Professor Walter Veith answers your questions.

If there’s a God, who made God?

God is self-existent, according to the Bible. Nobody made Him. He was always there. We have the same problem in evolution: if there’s no God, where did matter come from?

That’s where a document like the Bible comes in. This book has been maligned, banned, ostracized, and ridiculed. Yet every single time it proves true. Archaeology has in the last 100 years dug up so much information authenticating the story of the Hittites, Egyptians, and the Exodus that the Word, which was ridiculed, was proved accurate.

The ancient prophecies regarding Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and other cities have been accurately fulfilled. That can give us confidence about the prophecies pertaining to the future as well.

What has evolution given us to make us confident of its accuracy? Nothing. Originally it was the Darwinian idea that we slowly evolved from one lifeform to another, yet the concept of an earth that is millions and millions of years old cannot be substantiated. The idea of organisms evolving from simple to complex is not tenable because we don’t see evolutionary trees, we see evolutionary lawns: all the species are there at the same time.

The theory constantly has to change and adapt to meet the challenges, whereas the Bible is vindicated time and time again. The more it is vindicated, the less people want to believe. It’s a strange anomaly.

What kind of evidence does science provide for the Biblical theory?

There is a lot of evidence of catastrophism. In fact most of the fossil record shows water demise: the giant dinosaurs all washed into position, stream orientation of petrified forests. If everything is largely stream-oriented in the fossil record, that proves water catastrophism, and yet the world denies a worldwide Biblical flood.

Take the Cretaceous layer for example, a universal layer of chalk deposits stretching from continent to continent. Chalk is made up of shells of algae. That means the whole world must have been covered in water.

The geological column is full of ravines and canyons, but the layers in the column are flat sheets. The only way this could occur is through underwater mud flows. The Bible claims there was a universal catastrophe in the form of a Biblical flood. All the evidence points to that, and yet nobody wants to believe it. Isn’t that strange?

Has an Armageddon been predicted? Will people be able to know before it happens or will people only know afterwards that it was the right date?

Yes, Armageddon is the coming of Christ. There will be a great battle—confederacies of the world aligned against the simple, heart-searching truths of the Bible. God will judge each of us according to our individual perception and activities in this world.

Armageddon is the great final conflict between good and evil, and the Bible says Christ is victorious in this conflict. Just before Christ’s Second Coming, during the sixth plague, Christ’s enemies ally themselves together against God and His people:

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:12-14 NKJV).

This river fed Babylon in ancient times and represents the multitudes that support end-time Babylon (Revelation 17:15). The erosion of the support base for Babylon spurns the demonic powers controlling this union to deceive the political powers of the earth to battle against God.

As it is impossible to attack God directly, they attack His elect, which involves the issuing of the death decree against those who refuse to accept the mark of the Beast. This final act of defiance by the apostate end-time religio-political unity of nations is the signal for God to act.

“The way of the kings from the east” is prepared. The kings from the east are not worldly powers, as these have all formed an alliance with the beast. Rather these kings represent Christ and His angels coming to deliver the saints:

Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow (Isaiah 41:2).

Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with His glory (Ezekiel 43:1-2).

Deliverance will take place during the seventh plague. Babylon’s support base will be eroded during the sixth plague and the death decree will be proclaimed against all who would not worship the Beast and his image or accept his mark. The proclamation of this final decree will invoke God’s intervention, and Christ will then return to deliver those who chose His way.

God's people will not fight against Satan, as they have no power against his alliance. It is only Christ who will be able to deliver them, and He will fight the pre-millennial war called Armageddon on their behalf. During the seventh plague, the enemies of God will be destroyed by the earthquake, hail, and the brightness of Christ’s coming (Psalm 110:5-6; Job 38:22-23, Isaiah 28:17; Jeremiah 4:23-27 and 25:33-38; Zephaniah 1:1-3)

Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
And it shall be: As with the people, so with the priest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
As with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor…
The world languishes and fades away;
The haughty people of the earth languish…
Because they have transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the everlasting covenant (Isaiah 24:1-5 NKJV).

The prophet Isaiah clearly shows here that God is just in all His dealings. There is no favoritism, and also no room for error in what Christ will do when He returns. The earth will be utterly destroyed, but in the midst of this destruction, the Lord promises deliverance.

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Do not fear;
Zion, let not your hands be weak.
The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:16-17 NKJV).

In the midst of earthquakes and hail under the seventh plague, a loud voice will be heard (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and the armies of heaven will intervene (Micah 5:10-15).

The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
For through the voice of the LORD
Assyria will be beaten down (Isaiah 30:30-31 NKJV).

In Old Testament times, Assyria was one of the cruelest nations that Israel had to contend with. This nation serves as a type for the cruel master that Christ will destroy with “the brightness of his coming.” Christ’s redeemed of all ages will be raised from the dead, and the living people of God will be translated. They are then to be gathered by the angels and meet the Lord in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain (Isaiah 26:19-21).

After the war, the earth will be desolate and dead, and the millennium of peace will then begin.

 

Why did God create Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, and those of other faiths? Why do some of us get the benefit of Jesus’ message and others don’t?

It was not God but humans that created other religions. The world believes today that there is one God and all religions basically serve the same God. However, the religion of the Bible has something set apart from other religions.

The general conception today is to throw everything into one pot. But you cannot serve a god who says “salvation by works” and serve him as the same God that says “salvation by faith.” And a lot of the religions of the world are based on salvation by works. Take Eastern religions as an example. If you don’t manage to do it quite right in this life, you have another chance in the next life, and eventually through reincarnation you reach the higher plane.

By the Biblical account, salvation is outside of self. It is a free gift. It is something that God gives in Jesus Christ. He is the One who saves. The original religion, according to the Genesis account was also based on salvation in the lamb. When Adam and Eve sinned, a lamb was slaughtered, pointing ahead to the coming Saviour.

People don’t want to readily accept a free gift because we are all works-based. It’s our nature to want to do things ourselves. That’s when the problem comes in. Cain said, “Why should I bring a lamb? Can’t I bring the produce, the work of my own hands (salvation by works)?” and God says “No. You don’t have life in yourself. You bust receive it as a gift.” So salvation lies in the Lamb.

Today we basically have two religions. The one is a huge variety of religions all professing salvation by works. And then you have the Biblical base which has salvation by faith.

How come God created Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, Zoroaster people, and all the rest of it? How come some of us get the benefit of Jesus’ message and others not?
It was not God but humans that created other religions. The world believes today that there is one God and all religions basically serve the same God. However, the religion of the Bible has something set apart from other religions.

The general conception today is to throw everything into one pot. But you cannot serve a god who says “salvation by works” and serve him as the same God that says “salvation by faith.” And a lot of the religions of the world are based on salvation by works. Take Eastern religions as an example. If you don’t manage to do it quite right in this life, you have another chance in the next life, and eventually through reincarnation you reach the higher plane.

By the Biblical account, salvation is outside of self. It is a free gift. It is something that God gives in Jesus Christ. He is the One who saves. The original religion, according to the Genesis account was also based on salvation in the lamb. When Adam and Eve sinned, a lamb was slaughtered, pointing ahead to the coming Saviour.

People don’t want to readily accept a free gift because we are all works-based. It’s our nature to want to do things ourselves. That’s when the problem comes in. Cain said, “Why should I bring a lamb? Can’t I bring the produce, the work of my own hands (salvation by works)?” and God says “No. You don’t have life in yourself. You bust receive it as a gift.” So salvation lies in the Lamb.

Today we basically have two religions. The one is a huge variety of religions all professing salvation by works. And then you have the Biblical base which has salvation by faith.