Has Kirk's Death Prompted You?

1Tonne said:

Paul also used prophecy to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. In Acts 28:23, it says that Paul used the "Law and the Prophets" to convince people that Jesus was the Christ. We can also do this. We use the Law to show the knowledge of sin and that the unbeliever needs a saviour, but then we can also use the prophecies in the Bible to prove that Jesus was who He said He was.
Here is an example of what I say to people to prove that the bible is not just a made-up story and that Jesus was the Messiah.
"If I wrote 300 predictions of future events and all came true with perfect accuracy, you’d know something supernatural was at work in me. That’s exactly what we see in the Bible. The Old Testament contains over 300 predictions that were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. That He was born in Bethlehem, He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, He was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, He had nail-pierced hands and that He would take on the sins of the world. And that is only 5 of the 300 prophecies. No other book, not even the Quran, has this prophetic accuracy."
From here, most people will not disagree, but they say that they will have to investigate the Bible more.

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Yes the prophesies are a powerful testiment to God and Christs reality. These are themselves testimonies which are themselves powerful ways of knowing. Knowing the truth and reality itself.

People want empiricle evidence in a material world and testimony is seen as subjective and unreliable. But in reality it is the most powerful way humans understand the world and reality. We live it everyday.

You can say one or two people may be wrong but many and it becomes powerful. The bible makes direct claims that declare a truth testimony which is to be either believed or not and no amount of empircile evidence will cause someone to believe the testimony. Though Thomas wanted to touch Christs wombs.

But Jesus said greater are those who believe and have not seen. Take Christs words for what they are. He is testifying and so are the diciples and Christians. Like on a witness stand in court. Except this is before the great judge.

I think we all know that there is more to this world than what we see. Its in human nature to seek such metaphysics. Even materialism is a metaphysical belief. The bible says we know of Gods creation in the invisible aspects that eminate from creation that speak of a creator.

I think most people know especially in the west. That is why testimony is powerful because its bypassing all the semantics and rationalisations and appealing directly to the heart. Asking the person to believe the testimony. Just like someone telling their testimony of something they believe is real and really happened. You either take their word or reject it.

stevevw said:

People want empiricle evidence in a material world and testimony is seen as subjective and unreliable. But in reality it is the most powerful way humans understand the world and reality. We live it everyday.

You can say one or two people may be wrong but many and it becomes powerful.

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I think you are right in saying that if everyone were to say what they believed, then it would become more powerful. We need more people to speak the Gospel and live it.

1Tonne said:

I think you are right in saying that if everyone were to say what they believed, then it would become more powerful. We need more people to speak the Gospel and live it.

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That is why I think its not just about Christianity but as a culture and humans that want to get along we already worked out a long time ago that you have to allow humans the freedom to live by their conscience and beliefs and worldviews.

The idea of denying others their right to follow their conscience is immoral as far as 'doing unto others and God given free will' and incoherent from a commonsense and logical perspective. From the position of reality because we have already worked it out from our experiences of not allowing people their rights to freedoms of belief ect. We still see it today with radical Islam. Unfortunately the same idea spreading to the west in the form of cancel culture.

But I think the idea of 'being made in Gods image' is a transcedent truth or law we all know that also alignes with reality. That is we need some sort of worthy moral lawgiver and authority that transcends human ideas and fallibility. So when God or the transcedent independent moral creator and lawgiver is removed human ideology becomes truth. Truth itself is undermined and we end up with unreal and crazy ideologies taking over.

You could say that the truth principles themselves stand independent like the laws of physics stands independent. But the problem is in a postmodern society where there is no truth then words, narratives and meanings become the reality. Which is changing and redfining all the time. Never reliable and often decieving.

But ultimately allowing these different beliefs and ideas will eventually clash in the fight for truth as we are seeing now in a pluralistic society. Because in the end there is only one truth.