Question for Christians from a Christian...?

Question

Did you come to believe in God by logical reasoning? Did Aquinas proofs really convince you? Did you decide to take Pascal up on his wager?

If not, what did show you God was real? Was it, perhaps, God Himself?

If so, why are you arguing with atheists who have (obviously) not been called by God?

To me this is like trying to convince someone you're in love.

Answer 1

Seems to me a "Christian" would know the A.s' to the Q.s' U pose??? We are not to as U say "Argue" rather provide the "Information" that just might help a person come to know the Lord as the Holy Spirit opens their Perception. John

Answer 2

I don't argue God with anyone. I only try to tell them what the Bible says. I came to know Him through asking.

All of us are called by God. Few answer that call.

For many are called, but few are chosen
—Matthew 22:14, KJV

Here is the entire parable, but the New International Version renders verse 14 as “many are invited, but few are chosen”:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
“But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
—Matthew 22:1-14, NIV

The purpose of this parable is to explain the process by which the called are chosen.


In this parable, everyone was invited to the wedding, but the invitation went out in two waves. The respectable people were invited first, but they did not heed the invitation or they only pretended to accept. They lied, they pretended, but the result is that they didn’t show up. So the king told his slaves to send out the invitation again to the people who were not originally on the invitation list, and these people actually did show up. One of them was not wearing a wedding garment, so he was thrown out. In those days, the host furnished the wedding garments, so anyone who wasn’t properly dressed was very disrespectful.

In the end, everyone had been invited, but only a few were permitted to stay for the wedding. In other words, everyone is called, but some people refuse the invitation and are not chosen.

Another Purpose for the Parable
Another purpose of this parable is to prepare the disciples for the fact that when they evangelized the Jews, they would meet with disappointment for the most part, and that they should turn to the gentiles, whom they would otherwise consider unworthy. The bit about the man who avoided the distribution of the wedding garments means that the second group cannot presume acceptance, any more than the first group can presume acceptance because they are Abraham’s children. Just being called doesn’t mean you are chosen; you have to respond appropriately in your faith and conduct and then you are chosen.

Of course, Christians are presented with the problem that the gospel is Jewish, but Jews for the most part do not accept it. There are two theological explanations:

The first explanation comes from Paul and it parallels this parable. If the worthy had accepted the invitation, the unworthy would never have been invited; that means if the Jews had accepted the gospel, the gentiles would never have been evangelized. So the Jews’ rejection of the gospel is not Jewish stubbornness, it is divine providence, so that all can be saved.

The second explanation is that God wants to preserve the Jews as a witness to the One True God. The Jews were a very small and insignificant ethnic group in ancient times, yet they survive to this day. We do not hear about the plight of the Edomites, the problems of the Ammonites, or the exploits of the Hittites in the evening news; all those nations have long since passed away. Today, archaeologists study them, but to most people these mighty nations have shrunk down to names in the Bible that are hard to pronounce. Yet we still have Jews! To me, the only possible reason why this tiny ethnic group could survive when all those larger nations passed away is that they really were chosen by the One True God to bear witness to His existence and providence.

The Called and the Chosen
This parable does not mean that God calls a lot of people, picks over them, and keeps only a few. If that were true, the middle of the parable would have no meaning. It means that God calls everyone and gives them the power to respond—but to be chosen, we must respond to the call, using the power God gave us for that purpose.

Answer 3

I don't know about anybody else on here, but the only time I respond to atheists on this site is when they ridicule believers with abusive rants.

I also don't know any Christians who came to God by "logical reasoning". Logic has very little to do with faith. I may be wrong here, but I suspect you're actually an atheist trying to be clever.

Answer 4

I understand. It's a constant battle with me. I have had a personal experience but it was so long ago and God has just never shown Himself in that way to me since. Yes, I believe that there shouldn't be any arguments over people who don't believe in God, because that's the way most of came to God. Under our own understanding and experiences. I agree with you.

Answer 5

You know, you don't have to be Christian to believe in God.

I'm Pagan. I believe in and worship the same God you do. I just call him/her something different.

Asking questions like these and making them solely for Christians kind of sounds like you're trivializing my beliefs.

I didn't need to be convinced, or see proof, that God was real. It's what faith is all about.

And I don't argue with athiests because I live and let live.

Answer 6

Excellent points. We experience God through relationships with other people.

God doesn't call on the equipped, he equips those he calls on.

I don't know that I'd call it arguing, but sometimes a prompting or a comment can open one's eyes to the God that already exists around them. We're just trying to point that out. Some are more effective than others.

Jesus is for losers (...think about it).

Answer 7

I do see your point, it was God calling me that saved me. But without some friends telling me/showing me what the Gospel really is, there would not have been the oppourtunity for God to call me. Jesus told US to go and make disciples of all the nations. If these people dont hear the Gospel how can they respond to God?
Love in Christ..

Answer 8

I grew up in a Christian home and became an atheist at 16.
God found me while I played music in a club in New York.
I believe in God because he gave me a reason to believe in him.

Answer 9

It is exactly like telling others how in love you are. And the answers/arguments are not for the atheists asking the question . A lot of the time it is for the curious person who is genuinely interested and seeking.

Answer 10

I believe because God gave me the faith to believe, and indwelt me with His Spirit. We are called to be a witness to the nations, to speak the truth in love and preach the Gospel to all. We do not know who is of the elect and who is not, that is God's business, not ours. We proclaim the truth, then leave it up to God. Remember, all of us were atheists, in one form or another, before God invaded our lives.