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I believe we need to provide the opportunity to people of their own free will to accept or reject God's pure charity, but I do not make them.Acts 13, mentions the word of the Lord spreading throughout the region.
And that those people God appointed to eternal life believed the message. This is because God opens their heart to what is being preached, and then they believe.
42 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. 43 Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. 45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:
‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.
There is no human derived formula or scheme to make believers. But wherever the gospel is preached, I believe there are some people who will believe, if not immdeiately, then eventually. The gospel is GOOD NEWS to men in every nation.
Good for you, you have been blessed.Sir Isaac Newton is famous for his physics equations. He was also a devoted Christian.
Louis Pasteur discovered heat sanitizes things. He learned to pasteurize milk to prevent the spread of small pox by infected milk maids. He also invented immunology developing the first vaccine. He was a Christian.
I used to get Guideposts magazine with testimonies by Christians about God’s salvation. These written testimonies were useful. I also heard testimonies by people who had been helped by God. When I was young people were talking about having a personal relationship with Christ. I did not know what it meant until I studied Christ’s teachings and tried to apply them.
OKThe problem of secular education is that they have the false perception to think that they know the future. So the first thing is future is beyond humans' reach. Second what could possibly happen after our physical death is unknown to humans. It's beyond the reach of our science.
So humans have to make a choice out of the 2 options. With secular education one tends to assume that our life ends with the physical death. This is the application of the fallacy "absence of evidence being the evidence of absence". It's actually a double fallacy. People try to equate this to the encounter of red unicorns. It's pretty safe to assume the absence of unicorns due to the lack of valid human encounters. However this doesn't apply to physical death. Unlike meeting the unicorns, everyone has to encounter death, "no evidence" simply because whoever encountered (which is each and every single human) death cannot come back to tell the still living what's lying ahead.
The 2 options are either to assume that nothing happens or something happens (this is thus a explicit religion). The significance of a religion is to provide an explanation of after life or after death. Assuming nothing happens (worse) is actually a belief of faith but without one's own awareness.
Now if it's true that something is lying after death, then how can humans know? Humans can't possibly know. We know only when a God exists that He knows then He let humans know in a way. In what way, either He tells us directly, or by means of human witnessing. The Christianity God has a covenant with humans that humans need to be saved by faith. Thus He can't show up to tell humans. All left is for God to convey this truth by means of human witnessing.
What is human witnessing? Chinese should understand human witnessing is the same process of how history is written. The difference between history and Christianity is that history is the recording of human activities delivered ultimately from eyewitness accounts. Christianity is the recording of God's deeds from the supposed eyewitness accounts (from God's dedicated prophets).
We can assume that nothing happens, thus we don't need to worry about what lying ahead (heaven or hell). But if we assume that there is still truth lying beyond our physical life, the only way to reach this piece of truth is by believing with faith. In the end, both assumptions are faith based, with one based on human accounts of testimonies and the other based on the fallacy that the absence of evidence being the evidence of absence.
Lots of people in China have crosses and even Bibles, but use them as good luck charms and they are not Christians.
Their friends have not been given logical support showing Christianity is a superstition, but have not heard any support to show Christianity is not a superstition.
Again, it is a matter of faith (trust) in a benevolent Creator which any mature adult can take the natural trust (faith) God gave us all and direct it toward God to the point of being willing to humbly accept God's pure charity.And the Spirit of God will need to work through them for them to hear anything you to say, regardless of how good your arguments are.
No one will be argued into the kingdom of heaven.
yesDuh, uh, yeah. It is a part of the fallen human nature. However, since he clarified he was dealing with communist Chinese, it is obvious he is fighting marxist propaganda which called religion the opiate of the masses.
OKThey engage in superstitious practices by using crosses and Bibles as good luck charms, and then turn around and say that Christianity is a superstition?
Are they not the ones turning Christianity into a superstition?
Remember, Paul and Apollos were almost worshipped by people who treated Christianity in this way. So perhaps the answer could be found in Paul's response to them.
Do you believe the Holy Spirit Resides in every single person?Again, it is a matter of faith (trust) in a benevolent Creator which any mature adult can take the natural trust (faith) God gave us all and direct it toward God to the point of being willing to humbly accept God's pure charity.
No, just Born again Christians and not before.Do you believe the Holy Spirit Resides in every single person?
This is not something we do, this is what the Holy Spirit of God is able to do in and through us.not sure I can show that happening 100% of the time.
I asked in my last thread about Christians being superstitious and got lots of answers about some Christians being superstitious. That was not what I was needing.
I teach open minded highly interested non-Christian Chinese college students, who will most likely return to Communist China, Bible Lessons each week. They along with all their friends and family have been taught: “All religions are just superstitions”, but they are not buying into that, but how can they simply explain to their friends, the difference between a superstition and Christianity. Lots of people in China have crosses and even Bibles, but use them as good luck charms and they are not Christians.
Their friends have not been given logical support showing Christianity is a superstition, but have not heard any support to show Christianity is not a superstition.
What I am looking for is some one-minute thought provoking statement or question my students, who will become Christians, can give to their friend back in China that will open a dialog on Christianity.
Not sure what you are presenting?
How will you go about giving them the Holy Spirit or putting the Spirit in them?No, just Born again Christians and not before.
They know almost nothing about Christianity, so they cannot defend their belief?
Come on now, God does that when He gifts them virtually everything.How will you go about giving them the Holy Spirit or putting the Spirit in them?
Yes very good and I agree a personal witness is good any time, but their going from bad to good might not seem to His/her friends that they were that bad (since the friends are the same bad).Well, there are plenty of great resources available to remedy this state of affairs.
www.reasonablefaith.org
www.crossexamined.org
www.str.org
At the very least, a person who claims to be a born-again believer should be able to point to their own experience of God as evidence of the reality of their relationship with Him. If God's Spirit is within a person, He convicts them of sin, illuminates their minds to divine truth, strengthens them in times of trial and temptation, comforts in moments of distress, and provides materially for their needs. A believer who can describe such an experience of God is clearly not merely superstitious.
They really do not know, but do have an idea of what a superstitious person is like."How can a Chinese Christian explain to nonbelievers, Christianity is not just a superstition?"
By telling them, "It's not a superstition".
What is a superstition though? I mean, it varies from person to person what that really is. I remember a guy I know who taught in Korea for a short while, and there he remembers an atheist chartered accountant absolutely shocked that he slept at night with his fan on, because the guy was convinced that if you do so you will die.
I think some people use crosses and that sort of thing in faith, and others do it in superstition. What a superstition is is something that I'd want to discuss and then it would be easy, once you have a definition from the group, to show why Christianity isn't that.
I like the first part.
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