By the Numbers

Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Could Unbelievers Fear A Real God?

                        Could Unbelievers Fear A Real God?

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Ha! Ha! That question seems ridiculous, even stupid! I see trees, birds, animals, people, stars, but no God, or anything suggesting God. God is nothing but a figment of ignorant peoples' imagination, maybe their attempt to comfort themselves in difficult circumstances.
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Not so fast! Could we have mistaken notions about what God must be? Could we be looking in the wrong places? Or, maybe be blind to what we see? Could we even be deceiving ourselves? Let's think openly, honestly and courageously about these following questions.
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Could God Be An Invisible Spirit?
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 So we don't see anything we would call God. Honestly, it's good that we don't. For if we did see some physical being, animal, or man, alleged to be God, it would likely be severely limited to occupying one spot on earth and one place in time like all other things do. If God were an animal as a lion, or insect like an ant, we likely could never think God was anything to be concerned about and that we might kill god as an inferior being and pest. And if God were a man, we could probably communicate with him. But being no more than a man he would have our same limitations and we would see no reason to worship or  to expect anything more from him than from ourselves. But the word "God" is used to mean much more than mere human limitations.
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If people everywhere can pray to God, worship God, seek to obey God, and expect God to do far greater things, even things impossible for man, then God must be several things more than a mere man. A God everybody can pray to is not a physical thing limited to one spot, time, or language and must know everything. His knowledge would be astronomical maybe infinite. That's the kind of God taught in the Bible and the Christian faith. The Bible's God is an infinite Spirit existing throughout time and space. Any man made idol of wood, stone, or metal would greatly misrepresent him making him worthless.
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Could God Be A Creative Person?
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Now we don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that nothing can't create something. Nothing means nonexistence without mind, will, and power. We know the universe hasn't always existed but came into being at some point when matter, space and time began. So if it didn't exist, something else must have existed to bring it into being. That something must be equally great or greater than its material creation since something can't give what it doesn't have. So the Bible says,"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
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We know also that life doesn't magically spontaneously spring into being from non life. Non life has no mind, will, and power to create itself in any amount of time. Atoms can't decide let's arrange ourselves into germs, virus, plants, animals and man. Again, the facts require that that creative something have life and to always have been living without change. God must be an eternal, self-existent, intelligent, living, planning creative being or person. This is what is meant in the Bible by the word--God.
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"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,  and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:1-5.    
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Could We Miss Other Pointers To God?
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Some persons claim we don't need God since evolution can explain everything. But can it? Nonexistence can't explode and evolve into anything. Anything begun requires a Beginner. Numerous things require a creative mind and will outside the mindless elements of nature. Eggs require chickens to lay on them before they hatch and the chicken has a chemical necessary for eggs to form. Everything that breathes requires just the right combination of gases and density of atmosphere. Nature can't know birds need wings to fly, animals need legs to walk, fish need fins to swim, men need arms to make things. Male and female gender is tremendously complicated, had to exist together at the same time, and exists in myriad life forms throughout the animal kingdom. No closed-minded faith as evolutionary naturalism can account for these things and a million others. Everything points to God.
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Our eye beholding things of breathtaking beauty inspire a sense of awe and wonder giving us the impression something more than nature exists, and that it must be good and love us. Just as things which thirst have a need for water, there is water. Loneliness means we have a need for companionship, and compatible companions exist. Our sense of incompleteness implies something exists to complete us. Our need for purpose is pointless unless there is an ultimate purpose or Purposer. Even truth is irrational unless there's an ultimate truth to make it rational. All such things point to God and make no sense unless the biblical kind of God exists.
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Could God Be A Moral Person?
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Would you be appalled to see your loved ones used for target practice, or see human beings hung on meat hooks to be purchased and roasted for food?  Would you not object to others lying, stealing, deceiving, and cheating you? Since we are a common humanity, if such things are wrong for one  person, they would be wrong for us all.
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Can we believe human life has no more value than that? No, something inside us cringes at such things knowing they can't be right and are terribly unjust. It's called a conscience. But if there's no ethical God to whom we must give account of our lives, concepts of justice and love make no sense for merely perishing animals. This too points to a just but loving God to whom we must one day give account of our lives.
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Could God Walk Among Us?
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Now if God be creator of all the universe and made us in his rational, moral, immortal image for relationship with us, what could possibly be difficult for him to take on a human nature and body to communicate with us? But how could we recognize him if he came among us and was no different than any other ordinary man? We couldn't in that case recognize him. He would have to not only claim to be our God but do extraordinary things to get our attention and demonstrate his claims true. What would that require?
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"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotton of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). See my article, The Great Mysteries of the Christian Faith.
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Consider these things. What if Jesus claimed to be God and could predict things months even years before they occurred? What if he did specific things predicted centuries earlier that only God could know and do? What if he could do astonishing things nature's patterns cannot normally allow? Such things beyond human ability would definitely show he was more than man and must be a God-man!
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Jesus predicted Peter's denial three times before the roaster crowed, Judas' betrayal, his death and resurrection after three days. He fulfilled centuries earlier prophecies that Messiah would be God, perform miracles, live without sin, die for sinners and be raised from the dead. His disciples and his critics were astonished at his miracles and couldn't deny them. All these things are impossible if Jesus be a mere man. (For more detail, see my articles on Jesus' prophecies and miracles.)    
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Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
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 Nothing but arguments are sometimes used to ridicule Christians with pretense of knowledge one doesn't have and sense of self-importance not pleasing to God. If we could gain the whole world but lose our own soul, would that be wise? Everywhere we look is evidence pointing to the biblical God. Human dignity and real justice exists only if God exists and Jesus demonstrated he is our God who walked among us. Heaven is where God's perfect love is made known. We are given the choice to trust Jesus to forgive our sins, save us from Hell, and follow Him in life. You are invited to become right now a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ seeking His will the rest of your life. Say, Lord Jesus I trust You to save me and show me Your will for my life from now on. Trust Jesus as your loving Lord. Follow the Bible. Don't be afraid!
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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Is It The Real God Skeptics Deny?

                                     Is It The Real God Skeptics Deny? 
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You may know someone you think is one of the finest persons you know who says there’s no God. Or, you may work with someone who is grumpy, complaining, and just hard to get along with and find out he or she is a Christian. What one believes and how one behaves is much more of a complex issue than persons generally realize.
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Persons may claim to be, or are assumed to be something they really aren’t. Not everyone who says he or she is an atheist may know or correctly understand what the Bible actually says about God and may deny God because of misunderstandings or false teachings.
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Not all who claim, or assume, or go to a Christian church are actual Christians either. People may go to church to make friends, sing in the choir, play on the church ball team and may have little understanding about God, Christian teachings and ethics, or even care.
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In either case, many factors influence how we humans behave no matter what we believe. Our health, temptations, pressures, confusions, fears, doubts and frustrations all influence our everyday behaviors and beliefs. And, it may actually be a hurtful notion of God that atheists reject not knowing the loving God of the Bible who sent His Son to save us.
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The opposite of right is wrong. Despite our differences, all persons share a common humanity. If it’s right to treat one person with respect, then it’s right for all. Likewise, disrespect would be wrong treatment of any persons. The only exception would be punishment for criminal behaviors.
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Further, truth is what corresponds to reality, is knowable and is the same for all persons, in all places, at all times. If we say men wear pants, that statement is indeed true if men do wear pants. The opposite of true is false and we can’t even deny truth without assuming our denial is true. It’s fashionably today to claim absolute truth is narrow, bigoted or closed-minded, but that 2 + 2 = 4 is reality no matter what some people say. Are teachers, doctors, lawyers, everyone telling us a bunch of lies? We can’t talk, trust traffic signs, prices on items, or human judgments unless we assume truth is knowable, or chaos results. Normally we assume things true unless given reason to think them false.
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I agree with those atheists who affirm the value of man and human culture and who condemn lies, racism, hatred, bigotry, child abuse, rape and murder. I also agree with them that there is a problem of evil and that science and education are important. My problem with atheism is that it is a dogmatic worldview without foundation or justification.
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It actually destroys the basis for the very things atheists claim to uphold. It destroys human dignity, ethics and moral incentive making us no more than perishing soulless dirt to be manipulated by the power structure. Further, exhaustive knowledge is required to say there’s no personal ethical spiritual God such as Christians believe. Moreover, it makes no sense to hate a nonexistent God when a false notion of God may be what is hated.
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Now let’s consider the arguments against the Creator. They are largely derived from the esteemed philosophers David Hume and Immanuel Kant. The objections are in bold red print with my answers in the following paragraph.

A Finite Universe Needs Only a Finite Cause
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The law of causality states that every finite (limited) effect has a cause--something can’t come from nothing, nonexistence can’t produce existence. But limited changing things cease to exist. So an unlimited unchanging cause is required to ground the limited changing universe. The universe’s Creator must be infinite. Thus all space, time, and matter require an infinite self-existent uncaused cause. We may rightfully call that self-existent infinite cause God.
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An Imperfect Universe Suggests an Imperfect Cause
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Without a perfect standard of measurement, we couldn’t recognize imperfection. Claiming something imperfect implies we have a perfect standard. Existing imperfections don’t mean they were not originally perfect just as worn medieval art reflects their original perfection. Good beginnings can become corrupt. This is what the Bible teaches in the Fall of man that after we have a corrupt sinful nature. 
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Chance Origins Can Explain Everything
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Improbable things do happen. But before the universe existed, there was no chance anything could happen. Things don’t just pop into being from nothing. No scientist would explain the four faces of American presidents on Mt. Rushmore as chance. The complex code in the DNA cell and the fine tuned universe require an intelligent source. If chance is the source of everything, we can’t even know that our thinking is correct. The skeptic who rejects my answer still believes his objection is not due to irrational chance. Origins require an intelligent creative will to bring things into being.  
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A Finite Series of Causes Can Explain the Universe
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In abstract math, you can always add another 0 after # 1. But in the real world, finite beings cannot sustain themselves. An eternity of past moments before today is impossible which shows the universe had a beginning. Each changing thing in a series means it ceases to exist. So each changing thing must be immediate grounded in an independent or uncaused cause--namely God.
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Arguments for God Lead to Contradictions about Time, Causality, and Dependency
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Nonexistence has no power to create anything. If no matter, space or time existed before creation, then these things couldn’t have created themselves. So something outside of them and greater than them must have existed to bring them into being. Thus this dependent universe was caused by an independent uncaused power source we may rightfully call God.
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A Creator Could Cease to Exist
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Because present changing existent things can cease to exist, they need a self-existing unchanging source to uphold them. The fact that everything in the universe is limited and dependent at all times, it requires an unlimited independent self-existent cause (God). So God is always a necessary being, a Sustainer as well as a Creator who cannot cease to exist.
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 An Imperfect World Does Not Need a Perfect Cause
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Yes, in our experience, we know imperfect people produce other imperfect people and polytheists claim many gods explain this. But as mentioned above, the imperfect implies we have an idea of the perfect. A cause can be greater than its effect but cannot be less than its effect. It’s like a river that cannot rise higher than its source. There cannot be two Absolutes as only the greater is Absolute. Finite changing beings depend upon an independent self-sustaining being—an infinite God.
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Real Causes Cannot Be Inferred From Observed Effects
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Is the thing-to-me different from the thing-in-itself? If that were true, how could we even conduct science, or know our thinking is correct? Yes, we can make mistakes in everything we do, but our five senses do give us real information. Do we think it mere appearance when we step into an elevator? No, Mr. Kant appearances are the real world. So knowledge of God and miracles are possible. Critical realism is reasonable--sticks placed in water look bent and coiled robes in the dark may look like snakes but we know they aren't--they're only illusions. Our minds don’t change reality; it changes us.
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God Is Only an Illusion
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Sigmund Freud is famous for claiming God is only a childhood illusion believers never outgrew. They imagine a Cosmic Comforter, a heavenly Father to comfort and protect them. It’s true some imagine a God to suit their specifications. But some want reality and truth, not just good feelings. Certainly, the prophets and apostles who endured ridicule, persecution, torture and death can’t be said to want just good feelings. And it may be that what we really need really exists. Just as we really need water and it really exists. Wish and need are not necessarily the same things. Perhaps we need God because he created us in his image and for relationship. The true illusion might be that persons living in rebellion against God deny his existence because they fear his judgment and Hell.
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Arguments for God Are Not Persuasive
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Vested interests or other preferences can hinder believing.The arguments may not be understood. Persons may fear acceptance may bring rejection, persecution or loss. Arguments don’t automatically convert unbelievers. This doesn’t mean the arguments are wrong or faulty. Stirring sermons don’t always convert unbelievers either. A loving God doesn’t force us to believe. Freedom gives us dignity; force makes us machines. Our loving obedience honors God. Persons convinced against their will are of the same opinion still. Vested interests can cause one to reject truth even when proved.
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If God Knows Everything, Then Man Is Not Free
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Christians believe as Scripture teaches that God knows everything including the future (Isa. 46:10). Hundreds of Bible prophecies and promises couldn’t be fulfilled if he didn’t. No contradiction exists in God knowing how we will use our freedom. God may persuade men to act in certain ways but doesn’t force their actions. God is love and forced love is a contradiction. As the universe’s Creator outside of time, God sees past, present and future as one eternal now (Exodus 3:14). From an all-knowing God’s point of view everything is predestined, set, fixed, determined and what God knows can't be wrong. But from our perspective, it's free will and God takes our free choices into account.
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As I said above, one must know everything to know God doesn’t exist. Alternative explanations  don’t disprove God's existence. Many atheist and skeptics who have trusted Jesus Christ in the forgiveness of sin witness to seeing things in an entirely different light and experiencing a new love and peace they never imagined could exist. The Bible calls the person who says in his heart there is no God a fool, not due to lack of evidence, but due to wanting his own way. Objections show only our selfishness, ignorance, and arrogance. We likely don't know events in next room or around the corner, so how can we know God doesn't exist?
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Painful Experiences Can Cause Us to Deny God
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Life can be painfully difficult. Unfulfilled hopes and needs can devastate us. We can make so many mistakes. Friends we respect and love can betray us. Disasters unforeseen can bewilder and depress us. We have no control over much that we experience. Our earthly father may be nothing like the loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son to save us. Where is that good and loving God we've heard exists with outstretched arms ready to receive us and give us Heaven?
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The Bible teaches God made a good world that met all our needs but gave us the choice of obeying Him or following our own ways. Don't we all want to follow our own ways no matter about other people or the circumstances? Well, that was what went wrong with the world. We're not programmed machines and God knew what our choices would be. So Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world as part of God's plan (Ephesians 13:8).  We don't have to understand it all. But if we will trust Him, He has promised to work things out for His glory and for our good (Rom. 8:28). Now the ball is in our court.
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We can know God's forgiveness, peace, and love today in admitting our sin and trusting the Savior of us sinners as our life's Guide. Won't you pray, Lord I'm a sinner. I  right now trust Jesus dying for me on the cross bearing my sins to forgive me and make me a child of God. Lord, use me for your glory from now on as I trust You to guide me and use me to tell others. Thank you, my Lord.  U are welcome to use my articles as an Internet evangelist for the Lord. God bless U in your wonderful new life serving the King of the universe.
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Many fine books are written discussing these issues. I recommend Dr. Norman Geisler’s Systematic Theology and his Baker’s Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics.

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Alternatives If There's No God

The Alternatives If There's No God

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When I speak of God, I don’t mean anybody’s idea of God. I don’t mean the pantheist god of universal energy or force. I don’t mean the intellectual’s irrelevant process god. I don’t mean god as our highest ideal. I don’t mean a deistic Creator of the world who then abandoned it. I don’t mean the imperfect god who allows us 51% good deeds to enter Heaven--maybe. I don’t mean a god who is exclusively love and excuses every wicked thing we might do. I don’t mean conflicting limited temporary gods derived from nature.
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I do mean the self-existent, infinite perfect personal ethical God of biblical Christianity. I mean the Creator God who gave abundant evidence he walked among us. Who in love died to save us from sin and its consequences, and who rose again. Only this God is God and worth our time, worship and service. But unbelief claims this God doesn’t exist. What then are the alternatives?
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The Universe Originated By Chance
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Chance or accident is our only explanation for the universe’s beginning. So before the universe popped into existence no physical forces existed and no matter, time or space. But science and good sense accepts as obvious fact that nothing can’t produce something. So everything that begins must have an adequate cause. The universe’s expansion, it’s running down, and that it’s impossible to backtrack eternally, all point to a time of beginning. So the universe must be the effect of a self-existing infinite unchangeable immaterial Intelligence we may rightfully call God. Chance origins don’t make scientific nor biblical sense. But in beginning, God created does.
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The Universe Will Die
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What popped into being by chance is not eternal and can pop out of being anytime. I’ve already mentioned the universe is dying a heat death—the stars are dying out, it's called the second law of thermodynamics. But further, the earth can be destroyed at anytime. I saw ten disasters on the science TV channel that could destroy the earth--a big asteroid, volcanic eruptions, solar flares, earthquakes, ice caps melting. Christians, however, believe God is in control and will destroy the universe by fire.
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“Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pet. 3:12-13).   
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Human Life Is the Product of Chance Evolution
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In the first place, spontaneous generation of life from dead, mindless chemicals is impossible—something can’t give what it doesn’t have. Life forms are genetically fixed within limits from the start. There are no transitional links between animals—but those who won’t allow God can’t admit that. Further, without a heart, reproductive capacity, breathing system or some vital organ animals could never survive, so it’s obvious all must be present and functional from the start. These known scientific facts eliminate any possibility of evolution and point to God.
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Human Life Has No Ultimate Purpose
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Without God to sustain it, all life will cease to exist. What then is the meaning of life? Even supposing life came to earth for an outside source or that we may go to other planets our lives will end and soon be forgotten memories. Will we even have a tombstone with our name inscribed? The Grim Reaper may be knocking at our door even now. All our aspirations, hopes, achievements will cease to exist. That is unless Jesus is the God-man who told us God’s truth and can give us everlasting life. Some atheists such as Bertrand Russell admit this.
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Morality, Ethics, Right and Wrong Doesn’t Make Ultimate Sense
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Life is short and seems to fly by faster every year. Why not ‘live it up’ and do just what I want?Passions are strong. I’m often weak. Sexual tension drives me up the wall. No God means no judgment or Hell. Evolution proves we’re just animals anyway. So why not do what animals do? People get in my way. Why should I care about them? Yes laws and humane treatment work better and makes us feel saver and saner, but I want my way and I’m going to have it. Responsibility to others doesn’t make much sense to me. And if I’m clever, I can get by with lots of things. But . . .
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“They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting . . . who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who do such things are deserving of death. You are inexcusable, O man (Rom. 3:28, 32; 2:1).”
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Human Dignity, Rights and Freedom Mean Little for Soulless Dirt
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We know that at death we return to the dirt we are--our skin even shows the same colors as white, black, brown, red, and yellow dirt. We’re soulless animals of no greater value than dirt. In a chaotic relativist world, whoever can make great promises and usurp government control can rule the world. We are moving closer to that every day. Communication and travel improvements bring us together as one world awaiting the AntiChrist destroyer.
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“And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:7-8).”
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There’s No Basis for Absolute Justice, Mercy, Love or Truth
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A godless world has no place for moral absolutes. Justice, mercy, love and truth is what you make of them or what will be forced upon you. There is no authoritative standard above limited, fickle, conflicting, biased human opinions and preferences. Tyrants rule and people are at their mercy. Conscience, guilt feelings, and shame are universal but make no sense without a Moral Lawgiver.
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“When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel (Rom. 2:14-16).”
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Experimental Science Is Without Foundation
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Experimental science developed in medieval Christian Europe, which supplied the necessary conceptual framework. Apart from biblical Christianity, it’s unlikely we would have modern experimental science. Paganism thought nature scared and tampering with it disturbing its gods. Mystical pantheism regarded the world cyclic and unreal illusion. Plato and the philosophers gained knowledge through reason not experimental testing. Ancient civilizations believed interference of the gods make the world illogical and unpredictable. Even Islam’s Allah was arbitrary.
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 But Christians believed God created a real world that was good, orderly, intelligible, and made for exploration, study, dominion and development. The heavens declared the glory of God and the earth is his handiwork. It is no accident that the pioneers of science were committed Christians. These include Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and a list to long to name. Science textbooks don’t mention their men’s religious beliefs and practices. For example, the great Isaac Newton wrote Bible commentaries. Naturalistic science borrowed its foundation from Christianity and disowned its forbearer.
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All Religions Can Be Classified Into Two Categories
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All human ideas of God can fit into two major categories: subjective or objective. Subjective ideas of God are based upon human imaginations, fears and speculations—persons make claims about them but furnish no real objective tangible evidence they exist. For example, god is universal energy—philosophical Hinduism and Buddhism. Many gods—popular Hinduism and Mormonism. God is what an angel told me—Islam and Mormonism. A good god and an evil god must exist to explain good and evil in the world--Zoroastrianism. No god exists because I haven’t seen anything that convinces me but I honor my beloved ancestors—Confucianism and Shinto.
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An objective religion would furnish evidence that honest open-minded thinking people can examine to see if God actually exists. Without apology, I claim that the Judao-Christian faith alone of all religions meets this test.
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 Before you accuse me of being an arrogant, narrow-minded, bigot, please here me out. First, many conflicting religions can’t all be right no matter what they claim—God can’t be all the different things mentioned above. I don’t mean this to put anyone down but just to be truthful. Second, if any one religion is true and of God, everyone is in his or her rights to ask for rational factual evidence. Now I’ve given good reason a personal ethical God exists. Is there any reason the universe’s Creator cannot become a man and walk among us? Could Jesus be the God-man?     
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Jesus is said to claim and do things that could only be true of God. First, he fulfilled detailed Messianic predictions made centuries before he lived on earth. Such predictions as Messiah would be God, born in Bethlehem, perform miracles, die for people’s sins and rise from the dead—only God could fulfill such prophecies. Second, Jesus did things only God’s power would enable anyone to do. He walked on water, healed all kinds of diseases immediately, caste out demons, ascended into the sky. Third, all the while Jesus said things only God would say: He came from Heaven, existed before creation, performed miracles, forgives sins, could give eternal life, is the only way to Heaven. Now if these things are true, wouldn’t the conclusion have to be: Jesus is God? And if good honest evidence supports it, wouldn’t we be fools to ignore it? And isn’t the burden of proof on us to prove it false?
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Yes, others are claimed to be God and perform miracles. But in writings centuries after their deaths by adoring disciples and not in primary documents or in teaching of the founders. That’s altogether different from eyewitness accounts within three decades of Jesus death and of disciples who endured torturous deaths to verify Jesus is the risen Lord. Moreover, Jesus’ disciples lived in the real world and were as astonished at his claims, fulfilled prophecies and miracles as we are today. In trusting Jesus to save us, our only loss is desire to sin and eternity in Hell. 
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 It’s your choice? Heaven’s love and fulfillment, or Hell’s darkness and torments? This is our life's most serious decision. Trust the Lord now. You may never have this chance again. I pray U will say, Lord forgive me the sinner, and be my Savior, Lord and Life Guide.
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NOTE: Good news articles show faces of some who have read the articles and the number of pageviews. On my computer also is shown what articles you sent and to what countries. So you are reaching people and doing great good sending out these articles. God bless you.
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God's A Cruel Tyrant and Killjoy!

God‘s A Cruel Tyrant And Killjoy!

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People have their own idea of God and I don’t know who’s right. But I don’t like the Bible’s God. I don’t mind a Creator who made the world to run on its own steam or natural laws and then abandoned us. He doesn’t bother me one bit since I can do my own thing and its okay. And the God who is all love and forgiveness lets me do anything I like so he’s okay too. But I don’t need Him unless I get into trouble or things don’t go right. I’ll pray for help when caught and maybe even go to church and say I’m sorry. But the Bible’s God of judgment I don’t like--He’s a killjoy, a tyrant. He wants to restrict my freedom, impose rules for me to obey, and spoil my fun. Well, I don’t trust that God and I want to live my own life. I’m just being honest.
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So I take a few drinks, gamble and use drugs sometimes. And yes I like sex partners but I’m just normal as others do the same things. I haven’t robbed a bank, rapped or killed anybody. I’m polite and respectful to people except when I’m drunk, and then I can’t help it. I’m a good person and it’s impossible to be perfect. If others go to Heaven, I ought to go too. So why does God have to make me feel guilty and spoil all my fun? He’s just a cruel tyrant and killjoy.
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Many people feel this way and don’t think they’re terrible sinners. I’m not condemning them; they condemn themselves. I just want them to think honestly about the God of the Bible they feel is a condemning judge and killjoy. If you should be such a person, will you let me ask you some important questions?
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Does forbidding us to destroy ourselves make God a cruel tyrant?
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Many people call tobacco, alcohol, and drug use fun and party and it makes them feel accepted with the crowd. Such things destroy our health; wreck our minds and bodies with diseases and misery, and cause highway accidents that would otherwise not occur. We pay a high price that enslaves us in a slow painful regretful death.
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Parents out of concern for their children’s well-being warn against their use knowing the harm and yet may teach its okay by their example. Advertisements present their use as sophisticated and fashionable and never picture the consequences of broken homes, lost jobs, ruined lives and their children following their footsteps. Of course, we can excuse this saying everybody does it, or a little indulgence won’t hurt, or it’s no worse than overeating, not exercising, or stressful work. Yes, but these things call for responsible living as well.
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The point here is that God designed our bodies, knows their proper function and warns us that they are His temple and we are responsible for their care. God is not a cruel killjoy or tyrant to warn us to be responsible for our own good--we know it. God is for us to have fun but enjoy wholesome activities that protect us and honor the bodies and minds He gave us. Our loving God has a higher standard for His people. 
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“Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual   immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy  Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a  price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1Cor. 6:18-20
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“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31
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Does allowing us free choice make God a cruel tyrant?
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It’s strange, but true. We tend to blame God for all the evils in the world—the abuses, robberies, rapes, muggings, murders, wars. Why does He allow it? But the fact is we commit these evils or sins ourselves, not God. In fact, God warns and pleads with us not to do such things. It’s the old story of Adam and Eve all over again. Both disobeyed God when they ate the forbidden fruit. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. We’ve been at it ever since. We’re prone to ask, why doesn’t God put a stop to all these terrible evils? Think about it; is that what we really want? Where would we draw the line of how much evil can be allowed? We’re all guilty of different sins and to various degrees. To get rid of evil God would have to wipe us all off the map.
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Further, we’re in God’s spiritual image immortal, free and with responsibility. It’s what distinguishes us from mere animal with instinct. To take away our freedom would make us puppets on a string. That would destroy our humanity and dignity. It would deny God His glory in His creatures. That’s not a good solution since force makes God a tyrant while freedom makes Him a friend to love and trust. 
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Does offering us Heaven make God a cruel tyrant?
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How could it? God makes the rules but allows us sinners our own way. Persons who suppress the witness of creation and the witness of conscience won’t accept the witness of Christ. We can ignore, deny, rebel against and reject God to the very end, and God lets us have our own way—eternal existence without Him is Hell. What most persons never stop to realize is that with God go all His blessings that they enjoyed and took for granted during life. Our own choice makes us forever alone in darkness to know God’s wrath toward all our life’s unholy attitudes and acts.  

 “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than  light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the   light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 319-21
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Does paying for our crimes in a cruel death make God a cruel tyrant?
Jesus came to seek and save the lost from God. He took tremendous sacrifice to leave Heaven’s glories, enter a cruel sinful world, be beaten and hung naked on a torturous cross as a condemned criminal. Prophets predicted it centuries before (Isa. 53; Ps. 22; Acts 2:23). Because Jesus was both God and sinless man, He could both feel our pain and pay the price of our sin. He showed humanity unspeakable love and is our only hope of redemption. Before Jesus, people couldn’t imagine a God who loved them. Jesus’ death was the very opposite of a tyrant.
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“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, (unique God-man) that whoever believes in his has everlasting life (John 3:16).
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Does putting away all evil and persons who could harm us make God a cruel tyrant?
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Civilized governments don’t allow known robbers, rapists, killers to run loose on their streets terrorizing their people. They jail the guilty according to their degree of crime to secure society’s safety and sanity. The all-knowing Lord will achieve the justice seldom achieved in human courts. Heaven will be an eternally safe haven for all who trust in the Savior who is humanities salvation and hope. In no way is God a cruel tyrant and killjoy.
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 “There shall by no means enter it (Heaven) anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie,  but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Revelation 21:27
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Today is your opportunity. Today can be a new start. Today you can be a repentant sinner trusting Christ to receive eternal life and to follow Him the rest of the way. He has promised to never leave or forsake us. Say, Lord, you’re love, not a tyrant. Forgive me a rebellious, uncaring, self-willed person, a sinner. Thank you, Lord.

Honest Doubts About Atheism!

Honest Doubts About Atheism!


Atheists deny the existence of any kind of God. Atheism is an impossible position for the following reasons.
1. Atheists must know everything in space and time to say no God exists. Draw a large circle and black out what represents your knowledge. It would be only a small dot for any of us. Some kind of god may exist behind a star or beyond reach of our telescopes. Or, maybe over the next hill, around a corner, in the next room and we wouldn’t know it. Therefore, atheism is an empty dogmatic claim.
2. The Christian biblical God is an unseen Spirit. If God isn’t a giant somewhere in space or on earth, but rather is a spiritual or immaterial being or Mind as the Bible claims (Exodus 3:14; John 1:1-3; 4:22-24), then God could be everywhere and our human senses unable to detect His presence. Again, atheism is impossible to prove.
3. Atheism requires that the universe be eternal and self-sustaining, but it isn’t. The physical law called entropy is in operation that means the universe like a wound up clock is running down. Therefore, the universe had a beginning and will have an end. Something can’t come from nothing--like an empty box, nothing is in it to produce anything. The physical law of cause and effect demands everything begun must have a beginner or first cause. It must be outside the matter, space, and time it brought into being. Thus, it is self-existent, eternal, immaterial, unchangeable, and infinite to account for everything including life, mind, thought, will, logic, truth.
4. The world began with time, not in time. If we could backtrack eternally, then we would not be here today, but here we are.  Everything we know is not eternal but dependent on something else which must be eternal and can't change or go out of existence. That is what was told Moses in seeing the bush burning but not consumed--the Great Eternal "I Am." 
 5. Most scientists believe the universe began in an explosion they call the Big Bang. But everything we know works on a cause and effect principle. Nonexistence can’t bring existence into being—nothing can’t create something. Some persons believe in a singularity, or that the entire universe was compressed matter smaller than a pin head that just exploded.  Now that's incredible faith.  But isn't this singularity just imagination to avoid admitting the Creator?
6. Close-minded atheist faith based upon chance plus time makes everything irrational. If the universe occurred by chance, then anything can happen anytime. Thus, we can’t know the universe is rational, our minds rational, science factual, and life may suddenly become extinct, or whatever? Moreover, while atheism can’t explain origins, it relies on chance process assuming evolution by an unconscious, mindless nature.  Computer calculations shows chance impossible even if infinite time.

But opposed to unconscious mindless nature everything we see suggests intelligence, design and planning by an infinite Mind. Things left alone become disorderly never orderly. Every physical law works together in harmony, every cell in every living thing has an astronomically complex DNA program that it follows far exceeding the human mind. And all living things must be alive and functional at the start. For example, animals can’t exist with a partly developed digestive system, reproductive system, respiratory system or organs such as heart, eyes, ears, limbs. It all had to be present from the start.
7. Astronomer Hugh Ross pointed out 122 constant factors that any slight change would have made human life on earth impossible (anthropic principle). He mentions such things as just right atmosphere, water, gravity, magnetism, size and distances of earth, moon, sun, etc. The chance of all these factors coming together accidentally is astronomical. Human life on earth then is a God thing. 

Christians believe in human dignity, freedom, rights, ethics, love, justice, logic, truth, and feelings. An infinite, eternal, personal, ethical Source or Creator is required for things to make sense. Dead matter can’t create life it doesn’t have. Mind must precede mater, and mind is required to explain matter, since matter can’t explain itself. Atheism has no basis for any of this.
9. Communist and socialist nations—humanist philosophies that deny God--are ruled by tyrants who seek to destroy their citizen’s freedom. They enslave, imprison, restrict and kill their people. They deceive their people by false promises, overtax then, enact oppressive laws, and confiscate their possessions making them bankrupt economically, morally and spiritually. They become a fearful police state such as in Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, and Castro's Cuba. That’s why people risk their lives to leave such godless states for havens of freedom and opportunity.
10. Atheists have no basis to say God doesn’t exist, cannot be a personal, loving, ethical being, and cannot come into our world in the form of a man. Certainly if God created the universe, then taking on a human body and nature is a minor thing. And unlike other religions Christ claimed to be God. His claim to fulfill ancient prophecies of a coming Messiah—over 200 hundred—His living a perfect sinless life, His performing perhaps hundreds of miracles before astonished disciples and hostile critics, His dying on the cross to save sinners, and His resurrection from the dead are all visible demonstrated evidence in our world. Until atheists can disprove all these things, they have no basis for their atheism.
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Philosophers and religion founders give only their speculations about God, life, and afterlife. Jesus Christ demonstrated in our world he was the God-man walking among us and said all who trust in him as their Savior from sin would know God, and the purity, peace and love He gives to be with Him forever. You can come to know His purity, peace, and love, by honest commitment to Him as your Savior, Lord and Guide. Pray Lord, forgive me the sinner and come into my life now and forever.
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Which God Is Really God?

Which God Is Really God?

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Everybody has some idea of some kind of god or something ultimate that takes the place of a god. But we may not be conscious or able to communicate just how we think and feel. And we naturally subscribe to what we’ve been taught or exposed to. We may feel critical, suspicious, or insecure of any new concept.
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At any rate, understanding how different people see things is an important part of education and helps us understand and relate to others. We don’t have to hate people just like us because they disagree with us--they might be right about things we’ve never considered. And since the opposite of true is false, it’s impossible opposing views can all be right or correct. The eight worldviews below is generally what people believe but may differ in details.
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No God, Only Man Himself
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Persons who say there’s no kind of God, divine revelation, or miracles can be known as atheists, humanists, socialists, naturalists, materialists, nihilists and antitheists. They believe only the material universal is eternal, that everything evolved by chance over time and that they alone are truly reasonable and scientific. They say religious belief in a personal ethical God is only a figment of human imagination.  

I have four serious problems with atheism. First, it destroys human dignity making us only evolving animals made from soulless dirt that return to dirt without dignity, rights, or accountability. If survival of the fittest is the only ultimate law, human conscience, absolute laws and guilt feelings don’t make sense. Fulfilling self-desires alone makes sense.
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Next, atheism destroys any absolute standard of morality and incentive to live what persons generally call a moral life. Theft, rape and murder can be fulfilling, can make us prosperous, and can eliminate persons we dislike or disagree with. There can be no higher ethical standard than our individual finite, fickle, conflicting desires and preferences. This leads to chaos and anarchy. The consequence is might makes right, state control and some strongman with deceptive promises and plans usurping power and deciding who lives and dies according to his arbitrary will. It results in a terrorist world.
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Third, atheists are unwarranted to deny the existence of God. Unless we have exhaustive knowledge of all space and time we simply can’t say, there’s no God. And if God were an immaterial Spirit, He cannot be seen under a microscope or viewed through a telescope. Nor can atheists logically show that existence of both God and evils are contradictory, so that if evils exist, God doesn’t. God may have reasons for allowing evils such as human freedom and dignity.
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Finally, science and reason doesn’t support atheism and in fact strongly affirms God’s existence. The law of cause and effect is that every effect must have and adequate cause and that something can’t come from nothing. So the universe must be the effect of a self-existing infinite powerful unchanging intelligence we may rightly call God. The universe’s expansion, its running down, its fine tuning, and the fact that we can’t backtrack eternally are  facts that point to a beginning and a Beginner who is a self-existent, immaterial, unchanging, infinite intelligence we may rightfully call God. 
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Pantheist God
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 Pantheists believe that the whole universe of energy is god. And this energy takes recurring cycles and every form such as galaxies, stars, gods, planets, plants, animals and man. It’s like the waves of the sea that forever rise and return and any separate thing is really illusion--all is one mass of energy. Man’s ignorance is that he doesn’t realize he is god or a part of universal energy. Thus, ultimately, sense experience, logic, life, death, pain, good, evil are all illusion. History has no meaning, and life and the world no great purpose. The pantheist’s hope is to be set free from the recurring cycles and be finally absorbed into the impersonal energy of the universe where all such illusion ceases. This is the general worldview of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, New Age, Transcendental Medication, Christian Science, Unity and some philosophers in the West.
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Many difficulties confront pantheists. They claim reason cannot give us information about god but use reason to deny characteristics of god. They claim the world is illusion, but can’t explain how the illusion originated. And if it’s illusion, they don’t even exist to make the claim. Their claim they are god doesn’t make them any different, better, or more powerful than anyone else. They can’t avoid acting as though the world is real—they take baths, wear clothes, and look in the mirror and before crossing streets. They experience pain, sickness and death like everyone else. Ultimately, human life is absorbed into the energy of the universe making human dignity, compassion, ethics, and achievements mean nothing.
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Polytheist Gods
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Ancient kingdoms such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Norse, Hindus and modern Mormons believe in many finite gods. These gods usually have their own domain and fight among themselves to gain power and territory. They are not ultimate but derived from nature somehow. Polytheists are persons of divided loyalties and urges who may project their desires upon things of nature. They reject control of an all-embracing Creator to devise their own truth and morality. Gods and goddesses are popular in pantheistic religions among persons who want a more personal god and not just an abstract principle.
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I have several problems with polytheism. There is good evidence for one Creator and Sustainer. Logically there can be only one absolute. Nothing in nature is absolute and worthy of our worshipful devotion since nature had a beginning and will end. It’s not wise to focus on present desires and ignore future realities and death’s possibility. The Ebla Tablets found in Syria show people originally believed in one personal Creator.  
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Finite God
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A finite God is limited in some way such as in power, knowledge, wisdom, goodness or love. Persons feel that if the infinite God of biblical faith existed, he would have never allowed the evils in the world. They overlook the possibility that God may have good reasons unknown to us for allowing evils. If God is infinite, it seems he would eliminate them in his way in his time. Besides, wouldn’t eliminating human evils destroy our freedom or destroy imperfect us?
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Panentheism is a new religious philosophy that follows the philosophy of Plato and Alfred North Whitehead. They’re enamored with evolution and want a more tolerant God to accommodate contemporary opinions. They assume a position between pantheism and Christianity. They imagine God has two poles with one being real and the other potential. God is the cosmic spirit that indwells the universe like a soul exists in the body. So both the world changes God and God changes the world. It’s contradictory and a changing God leaves us with no sure knowledge of God, ethics, or hope for life after death. Unfortunately, so-called open theism theologians are influenced by it.
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Deist God
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Deists believe God created the world with its natural laws and left it to work on its own. Some believe in an afterlife, others don’t. They deny miracles and divine intervention, which seems strange when creation is the greatest miracle of all. Further, if God made man a rational, moral being in his image, it seems he would want human relationship.
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Muslim God
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Islam means submission and a Muslim is one who submits to Allah (God). Like Christians, Muslims believe in an infinite, ethical, sovereign, Creator God and in angels, demons, Heaven and Hell. Islam is based upon the Quran that Muhammad said the angel Gabriel revealed to him while alone in a cave and the Hadith that is traditions about the life of the prophet. Muslims divide the world into Muslim and non-Muslim with the goal to convert the world to Islam even if by force. Muslims claim that Muhammad is the final seal or authority having come after Jesus. They believe the Christian Trinity is blasphemy and that Jews and Christians corrupted God’s Word that Muhammad corrected. Amazingly, Muhammad said that Jesus was a prophet, virgin born as Adam, the Word of God, the Jewish Messiah, without sin, performed miracles and will come again. But Jesus did not die for sinners on a cross and was not God.
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While Christians respect Muslim’s right to their beliefs, it’s difficult to see any sure basis for their beliefs. Muhammad first thought the angel a demon until his wife convinced him he was God’s final authoritative prophet. Without witnesses, can’t anyone say an angle revealed God’s Word to them? Joseph Smith Jr. in fact did later than Muhammad did. Admitting Jesus was without sin and performed miracles, Muhammad confessed he needed forgiveness and when challenged to prove himself a prophet by performing a miracle he could not. Both Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad as a prophet because he wasn’t accurate in his Bible teachings. Numerous discrepancies exist between the Bible and the Quran though Jews and Christians were extremely carefully copping their scriptures hundreds of years before Muhammad’s birth. Present translations agree with ancient copies over 90% of the time. And the Trinity of one God in three personal distinctions is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers and in three famous Christian creeds before Muhammad’s birth. Numerous evidences prove Jesus died on the cross and arose from the dead. Islam simply is without foundation.   
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The Judeo-Christian God
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There’s no good reason why a universe’s Creator cannot take on a human nature and body if he has reason to do so. Jesus is a real person of history who fulfilled a multitude of ancient Jewish prophecies with odds astronomically against it, unless he was God as he claimed. Furthermore, he showed he was Lord over sin, nature, disease, demons and death. Jesus promised to save anyone who will humbly acknowledge his or her sin and trust him for everlasting life. No other world religion or philosophy can offer forgiveness, cleansing, purity and his forever-abiding presence. Won’t you say, “Jesus I trust you as my Savior and Lord today” and mean every word?
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