The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

[Bugger]

Bugger, for the sake of discussion let's just assume what you just said is true. My question would be what is your excuse for "knowing", yet still rejecting God's grace for you?

Many reasons similar to others on here. As a kid in the church I felt like the only one who got the placebo in the trial. My questions outweigh my ability to believe in one religion over any another.

However, with regards to your last post specifically....Paul asserts that all people have the opportunity to “know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them” (Romans 1:19, NLT). God has revealed Himself with such breathtaking clarity through the visible world He created that people have no excuse for not knowing Him or believing in Him. They only have themselves to blame for rejecting the God of creation.

We may be at odds over the interpretation of that verse. Just a few lines up it refers to him revealing the gospel to the Romans, then using the earth as evidence. Not necessarily that they should have already concluded the message previously.

17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.

 

[Plainsman79]

I am reading “imagine heaven” right now and it is a fascinating read, probably changing a little bit of the dogma in ly mind that surrounds the whole protestant line of “say a prayer and you will be in heaven” type stuff, but i am not at the end yet (literally or figuratively) so my mind is still open to possibles that i have not considered and are not outside of or in conflict with the Bible.

One thing i heard this weekend that was interesting and put a different twist on things was the Bible was written for us, but we have to look at it through a christocentric viewpoint, not an anthropormorphic view point. Meaning we cant read it as if people are the center of the story. It has always been about Jesus and God and their plan to redeem human kind back to fellowship with them. So while the Bible was written for us, there is a lot of stuff going on in between the lines that we do not get a full picture of in a casual reading of the Bible. Really opens the eyes to see some of the crazy spiritual stuff that has gone on and is still going on.

Just one example: we always consider satan the enemy of God. But clearly in Isaiah 63 it talks about how Jesus tramples His enemies (plural) and no one came to His aid, meaning there are multiple principalities (lords) that were all trying to over throw the ability of God/Jesus/Holy Spirit ability to redeem human kind. This is not taught well, and this gives rise to the possibility that all of the other gods that were spoken/written about in history may have actually existed. But we know how the story ends, thats the good news.

In Burke’s book, he does say none of the NDEs experienced things taught in buddhism or hinduism, people of those faiths and belief systems still experienced the God the Bible talks about, all loving full of light. The biblical descriptions of Yahweh are consistent time and time again in NDE’s across the world.

Sorry this is long winded.

No need to apologize buckeye. I enjoy reading your discussions on here. Glad to have to back. Some of your responses on here have help me grow in my own faith.

Without a doubt the mystery of faith and the more anyone opens their heart and soul to Him, the more that will be revealed. It’s truly an incredible journey full of ups and downs.

I don’t know if the human eye or mind would want to see the spiritual battles that are happening around us. It would probably terrify us all to death. Just yesterday, my wife was telling me a story about how her best friend witnessed a demon coming out of another woman during prayer and eventually an exorcism in front of a large crowd at Catholic conference. Afterwards the priest told everyone that possessed people are drawn to these events and it’s not all that uncommon for this to happen. This is just 1 instance coming from a very credible source. These types of things are happening all around us. How is this different than when the Apostles removed demons? It’s not.

Glad you’re enjoying the book!

 

[Bugger]

When civilizations worshipped man made “gods” that is when God revealed his wrath on them all throughout the Old Testament. It goes back to post #1 of this thread.

I appreciate the response, and yes in the timeline/location of the Bible that fits within their worldview. Is it assumed that was happening all over the planet as well? Why would god create civilizations on other continents and then not give them the same enlightenment that was given to those in the Middle East?

 

[Jason Snyder]

Just in the last few pages there's been people talking about blocking folks, ignoring threads etc etc when in reality the thread has been civil.

I missed the stuff about blocking people. Pretty sure the ignoring threads requests have come from anti-Christian folks.

It has been pretty civil, although it was sad to see insults and name calling come into play.

Also, I should have clarified further. My comment about not shooting the messenger was not specifically addressed to you. It was more meant as a generality.

When non-believers are told the only way through salvation is through Jesus, it’s easy to react defensively and ask questions about this to believers. And, vice versa, it’s easy for believers to get defensive when there are questions they cannot answer, or have not answered but it does not affect their belief.

 

[go_deep]

Here is a 9 minute video from Father Mike Schmitz explaining do you go to hell if you've never heard of Jesus?
You have to listen to the entire video for it to make sense.