I am still having trouble trying to reconcile salvation by faith in "Christ and Him Crucified" (and resurrected)…,
All of the issues that you mention in your post have been addressed by multiple people here, on multiple threads of this kind, both present and past.
Yes, but none of it makes much sense if you hold it up against their other "beliefs". If you never heard of Jesus or Paul your works count. If you have available to you the approved version of the NT your faith in Christ and Him Crucified is the ticket. That's what Jimmy Swaggart teaches, and he advertises his writings excoriating the Catholics, the Mormons, the Moslems, and now he is pretty hard down on the Assembly of God the denomination that reluctantly gave him the boot.
In the present last few months what happens to the little Jewish or Palestinian 4 year old that got killed in the ongoing conflict over there? It's a problem.
I guess we can say that a just God can handle it.
This is just one of many problems my friend.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
And if neither your god nor your eternity does not exist?
Then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity are moot.
But, if the Christian God and eternity as taught by Christianity does exist, then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity matter. Greatly.
And if neither your god nor your eternity does not exist?
Then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity are moot.
But, if the Christian God and eternity as taught by Christianity does exist, then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity matter. Greatly.
The ol' Pascals wager, which fails on multiple levels, the lease of which is that you're not Mormon:
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
But, if the Christian God and eternity as taught by Christianity does exist, then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity matter. Greatly.
There are about 4000 recognized religions. If any of the other 3999 besides Christianity are correct then you are just as screwed as the people who don't believe in any of them. Do you worry constantly that one of the other 3999 is the actual true path to God? After all to them you are a non believing heretic. No? This doesn't concern you? Well then you know how I feel about all 4000 of them.
Mathematically speaking you are only 0.025% less agnostic than me.
But, if the Christian God and eternity as taught by Christianity does exist, then the choices we make regarding where we’ll spend eternity matter. Greatly.
There are about 4000 recognized religions. If any of the other 3999 besides Christianity are correct then you are just as screwed as the people who don't believe in any of them. Do you worry constantly that one of the other 3999 is the actual true path to God? After all to them you are a non believing heretic. No? This doesn't concern you? Well then you know how I feel about all 4000 of them.
I don’t worry about any of it. At all. Ever. The other’s that you refer to can believe as they choose, just as you can.
The real definition of faith is trusting in what you have good evidence to believe is true. And there’s belief ‘that’ and there’s belief ‘in’. Belief ‘that’ is getting evidence that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the New Testament manuscripts are telling us the truth. It’s simply apologetics. The evidence shows that there’s good reason to believe that these things are true.
But all the belief ‘that’ in the world won’t get our sins forgiven. For that we gotta go from belief ‘that’ to belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’. Often when the Bible is talking about faith it’s talking about belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’ ~ after you know, based on the evidence, that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the New Testament manuscripts are telling us the truth.
The real definition of faith is trusting in what you have good evidence to believe is true. And there’s belief ‘that’ and there’s belief ‘in’. Belief ‘that’ is getting evidence that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the New Testament manuscripts are telling us the truth. It’s simply apologetics. The evidence shows that there’s good reason to believe that these things are true.
But all the belief ‘that’ in the world won’t get our sins forgiven. For that we gotta go from belief ‘that’ to belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’. Often when the Bible is talking about faith it’s talking about belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’ ~ after you know, based on the evidence, that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the New Testament manuscripts are telling us the truth.
You equivocate. Trust is built or destroyed when you have direct experience with someone or something.
Some people say they experience God in their lives, or they have a relationship with God, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. What they have is faith, they believe their experience is true, but can't prove it.
It was a very long seven days as described in Genesis. And Christians are responsible for the greatest amount of good in the world today. Anyone that looks down on me for believing that Jesus is the son of God, should probably look inward. The Bible was written by man. Man ain't perfect but one dude got close a long time ago.
---------------------------------------- I'm a big fan of the courtesy flush.
When one’s position…which has been presented right here on this forum…is that they still would deny Christianity even if they knew for a fact that it was true, then their claimed “scrutiny” of a subject to “sort fact from fiction” and determine what is true falls flat. That person clearly has a bias. That’s their choice.
Again, faith simply means trusting in what you have good evidence to believe is true. Faith and reason work together. Reason simply gets you to a point where you can exercise trust. Reason simply helps you with belief ‘that’. Then it’s your own decision as to whether or not you’re gonna go from belief ‘that’ to belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’. Reason deals with belief ‘that’ and trust deals with belief ‘in’.
The opposite of faith is not reason, the opposite of faith is a ‘lack’ of trust. And so the opposite of reason is not faith, but the opposite of reason is irrationality ~ like the above instance where one clearly chooses to deny the truth of a matter even when they know for a fact that the said matter is true.
Jesus and His apostle’s talk about getting evidence for your faith.
