I believe in the God of the bible. Why do I believe in him?

1) I have seen God answer prayers in my life, my family's life, and my friend's lives. I hear him speak to me, and I have seen him moving in power. I have been in church services where people have been healed instantly. I have had so much healing in my heart.

2) Because the evidence for the bible being a historically accurate ancient text is too high to ignore. Eg: the gospels alone have many more ancient manuscripts dated closer to the time of the events than any other historical text. When you look at Paul's letters, we get even more manuscripts!!!

Question: I'm not a theist expert, and I've never prayed to other gods, so I don't know the answer to that one.

I just know that when I pray, I pray to the god of the bible and he has shown me time and time again he is the Living God, who hears and answers my prayers.

Answer: It's something you have to experience yourself. I can understand that looking at it as an atheist, or from another religious system, you'd think "pfft, I call a**bubbles!"

I understand, and if you think it's crazy, so be it. I don't think I'm crazy and I've certainly seen God move in my life.

I used to think it was insane that people said "God speaks to me." I mean, we've all seen crazy  people who claim they are the second coming of Jesus and all that, but I don't think most of us who interact with God and notice him interacting with us are claiming we are "special" or anything. We just have a relationship with him.

I don't know how much better I could put it. I'm sorry :/

from reddit.

7:06 AM | 0 comments | Read More

Looking for a healthy discussion here. As someone who doesn't know exactly what they believe, I would like to know what exactly makes you believe in a personal God. I currently believe in God, but not one that listens to prayers, performed miracles, etc..

Answers:

I was having a heated argument with a good friend of mine. He was adamantly saying that God wants to bless me in personal ways (not necessarily material things, but things that would be extremely meaningful to me, but not to anyone else). I was arguing that God may love him like that, but not me. So he asks me what it would take for me to believe that God really does care about me like that. I didn't have to think about the answer very long. My answer is God would have to give me an antique slot machine. My friend was trying to tell me that maybe God would get me to the point where I could just buy one myself. But if I purchase it, then I am the one who provided it, not God. I said "God will need to drop an antique slot machine in my lap without me having to lift a finger." (And there's a whole host of reasons why I said this... one being that it is the one material possession I've wanted my entire life, but know I'd never actually purchase for myself.)

And after that discussion, I was actually resigned to the fact that I'd never have an antique slot machine, because God does NOT do that sort of thing. I was as sure that He would never just give me a slot machine as I am that I'll never be able to just flap my arms and end up flying like a bird.

9 months later, I get a phone call from my aunt that she and my uncle are buying me an antique slot machine for Christmas. (And just in case you're thinking it... no, my friend didn't call my aunt and uncle or anything like that. He doesn't even know their names. )

I'd say that's pretty personal.

***

I have experienced times of praying with others in which we each received an identical "vision" at the same time that was unrelated to what we were praying.

I know of others who have experienced this (trying reading some LeAnne Payne for examples).

It makes no sense psychologically, only spiritually.

**

from reddit.

7:04 AM | 0 comments | Read More

I've hear God refered to as existing outside of space, before the beginning of time and so on. I'm not sure I know entiery what this means. What does "space", "time", "outside" and "before" in this context? Isn't outside and inside inherently spatial relations, and before and after temporal ones? The whole idea seems syntactically wrong to me. Like "north of the northpole". Could someone clarify exactly what they mean when they say that God exists "outside of space and time"?

Answers:

It is entirely possible that the correct technical syntax does not exist to describe the theist idea of a transcendent being.

To further your analogy, they are saying north of the north pole but actually mean that the thing they describe is not on the surface of the planet.

The thing is, if you're going to say that we don't have the words to describe the idea of a transcendental being, you'd better be consistent about it. For instance, don't tell me that God relates to time and space is mysterious and inexpressible ways, and then turn around and tell me he "loves" me, as if that much was clear as day.

It is like God's mystery extends to all things we'd like to forget about, but never to those few aspects that need to be a certain way. It is maddening.

As God is often conceived as boundless, if one were to say God exists within spatio-temporal boundaries then the contradiction is apparent. However if one was to assert that space-time is real in a fundamental way, that it's just a brute condition of existence that is, then the theist has the problem of explaining how something non spatio-temporal (God) can interact with something spatio-temporal. However that's not the whole story. There are models within physics that don't treat time as fundamental, see Julian Barbour on timeless physics for example. The motivation for this is that the main equation of quantum gravity, the wheeler de-witt equation lacks any time dependence. This is obviously controversial but it is an option. Similarly the late philosopher J.M.E Mctaggart made a very famous argument in a paper entitled "The unreality of time" with a pretty much identical conclusion at the beginning of the twentieth century. If you're interested in these ideas I think a good accessible introduction to them would be two science shows Through the wormhole (I think the ep is called Is time real?) and The fabric of the cosmos on PBS in an episode entitled Illusion of time.

You'll probably have noticed that I haven't actually made any points on the idea of time as being something that isn't fundamental, rather I've just thrown some names at you. The reason for this is I need to get clearer on the issue myself before I can really contribute to the conversation as it's an extremely difficult one but I think it's worth getting some kind of a grasp on despite its challenging nature.

6:59 AM | 0 comments | Read More