No, not everyone does. Especially my hypotheticals! But this one's different. It's actually not hypothetical. It only looks like one. But it has already happened! You'll see what I mean as we get into it. Here:
You are approached by a stranger. He is holding a book. He shows it to you and says to you, "This is God's Word. It is perfect. God requires you to believe that it is His Word. He requires that you obey it."
What do you do? How do you deal with this stranger and his strange claims? (Or not so strange, to some! ) Do you just believe him? Become a follower of his religion (or "relationship", as he prefers to call it)?
Notice that I haven't said what the book is. It could be the Bible, or the Book of Mormon, or the Quran, or The Lord of the Rings. In this (non)hypothetical, it shouldn't matter. Your answer should (ideally!) include a methodology for testing the man's claims, no matter what the book actually is.
OK. That's it. Discuss.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
How we deal with it is how we should expect non Christians to deal with our claims of the Bible. That is where you were going, right?
Yep. And all of you guys were non-Christians at one time, yes? And faced exactly this scenario. The "stranger" may not have been the very person who presented you with the claims, but he or she got it from someone who may have been a stranger to you, or maybe some levels farther back. All the way back, we have the men who chose the canon of scripture (that is, the particular canon presented to you, of which there are many still in use today). Could take it back further, to the writers, of course. Strangers, every one.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
The best sermon anyone can preach
about the gospel is his or her personal testimony.
And that's when the Holy Spirit
appears to do the Lord's part.
Only the Holy Spirit can
draw a person to Christ.
So when someone is presented with the claims I mentioned, even if they are in the form of "personal testimony", then if they don't accept them and believe, it's because God hasn't drawn them? OK.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
No, not everyone does. Especially my hypotheticals! But this one's different. It's actually not hypothetical. It only looks like one. But it has already happened! You'll see what I mean as we get into it. Here:
You are approached by a stranger. He is holding a book. He shows it to you and says to you, "This is God's Word. It is perfect. God requires you to believe that it is His Word. He requires that you obey it."
What do you do? How do you deal with this stranger and his strange claims? (Or not so strange, to some! ) Do you just believe him? Become a follower of his religion (or "relationship", as he prefers to call it)?
Notice that I haven't said what the book is. It could be the Bible, or the Book of Mormon, or the Quran, or The Lord of the Rings. In this (non)hypothetical, it shouldn't matter. Your answer should (ideally!) include a methodology for testing the man's claims, no matter what the book actually is.
OK. That's it. Discuss.
Ha.
My coming to Christ was not an instantaneous act. I've had a couple of experiences like this that you described above. No. I did not instantly obey any of them. When the mormons came and gave me the book of Mormon and told me to read it and suggested that if I did not come to the same conclusion that they did about the book, then I got the feeling that they would consider me to be wrong.
The next time they came, I hid. Yeah...I'm was a coward, but they got the message.
The same with the JWs.
I do feel that the Holy Ghost was drawing me to God though. I just knew...by feeling I had when something felt right. That's all I had to go by.
Can't always go by feelings...feelings will betray you. But in this case for me, it was right.
Nobody told me to read the bible. I just felt it was right over all the rest of the books. This happened many years before I actually started looking for a church to visit. I did not truly understand what I was reading though at the time.
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It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (Psalms 118:8)
My coming to Christ was not an instantaneous act. I've had a couple of experiences like this that you described above. No. I did not instantly obey any of them. When the mormons came and gave me the book of Mormon and told me to read it and suggested that if I did not come to the same conclusion that they did about the book, then I got the feeling that they would consider me to be wrong.
Wow, that's crazy!
Quote:
The next time they came, I hid. Yeah...I'm was a coward, but they got the message.
The same with the JWs.
I do feel that the Holy Ghost was drawing me to God though. I just knew...by feeling I had when something felt right. That's all I had to go by.
Can't always go by feelings...feelings will betray you. But in this case for me, it was right.
Nobody told me to read the bible. I just felt it was right over all the rest of the books. This happened many years before I actually started looking for a church to visit. I did not truly understand what I was reading though at the time.
Guess my feelings have "betrayed" me, then.
Thanks for posting.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
Did you have any feelings about it at the time? Or did you do exactly as you posted?
Well, it's actually hard to say exactly. I was raised in church (so to speak), so it was "presented" gradually, by dozens of teachers and preachers. I pretty much believed by default. But when I began to put thought into it (which itself was gradual, and I can't put my finger on any starting point), and the longer I though about it (again, gradual ), the less I could come up with a real, bona fide reasons to believe the claims. And the more I observed and experienced things, the more reason I found to doubt some of them.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 KJV
But this one's different. It's actually not hypothetical. It only looks like one. But it has already happened! You'll see what I mean as we get into it. Here:
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