The other member already explained this contradiction in detail, what else do you want?You’re sidestepping.
1 Corinthians 1:18 comes to mind - "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God".You might like this one. It’s one of my favourite essays by C.S. Lewis and concerns itself with “looking at” and “looking along” as distinct ideas. I would be interested in your perspective as it relates to the discussion…
1 Corinthians 1:18 comes to mind - "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God".
The message of the cross might also be foolishness to those who are looking at it instead of looking along. To a spiritually fearless atheist, who's doesn't love God and is not afraid of God or Satan, the message of the cross is just pathetic people being afraid of dying and what might come after death. But many atheists WOULD love God if only there was proof of his existence. So they demand proof from Christians instead of asking God himself for whatever reason. Christians often times fail to provide proof because they are misinformed or completely uninformed about their religion, so those lost people are delayed in being saved because of it. Sin wreaks havoc on the world as a result of something that could have been prevented. Some people receive the Gospel and convert right away, but how many is that? Many people on here suggested that only preaching of the Gospel is needed to save people, and while that's technically true - the saved will be *eventually* saved, is anyone really going to say that ignoring people's questions and objections about the gospel's validity a good way to spread the truth?
When I was an atheist I also relied on others to prove Christianity, for various reasons, one being simply afraid of God. If God were to show me proof and it wasn't enough for me, now I'm held to a higher standard to obey God, but I'm not convinced in the proof that I've seen, so I would be stuck in the middle between being chastised by God and not having the evidence that it's actually the God of the Bible and not some other religion. I eventually learned that no amount of proof is enough, and we always need faith that God is good. I don't know if I would have been born again many years earlier if only I was given proof that I know right now. I know it's the holy spirit that does the conversion, but if he is the only one who does it then what's the point of ministering at all? Obviously we still have obligation to spread the gospel, keep others from sin and stay away from sin ourselves. People who are looking at the gospel message instead of looking along may just need a little push into the light by a more detailed study of the Bible - that's how I was born again.
Before I was born again the main reason I didn't follow many of God's commandments was because nobody can tell which ones we need to follow or even which church is true!!! I figured if everyone is conflicted and nobody knows the truth, then it must not be that important to God in the first place. Some say we don't need to keep the sabbath because it's the old covenant, others say it's still part of the 10 commandment and it's still need to be kept (I've researched into it and found the latter to be true, but that's another discussion). Some say the Catholic church is the one true church, other's say it's been corrupted (I found Mathew 23:2-3 and drew a parallel between Pharisees in the seat of Moses and Papists in the seat of Peter). All these confusions and contradictions only drive people away from faith, cause great sin in the world, and delay their salvation.
There have been some claims of scientific proof present in the Bible, but Quran has those too, and they've been debunked. I'm not saying we should look into the meaning of the numbers in the videos I posted (that might actually be numerology) but the text structure on the Bible clearly has many layers of messages. And if they are structured in a way that only God could have designed, then that would be better than all of those alleged scientific proofs. There have been random letter code found in the Bible in the past, but those were random, arbitrarily selected letter codes, and they've been debunked. The formulas in the links and videos I posted are NOT from random letters or even random words, they are from specific words.
The formulas are there on your screen, you can say they don't exist, but that doesn't change the fact they do exist and you've proven nothing so far.
Very interesting take.Luke 11 talks in parable form about the removal of armour:
21When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
I believe there is a sense where an unbeliever builds up armour to protect themselves intellectually against having to deal with the reality of God. This has been the experience of many a thinking rebel. It was certainly the journey of CS Lewis, and part of his story took another man of similar intellect to gently and politely provide an intellectual plundering of his defences.
As I've said many times already - they prove that only God would be able to encode these formulas into a future translation in a language not existing at the time.Neither have you. You're the one making the claims not me. The burden of proof is on you. The numbers are there on the screen, but whether or not they prove anything is doubtful.
As I've said many times already - they prove that only God would be able to encode these formulas into a future translation in a language not existing at the time.
What books? What subjects? What are you talking about? This is statistics, aka math, when it says 2+2, it's always going to be 4. And when it's statistically impossible to have these formulas there by accident, then that's all the proof that's needed.No they don't. In order to do that you'd have to do a detailed study on many books and on many subjects. Only then could you say definitively it's not just chance. Have any such studies been done?
Here is the video posted by another user on here. At 50:05 he starts talking about very similar Bible code as ones being discussed here. Then they actually spell out the statistical probability of that being an accident.No they don't. In order to do that you'd have to do a detailed study on many books and on many subjects. Only then could you say definitively it's not just chance. Have any such studies been done?
What books? What subjects? What are you talking about? This is statistics, aka math, when it says 2+2, it's always going to be 4. And when it's statistically impossible to have these formulas there by accident, then that's all the proof that's needed.
See the video above.So I take it the answer's no. No controlled studies have been done.
See the video above.
Why don't you do one yourself? Whip out a calculator and replicate the numbers shown on the screen in that video.Is that a yes, controlled studies have been done?
Why don't you do one yourself? Whip out a calculator and replicate the numbers shown on the screen in that video.
What books? What subjects? What are you talking about? This is statistics, aka math, when it says 2+2, it's always going to be 4. And when it's statistically impossible to have these formulas there by accident, then that's all the proof that's needed.
Very interesting take.
"We make things by the law in which we are made"
Although personally, I wouldn't use myths as an example when ministering to somebody. I usually present the argument that *if* there was an all powerful, loving God who created everything, then why wouldn't you want to worship him? Typical objections are along the lines of "God killed innocent people" or "God sentences people to eternal punishment for temporary crimes" etc. But if they agree and just want proof of God's existence, then I explain that if there was an all powerful, loving God who for some reason chose to create Satan and have him blind us from seeing him, then we must worship him anyway, because it's like being trapped in a cave... you don't hear anything on the outside, so you don't know if anybody hears you or knows where you are, but you're still going to try and keep calling for help. And it's also like looking for a loved one who is lost in the wilderness.... you don't hear or see anything, but that doesn't mean you're not going to flip every rock and open every collapsed cave to find them. So should the search for God be. There is a reason why God chose to make things the way they are and if one really wants to see proof of God all they have to do is ask him. However many people do claim that they "asked" but God never answered, and my objection to them would be they are not asking from the bottom of their conscious and subconscious mind (I would say heart and soul, but that wouldn't sound "logical" to unbelievers). Using logic is very important when ministering because we live in the most scientifically advanced time in all of recorded history. Satan constantly uses logic and science to defeat people's faith. So we too must use logic in conjunction with faith.
His ways are not our ways, There is no doubt much that has yet to be revealed to us of his infinite nature, merely reading scripture without taking it to the Lord for His understanding can miss the mark, that's why our churches look pathetic now.Well, the more I look into this, the more I think that using codes to prove anything at all is extremely fishy. There are infinite ways to alter letters on a computer in order to get a desired outcome. I have to add that all this code stuff borders on the occult, in my opinion, and it might easily lead people to reject the clear teachings of Scripture in favor of so-called codes that can be made to say whatever they want.