Tuesday, May 08, 2007

embarassing

I don't want to sound pessimistic here, but ... *sigh*

Why are Kirk Cameron, a preacher, and two self-proclaimed atheists coming together in a church this weekend? Because Cameron and preacher Ray Comfort claim that they "can prove the existence of God.

It's going to be on ABC News tomorrow at 2 pm and on Nightline at 11:30 pm.

Cameron you know - Ray Comfort you may know. They market an evangelism strategy called The Way of the Master. Our church hosted a series of Sunday morning classes based on their material, but I only went to one. The strategy appeals to people's morals and a fear of hell. My problem with this strategy is two-fold.

1. Jesus (the "Master" implied herein) didn't usually talk to nonbelievers about hell. He talked to the disciples and the Pharisees about hell, but He usually fed nonbelievers, taught them how to live, and preached eternal life. I haven't studied this out and looked at every instance, so correct me if I'm wrong.

2. I was vehemently opposed to Christ for almost a decade and hell was the last thing I was worried about. Christians would approach me and I'd argue with them, point out what I thought were flaws in their theory and intimidate them out of a coherent answer. They'd default to "what if" and threats of hell and I'd laugh. People that don't believe in hell, usually aren't afraid of hell.

The atheists are the ones behind the Blasphemy Challenge ... which is also based on a poor understanding of scripture.

You see why my stomach kind of turns at the idea of this? It's like those Science of the Bible shows on National Geographic (or whichever channel they're on): it's interesting to hear what other people think about scripture, but it irritates me at the same time. I don't want to doubt Kirk and Ray ... I should probably just pray that the Holy Spirit would shut them up and speak Truth through them. Because Ray's strategy, according to ABC, is the following:

Perhaps you think that anyone who says that he can prove the existence of God is a dreamer. Maybe, like most people, you believe that the issue is a matter of "faith." Then we must be dreamers, because we can prove that God exists, scientifically, absolutely, without mentioning faith or even the Bible.

God help us.

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