Hi dave,
You responded to me:
I do appreciate and understand that. However, something sounding ludicrous to someone, while I'd certainly say whatever it is deserves more careful looking into, doesn't have any bearing on the truth. As I have pointed out, and yes, I know that you aren't going to agree because of the source material, but God's word has already warned me that the things of God are foolishness to those who are perishing. So, hopefully you can also appreciate and understand my position.
As I explained to others previously, I was once much like you, although I've always made a claim to 'be' a christian, I wasn't born again and, therefore, did not have access to the one who convicts an individual of the truth. I believed that mankind evolved and likely pretty much the way science explains to us that man has. But then I was born again. My entire worldview changed. My understanding of God and who He is and what He has done and His purpose in creating this realm all changed.
So, I understand what it's like to not believe the truth of the Scriptures. I also understand that, according to Jesus, most people aren't ever going to understand the things of God aright. I understand that because I believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God and that he came to us for the purpose of giving testimony to who God, his Father, is. As a part of that testimony he spoke of there being only two paths that each individual can take through this life. One is broad and many take that way. They live the life that their Creator has given them and they squander it just as the parable of the wayward son explains that he did. Oh, they don't know that they're squandering it. Just as the wayward son, they are living good in the neighborhood. Got good jobs and make good money and are honestly pretty satisfied with their lives on the whole. Have some friends and begin a family and are satisfied with these things. They aren't wicked, mean, spiteful people at all. They're just people living life. Enjoying all that life has to offer them.
The other way is narrow, and according to Jesus, few there be that find it. It is a life of love and adoration and understanding of what really matters in this life. Understanding that a loving Creator made all of this and desires to know each one of us and live with us for all eternity. Understanding that it is because He exists that we exist. That this existence didn't come about by a bunch of possible connections of the natural properties of the elements of this realm. They understand that this realm exists because of the careful planning and detail of one who created it all and will someday call each one of us to account.
For the first group of people. Well, they just go on living their lives and enjoying the bounty of the earth until one day... They don't even have a clue that such a day is coming. Most of them consider themselves to be biological entities which upon death cease to exist forever and that will be the end of it. But the Scriptures detail a very different future for all mankind. That all men will be raised up from death and face the judgment of their Creator. They will then be rewarded with an eternal existence commiserate with what they worked for in this life.
For me, this wake up call from God came about when I began to investigate the many prophecies of the Scriptures. Unlike some who find that they were not always precisely fulfilled, I found the opposite. I found that not only were they fulfilled pretty much exactly as the Scriptures foretold that they would be, but that some of them were most amazing in the amount of time that passed between the giving of the prophecy and the fulfilling of the prophecy that absolutely convinced me that there is a God and He does know the end from the beginning.
Specifically the prophecy found in the writings of Daniel chapter 9. For me, that prophecy is amazing in it's detail and in the fact that Daniel had no idea that any of the things foretold would ever come to pass. He didn't even know that there would be the event that started the clock ticking on the prophecy. It was yet another 50-100 years before the decree would be issued to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. Friend, that would be like you being told in 1940 that in 2017 a man by the name of Donald Trump would be elected President of the United States. Then, from the starting of that ticking clock, Daniel was given insight into a very specific period of time in which a couple of things would happen. The entire fulfillment of that prophecy was to take several hundred years, but precisely as everything was laid out to Daniel, everything came to be. For me, no man has that ability of prophecy. Only a God who loves what He has created would be able to tell the times of unfolding events so precisely and of things that are so important to what man needs to understand about this life that we have been given to live.
For me, only a Creator who made all things to be and cares about mankind that He has made, would be able to tell someone so accurately of unfolding events in the future.
From there, I was on my knees beseeching God to forgive me, just as the prodigal son pleaded to his father to forgive him for squandering away the precious life that he had been given. Asking Him to take me in. I then spent a number of hours in prayer over the next few weeks and months continually asking that God would give me wisdom and discernment of the truth through His Holy Spirit. The one who Jesus promised would lead those who were born again into all truth. God has answered that prayer.
Now, I fully understand that you don't believe that or agree with my source of truth. All I can tell you is that such a position is not unexpected and is, according to the Scriptures, the default position of mankind overall. But it doesn't have to be.
When God gave unto Israel the law, He said to them, "Heaven and earth are witnesses to you that I have set before you this day the way of life and the way of death...choose life! God has done the same thing for each of us. He has set forth, through His Scriptures, the way of life and the way of death. Each one is free to choose which way he wants to go.
God bless you,
In Christ, ted
