Do you not have any self control in how you post, do you ever ask whether your posts have anything to do with the topic of the thread? If op ever wanted to continue their posts itt, they'd pretty much become invisible amongst all of yours now, wouldn't they? Something to consider?



Clearly, what I am asking is whether prophecy is necessary for your Christian belief. Since you would be a Christian without prophecy, the answer is no, prophecy is not necessary for you to believe Christianity is true. **

Then, what IS necessary for your Christian belief? What factor, if missing or false, would result in you not being a Christian?

I ask because I am quite confident that we could repeat my thought experiment for every item you've listed, and you'd still be a Christian if it wasn't on your list. If that is in fact the case, then what is your belief founded on?

(If you answer the way I think you will, I'll give myself a cookie)


** PS In the other thread, I argued that fulfilled prophecy isn't even sufficient for Christianity. Do you remember?

No, it is not something for me to consider. That's what Mods are for. I don't recall ever posting in a thread in which what I posted wasn't relevant to an earlier post in the thread.

Sorry to spoil your dessert plans, but I'm not interested in playing another round of the "contrary-to-fact hypothetical game." None of the 37 reasons I posted in the other thread have been refuted.

I vaguely remember a brief exchange regarding prophecy. Please site the relevant post in the relevant thread to I'll refresh my memory. Thanks.

Fortunately for you I didn't ask you to. What I asked was which reason was necessary for your belief in Christianity (I assumed you understand what I mean by necessary).

None of your reasons appear to have any bearing on whether you would no longer be a Christian if they were missing or false.

Seriously, it's a pretty fundamental question to ask of a theist in a forum about theism. Doubly so, if what you have called the main reason, prophecy, turns out to not be a necessary reason for you to be a Christian.



Do you understand why I'm asking this question?

Thanks for clarifying the question for me.

The bolded is important because it shows why in my opinion this is a contrary-to-fact hypothetical scenario. I do not believe that it is even possible for a Christian to "no longer be a Christian." I believe in the doctrine of Eternal Security (i.e. a truly born-again follower of Christ cannot "lose" or walk away from the faith.)

Hypotheticals can require a person to entertain an idea they don't think is true. How long ago did you teach critical thinking?

I keep asking you why you believe something, and you keep responding with more of what you believe.


I'll be frank: I think it's likely you don't actually know why you believe, something which is probably not that uncommon, or even unexpected, with fundamental religious beliefs. The interesting question though is, if true, can you accept it, and can you re-examine why you believe.

Alternatively, you could just try to explain why you believe rather than more of what you believe?

Yeah. But that's a two way street. They come here because they want to feel persecuted. It's like BDSM or something.

So some people like to feel abused (in a safe way here on an internet forum) and some guys like to dish out a little abuse (again, in a safe way on an internet forum). Win/win really.

If you cut into guys having a serious discussion among themselves then you're more of a jerk off imo. But I well remember being told I'd get straight in to heaven if I died for The Lord. These guys are just earning their wings. lol

Besides, the sooner they figure out it's an inside job and an individual experience for everyone the sooner they'll get on with their own spiritual growth. Yelling scripture at people just isn't a productive use of God's time.

Psychological reductionism is the last refuge of someone without an argument. - Quoting Dennis Prager from memory

Thank you for sharing what some Bozo told you.

Strawman much? Who around here advocates "yelling Scripture at people."

+
=
*chef's kiss*


eta: in the Hitchens vs D'Souza/Prager debate, even D'Souza had to take time out to put Prager in line. Prager is an embarrassment.

I don't understand anything in your post.

Sorry about that.

I’ve had some more supernatural things happen.

While going to sleep a couple weeks ago I heard a voice saying “I’m proud of you - my friends name. As if I were hearing a prayer. So I messaged this friend who I hadn’t talked to in over a decade and asked if he’s been praying for me. He said he has been. So I heard a prayer.

Then I asked him if he’s ever felt a shoulder tap after praying. He said yes.

Purgatory is not Biblical. And why would you want to kill yourself after getting "saved"?

You've already made this exact claim a few weeks ago. In my reply, I noted that you now have a testable hypothesis which you could investigate, but this doesn't appear to be of any interest to you. If that is the case, you should just embrace the idea that you believe what you want to be true, regardless of whether it actually is.

If you change your mind, it could be an interesting experiment. I suspect you're afraid of your claim ending up being unsupported.

eta: or you're just trolling

Perhaps I said events out of order. After I came back to my body suicide is the furthest thing from my mind. I will never kill myself.

That is a really strange question. Why would you want live a sht life on Earth if you know you can live in Heaven for eternity?

You can’t proclaim your love for God while killing yourself, wasting the gift of life, and expect to goto Heaven. I went to a rainy place. Purgatory is a catholic thing, I went to a very neutral rainy place that I thought of as purgatory. There are different levels of heaven and hell.

I just don't understand the thought process.

If you are a Christian, and you KNOW that you are saved and going to live eternal life in Heaven -- then why wouldn't you want to get there as soon as possible?

Mention this to an evangelical protesting outside of a Planned Parenthood, and watch their reaction.

I already explained. It’s a sin to waste your life away. There are no shortcuts to heaven.

I talked to the friend whose prayer I heard. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in over a decade and he visited earlier this week.

Nah, you really didn't. Unless you are saying:

1. If you commit suicide you won't go to Heaven
2. If you commit any sin, you won't go to Heaven
3. You really have no way of knowing if you're going to Heaven

That's not what I learned in Sunday School.

How dare you introduce logic into this discussion! ;-)

It's never really worth the effort, but sometimes you just gotta jerk a barking dog's chain...

You cannot explain God with logic.

I encourage you all the watch/read The Case for Christ. An atheist set out to disprove God and he became a pastor. There are historical records that prove Christ’s resurrection.