Altering txaq007's Question For Christians.

[David Sklansky]

Txaq007 asked non believers if they would become Christians if they could somehow be shown the resurrection really happened. Some said "no", which I believe is the wrong answer. Christians often point out that those who still would not believe are exposing their biases with such an answer. On the other hand, I want to point out that none of the non believers avoided the question with a comment like "since I know the insurrection is impossible, the question is meaningless". Keep those two points in mind as I pose this analogous question to Christians.

A few days from now a thunderous voice comes from the sky. It makes a little speech in English. Later on you find out that everyone on Earth heard this speech but everyone heard it in their native tongue. Barring hallucinations this is a clearcut miracle equal to anything in the Bible.

The voice says he is God and he has decided it is time to disprove all atheists once and for all. Christians immediately rejoice knowing that only the weirdest take on events could possibly deny God now. Even Sklansky has gone on record as agreeing with that stance.

Except that this voice then goes on to say that he wants everyone to realize that only the Old testament is right about him The New Testament was a clever fraud. He waited until now to tell everybody because he was hoping people would realize it themselves. But it finally became clear to him that wasn't going to happen so he was making one of his rare announcements. Put another way, he says, the Jews are right.

Given Christians stance to atheists answers to txaq007 type of questions, I can't imagine how they could find a way to say anything other than something like "that would make me convert to Judaism". I'm betting BluffTHIS and txaq007 will be intelectually honest enough to come right out and and admit it. But I'm not so sure about many others. Let's see.

[BluffTHIS!]

Given the following caveat:

That this took place like now as opposed to in the future during a time of crisis affecting the whole world that seemed like the end times were near as fortold in the book of Revelation, in which case Satan (yes I believe in him too) might be given free reign for a while via the anti-Christ and thus be the true cause of the occurance, i.e. a fake sign.

I don't believe it is easy to interpret the book of Revelation and I don't think it fruitful to speculate on as you should just be living a godly life now and not worry about whether it will come while you are living or after you are dead, whereas some christians seem to expend a lot of thought on it. Thus because I don't try to interpret such things I would have to research to see whether it would be possible during those times for Satan or the anti-Christ to have enough temporary power to manifest such a false sign.

So given that I did not believe a false sign of that worldly magnitude possible, then yes of course I would convert. However I rate the chances of that much less than you do that christianity let alone any religion is true, and would in fact rate it higher for another religion to be true as opposed to Judaism (I am talking in low single digit percentages here in any case).

[NotReady]

The resurrection doesn't stand alone as an isolated event. Christians are not saying, "See, some unknown guy came out of the grave therefore you should do X, Y and Z". I've never thought that proof of this alone would or ought to be sufficient for a life committment.

The life of Christ was prophesied for thousands of years before He came. John the Baptist was phophesied and he came to prepare the way of the Lord. Christ validated the Old Testament as the Word of God. In other words, all of the events surrounding Jesus as well as all of the Old Testament, are included in Christian preaching.

Therefore your unannounced voice from the sky isn't comparable. In the past, when God has given attesting miracles, He has done so in a context and environment that includes much more than the miracle itself. God makes it plain that it is He Who is at work in a miracle. Add to the voice the proper kind of context and of course we would all have to pay attention.

[Piers]

[ QUOTE ]
A few days from now a thunderous voice comes from the sky. It makes a little speech in English. Later on you find out that everyone on Earth heard this speech but everyone heard it in their native tongue

[/ QUOTE ]

Cor! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]
Neat trick. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

I know I am going to be impressed when someone works out how it was done. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[txag007]

Not Ready's answer is very accurate as to how I would respond. Put it in the proper context and yes, I would convert to Judaism. After all, an honest seeker should be searching for the truth.

[RJT]

Yep. I’d go Jewish. (Although, I would hope that God would tell us this time whether or not it was He who did much the same thing on the day we call Pentecost - we call it speaking in tongues, the native language thing. If it was He, I would hope too He would tell us what He actually said then. )

A point I would like to make as an aside is this.

Even though Christians believe the Bible to be the “Word of God” most of us realize that it was “transcribed” by men, not God. God didn’t literally send down from Heaven the Bible. (Figuratively, He did, too, send His “Word” to us in Jesus. The Word was made flesh, we say.) Nor did He dictate His words to specific men, per se. When we say the Bible is the “Word of God” we aren’t using this phrase as literal as it sounds.

The Bible is basically a transcription (by various writers - even separate Books in the Bible are by various writers. E.g, the Gospel of Luke is not actually written by a man named Luke) of oral tradition. We still believe it is what God is telling us.

The interesting thing about studying the Bible is that like science, its interpretation is not static.

To say that most believe the Red Sea was literally parted is to say that most scientists believe the earth is flat, because that is what was thought years ago.

Also, the Bible should not be taken as infallible.

Second aside:

For those who thinks the Pope speaks infallibly all the time, he does not.
In fact, he has only spoken “ex cathedra” ( Latin meaning “from the chair” and refers metaphorically to the seat of St. Peter) two times in our Church’s history.

[Zygote]

[ QUOTE ]
The life of Christ was prophesied for thousands of years before He came

[/ QUOTE ]

by who?

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]
by who?

[/ QUOTE ]

The Old Testament.

[BluffTHIS!]

NotReady you begged the question.

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]

NotReady you begged the question.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, I answered it.