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What if Jesus meant every word He said? 

Tags: God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Bible, Truth, Love, Eternal Life, Salvation, Faith, Holy, Fellowship, Apologetics 

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Corvis Cross

Conservative Lunatic

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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 1:53 pm
1. There is no evidence that your God exists.

God has made His existence evident through His creation and through the conscience, so that men are without excuse. Why then don’t you believe? This is because, in your own unrighteousness, you are suppressing the truth that God has made apparent to you; you are lying to yourself and saying He doesn’t exist. In an attempt to believe your own lies, you then start to speculate about the world around you, in futility, because God has already made the truth about His existence plain to you, though you pretend otherwise. Due to these things, your heart has been darkened (Romans 1:18-32; 2:12-16).

You may say “Give me proof without the Bible”. Look at a tree, or the sky: that is your evidence. It isn’t in the Bible, but is right outside, all around you. Maybe you’ll say “That isn’t evidence”. Just because you don’t accept the evidence doesn’t nullify it as evidence. Proof does not equal persuasion. Why won’t you accept the evidence? It’s due to the same reasons I explained above: you are deceiving yourself. If you are self-deceived, how would you know it? You have lied so much to yourself that you believe your own lies, at least, to some extent. Your heart has been darkened. Even still, you at least know enough about the true God (the only God that exists) that you hate Him and seek to suppress the truth, lying to yourself.

Have you ever said “Even if your God did exist, I still wouldn’t worship Him”? Why wouldn’t you worship Him? Maybe the response would be “Because He’s a monster, a tyrant, evil… etc.” Statements like these only support further what the Bible reveals about you here. You are admitting that if He did exist you still wouldn’t worship Him: He does exist, you know it, and you’re not worshiping Him, just like you said you wouldn’t. So, the hate the Bible says you have for God is evident by your own words, seeing as you readily admit you would not worship Him. Your hatred for God is also evident, as you slander Him with lies, accusing Him of evil falsely. You slander God, as men did when He walked in the flesh in the form of His Son, Jesus the Christ (Mark 14:53-65; Hebrews 4:14, 15).

Truly, lying to yourself and pretending God does not exist is a foolish thing to do, fueled by your own pride (Psalm 14:1; 10:4).

2. I don’t believe your book. What makes you think the Bible is really the “Word of God”?

Are you willing to do the will of God? If anyone is willing to do the will of God, they will know where Christ’s teaching comes from; they will know it is from God (John 7:16, 17). If you don’t think it’s the Word of God, it’s only because you are not willing to do God’s will. This falls in line with how you are lying to yourself, suppressing the truth. You hate God, even to the end that you lie to yourself about His existence, and so, as long as this is the case, you will not be willing to do His will, and therefore you will say it is not the Word of God.

Maybe someone would say “Other books claim to be the word of a god, too”. Indeed, that is perhaps true. Islam is an example of that. However, how many religions really make that claim to being exclusive? Do you know? Or do you just assume that all or most make the same or similar claims as Christianity? Just because more than one thing is claiming to be true, does that automatically mean none can be true? Romans 1 explains where those other claims to truth that are in opposition to God’s Word come from: men exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and worshiping idols. There are no other gods (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 44:6), and any gods we hear about other than the One that really exists are simply made up by men because they hate God that much. To worship these gods is to worship demons (1 Corinthians 10:20; Deuteronomy 32:17; Revelation 9:20).

3. The Bible is ridiculous and filled with contradictions. There’s no way it’s reliable!

The natural man cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). I have watched this verse unfold often. I have heard many people claim contradictions, and yet they just twist verses up. One of the worst examples I have seen is someone claiming that God contradicted Himself, because He said He would never destroy the earth again by flood. To prove this contradiction, they tried to show me the verses where He DID flood the earth… which was actually BEFORE He said He wouldn’t flood it anymore. Using that logic, I can say that it was a contradiction that Robinson Crusoe left the island he had been stranded on, because an earlier place in the book said he was on the island.

Often, simply looking at the immediate context would answer many claims of contradictions. Other times, comparing other Scripture with Scripture may be necessary. Either way, the claims for contradictions don’t come because the Bible truly contradicts itself. Instead, this again is men hating God and so, they will accuse His Word of not being reliable and try desperately to cling to that as if it were true, to try to help support their worldview they have made up for themselves with their own lies. You don’t want to be held accountable to God, so you try to do whatever you can to convince yourself He just doesn’t exist or that His Word isn’t true or reliable. Indeed, the Bible says truly that a scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge is easy to a man who has understanding (Proverbs 14:6), and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7).

4. The Bible contradicts science/history/etc. that we know as fact.

Are you sure about that? Consider your sources. How many things do you think you may have honestly just overheard someone say? You have no idea where they got it, but you just heard them say it and assumed they knew what they were talking about? Or perhaps maybe you just read an article, or a book, or watched a video, or whatever else on a subject, that has a bias or misinformation. How do you know what they’re saying is really true and reliable?

When I say consider your sources, I mean this: the men out there promoting that science disproves the Bible, or history disproves it, or any other thing disproves it, they all hate God. They don’t want Him to exist and they don’t want to submit to Him. Considering their worldview has been built up lie upon lie in an attempt to hide from the reality they hate so much, doesn’t it stand to reason that they would naturally make such claims? Wouldn’t they say science doesn’t fit with the Bible, or whatever else they are claiming discredits the Bible, to build up their worldview even more, strengthening their delusion? Are you doing this?

If you’re honestly willing to look at these things in depth, there are plenty of Christians who are scientists who believe the Bible and they disagree with secular scientists. Who is right? Should the majority be trusted just because of numbers? What if the majority is mistaken, like how long ago many people thought the world was flat? The majority of men hate God, and so, the majority would deceive themselves on this subject. If you are interested in looking into things relating to science, feel free to ask me for resources.

5. I won’t believe unless I see the miracles supposedly performed in the Bible. Show me someone raising the dead and healing people supernaturally at will!

If you do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, you will not be persuaded, even if someone comes back from the dead (Luke 16:31). Jesus performed many miracles, yet people still refused to repent (Matthew 11:20-24). In the end, even miracles wouldn’t cause you to repent and believe, because you’re not rejecting God due to a lack of evidence to begin with. You’re doing it because you hate Him and don’t want to submit to Him.

6. You say I already know God exists, but I’m just suppressing the truth? I could just say the same thing about the Flying Spaghetti Monster/Mickey Mouse/Santa Claus etc.

You certainly could. However, who is the Bible referring to; whose word is it supposed to be? Is it your deity, or the God of the Bible? Taking God’s own words and ripping them out of context to apply them to something else is ridiculous. This would be like me taking things written by or about a real human being, like say Charles Spurgeon, and then just replacing his name with a fictional character’s. Then, I could make the claim “Look, I could say so and so did that!” You certainly could say that, though the fact would remain that Charles Spurgeon really did it, not whoever you inserted there. The Bible is God’s Word, not the word of your fictional deity.

Moreover, if you are honest, you’d admit that you just made this up. If you admit it’s just been made up and you don’t really believe it yourself, you’ve refuted yourself. What you’re saying is admittedly not true, no one is really claiming it’s true or the revelation from a god, and no one is really believing it. If you pretend you believe it in order to mock me, you are simply being dishonest and not admitting you’ve been refuted. If you really believe this (highly unlikely), then you’re only doing so for the same reason anyone believes any other god: you hate the true God, and so you exchange the truth for a lie.

As for an example like Santa Claus? Santa Claus is believed by young children, maybe someone would point out, so people really do believe in him. That’s true. However, if children do believe in Santa, why do they believe? Isn’t it because they have been told this? Did those who told the children Santa is real truly believe in Santa themselves? Or did those who told them outright lie to these children because that’s part of their tradition? You have the same problem here as before, that no one is really claiming Santa is real (other than little children who only believe because their parents lied to them), no one says they have his word, no one claims to have heard from him.

You use comparisons like this that obviously aren’t the same as what we’re proclaiming, so you can mock the truth and strengthen your own delusion, attempting to justify yourself. To tell yourself and others that the truth is as absurd as the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Santa Claus helps you to suppress the truth, and to convince yourself further that there really is no God. You have to make the truth look as ridiculous and nonsensical as possible in your mind, and so you do things like this, to further suppress it. Making arguments like the Flying Spaghetti Monster is like you trying to convince me that air isn’t real, when neither of us believe your claim and the evidence is strongly against you.  
PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 1:55 pm
Christ Died for Sinners
1. There is no evidence that your God exists.

God has made His existence evident through His creation and through the conscience, so that men are without excuse. Why then don’t you believe? This is because, in your own unrighteousness, you are suppressing the truth that God has made apparent to you; you are lying to yourself and saying He doesn’t exist. In an attempt to believe your own lies, you then start to speculate about the world around you, in futility, because God has already made the truth about His existence plain to you, though you pretend otherwise. Due to these things, your heart has been darkened (Romans 1:18-32; 2:12-16).

You may say “Give me proof without the Bible”. Look at a tree, or the sky: that is your evidence. It isn’t in the Bible, but is right outside, all around you. Maybe you’ll say “That isn’t evidence”. Just because you don’t accept the evidence doesn’t nullify it as evidence. Proof does not equal persuasion. Why won’t you accept the evidence? It’s due to the same reasons I explained above: you are deceiving yourself. If you are self-deceived, how would you know it? You have lied so much to yourself that you believe your own lies, at least, to some extent. Your heart has been darkened. Even still, you at least know enough about the true God (the only God that exists) that you hate Him and seek to suppress the truth, lying to yourself.

Have you ever said “Even if your God did exist, I still wouldn’t worship Him”? Why wouldn’t you worship Him? Maybe the response would be “Because He’s a monster, a tyrant, evil… etc.” Statements like these only support further what the Bible reveals about you here. You are admitting that if He did exist you still wouldn’t worship Him: He does exist, you know it, and you’re not worshiping Him, just like you said you wouldn’t. So, the hate the Bible says you have for God is evident by your own words, seeing as you readily admit you would not worship Him. Your hatred for God is also evident, as you slander Him with lies, accusing Him of evil falsely. You slander God, as men did when He walked in the flesh in the form of His Son, Jesus the Christ (Mark 14:53-65; Hebrews 4:14, 15).

Truly, lying to yourself and pretending God does not exist is a foolish thing to do, fueled by your own pride (Psalm 14:1; 10:4).

2. I don’t believe your book. What makes you think the Bible is really the “Word of God”?

Are you willing to do the will of God? If anyone is willing to do the will of God, they will know where Christ’s teaching comes from; they will know it is from God (John 7:16, 17). If you don’t think it’s the Word of God, it’s only because you are not willing to do God’s will. This falls in line with how you are lying to yourself, suppressing the truth. You hate God, even to the end that you lie to yourself about His existence, and so, as long as this is the case, you will not be willing to do His will, and therefore you will say it is not the Word of God.

Maybe someone would say “Other books claim to be the word of a god, too”. Indeed, that is perhaps true. Islam is an example of that. However, how many religions really make that claim to being exclusive? Do you know? Or do you just assume that all or most make the same or similar claims as Christianity? Just because more than one thing is claiming to be true, does that automatically mean none can be true? Romans 1 explains where those other claims to truth that are in opposition to God’s Word come from: men exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and worshiping idols. There are no other gods (Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah 44:6), and any gods we hear about other than the One that really exists are simply made up by men because they hate God that much. To worship these gods is to worship demons (1 Corinthians 10:20; Deuteronomy 32:17; Revelation 9:20).

3. The Bible is ridiculous and filled with contradictions. There’s no way it’s reliable!

The natural man cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14). I have watched this verse unfold often. I have heard many people claim contradictions, and yet they just twist verses up. One of the worst examples I have seen is someone claiming that God contradicted Himself, because He said He would never destroy the earth again by flood. To prove this contradiction, they tried to show me the verses where He DID flood the earth… which was actually BEFORE He said He wouldn’t flood it anymore. Using that logic, I can say that it was a contradiction that Robinson Crusoe left the island he had been stranded on, because an earlier place in the book said he was on the island.

Often, simply looking at the immediate context would answer many claims of contradictions. Other times, comparing other Scripture with Scripture may be necessary. Either way, the claims for contradictions don’t come because the Bible truly contradicts itself. Instead, this again is men hating God and so, they will accuse His Word of not being reliable and try desperately to cling to that as if it were true, to try to help support their worldview they have made up for themselves with their own lies. You don’t want to be held accountable to God, so you try to do whatever you can to convince yourself He just doesn’t exist or that His Word isn’t true or reliable. Indeed, the Bible says truly that a scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge is easy to a man who has understanding (Proverbs 14:6), and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7).

4. The Bible contradicts science/history/etc. that we know as fact.

Are you sure about that? Consider your sources. How many things do you think you may have honestly just overheard someone say? You have no idea where they got it, but you just heard them say it and assumed they knew what they were talking about? Or perhaps maybe you just read an article, or a book, or watched a video, or whatever else on a subject, that has a bias or misinformation. How do you know what they’re saying is really true and reliable?

When I say consider your sources, I mean this: the men out there promoting that science disproves the Bible, or history disproves it, or any other thing disproves it, they all hate God. They don’t want Him to exist and they don’t want to submit to Him. Considering their worldview has been built up lie upon lie in an attempt to hide from the reality they hate so much, doesn’t it stand to reason that they would naturally make such claims? Wouldn’t they say science doesn’t fit with the Bible, or whatever else they are claiming discredits the Bible, to build up their worldview even more, strengthening their delusion? Are you doing this?

If you’re honestly willing to look at these things in depth, there are plenty of Christians who are scientists who believe the Bible and they disagree with secular scientists. Who is right? Should the majority be trusted just because of numbers? What if the majority is mistaken, like how long ago many people thought the world was flat? The majority of men hate God, and so, the majority would deceive themselves on this subject. If you are interested in looking into things relating to science, feel free to ask me for resources.

5. I won’t believe unless I see the miracles supposedly performed in the Bible. Show me someone raising the dead and healing people supernaturally at will!

If you do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, you will not be persuaded, even if someone comes back from the dead (Luke 16:31). Jesus performed many miracles, yet people still refused to repent (Matthew 11:20-24). In the end, even miracles wouldn’t cause you to repent and believe, because you’re not rejecting God due to a lack of evidence to begin with. You’re doing it because you hate Him and don’t want to submit to Him.

6. You say I already know God exists, but I’m just suppressing the truth? I could just say the same thing about the Flying Spaghetti Monster/Mickey Mouse/Santa Claus etc.

You certainly could. However, who is the Bible referring to; whose word is it supposed to be? Is it your deity, or the God of the Bible? Taking God’s own words and ripping them out of context to apply them to something else is ridiculous. This would be like me taking things written by or about a real human being, like say Charles Spurgeon, and then just replacing his name with a fictional character’s. Then, I could make the claim “Look, I could say so and so did that!” You certainly could say that, though the fact would remain that Charles Spurgeon really did it, not whoever you inserted there. The Bible is God’s Word, not the word of your fictional deity.

Moreover, if you are honest, you’d admit that you just made this up. If you admit it’s just been made up and you don’t really believe it yourself, you’ve refuted yourself. What you’re saying is admittedly not true, no one is really claiming it’s true or the revelation from a god, and no one is really believing it. If you pretend you believe it in order to mock me, you are simply being dishonest and not admitting you’ve been refuted. If you really believe this (highly unlikely), then you’re only doing so for the same reason anyone believes any other god: you hate the true God, and so you exchange the truth for a lie.

As for an example like Santa Claus? Santa Claus is believed by young children, maybe someone would point out, so people really do believe in him. That’s true. However, if children do believe in Santa, why do they believe? Isn’t it because they have been told this? Did those who told the children Santa is real truly believe in Santa themselves? Or did those who told them outright lie to these children because that’s part of their tradition? You have the same problem here as before, that no one is really claiming Santa is real (other than little children who only believe because their parents lied to them), no one says they have his word, no one claims to have heard from him.

You use comparisons like this that obviously aren’t the same as what we’re proclaiming, so you can mock the truth and strengthen your own delusion, attempting to justify yourself. To tell yourself and others that the truth is as absurd as the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Santa Claus helps you to suppress the truth, and to convince yourself further that there really is no God. You have to make the truth look as ridiculous and nonsensical as possible in your mind, and so you do things like this, to further suppress it. Making arguments like the Flying Spaghetti Monster is like you trying to convince me that air isn’t real, when neither of us believe your claim and the evidence is strongly against you.
These are taken from my website, which should be in my signature. They should be found in the Objections section.  

Corvis Cross

Conservative Lunatic

8,350 Points
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  • Informer 100
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Christian apologetics

 
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