My favorite argument for the existence of God
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I'm somewhat familiar with Buddhist beliefs. Even though I went to church some as a child, my parents weren't Christian. When I got into college, I abandoned Christian beliefs and studied Zen Buddhism a little and a few other religions including the Bahai Faith. As a Christian, I've learned about pantheism so that I can better understand other religions.
In college, I was pretty happy in my new belief system until God showed me something amazing. I won't go into how He did it unless you want to know, but He showed me who Jesus is and how He loves, and I KNEW that I would never really feel fulfilled in life until I had His love. I decided to give Him my life and let Him run it by His infinite wisdom. That was over 40 years ago, and I've never regretted my decision.
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Nope, no circular reasoning because Jesus IS the truth! I don't expect you to understand, but I pray that you will one day! Blessings to you!
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ananda
Early Buddhist
Thanks for sharing, feel free to share more if you are so inclined. How do you know what you experienced was infinite, without being infinite yourself?
I was a Christian for 30+ years; many of those years I served as a teacher for both children and adults. After being questioned and not having adequate answers for those questions - even after studying the texts in Greek - I left Christianity and spent a few years learning about other religions and philosophies. I ended up consciously choosing early Buddhism as that which appealed to both my head and my heart, and I do not regret my decision.
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The Holy Spirit is the Author of Scripture. He told us the first Heaven was made the 2nd Day. Genesis 1:8 He also told us that Lord God made other HeavenS on the 3rd Day. Genesis 2:4 That included the present Heaven/Universe and the 3rd Heaven of 2 Corinthians 12:2 and Revelation 21:1.
Amen. It's the mantra of evolution. If you don't believe their foolishness, just ask another evolutionist and you will get a circular argument. Using one believer to confirm another believer's view is the method used since they have NO evidence to support their false teaching. That's why they brainwash children as soon as they can get to them. Amen?
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Did Jesus have to say the words "Nature has a beginning?" He did reference the beginning of creation in this scripture when He said this in Matthew 19:4--
"Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female,..."
Jesus IS the beginning and the end. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus said this:
Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
The Apostle Paul said this about Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20--
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by Him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities —
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things,
and by Him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all His fullness dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile
everything to Himself
by making peace
through the blood of His cross —
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
As for whether Jesus said that the Bible is literally true, the Bible includes many words that He spoke--which are all true. I figure that a God who can create the universe can also make Himself, His Truth, known to us even though we have pea brains and know virtually nothing compared to all that He knows, which is everything! But like He said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by Him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities —
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things,
and by Him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all His fullness dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile
everything to Himself
by making peace
through the blood of His cross —
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
I hope I answered your questions, but I doubt that I did to your satisfaction if you're set on believing that there is no God. But here's one thing you may want to consider. Scientists have been trying to discover more about the force that holds the universe together. Look at what Paul said in the last Bible verse I quoted. "...by Him all things hold together..." Hmmm, maybe Paul was onto something over 2000 years ago!
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I wasn't looking for the infinite when I found Jesus! (Sorry if that sounds too cliche!) I wasn't looking for anything, really. I thought I had everything I needed in life to be happy. Maybe that's all I had been searching for in life--happiness, like most people.
A college friend was dancing in a musical with a local theater company in the town where I went to college. He invited me to the musical, and I asked him what it was about. He said it was based on the Gospel of Matthew. I politely declined his invitation because at that point, I had absolutely no interest in anything that had to do with the Bible.
Later, I decided to go because I had heard that the theater company was very good. The musical was Godspell. (I'm really showing my age, LOL) Much of the dialogue was directly taken from Matthew. During the show, God reached down to me and spoke to me. I heard Him say, "You think you are loved..., but you don't have the love of my Son." I was amazed as I watched the "Jesus" on the stage interact with His disciples. He showed them so much love and compassion, and I knew that I didn't have THAT kind of love, and I wanted it more than anything.
For the next year, I read the Gospel of Matthew over and over and other parts of the New Testament. I ended up going to a Christian conference for college students and heard an elderly gentleman give his testimony. He kept saying, "All of Him and none of me." At that point, I knew that I wanted Jesus to have my life and all of me. I gave Him my life and resolved to live for Him.
That's my story in a nutshell. Of course, there's a lot more to it, but that would take a book! LOL
As far as knowing all the answers, I know enough. God speaks to me and shows me what I need to know about everything. I know there's a lot I don't understand, but He does, and I trust Him. I will say that the longer I know Him, the more I understand.
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I pray that one day you will KNOW the God who is a person--Jesus. He loves you so much! Blessings!
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You know your father, don't you? He's a person. While God is somewhat different from your father, he and all humans are made in God's image.
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He does if he's used to support the truth of the statement; either that or he has to say that the actual source is literally true.
The first quote can be taken to refer to the beginning of humanity (Adam & Eve); the second is a generic claim to being all-encompassing; the third is Paul's opinion or description of Jesus, not the reported words of Jesus. I understand that it's a matter of interpretation, but that's partly the point.
This is the circular part. If you claim the bible is true in and of itself, then Genesis (i.e. nature had a beginning) is necessarily true (in the context of the claim), but if you claim Genesis is true by invoking Jesus as the source of truth, the truth of Genesis only follows if Jesus said the bible (or Genesis itself) is true; the problem there is that Jesus died long before the bible, including the book of Genesis, was cobbled together.
Just passing a rainy afternoon playing with logic
I'm not set on believing anything, but I'm no more prepared to accept Christian myths & legends as 'gospel' than you are prepared to accept Hindu or Muslim or any other religion's myths & legends.
The idea that a character of dubious historicity is the acme of truth and thus the compilation that contains his story must also be true, is obviously circularly illogical. Just sayin'.
As it happens, the universe appears to be flying apart at ever increasing speed, so they're actually looking for reasons to explain that... But if you're suggesting that gravity (the force that would otherwise hold the universe together) is the force of God, how do you suppose that will help scientists in their work?
By many religious accounts, everything is the work of God, but we still make excellent progress in discovering how it all hangs together while ignoring such accounts.
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They should know that the closer we come to the firmament of dust which surrounds us, the Galaxies will plunge forward at ever increasing speeds. It's the multiverse which is drawing our smaller universe to its doom. God warned us, thousands of years ago, but all knowing men thought He was just trying to scare us.
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He does if he's used to support the truth of the statement; either that or he has to say that the actual source is literally true.
The first quote can be taken to refer to the beginning of humanity (Adam & Eve); the second is a generic claim to being all-encompassing; the third is Paul's opinion or description of Jesus, not the reported words of Jesus. I understand that it's a matter of interpretation, but that's partly the point.
This is the circular part. If you claim the bible is true in and of itself, then Genesis (i.e. nature had a beginning) is necessarily true (in the context of the claim), but if you claim Genesis is true by invoking Jesus as the source of truth, the truth of Genesis only follows if Jesus said the bible (or Genesis itself) is true; the problem there is that Jesus died long before the bible, including the book of Genesis, was cobbled together.
Just passing a rainy afternoon playing with logic
I'm not set on believing anything, but I'm no more prepared to accept Christian myths & legends as 'gospel' than you are prepared to accept Hindu or Muslim or any other religion's myths & legends.
The idea that a character of dubious historicity is the acme of truth and thus the compilation that contains his story must also be true, is obviously circularly illogical. Just sayin'.
As it happens, the universe appears to be flying apart at ever increasing speed, so they're actually looking for reasons to explain that... But if you're suggesting that gravity (the force that would otherwise hold the universe together) is the force of God, how do you suppose that will help scientists in their work?
By many religious accounts, everything is the work of God, but we still make excellent progress in discovering how it all hangs together while ignoring such accounts.
Nope, not gravity. Even Einstein knew that. Here's an excerpt from an article that addresses this.
Astrophysicists look into the heavens and capture images and data with various scientific instruments. They know that the total mass of all matter is not enough to provide the gravity needed to keep everything in the universe from flying apart. They are left to ponder the question, “What is it that is holding the universe together?”
https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/commentary/what-holds-the-universe-together
https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/commentary/what-holds-the-universe-together
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But the universe is flying apart; dark matter hasn't stopped that. We don't yet know what causes the dark matter phenomenon, but it has a gravitational effect like diffuse matter.
As I said, if you're suggesting that dark matter is a creation of God, how do you suppose that will help scientists in their work? and if you believe that God created everything, why pick out dark matter ?
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