InTruth
01-05-2014, 09:12 PM
I don't think we should believe things without some sort of support or evidence for it. For example, I don't think we should be atheist or agnostic because there is nothing to support those ideas, but we do have evidence for God and evidence for the Christian God as follows as I see it.
I know that non-existence can't cause anything to come into being because it doesn't exist. That should be enough, but I also have another reason which is we see cause and effect in nature over and over, time and again, with no hard evidence of something from nothing without assuming it. Therefore, this is a solid that nature ALWAYS needs a cause whether it be the first event of nature or anywhere in between. You don't need to know all things to know if this is true, just enough evidence is all you need which is what we have. Besides, if you had to know all things, you are claiming you would have to be God "all-knowing" (omniscient) to know for sure, but that is self-contradictory, because obviously you are not God, and do you remember creating the universe? How forgetful of you being all-knowing! Funny.
The only other thing that one can try to fathom to fight off God is to say nature always existed, but that has two insurmountable serious flaws which are:
1) if nature always existed in an eternity of the past of cause and effects, then by that very definition, you would have had an eternity to come into being before now so you should have already happened. And...
2) you should never have existed because an alleged past eternity would continue to go on forever in the past so as to never reach this point.
So by this overwhelming preponderance of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, we can be certain nature needs a cause outside of itself, that is, outside of time and space, being uncreated. And that is what we are talking about the uncreated when we speak of God.
Not only is God uncreated, always existed, but He can't be below us for the Creator is always greater than the created. Therefore, since we are personal, accessible, have a mind and self-consciousness, God must have all these attributes too. Anything less is debasing God for your own twisted and selfish thoughts.
There is only 3 faiths that are pervasive enough (accessible enough around the globe) to meet the necessary criteria worth considering: Islam, Hinduism, Christianity. All other faiths or beliefs or world-views or ideas fail to meet this accessibility law as they have so few adherents. If in a billion years another religion rises up to be popular it can be included in the mix to compare to, but for now there are only three that make up the majority of people.
But we know Islam is false because you can't come along six centuries later and claim Jesus never died on the cross or even went to the cross without anything support said claim in your attempt to overturn the plethora of evidence and corroborating reports we have from the first century. If you make blind claims like that then you can make blind claims about anything and start a new religion anytime anywhere, making the whole thing up. But that's not too bright!
Now Hinduism is false too, because its god is said to be Amoral which is below the morality of humans. And sin is never effectively addressed if you get an endless number of chances to become a chicken then come back as a human to change your bad behavior. How can a chicken hold the moral burden and responsibility of human being to become a human again? That would be too much for the chicken to bear. Do we as humans pin our bad conduct on an ants? I know some atheists do but that is just goofy!
You really don't need more than this lifetime to make the decision. As a practical matter, notice virtually nobody has come to the cross as helpless sinner to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior past the age of 40, indicating that this lifetime is more than enough time to decide whether you want to be with God and the Lamb Christ Jesus in the New City and New Earth or to be eternally separated from the love of God and His presence. Ceasing to exist is not an option because God made us in His image which can never cease to exist. If God allowed annihilation it would debase His creation to something lesser and destroy the true essence of free will each of us are bestowed with. So claiming you will be annihilated so that it doesn't matter if you kill yourself or a billion people is morally retarded and imbecilic! The consequence of your attitude is you will burn in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. This fire is no natural fire that eventually burns out. It is a metaphorical fire using figurative language to depict God's judgment on you.
I should also add that Islam and Hinduism are both works based faiths which is an impossibility, because how can a sinner ever bridge the gap between himself and an infinitely great God. Impossible! Only in Christianity do you have the correct starting point by being born-again "taking the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17), giving a free will offering like Abel did and not of your works like Cain did. By doing so God makes you acceptable to Him to begin fellowship with. From this starting point you can begin to overcome for real the sin of your body and selfishness of your soul, because you would have been totally forgiven and died with Christ on the cross to your old man, giving you power over sin and self. Satan can't operate through that which is dead (lost communication), so all the Christian needs to do is appropriate this new life as a new creation of God by trusting in God's word (66 books of the Bible) completely. The old creation, all we inherit from Adam, has died on the cross. Some Christians realize this. Others are foggy about it so they need to appreciate it to appropriate its power.
That's why I am a Christian, once saved always saved, for those who are born-again "they shall never perish" (John 10.28). Calvinists and Roman Catholics, about 2 billion in total, are false Christians so they are going to Hell too along with Atheists, Agnostics (Bible says if you are not for Christ, you're against Him), Pentecostals (as many as 500 million), Muslims (over 1 billion), Hindus and Buddhists (over 1 billion), and Atheists/Agnostics (over 1 billion). Calvinists claim you are irresistibly made to be saved; whereas Roman Catholics claim you can lose salvation tomorrow once saved. Both groups are living a lie.
There is another way which is God's way (OSAS Arminian): giving your life to the God, Christ Jesus, who keeps, accepting you could not keep yourself saved. Give your life to the God who keeps and never lets you go to be kept. Only in Christianity! That is true love. God predestinates by foreknowing your free choice: a conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, for preservation of the saints. Remonstrants were wrong because they like the RCC teach you can lose salvation once saved.
Praise the Lord for this discernment!
I know that non-existence can't cause anything to come into being because it doesn't exist. That should be enough, but I also have another reason which is we see cause and effect in nature over and over, time and again, with no hard evidence of something from nothing without assuming it. Therefore, this is a solid that nature ALWAYS needs a cause whether it be the first event of nature or anywhere in between. You don't need to know all things to know if this is true, just enough evidence is all you need which is what we have. Besides, if you had to know all things, you are claiming you would have to be God "all-knowing" (omniscient) to know for sure, but that is self-contradictory, because obviously you are not God, and do you remember creating the universe? How forgetful of you being all-knowing! Funny.
The only other thing that one can try to fathom to fight off God is to say nature always existed, but that has two insurmountable serious flaws which are:
1) if nature always existed in an eternity of the past of cause and effects, then by that very definition, you would have had an eternity to come into being before now so you should have already happened. And...
2) you should never have existed because an alleged past eternity would continue to go on forever in the past so as to never reach this point.
So by this overwhelming preponderance of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, we can be certain nature needs a cause outside of itself, that is, outside of time and space, being uncreated. And that is what we are talking about the uncreated when we speak of God.
Not only is God uncreated, always existed, but He can't be below us for the Creator is always greater than the created. Therefore, since we are personal, accessible, have a mind and self-consciousness, God must have all these attributes too. Anything less is debasing God for your own twisted and selfish thoughts.
There is only 3 faiths that are pervasive enough (accessible enough around the globe) to meet the necessary criteria worth considering: Islam, Hinduism, Christianity. All other faiths or beliefs or world-views or ideas fail to meet this accessibility law as they have so few adherents. If in a billion years another religion rises up to be popular it can be included in the mix to compare to, but for now there are only three that make up the majority of people.
But we know Islam is false because you can't come along six centuries later and claim Jesus never died on the cross or even went to the cross without anything support said claim in your attempt to overturn the plethora of evidence and corroborating reports we have from the first century. If you make blind claims like that then you can make blind claims about anything and start a new religion anytime anywhere, making the whole thing up. But that's not too bright!
Now Hinduism is false too, because its god is said to be Amoral which is below the morality of humans. And sin is never effectively addressed if you get an endless number of chances to become a chicken then come back as a human to change your bad behavior. How can a chicken hold the moral burden and responsibility of human being to become a human again? That would be too much for the chicken to bear. Do we as humans pin our bad conduct on an ants? I know some atheists do but that is just goofy!
You really don't need more than this lifetime to make the decision. As a practical matter, notice virtually nobody has come to the cross as helpless sinner to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior past the age of 40, indicating that this lifetime is more than enough time to decide whether you want to be with God and the Lamb Christ Jesus in the New City and New Earth or to be eternally separated from the love of God and His presence. Ceasing to exist is not an option because God made us in His image which can never cease to exist. If God allowed annihilation it would debase His creation to something lesser and destroy the true essence of free will each of us are bestowed with. So claiming you will be annihilated so that it doesn't matter if you kill yourself or a billion people is morally retarded and imbecilic! The consequence of your attitude is you will burn in the Lake of Fire for all eternity. This fire is no natural fire that eventually burns out. It is a metaphorical fire using figurative language to depict God's judgment on you.
I should also add that Islam and Hinduism are both works based faiths which is an impossibility, because how can a sinner ever bridge the gap between himself and an infinitely great God. Impossible! Only in Christianity do you have the correct starting point by being born-again "taking the water of life freely" (Rev. 22.17), giving a free will offering like Abel did and not of your works like Cain did. By doing so God makes you acceptable to Him to begin fellowship with. From this starting point you can begin to overcome for real the sin of your body and selfishness of your soul, because you would have been totally forgiven and died with Christ on the cross to your old man, giving you power over sin and self. Satan can't operate through that which is dead (lost communication), so all the Christian needs to do is appropriate this new life as a new creation of God by trusting in God's word (66 books of the Bible) completely. The old creation, all we inherit from Adam, has died on the cross. Some Christians realize this. Others are foggy about it so they need to appreciate it to appropriate its power.
That's why I am a Christian, once saved always saved, for those who are born-again "they shall never perish" (John 10.28). Calvinists and Roman Catholics, about 2 billion in total, are false Christians so they are going to Hell too along with Atheists, Agnostics (Bible says if you are not for Christ, you're against Him), Pentecostals (as many as 500 million), Muslims (over 1 billion), Hindus and Buddhists (over 1 billion), and Atheists/Agnostics (over 1 billion). Calvinists claim you are irresistibly made to be saved; whereas Roman Catholics claim you can lose salvation tomorrow once saved. Both groups are living a lie.
There is another way which is God's way (OSAS Arminian): giving your life to the God, Christ Jesus, who keeps, accepting you could not keep yourself saved. Give your life to the God who keeps and never lets you go to be kept. Only in Christianity! That is true love. God predestinates by foreknowing your free choice: a conditional election, unlimited atonement, resistible grace, for preservation of the saints. Remonstrants were wrong because they like the RCC teach you can lose salvation once saved.
Praise the Lord for this discernment!