Posted on 01/03/2002 11:19:13 AM PST by ArGee
But I do not believe that Jesus is God (or the Messiah); therefore, Jesus is not my savior. IMO, of course.
Perhaps I phased it wrong when I said "I prefer to go it alone." I prefer to go with God and have Him judge me worthy through my work. If that is not sufficient for Him, then I am content to have made the effort.
You have said it. But more, how the lost blame G-d for holding to His simple plan of salvation rather than accepting their plan as superior.
Shalom.
There is no exception here. The experience is unverified, ergo, it is not submitable as evidence.
Which denies a person the right to believe in what he has experienced, unless he can verify that he experienced it. Sorry, but your materialism denies the evidence of the senses.
After that, people who hear the story have a responsibility to judge it, based on what they know about the teller -- his closeness to the person who originally experienced it, his reputation for truth, etc. It may not be proof, but it is evidence.
And the people all said Amen
Repentance is not fun for an Adamic sinner, but it is integral to saving faith. For some folks, it proves to be impossibly difficult. You need to understand that about non-Christians. I certainly do. As RobRoy has intimated in another post, self-destructive behavior really is self-destructive.
And I am not even talking about turning over a new leaf to do good works. I am talking about the Satanic depravity of the unregenerate sinner. He hates God. He hates the Truth. He just doesn't ordinarily admit this to himself--i.e., he won't repent.
***
Let me also urge you to read my #696.
When I meet someone who fits that description, I will discuss the matter with him.
Most of the people who offer the "what of those" point are hiding behind someone else so they will not have to face their own choices.
G-d is not interested in what we think of how He deals with someone else. The issue is how He deals with us. My issue is how He deals with me. Your issue is how He deals with you.
And, of course, if I love someone, I will tell them of the goodness of the feast, the excellence of the wine, and the divinity of the fellowship.
Shalom.
The problem is that there isn't just one kind of non-Christian. There are many people who aren't Christian that could simply be classified as "differently religious", and these kinds are typically relatively easy to convert. However, there is a small percentage of the population that has no real religious tendencies at all, which is where Christians are doing a really bad job. The reason Christians are doing a bad job is that they assume that these people are merely "differently religious", which is hardly the case.
I would classify myself as one of those people that has never had religious tendencies towards anything. Nonetheless, I was raised in a positive and very religious environment and have been thoroughly exposed to just about everything the Christian religion has to offer. It just didn't stick, and lacking any obvious intrinsic value I drifted away from it. Explaining your religion to someone who essentially doesn't have the capacity for religion is like explaining color to a blind man. No amount of willingness to understand on the part of the blind man will make your explanations of color any clearer. Saying that the blindman is willfully ignoring the concept of color is nothing more than frustration on your part.
I think it is this second type of non-Christian (the ones who have no natural religious tendencies) that you and others are arguing with on these threads and you have to adjust your arguments accordingly. All intelligent arguments have to be made from premises that both sides agree on and developed logically from there. Assuming that both parties are honest (and I believe they are in this case), then you should be able to demonstrate the logic of your position without resorting to assumptions that aren't shared.
But I do not understand, because G-d was able to reach me. I am not special. If G-d could reach me, He could reach anyone. The non-Christians have also been reached. I do not understand why they drew back from G-d?
Shalom.
I was taught that it was a matter of simple trust in God. But there wasn't a big Jewish community where I grew up, so my religious education is spotty and often self-taught. If you haven't already, you should catch up with a poem that explains my beliefs in more detail.
IMHO, religion is not, but a relationship with God is. Man will never cease to make things more complicated than they need to be...
Lord, G-d. I echo the prayer of ru4 for OWK. Amen!
Shalom.
Thank you for your feedback. Actually, Jesus didn't invent parabolic teaching. It was a rather common first century Rabbinic practice. Jesus was, obviously, very good at it.
I was not intending to tell a parable nor to share the whole Gospel. I was trying to make a point about how non-Christians appear to me.
Shalom.
Shalom.
Pete Townsend put it rather succinctly:
And Tommy doesn't know what day it is.
He doesn't know who Jesus was
Or wat Praying is.
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?
While you might be comfortable in your faith without that answer others aren't. If Tommy can't be saved, I don't want in.
Your assumptions are false and therefore your conclusions are in error.
But it could not have been avoided. It was part of the plan. It was needed to convince some that his love will conquer everything, even the power(terror) of death.
You also forget that these people were waved off by their teacher, warned repeatedly of what was in store for them. But what they experienced first hand was so compelling they could not be swayed from their appointment.
Also, of personal concern to the people that went to their deaths singing Psalms of Praise, was the clear warning that if they denied what they saw, it would really offend the guy putting on the "banquet", offense to they point of where they might be asked to vacate the premises...
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