"14But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." 1 Cor 2:14
Scriptures such as this usually bring out the worst in Atheists. They usually go on and on about 'can't trust the Bible' or 'written by a bunch of ignorant men a long time ago'.
Hey, natural men! YOU who do not accept the things of the Spirit of God. Yeah-you!
Those things are spiritually appraised. Which means that natural men are not capable of discerning them. Spiritual things are foolishness to you, right? Bible is a closed book, one filled with inaccuracies and bigotry?
Imagine how it is for us on the other side of the spiritual fence-we KNOW that you are spiritually blinded, cannot discern evidence. We also know that it is usually a waste of time to argue with you.
But I'm feeling pretty good tonight, and will share two evidences that I expect you to reject.
Evidence Uno:
Calling the first (inner) Witness-YOU.
If I say that Allah is God...nothing. Dead air. Not a quibble. You don't care.
If I declare that Jesus Christ is Lord...your hackles raise up, rejecting and denying statement jump to the front of your consciousness. Don't bother denying it-I know the truth.
Evidence Dios: (I'm not as funny as I think I am...I'm funnier!)
One of the Atheist's most threadbare demands is for PHYSICAL evidence proving the existence of God.
"I'm a Scientist, Jim! I need to SEE something to believe it!"
Oh, there's physical evidence in abundance that you will cynically reject, for two reasons:
you are still spiritually blind, so nothing will change your mind, and
IF you were compelled to assess/discern the truth about God, your world would be in danger of being flipped upside down like the picture of the BEAUTIFUL day bed which heads this post. This will activate your spiritual defense mechanisms, making you all the more vehement in your denials of God's existence. Because if He does exist...then you have to contend with that Truth instead of blithely continuing down your happy atheist road.
All of that is preface to the physical evidence that you will call foolishness:
the Jewish people. Have you ever shaken the hand of a Jewish person? Then you've touched evidence that God exists. The only reason that the Jewish people ARE a people is that God separated them out from the rest of humanity.
Have you noticed that there seems to be a LOT of hatred directed at the Jewish people?
They are just people, flesh and blood like the rest of humanity.
That hatred is not logical, reasonable or right.
It is spiritual in nature, because the world system (Kosmos, remember?) in opposition to God does not want any evidence to be recognized or accepted. So it hates the Jews, as God must exist if they do.
Why do I bother? Why argue? Why not just let people be?
Because I was once on your side of the fence. God is still opening/changing minds, still rescuing souls (remember that?) from destruction. what He did for me He might do for you. Cheers! The crowd goes wild! Luke 15:10-look it up yerself, buddy.
5 comments:
the beautiful day bed has been in quite a few homes, and it is comfortable.
to recap:
evidence-there is nothing to Allah, but a Christian mentioning God raises your defenses.
also-the hatred directed at the Jewish people is spiritual hatred without reason or logic, because God exists and He separated them out from the rest of the world.
once more, diss or discuss.
Hi Lu-"I know many Jews, some of them both practicing Jews and atheists -- wrap your head around that one -- and I don't hate them. I don't consider them or the fact that a lot of people hate them evidence of God's existence, either."
What's been happening on the Facebook thingie is I've been having a conversation with a friend who is a self-identifying atheist. He wanted proof of what I believe, I said, "Okay, but you won't accept it because natural Man cannot understand things of God."
Aaaannnddd...I was right. He took the same route as you just have. Why would I be unable to wrap my head around the fact that there are atheist Jews? There are plenty of them around-Sarah Silverman may be one, though I've heard that her sister is a Rabbi.
My friend also said, "I don't personally hate Jews-they have been hated because they are good at acquiring wealth and they do not assimilate into the cultures where they live so they are always outsiders."
What he did was internalize my argument, as if I were suggesting that HE hated Jews, when in fact it was a general statement as to the hatred they have faced through the centuries. I contend that their existence is a proof of God's existence; if not for God separating them out from the world we wouldn't have ever heard of them. The hatred they face is because they are a proof of God existing, what Albert Gore would call "An inconvenient truth".
I'm having a lot of fun on Facebook, as half of my tribe of online buddies are not Christian. But that adds spice to the crazy salad (Nora Ephron reference-YES!) life we all share.
Let's say I take a standard deck of cards, shuffle it several times, and deal out four bridge hands. The odds of my dealing those four particular hands before I pick up the deck are vanishingly small. Likewise, it isn't surprising that of the many small tribes present in the Middle East five or six thousand years ago, one would still be alive and distinct today, even if at the time no one would have bet on any one tribe to be the survivor. In that environment pressure to maintain tribal identity would have been extremely strong, and would have been reinforced and selected for over many generations.
Thinking about this a bit more... it's a basic tenet of evolutionary theory that an advantageous trait in a particular environment will be selected for, that is, organisms with that trait will be more likely than organisms without it to survive and therefore to pass it on to their offspring, and that in this way the trait can become fixed in the population. So it would make sense that ancient Israelites had (on average) an especially strong sense of tribal identity, which helped them survive without being assimilated. (Ability to assimilate would also be advantageous in some environments, but survival would by definition be less noticeable.)
Another basic tenet of evolutionary theory is that if the environment changes, a trait that had been advantageous can become a disadvantage. We can see that strong tribal identity, industriousness, and good business sense might work against Jews (or any other minority) in making other groups try to smack them down or even wipe them out.
"Another basic tenet of evolutionary theory is..."
Evolution isn't an actual thing. So theories based on what Evolution may say about anything are null.
I've covered it before, but it's been a while-
Evolution contradicts the 2nd law of thermodynamics. You can't fight the law, 'cause the Law wins.
"So it would make sense that ancient Israelites had (on average) an especially strong sense of tribal identity, which helped them survive without being assimilated." Yeah-their tribal identity was based on God setting their ancestor Abram apart from the rest of humanity, changing his name to Abraham and leading him to a land that God promised to him and his descendants. There was even a book written about it! You might notice that there aren't any Sumerians around anymore; now every people group in the world is identified by their location or, if they have recently moved, the location they just came from. Except the Jews.
You probably already know this trick, but if you put a deck of cards in order,all four suits lowest to highest or highest to lowest, cut the deck again and again, as many times as you like, but never cutting less than 13 cards...make 13 piles and the cards will be in order, even to colors if you do it right. Science!
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