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Fearing God is the first step to being converted.  Our recognition that he is the creator of the universe, that he is the one true and living God, and that he has the power, authority and dominion over all mankind is the starting point for conversion.  In all of our studies, we must be sure that we are first grounded in this fact.  The stepping stone from this understanding is a firm belief in the information that God has given to mankind.

As we look to creation, we see an ordered arrangement of all things.  The stars are placed in orbits, the sun and moon have a regular period, the tides move in and out, the seasons change; all of these things point to a God that is not only powerful, but who is very ordered, very kind, and very loving.  In seeing the order that exists for all of God’s creation, it stands to reason that God would want to order the lives of mankind as well.  The only way God can order our lives (aside from making us robots) is by giving us information and allowing us to choose to believe it.

In Acts 26.27, Paul asks King Agrippa whether or not he believed the prophets.  It may seem interesting to us that he does not start somewhere else, but this belief in the prophets was the next step in being converted to Christ.  King Agrippa believed there was a God, but did he really believe the prophets?  Was he willing to look at all of the things the prophets said?  This should be our next step, too.  Start with the Old Testament, not the New.

If the Bible is really from God, then there should be no mistakes.  It should be able to clearly see into the future, predict events, and give us information found no other place in the world.  That’s a tall order, but the Old Testament stands the test.  The very first verses give information that no other source in the world can provide.  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The creation account in the Bible is the only one throughout all time that isn’t fantasy.  There is no one giving birth to planets, there is not a turtle floating through space with an elephant standing on its back supporting the world (these are real creation accounts from other religions); God simply spoke, and things were as they are now.

In Isaiah 44.28, 45.1 and 45.13, the Scriptures make predictions about a man who wouldn’t be born for another 150 years.  The Old Testament declared that Cyrus would destroy Babylon and subdue Egypt.  In addition to this impossible task, Isaiah declared that Cyrus would free the Israelites and make Jerusalem a tax-free city.  Every one of these events took place about 180 years after they were prophesied.

Jeremiah also spoke about the destruction of Babylon.  The city was 196 miles square, had a 56 mile circumference and it was surrounded by walls over 300 feet tall that were more than 80 feet thick.  These defenses were so strong that they would have kept an army at bay even as recently as World War I.  Good luck with destroying that!  Jeremiah’s prediction seems ridiculous, even delusional.  Babylon would never be destroyed, and everyone knew it.  Everyone was wrong.  In 539 BC, the city was taken by the Persian army (remember Cyrus?), and to this day the city is uninhabited and its huge, magnificent walls are nothing more than heaps of rubble. 

What book is there among men that is able to predict events so clearly and precisely as the Old Testament?  There is none.  If we are going to look for a book that is capable of telling things about God and predicting coming, future events, then the Old Testament is certainly the place to look.  We must ask ourselves the same question asked by Paul – do we believe the prophets?