I am a born again evangelical Christian

[Eljon]

Re: I am a born again evangelical Christian

First, I would have responded with what Medusa said:



I wonder if you are objective enough about the subject to be able to honestly answer with what you might think or do if a Pagan god appeared before you and requested or demanded your worship. But I know enough about evangelical Christianity to guess you would say it was Satan, so that's probably a moot point.

Honestly, if the Abrahamic God descended before me and commanded that I worship him, I think it would be foolish of me not to. If I was convinced that this God was real, and that he could cast me into Hell for all eternity for failing to follow rules he set forth, I would rather adjust my way of life than spend forever in hellfire. If I found out that Christianity was actually reality, and the 10 Commandments were the rules of the game, then yeah, I'd make some changes.

But that's not the case. I've never felt the presence of your God. Even in the years I went to church and prayed to Him and wanted so badly to believe in him that I cried because I thought something was wrong with me, I never so much as felt a blip in the radar. I never felt anything but emptiness and silence. Now, obviously, you've experienced God and you're happy with that, and that's great for you. I feel what you feel when I give worship to my own gods.

And honestly, it doesn't have to be real. Not in an objective sense. If the gods are all just stories that I took to heart while I was alive, I'm alright with that. My religion is a tool to help me live happily, a place from which to see the world. I don't feel it's necessary to prove they exist for that reason. Christianity, on the other hand, claims to be the one and only truth - I feel that justifies asking for some reason to believe it.



If Jesus said that, why does that automatically make it true? What makes him right? What if I said I was the only way to true salvation? What reason do you have to believe him and not me?



Well, that's your opinion. Personally, your God has never touched my heart in the way Dionysos has, or Ganesha has, so I suppose I don't believe yours is on par with mine, either.

Is Christianity the One True Religion?

Yes, Christianity is the one true religion. That may sound awfully dogmatic and narrow-minded, but the simple truth is that Christianity is the only true religion. Jesus said that He alone was the way to the Father (John 14:6), that He alone revealed the Father (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22). Christians do not go around saying Christianity is the only way because they are arrogant, narrow-minded, stupid, and judgmental. They do so because they believe what Jesus said. They believe in Jesus, who claimed to be God (John 8:58; Exodus 3:14), who forgave sins (Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20; 7:48), and who rose from the dead (Luke 24:24-29; John 2:19f). Jesus said that He was the only way. Jesus is unique. He was either telling the truth, He was crazy, or He was a liar. But since everyone agrees that Jesus was a good man, how then could He be both good and crazy, or good and a liar? He had to be telling the truth. He is the only way.

Christianity is not just a religion; it is a relationship with God. It is a trusting in Jesus and what He did on the cross (1 Cor. 15:1-4), not on what you can do for yourself (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Buddha didn't rise from the dead, nor did Confucius or Zoroaster. Muhammad didn't fulfill detailed prophecy. Alexander the Great didn't raise the dead or heal the sick. And though there is far less reliable information written about them, people believed in them.

The scripture is right when it says in 1 Pet. 2:7-8, "This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,' and, 'A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed." (NASB).

The Mathematical Odds of Jesus Fulfilling Prophecy

"The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, ‘we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017." That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."

Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157, or 1 in 10,00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0 000,000,000." 1

The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident. He was who He said He was: the only way

[MaskedOne]

Re: I am a born again evangelical Christian

Should have seen this earlier but I was on a phone and not really looking. Morality may be a fun subject to debate. Staff directives within the boundaries of PaganForum are absolute.

Once Godwin's Law has been applied, that's when I step in and ask people to knock it off and play nice, else the thread gets locked and depending on severity of neglect to follow the request, infractions handed out.

This is a site admin and owner speaking in official text against the invocation of Godwin's Law.

Frank Turek

These are violations of that directive.

I am not a merciful being with an excess of belief in the value of repeated warnings. This thread is sealed. Further action if any is to be taken shall be determined by site admins.