You don’t know there is a God any more than an atheist knows there is no god. You can believe there is a God. You can think there is a God. You can have faith there is a God. But there is nothing you can do to convince me you KNOW there is a God.
Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps there is something you can do to convince me you know there is a God. What might that be? How about if you told me God had given you the ability to walk on water? OK. Show me. Let me see you walk on water. If I see you walk on water and you told me that this ability was give to you to convince doubting Thomases like me that God exists, then, wow, yeah, I think I would be convinced.
This is a new thought for me and I think it answers a question I have pondered without resolution before. I think that the teachings of Jesus are really wonderful. Love thy neighbor. Love your enemies. Love everyone. Do not judge others. Really great stuff. My question has been why the supernatural stuff–like walking on water and virgin birth. I simply don’t believe in things that go against all of the experiences that have come to me through my god-given body. It doesn’t matter to me. The supernatural things don’t take away from the wisdom of his words that I can relate to and actually put to good use in the way I live my life.
So here is how I think the supernatural stuff came into being. There were these men, the evangelicals of their time, trying to get the masses to follow the teachings of Jesus but the masses were not buying it so they started attributing supernatural abilities to him.
Are you one of those who need to have Christ with supernatural abilities? Why? Aren’t his words powerful enough without the virgin birth, turning a fish and a loaf of bread into enough food to feed the crowd, resurrection?
This is the life God gave you. There is so much to be explored, learned, and enjoyed in this life. There are so many challenges, like living peacefully, like having a meaningful relationship with another, like dealing with our deficiencies whether it be physical handicaps or mental handicaps. What a fantastic game has been developed for us—this game of life with its pleasures and its pain and suffering. There are video games that try to recreate parts of life. Think of life as the ultimate video game and play it well.
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Exhibit one: the Jefferson Bible (mentioned in Bill Maher’s movie, Religulous, but studied in-depth in the Harper’s article, Jesus without the miracles: Thomas Jefferson’s Bible and the Gospel of Thomas), in which Thomas Jefferson literally took a knife and cut all Jesus’s miracles out of the New Testament, leaving an ethical work to be admired by all (don’t forget the bit about camels going through needle eyes easier than rich men go to heaven).
I think George Bush should be in prison, but he occasionally stumbled up truths (even a broken clock is right twice a day). When he said Jesus was his favorite philosopher, he was on to something. Many philosophers don’t really think of historical Jesus as one of us, but he certainly was. His concern for the poor, for being good, for helping others, and for love are all terrific ethical rules by which to live, which many other religions and societies have also, separately, come up with on their own. Morality was not invented by Judeo-Christians alone, but it did come up with good answers, worthy of living by, that people like George Bush have completely ignored on almost every level.
Perhaps the George Bush’s of the world should read the Jefferson bible. Or this blog!
Posted 20 Apr 2009 at 3:59 pm ¶Actually I can prove to you that my god exists. If you can believe what the bible is saying is true, you can believe in god. The reason why you can believe the bible is because tons of clear prophecies have come true. Don’t just take my word for it. Look up these verses in the bible, look up when these books of the bible were written, and see when these events happened in recorded history for yourself. You will find that the evidence is undeniable. If you are really seeking out the truth, you will find it.
(2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:3, 4) Well, what has been the Bible’s record of reliability in the past? Time and time again prophecies given even hundreds of years in advance have been fulfilled in exact detail!
For example, the Bible foretold the overthrow of mighty Babylon nearly 200 years before it happened. In fact, the Medes, who became aligned with the Persians, were named as the conquerors. And although Cyrus, the Persian king, had not even been born as yet, the Bible foretold that he would be prominent in the conquest. It said that Babylon’s protecting waters, the river Euphrates, “must be dried up,” and that “the gates [of Babylon] will not be shut.”—Jeremiah 50:38; Isaiah 13:17-19; 44:27-45:1.
These specific details were fulfilled, as the historian Herodotus reported. Further, the Bible foretold that Babylon would eventually become uninhabited ruins. And that is just what happened. Today Babylon is a desolate heap of mounds. (Isaiah 13:20-22; Jeremiah 51:37, 41-43) And the Bible is full of other prophecies that have had dramatic fulfillment.
What then does the Bible foretell concerning the present world’s system of things? It says: “The final age of this world is to be a time of troubles. Men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful, and abusive; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection . . . They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5, The New English Bible.
Surely, we are seeing the fulfillment of this now! But the Bible also foretells for “the final age of this world” these things: “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be food shortages.” In addition, “there will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another pestilences.”—Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11.
Indeed, Bible prophecies are undergoing fulfillment today! Well, then, what about yet-to-be-fulfilled promises, such as: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it,” and, “They will have to beat their swords into plowshares . . . , neither will they learn war anymore”?—Psalm 37:29; Isaiah 2:4.
‘That’s just too good to be true,’ some may say. But really, there is no reason for us to doubt anything that our Creator promises. His Word can be trusted! (Titus 1:2) By examining the evidence further, you will become ever more convinced of this.
Posted 17 Jul 2009 at 4:47 am ¶No need to “prove” your God exists. I believe you without proof. It is, as you say, your God. It is a belief you hold within your life, it is your reality. Osama bin Laden also has a God that exists within his life, his perception of reality. He is very religious and is acting on his religious beliefs. You and I can probably agree that bin Laden’s belief is misguided. Most Muslims would also agree because they feel their religion is based on love, as do Christians. We are all different, have different perceptions, different beliefs which is a wonderful thing. When we try to set standards for others, when we say this is the way and anyone who disagrees is wrong, it is then that we are wrong. We need to honor each other’s beliefs. We don’t have to agree, just accept their belief as being no less valid than our own.
Posted 18 Jul 2009 at 3:40 pm ¶As for your references to the Bible it is no trick at all to find support in the Bible for just about anything. The prophesies you point to were actually for events happening much closer to the writing of the Bible than the ones you point to. The prophesies you relate to today have been used for centuries, about 20 centuries, to predict the imminent end of the world. Those pointing to them in past centuries, as you are now, have all died disappointed.
I hope you don’t think I wrote the essay Satin Wrote the Bible without “examining the evidence” (ie reading the Bible closely and objectively). That is not to say I’m right; only that the piece was not written casually.
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