How can I grow if I cannot admit that I could be wrong?

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Could I be wrong? It depends upon what it is that I could be wrong about. For example, I’m often told by atheists that I am wrong to have faith in God because they don’t have faith in God due to their, “non-belief” clause. They then tell me that I’m not open-minded because I say that I am right and that they are wrong. Then they ask something like, “How you can grow (mature) if you have limited your thinking to depend upon God and say that you are right and everyone who doesn’t believe in your God is wrong?” In their asking this question many of these atheists don’t realize that they are in fact telling me that they are right and that I am wrong and when they are confronted with this fact, most of these atheists stake claim to their relative non-absolute moral standards to say that, that isn’t what they are doing and the rest ignore the fact that they are telling me that they are right and that I am wrong.

Most often these conversations are in Twitter which is limited to 140 characters per tweet so I thought that I’d place my whole answer here on my blog so that it is readily available for everyone to read to find my answer to the question, “How can I grow if I don’t admit that I could be wrong?”

It could be that I am wrong however after researching the evidence all around me I found that it points to God as Creator as described in the Bible. After hearing about Christ Jesus’ life, suffering and death for my sins and of His rise from death to bridge the gap between my imperfectness and God’s perfectness so that I could have a personal relationship with Him, I took the step of faith as described in the Bible to take Christ Jesus as my savior and started following Christ Jesus and I started doing what He told us to do which is written in the Bible.

It was shortly after my step of faith that I experienced the most wonderful love that I have ever felt, the perfect love of God. Not only did I start feeling God’s perfect love for me, I started seeing more and more evidence of God’s wonderful work in my life and the beautiful works He has created in the whole universe.

As I grew in my faith, God revealed and has been revealing more to me about how true the Bible is and of how much God loves not only me, but you too. So if it wasn’t for my being open-minded to the evidence all around me that pointed to God as described in the Bible and if I had not ever taken that first step of faith needed taken as the Bible describes and if it wasn’t all based upon evidence confirming the Bible by scientific methods and if I had not experienced God’s perfect love for me, I could be wrong. But as it is that I see the evidence in all of its glory which God created, I have experienced God’s perfect love for me through a wonderful personal relationship with Christ Jesus and know that He is absolute truth.

So, could I be wrong? I can be wrong about a number of things but not about my faith in God and His love for you and me. No, how can it be that I am wrong to have placed my faith into God when all the evidence I needed to have, God provided? So no, I am not wrong in placing my dependence upon God. It was God who created everything including you, me and everything else so to think that we don’t need to depend upon Him is just silly foolishness.

God is the King of all kings and has His protocol which requires our honesty in seeking the truth. God considers being yelled at, cursed, called nasty names, being belittled, putdown, insulted, and told that He doesn’t exist as not an honest seeking of truth. I’ve discovered that those who do this are not honestly seeking the truth, they are seeking to prove themselves right.

God respects our freedom. If and only if we love the truth with our heart, our mind, and soul will we find the truth about God. The choice to seek truth is a free choice. And all honest seekers find truth. The verses below come from the Holy Bible and each claim that –all seekers find God.  

Deuteronomy 4:29 – But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Proverbs 8:17 – I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.

Skeptic or not, if you are honest about finding truth, politely ask God to fulfill His promise that all who seek Him will find Him. In His own time, of course because He promised that you will find, but He did not promise a schedule. God’s a lover, not a commuter bus. So if you say something like; “God, within the next ten minutes disclose yourself to me or you don’t exist.” God considers that not honestly seeking Him.

You don’t have to take my word for God’s love for you and I suggest that you don’t take my word for it. I suggest that you be open minded and honestly seek truth and find out for yourself.

10 Comments

  1. And by the way since there is no actual evidence of gods or faeries or intelligent power slime (just you interpreting things as a gods doing), you could very easily be wrong. You could & should declare God might not exist… but I doubt you have the integrity.

    • Artie, how could I declare God might not exist when God does indeed exist? Your choice of not wanting to know God doesn’t mean that God does not exist.

      What specific evidence (not just criteria for the evidence) of God existing will you accept? You may want to read my article, “God Demonstrates His Existence Empirically” It’s rather long so make sure you have some time to fully read it.

  2. You state here that there is evidence for god everywhere…as in everything is evidence. Yet this is merely your interpretation. Nothing links to “god” more than the Faerie King, or intelligent power slime. The EXACT same “evidence” you claim for god is the same evidence for millions of other imagined myths. Why do you reject the evidence of the Faerie King… its all around you?

    • Artie, you and I both know the “Faerie King” doesn’t exist due to no evidence of it existing… With God though, we both know He exists yet you chose to not want to know Him.

      Artie, what specific evidence (not just criteria for the evidence) of God existing will you accept? You may want to read my article, “God Demonstrates His Existence Empirically” It’s rather long so make sure you have some time to fully read it.

  3. I give you high marks for the verbosity of your responses, but not the quality.

    I use faith (trust) in my wife because I know her and have evidence of her character. I do not use faith (belief not based on evidence) to know she exists, because she is not imaginary. If you have objective evidence for the Christian God, you should present it and save 6 billion souls. You don’t, so you believe by faith. (“I feel it in my heart” is not objective evidence.)

    I assume you will not be addressing my point about faith, since I’ve mentioned it twice and you’ve circumlocuted each time, but I’ll state it again: you use faith to know your beliefs are correct. Muslims use faith to know their beliefs are correct. Both can’t be right, therefore faith is an unreliable method of determining truth.

    Unlike you, I do not troll. You post regularly to atheist hashtags, where I (and others) refute you. You ignored, so I came here and refuted you. It’s a shame you had to lie about what I said to you on Twitter, but honesty is corrosive to religion. In the unlikely event that the truth is of interest: https://twitter.com/jablomih/statuses/627944003510640640

    It’s your blog, so you can have the last word. You can write another 500 words that don’t address my points, or tell another lie about what I said; whatever you like. I will continue to refute you on Twitter when you post to #atheism.

    • First my apology to you Haywood, for mixing you up with those who have directly replied that they wouldn’t want to be with God (as described in the Bible) knowing He loves them and wants them to be with Him forever in Heaven. Somehow I missed your reply Tweet to me where you broke out my question to you into an “OR” when indeed it is and was an “AND” question to you. God (as described in the Bible) loves you and wants you to be forever in Heaven with Him. Can you chose to accept that statement as it is and answer it, yes or no? If you knew God as described in the Bible loves you and wants you to be forever in Heaven with Him, would you love and want to be in Heaven forever with Him?

      Second, my apology also for not writing it more clearly and simply that you are correct, both Christians and Muslims cannot both be correct. Christians and Muslims (including atheism and other religions) are mutually exclusive. As I pointed out to you in the other comment Muslims are by default contradictory in their Quran and teachings (which I provided examples in the other comment about their Quran and teachings) and therefore cannot be logically correct. Also as I pointed out to you with examples in the other comment how the Christian Holy Bible is consistent with logic and its teachings and isn’t contradicting.

      Third, my apology for not writing it more clearly and simply that I do not use faith to know my beliefs are correct. I must not have written it clear enough or simply enough when I wrote about the evidence I gave of God existing in my other comment or article. I will again provide evidence in this comment to you; hopefully more clearly and simply so that you can understand. Remember, you not accepting evidence doesn’t mean there is no evidence. It means that you have chosen to not accept the evidence provided. You can either choose to accept it or not, your choice to make.

      Evidence of God existing abounds everywhere. For since the creation of the world evidence of God is seen through God’s invisible qualities (logic, mathematics, physics, design, etc.)–his eternal power (gravity, universe, etc.) and divine nature (love, providing, protection, etc.)–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people (including you Haywood and me) are without excuse. Even more evidence of God beyond the vastness of the whole universe (which no one has ever seen the edge of), logic, mathematics, physics, gravity, etc., is the abundance and complexity and design of life (including you Haywood and me)! Read Romans 1:18-32

      I use faith (trust) in God because I know Him and have evidence of Him and His character. God’s character is fully described in both the Old and New Testaments as a loving and caring and giving God. I have faith in God fulfilling what He has said will happen because of what has happened. God has always said what He would do prior to doing it and has always done what He says He will do. God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). And, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you (Haywood), not wanting anyone (including you Haywood) to perish, but everyone (including you Haywood) to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

      Thus my faith (trust) in God is the substance of things I hope for, the evidence of things not seen yet. Therefore, I am confident that God exists per the abundance of evidence given above and that He will fulfill the promises He made with regard to everyone accepting His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus as their Savior going to Heaven and those who don’t not going to Heaven.

      A loving God doesn’t force people to be with Him against their will. God is a loving God and as a Loving God, He leaves it to the choice you and I make Haywood, whether or not we choose to be forever with Him in Heaven or not.

      You (and your atheist friends) have refuted nothing. You (and your atheist friends) do however chose to ignore evidence of God, chose to take out of context and also ignore what is written in the Bible and then claim you have refuted everything when indeed you have refuted nothing.

      Haywood; you called me a liar. Dictionary.com describes lying as; the telling of lies, or false statements; untruthfulness AND describes a lie as a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.

      Three questions for you Haywood about lying (someone being a liar);

      Question 1: Who is it that after I die, I believe I have to face and answer to and receive the consequences of for my lying (sinning)?

      Question 2: Who is it after you die do you believe you have to face and answer to and receive the consequences of for your lying?

      Question 3: Who is it per what we each believe (you or me) that after death has the most to lose and pay for, for lying?

  4. How could you be wrong? Simple. You used faith (belief without evidence) as a method of finding truth, and faith is known to be unreliable for that. Muslims use faith to find the “truth” of Islam, which contradicts your “truth”, so we know for a fact faith is not a reliable method to find truth.

    If the evidence you claim (scientific evidence for the Bible) existed, you wouldn’t need faith. But of course it doesn’t exist.

    Saying “have faith, then you will believe” is the same as saying “believe, then you will believe”. It’s simple tautology, and a sure way to be wrong most of the time. You don’t use faith for anything else in your life because you know it doesn’t work.

    I could be shown to be wrong by good evidence; I am open to evidence I am wrong. You have said you can’t be wrong; you are not open to evidence.

    • Thank you for your comment, Haywood. Your comment stems from a critical misconception you have about the meaning of both faith and reason. When both terms are properly defined in their biblical context, any apparent conflict disappears.

      The concept of “blind faith” (which is what you described, Haywood) is a recent invention, found nowhere in Scripture. If you go back to God’s Word, you’ll find that the Hebrew word for faith, by its very definition, refers to a logical, robust, unwavering confidence in the truth.

      The Bible itself tells us what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So biblical faith is not blind but is strongly warranted confidence. The phrase “hoped for” does not imply a mere wishful thinking as in “I sure hope the weather is nice next week.” Rather, the Greek word (ελπιζω) indicates a confident expectation: the kind of confidence we have when we have a good reason and evidence to believe something.

      Biblically, faith is having confidence in something you have not experienced with your senses. Biblical faith is not “blind”; it’s not the act of “believing without a reason.” Just the opposite; biblical faith is the act of believing in something unseen for which we do have a good reason and evidence.

      For example, when we believe that God will keep a promise, this constitutes faith because we cannot “see” it and yet we have a good reason for it: God has demonstrated that He keeps His promises.

      Biblical faith and biblical reasoning actually work very well together. In fact, faith is a prerequisite for reason. In order to reason about anything, we must have faith that there are laws of logic which correctly prescribe the correct chain of reasoning. Since laws of logic cannot be observed with the senses, our confidence in them is a type of faith.

      For the Christian, it is a reasonable, justified faith. The Christian would expect to find a standard of reasoning that reflects the thinking of the biblical God; that’s what laws of logic are. On the other hand, the unbeliever cannot account for laws of logic with his or her own worldview.

      Since laws of logic are necessary for reasoning, and since the Christian faith is the only faith system that can make sense of them, it follows that the Christian faith is the logical foundation for all reasoning (Proverbs 1:7; Colossians 2:3). This isn’t to say, of course, that non-Christians cannot reason. Rather, it simply means they are being inconsistent when they reason; they are borrowing from a worldview contrary to the one they profess.

      Since reason would be impossible without laws of logic, which stem from the Christian faith, we have a very good reason for our faith: without our faith we could not reason. Even unbelievers such as you, Haywood (inconsistently) rely upon Christian principles, such as logic, whenever you reason about anything. So the Christian has a good reason for his or her faith. In fact, the Christian faith system makes reason possible.

      Ironically, it’s actually human philosophies and theories that are nebulous, not biblical faith. Jesus said that those who ignore His teachings, whether in their thinking or behavior, are like houses built on sand, destined to collapse (Matthew 7:24–27). In contrast, those who live according to “the truth” (John 14:6), like houses on bedrock, can endure all hardships faithfully.

      So Haywood, my faith is in God fulfilling the promises He made in the Holy Bible and my faith is based in the solid evidence pointing to God existing (mentioned in the article) and not a blind faith as you described that I have.

      • Thanks for your response, but I have no misconception; I am very familiar with the Hebrews verse; faith *is* the evidence. You are claiming there is other evidence, but there isn’t. Faith *is* the evidence. If there were evidence, you wouldn’t need faith. I don’t have faith my wife exists; there is ample evidence for her. You completely ignored my point: Muslims use faith, Christians use faith. They arrive at contradictory “truth”. Therefore faith is not a reliable means to find truth. QED.

        Your comments about Christianity being the source of logic are baffling, and do not merit a response.

        • You don’t have to have faith that your wife exists. You do however (I assume), have faith in your wife not cheating on you and you do (I assume) have faith that your wife will not on purpose poison you to death. Therefore, again as the Bible clearly describes faith in Hebrews 11:1; faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The faith you have in your wife not cheating on you and not murdering you is not blind but is strongly warranted confidence in her loving you. The faith you have in your wife is a confident expectation that her love for you will be displayed: the kind of confidence we have when we have a good reason and evidence to believe something. If you don’t have faith in your wife loving you and not cheating on you and not murdering you, why are you with her?

          You bring up Muslims and Christians having faith as being contradictory and you are very much correct. Muslims hold to an absolute monotheism as the core presupposition of Islam. For example, the Muslim doctrine of tawhid (oneness) in Islam states that Allah (their god) is utterly transcendent (Quran 112:1–4). In other words, He is not just monotheistic but a wholly distinct, unique, indivisible, and completely separate (impersonal) being who is unknowable by “personal” beings like us. Allah exists without a place, independent of creation, with no resemblance to his creations. Nothing in all of creation can be compared to Allah.

          The Muslim central doctrine of tawhid creates an interesting logical challenge and contradiction. How can one know anything about something that is unknowable? Yet, Muslims claim to know this about their god, Allah.

          Contradicting themselves even more, Muslims in their Hadith, or tradition attributed to Muhammad, also teaches that Allah (their god) has ninety-nine names that describe various aspects of Allah’s nature and personalities. Again, if Allah is unknowable, then how can Muslims attribute ninety-nine names to him and make him known?

          The Bible, in contrast Haywood, reveals that God is personal, and He has revealed Himself in the Bible so that He can be known. In fact, the Bible teaches that God created mankind for the express purpose of knowing Him personally. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities (logic, mathematics, physics, etc.)–his eternal power (gravity, universe, etc.) and divine nature (love, providing, protection, etc.)–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

          Haywood, just because you chose to not accept evidence of God existing and loving you, doesn’t mean there is no evidence of Him existing and loving you. You’ve already told me in Twitter that you chose to not be with God forever in Heaven even knowing He loves you and wants you to be forever with Him. So why do you continue to troll websites such as this and tweet people such as me about God? Are you actually seeking God to fill that void in your soul? If so, repent (confess and turn from your sins) and accept Christ Jesus as your Savior. Thus is why He came to this fallen world two thousand years ago; to save you and me from ourselves. John 3:16-21

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