And then you find a whole net devoted to "Ex Christians" - with 3,155 and growing followers.
What in the world is going on? Are movements of churches like SGM and hyper-Calvinists like C J Mahaney or John Piper to blame for these bruised and hurting people? Or were they never truly Christians in the first place (as many of these dear souls are being accused of)?
I am thinking - thinking and aching - aching. Surely now more than ever we need a revival of grace and glory of proportions that Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke of.
2 comments:
SGM’s issues do not shake my faith because I know in Whom I believe. We have a number of lurkers that pop in and out and never post. SGM isn’t the only “denomination” with issues that have wrecked the faith of some of its most vulnerable members. So while part of this is an answer to a challenge I’m moreso writing this to build the faith of some of the weakest among us that need to be built up in the faith.
I’m not an expert on apologetics but nor am I completely ignorant of the subject. Proving the existence of God is relatively easy. Fulfilled prophecy is His signature. The question is where I would start. I would start by letting the person I was talking to know that the Old Testament canon was finished roughly 450 years before the birth of Christ. It was translated into Greek 250 years before the birth of Christ. Therefore the late dating game could not be played because time is at the very least impartial. I could go to Daniel chapter 2 and then from that point give the interpretation of Nebuchanezzar’s dream for the 4 world empires as Daniel lists in order: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greek and then Rome. The same list is in Daniel 7. Daniel 8 lists the entire career of Alexander the Great. As a matter of historical fact when Alexander came to Jerusalem the High Priest met him outside the gates of the city and showed him the scroll of Daniel and Alexander did not destroy the city because of his respect for the Hebrew God. I could then go to various scriptures in the Old Testament and show where they predicted things that happened to peoples and cities that were fulfilled hundreds of years after they were written. This is a short list I could show easily:
1. Tyre – Ezekiel 26:3-5, 7, 12, 14, 16 (written 590 B.C.)
2. Samaria – (Micah 1:6 – written 750 B.C.)
3. Jerico – (Joshua 6:26 – written in 1451 B.C.)
4. Edom – (Jer. 49:16-18 – written 600 B.C.)
5. Babylon – (Isa. 13:19-21 – written 712 B.C.) and (Jer. 51:26,43 – written 600 B.C.)
Of course I could also go to the personage of Jesus of Nazareth. There were 332 prophesies that were predicted about the Jewish Messiah that were written at least 450 years before he was born. Here is a quick 15:
1. Place of birth – Micah 5:2
2. Preceded by a messenger – Isaiah 40:3
3. Teacher of parables – Psalms 78:2
4. He would enter the temple of God – Malachi 3:1
5. He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey – Zechariah 9:9
6. Betrayed by a friend – Psalms 41:9
7. Sold for 30 pieces of silver – Zechariah 11:12
8. Money to be thrown in God’s house – Zechariah 11:13b
9. Price given for potter’s field – Zechariah 11:13b
10. Forsaken by His disciples – Zechariah 13:7
11. Hands and feet pierced – Psalms 22:16
12. Crucified with thieves – Isaiah 53:12
13. Rejected by his own people – Isaiah 53:3
14. Garments parts and lots cast – Psalms 22:18
15. Bones not broken – Psalms 34:20
Hi, my short comment is this:
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
(Psalm 127:1 ESV)
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