10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer [ANS]

last SG · 2012-01-10T02:26:56+00:00

Why lah, everybody seems to b ullshitting, heaven and hell are existential expereinces. It was never geographical and can never be found. it is a consequence...

Bhw33 SG

While the job of converting the soul is God's, the job of communicating the good news and removing intellectual obstacles to the faith is ours. I believe we just need to demonstrate the reasonableness of faith and belief in Jesus, that while it is a step of faith, it is not a blind leap of faith.

Ours is not blind faith. We know whom we have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day. The propagators of evolution are the ones who have blind faith.

BroInChrist SG

If one is created by God’s OWN image, why pray and ask for this and that? Is it not telling God that ur creation seems to be lacking in …? To me, at least,.It is not god’s fault at all, it is the human mind that seems to have distorted the meaning of prayer? it feels like humans are trying to define God to fit their own bigotries and prejudices. This is how I feel about most organized religions.

By what logic do you employ to say that just because we are created in God's image it means prayer is redundant? We are free willed beings and God delights in our prayers and supplications to Him. It is not telling God what to do at all. Your idea of prayer is totally contrary to Scripture.

despondent SG

we are also in a sense born in likeness to our parents...we look somewad like them whether in appearance, character traits, habits etc...but does tat mean tat its redundant for us to tok to our parents since we are in some sense born in their image???

despondent SG

to BIC,

i am guessing here...could he mean that since we are like God, we shld noe him well enuff tat we noe his tots, plans and feelings to the pt theres no need to ask him anything since we are all-knowing like him? I would say tat he is imtrepreting likeness as a 100% likeness...in some sense, its like saying we are God...

Jonah Yong SG

Dear Reasonable.Atheist,

Okay, I will not quote any part of the Bible.

The answer is (b), but not the way you may be thinking, lest you think ill of God.

For every person who gets well from sickness or injury, God's hand is active in it. The reason that we can breathe is because God's hand is active in it. It is not that we deserve to breathe. But God is merciful and gracious. Remember, in hell there is no breathing because God's active blessing is not there. God has the ability to withhold the breath of life, and we would immediately stop breathing if He did that.

God allows a child's severed finger to work again because He has had mercy on the child. God cures someone's mother of cancer because He has had mercy on her. God did not let a person's amputated limb regrow because He had withheld His mercy on that person.

God chooses whom to have mercy on and how He wants to have mercy on each person and even the amount of mercy. That is His right. God did not promise to heal a severed finger, cure cancer or regrow amputated limbs. But if God did any of those, then it is evident that He has had mercy and grace.

God is always good and He keeps His promises. But God is not bound by promises He did not make, nor is He obliged to behave in a way that people think He should. But God did make this promise, that whoever would repent and believe in Jesus Christ will have eternal life and live together with Him in heaven forever. This promise still stands. Quickly, Reasonable.Atheist, what are you waiting for? Will you come to church this weekend?

Jonah Yong SG

Dear Fugazzi,

God created everything perfect. But because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the sin entered the world and it became imperfect.

Really, then. We deserve to be in hell right now.

You are correct when you say man imagines God based on his own ideas in his head. Your third paragraph is an example of this, because it is a mixture of what is true and untrue about God. Man's ideas about God will always be inaccurate, because man is influenced by his sinful nature. But God's declaration of Himself is always accurate, because that is what He says about Himself. And these statements of God are found in the Bible.

War, famine, poverty, hunger and disease have been going on ever since the disobedience of Adam and Eve. The cause of all these is sin. And these things will go on until the judgment day. After judgment day, there will be no more war, famine, poverty, hunger and disease for those who are in heaven.

--------------------------------------------

The flower is beautiful, whether or not you experience it or believe it.

The carrot cake is fantastic, whether or not your friend tasted it.

God is real. Heaven and hell are real. God's forgiveness is real, whether or not you experience it or believe in it. I have tasted God's love, and it is very real.

There is no need to deprive yourself, though. Do not be like your friend who missed out on the fantastic carrot cake. If you want to taste God's love, come with me to church and I will show you. :-)

Fugazzi SG

@
Jonah Yong – muse over this lah

’’God’’ is not about looking up, looking down, looking around, it is looking IN .

Fugazzi SG

@Jonah Yong

The flower is beautiful, whether or not you experience it or believe it.
How do u know? It is not real for u, u have not expereinced it, then u are simply parroting what has been told to u. It is real for u cos u have made it a belief – it is real in ur mind only

Has anyone found hell or heaven – it seems like a fiction lah. it not geographical in nature, – it is consequence of unwise/wise choices and the ’’results’’ in a state of mind. Ways of living!

Substituting knowledge with beleifs is simply accumulation of what is acquired from outside of oneself. God is one’s inner being – which entails going in and diving into the depths of one’s being. No preist, no pastor, no book, is needed. Dialogue is possible only between two persons, and God is not a person but a presence – beauty,peace joy and …, can one find one’s inner being? One can be kind or one is being kind?

Hence I say this – when one is being present to one’s being …, one is being present to another’s being … – a communion (two emptinesses, can it be counted as two?) However, when one is present to one’s self one can only be present to another’s self (this are two persons cannot become ’’emptinesses’&#8216 Wink

PS – the flower and the carrot cake are methaphors not to be interpreted in its literal sense lah.
A belief is always a concept. egs God, a heaven hell, theology or a certain system of ideas. Belief is mind. Faith is of the ’’heart’’. Belief is borrowed, faith is one’s own experience. Eg One can have faith in the trees. can one believe in the trees? Faith is existential, experiential phenomena (happening and yet not happening – a paradox cos it is a herenow phenomenon) Faith is expereincing ’’God’’ as it happens!

reasonable.atheist SG

Jonah,

Lots of people pray for their illnesses to be healed. Presumably, some amputees pray to regain the function of their limbs as well. Why is it that plenty of people talk about being cured of cancers through divine intervention, or even coming back from the dead through the "grace" of God, but amputees never have their limbs regrown? Why cancer or even HIV victims? Why not amputees? You've never addressed this question.

As for the invitation to church, I've been to quite a number in my life. I'm primarily interested in understanding and sharing the truth, but a church is an unfair and unequal environment -- where I'd be forced to stand and passively listen to a message, and where open conversation is difficult. Instead, to my Christian friends who make the same invitation, I usually propose a one-on-one or small group discussion, even if all the others are Christians.

BroInChrist SG

to BIC,

I think he meant that to pray is to find fault with God because it means God's creation is lacking. But such an idea of prayer is completely foreign to the Bible.

BroInChrist SG

@
Jonah Yong – muse over this lah

’’God’’ is not about looking up, looking down, looking around, it is looking IN .

Looking in as in saying that there is a divine spark in us? Sorry the Bible does not teach this. The Bible says we are dead in sin. Sin is in us. But when we come to God through Christ, the Holy Spirit is given to us and indwells us.

BroInChrist SG

@Jonah Yong

It seems that your worldview is one that is fully absorbed with yourself. This is real for you, that is real for you. This is real for me, that is real for me. What about the question about whether a thing is real, regardless of you or me? You have boxed reality to only that which you have experienced.

Demon Bane SG

Christianity is the largest religion in the whole world....so that means majority of the people in the world do believe that there is a God ....

BroInChrist SG

Jonah,

But neither have you answered the question about what your challenge is supposed to prove, and whether that has indeed be proven.

BroInChrist SG

Christianity is the largest religion in the whole world....so that means majority of the people in the world do believe that there is a God ....

More so the fact that I think there are even more people who believe that there is a supernatural realm and that matter is not all there is, contrary to what the atheists are believing.

BroInChrist SG

Christianity is the largest religion in the whole world....so that means majority of the people in the world do believe that there is a God ....

More so the fact that I think there are even more people who believe that there is a supernatural realm and that matter is not all there is, contrary to what the atheists are believing.

Demon Bane SG

Everybody is entitled to their own freedom of choice....of coz many will choose to believe whatever that is logical and beneficial to them....freewill....can be a good thing...Hahaha!

Fugazzi SG

Muse over this and :

Can the sun be expereinced cos of one having a belief? There is no need, one simply knows. In that knowing what is there to believe. does a non-believer miss the sun? Does believing or not believing negate the existence of the sun?

Ignorance belies beleifs! Holding onto beliefs blindly and never questioning them is akin to sheep bleating away.
It is the lack of understanding and the fear of being found (that one’s beliefs may not hold up to the fire of reality) out that one knows not. simply parroting scriptures and repeating what could have an existential expereince for another is pretension and being blind to one’s ignorance.
A beleif that is held onto not out of one’s love, not out of one’s knowing, not out of one’s knowing or experience – means this – that belief is out of one’s fear.

How to believe in something that one has never expereinced for oneself? To say that i dont know and I am willing to find out and explore before I believe is intelligence. Being receptive, being open to …. is intelligence. Stupidity, is to deny that and simply quote others and …. this is bondage! Whether one is an atheist or non-atheist – both are still beliefs – it is closed book, finished and what is there to find out. One has already concluded what should be the end. One will never meet God and if one were to utter that i meet god”” – one is also real and so is god. In other words, there are two realities, not one. Is there such a thing as two realities? How can a omnipresence, a being have two realities? Reality is ’’self’‘-effulgence. One cannot come across god, one can come across godliness (aka a fragrance of one’s being …..?) – a process that never ends. Can the latter be objectified?

[imdestinyz] SG

lols... fugazzi, they cant be convinced easily 1 larh...

Fugazzi SG

lols... fugazzi, they cant be convinced easily 1 larh...

It is ok lah, what is true cannot be suppressed for much too long!

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