What would YOU do?

Question

Imagine that one day God himself descended from the heavens and stood before you. He proceeds to perform all manner of miracles and wonders, until you KNOW beyond all doubt that He is the Lord. He then plucks your Bible (or Torah, or Koran) from your hands and, with a snap of his fingers, burns it to ash.

"That is not my Word," God informs you. "It has been so corrupted by charlatans and hucksters, so abused by power-hungry zealots that it has lost all connection with My original, True Word." God snaps his fingers again, and a new book appears, floating in the air before you. "THIS is My Word," God informs you, "pure and unadulterated, directly from me. Mankind is finally ready to hear it. Take this book, and deliver its message to the world." Then God vanishes, leaving the book behind.

The message and laws of this book are completely at odds with everything your current faith has taught you.

Would you renounce your current faith and follow the path laid out in the book?

We're not arguing how LIKELY this scenario would be; and there's plenty of biblical precedent for God giving his message to a single person, who was then expected to deliver it to the whole world (Moses, anyone?) The larger question I'm asking is: if God HIMSELF told you the bible was a fraud, would you renounce your faith in order to follow His True Word? Or would you try to rationalize it away and say that that's not what God REALLY meant, or that it must have been some sort of trick, or otherwise avoid having to come to terms with the fact that you had been duped and lied to all along?

Answer 1

I think it's an interesting question. Um, honestly it's hard for me to say. I know I would read and study his "untainted" word, but it'd be hard to spread that word to others. It would be extremely hard to abandon the teachings that I'd have been taught my entire life. I guess it's a test of faith. If I trusted and had faith that the book God gave me was in fact His truth, I would believe it. I would prolly question 'why me?'. as in, why did God choose me to relay his truth? It'd be hard!

Answer 2

Wow, that's a really interesting question!

First of all, I don't follow any particular holy book. I don't know about any other book, but I believe that the Bible was written by men in a time of men. It was influenced by the culture of the day and time and has been translated and rewritten so many times that there is no way to know if what we read today is the same as that which was written thousands of years ago.

I do not align myself with any formal organized religion. I believe in a singular Higher Power. I do my best to follow the basic ideas of love, peace, kindness, respect, and generosity; ideals which are shared by ALL major religions.

While I agree that something like this would be an enormous thing to witness, there is a school of thought which states that anyone appearing before you, performing miracles in an effort to convince you that they are the one, true God, is not God at all. God does not require the performance of miracles to convince his followers of his existence.

As in the story of Doubting Thomas, blessed are they who believe without seeing. I don't imagine that the witnessing of vast miracles would convince me that I am on the wrong path. A force of evil is every bit as capable of performing the same miracles.

If this were to happen to me, the new book, containing everything contrary to my current faith, would be one that would attempt to guide me along a path of deceit, selfishness, hatred, and evil. Regardless of whether or not this being was the one true power, my heart tells me what to believe, and I could never follow a path that brings pain to myself or others.

Seems like a long answer to a simple question, but I would have to say, that for these reasons, no, I would not turn from my current path.

Answer 3

First, there is no God, so there is no question of Him descending on earth.
Second, even if what you say is possible, He would have done that a long time ago, because the youngest religion on earth (Islam) is about 1500 years old, and mankind have abused all the religions so much already .
Third, all religions on earth have covered almost every conceivable topics, He cant possibly tell something that is all new.
And lastly, He would have to do this to every individual alive on earth to start a new religion, because, people are no more living in darkness because of the advent of science and no one will take the responsibility to spread a new faith in this world like the prophets did, the person will be ridiculed to death.

Answer 4

How could you be sure it wasn't the Devil? Those three books you mentioned and many more, have the same basic messages that everyone on Earth should follow. Almost all religious texts teach us to love our fellow human being and other creatures as well as to believe that there is something greater out there than just ourselves, some ultimate goal to be reached through doing good things and believing. I think that if I was faced with this situation I would still be skeptical, and question whether it was God or the Devil that had appeared to me.

Answer 5

If all that happened, sure. But nobody would believe me anyway, so I'd be the only one with the word. Yeah right. He'd probably do it in like a pro football game, where thousands of people would see it and it would be televised. Your scenario wouldn't reach anybody.

By the way, Melvin's answer is HI-larious!

Answer 6

Well, first, I guess I'd have to believe in God. Then I would probably take God's word for it. I mean, how could you argue with that. I don't know if I could teach it, though, if it went against all I believe is right. I mean, it would be pretty presumptuous to think I knew better than God, but if he wanted me to molest children and let babies starve, I think I would have to say to hell with it and suffer the consequences for the sake of the human race.

Answer 7

This is completely impossible, but hypothetically, I would follow the new thing, but I would be forbidden from spreading my new religion to other people in my religion. According to the Talmud, a prophet can violate the Torah himself if told to do so through prophecy, but he can't tell others to.

Answer 8

I would say, "Sorry, Lord. I serve one of your brethren, so I cannot myself take up the reins of this religion. However, I can spread the book itself, not because it'll get me anything I don't already have, but because it's the right thing to do."

With that, I'd try my hardest to see it gets sent to as many people who follow the Christian or Muslim or Jewish paths. It would save many lives, and set them on the correct, direct path for their purpose. That and I wouldn't hear them bitching about me being a Shintoist. ^^

EDIT: And instead of living in the world where everything is set in stone, why don't you just accept that things can be not probable, but never impossible?

Answer 9

There is no need for God to do this. We still have God's word, the King James Version. "Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. " Psalm 119:89. God is bigh enough to keep His word preserved from corruption.

Answer 10

i would follow God and burn that book too, so i will not become a part of another corrupted religion.