Answering these arguments

Catholic Living Spirituality
#1

I am part of a forum like this, except its an anxiety forum called anxiety zone. You can visit it it and go to the inspiration place section to see what im talking about, its pretty sad. People visit it looking for help and atheists jump in and slaughter people for believing in Jesus? You need to visit inspiration place on the site to see what i am talking about.

However, i sometimes argue with the free thinkers and atheists on the site but one of them studied abrahamic religion at college and the other has taken bible classes so the Christians on the forum, including me usually lose against them! I need help from you top guys!

One of the arguments in the forum is the Bible. A guy Carryon says the Bible is just as valid as Harry Potter. It is made up of word of mouth fables.

He also claims the concept of an afterlife was concocted to keep people coming back to church and for mass control. He also says Jesus never spoke of Heaven as Jews never believed in it.

I would encourage you to visit the site, and maybe make up an account and tear these guys to bits! As i struggle against them and they are destroying many peoples faiths. It would be hilarious to see one of you guys defeat these arrogant, ignorant people! One even described our Lord as a Jewish zombie with no underwear.

Thank You, i will go back to Anxiety Zone soon to debate them, maybe with a Catholic army? Lol

Also i am sorry for my poor grammer, i am on my mobile phone. I do have an A in higher English by the way!

Cheers and God Bless

#2

I am praying for you and your endeavours.

A lot of times, people will just parrot opinions that they’ve heard (I have been sometimes guilty of this! :o), instead of taking the time to educate themselves. Perhaps you could challenge them politely to reference (and therefore backup) their sources.

#3

The best way to counter these arguments is to ask for proof. For example the notion that the Jews do not believe in heaven if fundamentally flawed because the Jews do not have a dogmatic teaching on this. Some believe in a heaven-type place, other believe in nothing, other believe they will die and wait for Messiah to come. (jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm)So to lump all Jews into a single belief system is the fatal error. Point that out and don’t let go until they relent, if they ever will. Challenge the facts of their comments rather than the comments themselves.

Other items like saying that Jesus never spoke about heaven, how do they know that? The bible is the primary record of what Christ said and the bible shows Jesus talking about heaven. Never mind the fact that they don’t accept the bible as inspired, it is still a historical record. And it is the primary historical record. If they have something better that tells us that Jesus doesn’t talk about heaven, let’s see it.

#4

Thank You, I will use this to debate them further. Is the words of Jesus in the Bible the actual words that Our Lord said?

#5

Matthew 19:14-
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 18:10-
“…for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.”

Matthew - 5:10
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew- 5:14-16
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

I could go on and on…

Once you post these expect a ‘Yeah, but…’ response.

#6

One of the funny bits is in Acts 23, when Paul gets dragged before the High Priest to account for himself and basically starts a riot on purpose by pitting the Jews who believed in heaven and a resurrection against those who didn’t. :slight_smile:

6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)

9 There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.

re: the Bible in general, a lot of people just enjoy getting kicks by trolling forums, making fun of people, tearing them down for their beliefs, and being general jerks, all under the anonymity of the internet. Anyone who talks about Zombie Jesus or any of the other memes isn’t likely to have much interest in having a serious theological discussion, undergrad degree or no undergrad degree.

It’s important to remember that the Bible is a lot of things. It’s poetry. It’s history. It’s Jewish law. It’s allegory. That’s why no one minds that there are two versions of the Creation story— it all comes down to God made the universe, and it was good. :slight_smile: It’s why Catholics don’t have a problem with eating bacon— that was Jewish law, and was done away with in the NT. It talks about the history of an obscure people, and how they were led by prophets, by judges, by kings, how they conflicted with other people, sometimes conquering, sometimes being conquered— and their relationship with God through it all. If all ancient texts were held up to the scrutiny and skepticism that the Bible is subjected to, we wouldn’t believe we knew anything about history at all. :slight_smile:

#7

How er…aggressive are we believers allowed to be when we tackle our tormentors? Can we give as good as we take? Fight fire with fire?
Anybody else know?

“Peace and Love” is all very well; but, for the sake of being respected, we have to let our opponents understand that we mean business.

#8

Yeah the scrutiny the Bible comes under is unreal. When do you ever see the Koran coming under such scrutiny?

Yet the Bible has yet to be exposed or proved wrong. However there are people who on Anxiety Zone who say different. Their answer was… read Bart Ehrman’s books.

No win situation with these guys

#9