] wise in Christ; we [are] weak, but ye [are] strong; ye [are] honourable, but we [are] despised.
1 Cor 4:11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
1 Cor 4:12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
1 Cor 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, [and are] the offscouring of all things unto this day.
As you can see the apostles, who were Jesus closest friends and his chosen followers were not promised money, success or hapiness in this life. Now that's not to say in the Bible that those things are not given to people. Abraham, Issac and Jacob were all exceedingly wealthy. So were David and Solomen. What Jesus promises is that if you admit your sins and follow him, he is faithful to forgive your sins and you will be with him forever in paradise.
Let me put it this way. Most of us will live for at the most 70-90 years. But eternity is forever. As some of the writers in the bible put it "we are here for a breath, and then gone." So if we follow Jesus here on Earth we will be with him for eternity in heaven. However if you choose not to follow him you may have riches here but spend the rest of eternity in hell away from God. As Jesus puts it "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but forfiets his eternal soul?"
Now, how do I know if the Bible is true and Jesus is the correct profit? THis is a much more indepth issue. One short answer is in the fact that the entire world seems bent on getting rid of Christianity. If you believe in the Bible it says that there is a litteral satan who will do war with the saints. And we see now that the humanistic, secular world we live in seems to have no problem with the other religions except Christianity. In fact many schools will allow, and in some cases require, teaching islam or Judeism, but prohibit the teaching of Christianity. Just look at Christmas time. The ACLU is Hell bent on removing all Christian symbols from any public area, but they will readily allow any other religious symbols to be displayed. I even recently saw an article on the World Net Daily which said that Jewish people were upset because a school district banned the display of any Christian symbols, but allowed a Jewish manora to be displayed because they said it wasn't a religious symbol. If satan is real, this sounds like the kind of thing he would do.
I also believe because of the prophecy in the bible. Read Isaah 53. It is known it was written 700 years before the birth of Jesus and it exactly describes the details of Jesus life, persecution, and death. In fact in another article on the World Net Daily, they discussed how many synagogues are deleting that passage from their yearly readings.
Also the Bible says that the Isrealites would be scattered among the nations, would come back to their land (1946) and there will be a third Temple built, and there will be war until the antichrist comes up with a peace plan that actually works. If you watch the news at all you will know that all these things have either happened or are about to happen. All the materials are in storage to build the next temple. We obviously do not have peace in the Middle east. And it doesn't look like we will in the near future. I could go on and on. Maybe this should be a new thread.
Well I am pressed for time right now. Got to go.
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