Had to share this nugget of Genuie Honesty

repeating and memorizing a greed is not assurance of anything....

This is honest...honest unbelief

 

The author, johndpav, or whoever, sounds like a skeptic of the Christian Faith. In other words he is a lost pagan.

He says he is chasing after the wind that is God. That sounds rather secular to me --right out of Ecc. Then he says he is a "rabid chaser of the Divine." Whatever that means. I am not sure if "the Divine" in his mind is God or an abstract principle.

He is unsure God is even there. Hmm...I guess he wants to be seen as kind of a David in the Psalms --but his avalanche of doubts are not indicative of a believer.

He sometimes believes in Heaven and Hell and sometimes does not? I dare say that all Christians believe in both all the time since our conversion.

He relates that the Bible is often the greatest barrier to faith. Come again? That "point" is the most nonsensical.

 

"Genuie Honesty"???

I'm not familiar with the adjective "Genuie," especially as it applies to the noun "Honesty."

My 1,700+ page Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, (c) 2004 by Wiley Publishing, doesn't even have an entry for "Genuie," which, if it did, should have been found somewhere in the right coiumn on page 593.

Please help me to understand what the word "Genuie" means.

 

Did you find "coiumn" in your dictionary?

 

The Author of Hebrews wrote something with you in mind, I believe:

Heb 3:12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

**continue reading to the end of the chapter.

 

Hi QF, thanks for posting this "skeptics attack on Christian faith."

Let me address his first point:

Here we have the expectation that bad things do not happen to good people. Is this a biblical view? Nope. We see in the NT where Jesus is lashed and crucified, Paul stoned, Steven killed and so forth.

Some people, even on this BB, think the verse which says God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him, somehow means nothing bad, like dying, will happen. The correct view is His grace is sufficient for us, so that no matter what happens in this life, we will enter heaven for eternity with God. The result of our life, once born anew, will be good, even if we never see it before we die. Thus we should have no expectation that children will not die, or a tsunami will not kill good people.

The question for us is simple, why do so many, including those on the BB, believe what the Bible does not teach concern the life of believers?

 

Hi QF, if we analyze what the OP link asserted, we will find one mistaken doctrine or view after another. The doubt as stated in his first point was driven by an unbiblical expectation. So the indicated action is to teach what the bible actually teaches and refute these "collections" of bogus dogma.

It is ok to engage in introspection and examine whether we are "of the faith" - that is biblically mandated. But if in your introspection, you wonder if God really exists, the logical conclusion would be that you are not of the faith, or so it seems to me. In order to believe in Jesus, you must believe in the One who sent Him.

 

Lets look at the second point of the collection:

The first thing that jumps out is the claim God hated his flawed children. John 3:16 says God loved fallen mankind in this way, He gave His one of a kind Son so that everyone believing into Him would not perish but have eternal life.

Next we have a person judging God. God's holiness should not require the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin, according to his view. But who is he, O Man, to judge God? Is Christ's sacrifice, once for all, wasteful? Nope. Is it "petty" to act consistent with your attributes of holiness, justness, mercy and love? Nope. It is easy to ask, why is the biblical reality of God the way it is, and not some other way more to my liking. See the problem? Pride! The skeptic wants to lower God to his level and raise his level to equal God. If we think a different God, one of our own creation would be a better God than the One presented in scripture, we really do not believe in God or His Word.

 

Lets look at the skeptics third point and then draw some conclusions:

How does God speak to us? Through His word. We study scripture, this is where we hear God's instructions, commands and teachings applicable to our lives. Sometimes God does give us insights into His word as we seek to apply it to our lives, but that is not us talking to ourselves. For example we read not to hold things against others, and it crosses our mind we should forgive someone.

My conclusion from just looking briefly at three of the skeptic's points is that he has not spent enough time in prayerful study of God's word. He seems like someone who has been drawn to Jesus, yet has not studied the gospel and considered the level of whole-hearted commitment needed in order to know Jesus. It appears he has not been discipled and learned the biblical answers to all his questions.