What are some verses in the bible to help a person believe in God and the Jesus was the Messiah?
My friend is an atheist and i want to help him believe in God...but he is has a STRONG belief that God doesnt exist. How can I help him? I want to help by showing him verses from the bible. Do you know of any good ones?
2007-02-20 12:06:39 · 28 answers · asked by okay. 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
i would just like to know verses...i really dont care if i "push" him away. as long as i tried
2007-02-20 12:10:54 · update #1
I am a Christian and a previous atheist... I will be honest in telling this straight out to you... prayer is going to be your only path to your friend's heart.
As an atheist, he will not be able to get past the problem with a God creating the universe, much less Adam and Eve. The only thing I would recommend is if he was willing, to give him a couple books on apologetics. Yes, I believe the Word can transform the heart, however, having lived that lifestyle, nothing in the bible would have helped me to believe.
It was the study of books by Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel (both of who were atheists and went out to debunk Christianity, but wound up discovering and accepting the evidence for themselves).
I have a couple of friends who are still atheists who I talk with on rare occasion, but to those who think the bible is man-made and historically inaccurate, they will not be able to accept what's in there. Simply pray for him and let him come to you with the questions. Just be ready to have answers.
2007-02-20 12:14:19 · answer #1 · answered by westdyk1 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Simply quoting the Bible, or any other religious text for that matter will not enlighten an atheist, without the Holy Spirit, words are no more than noise, and understanding will not take place.
Faith, is a choice people make when they run out of ideas or words, and a gift God freely gives. Prayer is really a form of hope, and in you friends case, just as in most others who are blinded by opinion or pride, it is your first, best and most likely only intelligent course.
Buy your friend a Bible, and maybe a couple other books like the Koran, Torah and The Tao to compare perspectives. If God can make a donkey talk, He can talk to a person off the back of a milk carton it he wants to. "All scripture is good for teaching" is a good quote if you want one, and "faith with out works is ..." is even better. The gifts will be a work of faith on your part in concert with our prayer. Good luck & God Bless.
2007-02-20 12:25:22 · answer #2 · answered by blogbaba 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bible verses won't do it for you. (And I am a Bible teacher). If he is an atheist, then he doesn't believe the Bible to start with. So the only "Bible" he'll read, is your life. Over time, he needs to see in your life, and in the life of other believers, a supernatural love that will convince him that God exists, and is doing things today.
Don't tell him you have supernatural love either. If you have to say so, then it isn't showing.
EDIT:
the book: "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis looks at the question from a philosophical angle. He does a very good job of it too.
2007-02-20 12:10:53 · answer #3 · answered by Mr Ed 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As many of our friends have pointed out, an Atheist is probably not going to be fazed one way or the other by verses from the Bible. Find out what your friend wants to know, and answer him or her from that perspective. Also, find logical reasons why faith in the Bible makes sense. A possible source would be the ministry of Josh McDowell. Most of all, just be the best friend to your friend you can be. God bless.
2007-02-20 12:24:55 · answer #4 · answered by Gee Wye 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The best way to help him is to be the best Christian you can be. Shoving verses down his throat isn't going to do anything but push him away. If you're really his friend, then the best way to show him that God DOES exist is to give him an example of what it means to be Christian.
If you would rather push him away than be his CHRISTIAN friend, you have your priorities mixed up.
If you want to MAKE your friend Christian, you can't force feed him parts of the Bible. The problem is that you KNOW the glory of God, the love of Christ. You KNOW this in your heart and it hurts you that your friend doesn't believe in God.
No matter how much you want him to believe like you do, that's HIS journey. Not yours. Why would you want to ruin a friendship because you want to shove scripture down his throat?
2007-02-20 12:09:28 · answer #5 · answered by FaZizzle 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The bible will help about as much as the Harry Potter series if your friend is an athiest.
Quotes wont mean anything to him, faith comes from within and words will mean very little.
Remember, athiests do not beleive that a God exists, therefore a verse that says he does is hardly going to exact an internal change!
2007-02-20 12:12:27 · answer #6 · answered by moxie 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You might want to start off by not using what your friend doesn't believe in anyway to sway him. Use something he can see at first. Tell him to explain how amazing things that God made works. Show him how the more science explores man in genetics, the more they prove that man was created instead of just happened.
Take him to a Ostrich farm. Ostriches don't lay their eggs in America in the Spring. They do it in the fall here, which is Spring in Australia(where they come from). They can't make them do another way.
Show him the Sun and ask him where does it get the fuel to stay burning. Ask him to explain how a cloud stays in the sky until it's time to rain.
Above all, Pray for him and don't shove all this down his throat. Remember, you weren't always a Christian either and he believes the way he does for a reason.
If you want scripture, start with Genesis 1:1, jump to John 1:1, and go from there by the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
2007-02-20 12:31:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
There is nothing in the bible that will make an atheist believe in god. In fact, many become atheists after reading it. That's what happened to me.
My advice to you would be to let your friend believe what he believes, and stop trying to convert him. He's your friend, why does it matter what he believes?
In your mind, you're trying to help him, but from his point of view, you're just trying to push your beliefs on him. If you value your friendship at all, then you won't risk alienating him because you can't accept him for who he is. If you are a true friend, you'll let it go, and accept him for him.
2007-02-20 12:19:37 · answer #8 · answered by eviltruitt 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You could use my favorite: Genisis 19:8. It helped me to see the justice and fairness of God and Gods followers. Or Kings 2 2:23-24 another punishment fit for the crime one. Mark 11:12-14 is intresting, it shows Jesus' pacience and knowledge of botony. No athest can read those pasages and still have any doubts that God is indeed a fair, good, and smart god.
2007-02-20 12:20:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Imagine if someone quoted the Koran at you, trying to convince you that Jesus was a minor teacher and Muhammad was God's only prophet.
Same concept.
You might as well quote from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or the Flat Earth Society's web page.
2007-02-20 12:13:38 · answer #10 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋