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[AntiCrash]

Well sorry to hear that ... good luck with your ego and the better things you have to do.

Thank you.

 

[AntiCrash]

Speaking of blankets...

You seem stuck on blanket statements to rationalize why so many people seem to be having a genuine experience knowing God.

Those of us who say we "know" God - really do "know" God.

I understand how ridiculous and silly it sounds to an unbeliever - I was one for 30 years - but once you've experienced God there is no denying His existence and His manifestation in the person Jesus Christ.

There is no rational argument that can make that real to you - you have to want to know Him and He will make Himself very real to you.

I pray you have that experience one day.

No, you can't say "know" you simply believe, and are waiting for your beliefs to be validated at a later time.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Personally I think religion punches a hole in your heart then says fill yourself with me. You can be controlled very easy when you are looking for someone or something outside yourself to tell you who you are.

Religion might to do that, but genuine Christianity is quite different. Firstly, the Bible is the only information that tells us exactly who we are.

Christianity is not filling yourself with anything. It is turning from sin and the pleasures of the world, to a full commitment to Christ, based on His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead to give us eternal life.

It is not punching a hole in our existing heart. It involves a whole new heart - a transformation that only the Holy Spirit can do in the person. Without that transformation, there is only hell to expect in the future. And no one has any guarantee whether life will end today, or tonight when you go to bed and then wake up in eternity. I had a friend who was just in his fifties who felt unwell, went to bed, and was discovered dead by his wife the next morning. He didn't expect to die so young, but that is what happened.

So it is more than just putting on the religion badge, but it is a matter of life and death, heaven or hell, and you get to choose.

 

[maintenance man]

No, you can't say "know" you simply believe, and are waiting for your beliefs to be validated at a later time.

That's simply not true. My belief is validated every single day multiple times. I know.

 

[AntiCrash]

That's simply not true. My belief is validated every single day multiple times. I know.

How exactly? Do you care to explain.

 

[AntiCrash]

Religion might to do that, but genuine Christianity is quite different. Firstly, the Bible is the only information that tells us exactly who we are.

Christianity is not filling yourself with anything. It is turning from sin and the pleasures of the world, to a full commitment to Christ, based on His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead to give us eternal life.

It is not punching a hole in our existing heart. It involves a whole new heart - a transformation that only the Holy Spirit can do in the person. Without that transformation, there is only hell to expect in the future. And no one has any guarantee whether life will end today, or tonight when you go to bed and then wake up in eternity. I had a friend who was just in his fifties who felt unwell, went to bed, and was discovered dead by his wife the next morning. He didn't expect to die so young, but that is what happened.

So it is more than just putting on the religion badge, but it is a matter of life and death, heaven or hell, and you get to choose.

In the thread "Gods perfect plan" it was suggested that God has for ordained our whole life. That nothing is about choice, since God already knows everything he can't be encouraged to change his mind.

What will be will be.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

How exactly? Do you care to explain.

A genuinely converted Christian has absolutely no doubts about the reality of God and Christ. Although he cannot explain exactly how it happened, he knows beyond doubt that it has happened. One moment he didn't know God, and the next he did. Someone who is not converted to Christ has absolutely no idea because he is limited to his five senses and anything outside of what he can see, touch, taste, hear, smell, is not real to him at all. This is because of the western mind-set influenced by Aristotle, the pagan Greek philosopher who taught that everything that is real has to be supported by the evidence of the five senses. The unconverted person cannot have any spiritual discernment at all, and because the personal knowledge of God comes through spiritual discernment, all the unconverted person can see are the outward trappings of religion.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

In the thread "Gods perfect plan" it was suggested that God has for ordained our whole life. That nothing is about choice, since God already knows everything he can't be encouraged to change his mind.

What will be will be.

That is Middle-Eastern fatalism, not Christianity.

 

[maintenance man]

How exactly? Do you care to explain.

If you've read the Bible and got absolutely nothing out of it, I don't believe my testimony will have any impact on you.

What you need to consider is why are you so obsessed with God?

For a guy who says he has no time for God you are spending an awful lot of time kicking and screaming on this site to try to make Him go away.

That's one of the things that validates my belief on this day.

If you stop running in the other direction and turn around and walk toward Jesus you will come to "know" him as well.

You have to want to know Him in your heart.

You don't want to know God.

 

[AntiCrash]

If you've read the Bible and got absolutely nothing out of it, I don't believe my testimony will have any impact on you.

What you need to consider is why are you so obsessed with God?

For a guy who says he has no time for God you are spending an awful lot of time kicking and screaming on this site to try to make Him go away.

That's one of the things that validates my belief on this day.

If you stop running in the other direction and turn around and walk toward Jesus you will come to "know" him as well.

You have to want to know Him in your heart.

You don't want to know God.

Personally I don't want to know the God that you've dreamt up in your head.

 

[AntiCrash]

That is Middle-Eastern fatalism, not Christianity.

Who knows what Christianity is these day's.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

Personally I don't want to know the God that you've dreamt up in your head.

With that attitude you never will, and you will never see the kingdom of God. One day you might be very very sorry you said those words, and they might echo in your mind for the rest of eternity wherever you end up.

 

[AntiCrash]

With that attitude you never will, and you will never see the kingdom of God. One day you might be very very sorry you said those words, and they might echo in your mind for the rest of eternity wherever you end up.

So long I'm still me, it doesn't matter where I end up for eternity.

Unless it's that's terrible planet of the ape's, wait a minute! That was our planet!

You maniacs! You blew it up.

 

[aiki]

Seems like there's a troll in this thread...and it ain't a Christian.

 

[Hieronymus]

No, you can't say "know" you simply believe, and are waiting for your beliefs to be validated at a later time.

How do you know this?
You simply believe it is not so.

 

[Hieronymus]

With that attitude you never will, and you will never see the kingdom of God. One day you might be very very sorry you said those words, and they might echo in your mind for the rest of eternity wherever you end up.

Well, John 3:16 (and the bulk of the Bible) says there is eternal life in Christ, or perish.
No eternal life without God.

 

[Hieronymus]

So long I'm still me, it doesn't matter where I end up for eternity.

Unless it's that's terrible planet of the ape's, wait a minute! That was our planet!

You maniacs! You blew it up.

Look, you're heading for a ban like this.
Maybe you want that so you can be angry at us and at God.
Victim status...

I think i do understand your anger though.

FWIW, i'm sorry you have had bad experiences with Christians.

 

[Halbhh]

If you can plainly explain it, instead of using book, chapter and verse. Or I might have to counter all your biblical arguments with harry potter.

In this chapter, what Jesus says is often plain, and I feel I can't necessarily help by paraphrasing except after it's been read through. Perhaps it's all clear to me in some parts because of my having read the entire book of Matthew fully through more than once (and the other 3 gospels also). Is there a section you find not that clear? It might be that the best understanding is only available from reading from the beginning of chapter 3 fully through to the end of Matthew, and then coming back to chapter 7 after having slept on it a few days, and then it may be better understood than any of my paraphrases right now; but if you already have, perhaps there is something I can help with. If you use that link I provided, it's to the relatively clear and accurate NIV translation.

 

[W2L]

You can be controlled very easy when you are looking for someone or something outside yourself to tell you who you are.

Yes controlled by love and concern for others. It is something outside myself, it is love for others that God asks of me.

 

[AntiCrash]

Seems like there's a troll in this thread...and it ain't a Christian.

Yes God.