Replies

1. God loves you

Yes. And you too.

2. You are a sinner and are separated from him - Because God is holy.

Yes. And you are too. You will be held accountable for your sins. I don't care how many times you were reborn.

3. He sent his Son to pay the price for your sin (as well as the sin of the rest of the world.) He was the only blood sacrifice that could be sufficient - because He (Christ) is God and He is sinless!

God sent the Messiah who is all that, but did doubt - 'coz he's not God.

4. Accept this FREE GIFT now and God will welcome you into his family. His Holy Spirit will dwell in you and guide you.

But Russ, I am. Why do you think I am bothering with this?

5. Once you accept Christ as your Savior, by faith, God will never go back on his promise. There is not possibility that he will change what he has already done. You will have eternal life!

Add to that that I must be sincere, and not just pretend to have accepted Christ. From that would follow that I cease to sin.

How can I have accepted Christ and be so judgmental? Maybe you can explain.

When Emperor Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529, many of the teachers moved east to Syria, taking their books with them. There the works of Aristotle and many of the Neoplatonists were translated into Syriac and, later, into Arabic. These works were to return to Western Europe centuries later in the hands of Islamic thinkers.

Good try Turk: "Turks spread Civilization," is it? Anywhere Islamic Armies rested for 15 minutes has been a hellhole for 500 years afterward. Why, oh why, my young Turk, do you think those marvelous Syriac scholars decamped?

It was because Muslims were slaughtering them in their thousands ... and anyone else in the formerly Christian Middle East and Egypt and Libya, and Tunisia and Morocco who wouldn't convert!

Islamic culture had 2 good academic centuries based on what they found in the ruins of the places they converted and in the libraries of those they had so enthusiastically slain for Allah. But Islam has never had an Awakening, a Renaissance, an Enlightenment, or what they need most right now, a religious Reformation. Where is Islamic literature; Islamic music; Islamic philosophy; Islamic Science; your personal freedoms in Islamic lands today?

Do Christendom some more favors, take yourself and your co-religionists East of the Euros River and remain forever in Islam. You are not going to be the great thinker that synthesizes Islam and Western thought, because Islam is a dead end in human mental development, which at the very most, can be rendered harmless to those who do not accept its theology. The founder of modern Turkey, Ataturk, knew this. He knew that the people of Turkey could not advance in civilization unless Islam were strictly controlled in Turkey and never allowed to dominate the government of political processes.

That is simply because Islam does not tolerate those who do not accept its theology, and in fact, clearly calls for their deaths. And please don't tell me your "Moderate" fantasy. (You will spare us the claptrap about Jihad being an "inner struggle, won't you? You see, people who belong to my church are being killed by the hundreds of thousands by people who belong to yours.) Go preach it in the streets of Mecca, Medina, Kabul and Khartoum.

1. God loves you
Yes. And you too.
You are correct.

2. You are a sinner and are separated from him - Because God is holy.
Yes. And you are too. You will be held accountable for your sins. I don't care how many times you were reborn.
You are incorrect. I am not held accountable for my sins. The penalty was already paid (see #3) and they are not held to my account.

3. He sent his Son to pay the price for your sin (as well as the sin of the rest of the world.) He was the only blood sacrifice that could be sufficient - because He (Christ) is God and He is sinless!
God sent the Messiah who is all that, but did doubt - 'coz he's not God.
You're dead wrong.

4. Accept this FREE GIFT now and God will welcome you into his family. His Holy Spirit will dwell in you and guide you.
But Russ, I am. Why do you think I am bothering with this?
Wrong again. You are not bothering me.

5. Once you accept Christ as your Savior, by faith, God will never go back on his promise. There is not possibility that he will change what he has already done. You will have eternal life! Add to that that I must be sincere, and not just pretend to have accepted Christ.
You are correct
From that would follow that I cease to sin.
You are wrong. No man in the flesh has "ceased from sin." The difference is that a Son of God has power to turn away from sin. I am not perfect in the flesh. I am made perfect before the Holy God because He did what I could not do.

How can I have accepted Christ and be so judgmental? Maybe you can explain.
I am sure I could, if only your question made sense.

... finally - here is the important point: Jesus' grave is empty!

Russ