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Title: For Years I Pleaded With God ... To Make Me Straight --- So Why Did My Prayers Go Unanswered?
Source:
christianpost.com/
URL Source: http://www.christianpost.com/news/f ... -prayers-go-unanswered-133098/
Published: Jan 26, 2015
Author: Matt Moore
Post Date: 2015-01-27 12:39:11 by BorisY
Keywords: gay dieversity evolution new a, gay dieversity evolution new a, gay dieversity evolution new a
Views: 20001
Comments: 64
For Years I Pleaded With God To Make Me Straight, So Why Did My Prayers Go Unanswered? By Matt Moore CP Guest Columnist January 26, 2015 matt moore I knew I was attracted to the same sex when I was seven — in some capacity, anyway. I don't think it's physiologically possible to truly feel sexual attraction at such a young age. But I knew there was a drawing in me toward the same gender – and drawing that was more than what some would say is "natural" or "normal." As I grew up in a rural Louisiana town and teenage hormones began to surge throughout my body, my drawing toward the same gender intensified — sexually and emotionally. While I was definitely not engulfed in the life of a church during my adolescence, I was raised in close enough proximity to religious things – and religious people – that I knew the Bible referenced to homosexuality as an abominable thing. The Bible referenced to me as an abominable thing. That was my understanding anyway. And not only did the Bible paint people like me in the light of all that is grotesque, but so did the people around me. Family, friends, football coaches. Everyone. To be gay was to be gross. To be gay was to be wicked. To be gay was to be scum. So I prayed. Oh. How. I. Prayed. "God, make me normal." "God, make me straight." "God, make me like everyone else." But God didn't answer those prayers. Why? I hear my experience repeated by others all the time. Just yesterday, actually. A Christian friend of mine was conversing with a guy who is living a homosexual lifestyle. He pleaded with her to believe that he had prayed for years for God to make him straight…. to no avail. She was speechless. She didn't know how to respond. "Matt, why didn't God answer his prayer? I mean, he prayed God's will? Why was there no answer?" I'm not God, so I can't know all the reasons why He wouldn't have answered this guy's prayers to be made attracted to women. But, I do know what He's revealed in the Bible and I do know what I now, as a believer in Jesus, believe to be true of my own "unanswered prayers" experience. Firstly, when I grew up pleading with God to make me straight, I had no real interest in God Himself. I wasn't praying for God to do this because I loved Him or wanted to live my life for Him. I was actually pretty unconcerned about Him, to be honest. I wanted God to take away my same sex desires for my own benefit – so that I could fit in, be normal, be one of the guys, and even so that I could just have sex with girls like all of my friends were. < — So I obviously wasn't worried about being sexually moral. I just wanted to be sexually normal. My desire to be made straight was all about me. I had no interest in being reconciled to God or having a relationship with Christ. Which brings me to by second point. From what I see in the Bible, God is far more concerned with first fixing our hearts than he is with fixing other things in our lives. Same sex attraction included. Yes, it's true that God hates homosexuality. But more than that, He hates that our hearts are opposed to Him and that we long to live our lives separated from Him. God's foremost desire is that we would come to Him through Christ to receive new hearts that love and adore Him. In fact, nothing can even begin to be done as far as the untangling of our sexualities until we receive new hearts that love and adore God. How do I know that? Because Romans 1 says that the whole reason homosexual desire even exists is due to our rejection of God's loving rule and authority over our lives. Don't skip over this passage of Scripture I'm about to paste under here. It's vital that you read it. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."- Romans 1:18-26. Homosexual desire – and all other sinful desire — exists in the hearts of people because worship of God doesn't. In Adam, we corporately rejected the good rule of God over our lives. And in each of our hearts, we have all individually rejected the good rule of God over our lives. And what has been the result? God has given us over to ourselves. He gave us up to our sinful desire, and has allowed us to revel and further deteriorate in it. So why didn't God answer my prayer to rid me of my homosexual desires? Because homosexual desires were not my main problem. They were a problem, for sure. But the root of my problem was that I didn't love God or worship Him, and my homosexual desires were just fruit of that, so to speak. God's desire was to fix the root of my issues. And in 2010, He did just that. He opened my eyes to see all that Jesus Christ is for those who will believe. I finally really saw Jesus as the Son of God who took on flesh and who in humility and incredible graciousness laid His life down for mine. He offered up His life to pay for my guilt in order that I could draw near to God and be given me a new heart; a new heart that loves, adores and worships the one true and incredibly good God. Am I now straight? Am I now normal? Am I now free from same sex desires and attracted solely to women? No, no and no. My heart was changed instantaneously when I trusted in Christ and began to follow Him, but my mind was not. I now have a heart that genuinely loves God and desires to worship Him, but at the same time, I'm still utterly messed up and damaged by sin. The Lord is working in me and renewing my mind day by day, shaping me more and more into the reflection of Him that I was created to be. But it's been a process. And it will continue to be a process until I receive a new, perfect and sinless body in the age to come. When that day comes, the fullness of what Jesus purchased for me will be given to me: full freedom from every sinful thing that restrains my enjoyment and worship of God. But even now, in this messed up damaged flesh, I have experienced some change in my sexuality over the past four years. I can't deny that. And the shifting in my sexual desires is a direct result of my grace-given love for God. I've grown in my disgust of homosexual relations because I see what a twisting and perversion it is of the image of God. And I've grown in my desire for women (specifically, one woman.… I wrote about it here), and maybe even in my desire for marriage, because I see how a one man + one woman marital covenant so beautifully reflects the image of God. My growing desire for women is the overflow of a growing desire to see God's glory manifested in my life. Plain and simple. I'm not saying that I'm definitely going to get married one day. I might not. I may be single and celibate for the remainder of my sojourning in this world. But either way I will be fine and I will be joyful because my main problem has been fixed. I might not be "straight" or "normal", but I have a new heart, I have Jesus, and I have the Father. And that's all I really need. Matt Moore is a Christian blogger who was formerly engaged in a gay lifestyle. You can read more about him at www.moorematt.org.
Poster Comment: keep laughing ... the libertarian age --- is over - ending !
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#25. To: Moderator X (#13)
(Edited)
Busted again, eh "Tater"?
Matt more "gets it." Prayers up brother Matt and let God continue to conform you to the Image of His Son Jesus Christ. The angels in heaven rejoice! Where's Meg?
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Your posts show you are well educated. I would recommend a couple of books from Simon Greenleaf for your reading pleasure. The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence Now public domain: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/jesus/greenleaf.html About the author: In 1833, Greenleaf was named to the Royall professorship, and in 1846 succeeded Judge Joseph Story as Dane professor of law at Harvard University. Greenleaf contributed extensively to the development of Harvard Law School, including expansion of the Harvard Law Library. He was retained as chief counsel by the Warren Bridge group in the US Supreme Court case Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge 36 U.S. 420 (1837),[2] where the case laid down the rule that public contracts must be construed in favor of states. In 1848, Greenleaf retired from his active duties, and became professor emeritus. After being for many years president of the Massachusetts Bible Society, he died at Cambridge. Greenleaf's well-known work, a Treatise on the Law of Evidence, is considered a classic of American jurisprudence. Greenleaf prepared the original constitution of the Colony of Liberia.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Why do you equate "discipline" with rigid closemindedness? Why do you fear letting go? You are readily dismissing what is the obvious (to others) -- that an entity much greater than us (God) exists...and compels us to account to him after this life. Have you considered the possibility that some external spiritual force is actually "God-Blocking" you? Or In a strange twist, that this self "discipline" you refer to is actually the loss of control of your own free will? More self-examination: Do you consider your "mind" your physical brain, or a transcendendant mode of metaphysical consciousness detached from the physical? If it's the latter, you've conceded that "you" and your essense are not connected to your physical shell. And if your mind is not connected to your physical shell, then where does your consciousness or essense or energy go upon death? "Discipline" (in your case, "pride,") is not a virtue if you reject your Maker. It's a curse. Everything pleasant that happens that you don't understand you arbitrarly label a God's miracle. Uh, no, that's you generalizing. Catastrophic things of much more importance such as the killing of millions at Auschwitz or 1,400 years of islamic barbarism, you overlook. Here you are, again circling the wagon of your rigid "consciousness" with a false sense of rationale and reason. Christians do NOT overlook tragedy, barbarism, and catastrophy. We not only acknowledge it in this world, we acknowledge the source of it: Free Will and the Father of Evil. There is no consistency to your arguments. From your perspective I suppose that's true -- especially if you are unable to understand the premise beyond your physical world and laws. There exists a world AND laws beyond this material world. Your "discipline" handicaps and prevents you from escaping beyond your false material world paradigm. You holy rollers are controlled by what psychiatrists term an encapsulated psychosis that has a self referencing element of circular reasoning based in perpetuated mythology which you attempt to sell to other people. Like those psychiatrists who are hiding their own psychoses behind their university degrees and certificates, you're projecting. It is YOU who are controlled by the circular reasoning that enslaves you to the myth that "What cannot be seen, cannot exist"; That the entire physical universe -- matter, life, conscious thought, essense -- have NO Creator, NO Designer, NO Purpose, and NO Final Justice, NO Final Reward. That my friend is illogical and nonsensical. Stop sulking because The Almighty won't kiss your azz and be summoned before you as though you were some King or Prince. Unshackle yourself from your ego and prideful self. Open your heart and tear down your wall. Demonstrate some real disciplne and humble yourself before your Creator. Before it's too late.
The angels in heaven rejoice! Amen! Where's Meg? Physically or mentally? ;-)
This type of "circular reasoning?" Matthew 5:44-46King James Version (KJV) 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?(KJV) Pretty solid.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
I deleted myself today, hope no one thought that mad cuzin of mine, the mod did it...lol
("We sing about God because we believe in Him. We are not trying to offend anybody, but the evidence that we have seen of Him in our small little lives trumps your opinion about whether or not He exists". ~ Jeff Foxworthy)
------------------------ More crackpots to the attempted rescue of undisciplined belief in mythology incorporating unproven assumptions. I can't spend the remainder of my life diverted into recommended reading of belief based upon emotionally held assumptions.
Atheism is a choice. What choice isn't driven by an emotional need?
"The biggest mistake that libertarians make is the way they view government and private sectors. Government is the root of all evil, and the private sector is the source of all good. Libertarians have never figured out that people are the same whether in the government or in the private sector." --Paul Craig Roberts
An excellent recipe for oblivious neurosis. Did it help the people being fed into Nazi extermination camps or the people minding their own business being descended upon and slaughtered by hundreds of thousands by Malmoud in his attack upon the Hindus in India? Did it help the 10,000 Christians killed to impose islam in Indonesia? You love the bastards in your twisted way under stupid biblical commands. Leave me out of it.
Pretty weak.
I have an emotional need for rationality in the world in which I live.
Stupid? The caeSARean pacification of the McSheeple was diabolically brilliant. The real Jesus Christ drove the money changers off the pyramid steps. The Roman pedophile state-establishment perverted the religion named after Him into obedient milquetoast.
When a cancer chooses to consume its host.
More than that, I think. Evangelical atheism isn't born of rationality.
"The biggest mistake that libertarians make is the way they view government and private sectors. Government is the root of all evil, and the private sector is the source of all good. Libertarians have never figured out that people are the same whether in the government or in the private sector." --Paul Craig Roberts
I am not an Evangelical atheist. I just find there is little evidence that God, or prayer will intercede to change the physical or psychological laws on earth. Neither do I find evidence that God interferes with the stupididity or barbaric act of earthlings. We are inconsequential in comparison to the infinite vastness of the universe. In attempts to make ourselves subjectively seem important, we conjure up myths, holy people, and miracles out of nothing. I'm sick of imbeciles telling me prayer and belief in an afterlife is the answer to everything.
Perhaps lay down for a bit on the couch in your office.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
Well here's more: Matthew 5: KJV And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. 13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. " For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
----------------------- Flatulences 8: RLV The more suffering you humbly endure, tolerate, or even encourage, in thus life, the more it entitles you to enter a next life perpetually groveling before a hypothetical figure fantasised in the next life in a state of orgasm for all eternity. If you are strongly dedicated, you can even limp through nations beating yourself with a whip as did Peter the Hermit to receive extra brownie points. Happy, happy, masochism sucker.
Were you raised Catholic?
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
rl Your God, even if he is not a mythical creation, is much too concerned with other aspects of the entire vast universe to intercede in the inconsequential affairs of mankind. Learn to accept your own insignificance. My God is concerned about him.
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
You obviously haven't examined the evidence for God's existence. Apparently you want to remain blind to him, but that's your choice.
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
You never present any evidence for Gods intersession on behalf of the lives of men. All you do is present foot stomping belief backed up by more foot stomping belief. Your arguments make as much sense as saying San Claus is on your side because the tooth fairy also told you so. From then you go on to argue if you believe, then you will get to go to a a mythical place and spend eternity groveling before a being sitting in a chair with a long white beard who pats you on the head occasionally. That's kindergarten stuff. I believe when we are born what we are destined to do is take our best grip on life and run with it with rationality, integrity and a measure of appropriate empathy while improving existence for successive generations.
“All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that’s my job. And I am prepared to say on that basis if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legend or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic. I’ve read a great many novels and I know a fair amount about the legends that grew up among early people, and I know perfectly well the Gospels are not that kind of stuff.” C.S. Lewis
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
That's an interesting theory. Because in order to believe in the sentient attributes you claim as your own, someone OR some THING had to create, "preload " and hard-wired those very attributes of "rationality, integrity and appropriate empathy." AND also create your self-preservation mode, purpose, and free will. Intellectually speaking, how do you account for man's sentience, consciousness and free will? It's one thing for the "Big Bang" to create matter; another to create physical laws; but quite another to create sentient beings, don't you think?
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.... Yup. I was also reminded of the Sermon on the Mount...:-)
"I’ve read a great many novels and I know a fair amount about the legends that grew up among early people, and I know perfectly well the Gospels are not that kind of stuff.” IF fiction, scripture and the Gospels are by far the greatest conspiracy of all time. Thousands of actors would have "worked" for nothing, been crucified, tortured, and beheaded for nothing, tossed to the lions for nothing -- all for "selling" a faith whose currency is love, sacrifice, compassion, and selflessness....without a profit motive. Hmmm...What kind of kooks were these?!?
When I was a boy I ran down a dock, alone, at a strange lake and dove in headfirst. It looked just like the dock at my own lake, where the water was deep off the end of the dock. In this lake, the water was not deep. The water was not deep and the bottom was rocky. I slammed into the bottom of the shallow water with the top of my head. My head was driven forward with the full driving force of my running body. My chin was driven so deep into my chest and my teeth driven together so tightly that I had bruises on my chest and face for awhile afterwards. And there was immediately that sickening "SNAP", and my whole vision, everything, turned blue. Momentum carried me over onto my back, and I was sprawled out on the bottom of the lake in perhaps 2-3 feet of water, water filling my nose, and my body was gone. I could not feel it. I could not move anything. There was terrific pain in my head, but I was paralyzed from the neck down, my nose filling up with water, drowning, face up, on the bottom of the lake. Nobody was there. I threw out a cry to a God I did not believe in, to Nature itself: PLEASE! I screamed (in my head - I was underwater). Please. And God healed me. My neck was quite "wrong". But I was able to rise out of the water and walk. The block of pain that was my whole neck was a rigid tetanus. I told nobody. Nobody. I told nobody because only a year or two before an older cousin had snapped HIS neck in a school diving accident. 40 years later he is still paralyzed from the neck down. I knew that this had just happened to me, and I knew that if anybody looked at it, they would see it, and that I would be paralyzed. But if I said nothing and accepted the miracle as it was, that I would be healed. And so I told nobody. I had blistering headaches, but I told nobody. Years later, when I had my service physicals, they did complete x-rays. There was nothing - no scar, no thickened bones. I broke my neck and was paralyzed, and God healed it, instantly. God DOES heal quadrupelagics. He healed me. Instantaneously and perfectly, though not without terror. And at the time I ascribed the obvious miracle to incredible luck, to pagan random chance, to proof that the universe and the stars favored me. Well, they DID, but it was God who did it, for his own purposes. Maybe one of those purposes was to be able to recount this story to you and force you to make a choice of either accepting that miracles happen directly, in impossible ways, because God commands everything. Or to force you into denying it, calling me a liar, and fleeing from it. As for me, I don't care either way. But there is your evidence of God's intercession to do something impossible, in an instant.
I am not a prancing fopish "literary critic." I am a critic of irrationality and of absurd deviation from, or hostility toward, the philosophy of science.
There are two major things I can not account for: 1.) The creation of the physical universe. I am willing to entertain the proposition that is was always here and just is. The assumption by religionists is that it had to be created by an eternal figure you call God. This brings up the question, "If god is somehow eternal, why can't the physical universe be just as eternal?" 2.) I do not pretend to understand the ultimate seat of consciousness or sentiance. Several things become apparent. A. Some of what are declared my fellow human beings seem to have pitifully damned little of it. B. Much of it is organically dependent. Brain injuries produce startling changes in conscience, in personality, and what you call sentience, in people who go on living. I saw this working in hospitals. This discussion is getting far afield from the original topic of this thread, which was implicitly whether God intervenes in the affairs of mankind as the result of prayer.
Or an eye.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
I reject trying to have intelligent conversations with someone who believes he has wrestled with the devil and had holy birds flying deep into his head. Take it somewhere else.
In fact the flow of the subject line is just fine. However you wanted to make this personal with insults without using that rational mind you worship.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
That's a poor attempt at trying to blame me for rejecting your nonsense based upon intrangently held blind belief and presenting yourself as a hapless victim. If you have a complaint, offer a serious refutation.
Blind belief? Rich my friend. You just hit the ignore button.
" For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)
I did not wrestle with the Devil. I yelled at him. It was not a physical encounter. I was thrown around by God. I did have a holy dove fly into the inside of my dead and knock me flat. I broke my neck and it healed. I've had appendicitis four (4) times and still have my appendix. I've fasted for 40 days on water alone, twice, without issue. I've had a dead mouse and a dead lizard spring back to life in my hand because I asked God please. You ask for evidence of God's intervention. I give it to you direct and personal testimony, but you refuse to admit it, or me, to your court. You close the door. Fortunately God helps you out and left external physical evidence you can look at without having to listen to my evidence. You need trust nobody but the forensic scientists who examined it and reported on it. These things are also interventionist miracles: - The Shroud of Turin and Oviedo Cloth - The Lanciano Eucharistic Miracle - The Incorrupt bodies of many saints, unembalmed, several hundred years old, and undecayed. - the Lourdes miracles. Then you can cast around and find comparable Muslim or Hindu or Bhuddist or atheist miracles...and you will come up with none. There, if you looked, you would have your objective, external, peer- reviewed, tangible miracles, a hundred plus direct interventions by God into human affairs that left a mark all can see and study. The proof you seek exists. You can go look: it's all right there. Truth is, you've made up your mind and don't want to be bothered with the facts. You don't want to hear them. You're not going to look at the evidence you say you want even when it's placed right in front of your face. Your demand for evidence is not honest. It's a pose.
Your smoke and mirrors labeling of truth as irrationality is nothing more than pettifogging.
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
Unbelievers have a fortress in which they attempt to hide from the true knowledge of God. Those fortresses take endless forms in philosophy, psychology, world religions, cults, apostate forms of Christianity, or evolutionary naturalism—a predominant fortress in Western culture today. Naturalism, as its name implies, is the belief that nature is ultimate reality. It states: 1. Matter exists eternally and is all there is. God does not exist. Naturalism attempts to fortify itself against God by altogether shutting Him out of public life, social policy, the courts, and eliminating all biblical influence in morality and ethics.
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
The ravings of a psychotic are not accepted as facts at my house.
#26. To: Gatlin (#25)
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#27. To: Liberator (#2)
#28. To: rlk, GarySpFc, liberator (#18)
Your God, even if he is not a mythical creation, is much too concerned with other aspects of the entire vast universe to intercede in the inconsequential affairs of mankind. Learn to accept your own insignificance.
#29. To: rlk (#24)
(Edited)
What have I to lose? Answer: My disciplined mind. People such as you have already lost theirs.
#30. To: redleghunter (#27)
Matt more "gets it." Prayers up brother Matt and let God continue to conform you to the Image of His Son Jesus Christ.
#31. To: rlk, GarySpFc, liberator (#24)
There is no consistency to your arguments. You holy rollers are controlled by what psychiatrists term an encapsulated psychosis that has a self referencing element of circular reasoning based in perpetuated mythology which you attempt to sell to other people.
#32. To: Gatlin, Deckard (#25)
#33. To: redleghunter (#28)
Your posts show you are well educated. I would recommend a couple of books from Simon Greenleaf for your reading pleasure.
#34. To: rlk (#33)
#35. To: redleghunter (#31)
(Edited)
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you
#36. To: redleghunter (#31)
Pretty solid.
#37. To: Palmdale (#34)
What choice isn't driven by an emotional need?
#38. To: rlk (#35)
(Edited)
stupid biblical commands.
#39. To: Palmdale (#34)
What choice isn't driven by an emotional need?
#40. To: rlk (#37)
I have an emotional need for rationality in the world in which I live.
#41. To: Palmdale (#40)
(Edited)
Evangelical atheism isn't born of rationality.
#42. To: rlk (#33)
More crackpots to the attempted rescue of undisciplined belief in mythology incorporating unproven assumptions. I can't spend the remainder of my life diverted into recommended reading of belief based upon emotionally held assumptions.
#43. To: rlk (#36)
#44. To: redleghunter (#43)
Matthew 5: KJV
#45. To: rlk (#44)
#46. To: rlk (#18)
Your God, even if he is not a mythical creation, is much too concerned with other aspects of the entire vast universe to intercede in the inconsequential affairs of mankind. Learn to accept your own insignificance.
#47. To: rlk (#24)
You holy rollers are controlled by what psychiatrists term an encapsulated psychosis that has a self referencing element of circular reasoning based in perpetuated mythology which you attempt to sell to other people.
#48. To: GarySpFC (#47)
You obviously haven't examined the evidence for God's existence.
#49. To: rlk (#33)
More crackpots to the attempted rescue of undisciplined belief in mythology incorporating unproven assumptions. I can't spend the remainder of my life diverted into recommended reading of belief based upon emotionally held assumptions.
#50. To: rlk, GarySpFC (#48)
I believe when we are born what we are destined to do is take our best grip on life and run with it with rationality, integrity and a measure of appropriate empathy while improving existence for successive generations.
#51. To: redleghunter (#43)
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
#52. To: GarySpFC, redleghunter, Vicomte13, BobCeleste (#49)
C.S. Lewis:
#53. To: rlk (#48)
(Edited)
You never present any evidence for Gods intersession on behalf of the lives of men.
#54. To: GarySpFC (#49)
“All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that’s my job. And I am prepared to say on that basis if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legend or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic.
#55. To: Liberator (#50)
Intellectually speaking, how do you account for man's sentience, consciousness and free will? It's one thing for the "Big Bang" to create matter; another to create physical laws; but quite another to create sentient beings, don't you think?
#56. To: Liberator (#50)
Intellectually speaking, how do you account for man's sentience, consciousness and free will? It's one thing for the "Big Bang" to create matter; another to create physical laws; but quite another to create sentient beings, don't you think?
#57. To: Vicomte13 (#53)
#58. To: rlk (#55)
This discussion is getting far afield from the original topic of this thread, which was implicitly whether God intervenes in the affairs of mankind as the result of prayer.
#59. To: redleghunter (#58)
In fact the flow of the subject line is just fine. However you wanted to make this personal with insults without using that rational mind you worship.
#60. To: rlk (#59)
#61. To: rlk (#57)
(Edited)
I reject trying to have intelligent conversations with someone who believes he has wrestled with the devil and had holy birds flying deep into his head. Take it somewhere else.
#62. To: rlk (#54)
I am not a prancing fopish "literary critic." I am a critic of irrationality and of absurd deviation from, or hostility toward, the philosophy of science.
#63. To: rlk (#55)
The creation of the physical universe. I am willing to entertain the proposition that is was always here and just is. The assumption by religionists is that it had to be created by an eternal figure you call God. This brings up the question, "If god is somehow eternal, why can't the physical universe be just as eternal?"
2. The cosmos exists as a uniformity of natural cause and effect in a closed system.
3. Human beings are complex “machines”; personality is an interrelation of chemical and physical properties we do not yet fully understand.
4. Death is the extinction of personality and individuality.
5. History is a linear stream of events linked by cause and effect but without an overarching purpose.
6. Ethics is related only to human beings.
#64. To: Vicomte13 (#61)
you've made up your mind and don't want to be bothered with the facts.
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