oddXian: Challenge the Consensus

Powerful Video... ... as the world begins to see more (including the faces) of the truths and practices of the Muslim world, it's going to open eyes (and hearts)!

Unfortunately, militant atheism in power has repeated all the crimes of religious regimes and, absent ethical restraints, made them vastly worse. Though their ideologies despised Christianity, both the communists and the Nazis justified their own monstrosities as "scientific." While religion's atrocities cannot be denied, today's atheist campaigners blindly refuse to accept that atheism's savage legacy is no accident. There's a reason for that," Gray said. "If the New Atheists came to terms with it, they'd have to give up their basic faith. Their very project is flawed, ... The religious sense – of awe, of mystery, of a need for meaning – is hard-wired into our species, which is why Gray, a nonbeliever, identifies a "funny sort of humanism ... He's certainly correct to warn that the attempt to repress the religious instinct (as with the sexual instinct) only means it will reappear in some other, degraded form ... We ought to reject the s...

Helpful words for the Christian apologist... Schaeffer calls the exploiting of this intellectual tension, "taking the roof off" [p. 140], by allowing the weight of these non-Christian presuppositions to come crashing down on the non-Christian. It is like preaching the law--since it exposes a non-Christian's intellectual weakness. Schaeffer cautions us not to exploit this tension any more than is necessary because by destroying a non-Christian's presuppositions, we may leave them in despair. This would be like preaching the law to someone, without preaching the gospel afterwards--leaving them under condemnation with no hope of forgiveness. Quote taken from here .

'WHY will ye die? why will ye perish? why will you not have compassion on your own souls? Can your hearts endure, or can your hands be strong, in the day of wrath that is approaching? It is but a little while before all your hopes, your reliefs, and presumptions will forsake you, and leave you eternally miserable. Look unto me, and be saved;—come unto me, and I will ease you of all sins, sorrows, fears, burdens, and give rest unto your souls. Come, I entreat you;—lay aside all procrastinations, all delays;—put me off no more;—eternity lies at the door'. ...'This is the manner of the dispensation in the gospel, even to beg of people that they would be good to their souls. Christ, as it were, became a beggar himself, and the great God of heaven and earth begs our love, that we would so care for our souls that we would be reconciled unto him' Quotes taken from ADDING TO THE CHURCH—THE PURITAN APPROACH TO PERSUADING SOULS by Erroll Hulse ...worth pondering... How will you ...

The media and “right to die” advocates are calling it “compassionate assisted suicide.” There are always euphemisms to help us through the troubling practices we might not, under other circumstances, wish to pursue. Quote from "A Right to Die" Cal Thomas is right. It's always interesting to see how euphemisms are used to try to justify sin. (i.e., abortion: pro-choice, etc.) ... As an aside, I thought the following was insightful (from the article): What is to stop them if life has only the value assigned to it by the state? As suicide, like abortion, becomes a “choice,” it will be done for reasons that go beyond the reason through which it is ushered in: the supposed “intolerable pain and suffering” and “lack of hope” of recovery. Abortion on demand was conceived through the bogus rape of an unmarried woman and now it can be had for any reason, or no reason. Crimes against humanity don’t begin in the ovens or on killing fields, but by small steps among civilized people...

These findings confirm previous research from the corporation that found that volunteers who serve with faith-based organizations are the most likely to continue serving. In fact, 70 percent of these volunteers continue serving from year to year, higher than any other type of volunteer. Quote from: Faith Groups More Likely to Attract Volunteers, Report Says

This month, a clever fellow in Israel made it possible for anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time, to tuck a scrap of paper with a prayer on it into the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem— via Twitter. If you "tweet" your prayers to the Twitter account @ thekotel, Alon Nil, the service's 25-year-old founder in Tel Aviv, will print them out on paper and have a group of kind souls in Jerusalem take them by hand and tuck them into the wall for you. Quotes from here. Ever wonder what the forefathers of the faith would have thought since they didn't have twitter (but offered their prayers to God whereever they were)?

I liked this so much that I completely lifted it for my records - well stated. From here: http://www.reformationtheology.com/2009/07/question_on_the_state_of_mans.php Visitor : Hello Sir, I would like to ask you a question that has picked my brain for a while now.... All of the human race was deemed guilty at the Fall, this I understand. Now not one single person can do anything good in the sight of God, because his nature is to do evil, and he can not determine his own nature, this I also understand. But what was mans nature before the Fall? If it was good, then how did he Fall? And if it was not good or bad, then....we arrive at the Arminian's argument for a supposed 'freewill.' If good tree produces good fruit, then how did Adam produce bad fruit if He was good?? I'm sorry if this is a question you cannot answer now, if you can't, then thank you for reading, but if so, I would greatly appreciate hearing your response to this. Response: Hi, thanks for you...