SO YOU WANT ME TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN?
-
3. If a Catholic, justify the Inquisition and other persecutions of "heretics" throughout the centuries, concentrating on why the Pelagianists, the Priscillianists, and the Manichaeans were persecuted; if a Protestant, justify the witch trials and the way that Protestants constantly hunted down native Americans until there were so few that the government could simply take their land; if a member of an Eastern Orthodox church, justify the persecutions of the Old Believers after the reforms of the seventeenth century.
I can't justify any of them. I believe that they were wrong. In fact, I know that they have not even apologized for these actions, and I do not approve of them at all. Often, they do things "In the name of 'sometime'" but you have to question their political motives that are hidden beneath. -
4. Explain why your sect (whether Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern Orthodox) pursued, tortured, and killed people who were not Christian.
The Catholics are wonderful people to answer this question. -
5. Explain why your sect (whether Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern Orthodox) pursued, tortured, and killed people who were not members of your particular sect.
See 4. -
6. Explain why I should believe that your god is all good when the only real information we have about him is the Bible, which clearly describes him as both good and evil. (See Isaiah 30:32, Luke 14:26, Numbers 31:17-18, Matthew 10:34, Amos 3:6, Deuteronomy 18:8, Deuteronomy 20:16, Exodus 20:5, Exodus 32:27, Isaiah 45:7, Psalms 52:5, Luke 22:36, and Jeremiah 18:11 for a small sample of Biblical passages which describe Jehovah as having an evil morality at times).
This isn't evil; it is just His punishment for those who will never accept Him, no matter what. You cannot label you mother as 'evil' just because she slaps your hand with the ruler due to your failure to listen to her.
The Jewish Pharisees alive when Jesus was on earth saw incredible miracles, but yet, they did not (and probably never did) believe in Him. -
7. Explain why, when racism is clearly wrong, Jesus was clearly a racist (see Mark 7:25-29). NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe the idea that racism is morally acceptable.
"[T]he dogs" He refers too are the Gentiles. At first, He came to save the Jews, God's chosen people. God chose them because their patriarch Abraham was most loyal to the Lord during the time he lived in. After the Jews rejected Christ, God decided to send the gospel to the Gentiles, a mission of which Paul was most influential in. It would appear to me that He was not speaking derogatorily toward the Gentiles, but in fact was speaking metaphorically. -
I will pause here and will only continue if crazy monkey wants me to.
-
Originally posted by fandango:I will pause here and will only continue if crazy monkey wants me to.
don't leh!!!! quite good, keep going.... 
-
what say you, crazy monkey?Originally posted by Chin Eng: don't leh!!!! quite good, keep going.... -
sorry confused you with ventin. I think ventin said he was independant fundamental baptist or something.Originally posted by fandango:what is IFB?
but did you say you are presbyterian last time? cant remember. -
yes i did, many times.Originally posted by Icemoon:sorry confused you with ventin. I think ventin said he was independant fundamental baptist or something.
but did you say you are presbyterian last time? cant remember. -
opps .. me bad!Originally posted by fandango:yes i did, many times.
-
go ahead continue.Originally posted by fandango:what say you, crazy monkey? -
8. Explain why, when discrimination against women is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly supports the oppression of women. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Cor. 11 and 1 Tim 2:11-15. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that discrimination against women solely on the basis of sex is morally acceptable.
Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." You cannot use today's idealogy and criticise the bible. Male and Female are created equally, but the essence and function is different. The bible, in no way, supports the oppression of women. This must be clear. -
9. Explain why, when slavery is clearly wrong, the Bible clearly supports slavery. Answering this question entails refuting 1 Peter 2:18. NOTE: under no circumstances will I believe that slavery is an acceptable way to run a society.
Here's a quote from a packet I'm using in American history:
"Like America's old South, ancient Rome teemed with slaves who labored in their master's fields and houses. But unlike their counterparts in America, Rome's slaves also could be ship's captains, bankers, business agents, and doctors. They could be of any skin color, well-to-do, highly educated and, given the state of negotiations with their master, eventually free. What emerged centuries later in the New World shed such ancient flexibility for a modern harshness."
Because the Romans didn't have bankruptcy laws, if you got into financial trouble, selling yourself and/or your family into slavery was, in most cases, the only choice you had. There were people of all races and nationalities enslaved. But in America, all blacks and only blacks were slaves, and that was the part that was wrong. You must also ask: how did the slave trade stop? In the beginning of the 19th century, evangelical Christians rammed through the British Parliament the necessary laws to stop the slave trade, and enforced them with the gun boats. This happened not only on the western African coasts, but in the Persian Gulf, where 13 million slaves (as opposed to 11 million the Americas) were shipped for use by the Arabs.
Once again, this question entails trying to apply modernistic idealogy to biblical teaching. -
10. Explain why children should submit to their parents' decisions even when those decisions are clearly evil. Answering this question entails refuting Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Proverbs 13:24, and Hebrews 12:7-8.
Even so, they are your parents who raised you. Remeber the commandment, Honour thy father and thy mother. Also "Obey your parents in the Lord" Ephesian 6:1. If your mum ever ordered you to "Kill our neighbour", you have to say no because murder is not of the Lord. -
11. Explain why, if your god loves us all, more than half of us are going to Hell after we die. Specifically, refute or explain the following words of Christ, as presented in the New Testament: "Many are called but few are chosen," and "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto salvation, and few there be that find it." If your god loves all of us, couldn't he find a better way?
For reasons known only to Him, He gave us a free will, to worship God or reject Him. It is your choice. A big part of the problem is that people's hearts are hardened, usually by their love of sin or by the devil himself, to the gospel message. Don't blame God when we only have ourselves to blame. -
13. Explain how your god can be both just and merciful, when these terms apparently contradict each other.
As I said above, God wants people to be near Him, and if they don't, they should be punished for rebellion against their Creator and willful rejection of the One that loves mankind so. I don't like it either, but it's the truth.
In fact, everyone of us can be 'just' and 'merciful' at the same time. For example, say you witness a snatch thief. Being 'just', you chased the thief and caught him and return the handbag. Being 'merciful', after hearing the thief tragic story of his cancer-stricken son, you gave him $50 before letting him go. -
14. Explain why possession by demons and/or other evil spirits was common during the time of Jesus, but hardly mentioned in the Old Testament, and apparently has been explained completely away today by things such as epilepsy and schizophrenia.
If so, then how did Jesus take the "schizophrenia" and send it into a herd of pigs, causing them to fall off a cliff? -
15. Explain why, if the personality resides in the soul, things like drugs and brain damage can affect someone's personality.
The flesh still traps us, and this is but an example of this trapping. The brain chemistry is still altered, and while we're still in the flesh, it will still mess us up. -
16. If heaven is a place where everyone is perfectly happy, then explain how I could be happy in heaven if I had loved ones in Hell.
Rev. 21:3-4: "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." We will still be saddened by not being with our loved ones, but it was their choice. I will admit that the mere thought of billions of people condemned there would make Paradise no longer Paradise. On the other hand, imagine the reunion of yourself and your Christian mum and dad who had pass away 20 years ago, both whom you miss so much. What about the baby that you and your wife had but died during child-birth? How joyous will it be when both you and your wife see him in heaven, calling out to you "Mummy, Daddy!" -
17. What is Heaven like?
Read Revelation 4-5, 15, 19:1-10, and 21-22. Those last two chapters technically describe the future eternal state, but it would be a good description of heaven as well, because this state is often described as "heaven on earth."
Many people would like to argue with the question "How would you know Heaven is true? Did anyone from heaven came down and told you about it?"
I will then ask them about Evolution, "How would you know Evolution is true? Did anyone came back from the Jurassic period and told you about it?" -
18. What is Hell like?
See Rev 20:13-15. If you die today as an unbeliever, you will go to Sheol-Hades, the "place of torment" in Luke 16. -
19. Explain why original sin exists. Why should I be eternally tortured for something that a pair of naked fruit-munching simpletons did in a garden over six thousand years ago? If you believe that children are born stained because they were conceived sexually, explain why I would be punished for something my parents did by your merciful and just god. If this does not apply to your sect, explain why.
Because they were of the flesh, and you are too (just like me and everyone else on this earth), it literally is in the genes. I don't feel that children are born stained because they were conceived sexually, because God said to "be fruitful and multiply in the earth."
But that aside, all of us inherited the genes of sinning from Adam and Eve. Sounds stupid? Think back of the time when you were a child. Think of the first time you lied. Did you parents thought you the technique of lying? Or did you already knew how to lie. Which parent in the world will teach their child to lie? -
20. Explain why getting dunked in or sprinkled with water will prevent me from being eternally tortured for the actions of the naked fruit-munching simpletons mentioned in #19.
Communion is a symbolic act reminding us what we have been saved from. Baptism is a public testimony repentance of sins. They are basically not worth anything. You can still be in heaven without being baptisted. Example? the thief at the cross beside Jesus. -
i think i should stop at 20 for now. a bit too much to digest.
more tonight.