How many times have you met up with a person who calls themselves a satanist? Other than watching videos of testimonies... I have never experienced this.
Is Belief in God logical?
- Thread starter Daffydd
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When it comes to God, what is man's logic?
Isaiah 55:8 (KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 55:8 (KJV) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Hello, In Awe of Him;
Seriously, from time to time right here in the heart of the SF Bay Area. We live in a combined metropolitan of 9 million people. In such communities as San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Silicon Valley the ethnic diversity of people is huge. Within our population Satanic Churches do exist.
God bless you, sister.
Bob
WOW.... that is on a whole other level. No wonder you have your own personal chair at the Cabin. You need the DOWN TIME.
The largest city I ever lived in was down south from me 7 hours and it only had short of half a million. I can't even fathom that amount of activity.
Agreed. There is a real difference between "Atheists" and lost people even though both are lost.
The lost man can be talked to and reasoned with and witnessed to. The Atheist has moved on from being able to be reasoned with and is in a state of total denial and anger toward God.
From personal observations, I think that most Christians are intimidated because atheists are often very aggressive.
You see, we as Christians simply "believe what God said" and Atheists must work hard to "not believe what they do not believe".
An Atheist will attack you personally, and they will do so in the name of reason and intellectual arguments with the goal to make the Christian look simple minded and dumb.
Most Christians feel utterly unprepared to give a defense of what they believe, and feel unprepared to answer the tough questions that their unbelieving friends will put to them.
Allow me to give an example of a topic used by Atheists college students asked of me..........
"The bible says Creation is 6000 years old. How can you as an educated man believe that in the face of all the sciences that say Creation is Billions of years old."
The truth is different. Fact.....Now where in the Bible is there a time or date or a suggestion of when Creation took place.
Another fact is that the word used in Genesis to define a "day" is the Hebrew word "Yom". It can mean a day, a week, a month, or a year.
It literally means a "Period of Time". This word can be used for a time, age or season, age or season.
When that is explained, it leads to a better undstanding of something that the Bible actually does not tell us specifically.
John......may I say to you that all Atheists are doing when talking to a Christian is an attempt to convince themselves of their position.
You see, all you have to do is believe.
They actually know what you know but they have made the choice to reject that knowledge of Biblical truth so that then have to "work out their lost position" to feel better about what they do not believe.
Because of that, they know more about the Bible that the average Christian. This is exactly how cults operate. The JW'S and Mormons and others read the Bible, then "work " to disprove what they do not like.
The Christian simply believes what he reads and never "works" to try and validate what he does not believe.
Agreed.
Titus 2:3:
"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil."
Well.....I have, Once and once was enough for a lifetime!
Yes they do and also here in central Florida.
The worst part is that those Satanic churches have the same tax code standing as any other church.
Yes, you are right about that, and I pointed out to her the fact that I saw her purpose in attempting to draw me into an endless debate was to convince herself that she is right in her unbelief, as well as to show her contempt of Christians.
I have had not many, but a few online conversations with atheists, and have found that most of them are trying to justify their unbelief. IOW, they are looking to convince themselves that they are correct in their position as an atheist.
It has been a long time since I have debated an atheist. I found that doing so is a waste of time because they always have an answer for whatever scripture I gave them or to whatever strategy I attempt to use in my approach to convince them that they are wrong. I have found that sometimes the conversation will become very nasty but can remember one guy who seemed to be somewhat receptive to the scriptures I quoted him. It has been a long time, but I think this guy was the one who said that he would believe in God if he would show himself, and I replied saying that God did show himself and he was nailed to a cross because he claimed to be God.
John
If it were that simple. I would say "the Christian wants to believe what he reads and prays to be given faith". Belief, I dare say, is often the end of the journey, not the start.
What is your definition of belief?
Hello Janine;
I have a question only because I want to receive personal perspective. Does belief have some beginning? I do agree with you that eternal has no beginning or end.
God bless you, Janine, and thank you for sharing.
Bob
Sorry, but I'm missing something here. Could you elaborate on the matter of trusting of faith?
Perhaps, in the sense that Truth is eternal and it is to be believed?
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May I say to you my dear friend that every single person has faith. Now what we have faith "in" is the problem.
What I am saying is "not" that the Christian wants to believe, but has already believed.
Romans 10:17.....
"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God".
God gives the person the faith and understanding to believe what he reads in the Bible is true. You see, The Bible emphasizes that faith is a gift because God deserves all of the glory for our salvation. If the receiver of faith could do anything whatsoever to deserve or earn the gift, that person would have every right to boast.
The Christian faith "begins" with faith in Jesus Christ as God in the flesh. Then the Christians journey ends ends at the door to heaven where God lives. All of that begins with Faith.
John.....may I say to you that before I retired, the church I pastored was about 2 miles from a University. Several students came to church and they always felt the need to bring atheists with them in hopes that a sermon or a teaching class would lead their friend to Christ.
Then invariably that atheist always wanted to get into a debate after the service.
The bottom line is that it never did! May I say to you in all Christian love and respect that the thought of doing God's calling to spread the gospel, that debating atheists has a very low return on investment.
I know that sounds very anti-gospel, and while debating an atheist might be an intellectually stimulating exercise, it can also be very depressing and there’s little evidence that atheists are receptive to changing their views of God.
My advice is that you should not debate with an atheist but instead talk to them about Jesus as the Christ. Talk about Jesus. Who He is and what He did and what He is going to do.
As Major has already pointed out, most atheists know the gospel message and reject it outright. Your time is better spent witnessing to those who will listen with an open mind and heart. You still need to be prepared to defend your faith for anyone that may challenge you over it. Spend time studying the word and ask the LORD for understanding and guidance as you go about witnessing to others. Let GOD be praised in all things!
Major, thanks for your advice, and I agree that I should talk to them about Jesus. And that is exactly what I did do with the atheist lady and continue to present the Gospel whenever I see to opportunity. Those who have read my post here about debating the atheist do not know the whole story. I did not get into every detail about the conversation, in which I did present the gospel message to the lady, and of course she was having nothing to do with it. My reason for even mentioning the story about debating the atheist was in response to another post here in which the person made the comment that those want to see God will, and those who do not want to see God won't. In my post I explained that after I recounted the event where I found the truth about believing in Jesus while reading the Gospel of John, the atheist lady dismissed it as "circular reasoning," and she then said that she had read the Gospel of John several times and did not find Jesus or God there. There is more to the story than that which I have explained here, but I will not get into that, because the point I was trying to make in the post has already been made.
Also, I thought that I had made it clear in my posts that I no longer engage atheist in debate.
I participate in several Christian web sites, and my main objective is to find those who are struggling with their faith so I might help them. I can relate to their struggle because many years ago I struggled with my faith, or lack of faith, until I found the peace of assurance found only in God's word. I point out to them that after I talked with Christians, pastor, etc. and read bible tracts, and books written by Christian authors, I did not find an answer. I finally gave up on myself and began to read scripture. I found my answer in 2 days while reading the Gospel of John. Whenever I am helping someone, I always point them to God's Word. That was my reason for answering the question the atheist lady asked in her post. I actually thought that she was looking for an answer to the question; I did not know she was looking for a debate.
Regards
John
This is an astute observation.