Proving The Resurrection By the Minimal Facts Approach

[Tonus]

God must allow Satan some freedoms, if He didn't Satan and those who support him would accuse God of manipulation. It boils down to this it's not what Satan wants and never was, it's about people having the freedom to choose to love God or reject Him.

I don't think god has to allow satan any freedom that could lead to the fall of mankind. If god knows what is best because everything is his creation, he is within his rights to curtail freedom in order to protect that creation from itself. As the creator of everything, his every action is a manipulation of some sort, so that should not be an issue for him.

Not when they thought they owned God and that He wouldn't do anything about their sin, they were special after all. They must have believe they were so special God wouldn't punish them.

Why would they think that? God had been working with them, talking with them, guiding them. He explained the deal with the tree very specifically. Do you believe that they were unable to comprehend the concept of death or the concept of lies? Eve fell for a lie so easily, and ignored death as a consequence. Is this because she was unprepared for the situation she was put in?

Going out in the rain with an umbrella and defying God are not even close to the same thing. I hope what I wrote above will give you a rational about people and their greed of self interest.

What I mean is, we know to take precautions. Yes, men in tense situations may make rash decisions. Is that what Adam and Eve did? Simply ignored everything they knew and made a rash decision? Because that means that our fate for the past several thousand years (and for eternity) are dependent on two people who couldn't handle pressure.

You're right, the sin nature that we all inherited from Adam and Eve once they unleashed it from themselves. Explain how Christ was suppose to start His ministry without showing himself to those who wee to carry on the ministry. Jesus told Thomas blessed are those who believe without seeing, He certainly must have meant we would receive something extra because we are not given the physical knowledge they had.

That something extra would need to be quite extraordinary to be the same as personally knowing god when he came to the earth in human form. Most of what people describe sounds a lot like coincidence, biased interpretation, or hallucination. And that's aside from the various different gods or versions of god that those experiences lead people to. It seems too risky a way to reach people. Why not have continued to preach as himself for a much longer time? It would be tougher to ignore a man who had lived, say, 1200 years and written countless books of such stunning brilliance that we could not ignore what he represented.

I know we've discussed this before yet you keep ignoring it and I do not understand why you do such a thing. God has given us the choice to choose Him in love or to reject Him for whatever we decide, He loves us enough to not force us into His serves but wants us to decide for ourselves. God does not wish for anything, the scriptures use the word desires, wishing is only for those who are not omniscient.

But clearly he has designed people with a pretty substantial flaw, that even those who know him directly are capable of rejecting him, even in light of the possible consequences. Depending on how they interpret the Bible, Christians believe that anywhere from 55% to 95% of all people will reject god, even though they have no excuse for not believing. That's an astonishing failure rate considering the situation. Do you really feel that so many people are willingly rejecting god when they have such a clear and easy decision before them?

I disagree totally with your answer. God calls all and gives us the opportunity to have faith, it's not His fault people ignores His calling and refuse to receive the faith He will give for belief. I'm really confused how you were able to rationalize the answer.

Well, either we are blessed for having faith without seeing, or god is calling to us and giving us cause to have faith. Faith without seeing means that we don't have to have any experience with god to believe in him. If god is giving cause, then there is a basis for faith. It has to be one or the other, they are exclusive positions. Does god give us reason to believe, or are we supposed to believe without seeing?

It's not up to people to convince you that God's real, that is what God will do for those who seek to know Him. God knows when a persons heart is really seeking and He will answer. Scripture actually teaches this.

I include god in the "no one" who has convinced me. I believed and worshiped for many years, but never found god.

What evidence, I've never seen any evidence that God doesn't exist, but then since God has revealed himself to me I know no such evidence exists.

The fact that the explanations for how our world exists and works can be explained without god. The way that culture determines which god --and even which version of god-- people are likely to worship. The fact that no particular god has shown up to settle the issue in a world that people feel desperately needs him. Many other such facts and realizations along those lines. Everything we know about the universe can be explained without god. I think that's far more relevant than people seem to think.

Then you must believe in coincidences beyond any belief I could ever muster.

That may seem to be the case on the surface, but the more we learn about the world and universe the more pieces we find that fit into a puzzle that doesn't require a god. What we've learned about the development of life on the planet is incredibly extensive, and so far all the pieces fit into a pattern that makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. That is staggering. But most people aren't aware of just how extensive the information has become or how well it all fits together. For that much evidence to fit that well into a theory that doesn't require god should give most people pause, but they're just not aware of it.