The following questions were posed to us at TVA by a local educator. While we have provided answers to these specific questions, we highly recommend visiting the websites below where we found the following articles.
https://teach4theheart.com/truths-christian-teachers/ https://www.ceai.org/whats-new/ How can we discuss our faith with students when you are a teacher? Be aware of what is allowed by law where you teach. May require research rather than just taking someone’s word. White researching the legal facts as they apply in your area be on the lookout for: Would it be legal to make a statement of my faith without proselytizing. What types of questions can I legally ask that could potentially lead to faith based answers. This is a quote from teach4theheart website: “But what if I were to tell you that religious discussions are not quite as taboo as you might think. That, in fact, it is legal to teach about religion in the public school as long as you do it in an academic matter and don’t try to convert your students. And that those legal, academic conversations may open doors for God to work in students’ lives in ways we never imagined.” Please look at this article to read more about what was discussed. They offer six ways that can be helpful to you in this endeavor at this link: https://teach4theheart.com/how-to-legally-share-your-faith-in-public-schools/ How can I apply the concepts you are teaching in a school setting? (Note to reader: The concepts referred to by the question are from the I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist presentations.) The first six lessons of the presentation are from science and philosophy. The material presented might have theological implications but the lessons themselves are not bible based. It is reasonable for a teacher to discuss the science and philosophy within those first six lessons. Additionally, lesson 8 speaks about the study of textural criticism and tells us how it’s used to discover and authenticate all ancient literature, not just the biblical texts. The Roadrunner Tactic Once of the most important things you can teach your students is how to recognize self-defeating statements. Teaching the roadrunner tactic to your students is well within safe boundaries in the classroom. Teaching them to apply a claim to itself will help them to recognize false statements. Ask Questions Ask questions about your student’s views in relation to the subject that is being taught. We highly recommend the book Tactics by Greg Koukl to hone your skills in asking the pertinent questions in your classroom. We recommend reading the following link about worldviews and truth in the classroom: https://teach4theheart.com/integrate-biblical-worldview/ How can I discuss these topics, especially during a zoom call and have no opportunity for one on one conversations? While it is admittedly more difficult to address a group in a zoom call than to have a one on one interaction with a student, we believe the answers to the previous two questions do apply here. Specifically referencing the topics of science and philosophy in the I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist presentations in addition to a solid teaching of the definition of truth. Teaching the roadrunner tactic to a group on a zoom call could be a lot of fun. Truth is always a great place to start. What if I had a conversation with a Christian student who was offended by me calling God an intelligent designer? Scripture gives us many different names for God that describe His qualities and attributes, the phrase “Intelligent Designer” also expresses His amazing qualities of intelligence and the intricate ways He has designed everything in the universe. We encourage readers to contact us if they have any other questions from this arena. Remember to pick up the book Tactics, it’s a short intelligent read about the topic. We also encourage you to visit Teach4theheart website that provides further help in the subject. PERSPECTIVES
By: Josiah Define miracle: 1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs Example: The healing miracles described in the Gospels 2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment Example: The bridge is a miracle of engineering. 3: Christian Science: a divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law Let’s go through the first one because that is the definition expressed in the objection that miracles are impossible. In the Gospels of the Bible, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) we find that Jesus Christ performed miracles such as giving the blind sight and healing the crippled so that they could walk. He even raised a man, as recorded, from the dead. Later the apostles and believers, being filled with the Holy Spirit also did miracles as well. We don’t only see this in the New Testament but also the Old Testament. For example, Moses parting the Red Sea and the miracles that the prophets performed. Miracles are performed throughout the Bible where God intervenes and makes something happen that would otherwise be impossible. But does this still happen today, yes it does. But before I explain we need to set one thing straight, not everyone one necessarily experiences a miracle and just because someone has not experienced such a thing does not make it impossible. God’s timing is perfect and He chooses to do what He wants, when He wants, to whomever He wants. Back to the matter at hand, miracles can only be proven by personal experience, science cannot explain it and the laws of nature cannot explain it, it could only be explained by personal experience or by God Himself. This means that you have to put a little bit of trust in what the witness of a miracle tells you. For example, there was a man at a church that had a miracle happen to him. His story was ups and downs in his life and his walk with God. He had walked away from God due to a tragedy in the family, his sister, a Bible believing Christian died in a car crash along with her husband and kids. One day he was driving a car next to a cliff something happened and he was quickly plummeting down the cliff. He then cried out for Jesus and in an instant, he appeared on the road, unharmed. He looked down the cliff and his car was totaled and in flames. As he told his experience he was bawling his eyes out because what had happened to him he knew was a miracle of God. There are many other stories of miracles that people have witnessed, I myself am a witness, and praise the Lord for it because today I’m alive and well. Someone can choose to believe this and he can choose not to but it does not take away from the validity of the account, especially in the Bible. God’s inspired word. Something similar happened like this in the Bible where a man is moved from one place to another by divine intervention. See Acts 8:26-40. By: Devon The most concise definition of a miracle is as follows; a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. The greatest miracle in the bible has already occurred and we have scientific evidence for it – the creation of the universe out of nothing. Believers and skeptics alike agree that at some point in the distant past there was nothing, and then the universe began to exist. It was a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Even if a person’s worldview precludes them from believing in a miracle worker, there are many things in the world that fit the description of a miracle. For example, consider the information that is found in DNA. In all of our prior experience, messages and information come from an intelligent source, a mind. To say that the vast amount of information that is found in DNA assembled itself together in all the many constructive patterns and messages we see in biology just by chance, without intelligent intervention, is to describe a miracle. That would be a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. IF macro-evolution were true, the process of gene mutations in a species that would cause it to transform into an entirely different species would also constitute a miracle since we have never observed the addition of new information being introduced into a genome by the process of gene mutation. That would make the process of macro-evolution a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. It is a matter of historical record that Jesus died by Roman crucifixion, was buried and that 3 days later his tomb was empty. The best possible inference for the empty tomb, based on the evidence, is that a miracle occurred and He rose from the dead. While this may initially sound quite fantastic, a careful examination of the facts surrounding the empty tomb, along with even a brief investigation of the alternative explanations, will support the veracity of this claim. Watch this video of Gary Habermas explaining the minimal facts argument for the resurrection. The conclusion is this; no matter what your world view is, miracles are indeed possible. By: JT The fact is we live in the greatest single miracle and take it for granted every day. How could it be possible that humans just so happen to live on a planet that has all the necessities for us to live: enough oxygen to breathe, enough water to drink, and enough food to keep us alive. It’s miraculous. If the world being created and existing is a miracle then miracles of smaller magnitude, like miraculous healing, or people narrowly escaping catastrophe are not far fetched. By: Sy The word miracle has many definitions. One is an unusual or unlikely event. There is one miracle that no one can deny. The world had a beginning. This event was unusual and unlikely. This was a miracle. By: R. T.
Can anyone provide evidence that miracles are impossible? I really don’t think so. I’ve never seen any scientific evidence that proves them to be impossible. If everything in the world has to be proved by science then this question has not yet been answered. We often see things in nature that do not follow normal expectations. Should we consider these to be miracles or must we require science to prove them in one way or another? If science cannot prove them then did they really happen? If we follow the evidence where it leads, we have to accept that miracles do happen and that God exists. Not everything in life is explainable no matter how hard we try. There are so many instances of something so impossible happening that it has to make you wonder. Science tells us the normal way in which the world works, things that are observable and provable, but science has yet to prove and explain everything. Has science proved that all life began from a single organism? No it hasn’t. Has science provided proof that humans have evolved from some other species? No it hasn’t. There is no proof whatsoever of either of these pivotal events. In contrast, if there is a God, this explains all kinds of things that have happened through history. What reason is there for not believing in miracles? Could it be that many people don’t want there to be a God that performs miracles? It might be a really big reason, let me explain. If there is no God then we are not accountable for our actions, we can do anything we want and not feel guilty or seen as immoral by others. If there is no one who sets the standard for morality then we don’t have to live up to that standard. If God does exist then the greatest miracle has already happened as explained in Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth. If this miracle is true, then every other miracle in the Bible is possible. If those miracles are true then we would have to accept that miracles continue to happen. So yes, miracles do happen and they are not impossible. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines a miracle as: “A miracle (from the Latin mirari, to wonder), at a first and very rough approximation, is an event that is not explicable by natural causes alone. A reported miracle excites wonder because it appears to require, as its cause, something beyond the reach of human action and natural causes. Historically, the appeal to miracles has formed one of the primary lines of argument in favor of specific forms of theism, the argument typically being that the event in question can best (or can only) be explained as the act of a particular deity.” If you believe that all life on the planet evolved from nothing, then you believe in miracles. In 1662 physicist Robert Boyle established the law of gas which determined that gas can’t be compressed without something to compress it. This is what is required for the evolutionary big bang theory to have happened. It’s not provable or possible for gasses to have been compressed when nothing existed which clearly makes the evolutionary big bang impossible. If you believe that soupy cells transformed themselves into living creatures, then you believe in miracles. If you believe that one animal has offspring of a different animal, then you believe in miracles because there are no transitory examples to be found anywhere on earth, not one single example. Believing that apes have over time become humans is monkey-business. Let’s take a brief look at DNA testing with 23andMe. When you provide a sample for testing they will send a report that explains all the areas of the world your DNA identifies in your ancestral line. One of the areas they provide information for is how much Neanderthal you are. Population geneticist Kasia Bryc with 23andMe says: “To estimate ancestry for Ancestry Composition [the report where you saw your African results], we use reference data of individuals whose ancestry we know, in order to figure out the ancestry of individuals whose ancestry we don’t know. Using reference data allows us to build an algorithm to disentangle ancestry from different parts of the world, but this is actually quite a hard problem.” Read that very carefully. She indicates the results are an estimate and they use an algorithm, a mathematical formula, to determine your Neanderthal percentage and it’s quite a hard problem. The results provided by 23andMe for Neanderthal percentages is simply a marketing gimmick used to sell their tests. If 23andMe is able to detect or estimate how much Neanderthal DNA you have as far back as 400,000 years, then scientists should also be able to detect in the DNA of all animals the traces of their ancestry such as other species and other non-related animals in their test results. This has not been found in any animal. Scientists can’t find the DNA of a mouse in a rabbit, or the DNA of a badger in a dog and there is no ape DNA in a human. Scientists are unable to find the ancestry of any animal other than the DNA of the animal that it truly is. This means that evolution is just a made up story or a miracle! Do you believe in miracles? On the other hand, if you believe that God created the world by speaking it into existence, then you have evidence for that, you have the earth, the sun and moon, the stars and galaxies and all life on this planet. I have to ask myself, do I believe in miracles? My answer is YES! And I have all the proof in the world to show you that miracles are possible and God is the one that performs them! PERSPECTIVES
By: Devon We need to address two separate issues to properly respond to this question; trust and biblical inerrancy. First we’ll look at the issue of trust by considering these two points;
Likewise, even IF there are some errors in the bible (which I don’t believe there are), the bible has an excellent track record regarding what we know it is right about! What we know from eyewitness testimony, historical sources outside of the biblical text, and archaeology, tells us that there are many good reasons to trust the bible. Next, we’ll look at the issue of Biblical inerrancy by considering three questions regarding the supposed errors;
Are the supposed errors referring to contradictory accounts and if so, what exactly are the contradictions? Are the alleged errors in text that is history? Poetry? Prophecy? In the epistles? The bible is composed of 66 different books and includes different genres, or types of literature. In order to have a proper response, a question regarding alleged errors needs to be specific in order to be answered properly. We know that the bible has what detectives call “divergent details,” and that these are sometimes mistaken for contradictions. For example, the book of Matthew speaks about one angel present at the empty tomb on resurrection Sunday and the book of Luke mentions two. A closer look at the texts reveals that there is no contradiction, only a difference in the way the details were reported by the eyewitnesses; a divergent detail. Two people can see the same parade and yet describe it differently based on where they saw it from, which details piqued their particular interest, etc. Furthermore, there is not one instance in the bible where the presence of divergent details alters any foundational doctrines. The difference in the way that the two different authors describe the presence of the angels does not alter the fact that the tomb was empty because Jesus rose from the dead. Note: Someone who has a predisposed position of unbelief will have a never ending list of supposed errors or contradictions. Someone who is genuinely seeking the truth will be open to belief in the bible’s authority and ability to be trusted without having to have every question answered in full. A person doesn’t have to have a full and complete understanding of how a phone works in order to believe that their phone will work when they want to make a call, or to have the ability to actually make a call. By JT This is a very settled argument between believers and non-believers in that there are very few errors that do not change the doctrine of Christianity. The Bible in fact has a very large amount of copies that differ very little and only doing so in mostly spelling and names. The scribes who were tasked with copying the Old Testament had a very strict procedure so that very little error would occur. 1. They could only use clean animal skins, both to write on, and even to bind manuscripts. 2. Each column of writing could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines. 3. The ink must be black, and of a special recipe. 4. They must verbalize each word aloud while they were writing. 5. They must wipe the pen and wash their entire bodies before writing the word "Jehovah," every time they wrote it. 6. There must be a review within thirty days, and if as many as three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone. 7. The letters, words, and paragraphs had to be counted, and the document became invalid if two letters touched each other. The middle paragraph, word and letter must correspond to those of the original document. 8. The documents could be stored only in sacred places (synagogues, etc). 9. As no document containing God's Word could be destroyed, they were stored, or buried, in a genizah - a Hebrew term meaning "hiding place." These were usually kept in a synagogue or sometimes in a Jewish cemetery. By: Sy This question is simple. The fact is that the Bible does not have any errors, or contradictions more specifically. Just about all claims about there being contradictions in the Bible are usually parts where there are different details about certain events. There may be different details, but not contradictory. The difference could be left to someone standing somewhere else in the room. Different doesn’t mean contradictory, it just means different. By: R. T.
We can assure you that the Bible is accurate and not containing errors of any significance. The reasons are many but we will cover a few here. 1. We do not have the original documents that comprise the Bible but there are more historical copies of its entirety than any other book on earth. There are around 6,000 manuscripts that agree about 99.5% of the time. The only differences are in the spelling of words, punctuation and slight word alterations. This makes the Bible the most accurate collection of early documents found anywhere, more than Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. 2. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do not tell the same events and this means the Bible has discrepancies. Let’s take a look at this statement. If you were to take any event that was viewed by multiple people and recorded their version of the event you would find that each recollection of the event was different. It doesn’t mean that any are wrong but each person’s point of view is differing from the other. It’s the same with the first 4 books of the New Testament. Each author recorded the events of Jesus’ life from their own perspective and none of them truly disagree with the other. This confirms that the gospels do not have errors or discrepancies of any kind, just a differing viewpoint. 3. If God is all powerful, all knowing and the creator of all things how could it be that He is unable to preserve His word without errors? I think this rightly answers its own question. He is able and has preserved the Bible in its entirety which is proven by the vast amount of early documents we have today. Jesus Himself said in Mark 13:31: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” We can also look at Psalms 12:6-7, which says: “The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.” This is a promise God has made to keep his scriptures correct and pure in all ways. 4. Here is the method used by the authors of the Old Testament in copying the manuscripts to assure its accuracy: A. Only clean animals were used to make the parchments. B. Every scroll was designed to have certain specifications such as 48 to 60 lines with 30 letters across. C. The pages were given lines before putting in the lettering. D. Nothing was to be written from memory at any time. E. There were spacing rules so intricate they were measured by a hair. F. The scribe had to bathe and dress in Hebrew attire before beginning his work each time. G. A new unused brush was dipped into ink every time the name of God was written because His name is sacred. H. All the lines, letters and punctuation were counted to be sure there was the correct number of each. I. Any error in writing the text meant that document was destroyed. Only perfectly copied pages were acceptable. Matthew 5:18 says: "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Jesus confirmed that every minute marking in the Bible was preserved by the hand of God and is accurate until the end of time. The Bible as we know it today is accurate, correct and perfectly preserved. You can trust it in every way and we hope you will take the time to read it fully! PERSPECTIVES
By: Sy In short, no. This statement implies that Christianity is made up, not factual. Explanation of this would be extremely lengthy. But the heart of the question, “Is Christianity’s purpose to comfort people?” The fact is that Christianity does provide comfort, for our future. I can’t deny it. All religions comfort people. Islam promises certain desires, Hinduism offers peace and being able to be good enough to be united with the Brahman, Buddhism offers peace, and Atheism make people comfortable with doing the wrong things with no punishment. Christianity shows us that we are unable to be good enough. All religions have their own way of comforting people. By: Devon Karl Marx famously said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” In order to respond to how opinions like this relate specifically to the Christian faith, we’ll examine the following points;
Christian persecution worldwide has reached violent, alarming, and unprecedented heights. Christian persecution right here in the U.S. is primarily social and cultural, but it is still very real and it’s growing rapidly. Jesus said that we should not enter into a relationship with Him lightly but rather we should consider the consequences and “count the cost” (Luke 14: 28-33). Persecution, tribulation, and self-denial are not comfortable costs to have to count. The next point to consider is one of the core tenets of the Christian worldview, that “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” Hebrews 9:22. The necessary system of animal sacrifice was a bloody, meticulous, and continual method of dealing with the sins of the people. The ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Himself was excruciatingly painful, violent and humiliating. The blood sacrifice is not a concept that would have been conjured up to comfort people. We all have a choice about whether or not to believe in God and accept the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. Those who believe and accept will spend eternity with God in Paradise, those who don’t will spend eternity without God in Hell. This is indeed a comforting thought when pondering our own eternal destiny. However, when we consider the fate of friends and loved ones who have chosen to reject God it is a reality that is painful far beyond what could be described as discomforting. Finally, let’s consider the historicity of the Christian Worldview. The Bible enjoys extensive support from anthropology, archaeology, biology, geology, history and literature. The field of textual criticism also supports the biblical narrative as do extra biblical texts including many of the opposing viewpoint. At the core of the Christian Worldview is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The minimal facts argument developed by Gary Habermas for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus is one of the greatest, most solid arguments ever made on the topic. (Read the argument and watch the videos here.) We all know that truth is not always comfortable. The myriad of supporting evidence tells us that the Christian Worldview is true, and that it’s not always comfortable. By: R. T.
Denying the existence of God is the reason for a question like this. When truth is uncomfortable for someone they often choose to belittle it and the people who hold this truth to be valid. God does exist and can be seen in all creation. Criticizing Christians for their beliefs is an easy way to write off God and eliminate the need to follow His laws which allows unbelievers to live life the way they choose without feeling bad about their poor choices. This way of characterizing Christians was promoted by Sigmund Freud and Thomas Nagel. In his book, The Future of an Illusion, Freud wrote: “They are illusions, fulfilments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind... As we already know; the terrifying impression of helplessness in childhood aroused the need for protection – for protection through love – which was provided by the father.... Thus the benevolent rule of divine providence allays our fear of the dangers of life.” This seems to indicate that Christians are inferior in most every way so they create God to help themselves through life. Christians need protection and to be emotionally coddled. 2 Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” God has provided the answer to Freud’s text, Christian’s are given a sound mind through faith in Him and the Holy Spirit. We do not need to be coddled! In Nagel’s book, The Last Word, he made it clear that he didn’t want there to be a God: “I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope that there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.” I think this clearly shows that he would rather do the things that please himself and deny the existence of God to comfort himself. He indicates that Christians are intelligent and that makes him uncomfortable in his own beliefs. What he doesn’t seem to understand is his way of thinking doesn’t compare to the God of the universe, we see this in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” As Christians we choose to walk by faith in Jesus Christ and to submit our will to His in all things. Submission to God takes strength because we all want to do what pleases ourselves but to submit to God is selflessness. Psalms 128:1 says: “Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.” It is a great joy and honor to submit to our wonderful God and our faith in Him is not a crutch but a blessing beyond measure! PERSPECTIVES
By: JT When you have a door, you can have many people with the a key to the one door, but the key is the exact same for each person. You can’t just choose a random key on your ring and plug it in the keyhole and expect the door to open. The same is true for Jesus and heaven, there are many people in the world of have Jesus in their heart, who is the key, and that is the only key that will work for the door to heaven. You can’t take Buddha and expect him to open the door for you, he cant, he isn’t the key. By: Sy The law of non-contradiction says that ideas the contradict each other can’t both be correct. They may even both be wrong, but not right. An example is that the earth can’t be a sphere and and cube at the same time, it must be one or the other, or neither. The same is true for religions. Islam and Christianity have contradictory beliefs such as Christians believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are a trinity and Islam says that it is the worst sin in the world to believe in a trinity. They can’t both be right. Some say that all religions are all the same. They are not. Buddha does not offer salvation, Judaism doesn’t believe that Jesus was God, Islam seem to target the foundation of Christianity, and Hinduism has more than a few gods. In this case, the real question is which religion can be proven to be historically accurate. Which can be scientifically proven, and which makes the most sense. Jesus is the only way because we can prove that he existed, did miracles, rose from the dead, and confirmed the entire rest of the Bible (Old Testament). Islam does not offer salvation. Judaism missed Jesus when he was here. Buddhism didn’t become a religion with a God until after Buddha died, and Hinduism has far too many gods and no honest form of salvation. By: Devon The question itself presupposes the core tenet of the Christian worldview; that a man named Jesus died a substitutionary death in our place to pay for our sins. With that foundation in place, we will then examine the following points to answer the question about why adopting that worldview is the only way to get to heaven;
While we have the option to either believe or not believe the words Jesus spoke, we can’t believe that adopting the Christian worldview is just one way to get to heaven. That would violate the law of non-contradiction which states that opposite ideas can’t be true at the same time and in the same sense. Either Jesus is the only way or He’s not. He can’t be just one of many ways, that’s a logical contradiction. If there was more than one path to heaven, why did Jesus have to suffer and die a horrible death? If there was something we could do to save ourselves then why did God send His son to die in our place? The only logical reason why God would send His son to suffer and die, and the only logical reason why Jesus willingly submitted to this solution is because it was the only solution. There was no other way. All worldviews are exclusive. Islam says that only Muslims will get to heaven. Buddhists and Hindus have exclusive beliefs about heaven. Atheists believe that we cease to exist all together when we die. Every world view believes it is the “only way.” Theistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) are the only worldviews that offer us a choice about where we go when we die. Christian theism is the only option that is not a merit based system. Christianity says that no one can bear the burden of being “good enough.” For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 And yet it is the only option that offers a full pardon for our sin – because of the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf! That’s why He is the only way! Consider these questions; Do you believe that moral crimes should be punished? Have you ever committed a moral crime? Would you like a full pardon? If so, Jesus is the only way. By: R. T.
If you wanted to go to heaven when you die, how would you get there? I suppose you would try to be a really good person and do a lot of things that would help you earn your way to this wonderful place. Okay! Let’s take look at this way to heaven. You might spend all your time, your entire life, doing things that are noble that you believe your acceptance into heaven surely must be guaranteed. The day comes for your life to end and now what? Are you sure you did enough and how will you get there? Did you talk to God about this momentous day and are you expecting God to let you in? It seems there could be something missing here! There is no way to know if you did enough virtuous things, no way to know if God will open up those pearly gates for you. This is one of the most important events in your life and you have to be absolutely certain it’s going to turn out the way you are hoping. What if this method doesn’t work? Let’s investigate another way. What you really want is eternal life in heaven, not just getting God to open that gate but also to be able to live there forever. How are you going to achieve this eternal state of living? We’ve already figured out doing good things really isn’t the answer so you will have to ask your god to change your dying body into one that can survive forever. What god are you going to ask to do that for you? Let’s take a look at some well-known religions and see which one offers you the best opportunity to get that eternal body. Hinduism offers reincarnation and the self is one with Brahman, you must do awesome things and take pilgrimages, but illusion prevents you from understanding it. There are about 10 deities that also have alternative avatars and names. It’s hard to say how many gods there really are but you’ll have to choose the right one. Buddhism offers 2 ways: The devotional way and the way of intuitive knowledge. Your obedience to the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path are required as well. How will you know which way to choose in the end and how will you know if you achieved the goal? Islam says Allah will weight your good and bad deeds in life and decide if you will get into paradise. You must also follow the Five Pillars. Jehovah’s Witness expects you to perform good works of all kinds and ultimately there is no guarantee you will be admitted into paradise because all the “spots” have already been filled. I think we covered this already, that doing awesome things isn’t enough to really get God to open the gate for you. There is no way to really know what your end result will be. I could go through each religion and lay out the requirements for eternal life, but really it’s pointless. Let me explain. You see, all of the other religions are based on someone who died and is still dead, or on a lifeless item crafted by men to represent a god that has never lived to begin with. It’s dead! This is what sets Christianity apart and above all other religions because Jesus is alive! God himself, Jesus, came to earth to become like you, to suffer like you, to feel all the things you feel. God lovingly reached down to us to save us through Jesus, His Son. (Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.) He was crucified and died but here is the huge difference. He arose from death back to life, he defeated death! (Revelation 1:18 "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.) No other god claims these things. What difference does this make? First of all it’s not what you do to earn paradise, it’s what you have done. What have you done? Have you done anything that is unkind, mean, or deceitful? Have you lied, killed, hated or cheated? We all have! We have an unpaid debt called sin and no one on earth can pay it for you. We need the perfection of Jesus to pay our debts. You see, Jesus lived perfectly and is the only person who could ever paid your debts because God requires perfection to enter heaven. When Jesus willingly surrendered His life on the cross He paid your debts, all of them! You could say to yourself, “My debt is too big!” But Jesus says, “I paid it off.” You can say, “My debt is overwhelming, I’ve done so many terrible things!” But Jesus says, “I already paid for it.” The payment for your sins is offered to you as a free gift, there is nothing you can do to compensate God for it. You can’t earn a gift and it has nothing to do with your worthiness. (Titus 3:4-7 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.) Jesus became the bearer of our sin and took on the wrath of God. (1 Peter 2:22-24 22 "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.) This brings us back to the question, what difference does it make that Jesus arose from death? Jesus is alive having defeated death and He is offering you this as well. A dead god cannot offer you anything, only a living God can provide you the opportunity to go to heaven, and because He has already defeated death, you can too! He will give you life, a new body and eternity. All you have to do is trust in Him, repent of your sins and accept the gift. PERSPECTIVES
By: Sy A common argument is that since God is all powerful and all loving, that there should be no evil in the world if He truly exists. The situation is much more complicated than that. In the beginning, God made everything including people. God made people special and in His image. One day, Eve, the first woman, ate fruit from the tree that God told them not to eat from. This is the only thing God had said not to do, but they did it anyway. Eve got Adam, the first man, to eat some as well. They then had realized their mistake and hid from God, but you can’t hide from God. God said that there would now be pain death, dangers, and animals would fear people. This is how evil got introduced to the world. The question remains, “If God can tell the future, then why did he put that tree in the garden?” The answer is simple. God wanted us to love Him. For us to truly love Him, then there would also have to be a way for us to not love Him. Eating the fruit from that one tree was sinning against God. Adam and Eve had been told that they could be powerful like God if they had eaten the fruit. They put themselves before God. They did not become powerful because it was a lie from a serpent. We have all sinned against God most simply obvious by looking at the Ten Commandments. Therefore, there is evil in the world. It is all our faults, not God’s. God does not have to be non-existent for there to be evil in the world. By: JT Suffering exists in the world today, not because God allows it, but because of the collective human sin that occur every second in our world today. When God made Adam and Eve, he blessed them with the gift of free choice and they, like us, made a mess of their choices and let evil into the world. Now, God is all powerful meaning that he could destroy evil and sin as whole with a single thought, so why doesn’t he? That would mean that the free choice that he gives all people would be worthless. If you went through life where you were led by the hand and any mistake you made made no impact or had no consequence, what value would your life have or what would you ever learn. God is a loving father who hates to see us suffering, but it is not His fault that it exists, it is our fault and our choices that make it possible for there to be suffering. By: Devon To answer this question we’ll expound upon the following points;
Our Heavenly Father deals with us, His children, in ways that are not unlike we as earthly parents deal with our children here in the world. As parents, we know it is not wise for us to remove any possibility of suffering from the lives of our children. If children get everything they want and are protected from every disappointment and trial they will be spoiled and unprepared to deal with life as adults. Sometimes God allows us to suffer in order to get our attention. Rarely does a person ever become closer to God, learn to lean on Him more and trust Him more fully, during times of peace and prosperity. It is when we experience times of suffering or hardships that we are far more likely to draw near to God. C.S. Lewis said it like this, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Also, it is imperative that we know and remember that if we want to live in a world where love is possible for us, we must live in a world where free choice is granted to us. In a world where we are given the freedom to choose between good and evil, people will sometimes make evil choices that will cause suffering. However, if we did not have freedom of choice, we would not be able to experience genuine love. Without the freedom to choose between good and evil, right and wrong, we would be robotic, operating on instinct alone and therefore incapable of being able to give or receive love. God wants us to be free to choose whether or not we will accept and return the love He gives us. By: R. T.
Why, oh why, is there suffering in the world? It’s ugly and painful, heartbreaking and destructive, it brings sadness, hopelessness and anger. It just doesn’t make sense why a loving God allows all of this heartache. Let’s draw ourselves back to a larger view of suffering. How did it start and why? God created a perfect world and created perfect humans to live in it. When Eve chose to disobey her Creator and let Satan deceive her, this is the moment sin entered the world and this is what allows suffering to exist. Everything changed from perfection to approaching disaster. Satan brought this disaster upon us maliciously and purposefully. This is his plan for you, to bring pain and agony to your life in every way he can devise. (1Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.) God only wants to give you peace and hope, (Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.) but we want to shake our fists at God and angrily convict Him with our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?), “How can You allow this!” We prefer a God that we can hold accountable and in turn bring Him down to our level, “Guilty!” We also believe He isn’t so powerful and amazing because He can’t seem to stop all this hideous suffering, He’s ineffective and therefore not worth believing in. Pride is revealed in these wrong views of God and suffering. (Psalms 10:4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.) We are so very prideful, believing we deserve an easy life, a painless existence, a utopia of all that is good and pleasant. Suffering is not good or evil in itself, it doesn’t exist on its own but dwells in the hearts of sinful men, born of Satan and delivered by us to one another with indifference. But God uses these ugly painful experiences for great good. (Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.) Pain draws us inward causing us to ask why this is happening, we want to know how this serves any purpose. We wrestle with our very soul, wondering if God caused this. “Why me? Why this? Please take this ugliness away!” Suffering points us toward God and urges us to make a decision of belief or allow ourselves to suffocate in unhappiness, self-pity, and bitterness. Satan is claiming you! Taking possession of you fully. He is deceiving you! (2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.) Inside what we really want is comfort, nearness to God and nearness to someone who can save us. When something is tempered, like metal or chocolate, something is blended into it to bring it hardness or a more desired consistency. Suffering is God working in you, tempering you. When suffering is added to men it brings about something better in the end, something stronger and more beautiful. Soldiers are tempered by combat, it gives them wisdom, strength, courage and the will to prevail and win against the enemy. God is tempering us, adding some of His Son, our Suffering Savior, to make us stronger and so much more courageous. (Psalms 66:10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined.) When we realize God is real and there waiting for us, we will want to snuggle up to Him and begin to learn who He is and why we exist. We were created for His pleasure and to serve Him. Suffering brings us to His feet in humbleness and love, eager to know Him with all our heart. (1 Peter 5:10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.) God uses suffering in the world for good even though Satan means it for evil. Satan HATES you! He wants to destroy every cell in your body and drive you to an anger filled grave without God. Don’t allow him to win, be refined by God like gold and let Him temper you to become a mighty soldier for Christ! (James 1:2-4 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.) God is not wanting to save you from suffering but to save your soul from eternal torment. His great wisdom and love, even though sometimes painful, will change your suffering into eternal life if you will allow it. (John 3:16-17 16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.) PERSPECTIVES
By: Josiah “Why would a good God send people to Hell?” The question reads. It is a great question, but is one of the many questions pertaining to God, and things in the Bible that can be answered with confidence. First thing is first, the sin of man. God, originally, created a beautiful lush world. No living thing (mankind and animal kind) died. When God made the world and the rest of the universe He called it very good, it was the way He meant it to be. God warned Adam, the first man not to eat of one particular tree as recorded in Genesis 2:17, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” This one command shows us that God loved Adam enough to give him free will. But when Adam disobeyed this command, ate of the tree, and sinned against God–he was not “good” anymore because of his sin. Genesis 3:17-19, (17) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. (18) Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. (19) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Adam got what he deserved after what he had done and now all people everywhere die. This is because every one of us, except Jesus, has disobeyed the perfect good God. So how good and perfect is God? Mark 10:18, So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. Since God is so good and perfect, He also judges perfectly. Since we are not good we are bad, there is no in between. God’s judgment of sin is death and Hell. And since all of us have sinned we all fall short of God’s glory deserving our punishment due us. Since God judges perfectly He cannot just let imperfection by it has to be dealt with. Does God have authority over us, to do what He wants? Absolutely! See God made everything in the universe, He made everything around us and He made us. Not only that, He provides His planet, His animals, plants and minerals for us. He provides us with His own water. He literally owns us! He has every right to do whatever He wants with us! So God is perfect and He is in complete control of us, but He gives us free will and that is why we can choose what we do in this world, and why we can choose to follow after Him or not. But this good God also loves us, 2 Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So He (God) does not want us to perish, or go to Hell, but it must be done if we do not repent. God does not want us to go to Hell so much that He made a way for us to be saved from that punishment. He sent His son Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to die and take that punishment we deserve. And if you believe and have faith in His son that He rose from the dead and repent of your sins you will be saved. By: Sy God doesn’t exactly send people to hell. We choose to do so. If we sin once we are unable to be with God. God gave us a great world, and we ruined it. It isn’t possible not to sin, which is why God sent Jesus to suffer for our sins. God desires to be with each and every one of us. By: JT God gives us a lifetime of opportunity to accept His free gift of mercy. Without it He sees us as the dirty disgusting rotten sinners that we really are and as such we deserve hell, eternal punishment. Just as a felon convicted and proven of committing murder deserves punishment so do we. If we accept God’s gift of mercy, He sees us as His perfect creation, blameless and without sin. We owe thanks and praise to Jesus for giving us an opportunity to be free from evil. By: Devon There are only two options for our existence when our earthly lives are over; eternity with God, which takes place in Heaven, or eternity without God, which takes place in Hell. God makes Himself known to us, and available to us in our lives here on earth. If a person rejects God during this time, then God won’t force that person to spend eternity with Him when this earthly existence is over. Therefore it is the free choice of each individual person whether to spend eternity with God, or without Him. Although God makes Himself known to us, He does not force Himself on us. That would not be loving. Real love cannot be forced. If a person rejects God during their lifetime, the most loving thing God can do is allow that person to have the eternal existence of their choice; eternity without God. While God is loving, He is also just. He cannot allow sin to go unpunished, that wouldn’t be just. Without hell, justice would never be served to those persons whose crimes went unpunished during this lifetime, people like Hitler, and Joseph Mengela By: R. T.
This statement is wrong in three ways. First it denies the freedom God has given us in making decisions. Secondly it denies the sovereignty of God being ruler over everything. Thirdly it mis-characterizes God as being mean or uncaring instead of righteous and just. Let’s look at all three of these wrong assumptions. 1 - God has given us the freedom to choose Him or to do things our own way. Revelation 3:20 says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” If we do not decide to choose God and His salvation through Jesus Christ then we have ourselves chosen to go to hell. It’s just that simple. We are free to choose, we choose the wrong path and therefore choose to go to hell on our own. 2 - The sovereignty of God is over all things, the earth and universe, over how to judge us because He made us and gave specific rules to follow. Deuteronomy 4:39 says: "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” If we do not follow His will which is clearly and plainly described in scripture, then we have to know without a doubt that God will do what is necessary in accordance with righteousness. We cannot criticize God for what we ourselves do. 3 - God is such a great and caring God that He sent His most treasured Son to die on the cross for us. This gives us the opportunity to make things right with Him, to find that path to righteousness and salvation and to take part in living eternally with our wonderful God in heaven. Romans 8:38-39 says: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” If you choose to do things Gods way then you cannot be separated from Him! How wonderful is that! If we don’t accept the free gift from Him, then we have chosen to place ourselves under the judgement of a righteous God and sadly, buy our own ticket to hell. Romans 10:8-11 says: “But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." This tells us how our loving God has made a way for us into heaven and to completely avoid hell. It’s not hard, just confess that Jesus is your Lord and Savior! Philippians 3:8-9 says: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” All life and actions in live come down to one thing, what is most important above everything? This one thing is your relationship with God and everything else we concern ourselves with is of very little importance, it’s just rubbish. Choose today to accept the free gift of salvation that God is offering you and don’t go to hell by ignoring His love and desire to save you. Is there documentation for the progression of morality of Atheists, do they write it down?8/21/2017
The short answer to this question is, yes. There is prolific documentation regarding the morality of atheists. They write about love and good will, personal autonomy, honesty, and how moral values do not require God. Authors such as Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Michael Shermer have written extensively on the topics of the science of morality, moral responsibility and judgement and moral progress including Richard Dawkins self-created 10 commandments in his book, “The God Delusion”.
It’s important to remember atheists are relativists and believe each person determines what is right or wrong based on their own thoughts and experiences. Atheists deny the existence of objective morality which means morality based on facts, not those based on ever changing feelings or opinions. Today they may believe one thing and tomorrow another. There is not a constant in this way of viewing anything because it’s possible it will change often. There are discrepancies in what these authors write because their standards are not objective, they are subjective and are a matter of each ones opinion. Without an objective standard morality it’s just a matter of opinion that can fluctuate from day to day. We know atheists can be moral and have moral values, they can know what is right and wrong. Knowing what’s right cannot explain why the standard exists. They can’t justify where their morality comes from. Just because they believe in the standards established by themselves doesn’t make them true. There has to be objective morality, one that is based on fact. Mark 7:18-23 18 So He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, 19 "because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?" 20 And He said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. 21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. 23 "All these evil things come from within and defile a man." Since we are defiled from the inside, our standards for morality are not acceptable. The only place real morality can come from is God because He is Truth and objective. Everything that is inside of us is tainted by sin so truth has to come from a source that is outside of ourselves. God is the objective moral standard maker and therefore owns morality in every way. It was designed by Him and given to us from Him. When we place our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ we are given righteousness. It’s a gift from a wonderful God who sent His Son to die for our sins and cleanse us from within. We trust God to give us the corrected standards of measurement for morality because He is the designer of all things, including morality and His standards will not change! (This question was asked at a TVA presentation. Thank you to the person who challenged us with this question!) God can know the future without causing it. As an example, you can know the answer to a math problem even if you didn't invent the question. You can give a child the choice between different kinds of cookies to eat, you won't know which one they will choose, but God does! He knows the future. Did this choice the child made mean they didn't have the full opportunity to make the choice? Not at all! There were various cookies to select from and freely chose the cookie they wanted. It's the same way with God. He knows what we prefer and what choices we will make but still gives us the opportunity to make that choice of our free will.
We know that God is Omniscient, He knows all things. This is shown to us through many scriptures, here are just a few: Psalms 147:5, Psalms 139:1-4, Isaiah 40:28. Your choices are never pointless, in fact they are so very important! You can choose to do right or wrong, you can choose to study hard in school or allow yourself failure, you can choose to wear red or blue. Whatever choices arise in your life, it's still your choice to select one or the other. We believe the most important choice you will ever make is to believe in Jesus Christ or not. What will you choose? |
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