I thought the discussion about evidence for a second coming of Jesus over in Comparative Religious Philosophy Discussion was fairly interesting. There was some discussion of what kind of miracles it would take to get people to believe in someone who claimed to be the Messiah today. But I got to thinking that there are lots of people today that believe in the historical Jesus as the messiah, as he claimed he was, without any miracles. I thought it might be interesting to have a civil conversation over here in this forum about what kind of evidence might have led people to become a Christian. It is evidence that leads us to faith; there is no talk in the Bible about blind faith.
For me it started with the bible itself. I did not grow up Christian, my family was non-religious. Someone that I respected ask me to consider the bible and how we got it. When I realized that it had a consistent and connected theme that spanned centuries of writing by many different authors I decided to give it a closer look. After all, it's hard for one author to keep his story straight in just one book much less a series.
So if anyone would like to, you can comment on what caused you to believe. For you that do not believe in Jesus the Christ, feel free to question my evidences (I'm quite comfortable with this), but remember its just evidence. There will be no proof given, because it still comes down to faith. As for questioning my beliefs, that is legitimate but unprofitable for a discussion, "I believe what I believe" is boring.
ps I've never tried to start this kind of discussion on this forum before, so if anyone thinks this inappropriate let me know and we can stop it.
For me it started with the bible itself. I did not grow up Christian, my family was non-religious. Someone that I respected ask me to consider the bible and how we got it. When I realized that it had a consistent and connected theme that spanned centuries of writing by many different authors I decided to give it a closer look. After all, it's hard for one author to keep his story straight in just one book much less a series.
So if anyone would like to, you can comment on what caused you to believe. For you that do not believe in Jesus the Christ, feel free to question my evidences (I'm quite comfortable with this), but remember its just evidence. There will be no proof given, because it still comes down to faith. As for questioning my beliefs, that is legitimate but unprofitable for a discussion, "I believe what I believe" is boring.
ps I've never tried to start this kind of discussion on this forum before, so if anyone thinks this inappropriate let me know and we can stop it.
