what should I do?

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gregorytib

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I have a friend at work who I can tell completely craves to have Jesus Christ in his life. What he struggles with is the issue of faith. He wants proof of God’s existence. I have a very hard time explaining why I dont need to physically see God in front of me to believe. I was raised Catholic and honestly have never had serious doubts of his existence. Any advice whatsoever is appreciated.
 
Another thing I should add. He was raised protestant until he was 12 but has lost everything since then.
 
I think you should tell him you will never be able to give him physical proof of a God. Faith is called faith for a reason, after all. Instead you should explain to him why you believe in God, and allow him to ask any questions he has. If you do not know the answer, tell him you will get back to him, and make sure you do. Other posters will be able to recommend books for you.

If I may ask: Do you know why he stopped being raised Protestant at 12? And what do you mean by lost everything?

A word of warning though - make sure your discussions don’t get too heated, if you are having them at work. Maybe you could go out with him at some point and discuss it there?

Lou
 
There have been a great many miracles. Try looking some up–in particular Eucharistic miracles and healing miracles, an example of which is St. Padre Pio praying over a girl born without pupils and giving her sight.
 
gregorytib said:
I have a friend at work who I can tell completely craves to have Jesus Christ in his life. What he struggles with is the issue of faith. He wants proof of God’s existence. I have a very hard time explaining why I dont need to physically see God in front of me to believe. I was raised Catholic and honestly have never had serious doubts of his existence. Any advice whatsoever is appreciated.
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What about all the evidence out there?

Some people need stories of miracles to strengthen their faith. Some don’t.

Padre Pio had stigmata for 50 years.

How many thousand saw the sun dance at Fatima.

Miracle of Laciano where the Eucharist turned into actual flesh of Jesus.

He needs to read the miracles of the saints.
The evidence is there.
By its fruits you shall know.

We ourselves need not signs

But Jesus gives signs nonetheless to those who need them
 
Praying to the Holy Spirit to give your friend guidance, direction, strength, fortitude & wisdom in their time of need.
 
gregorytib said:
I have a friend at work who I can tell completely craves to have Jesus Christ in his life. What he struggles with is the issue of faith. He wants proof of God’s existence. I have a very hard time explaining why I dont need to physically see God in front of me to believe. I was raised Catholic and honestly have never had serious doubts of his existence. Any advice whatsoever is appreciated.
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You could plant some seeds and testify to him by your life. You know what St. francis said )(or was it Augustine?): Always preach the gospel and only when absolutely necessary use words.

We each have to come to God on our own basis so all you could do is help him along.

The most important thing is to know who Jesus is. Was he a good man? Was he a prophet? Was he God?

He should read the New Testament if he’s really interested. After he reads it, ask him this: Was Jesus God OR was he a crazy man? I’ve found this to work well. Jesus leaves us no room but to believe that He is God. Otherwise he was crazy. I mean no disrespect for the Lord, as you must understand. He could not have been merely a good man or a prophet.

Some books:

Proof that Demands a Verdict
Written by an atty who set out to disprove God and ended up being a believer

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Who Moved the Stone?
Was the resurrection real?

Skeptics Should Consider Christianity - Josh McDowell and Don Stewart
or any of his/their books

Answering the New Atheism - Scott Hahn

Father Spitzer, a priest and pysicist has a great book out on the theories of how the universe began and how God is the cause, but I can’t remember the name.

Hope this helps.

God bless you in your effort
Fran
P.S. It never hurts to see if the person believes in an afterlife and what is going to happen to him. In a nice way, of course!
 
If your friend wants hard “facts” of God’s existence, just look at the universe. Look at the relationship between the Earth, sun and moon and their perfect distances from each other to allow life to exist.

I read an interesting article a few weeks ago (can’t remember the name of it or the author, sorry) but he said (paraphrasing) the universe and time began with the Big Bang. A very large explosion of light that started the universe and gave it order. When was the last time an explosion created something and gave ANYTHING order? Think about it. Explosions create chaos and destruction but the Big Bang created order. It didn’t happen by accident. There was someone behind it. And that someone was God.
 
In my opinion, proof of God’s existence is everywhere. All you have to do is look around you: trees, clouds, animals, people.

Look at the stars. The nearest one (other than our sun) is over 24 trillion miles away - yet there are enough nuclear explosions constantly happening inside it that we can see it with the unaided eye!

Look at the amazing process of DNA replication, happening constantly in every single one of the trillions of microscopic cells in your body.

To me, those things are absolute proof of God, the entity that created the universe. The more scientific education I have, the more firmly I believe in God.
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Encourage your friend to ‘belong’ to the Church, go to Mass, participate, etc. The faith will come. Tell him to doubt his doubts. Proceed as in faith, and it will grow.
 
“God I don’t know if you are real or not. But if you are please help me.”
 
gregorytib said:
I have a friend at work who I can tell completely craves to have Jesus Christ in his life. What he struggles with is the issue of faith. He wants proof of God’s existence. I have a very hard time explaining why I dont need to physically see God in front of me to believe. I was raised Catholic and honestly have never had serious doubts of his existence. Any advice whatsoever is appreciated.
Click to expand...
I was doing some work on John 3, The New Birth, with Nicodemus and just thought of this post.

Jesus metions the wind. Can you prove the wind exists? You can’t see it, can you?

But you could see the effects of the wind. Leaves moving, the feel on your skin, water moving, etc.

Just a thought.

I’m not too sure what is meant by struggling with the issue of faith. He has faith in a lot of things he doesn’t see.

When he gets on an escalator he doesn’t see how it’s going to work, but he gets on it and by faith he knows it’ll get him to the top.

He buys a container and on it it says “milk”. By faith he knows there’s going to be milk inside.

I guess he just needs this “proof” he’s talking about.

Priests hearing the word of God and living to be a priest is proof - people leaving their country and family because they heard the word of God and became missionaries is proof. You know, we christians are proof - or we’re all crazy!!

Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Does gravity exist? Right. The apple falls - same analogy as the wind.

People who are looking for proof are really saying they can’t believe in God; for whatever reason. Your friend should try to get to the real reason.

God bless you
 
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