(June 26, 2012 at 10:23 pm)FallentoReason Wrote:(June 26, 2012 at 6:04 pm)Godschild Wrote:
I decided to see what happened if I asked our ex youth pastor a serious question. I asked him how we knew for sure that Matthew, Mark, Luke & John wrote their Gospels. After 10 minutes of discussing in a very laid back manner he concluded with "I really don't think it matters what the Apostles' names were'. He changed the question from 'what was the identity of the authors' to 'what were the names of the Apostles who wrote the Gospels'. Of course, after much discussion on here I've trained myself up to be able to think very critically and I was able to see what he was doing during the conversation from a mile away. But I just pretended that we came to a 'satisfactory' conclusion and said 'yeah better not to worry about. Thanks for that!'
After that, I realised questions are encouraged at my church, but not the type that deal with objective evidence as opposed to theology where half the time you're talking about warm fuzzy feelings.
We're encouraged to ask all kinds of questions, even to question things the pastors say, we are all about the truth. As far as the four Gospels go, without the originals no one can say that the names given are not the real authors.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.