Anonymous John

In response to A Tragic Story, Anonymous left some comments to which I replied with my last post. In response to his comments on that post this is the second and probably last response to Anonymous.
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“We are all born without any knowledge of any god”

I don’t believe that!
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“I assume, and you are an fanatical christian.”

I don’t know what YOU mean by fanatical so I’m loath to agree without knowing your definition but by MY definition, yes, I’m fanatical about my faith. After thirty years of getting to know Jesus, of walking with Him in every situation, of learning from Him, of being guided by Him, following Jesus has become the single most important relationship in my life - influencing every other relationship.
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"According to your bible, your god knew long before he created a man and a woman that his Satan buddy was lurking on planet earth . . .”

Have you ever noticed that there can’t be:
- up without a down
- hot without cold
- light without darkness?
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“Therefore anything done to humans by his evil Satan buddy, would have already been known long before it happened, yet your bible god allowed it all to happen, you are saying that your bible god has no control over his Satan friends actions and it just happened without his knowing.”

This makes me think that you are fairly young, having not experienced allowing something difficult to happen in order to use it for a greater good. None of what you describe took place without God’s knowledge or approval.

And here’s where I have a REALLY hard time not getting snarky with atheists. There seems to be such a PROFOUND lack of insight on the part of atheists into the role that suffering plays in our life - for the good. It seems sooo childish - but - see? Here I go and I don’t want to talk to you like that.

I’ll go a bit further into your comments and maybe things will improve.
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“these things a human being has no control over, we merely exist along with all other animals,”

Oh bull! You and I exist every day making choices between right and wrong and we do it in countless situations that neither of us created or had control over.
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“but why would we need salvation from something that we never allowed to happen in the first place”

We CHOSE. We existed one way and we chose against our Creator’s advice to become another way. You're still making the same decision and it's still against your Creator's advice.

Yes Creator God knew what we would choose but the choice was still ours to make. We knew the stakes. God warned, “Right now you only know about good. I don’t want you to know the difference between good and evil. But - the choice is your’s to make.”

You’ll probably not agree but I believe absolutely that real love is the greatest entity in the universe. There are only two ways to know real love:
1) To have never NOT known love.
2) To have the choice to love or not love.
We let alternative number one slip away so we’re stuck with number two. In order to know and do good, we must have the ability to choose evil.
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“Your bible god is the one supposedly in control here, but yet he allowed his Satan friend to disrupt heaven.”

Exactly! Creator God has no problem saying, “You want someone to blame here? Well I’m your Man.”

Exodus 4:11 - Who gave man his mouth. Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind. Is it not I, the Lord.”

Isaiah 45:7 - I send good times and I send disaster, I Jehovah am He who does these things.

Amos 4:6-11 - I gave you empty stomaches in every city and lack of bread in every town. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your dead sons.”

Romans 9:13-16 - I chose to bless Jacob but not Esau, and God said this before the children were even born, before they had done anything either good or bad.

Amos 3:6 - When disaster comes upon a city, is it not I the Lord who has caused it?

“Is your bible god not in complete control here?”

He is absolutely in complete control and He really doesn’t care whether you like it or not.
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“Can't you just imagine the drugs that were allowed to be openly used in the middle east,”

Dude - you’re talking to someone who came of age in the 60's. I know drugs and I know the “creative” stuff that results. It produced some pretty decent music but not much else of any value.
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“Christains say things like prayer works, but your god does not heal amputees? Why not??? You have no answer to this do you?”

Well now you’re just all over the map and I’m very close to bailing out. Nevertheless, I’ve answered this ridiculous claim several years ago: http://makarios-makarios.blogspot.com/2009/05/atheist-missionary-tract.html
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“You cannot hold people responsible for something that they never created themselves,”

Are you kidding me? When you take martial arts you understand how to USE the power of attack against itself. It’s the same with sin. God has a plan in which evil (the attack) is not Destroyed but Defeated.

That plan involves the world that we have, one of suffering and tragedy and pain and loss - something that I know ON AN INTIMATE BASIS - every square centimetre of it.

Satan uses pain and loss to destroy us. If we let Him, God takes pain and loss and makes us “more than conquerors,” Romans 8:32.

I can’t do this John. The pitiful, pathetic whining of atheists just makes this all so not worth it to me. I can handle your kind of immaturity in a two year old but not in someone who can use a keyboard. I’m just not going to do this son. You need to either man up or bail out! I just don’t have time for catering to weakness. Sorry.