My Responses to Existence/Nonexistence e-mails

4/12/06

Goten: To rebuttle your last statement, God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (Revelation22:10) There was nothing before Him and there will never be anything after Him. Also, as I stated in the comment, God is not confined to time or space therefore even though we have to live within the boundaries of the present He does not. " To God 1 day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day." (IIPeter 3:8) That shows that His time frame is completely seperate.

4/13/06

I will try to get back with you later, i have a meeting this morning at the school I teach at and don't have time right this moment. I enjoy the discussion.

4/13/06

Hello again! I began looking for a way that I could better illustrate to you the point that I was trying to make. If you would like to look at this question furtherthen I would suggest that you find and read the bookMere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. He does a muchbetter job of explaining it. There is a whole chapterthat focuses on time and space and how God fits intothe whole situation. If you want me to I can send yousome quotes from it, but I figured it would be easierto just check it out at your public library.

4/14/06

Ok,I will do my best to explain things as I see them froma Christian standpoint. 1. God is all powerful. There is nothing that God can not do, but at the sametime there are things that God has chosen not to do asit applies to man and Satan. Some of this will alsotie into the question concerning God being all good. God has created angels and humans and has given themthe free will to choose to love him or hate him. IfGod wanted to or had wanted to He could have made manwithout the ability to sin. I believe that He didthis so that everyone who chose to believe in Him andbelieved in him would do so under thier own decisionrather than by force or by programming such as a robotmight have. Christ many times refered to himself as the bridegroomin scripture and refered to the church or Christiansas His bride. Just as you yourself would want someoneto love you because of who you are I believe Godwanted to do the same thing with himself. He wantedpeople to choose him based on what He had done forthem not so much because He forced them to. OtherwiseHe would have people serving him out of force ratherthan a personal desire to. Now Satan comes into this picture where God allowedhim to roam the Earth and decieve people into notbelieving in God and the same thing was accomplishedwith 1/3 of the angels who fell from heaven along withSatan when he decided he was more equal with God. 2. God is all good. God is all good and we have notseen the end of the story yet. At the end of theBible, sin is punished. Also, God made a way for allsin that had ever been committed by humans to be paidfor once and for al when he sent his Son to earth as ahuman. Jesus lived 33 years without ever sinning andwas killed as a sacrifice to pay for all sins. ThenHe rose from the dead three days later conqueringdeath. Because he died after as a sinless man, hetook all of the worlds sins upon his shoulders and Godforgave all men of their sins under the condition thatall humans would accept Jesus Christ as their Lord andSavior. He decided that anyone who accepted Christ asthier Savior and confessed that they were sinners, theblood of Christ would cover any sins they had evercommitted and they would then be sinless before God. John 3:16, Romans 3:23, Romans 8:23, I John 1:9,Romans 5 (whole chapter)Then, Jeusus returned to Heaven to be with God HisFather. One day Christ is going to return to Earth. After the return of Christ to the Earth and therecieving of all of Christ's followers then those whorefused to follow Christ including Satan and all ofhis angels will be placed into Hades or Hell foreternity. Hell is made up of everything that is eviland nothing good becase everything good comes fromGod. That is the completion of God showing hisHoliness because He can then rule and reign withoutsin.I pray this was helpful. I hope I answered yourquestions for you.

4/18/06

Yes God does know the consequences of sin and that iswhy He showed us the way to go in the Bible so that wecould and would avoid the devistation that we oftentimes bring upon ourselves. God treats us much like a parent treats theirchildren. You teach a son or daughter what is right,such as telling them not to touch a hot stove becausethey will get burned, but that doesn't mean that thechild won't go and do it anyway. Or a better example,an older child whom you have taught not to drive underthe influence. That adult child knows that drinkingand driving are putting themselves at risk, but stillthousands go ahead and do it anyway. Does that meantheir parents shouldn't have had their children andthey did not love their children because they allowedthem to grow up and make their own choices? It is thesame with God, He has shown his children how theyshould live so that life goes well for them, but welive in a world where everyone has not chosen tofollow what He has said and so therefore we have theproblems we have today. Ever since the first day thatAdam and Eve sinned, life has no longer been perfectfor man. God created a perfect world to begin withwith the garden and Adam and Eve, but they chose tochange that ,by sinning, ruining it for all the restof the world, because from then on everyone else wasborn with sin. I am sorry if I am not answering all of your questionsperfectly. I am trying to tell you as well as I caninterpret what I know. I am still human and I stillhave much to learn. I do know one thing though. There are some things I know we will not understandcompletely until we get to heaven, that is why theBible says "For by grace are ye saved through faith;and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God notof works, lest any man should boast."Ephesians 2:8-9 Part of being a Christian is faith inthe unseen.

5/7/06

Well, I look at it like this. If for some reason,there isn't a God and I have no doubt in my mind thatthere is, what have I lost by believing in Him andtrusting Him with my life? Whether you think it is aloss to have faith in Christ Jesus or not. I know Iam a better person for believing. On the other hand,if there is a God and I spent my whole life believingin Him than I have a reward in Heaven and have missedout on the worst punishment ever given to man (Hell). One other thing, you continually say the threereligions and I imagine you are referring to Judism,Islam, and Christianity. Christianity is the only true way to Heaven, becauseChrist said "I am the way, the truth, and the life, noman comes to the Father except through Me." and "ForGod so loved the world that He gave His only begottenSon that whosoever believeth in Him should not perishbut have everlasting life. For God sent not His Soninto the world to condemn the world but that the worldthrough Him might be saved." (John 3:16-17)

5/7/06

Actually, I have the opposite of fear, I have peace. Peace inknowing that my sins are forgiven, peace in knowingthat I serve a God who cares about me, and will dowhat is best for me, and peace knowing that I willspend eternity with the God who loved me so much thateven while I was still in sin, He chose to send HisSon to die a death that no man would ever want to gothrough just so that I would be able to live foreverwith Him. Please, don't feel sorry for me, I am as happy as aperson could ever be, but I will pray for you that Godwill show himself real to you. God is real! JesusChrist did come to this earth and die for you, andHell is very real and I pray you find Christ Jesusbefore you breath your last breath. Once again, I encourage you, read the Bible all theway through from cover to cover before you decide whatyou think about Christianity, and ask God (even if youdon't believe there is one), to reveal Himself to you. The Bible is God's word written to man. If you stillfeel the same way after you read it, then I won't sayanymore. But, please don't give up on God before yougive him a chance.

5/8/06

Ok, be more specific. In what ways have you givenJesus Christ a chance in your own life? For one thing, you brought up Colombine and 9/11 asresons for the non-existence of God. What about thethousands of people who just happened to not be in theWorld Trade Center at the time of the attack becausethey happened to wake up late or had something happenthat delayed them. There are countless stories likethat, God was watching out for them. Also, I think you, along with many other people, havebeen fed the idea that once a person gets savednothing else bad will ever happen to them and lifewill be a bed of roses. God never promised that tous. In fact, the whole salvation concept should havebeen described not as a life of comfort but rather inthis manner... Let me give you a scenario...Two people were getting on a plane, the first personwas handed a parachute and told to put it on becauseit would make him feel more comfortable. So, theperson puts it on and goes back to their seat. Asthey are sitting in their seat they begin to feel thatthe parachute truly is not that comfortable and thatother people are not wearing theirs and decides thatmaybe it really is not that important. The secondperson is handed thiers and told that the plane isgoing to go down and they are going to have to beready to jump at any moment. This person, puts thierparachute on and doesn't even take comfort intoconsideration because he knows that it is the verything that is going to save his life. In fact, he isworried about the other passengers who are not wearingtheirs or have even misplaced them because they didn'tlike the way they looked or felt. This person evengoes around the plane trying to convince other peopleto put theirs back on but many of them don't becausethey are still stuck around the fact that it wassuppose to make them feel comfortable. From a spiritual standpoint, I know Jesus Christ doesnot always make my life a bed of roses. There havebeen many times in my life where I have felt that Hewas far away and that things have not gone the way Ithought they should. But, that did not mean I turnedmy back on God. If anything, it was in those times, Iclung tighter to Him, knowing that He would see methrough. How do I know there is a God? There aremany ways.1) He has given the Bible to me telling me abouthimself. (This is the oldest book in history and haslasted for thousands of years without change)2) I can also look outside at His creation and knowthat there is no way in a trillion years that thingswould have evolved into what they are today. Themathamatical equatioin of something as small as thehuman eye evolving is impossible. 3) He has taken care of me in times of need, such aswhen I was a baby and stopped breathing from SIDS,Sudden Infant Death Syndrom. I spent a week at achildren's hospital where they told my parents at thebest I would be a vegetable, blind, deaf, and mentallyretarded. Because of prayer and faith in God withinthe week I pulled the tubes and machines off my ownbody and without any explanation apart from a miraclethe doctors said I was well, minus my hearing whichcame back before I was one. Just to prove that I wasbetter, I was in the top 99% in my standardizedtesting in 1st grade, I had 20/20 vision until I wasin high school, I ran a mile in less than 5 minutes inhigh school, and I can hear as well as anyone. I also had a second life threatening event happen whenI was in second grade. My sister and I were struck bya car when we were crossing a busy intersection. Whenthe ambulence arrived they were sure that my sisterand I were dead. As the people in the cars all aroundgathered to pray for us, we began to move. I wasreleased later that day with only bruises and mysister was released the next day with a broken leg anda minor concussion. You can say both of these were coincodences, but Iknow that it was by the healing of Christ Jesus that Iam here typing to you today. My faith is not justsomething that I read in a book, it is alive andliving. I have many more stories of the way God hasdone miraculous things in my life. I can not denysomething that is real. To me, that would be likedenying that I am here talking to you right now. Thatis why I tell you, seek the Lord and you WILL findHim. Just try it. What do you have to lose? Youdon't have to do anything special, just pray "ChristJesus, I want to know if you are real. Reveal Youself to me I pray."

5/11/06

Well, guess what. I think you have already made upyour mind what you believe and nothing I say or Goddoes is going to change that. Instead, it seems asthough you are trying to make me change my mind aboutthe way I believe. My beliefs are something I HAVEput a lot of thought and question into (20 plus yearsin fact) and concluded that Christ is someone that Iwant to believe in and one person on the internet isnot going to change my mind through a few e-mails. If there is no God and I am just here, I have no reasonto live and I might as well go shoot myself. But IKNOW there is and He has a purpose for me being here. I am sorry that I have wasted your time and I am sorrythat you feel that God let you down, even though Iknow He is still there with you even this moment.