The Pathway to Peace and Joy

The Pathway to Peace and Joy

Amy E. Socha R.N.

ISBN 979-8-88685-541-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88685-542-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Amy E. Socha R.N.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

The Pathway to Peace and Joy

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis

References

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my deep appreciation for all the help, input, and encouragement of various pastors, such as Pastor Ferdinand O. Bahr, Reverend Richard Ames, Reverend Paul Eggold, Reverend David York, Pastor Mark Smith, and Reverend Kevin Parviz. Also very helpful were the directors of several Evangelism to the Jews organizations, among whom are David Brickner from Jews for Jesus, Steve Cohan and Alan Butterworth from Apple of His Eye ministry to the Jews, and Reverend Kevin Parviz from Burning Bush ministry to the Jews. In addition, several employees of these organizations, such as Mrs. Marty Walker and Ruth Rosen from Jews for Jesus and former employee of Apple of His Eye, Kimberly Mallegni. Included are the entire staff of Christian Faith Publishing, especially literary agent Marie Lewis, and my three publication specialists, Mary Jones, Jordyn Funkhauser, and Megan Andrews. Last but not least, my wonderful husband, Arthur; sister-in-law, Nancy Roets (who suggested the Shalom [meaning peace] at the end of the book); my brother, David Schmidtke; my cousins, Steven Schmidtke and Carl Mueller; my friends, Harvey Kaplan, Richard Thompson, Greg Steele, author John Lundstrom, Bob Rothwell, Doralene Zunker, my friend since grade school; and all my other wonderful relatives and friends. May God bless them all for their input and encouragement!

The Pathway to Peace and Joy

Do you want to be absolutely sure that you will have peace and joy in this life and that you are on the pathway leading to perfect, everlasting joy and peace in heaven? Then this book is for you. After all, Jesus said, For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Matthew 16:26).

God has revealed to you how you can have complete assurance of both earthly and heavenly peace and joy!

Chapter 1

I have good news for you! God truly does exist! What is even better is that He loves you and longs for an intimate, trusting, personal relationship with you! He loves you because He created you and wants you to really get to know Him. He wants you to be able to have His best—a peaceful and joyful life here on earth and the most peaceful and joyful life possible in eternity (forever and ever).

God wanted to communicate with us somehow. What better means could He have chosen to tell us about Himself than the written Word revealed through the ancient writings of the Old and New Testament Scriptures? The name ascribed to the Old Testament Scriptures is the Tanakh. It was written approximately three thousand years ago. Copies of the original Tanakh were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. From 1947 to 1956, these manuscripts were discovered in eleven caves in and around the ruins of an ancient city called Khirbet Qumran in the country of Israel. More ancient manuscripts were later discovered in the Middle East, and these New Testament works were written by some of the original twelve disciples (followers) and other avid and devout believers in Jesus Christ.

The book of 2 Peter describes many of these writers as actual eyewitnesses of His Majesty (2 Peter 1:16). Many became faithful missionaries to foreign lands, who would suffer death rather than deny their Lord and Savior. Would you be willing to die for something you knew to be false and didn't really believe in? I seriously doubt it! In that same chapter of Peter's book, it is revealed that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In other words, God told these men the words to write down through their thought processes. Evangelist John F. MacArthur Jr. has stated that there are four thousand passages in the Holy Scriptures that say they are the Word of God.

Both the Old and New Testament Scriptures are entirely true because, first and foremost, there are various passages in these ancient writings that actually testify to their origin and to the truthfulness of that origin. For example, first of all, in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, it says that "He [God] is…a God of truth and without sin, just and right is He" (Deuteronomy 32:4). A second verse appears in the book of Psalms (31:5) where the great King David of Israel proclaimed, "Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth." A third passage appears in Psalm 119:151 saying, All thy commandments are truth. In the fourth case (verse 160) in that same Psalm, the following is declared, "Thy Word is true from the beginning." In the fifth verse, Psalm 40:11, King David of Israel stated, "May Your love and Your truth always protect me."

New Testament sources are also prevalent. A passage proclaiming the origin of truth is the following: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, taken from the book of 2 Timothy (3:16). In other words, God told all of these writers what to write (through their thought processes). As an eyewitness of Jesus, the great Apostle Paul testified of the truthfulness of God when he said, in his letter to Titus, God, that cannot lie (Titus 1:2). The disciple John, as another eyewitness, reported that Jesus, in praying to His Heavenly Father, said, "Sanctify them [His disciples or followers] by the truth: Your Word is Truth" (John 17:17). John also heard Jesus say to His followers, "If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31–32).

Here's a hymn by Lynn DeShazo, titled "Ancient Words."

Holy Words long preserved for our walk in this world.

They resound with God's own heart.

Oh, let the ancient words impart.

Words of life, words of hope, give us strength, help us cope.

In this world where-e'er we roam,

Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you.

We have come with open hearts. Oh, let the ancient words impart.

Holy Words of our faith handed down to this age,

Came to us through sacrifice.

Oh, heed the faithful words of Christ,

Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you.

We have come with open hearts,

Oh, let the ancient words impart.

In this world wher-e'er we roam, ancient words will guide us home.

We have come with open hearts,

Oh, let the ancient words impart.

There is an additional, massive amount of evidence for the truthfulness of the writings of the Holy Scriptures. (the Bible). First of all, there are many archaeological proofs.

Peter Stoner, in his book Science Speaks, states that "many archaeological expeditions have delved into the ruins of old cities referred to in biblical accounts and have written reports of their findings, showing that the biblical accounts were accurate." One such expedition was to try to find the ancient city of Gaza, a seaport on the Mediterranean Sea and one of five city-kingdoms of Philistia in the southern part of Palestine (spoken of in two books of the Old Testament Scriptures: Zephaniah and Jeremiah). Modern Gaza didn't fit the biblical description. An archaeological search, however, did eventually uncover the ancient city. It was found buried under the sand dunes.

Since AD 1800, there have been numerous archaeological findings according to the excellent book, The Letter and the Scroll that substantiate the accuracy of the Bible. One of the most ancient of these was found in Sippar in southern Iraq. Several Babylonian clay tablets were found in the ancient library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal at the ancient city of Nineveh. They have been dated at 3000 BC and were inscribed with the story of a worldwide flood and called the Epic of Gilgamesh. There are many similarities to the biblical account of Noah and the Great Flood described in Genesis. For example, the epic tells of an original state of innocence of mankind, followed by temptation and sin, of a great flood that covered the earth, and an ark that was built in which only a man and his family were saved together with the seed of all living creatures. In addition, a British archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley and his team excavated the city of Ur in today's Iraq near the Euphrates River. This had been a mighty city of the third millennium BC and the home of Abraham of the Bible. A uniform layer of clay eight feet deep was found that clearly had been deposited by water. Woolley concluded that it was "unmistakable evidence of a great flood—and one not less than twenty-five feet deep."

A granite boulder erected on Sehen, an island in the Nile River, was discovered by archaeologists. Called the Famine Stela, it describes a seven-year famine caused by the failure of the Nile to overflow its banks. This famine and the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians as punishment for not releasing the Israelites are all recorded in the Old Testament, specifically in the book of Genesis 41:54 and 45:6.

In 1933, in excavating the old city of Dan in northern Israel, a stone fragment known as the Tel Dan Stela was found. It is the oldest nonbiblical text that refers to the kingdom of Israel and the House of David (King David's dynasty). It also describes other events just as recorded in the Old Testament in both books of the Kings and 11 Chronicles. One description is of an encounter between Hazael and the prophet Elisha, and another, the war between the kingdom of Syria and that of Israel. The city of Dan is described in the book of Judges, chapter 18, as having places of worship, courtyards, and an elaborate entrance gate complex.

In the ancient city of Dothan, there is a local tradition that a deep well found there is the very well into which Joseph was thrown by his brothers. (Genesis 37:17–24)

Recent excavations in the port of Dor confirmed the biblical account of the conquest of the Phoenician city by King David. (Ezekiel 27:4–5)

Archaeologists found written confirmation of the destruction of the Philistine city of Ekron by the Babylonians in 603 BC. This disaster was recorded in the Old Testament in the book of Amos 1:8.

Ruins on a hill just to the north of Jerusalem is said to be the site of ancient Gibeon. The Bible mentions in 11 Samuel 2:13 the pool of Gibeon as a meeting place of Joab and the servants of David. An American team of archaeologists uncovered the rim of such a large pool in Gibeon, and scholars think it may be the same pool as described in the Bible. It was thirty-six feet in diameter and eighty-two feet deep with a spiral staircase of seventy-nine steps leading to the bottom.

The earliest known biblical inscription was found in a tomb near Jerusalem and began with the words The Lord bless you and keep you. These words date to shortly before the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and were the same words recorded in the Scriptures in Numbers 6:24. This was a blessing that God had commanded Moses to confer on the people of Israel.

Archaeologists found at Samaria a ring which bore the seal of Ahab of Israel. He was a very wicked king of Israel as recorded in 1 Kings 16:30. They also found pottery with the name Baal. In 1 Kings 18:18, it is recorded that Samaria was a place where Elijah said that the people of Israel had "forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals."

In 11 Kings 17:6, it is recorded that Sargon 11 of Assyria conquered Samaria and then Israel. This was confirmed by the discovery of a hexagonal clay tablet describing both events.

The prophet Isaiah had predicted that Cyrus the Great of Persia would conquer the Babylonians. In 1879, the Cyrus Cylinder was found in Babylon, which described that same event. (Isaiah 45 and beyond)

Now that I have demonstrated the various archaeological proofs of the accuracy of the Old Testament, it is time to state some of the archaeological discoveries that prove the accuracy of the New Testament as well. They are as follows:

In Israel, when excavating the ruins of the city of Caesarea in 1961, some Italian archaeologists found a limestone slab bearing the name of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced