Do you believe or know God exists?

SPF said:

You act as if martyrdom is a choice like what combo to pick at the drive-thru window. Jim Elliot sure didn't know he was going to be martyred when he was.

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(sorry if this is totally out of context; but I am replying only to this statement just now I came across, and I did not read more before nor after)

I believe totally that before someone was immersed in Jesus' Name, they KNEW they were giving up their life , to live Jesus' Life, and they could die at any time for their faith and not worry nor be concerned about this - they ALREADY, at immersion, considered themselves martyrs,
thus also, they had no fear of death. (this was accepted as required for all permanent disciples born again by the will of the Father in heaven; everyone must die to self, die to the world, and the world dies to them/us/ to be in union with Jesus and with the Father as one) .... (in no way did this lead to self- harm nor any kind of approval of causing or permitting carelessly one's own death)

SPF said:

I suppose you could pull a Peter and deny Christ and not be martyred...

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NO. (hopefully never again).
In Foxes Book of Martyrs, there are reported instances of one after another men and woman (and perhaps children) being killed on the spot when they would not deny their faith.
One such instance, a man after seeing others killed right in front of him, denied Christ, and they spared his life. A young woman, perhaps 14 years old, perhaps 20,
SPOKE UP AT ONCE : "How can you do that , deny the one who was crucified for you to give you forgiveness and salvation !? "

SHE was immediately executed for speaking up , for not denying Jesus, and died instead of him at that time.

He drank himself into a stupor over the next couple months, and died of that.

Likewise others who denied Christ, did not live well. (nor should it ever be expected that they would)

Yeshu, you should look into the context of what people are saying before just butting into a conversation and start pontificating.

Joshua19 said: "This is still the age of Grace. During the trib we are told that people will be martyred:"

I was demonstrating to him that people since Christ have been martyred.

The scripture separates "sense knowledge" and "revelation knowledge."
Sense knowledge is derived by the senses to the human mind. It is physical, soulical, and even called demonic. When I read the poll, this is what I understand to be "know God is real."
Revelation knowledge is derived by revelation by the Spirit. It goes into the spirit of man and it is what faith is made of. When I read the poll, this is what I understand to "believe God is real."
So my answer is believe. If you only "know" (sense knowledge) then that is the lessor. You know about Him, and acknowledge that He exists. This is not the same as believing in Him.
1 Corinthians 2 divides this clearly:


1 Corinthians 2:13-14 KJV
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So I wonder about the statement that someone "knows" God exists. That would seem to say we "know" Him in a natural way with eyes and ears and touch. As these verses say, the natural man cannot receive or even know them. Only the spirit can discern or see them. I am not questioning or doubting anyone's experience, I am only saying the question and words used may incorrectly frame the reality. We cannot "know" God exists, only believe.

I tend to hold my self to such a high slandered that its almost impossible to achieve. So now I ask my self do I know the God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Christ that died for the worlds sin (praise you Father in Jesus name)? So if I believe in Him, know Him, then everything about me in me around me should show, shine Him. Like I had it in Collage. Out of the blue walk up and ask me " your a Christian aren't you?" "yes how did you know?" "Theres just something about you".

Seen Him face to face? Never. So humbled to say ..to see His hands, feet and to be in His presence. Seen so many other things. Know about a man that only read the word. Would go for a walk and ask if it would be ok to stop and pray? And then just weep at how much he loved the lord <--I want that. And the disciple's that prayed all the time. Read how Paul and the others started those letters and ended them. Now look at us here. NO ONE or should say most if not all talks treats other family, body of Christ like that. And I know GOD?

See I flip this and I 100% mean this.. when others see me ..WHO do they see? Right now? Just me. Almost every day.. every moment asking crying to know, closer to Him. Which I find myself then thinking.. how can I ask this when He LIVES IN ME! Such a hunger a thirst

SPF said:

You do realize that the passage in Genesis is referring to how long it would be until the flood occurred. It occurred 120 years after he said that. People have lived longer than 120 years.

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The Church age is 2,000 years. This began on the day of Pentecost in the year 29 ad. So the age will end on the day of Pentecost in the year 2029. Jesus began His ministry in the year 26 AD. His ministry began with a wedding where HE turned the water into wine. So we should expect to see some sort of symbolic representation of this in the year 2026.

People are already talking about how the Church age is ending and the Kingdom Age is beginning. There is a lot of teaching about this on the internet. This will be a time when they talk about the Manifest Son's (Daughters) of God. This has to do with being Joint Heirs with Christ.

I have been taught that His feet touch the ground in 2036 at the Mount of Olives. Some people teach this is when He will return to establish the Kingdom of God on the Earth. If this is literal or symbolic I do not know. It is easy to look back. Not always so easy to look forward to predict the future.

SavedByGrace3 said:

The scripture separates "sense knowledge" and "revelation knowledge."

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The Bible is literal and symbolic. The "Jewish" people call this an archetype. The Bible talks about shadows and types. A modern word they use is Paradigm. Noah was a real person with a real ark, real animals and a real flood. Yet a lot of the story is symbolic and a Archetype or Paradigm of other floods at other times in history. Also the world Noah saved was in the future. Science has put a LOT of research into how the plants and animals on Noah's Ark spread from the middle East to the rest of the world. All the plants and animals that we read about in our Bible. What Botany spends time to research and study.

I know God exists for the same reasons I know my wife exists. I met them both a long time ago, got to know them both, spent time with them both, developed a deep relationship with them both, unconditionally committed myself to them both, and now live in daily relationship and communication with them both. So, I would have to be insane to have the slightest doubt about the existence of either of them.

for me it is like dipping your hand in water and ask yourself, does it exists

joshua 1 9 said:

Only Moses spoke to God face to face. We do not actually speak to God. The angels collect our prayers and place them in the golden bowels before the throne.

Revelation 8:3
"Then another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne."

God spoke to me in a dream once when I was around 8 years old. He was explaining to me the expanding and shrinking (contracting) universe. I was not on the earth at the time, I was out in the universe. Usually when He has a message for us He will send an angel. Many times He wanted me to know that He is a God of absolute and perfect Justice. We see this in the universe in how fine tuned and balanced all the laws are that regulate the universe. There is a lot of precision. I have a friend that is a machinist and he works within a tolerance of a millionth. He runs a 3 million dollar machine and they have three robots hooked up to his machine. Business is great and they are talking about setting up more of these machines and training more people to run them. So if man can produce that degree of accuracy, how much more is God able to be accurate and precise in all that HE does?

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None of what you say is Biblical but rather it contradicts God's Word. It's likely your visions are from the Devil. God's Word says that it is sufficient and complete for us. Are you saying God has additional knowledge that He reveals as people work their way up to it? Because that concept is occultism.

ArmenianJohn said:

It's likely your visions are from the Devil.

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I said I had a dream and you changed it to a vision that you say if of the devil. One thing that remains consistent on here is that people accuse others of what they are guilty of.

joshua 1 9 said:

I said I had a dream and you changed it to a vision that you say if of the devil. One thing that remains consistent on here is that people accuse others of what they are guilty of.

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I stand corrected. It's likely that your dream was of the devil and not of God.

ArmenianJohn said:

I stand corrected. It's likely that your dream was of the devil and not of God.

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We had a youth pastor that said a dream could come from God, from the devil or from eating to much Pizza. The dream was pure science. It was about an expanding and a shrinking Universe. Do you think that Science is of the devil?

I know He does. I had a few prayers answered that only He could've answered.

joshua 1 9 said:

We had a youth pastor that said a dream could come from God, from the devil or from eating to much Pizza. The dream was pure science. It was about an expanding and a shrinking Universe. Do you think that Science is of the devil?

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So your dream told you nothing that science hasn't already told us? What a worthless dream, then. I guess it came from pizza. Have you thought of taking care of your body instead of eating pizza? Or do you not like that part of the Bible either?

Kevinw05 said:

It's not so much the world that also proves God's existence to me, but Moreno having both Male and Females roaming the earth which becons me to say to myself. Where did the first ones come from if there was no God and the Bible was a lie.

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Sorry you are mixing LDS untruth for what the Bible says.
Stick to what the Bible says and ignore LDS, is etc fables.

yeshuaslavejeff said:

NO. (hopefully never again).
In Foxes Book of Martyrs, there are reported instances of one after another men and woman (and perhaps children) being killed on the spot when they would not deny their faith.
One such instance, a man after seeing others killed right in front of him, denied Christ, and they spared his life. A young woman, perhaps 14 years old, perhaps 20,
SPOKE UP AT ONCE : "How can you do that , deny the one who was crucified for you to give you forgiveness and salvation !? "

SHE was immediately executed for speaking up , for not denying Jesus, and died instead of him at that time.

He drank himself into a stupor over the next couple months, and died of that.

Likewise others who denied Christ, did not live well. (nor should it ever be expected that they would)

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I’m gonna look this book up. Are you sure it’s actually factual information?

Kevinw05 said:

Have you ever spoken to God face to face rather than just prayer?

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Jesus came to me twice in a dream. Once he told me that an acquaintance needed me to suffer for him. When I told the man about his later, he was astonished. He needed help badly in that very hour I suffered for him (all my joints hurt at once). Another time Jesus came to me as the Holy Host and told me that half of my life was being lived in a holy way and the other have was not.
I also had a vision of the chest of the crucified Christ for just a moment.

I both know and believe. I don't believe these terms are mutually exclusive.

Some intellectuals and philosophers believe God can be "debunked" using thought experiments and tired arguments about infinite regress.

For anyone interested in philosophy of religion, Dr. Ed Feser does a great job of explaining, through teleological arguments, how even a secular approach invariably requires a power beyond the elements of science or 'nature' (which itself is vague) to explain the beginning of the universe.

In more personal ways we believe in and understand God through our faith and what strength, solace and resilience it affords us.