Thursday, February 2, 2012

unquestionably true

JeffreyK622 said ...

Among the things you expect readers to accept as unquestionably true:

1) There is a God;
2) There is a day of judgment;
3) On the day of judgment, God will declare our eternal punishment for thoughtcrime unless we have put on the proper parachute;
4) No nonbeliever is aware of the Christian beliefs regarding points 1,2 and 3; we need to be reminded of these "facts" by "helpful" believers;
5) There is no such thing as a good question regarding Christian beliefs, only sinful challenges to God Himself.



Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Jeffrey.

But I expect nothing of the sort from you. Actually, I encourage you to ask questions as a way to seek after truth.

I myself was brought to the knowledge of the truth by seeking answers to questions. I encourage anyone who seeks truth to ask questions. I will respond to each of the points you make with an answer that I found.

Q: 1) There is a God;

A: 1) I know that God exists, because the Creator has provided ample evidence of his existence. The entire book of nature testifies to it. The Bible testifies to it. I recognize that not everyone has reached the same answer that I did.

Q: 2) There is a day of judgment;

A: 2) On the appointed final day, I will stand before the throne. I will be held accountable for all my words and deeds, and a verdict will be delivered by the perfect Judge.

Q: 3) On the day of judgment, God will declare our eternal punishment for thoughtcrime unless we have put on the proper parachute;

A: 3) The Judge's verdict will be perfect and just. The judge has made me personally aware of his standards, and his sentencing guidelines. So I know the verdict that he will hand down.

I will have no need for a parachute on judgement day. Sentence will be passed and payment of the penalty will be due. On that day, my hope is in the one who has already paid the penalty.

Q: 4) No nonbeliever is aware of the Christian beliefs regarding points 1,2 and 3; we need to be reminded of these "facts" by "helpful" believers;

A: 4) Some people have a desire to share their understanding of what the Bible says. Some demonstrate they have good understanding, others do not.

Some people egregiously misrepresent what the Bible teaches. Some do so out of an apparent ignorance, others appear to do so with a wilful malevolence towards God.

Some people will offer responses to what they view as misstatements others make about what the Bible teaches. Some of these people are earnest in their desire to be helpful. Their efforts are imperfect at best. People make mistakes.

Q: 5) There is no such thing as a good question regarding Christian beliefs, only sinful challenges to God Himself.

A: 5) Not all questions are equally good. Some questions are excellent. Some are better than others, and some are not really questions at all. Some statements punctuated by a question mark are really opinions and objections.

A good question is interrogative, and it's intent is to seek the truth.

Asking a question is only the starting point; finding the right answer is the ultimate goal.

A question asked sometimes receives an answer. The first answer received is frequently not the best answer. Very often, an answer serves to raise more questions.

If a Christian has chastised you, and discouraged you from asking questions, we owe you a sincere apology. We should all be encouraging you to ask questions, and we should all be striving to share with you the answers we have found.

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I sincerely apologize to you if I have failed you by discouraging you from asking a question. Unfortunately, the only question I recall you asking me was what number (between one and a hundred) that you were thinking of. Apparently, you were under the impression I was clairvoyant, and had claimed an ability to read your mind.

I attempted to answer your question to the best of my ability.

I suggested that there were other things, some more important things, which you could think about instead. Again, I apologize to you if I discouraged you from seeking after the truth by asking questions.

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