21 | July | 2016 | Craig T. Owens

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40 Questions About Your Religion

July 21, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Dan Delzell wrote a very thought-provoking book—The Mathematical Proof For Christianity—which gives skeptics a lot of evidence to contemplate. As I said in my review of this book (which you can read here), this is a good book for Christians to read with a skeptic as a great conversation-starter about the Christian faith.

Dan also presented this list…

“The true religion is a match to all 40 questions:

Which religion was started by a prophet who never did anything wrong?
Which religion produces scores of people who speak out against injustice and work hard to correct it?
Which religion fulfills hundreds of prophecies that were written down hundreds of years before the prophet fulfilled them?
Which religion produces followers who have established thousands of hospitals, orphanages, and homeless shelters?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, empowers followers to turn the other cheek when being mistreated?
Which religion began with a leader who died, but then came back to life?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, produces followers who do not judge others or look down on them?
Which religion produces a tender love for God in heaven, rather than lingering fear and trepidation?
Which religion do people turn to in tough times and when disaster strikes?
Which religion has done the most to advance the rights of women?
Which religion details historic events that are supported by plenty of archeological evidence?
Which religion is based upon documents that are better preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings?
Which religion began with a prophet who is loved and even worshipped by millions of followers?
Which religion has been around for thousands of years and continues to expand around the world?
Which religion teaches that eternal life in paradise is a free gift through faith in its prophet?
Which religion has millions of followers who experience tremendous peace as a result of their prophet?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, produces followers who are quick to forgive rather than to seek vengeance?
Which religion offers the forgiveness of sins based solely on the goodness and sacrifice of the prophet?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, produces genuine humility before God and man?
Which religion teaches that you cannot earn your way to heaven?
Which religion produces men and women of justice who speak out when others are committing atrocities?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, lines up with the humble and compassionate attributes of the prophet?
Which religion seeks to bring help to the hurting, comfort to the sorrowful, and encouragement to the downcast?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, produces genuine love, joy, peace, and patience?
Which religion requires divine revelation in order to understand it?
Which religion rules not by force, but by love, as demonstrated by the prophet?
Which religion has produced the most freedom of religion in the world?
Which religion turns man’s body into a temple where the Spirit of God comes to reside?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, has done the most to advance the rights of minorities?
Which religion gives followers the grace to say ‘no’ to ungodly passions?
Which religion produces people who long to improve the lives of those from other religions?
Which religion cares as much for the unborn and elderly as it done for the youthful and strong?
Which religion has done more than any other to help turn communities into places of freedom and safety for all?
Which religion provides a personal assurance of salvation based solely on the sacrifice of the prophet?
Which religion has a prophet whose name is used by many as a curse word?
Which religion, when practiced correctly, produces followers who focus on their own sins rather than the sins of others?
Which religion can turn a terrorist into a loving peacemaker?
Which religion teaches that your works become ‘good’ in God’s eyes only after you accept the prophet through faith?
Which religion will you wish you had followed on Judgment Day?
Which religion is the answer to all 40 questions?”

To read some of the other quotes I shared from this book, please click here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: apologetic, atheist, book review, Christian, Dan Delzell, history, Jesus Christ, prophesy, prophet, quotes, religion, skeptic. 2 Comments »

Thursdays With Oswald—Jesus Doesn’t Counteract satan

July 21, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Jesus Doesn’t Counteract satan

If all Jesus Christ can do is to run a parallel counteraction with what satan can do, His right name is “Culture,” not “Savior”; but His revealed nature was stated by the angel to Mary, and repeated over and over again, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.”

The slight views of salvation, the sympathetic drifty views that all Jesus Christ can do is to put in us a principle that counteracts another principle, will cause anyone who is got to the last limit to blaspheme God for a thing like that. It all comes from a flimsy, wrong view of sin. If that is all He can do, what is the good of calling Him Savior? …

It is sin that He came to cope with; He did not come to cope with the poor little mistakes of men, they cope with their own mistakes; He came to give them a totally new stock of heredity, that is, He came to implant into them His own nature, so that satan’s power in the soul is absolutely destroyed, not counteracted.

From The Philosophy Of Sin

For far too long, far too many people in church circles have bought into a lie. The lie is that Jesus and satan are fighting-it-out to see who will come out as champion. As though the outcome of the struggle was somehow in doubt!

Jesus has already won! He already holds the keys to death, hell and the grave. He already defeated satan. He is already Champion: King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

The only thing that is still in doubt is this: Will you allow Jesus to “implant His own nature” in you? Will you allow Him to be Champion of your life?

Chambers also wrote, “Sin is the radical twist with a supernatural originator, and salvation is a radical readjustment with a supernatural Originator.” Let the Champion Originator—the One who has already won!—implant a new life in you.