I'm glad we agree.
I never said personal feelings however, those are your words. I said the feeling in my heart; the presence of God.
Are you not a person? Can I or others experience objectively what feeling you have in your heart?
No. They are personal. Sorry.
The examples I gave above illustrate that just because someone says they are religious and doing God's work does not mean that they have truly serving God or feeling His presense. I am not coming down on Mormons, Catholics and Muslims. They can very well know God. But those that conduct theirselves as such are not in the presence of God.
Yes, I agree. It is the Mormons who attest to the veracity and inspiration of their Book of Mormon by asking you to read it and pray for that special feeling in your heart. I fail to see the difference between this and how you know the NT to be inspired.
SD
And you certainly have a good point. This is similar to someone asking me to prove God scientifically...I can't. To me, it is apparent and doesn't need explanation. Faith. The arguement then becomes; well, the Islamic followers have faith. Yep, but do their works look Godly? Then the question becomes; well, which god? I say the YHWH, then the question becomes; which interpretation of YHWH? On and on and on.
I look at a group objectively from the outside. Look at the Islamic faith. What type of fruit does this belief bear? In my opinion, not good fruit. Others may see it differently, I am sure.
"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit." The Islamic tree doesn't bear good fruit. But since this is from the new testament, it may not be divinely inspired anyways, right?
As far as it being a personal experience...is an earthquake a personal experience? Sure, but it is also shared with many others. The same is true with the presence of God. It is not just personal. More than a special feeling, it is a presence. Maybe me using heart was a bad use of words. Either way, it doesn't matter; I am convinced, as are you. But I will say that you have very valid points that can be very difficult to dispute. However, I dispute them becuase of my beliefs. God is quite capable of making sure we got a good book. Also, I did not seek out religion, God called me. "Was He loud?" Nope, just as gentle and as subtle as can be... This wasn't something that I was born into, it wasn't forced upon me, and I didn't seek it. He came and got me...and that is personal.