An Atheist Asks…?

Recently while roaming on an atheist website I found the question below interesting and decided to write a quick response to this question.

Presuming that none of you religious folk out there do not believe in the North American Indian creator-god Tirawa, may I ask: why don't you?

This is a serious question, for if you are not convinced that other gods exist (gods in whom thousands of others have believed), how may I be convinced that yours does?

1. My first and foremost reason is this. The Bible is clear about this topic. The Bible plainly states that there is one and only one God. It is simply stated as the doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, but there is only one God. This is the reason why all other gods are a form of idolatry. The reliability of the Scriptures can be trusted. From the archeological evidence, historical evidence, fulfilled prophecy, scientific evidence, and extra-biblical sources the Bible is truthful and consistent. This is what I would die for and stake my eternal destiny on.

2. Truth by definition is very narrow. When a question is asked there is usually only one right answer and many wrong ones. 2 plus 2 is 4. Not 30, 67, or 101. Notice one right answer and billions of wrong ones. There is only one President of the United States right now. One right answer and many wrong ones. I would expect that in our natural world if there is one right answer and many wrongs one that the same is true for our spiritual life. Again, truth by its very definition provides for many, many wrong answers and only one right one.

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3. Let me provide an analogy that may help to explain. Let’s say we were going to St. Louis, MO and to help us on our journey we had 100 maps explaining the way. We continue on our road trip going through each map as it takes us down dead ends, wrong roads that lead to wrong cities. After we have gone through 22 maps we begin to use map 23. Lucky for us, map 23 takes us straight to our destination. Is there any need to look at the other 77 maps? I don’t think so. You can read them to learn where NOT to go, but they cannot add any assistance to get you to your destination.

4. Maybe you agree with me or not about the topics stated above, but it all comes down to whether you believe the Bible and what your presuppositions are. I do not believe in any other gods because they Bible says they don’t exist. You can call it “begging the question” or “circular reasoning” but NOT if the Bible can be verified. If the Bible is true then all other religions are wrong by default.

Evolution is true! Here is "proof".

An Atheist Asks…..?

Recently a friend of mine was approached with a few questions from an atheist. I did what I could to answer some of those questions and I thought I would post them here on this website for others to learn from. The atheist’s comments are in black, my comments are in red.

 

For Christians, logic and rationality are employed only selectively. For example, on Sunday, Christians across the globe will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Perhaps it never occurred to them that it is scientifically impossible for a corpse that has been dead for dozens of hours to come back to life. How could billions of people possibly believe something that is so egregiously ludicrous? The answer? It is in the Bible.

Billions of people believe in evolution. Does that make evolution ludicrous?

 

If there was a God and he wanted to validate Himself to the world don’t you think that He might use something that would be “impossible”? If He (Jesus) was resurrected from the dead, don’t you think it would be a miracle? Wouldn’t this help to validate His deity as He claimed, if it is true?

For Christians, the Bible offers absolute truth, and mustn’t ever be questioned. The Bible is the crutch upon which Christians lean when they declare their belief in Noah’s Ark, Adam and Eve, creationism, miracles and all other such nonsense.

That is quite an assumption of ALL Christians! Are there not any Christians who can articulate their faith in respect to science, physics, and the natural laws of the universe? Surely you haven’t spoken to all Christians to make such a broad sweeping statement. Have you?

Indeed, for Christians, the Bible is so powerful that it invalidates scientific studies. In the past couple of weeks, two major breakthroughs have been achieved with respect to evolution. If you haven’t already, be sure to read this article and this one.{Link not included}

Should I believe this article? Why? It seems that you are doing the same thing that you accuse Christians of doing. You are reading a document and believing what it or its authors have to say. That sounds like faith to me.

Moses wrote the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and some how managed to write about his own death in Deuteronomy 34. Both of these arguments could basically be considered to fall into the realm of “internal validity” – does the book itself provide support for its claims? Internal contradictions would indicate that it does not. This is also the primary basis of criticism of Thomas Paine’s early works on the Bible.

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Moses has been traditionally recognized as the author of Deuteronomy, since the book itself testifies that Moses wrote it (Deu 1:1,5; 31:9,22,24). Both the Old Testament (1 Kings 2:3; 8:53; 2 Kings 14:6; 18:12) and the New Testament (Acts 3:22,23; Romans 10:19) support the claim of Mosaic authorship. While Deuteronomy 32:48 – 34:12 was added after Moses’ death (probably by Joshua), the rest of the book came from Moses’ hand just before his death in 1405 BC.

 

And also, the bible says that god created everything, yet never states how god came about, now if i take the typical christian response that "god created himself" (No, God did not create Himself) i have to argue, matter cannot be created nor destroyed,(Yes, that is the first law of thermodynamics. So how did the first atom of matter come into existence? Is matter eternal? How can something that does not exist bring itself into existence if it does not have a nature, and without a nature it cannot have any attributes therefore it cannot perform any actions like bringing itself into existence. Correct?) and that no matter how "almighty" you may be, you can't create yourself from nothing, as there is nothing to start creation.

Yes, are you willing to be consistent with that worldview when it comes to the existence of the Universe? Something cannot come from nothing, can it?

The answer is simple.  Nothing brought him into existence.  He has always existed.  He is the uncaused cause.  Think about it.  You cannot have an infinite regression of causes.  It’s like having an infinite line of dominos falling one after another.  If you go back infinitely in time to try and find the first domino that started it all, you’d never find it because you’d have to cross an infinite amount of time to get to it which is impossible to do.  This would also mean that there you can’t have an infinite regression of causes.  Furthermore, this would mean there would never be a first cause.  If there is no first cause, then there can’t be a second, or a third, and so on and you wouldn’t have any of them falling at all.  But since they are falling, there had to be a first cause, that itself was uncaused that started the whole thing moving at a specific time in the past.  So too with the universe.  It was caused to exist at a specific point in time.  The uncaused cause is God, who decided to create the universe and who, as the Bible says in Psalm 90:2, “is from everlasting to everlasting.”

This is just a quick glimpse into some of his comments and questions. I will be posting some of his Bible “contradictions” in the next coming days. God bless!

What about Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, and Jewish people?

Truth

If we are ever to see true revival again in the United States, it will be ushered in through prayer, and through preaching like this - Tony "The Lawman" Miano

Ask me! God’s been good to me.

About two weeks ago a few of my friends went to a weekly night festival here in the Chattanooga area. We take this time to serve God by sharing the Gospel one-to-one with people that come our way. Over the years I have learned to keep an eye open for easy opportunities to chat with someone. Sometimes I will use a button that someone might be wearing or a shirt with a question on it to strike up a conversation. That is exactly what happened on this night.

Across the park I saw a man wearing a t-shirt that read, “God’s been good to me”. What an invitation to talk to someone!

I walked up to the man and asked him “So, God’s been good to you?”

“Yes”. He said.

“How has He done that?” I asked.

“Well, He woke me up this morning. I had something to eat today. I’m not in any pain right now. Yeah, God has been good to me.” He said.

I just smiled and told him that was a great answer. But I began to probe further…”Tell me. How else has God been good to you?” This started a 45 minute conversation that took many twists and turns. As the conversation continued he asked me to sit down with him on a park bench. His name is Anthony. He tried to show off his Biblical knowledge to me by quoting all of the books of the Bible and he did this FAST. I was actually very impressed. “Wow!” I told him. “There is no way I could do that”.

Something was missing out of Anthony’s story and he admitted it. He had not been living for the Lord. He had fallen on some tough times. He was very quiet and humble. He kindly held on to every word that I spoke to him. His eyes were dead locked right into mine.

I presented God’s holiness to Anthony. I tried to explain God’s love for everyone but that God is also Just and Perfect so He must punish wrong doing. He must punish sin.

Before Anthony and I parted ways he asked that I pray for him. So I grabbed his hand and took his name before the Father, sitting right there on a park bench with hundreds of people around.

He told me, “I know God sent you here tonight. He sent you here to talk to me.”

“Yes He did, Anthony. It’s your move now. What are you going to do about it?”

We parted ways we exchanged contact information and I gave him a copy of Mark Cahill’s book “One Heartbeat Away”. He thanked me, I thanked him, and off we went.

Fast forward – Yesterday afternoon my cell phone rang with a number that I did not recognize. It was Anthony! He called to let me know that he had been out of town spending some time with loved ones in Michigan. He wanted to let me know that he had been reading Mark’s book and was underling all the parts that talked about the Bible. He added, “so most of the book is underlined!”. He reminded me that he knew God has arranged our meeting a few weeks ago.

He said, “You know that right? Don’t you ever let anyone tell you different!”

You better believe I know it. So Christian, I will echo Anthony’s words. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you different? You don’t HAVE to establish relationships before you share the Gospel. You don’t HAVE to earn someone’s trust first. The relationship that I earned/established with Anthony was based on the truth of the Gospel. I didn’t have to hide my motives in wanting to talk to him. He knew upfront!

Look for those opportunities to start conversations with people – clothes they are wearing or books they are reading. Be on the lookout, the lost are everywhere.

Women in ministry

Over the past few weeks I have been having a discussion with someone that has been making posts on my site called “Anonymous”. Our discussion has been on the topic of woman being pastors and elders. I take the position that the Bible is clear and this office is for men only. The last post that Anonymous left me was quite lengthy so I decided to show the last post by Anonymous and to add my own comments. My comments will be in red with the comments posted by Anonymous in black.

 

The first 2 preach Jesus to the Jews was a woman (... The first 2 preach Jesus to the Jews was a woman (see Luke 2:37,38)

Actually the text says that "At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." Does this speak of being a pastor or elder?

 

The first to proclaim the resurrection was a woman (see mat 28:8)

Why do you think that is? Why would Matthew write that women were the first witnesses to seeing the risen Lord? Was it so show that woman can be pastors and elders? The reason this is so significant is that because in the Mediterranean Jewish world, in general, women were not allowed to testify in a court of law. If you are going to make up an account and you don’t think that people are going to accept your testimony you don’t make women the first and chief witnesses because people wouldn’t accept what they had to say in the first place. So this has nothing to do with the office of pastor or elder. It is simply a way to verify the Bible.

 

The Samaritan woman preached to men (see John 4)

Jesus had such an impact on the woman that she was eager to share the news among the townspeople whom she had previously avoided because of her reputation. Her witness regarding her own life so impressed them that they came to see Jesus for themselves. Again, we are talking about the office of pastor or elder. She was simply sharing her experiences about the Savior not taking the office of Overseer, Pastor, Elder, or Deacon.

 

Were in attendance at the first prayer meeting (see acts 1:14) So?
the First people to greet Paul and Silas where women (see acts 16:13) Again...So?
First European converts where Woman (see acts 16:14) So?

The 3 daughters of Phillip Paul recognized as Preachers.

You must be referring to Acts 21:9 - Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.

Luke does not reveal the nature of their prophecy. They may have had an ongoing prophetic ministry, or prophesied only once. Since women are not to be preachers or teachers in the church (1 Cor 14:35-36, 1 Timothy 2:11,12), they probably ministered to individuals. But a prophet is not a pastor or elder, is it?

You are not addressing the issue. What do any of the verses above have to do with a woman being a pastor? Where in the Scriptures does is show that a woman can be a pastor?

 

Matthew 28:18 was not gender specific Jesus gave the great commission to both men and women

The Great Commission has to do with evangelism and making disciples...NOT being a pastor.

 

Joel 2 says that the Lord will pour out his spirit on all flesh and his sons AND Daughters will prophecy (aka preach)

What you are doing with the word “preach” is called the fallacy of equivocation. You keep defining the word “prophecy” to mean a pastor or elder, but that is not how the Bible defines it.

I guess you and I will have to agree to disagree.

 NO! I will not agree to disagree. You are simply wrong about this issue. I've kindly shown you where you are in opposition to the Scriptures now you just need to believe what it says.

 

Also, I understand that God says that a woman should submit to her husband and be under his spiritual authority. I pose the question? Can a woman lead a church as long as she is submitting to her husbands spiritual authority?

There is no other authority above God is there? If God says that the pastor is to be "the husband of one wife" then the pastor is to be the husband of one wife. No matter what a husband might give his wife permission to do or not to do, there is no authority that is over God's authority.

 

Another thing.. The bible is also clear on man not preaching, who is not married : Nor a man who is childless...And, on men who have divorced, not widowed, but divorced.
The problem I seem to not be able to agree ( with various people) is that : An allowance has been made for men to preach who are single, divorced or childless.. Can you tell me your thoughts on that?

I could comment on it, sure. But why? That is not the issue is it? The issue is if woman are allowed to be a pastor or elder.

The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:2 an overseer must be “the husband of one wife”. So I ask you.

1. Is that verse correct or not correct?
2. How can a woman fit that description?
3. Why don’t you believe what the Bible plainly says?

For a further explanation I am going to recommend a great resource

http://www.carm.org/apologetics/women-ministry .

 

God bless you Anonymous. I appreciate your input on this website!

Church Member

Church Member from Lee Lannom on Vimeo.

 

I attend church with Lee at Grace Point in Cleveland, TN. You can view Grace Point’s website by clicking here.