Whatever it is that "zaps" you (you really can't prove it's the Holy Spirit), it predisposes you to uncritically accept everything written in the Bible as written by God.
So, when the Holy Spirit touched me as a teenager, I was not instantly transformed into a believer. I was sent to the scriptures
You were sent? Let's see, the Holy Spirit (allegedly) also directs you to quote a particular verse. Do you see a pattern there? Everything you do is not you doing it but God. You are just His puppet on a string. Do you ever take any responsibility for your actions, FK? Or is it always God? How convenient! You are an instrument of God!? I am beginning to believe that you really believe that!
Now, when you talk about a predisposition to accept everything (or at least many things, since there are always questions) in the Bible as true, I can live with that. That represents the real change that the Holy Spirit effected in us
So, when a Muslim accepts his faith, who "touched" him? And which one of you has a proof-positive caller ID to prove such nonsense? It's all hot air, I tell you, All hot air.
I think a priori, or baseless, faith cannot be true since there is nothing behind it.
That's right. That's how the Bible wants you to believe, like little children, no questions asked, just blind acceptance whatever the grownups tell you.
Naivete comes to mind, along with innocence that so many professional Bible thumpers have exploited. And, as regards making sense that you mention, it makes perfect "sense" to the child to be told that Peter Pan could fly, and the child truly believesit!
I do not legitimize faith in anything else because I think Christianity is very different from other faiths
Who are you to legitimize anything, FK? And what kind of a legitimate criterion is it to deligitimize something because it's different? I can see how slavery found a fertile ground on such Bible-breathed thinking.
It makes different claims, its Holy Book is unlike any other, and its effect on the world is unmatched
Different claims make something "legitimate" just because they are different??? How logical is that, FK? As for the effects on the world, 1.2 billion people are Muslims and growing while Christianity is dying in Europe and in many other parts of the world. If the scale is set straight, Christianity is only one among many human activities that impacted the world. And then we have such legacies as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the 100-year religious war between Protestants and Catholics, the Bible-approved slavery, and what not. I agree that some of its effects are unmatched, but that can be both positive and negative. One thing Christianity certainly doesn't do is prove itself to be better than others.
If anything, Christianity is a colossal failure. Two thousand years after Christ came to redeem the world, the world remains cruel, hostile and merciless. In Europe, 6% of believers go to church on Sundays and in America the numbers of agnostics and outright atheists is doubling, while church attendance takes a nose dive. We live in a country that subscribes to Christianity in over 80% of the population, yet as a nation we live a secular life and in a society that is as un-Christian as it gets. Sex, violence and greed dominate the scene. America doesn't export Christianity. It exports weapons!
The Holy Spirit changes a man's heart and leads him to true faith IN something real that is BASED on something real.
What you just said is as "real" as unicorns on Jupiter. Your beliefs are real to you. They are not universally real.
No, that's not how it worked with me at all, and I've never heard another testimony like you describe. I became predisposed to VERY CRITICALLY search for God in the scriptures. I asked a million questions. I was (newly) predisposed to the answers making sense to me and ringing true.
FK: So, when the Holy Spirit touched me as a teenager, I was not instantly transformed into a believer. I was sent to the scriptures.
You were sent?
Yes, I was sent with the new heart that God had just given me.
Let's see, the Holy Spirit (allegedly) also directs you to quote a particular verse. Do you see a pattern there?
Yes, the pattern is that the Holy Spirit leads the elect.
Everything you do is not you doing it but God. You are just His puppet on a string.
Everything I do that is pleasing to God is God working through me. He blesses me by letting me watch. The "puppet on a string" analogy always fails immediately because to accept your alternative you have to push God away and out of the picture, it was YOU ALONE who did your good deed, and YOU deserve independent credit for your wonderful free will decision to do what you did APART FROM GOD!!! If this really is your view then you all can pat yourselves on the back all day long for your collective God-free inner wonderfulness. :) WE know where all the glory and credit belongs.
Do you ever take any responsibility for your actions, FK? Or is it always God? How convenient!
Against the way I would have set it up, I am forced to be accountable for all of my sin. God punishes and disciplines me for it all the time.
You are an instrument of God!? I am beginning to believe that you really believe that!
Well of course I am. So is everything and everyone in God's whole creation. What exactly is your alternative? Do you suppose that God creates people and then just ignores them, never using them for anything? Wait, I forgot about man's sovereignty. .......
So, when a Muslim accepts his faith, who "touched" him?
Another human, himself, or satan. Our God leading one to a false faith would have Him divided against Himself.
And which one of you has a proof-positive caller ID to prove such nonsense? It's all hot air, I tell you, All hot air.
The Christian has the proof-positive caller ID carved in his heart. Others can claim whatever they want, and you can believe them however much you want to. It only works for real with the one true God to His beloved children.
FK: I think a priori, or baseless, faith cannot be true since there is nothing behind it.
That's right. That's how the Bible wants you to believe, like little children, no questions asked, just blind acceptance whatever the grownups tell you.
I didn't even mean to lay that trap, but you fell right into it anyway. :) Your side is prohibited from likening your faith to that of a child because you stand by your free will. You are fully grown as an adult child, fully able to make smart decisions for yourself according to the Apostolic belief as regards God. Therefore, if you claim BOTH that you have child-like faith AND that you are fully independent and God does not interfere, then your God MUST be arrested for child endangerment and neglect. Here you are arguing that God has toddlers making eternal decisions without His interference. You just can't have it both ways.
Either you are adult children who know what's best for you, or you are toddlers who need the parent to do what's best FOR YOU. Apostolics clearly believe they are the former, the smarter ones, or the most innately talented, or whatever. Your side always sinks or swims by its defense of man's sovereignty through free will. There is no room for child-like faith here, as we know that children do not gravitate toward the good on their own. Ask ANY other parent.
And child-like faith does not mean mentally handicapped, believing in anything for no reason whatsoever. It means a trust in a real truth that is presented to them, without the cynicism that adults usually have in favor of their own perceived superiority and self-sovereignty.
FK: I do not legitimize faith in anything else because I think Christianity is very different from other faiths.
Who are you to legitimize anything, FK?
What, now I am not allowed to have my own views??? :)
And what kind of a legitimate criterion is it to deligitimize something because it's different?
The Bible IS a legitimate criterion by the authority of God. It is relativistic men who believe that every belief is equally (or at least potentially equally) true. That is reasonable to them because they start with men and not with God. With men, everything is relative since there is no foundation. There is no rock solid basis of truth, except whatever men decide to make up for themselves.
One thing Christianity certainly doesn't do is prove itself to be better than others.
Then by definition, for you to choose Christianity your faith must be blind, baseless, and random, just as you (mostly) said. I'll give you points for consistency here. :)
If anything, Christianity is a colossal failure. Two thousand years after Christ came to redeem the world, the world remains cruel, hostile and merciless.
It follows that you would say so. The Apostolic faith as a whole holds that Christ was such a failure, since not all men are saved, so naturally Christianity has been also for you. However, you should take heart that in the face of God's near complete failure, man's sovereignty and free will have been preserved. I am sure you would agree that man is every bit as free now as he was then, right? So, you should be happy that the most important thing is still OK, and in good shape. It's all STILL about man. God's failures are His problems.