The Folly and Danger of Parting with Christ for the pleasures and profits of life

Christian Classics Ethereal Library | Unknown | George Whitefield

[fortheDeclaration]

Yeah, but you have to understand the Scriptures to believe in Jesus Christ. Do you see the problem here?

No, there is no problem there. The Gospel message is very simple. One, recognize that you are a sinner (Rom.3:23) Two, recognize that as a sinner you deserve death (Rom.6:23) Three, that someone else paid that price for you (Rom.5:8) and Four, all you need to do is take the free gift offered to you (Rom.6:23) by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal saviour (Acts.16:31). God makes the Gospel clear to those who are yet unsaved (2Cor.4:6) if they want it!

[Gargantua]

Yep.

[Gargantua]

I have spoken the Word to you, and have told you where to go if you really seek the Truth. The rest is up to you. Stop pretending that I have done otherwise. It doesn't fool me, and it surely doesn't fool God.

It is your deceit insincerity which ends our communication. You have been evangelized, now deal with it.

[Gargantua]

"My curosity is about why so many serious seekers of Jesus have such drastically opposing views on what the Bible means - just a simple question that everyone dances around with scriptural quotes but no answers."

I answered this question, so stop lying.

God's truth is perfect. People are imperfect. Imperfect people make mistakes. God makes no mistakes. Imperfect people who try to interpret the bible without God's Holy Spirit end up confused and argumentative. Like you.

[la$tminutepardon]

you don't have to understand the bible in order to believe in Christ and/or God the father. I was saved at an early age and for years the bible made no sense to me. Later in life, something else happened to me and through my renewed faith, I find the bible and the Torah, an absolute delight to read. I needed wisdom in my life and I did not have that obviously when I was young. A verse that helped me was The fear(awe) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Can I suggest that you read the book of John and then the book of Romans after asking the Lord to give you understanding? Let me know if you do and I will try to help you if you have questions. You can send me email at lastminutepardon@aol.com.

[la$tminutepardon]

It is your deceit insincerity which ends our communication. You have been evangelized, now deal with it.

Now see, here you are a gentle soul asking perfectly good questions and you get yelled at. Jesus would never yell at you, nor will I.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

In the body of this thread, Christians have called me a lier, pretender, a fooler, decietful, insincere, rebellious, and satanic. One suggested that I drop acid and many tried to degrade my beliefs. I have been told by several that I have no hope of understanding what the Bible means, yet in the next sentence they use quotes from the Bible to try and rationalize themselves or answer my questions. Duah! Some have even been civil in their attempts to address my questions. Thank you all for painting a vivid portrail of Christian logic (mostly lack thereof) and providing a wide variety of reasons why Christianity is something I must remain wary of. I respect your beliefs and hope that you find comfort in them.

[Gargantua]

Up yours, liar.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

"Since our country was Founded as a Biblical Christian nation by God-fearing men, who went so far as to say that our public schools should teach, among other things, Scripture"

and

"I answered this question, so stop lying."

If your understanding of the Bible is as incomplete as your demonstrated ignorance of our founding father's intent in writing the first Amendment, it is little wonder that I didn't understand your answers to my questions.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

Up yours, liar.

It is interesting to see how some people demonstrate the teachings of their faith in their daily lives

[dr gene scott]

Why doth the christian rage?

Thats really pretty funny!

[constitutiongirl]

Well...you showed up on a thread that had nothing to do with Taoism, you insert your belief system and then, instead of explaining exactly what you believe, you get upset at my tongue-in-cheek comment about saving time by dropping acid. Sorry, but like I said, I've had plenty of experience with devout practioners of Taoism and they speak the same 'deep' pronunciations (without expanding on them) as drug users.

Example:

"Move like wind brushing against a rock."

"Huh?"

(Placid smile, glazed over eyes)"That is one of the profound truths of nature that you should learn and live by."

"Huh?"

(Gentle smile)

"Can you explain that?

(Condescending smile) "It's not explainable...it must be experienced, internalized, lived..."

"Alrighty then."

[fortheDeclaration]

As I said... you have to understand the Scriptures to believe in Jesus Christ. You don't seem to understand that to a non-believer this all sounds like self-flaggelatory gibberish.

Not to those who want the truth.

The first... mmm, maybe, though I live a far more "moral" life than most Christians I know.

The issue is not 'morality' the issue is your personal acceptance of Christ as a personal saviour

Second: why would I recognize that? Where is the logical underpinning that says "sin = death," when you consider that every living thing dies (and many non-living things, like stars, also die)?

That is why everything dies. No sin, no death.

It would seem that "sin-free = death" as well. Third: Why would I recognize that? Four: why would I believe that? What evidence is there?

The evidence is the One who rose from the grave and defeated death.

You do not present a convincign case to a non-believer

I am not trying to present a 'case' I am laying out facts that you may either accept or reject based on your own desire for the truth. If you wanted the truth you would search these things out and see that they are so. The scriptures that you can understand are those relating to your salvation, since the Holy Spirit will reveal them to you if you want it. If your heart is hardened then you will die in your sins.

[Gargantua]

What's this...? You're upset because you think we aren't properly evincing biblical practices you claim to know nothing about?

My, my.

There's no biblical command not to call a spade a spade, in fact, just the opposite.

You plant ice, you harvest wind, phony. Enjoy.

[constitutiongirl]

I actually missed your post, mea culpa. How far into the discipline are you? Most people don't realize that the soft Arts can be more lethal when employed than the hard Arts. I use Tai Chi to improve my Goju-ryu karate because of the circular motions which are more 'kung-fuesque' than the other form of karate I took for years and years. Seriously though, if Taoism works for you I'm sorry if I offended your sensibilities...I just honestly do not find anything appealing in it.

[Gargantua]

I've met your kind before here on FreeRepublic.

You pretend to want explanations, just so you can bait and pillory and make fun of people until someone tells you to jam it, then you pretend that this is some fault of theirs. Cute.

Somebody's got just little too much free time on their hands.

Just go sit with your head up your reeking "Tao" and wait for eternity. You'll get all the "answers" you ever wished for, smart guy.

;-/

[Gargantua]

"Taoism: We reject hatred, intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are taught by Nature."

Oh, yeah. That's you to a tee, Grasshopper. Talk about practicing your harmonious religion, eh? What a phony.

Now snatch the pebble from my hand, n'kay?

[jimt]

When people confront Christ and His claims about Himself in the Bible...

For a touch of historical accuracy, at least three of the gospels were written by people who weren't contemporaries of Jesus. Possibly John was, but Matthew, Mark and Luke weren't.

So what we have is hearsay, largely and possibly completely from those who didn't hear any claims.