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From: ix415@sdcc6.UUCP (Rick Frey)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: the Temptations (not a singing group)
Message-ID: <2008@sdcc6.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Apr-85 21:50:04 EST
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Posted: Thu Apr 11 21:50:04 1985
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> No, JC is talking to me, and uses as his excuse his story of refusing to
> work miracles for Satan.  "Why just the other day, Satan asked me to do
> just that" he says.  Needless to say I am discomfited because he is
> implying I am like Satan to ask such a thing.
> 
> And you're damn right I'm asking to see miracles on demand.  I'd say the
> presumption is on the part of JC claiming to be a miracleworker.  If I
> was wrong, my apologies would be sincere and I wouldn't need further
> evidence.  However, I certainly wouldn't ask anyone to believe on less
> evidence than I insist on for myself.  The way many apostles and the like
> must have.  [Mike Huybensz]
> 
There are two major problems with this idea.  The first is that you as a
person have the right to tell God how and when He will display Himself
to you.  Unfortunately, God has not given you this ability.  The Bible
says that God is revealed through creation, through having made us
(Romans 1:16-18) and in the person of Jesus Christ (John 14:6-20
roughly)  God has not offered you the ability to create your own method
of coming to Him such that you can tell Him what to do and He'll be your
little genie in a bottle to perform tricks at your command.  If you
object to this on the grounds that your intentions aren't to see the
tricks, but to find out if God really exists, then keep reading.

The second problem is a little more theoretical but hopefully it will
make sense.  The Bible says that "without faith it is impossible to
please Him." (Hebrews 11:6)  To make the point simply, if God revealed
Himself to you such that there was no doubt, there would also be no
faith.  While you might scream that that is bogus justification, it's simply
the way God set things up.  Christ, after having appeared to Thomas said that
Thomas was correct to believe that He was the Christ, but more blessed are they
that believe without seeing.  It isn't impossible.  Thousands who had never
seen Christ became believers all throughout the book of Acts and just look
around today, obviously there's at least enough evidence to have kept
Christianity alive, under consistent and scholarly attack, for almost 2000
years.  The Bible says that all who honestly seek after God will find
Him.  The big question is how many people who claim to be really seeking
after God are really seeking after *GOD* and not what they want to find.
I'm not making implications in any directions.  There are just as many
phony Christian seekers as there are from other religions.  But face to
face confrontations with God, at your command, are not a luxury that God
has offered you.

				Rick

"For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for those who come to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek
Him."  Hebrews 11:6 (maybe 7 too)