(February 21, 2019 at 1:29 pm)possibletarian Wrote: Oh I'm fine with god as a 'something that you believe is true' but wouldn't you agree to give it any authority beyond that means establishing that this god exists as a fact.
To quote scripture, or claim that a god showed you the truth of, or revealed to you the meaning of anything in scripture require that you provide reasonable proof, otherwise how can anyone tell the difference between what you simply believe is revelation, and what is in fact revelation. ?
For instance lets take your above reply 'neither can it come from the Bible itself. It comes from God and only from Him.' How do we tell the difference ? This is meaningless as an authoritative statement unless we can first establish there is a god outside of a persons faith.
Well, I can answer you but you're not going to like the answer:
"We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." (1 John 4:6)
If you're the Lord's, you'll hear me. If not, then you don't have ears to hear. That doesn't mean seeds can't be planted, or that you won't eventually hear. That's all up to God.
But again, we're sort of back discussing this premise. If you can't believe in the existence of God, then how can you possibly have ears to hear? And the problem remains the same: you. You're the problem, not God, assuming you truly don't believe He exists and aren't simply in denial. Denial is, after all, usually involuntary, difficult to see (when you're the one in denial), and much easier than facing reality.
The bottom line is that those who accept the existence of God and have been given ears to hear will hear what I say and it will resonate with them as true; you'll know it instinctively. It may take some time to fully develop into conviction, but people know when they hear the Truth.
