I've never told anyone this story, because I don't want it to be taken the wrong way. I'm guessing, though, it might encourage some of you.
A couple of years ago I got into a "debate" on Facebook. Since, then I've learned to be selective. For those that avoid that stuff altogether, there are unbelievers out there that need to be answered ("be ready with an answer for the hope..."). There are some that need to be ignored (scorners) and prayed for (God might change your mind though). The web gives us great opportunities to glorify God in our everyday, web surfing, lives.
Anywho, this guy's name....we'll call him "Max," was an "Atheist" (learned my lesson about the spelling of that). Still is, for all I know. Atheism is no more than a belief system, faith based. They DO NOT have science to back them up. Like all good things, science has been corrupted and used to forward a number of agendas, including Atheism. In speaking of evolution, because that is what immediately comes to everyone's mind, Darwin (the originator) now, would have disbelieved his own theory, because of what he specified as missing components, that are, to date, still missing. It's best to be confident in this.
In all good debates, logical arguments surface on the proverbial table. This is where a lot of Christians get overwhelmed. Remember, you have the TRUTH. Atheists have sat around and worked on their theory. Christians accept by faith Christ's work, and usually float along in their happy, Christ filled, peace giving life, as God works on them. Not true with the a fore mentioned. They suppress the truth that they knew to be true at the beginning of their lives. What do they suppress it with? Untruth, sin, transferring of worship (Romans 1). Have you ever been caught doing something that you tried to come up with a lie for? Same thing. It needs to be concocted. Let me tell you, it's rehearsed like a Shakespeare play. Why do they do this? They HATE God. He represents an "end to freedom", or what they perceive "freedom" to be. If they only knew...
Back to "Max". We ran the whole gamete, Christian violence (Holy Wars), evolutionists like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, micro-evolution, macro, law of degeneration. Until that sunny morning...
We had been discussing Sam Harris' book "End of Faith." Max finally relented and in not so many words, admitted he had a belief system. "Why don't you just accept what I believe?" he said. I accept that you, too, believe, I thought. He wanted me to read the book, as long he read one that I recommended. Fair. Finally he told me, Sam Harris as his example, that if I told him the number in his head, he would believe.
I sat on my couch. I had been praying for Max the whole time, almost through every single sentence that I wrote. Knowing that there were no convincing arguments I could come up with. All the work needed to be done by the Holy Spirit. I read my Bible.
I had been reading a yearly Bible, so I opened it up and read where I left off, wondering just how God was going to speak to me in some random book. Number after number came up about this tribe and that tribe and the number of sheep in this field or that town. I'm pretty quick mind you, but it eventually dawned on me, "God knows the number."
"But Lord, I don't."
My answer? "Ask him (Sara), if he really wants to know."
As I typed it, I thought about what a game changer this was. No more smoke screens, no more lies, no more sin, no more denial, pride, arrogance, etc. Max was being called to the table of repentance if he accepted the challenge. Well, he didn't make it to the table. He never wrote back.
I still don't know what the number was.
God did.
A couple of years ago I got into a "debate" on Facebook. Since, then I've learned to be selective. For those that avoid that stuff altogether, there are unbelievers out there that need to be answered ("be ready with an answer for the hope..."). There are some that need to be ignored (scorners) and prayed for (God might change your mind though). The web gives us great opportunities to glorify God in our everyday, web surfing, lives.
Anywho, this guy's name....we'll call him "Max," was an "Atheist" (learned my lesson about the spelling of that). Still is, for all I know. Atheism is no more than a belief system, faith based. They DO NOT have science to back them up. Like all good things, science has been corrupted and used to forward a number of agendas, including Atheism. In speaking of evolution, because that is what immediately comes to everyone's mind, Darwin (the originator) now, would have disbelieved his own theory, because of what he specified as missing components, that are, to date, still missing. It's best to be confident in this.
In all good debates, logical arguments surface on the proverbial table. This is where a lot of Christians get overwhelmed. Remember, you have the TRUTH. Atheists have sat around and worked on their theory. Christians accept by faith Christ's work, and usually float along in their happy, Christ filled, peace giving life, as God works on them. Not true with the a fore mentioned. They suppress the truth that they knew to be true at the beginning of their lives. What do they suppress it with? Untruth, sin, transferring of worship (Romans 1). Have you ever been caught doing something that you tried to come up with a lie for? Same thing. It needs to be concocted. Let me tell you, it's rehearsed like a Shakespeare play. Why do they do this? They HATE God. He represents an "end to freedom", or what they perceive "freedom" to be. If they only knew...
Back to "Max". We ran the whole gamete, Christian violence (Holy Wars), evolutionists like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, micro-evolution, macro, law of degeneration. Until that sunny morning...
We had been discussing Sam Harris' book "End of Faith." Max finally relented and in not so many words, admitted he had a belief system. "Why don't you just accept what I believe?" he said. I accept that you, too, believe, I thought. He wanted me to read the book, as long he read one that I recommended. Fair. Finally he told me, Sam Harris as his example, that if I told him the number in his head, he would believe.
I sat on my couch. I had been praying for Max the whole time, almost through every single sentence that I wrote. Knowing that there were no convincing arguments I could come up with. All the work needed to be done by the Holy Spirit. I read my Bible.
I had been reading a yearly Bible, so I opened it up and read where I left off, wondering just how God was going to speak to me in some random book. Number after number came up about this tribe and that tribe and the number of sheep in this field or that town. I'm pretty quick mind you, but it eventually dawned on me, "God knows the number."
"But Lord, I don't."
My answer? "Ask him (Sara), if he really wants to know."
As I typed it, I thought about what a game changer this was. No more smoke screens, no more lies, no more sin, no more denial, pride, arrogance, etc. Max was being called to the table of repentance if he accepted the challenge. Well, he didn't make it to the table. He never wrote back.
I still don't know what the number was.
God did.
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