Why believe the god of the Bible is God?

[Teflon93]

“What response of Mirdath are you talking about?”

The one I responded to.

“For my part, I can’t distinguish the degree of my openness and honesty from Mirdath’s. He certainly doesn’t seem arrogant to me, as you have accused him of being in a previous post. You, on the other hand, have appeared to me to be impolite in several of your posts to him.”

Reread Mirdath’s response. I was responding to your OP in good faith. Mirdath jumped in claiming I had proven nothing before I had even begun to make an argument. I merely asked a question. Such behavior is typical of forum trolls. The arrogance stems from the presumption that God must prove He exists to your satisfaction before in fact existing. It is a form of solipsism, and typical of those who believe the world does not exist outside of their mind.

Arrogance also is on display when someone posts a thread asking a seemingly open question while not entertaining any answer to the same.

The purpose of this forum is to discuss the Catholic faith relative to others. The nature of apologetics is to offer reasoned arguments. You are apparently not interested in any such thing.

 

[Charlie_Zeaiter]

Assuming all of this was really prophesized (and please don’t quote scripture to me trying to prove that it was), as I am doing here for the sake of argument, it doesn’t seem to me that it would be hard to arrange if the beings in question had sufficient paranormal abilities.

So, it seems to me that you believe that these beings (aka, prophets) had sufficient paranormal abilities (aka, prophecy), but you don’t believe them when they teach about their creator (aka, God).

Some people would really believe anything to deny God.

I didn’t say that, I’m just allowing that God might exist. If s/he doesn’t then they may have an ability to see into the future that wasn’t granted to them by God. That might just be the way they evolved, it may be a technology they developed, or they may have just begun to exist with that ability. My point is just that there are many possibilities.

No, Michael; It’s not right for you to say that “there are many possibilities.” You have no evidence. You’re just playing.

 

[tdgesq]

MichaelLewis:
We can stipulate that God exists, though I’m a strict agnostic. I don’t think the existence of God in conjunction with the paranormal events reported in the Bible and/or the religious experiences had by contemporary believers can get you the Christian God. That is the only point I wanted to pursue here.

Thanks,
Michael

Do you admit that the prophets that wrote the individual books of the Bible describe God as all powerful and as creating the universe? If you do, you haven’t given any good reason why they should be disbelieved. An interesting choice to accept some of the claims of the prophets (even if for the sake of argument) yet deny other claims; namely, God’s omnipotent and creative acts. You are being arbitrary. Care to explain why?

 

[utunumsint]

How novel—you believe God needs to prove Himself to you, whereas we Catholics believe we must prove ourselves to God.

I am Catholic. My attitude at this turning point in my life was an example of an immature faith. One of the things I learned during those nine first Fridays was that God is real and he loves me. To be constantly testing God is simply an example of a lack of trust. However I learned to trust, and to believe. I am still learning to trust and believe.

I dont agree with you that we prove ourselves to God. I dont think that is consistent with Catholic theology. We are given the necessary graces for justification and salvation. Justification is a process which includes works. We are only capable of producing good works because of God`s grace. For our part, we must also cooperate with that grace, and make good use of them.

Ut

 

[Teflon93]

I am Catholic. My attitude at this turning point in my life was an example of an immature faith. One of the things I learned during those nine first Fridays was that God is real and he loves me. To be constantly testing God is simply an example of a lack of trust. However I learned to trust, and to believe. I am still learning to trust and believe.

I dont agree with you that we prove ourselves to God. I dont think that is consistent with Catholic theology. We are given the necessary graces for justification and salvation. Justification is a process which includes works. We are only capable of producing good works because of God`s grace. For our part, we must also cooperate with that grace, and make good use of them.

Ut

Isn’t making good use of God’s grace in our works a means of proving ourselves to God? We are not slaves, you know. We produce those good works we can with God’s help, but we choose to produce them.

If we choose not to, our faith is dead, per James.

 

[TraditionalCath]

God is God. there are no other gods and no other creators. there is and always has been and always will be one God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

I see through eyes of faith. I don’t need to see Him who is above all to know He is the One who created all things and because of His will they exist and have been created.

All things owe their existence to God. all things. no one is greater than Him, and no one ever will be. You have a hard time accepting His existence because you cannot explain His existence. no one can. Not you, not me, no one.

I just accept the fact that He is who He is, and that is the Heavenly Father who created all things and that includes us.