To the editor:

In his letter of 18 December, David Keranen ridicules faith as “believing something is true without sufficient evidence.” I would venture to say that nearly 100 percent of what Mr. Keranen thinks he knows is based not on personal experience but on faith. He most likely believes in the existence of countries that he has never visited, planets that he has never seen, and that the earth revolves around the sun. I suppose that he would even go so far as to believe in the Big Bang, primordial goop, and dinosaurs roaming the earth millions of years ago, all because of his faith in the words of men.

Christians reject the words of deceitful men and believe only the written Word of God and in the fulfillment of the Old Testament messianic prophesies. These prophecies could not have been forged by Christians, for they have been copied and preserved in Hebrew and Aramaic by people who reject the New Testament: Jesus was, as prophesied, born of a virgin (Genesis 3:15,20), of the lineage of David (2 Samuel 7:12), in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), died in Jerusalem (Zachariah 12:10), rose from the dead (Psalm 16:10), and established an everlasting kingdom (2 Samuel 7:13).

As for the time of his appearing, it was prophesied that Christ’s ministry would begin during the Roman Empire, 69 weeks of years after the commandment is issued to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (compare Daniel 9:25 with Genesis 29:27), which occurred in 458 B.C. (Ezra 7:7-9). He would then be rejected by his people (Isaiah 53:1,2 and 65:11-15) and executed (Daniel 9:26), after which the temple would again be destroyed (Daniel 9:27) and the Roman Empire would dissolve into ten kingdoms (Daniel 2:40-42 and 7:23,24). The fact that Christ’s name is eschewed on the very day that his birth is celebrated confirms that he is the promised Messiah, who is despised and rejected of men (Isaiah 53:3). It only remains for him to return to judge the world (Daniel 7:13,14,26). On that dreadful day, when all unbelievers are cast into eternal hellfire, it will be too late to repent (Matthew 25:1-13).

Warren Hepokoski

Hancock