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Reply | Aliens!
at 00:57 6 May 2024
By faith we believe there must be alien life it seems? |
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Reply | Religion: a social construct for subjugation of the population?
at 01:19 31 Dec 2022
Evidently my position on this question has me swimming against a very strong tide of opinion but here's my two penneth, my personal experience. However before I share my story I'd like to use a quote from Chuck Colson who was a powerful player in the Nixon presidency and sent to prison through his involvement with watergate, here's what he says about the resurrection of Jesus.
"I know the resurrection is a fact, and watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead. Then they proclaimed that truth for forty years never once denying it. Everyone was tortured, beaten, stoned, put in prison, they would not have endured that if it were not true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world, and they couldn't kelp a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 Apostles kept a lie for forty years? Absolutely impossible"
I had gone to church as a child, I had heard the bible accounts and I had no cause to disbelieve them. If there was a God he would easily be capable of things I was told He did. As I grew into my mid-teens I found it all rather lifeless and boring. There were other things far more attractive and exciting for me to explore… and at around 15 years of age I decided I would not waste my time any longer going to church. I had decided that Christianity was for weak and feeble people who need a crutch. As for me I was young, Fit, strong, able, and confident what could possibly go wrong me versus the world was a fair fight and I was going to do my own thing.
For over twenty years that was what I did…my own thing, I lived for myself, I manipulated people I was very kind and caring to those who could benefit me and showed myself to be diligent and hard working to decision makers in my life. I schemed and dodged and dealt often unscrupulously with people but at the centre of it all was ME. I got Married when I was 23 my wife and I had two beautiful girls and life was great. At 32 I had my own business and all was well.
I had, as I saw it no need of God even if there was one I had sort of proven myself as I thought. Then one early summer day aged 37 I found myself at work involved in a mundane task and my mind began to wander. I found myself thinking: Is there A God? And if there is a God what difference does this make to me? All I had heard as a young teenager came back to my mind about all that God had done for me through His Son Jesus Christ and I just wanted to dismiss all this from my mind. I knew somehow there was a cost to this, I knew if I conceded that God was real things would have to change. I could not dismiss these things from my mind they carried too much importance it seemed. I stopped what I was doing made a coffee, lit a cigarette and sat out in the early summer sunshine. I was taken up by the beauty of creation all around me and had to concede that I and all I see cannot be the result of billions of uncontrolled random events but rather someone made all this! There is a God in Heaven seemed a very reasonable thing to conclude from the evidence as presented to me.
God had very kindly troubled me to think on these things and He continued to deal with me through the rest of that summer. I began to feel great conviction and guilt about how I was living my life. I was selfish and manipulative and I could now see it plainly before my eyes. My language and conversation were tainted with obscenities and things which you would not repeat in any half decent company. I was dirty and needed to be clean. After three months of wrestling I came to saving faith in Christ, He alone could deal with my soul and my need to be right with God. I have been a Christian for over 25 years now, the Lord has been kind .It has not been easy, I have been subject to all the trials and heart aches of life, but I have obtained mercy, I have his help. Above all I have peace with God. |
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Reply | Yet another beheading
at 00:46 31 Oct 2020
During the 20th Century, it is estimated that atheistic regimes slaughtered 150 million people. Seems to me we don’t do so well when God is excluded from the picture. So maybe He is not the problem, just maybe there is something wrong with us. |
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Reply | Jesus
at 08:53 21 Jan 2019
This is a sickening comment by the way |
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Reply | Jesus
at 08:52 21 Jan 2019
Evidently you are able to improve on the justice, grace and mercy of God..... |
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Reply | Jesus
at 00:17 21 Jan 2019
What is baptism? can being immersed in water change anything? or was there more going on when you were baptised? |
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Reply | Jesus
at 23:40 20 Jan 2019
Gospel meaning good news.. as found in the bible as opposed to different gospels (of Judas or Thomas etc). The criteria applied by the council of Nicea and then Constantinople 321 AD was as follows: letters Written by one of Jesus' disciples, someone who was a witness to Jesus' ministry, such as Peter, or someone who interviewed witnesses, such as Luke.
Written in the first century A.D., meaning that books written long after the events of Jesus' life and the first decades of the church weren't included.
Consistent with other portions of the Bible known to be valid, meaning the book couldn't contradict a trusted element of Scripture.
seems reasonable and sensible? what grounds do you have to suggest the motives of these men were anything other than honourable? Also if God is sovereign wouldn't he be able to oversee and ensure the truth was communicated? |
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Reply | Jesus
at 22:47 20 Jan 2019
If a person is genuine in their repentance then they can be forgiven, Man looks at the outward appearance God looks at the heart. To molest a child is a horrendous thing to do but redemption is possible for the vilest offender. That is the power of the gospel. |
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Reply | Jesus
at 22:33 20 Jan 2019
The suggestion in your response seems to be that you think I am gullible, quite often there seems to be a false dichotomy drawn up which goes something like atheist/agnostic equals intelligence/wisdom and faith equals foolishness... on what what grounds i am not so sure. |
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Reply | Jesus
at 21:58 20 Jan 2019
what do you believe the answer to be?
How does anyone have peace with God and get to be in heaven? |
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Reply | Jesus
at 21:28 20 Jan 2019
I think my first thoughts about the creation account recorded in the bible are that the bible does not focus on the "how" but much more on "who and why". God could have created everything in a moment. biblical scholars I have studied tell me God did it this way as a pattern for us to follow. The sun moon and stars were not created until day 4 in the biblical account by the way, but the word used for day in the Genesis account is the same as in the rest of the bible so I take it to mean 24hrs. It is mind blowing indeed!
At 38 years of age I was far more concerned with my morality than my mortality... I began to realise that if there was a possibility that there was a God and I had to give account ....... i would be undone |
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Reply | Jesus
at 02:01 19 Jan 2019
Most of the secular historians who provide evidence for the life and death of Jesus have already been mentioned and even the champions of atheism (prof Dawkins et al) generally accept Jesus lived, died, and had some good things to say. I have joined the conversation because one contributor suggested that perhaps a bible believing Christian would not do so. I became a Christian 21 years ago. I came to faith in Christ at 38 years of age from a position of being an atheist, believing that religion was empty and for weak people who needed a crutch. Quite often in this well rehearsed debate there tends to be a lot of heat and not much light, which might describe where this thread has got too thus far.
Whatever your world view it has to have a cogent answer for the big questions... I am satisfied that biblical Christianity does this. |
| | Exeterjack
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