Christians on Facebook

I recently received, in response to my First Letter of Leclair to the Preachers of Christ in Halifax, a message from Christine of Christians on Facebook. Here is her message and my response following, calling on her to bring her 'evidence' to bear.  

Christians on Facebook
Anthony - Jesus did die for you and me. Yes we are all born sinners and none of us are worthy - not one.Every point you make can easily be refuted or explained to you from the Bible... when we use that as our framework it puts everything in to perspective - but of course for those who do not accept it as truth than none of it makes sense unless we are prepared to search deeper- so I can see why you resent being labelled a sinner from birth - BUT just because you dont understand it or like it or even accept it - does not make it any less true.

Why dont you take a chance and ask God to reveal Himself to you...have you ever entertained what it would mean if that tract is true? Imagine your loss if you ignore it. It's easy to block our ears and close our eyes to things we dont like or understand... the truth of the Gospel is like a 3D image - at first it appears as nothing really - we cant see or understand the hidden image and we can say it's not real and doesnt exist becoz we cannot see it - but if we take some time to look deeper and study the image before we discard it - we are rewarded in that moment when the 3D image 'breaks' through and we finaly SEE it... and the once you have seen it you never look at that picture the same and can see the hidden image easily....

I encourage you Anthony to take some more time examining what those tracts have said and look at the Bible passages they have referenced and I can assure you if you open your heart to listen to God you WILL hear Him....I was blind too but now I see!

Christine.  

My Response

Christine,

How do you know that Jesus did die for you and me? What historical record have you, apart from the Bible, that corroborates this claim? Are you sure that every one of my claims can easily be refuted by the Bible? If you are willing, I would sincerely love to hear your biblical refutations of my writing. I do strongly encourage you to write back to me with those at hand.

It all does make sense to me in a manner of speaking, but not for the same reasons it makes ‘sense’ to you and presumably other believers. Your notion of misunderstanding, un-liking, and being un-accepting of things could, I think, be used in terms of hard logic to the believer. Don’t assume that I had never ‘taken a chance with God’ I spent twelve years of my life as a Catholic, and I was blind. But now I see, all too clearly, with logic and reason as my tools (I don’t like to say weapons or armour because I always thought it made Christians sound like warriors, which sounds contradictory to…some…of their teachings.) for discovering the world.

When I look at a 3D image, I cannot say, even if I do not see the image, that it does not exist, as I know that there is an image there. If you gave me a sheet with an array of colours and no 3D image, then I could say that no 3D image exists there. I don’t refute the possibility of existence just because I don’t like something or don’t understand it. You misunderstand me. I simply come to terms with things based on verifiable, rigorously tested, evidence. Evidence (which does not mean: I read in a book that was written over a thousand years ago by forty different authors – not all of whom are included in the final product – that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.)

I have read the suggested passages, but I have read many more, not so pleasant passages that outright contradict the very teachings these tracts seek to push as the ultimate word of god and therefore of supposed truth. Please bring to bear your biblical evidence. I look forward to stepping through this door with you.

Peace&Love