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Yes i believe in Jesus Christ and i can honestly say by the grace of God who awakened me from the coma that fundamental christianity(accepting without question all that it serves up) put me under, i now believe nothing like i did when i first believed.
It would be difficult for any one thing to invalidate a complex set of beliefs based in many events.
Still I guess if Vishnu appeared to me, and convinced me he's not simply a guardian angel of the Hindu people but is in fact the Supreme God, that would by definition change my mind. I obviously don't think that can happen. Other possibility is I die and go to an afterlife I don't believe in. Like the Chinese folk notion of the afterlife with "Ancestor Money" and the like. Don't think of that happening either.
More "down to Earth" if somehow a body was found that was inarguably Jesus's. Again I don't think that's plausible.
I once thought that changing my belief about ET (which greatly disturbed me) was impossible. But I was wrong. All things are possible with God. God knows good and well that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father in heaven. Whether or not someone believes that or not does not change the fact of it.
Well, if I died and learned I'd been wrong all my life, I'd undoubtedly change my views. Would you?
Here's a parable that I would like you to read and try to understand:
Luke 16:19-31 "Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.
"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in like manner, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.
He said, 'I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.'
"But Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them'.
"He said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent'.
"He said to him, 'If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'
With all due respect. What did you gather from this parable?
Here's a parable that I would like you to read and try to understand:
Luke 16:19-31 "Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. He cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.
"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in like manner, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.
He said, 'I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house; for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won’t also come into this place of torment.'
"But Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them'.
"He said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent'.
"He said to him, 'If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'
With all due respect. What did you gather from this parable?
With all due respect? Hmmm... Judging from those preliminary words, I'd have to say -- with all due respect, Betsey, that I probably didn't gather the same thing from it as you did. What did you hope I'd gather from it?
Seriously, isn't the whole point of this thread the concept that you might be wrong in what you believe? If I'm wrong about what I believe, I'll be willing to admit it. Can you say the same? Or is it simply inconceivable that this could be the case? At this point, I am confident in my beliefs and I can't think of anything that would change my mind. With irrefutable evidence to the contrary, though, I wouldn't be so stubborn that I'd pretend it didn't exist.
With all due respect? Hmmm... Judging from those preliminary words, I'd have to say -- with all due respect, Betsey, that I probably didn't gather the same thing from it as you did. What did you hope I'd gather from it?
Seriously, isn't the whole point of this thread the concept that you might be wrong in what you believe? If I'm wrong about what I believe, I'll be willing to admit it. Can you say the same? Or is it simply inconceivable that this could be the case? At this point, I am confident in my beliefs and I can't think of anything that would change my mind. With irrefutable evidence to the contrary, though, I wouldn't be so stubborn that I'd pretend it didn't exist.
And this confidence you proclaim....lies solely in Jesus Christ right? For this is the only assurety there is, yes?
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So did the rich man....
