[BereanBrain]

I think one grew up as a Christian and found that like living in a garage does not make you a car, attending Church does not make one a believer.

[Bob434]

[[Could two highly intelligent men with two entirely different perspectives possibly help you come to your own personal conclusion concerning the central figure of history?]]

No but the Holy Spirit certainly can

[lasereye]

I watched a video of Ehrman on YouTube. He took some digs at how Christians view the Bible, suggesting they aren’t too bright. The problem with believing the Bible according to him is that we don’t know what the original manuscripts said.

He described how our New Testament manuscripts are many copies removed from the originals, and we don’t know what alterations were made between the originals and the manuscripts we have. He implied that exactly one copy got made at each step of the process, which is false.

Multiple copies would have been made of each of the original Gospels. Then the first copies were recopied multiple times etc. The copies that survived came from different branches of the copying process. Because of that, alterations of the original text along the way are easy to spot. They show up in one manuscript but not any of the others.

[ifinnegan]

I’ve enjoyed Hugh Ross’ ministry for decades.

[sauropod]

Ehrman gives courses on Christianity as part of the Great Courses program.

I always wondered who he was. Now I know.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thanks for posting this.

Hugh Ross, in my opinion, is the greatest scientist who has ever lived, because he has reconciled science and the Bible, which no one else has accomplished as fully.

I have known him personally for forty-five years and cannot speak highly enough about his character.

Here are three links for those interested in learning more:

Books by Hugh Ross--about twenty now

Reasons to Believe's website

Paradoxes in Scripture, Hugh's Sunday School class, since c. 1980

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[A_perfect_lady]

“Atheism is a fairy story for those who are afraid of the light."

That's a cute comeback, but the atheist is saying that gods, angels, demons, devils, etc are all fairies: fictional creatures. Who are the fairies of atheism?

[Taxman]

Ping

[daniel1212]

“It wasn’t problems in the Bible I was wrestling with. It was why is there so much suffering in the world? That’s why I left the faith.”

Meaning he has a problem with:

A creator proving man with every good thing He has;

Including the ability to make choices;

And allowing alternatives to choose btwn:

And consequences of choices;

And allowing the consequences to produce effects, varying in degree;

While restraining evil to some degree so that the whole world is not one giant North Korea, yet still allowing man to misuse and abuse what God gave him;

Knowing every single one of the effects of every single choice of man, as well as His own;

And in omniscience and omnipotence making all to work out for what is Good, that of the good of those who choose light over darkness, wanting God over evil and thus come to Christ (Jn. 3:19-21) and justice for those who do not, with varying degrees of punishment relative to accountability.

For God could have created the greatest robots, with the greatest computing ability, endurance, etc. and that could never make a wrong choice, but had no ability to make choices.

God could have,

• 1. made us (and angels) with no moral standard or sense or deprived us from the moral ability to respond to or choose good [morally insensible].

• 2. granted us free moral agency, but never have given us anything to choose between [negation of moral choices].

• 3. called man to make the Creator their ultimate object of spiritual affection and allegiance and source of security is what is right and what is best for man, versus finite created beings or things, and provided moral revelation and influences. But always have moved us to do good, and never have allowed us to choose evil (such as make believing in God and choosing good so utterly compelling — like God appearing daily and doing miracles on demand, and preventing any seeming evidence to the contrary so that no man could attempt excuses [effective negation of any freedom to choose]).

• 4. allowed us to do evil, but immediately reversed any effects [negation of moral consequences].

• 5. allowed us to do bad, but restricted us to a place where it would harm no one but ourselves [restriction of moral consequences].

• 6. allowed us to choose between good and evil, and to affect others by it, but not ultimately reward or punish us accordingly [negation of eternal consequences, positive or negative].

• 7. given us the ability to choose, and alternatives to chose from, and to face and overcome evil or be overcome by it, with the ability to effect others and things by our choices, and to exercise some reward or punishment in this life for morality, and ultimately reward or punishment all accordingly [pure justice].

• 8. restrained evil to some degree, while making the evil that man does to work out for the good of those who want good, and who thus love God, who is good.

• 9. in accordance with 8, the Creator could have chose to manifest Himself in the flesh, and by Him to provide man a means of escaping the ultimate retribution of Divine justice, and instead receive unmerited eternal favor, at God's own expense and credit, appropriated by a repentant obedient faith, in addition to the loss or gaining of certain rewards based on one's quality of work as a child of God. And eternally punish, to varying degrees, those whose response to God's revelation manifested they want evil, [justice maintained while mercy and grace given]. - https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Theodicy

[Honest Nigerian]

Hugh Ross is such a disgrace.
But he does think highly of himself and his own conclusions.

[Honest Nigerian]

The single biggest thing wrong with Hugh Ross: he believes in evolution. The molecules-to-microbes-to-man kind of evolution.
That is not supportable scientifically or Biblically.

[HandyDandy]

Carl Sagan was in a conversation with a peer and said to the peer, “Since you are so smart, how can you believe in God?” His peer responded, “If you are so smart, how can you not?”