Amazing Job Lee Strobel is incredible how you went from being an atheist to be a Pastor. It would be a privilege for me to get to meet you someday. You're a great person and as a Christian sometimes I have doubts and questions but at the end God gives me answers through his word. There are some questions I have that have remained unanswered, but I still have faith In Jesus and I have faith that when I die I will be in front of Jesus and I will ask him all the things I want to know. Keep defending our faith Professor Strobel.
Brother, you can not prove yourself to God. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. That is why God, in his mercy, sent his Son to live a perfect life, doing something that is impossible for all men. He did what we could not and paid the penalty we owe so that we could be reconciled to Him. Our faith in Christ's work of redemption, and his bodily ressurection from the grave covers us in his righteousness. When God looks at us, he sees his Son's righteousness and his perfection. That's the good news! We are perfect to God because we are perfected by him. Yes, we still have a sin nature, we will struggle and have failures, but his blood covers it all, and we now look forward to the day when we are gathered to him and he will make us whole, never to sin again, and to enjoy and praise him forever.
My goodness, I can remember listening to Lee on the Larry King show, oh so many years ago, and he was promoting his book, Case For Faith, or it may have been Case For Christ, anyway I can remember thinking ,wow this guy is so excited about being a Christian. Anyway I finally got those books, and amazingly it opened up my knowledge and introduced me to some of the greatest minds of Christianity, PHD level brilliant theologians. Thank you Lee. And Larry King for that matter.
Lee Strobek, These are very heart warming, inspiring stories. Truly, a loving heart is very powerful. People truly have a need for it. And yet my heart aches a bit. I wonder were these people that were atheists come on intellectual appeal or was there repentance involved? The other is more heart rendering. Is this love leading them to the lying Jesus??? Most modern bibles quote Jesus in a lie. Surely you know that. The ESV, NIV as of 2011, NASB, NET etc quote Jesus in a lie In John 7:8 their Jesus says. I am not going to the festival. (not me, count out). He waits and then goes. Liar! BLASPHEMY!!! In the despised KJB, Jesus actually said, I am not going up yet to the feast..(not now, not yet). He waits and then goes.. God said He preserved His word. Psalm12:6,7. Does you bible admit that? If not, anything goes eventually. Does it have 1 John 5:7 or v 8 split to hide the missing v 7. 1 John 1-3. The litmus test, try the spirits, Does yours have that correctly? We are watched and trusted when we walk with Him for awhile. Answer bv this question please. How will Jesus judge those who honor the lying Jesus? Will God not be full of wrath? Will it be even worse for those who changed God's word? And for those who promoted the blasphemy and paraded that Jedus as the true Jesus? Very, very serious charges!
A small point: Lee might have been a crude person as an atheist but atheism wasn’t the cause of the crudeness. Many atheists are loving, kind, and empathetic so dropping atheists isn’t a requirement to be a kind decent moral person. All that is required in a will to be kind.
Well Lee specifically said that atheism was the reason why he was a hedonist. "If there is no god and nothing matters, why not live for my own pleasure? Who cares what others think or who I hurt? It doesn't matter in the end anyways"
Mr Strobel, I appreciate your approach and openness to biblical questions. I have a biblical question that pastors seem to avoid. I have been looking for a serious truth seeker to help me to come to truth. So I'm moved to ask you to hear what I believe that God is showing me from scriptures.
Daniel don’t get too caught up in needing every question answered before you believe completely. Remember the thief on the cross…he simply had a change of heart, repented of his wicked ways and joined Jesus in paradise when he died. All in the space of a few hours. The gospel can be taught to someone in less than 5 minutes and if they believed in their hearts then they are saved. It’s so simple that a child can understand it. There’s nothing wrong with loving God to the point where you seek answers to your questions. God wants you to seek after him and if you do then knowledge will be given to you. Maybe not all at once lol. Just remember that Jesus Christ is the truth, the way and the life. He took your place on the cross and paid the price for your sins. And mine. And everyone who repents and believes. I wish you well on your walk with Christ my brother just don’t let unanswered questions cause you to doubt that essential truth. God bless you and your family. Peace be unto you ✝️❤️
Hello. I am an atheist. I define atheism as suspending acknowledgement of the existence of gods until sufficient evidence can be presented. My position is that *_I have no good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods._* And here is the evidence as to why I currently hold to such a position. 1. I personally have never observed a god. 2. I have never encountered a person whom has claimed to have observed a god. 3. I know of no accounts of persons claiming to have observed a god that were willing or able to demonstrate or verify their observation for authenticity, accuracy, or validity. 4. I have never been presented a valid logical argument which also employed sound premises that lead deductively to a conclusion that a god(s) exists. 5. Of the 46 logical syllogisms I have encountered arguing for the existence of a god(s), I have found all to contain multiple fallacious or unsubstantiated premises. 6. I have never observed a phenomenon in which the existence of a god was a necessary antecedent for the known or probable explanation for the causation of that phenomenon. 7. Several proposed (and generally accepted) explanations for observable phenomena that were previously based on the agency of a god(s), have subsequently been replaced with rational, natural explanations, each substantiated with evidence that excluded the agency of a god(s). I have never encountered _vice versa._ 8. I have never experienced the presence of a god through intercession of angels, divine revelation, the miraculous act of divinity, or any occurrence of a supernatural event. 9. Every phenomena that I have ever observed has *_emerged_* from necessary and sufficient antecedents over time without exception. In other words, I have never observed a phenomenon (entity, process, object, event, process, substance, system, or being) that was created _ex nihilo_ - that is instantaneously came into existence by the solitary volition of a deity. 10. All claims of a supernatural or divine nature that I have encountered have either been refuted to my satisfaction, or do not present as falsifiable. ALL of these facts lead me to the only rational conclusion that concurs with the realities I have been presented - and that is the fact that there is *_no good reason_* for me to acknowledge the existence of a god. I have heard often that atheism is the denial of the Abrahamic god. But denial is the active rejection of a substantiated fact once credible evidence has been presented. Atheism is simply withholding such acknowledgement until sufficient credible evidence is introduced. *_It is natural, rational, and prudent to be skeptical of unsubstatiated claims, especially extraordinary ones._* I welcome any cordial response. Peace.
I have observed God. I drowned in the ocean. I watched myself die from outside of my body. Next thing I knew I was up in the sky with a warm sunshine feeling shining on my back. I knew without any shadow of a doubt that I was in the presence of God. All of life made sense in that moment too, all the pain, all the sadness and grief. Every single experience of my life made sense. It was incredible. I was completely at peace and so calm. I then asked God to please let me live because my mother would not be ok if I drowned at that moment. She was going through a very hard time and it would tip her over the edge. Next thing I knew I was back in my body and the sea spat me out. Here I am today. I didn't go on to live a life of worshipping God faultlessly. Very far from it. But I do absolutely know that I have been in the presence of God.
Thank you so much Lee Strobel for all that you do in the name of JESUS. JESUS CAME TO GIVE US LIFE IN ABUNDANCE. The blessings on our lives are unexplainable. I praise God that we are not supposed to be rich only in our salvation, but rich in every way. I don’t serve a God of poverty. What kind of logic is that if we worship a God who doesn’t bless us while we are on earth. WE ARE BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING! Shalom! ❤️
You can be a person of deep personal Faith but not what anyone would call 'religious'. I have followed the Guidelines of Problacism for many years and consequently I have been given everything I could possibly ever need or want. I also don't suffer from any anxieties, fears or depression. Problacism does not require any prayer, churches, iconoclasm or worship. All it requires is that you lose all your ego and indiscriminately help everyone who is 'sent' to you without any expectation of recognition or reward. Trust in the Universe and be Relentless.
No one who was writing what ended up in what we call the Bible was thinking at the time that they were writing what would be considered scripture or God's word in the next 500 -2000 years. It's a hodge-podge of folk stories and accounts of events by people who were not well educated and weren't abiding by the modern principles of journalism, which is to write facts without bias or attempt to persuade readers/listeners of a certain point of view. We have no original pieces of what is now the current Bible. Everything we have now are copies of copies of copies (and so on many times over) with inevitable mistakes, additions, omissions, and interjections designed to influence readers or please the people who paid for a copy to be made. Some books of the New Testament are outright forgeries. Not written by Paul, even though they tried to make it appear that way. Church policies have been based on some of those forgeries. We have to remember that two to five thousand years ago, there weren't printing presses to make copies easily and accurately. Each copy of any piece that is now part of the Bible was made through a difficult, time-consuming process. No one was proof-reading for accuracy. Of course mistakes happened, even when someone had the best intentions. The stories in the Bible are not original to Judaism or Christianity. They existed in ancient literature and in religions that pre-dated Christianity and the Bible. Many religions have a virgin birth story, a flood story, parting of a sea, walking on water, and many others from ancient mythology. I didn't know all these things when I was growing up in a fundamentalist Christian church. It was clearly implied that somehow God directed people to write the Bible, that the earth was maybe 6000 years old, and the earliest Christians were similar in beliefs to modern fundamentalist Christians. I'm glad I have taken the time and effort to learn more beyond those ideas. Don't be afraid of the truth. It is a good and healthy thing to understand the truth, even when it opposes something you believed for a long time. There are blatant contradictions in the scriptures, leading to the obvious conclusion that one must be a lie, because both statements can't be true. Again, maybe there were good intentions but still there were serious mistakes such that we can't know what was originally written. We might desperately want to believe that it's God's word but that just isn't the case. There was no god writing any of it, with the possible exception of the ten commandments. The gospels were written decades after Jesus and his apostles died, in Greek, although the apostles and Jesus spoke Aramaic and didn't know Greek. Yet they appear to contain quotations directly from Jesus. It would be as though some completely illiterate people were trying to quote in a foreign language what someone said 75 or more years ago. The birth story of Jesus is vastly different in the gospels. Read it for yourself. You can see that they can't all be true. People who believe there are no Bible contradictions simply haven't looked at the gospels and compared what they report. I don't know that any readers here are interested in the pursuit of truth, at least my definition -- looking for facts without influence from what I wish to be true. The God portrayed in the Bible is a pretty awful character, not loving in the slightest. He ruthlessly killed people by the thousands, often on a whim for slight reasons. Why would God create a world and then destroy the whole thing in a flood? Why, if God knows everything, wouldn't God be able to avoid mistakes? Couldn't God have made sure the Bible would be accurate and consistent? If it's so important, you'd think that would be Job Number 1. Wouldn't God save his chosen people, the Jews, from Nazi obliteration? If not, why not? Are there actually instances of talking donkeys and serpents? How can we believe some of the fantastical things in the Bible? The word "faith" seems to mean believing something for which there is no evidence and feeling good about it. There is no validity to any god or goddess hearing our prayers. Those who convince themselves of this are delusional and I'm sorry that this continues to happen. When someone is quite sick you often hear people talking about praying for them. There isn't anyone hearing these prayers. It's fiction, designed to make people feel less anxious. It seems to them that they're doing something constructive when they pray. We all know deep down that the prayers aren't doing a bit of anything helpful. Instead, do something loving and helpful for them or their family. That is meaningful and provides needed encouragement and a sense of community. People throughout history have apparently had quite a large number of gods. They come and go, but apparently serve a purpose in comforting people with the thought that some supernatural being is in charge of important matters -- war, love, sex, the sea, weather phenomenon, fertility of animals and crops, etc. We're no different than the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Norse people, Mayans, and so on. We like the idea that some being way up in the sky is in charge and knows everything we think about. Many people especially hold fast to the belief in a life after we die. When I hear a person like the man in this video, I think how they may be motivated by good intentions (although many are motivated by greed and desire for power and fame) but they carry on over time and keep people from thinking over the problems in life and what is true and useful. Definitely love your neighbor. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. That is ancient wisdom that will serve us all well.
Hi Mr Lee Strobel How are you? I am Megan Lee from KL I was wondering what is the Apologetics about and do you have any comments on it? How can it be settle as a Church and as a Christian; its Y2024-AUG and my brother from Barclay is coming bck for visit. I hope that you give me feedback soon as time is essence. Also what about the Case for National-Pensonic? With regrds to meat grinders and the general public, etc. I have about 5Q- Hope it can be resolve so can move on. If possible I hope t visit your website and perhaps, give you a tingle :)
I love being an apologetic Christian simply because we don't need happy-go-lucky clapping laughing types of preachings like the prosperity preachers do but instead we enjoy the meat and potatoes of the Bible that will make us grow
Lee Strobel's story in a nutshell: "My wife left me, therefore god exist". Not the best, but still better than J. Warner Wallace's "Did I mention I used to be a cop" shtick or William Lane Craig's ever-worsening word salad. But hey, they all sold a lot of books so it must be true.
Donovan, Sorry if that was your takeaway. If you did not know his amazing backstory, I could understand the confusion. “Almost” everyone there & watching knows his epic testimony. Try watching his movie “The Case for Christ” from 2017. It is the full story of how he came to believe in Jesus. Some people need facts & statistics, others only need a very small amount of faith. The movie is worth your time, but in the end it is your decision. God Bless your search for truth. This short video doesn’t really touch on his journey for the truth of Christ...other than why he started it. Brad
So now he goes on to promote his proof of heaven with yet another book. Here is the problem with anything Strobel has said or will say. I'm not the only channel on youtube that is debunking his claims from his interviewees one by one as I have an entire playlist just on Strobel's C For C. He is an award winning legal journalist in the past but yet never checked a contrary opinion in his interviewees. He never fact checked his so called evidence--he used their books and it is in his own book C For C as sources. Almost all of his interviewees were fundamentalist--could you be more biased? And now yet he has another book more opportunistic for money being made from his base. Same category as the Burpos. So know I take nothing seriously from him as objective. Cheers, DCF
Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven !!! Many are mislead by false teachings, such as "many ways lead to heaven," "God loves us all, so I will go to heaven," and "I'm a good person, doing good deeds, so I will be in heaven," or "When I die, I will be reborn on earth." ALL of these are false, man-made teachings! The Holy Bible teaches us why we MUST make Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. In John 15:5 Jesus makes this startling claim: “apart from me you can do nothing.” As true believers, we must pray earnestly and specifically. We pray that the Lord would give all people a desire to talk about things of faith and to be willing to think critically about their own lives and worldview. We ask the Holy Spirit to help these people embrace the reality of absolute truth found only in Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven, and be eternally joined with our Heavenly Father. AMEN .
Virtual Willis Good question! I have a question to answer your question: Do you think that having free will in heaven may lead us to hurt people out from our selfish way of living? No. People that will get in heaven are those who love humans as God loves us. So... even if we will have free will in heaven, we will never use it against other humans for many reasons. One will be that in heaven all of our need will no longer affect us. So I will never ever be put in a situation that my “free will” will make other human suffer.
Just be authentic, the hands and feet of Jesus in all that we do. We are sinners saved by grace. Extend that grace to all who we come into contact with. 💞 Trusting God to do the rest. Also at the end of this video..it’s a reminder to me that God’s word will not go void! We are called to be His hands and feet. Trust the outcome is in His hands. “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
No because you're reading it wrong..John is used as a comparative model..hes not saying John is low on the scale. Hes stating as important as john is, the least of us will be as important as that.
hey Lee..you did all this research, to become a Christian...why not take it further and do some research, on the Early Church, and the Church after it became legal under Constantine....why has culture dominated the Church for all of these years...
The best advice I can think of is to balance this pablum with some Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Mat Dillahunty, Seth Andrews and other thinking atheists….none of which Strobel will debate.
@The Republic Tribune Remember the gospels were written 65-110 years after the supposed death and resurrection. There were no eye witness accounts when these were written, only stories passed on….among a largely illiterate, superstitious and ancient civilization. Also, there are no original copies of the gospels, only copies of copies of copies. When Christianity started to get some traction the burial place of Christ was forgotten or unknown. Strobel is a theological lightweight…..but a rich one at that. Try to get him to speak at your church…see how much that’ll cost you in “ love ❤️ offerings”…10- 20,000$
@The Republic Tribune fair enough. I see your anxious to learn. Why not give Seth Andrews, Matt Dillahunty ( Strobel refuses to debate him), and especially Christopher Hitchens. These are distinguished atheists who are objective and from what I can see are without any axes to grind. At least give the other side time to present their view. You’ll be better able to defend your position having heard both sides.
@The Republic TribuneI don’t know when Strobel refused either. It was a claim Dillahunty made on one of his radio broadcasts. All the the best to you in your search for truth. It appears you’ve wisely left emotion out and objectivity in in your search
@The Republic Tribune what if the body was simply stolen? It's like me going to my garage and my car is missing and I say it must have come alive and drive off.
“They were down in the basement praying for William Lane Craig”. Tell that to the parents of the 9 million children that die every year before they reach the age of 5. Their prayers went unanswered.....and worse yet, if they were praying to the wrong God, according to William Lane Craig, they and their children will spend eternity in hell ( now that Limbo has been discontinued).
If you think 9 million children dying every year before they reach the age of 5 is bad, over 60 million children are killed every year before they are even born! And who is there to help those children besides Christians? Atheists don't care about the murder of children unless it fits their narrative. Let's worry about those 60 million children that are MURDERED every year over 9 million that die from other causes
@Winston Kent yeah im in the 21st century alright, but we just went full cycle to pre-israel canaan. All we need now are the sacrificial altars and the cow idols, and we'll be just the same. Hopefully we do not share the same fate as the canaanites of old, however we can only hope that God's new testament to us that he gave with his son is enough to stop him
Agree with Craig, God is not responsible for our sins. Jesus with his blood cleansed the world of all sins and pushed the demons to the underworld but man still has the stains of sins handed over from our fore fathers. This sin has a domino effect that keeps going until we a human breaks the chain and return to God. Each one of us can make the difference, keeping up the hope and prayers
@@bryanhauschild4376 it’s a Roman Catholic thing, sort of like purgatory….it’s where unbaptized children go. It’s like heaven except god isn’t there….I’m not making this up. I was taught that in 2nd grade.
Hello. I was wondering why you still choose to be Christian even though there are contradictions in the Bible. There are so many of them, and yet it only takes one to disprove the entire Bible. I know many can be explained away, but others simply cannot. The biggest contradiction, in my opinion, deals with the very core of Christianity. God’s love. Some verses says that he loves everyone, earnestly wishing that everyone would be saved. Others however, says that he does not and the Bible goes so far as to say that he only loves the elect (which is the few) and that the vast majority of people he predestined to go to hell. Verses that prove God DOESN’T love everyone: John 15:16, Acts 15:17-18, Romans 9:11, 1 Thessalonians 1:4, Proverbs 16:9, Romans 9:15-23, Acts 13:48, Romans 9:21-23 Verses that prove God DOES love everyone: John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 4:8, Romans 11:32, 1 John 2:2 And if somehow you have an answer, then my next question is, if God loves everyone (in any way, shape or form) then why did he create people he KNEW would end up in hell. Is he an evil god that loves to watch people burn? Thank you for taking the time to read my question.
Excellent questions! As a high school apologetics teacher, I would love to answer your question. Years of study of the Bible have yielded these answers. I hope they help you on your journey. First, a contradiction does not disprove the Bible, because the Bible is a patchwork of dozens of literary types, written from different perspectives at different times. Some of the books are meant to be taken somewhat literally, at face value, but many must be heavily interpreted in order to discern the real message God was revealing through the human authors. Several things will help dispel the issues you are struggling with: 1) Proper interpretation of older texts. 2) Correct understanding of Hell in Christian Theology. 1) The Bible shows a developing understanding of who God is. The first people that God revealed Himself to had very primitive, ancient worldviews and could not comprehend God in the fullness of His mercy. He met them where they were. The Old Testament revelation is, therefore, not perfect for a Christian to just take at face value. This is why it seems to conflict some of the later revelation. Jesus himself reinterpreted the Old Testament and clarified its meaning (see the Sermon on the Mount). 2) Hell is based on our decisions, not on God's arbitrary judgment. It's less like Santa's naughty list and more like the end result of our life choices, and the status of our heart when we die. Christianity isn't a report card, but a relationship. To answer the question about creating people He knew would go to Hell, look at it this way: your question implies that God's foreknowledge makes free will impossible. But if we really believe in free will, that God respects our decisions enough to let us deal with the consequences, then God's knowledge of what we will choose doesn't mean He is pushing us to choose those things. And if we say God can intervene to save us from evil choices, then He is not really letting us be free. I hope these very simplified versions of the answers to your questions may help you as you continue to explore. I asked many of the same questions years ago, and with the help of prayer, research, and good teachers, I was able to find the answers I needed. God bless you!
@@jennifercarrico681 The Bible is the Word of God in the words of human beings. He inspired human authors with truth about Himself, but worked through their own personalities, memories, biases, and worldviews. The result is a larger narrative that, when viewed as a whole, fits together remarkably well. But there's a development there. It isn't as simple as the idea that everyone who contributed to biblical writings knew everything about God, or that He dictated things directly to them. It is free from error in the sense that it teaches us exactly what God wants us to learn about Himself...but we can only properly interpret it with the help of the Church--the organized group of believers. The Church came before the Bible and helped compile it.
Jennifer Carrico He could control them if He wanted, but He has given us free will, and respects that in the process of biblical inspiration. He worked through human authors to get His message across.
Reading the books of the New Testament, we probably asked ourselves more than once: *"Why 2000 years we do not see those miracles that accompanied the Сhurch of Christ in the I century, as described in the New Testament?"* Why do the so-called preachers of Christ have to prove that Jesus really existed and atheists boldly deny the historicity or divine origin of Christ? Maybe because the Сhurch of Christ has not existed for 2000 years? The Сhurch does not exist in the form in which it is presented in the books of the New Testament, but there are Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other christian sects claiming to be the place of the Church, but they not have the only thing that distinguishes the divine from the human and is characteristic of just the Сhurch of Christ -the reinforcement of the word with signs, that is, miracles (Mark 16:15-20). Therefore, some researchers doubt the historicity of Christ, and some of them are not opposed to declaring him a an ordinary philosopher, teacher. But even if Jesus were an ordinary philosopher, his disciples would be ordinary followers of Jesus. And they would not dare to write about the miracles that not only Jesus, but also his disciples, could perform. In this world, the great fertility of atheism can be explained by the fact that there is no main opponent of critics of the Bible - the Church. If there were the Church in our time as described by the authors of the New Testament books, where miracles are performed, the sick are healed, where prophesied, and the dead are raised, no one would doubt the historicity of Christ. Then there would be the same controversy throughout the world as in the first century - Jesus the Son of God or the false prophet who seduces the world by miracles. As a result, we can say that the emergence and development of christian sects and atheism was the result of the fact that over the 2000 years the Сhurch of Christ did not exist. Find *"The Mystery about the Church of Christ"* video on RUclips. The video reveals the prophecy of the disappearance and reappearance of the Church of Christ before the End of the World. Watching this video will give hope to all who sincerely seek God and will interest those who are not too lazy to think freely. Click on my name to watch the video (The video is in Russian, but English subtitles are included).
You weren't making any money being an Atheist and now you're a multi millionaire preaching to the gullible. Well played sir. (or should I say paid?) ( net worth $8 million$$)
Yah you twisted that. Jesus calls you to repent, to go on sinning is mocking God. When you ask Jesus into your heart and you're serious, you actually go through a transformation. You begin craving information about Jesus and as you mature in your faith your dependence on Him grows and so does your trust. You start to want to change and actually try to turn from sin and when u slip up and do, you feel extreme disappointment in yourself because when you're truly saved you dont want to do anything to risk losing Jesus in your life. Jesus is always with you, but when you first come to Christ, you go through spiritual warfare pretty quickly and some followers backslide because the true gospel has never been explained to them..you dont get salvation from some simple prayer, you actually have to pray and read your bible and follow how the Lord calls u to be. The holy spirit cannot reside in you while you're out sinning it up..thats an oxymoron in itself.
@@lisaedgett8714 Agreed, Jesus could have also fell in the bathtub, hit his head and died for our sins in this manner.. Making the whole Mel Gibson movie unnecessary.. The requisite innocent blood still would have been shed for the remission of sins.
Sorry Mr. Strobel, if Jesus lived in your house he'd do the same thing He did as recorded in the bible...He'd command all men to repent! He'd say "unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God"
Slavery is not clearly a sin in the Bible and other religious Holy books. The attributes of your God countradict becuse of it. Example, your God cannot be all knowing, perfect, all loving and all powerful becuse Slavery would be a sin, so either your God is not all powerful, all knowing, not perfect for not knowing Slavery is immoral or your God could be all powerful, all knowing but evil if your God doesn't think slavery is wrong. Your God properly doesn't exist and there are many other examples I can use to to demonstrate the countradictions. Simple. Humanity compassion towards enslaved people ended the Trans Pacific's slave trade. Most people back than and today are religious and is why most abolishionist where Christians. The slaves owners were also Christians. The abolishionist attributed their anti slavery to their God but Abolishionism is not supported by biblical scripture. They were the progressive Christians of their day and like modern progressive Christians who support LGBTQ community their morality doesn't originate from scripture. Morality doesn't come from God's and holy books. Modern Democracy for example has secular origins from the Age of Enlighnment. There is no good reasons to believe in any God's and Religions, and it's why I dont believe in them.
i am going to cut and paste this cos i say it so often, i have been atheist all my 66 years, i have one book on religion, the bible, stolen from school so i could finish colouring in the illustrations. all this time i have never even considered buying a book on "how to be a more effective atheist" or felt insecure in my reasoning enough to seek help or advice (even the thought makes me laugh), if you need a team of experts defending your faith, and remember god DELIBERATELY hides so you HAVE to use faith, then you are doing your religion wrong. if you believe that jesus is good, and he is your saviour, that's all you need. happily apologists are going to be the nail in the cross of religion cos we all know how much your average church goer wants to do history, science and theology homework.
I am an atheist. I define atheism as the practice of suspending the acknowledgement of the existence of gods until sufficient evidence can be presented. My position is that *_I have no good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods._* And here is the evidence which supports my position. 1. I personally have not observed a god. 2. I have have never heard a first person account in which that person has observed a god. 3. I have found no accounts of persons that have observed a god that can be verified for authenticity, accuracy, or validity. 4. I have have never been presented a valid logical argument which employed rationally sound premises that lead to a conclusion that gods exist. 5. All of the 46 logical arguments I have encountered all have been demonstrated to have multiple fallacious or unsubstantiated premises. 6. I have never observed a phenomenon in which the exist of gods was an neccesary antecedent for the known or probable explanation of the causation of that phenomenon. 7. There have been thousands of proposed and generally accepted explanations for observable phenomena that were based on the agency of a god(s), that were later and subsequently explained by more rational and substantiated evidence that excluded the agency of a god(s). 8. I have never experienced the presence of gods through intercession of angels, answer to a petition, any truth by revelation, fulfillment of prophecy, the miraculous act of divinity, or an observation of any supernatural event. 9. Every phenomena that I have ever observed has emerged from neccesary and sufficient antecedents over time without exception. In other words, I have never seen any phenomenon (entity, process, object, event, process, substance or being) that was created instantly by the solitary volition of a single deity. ALL of these facts lead me to the only rational conclusion that concurs with the realities I have been presented - and that is the fact that there is no good reason for me to acknowledge the existence of gods.
Here is the problem with your giant list there. You know that God exists just the same way anyone does...that God has put that knowledge in your heart. You won't admit it, you won't like it, but you know...wayyyy deep down....that its true. I know it's true because God cannot lie and God has stated that. I also can say (as an aside) that as an atheist for 40 years I said the same thing. Thankfully God changed my heart to recognize and love as true, what I once hated and denied. I knew all along (while I was making long lists of why not) that God existed and that if I died, then I'd get my just desserts. (just like you do) So I'm asking you...repent of your unbelief, trust Jesus for your salvation before you get your just dessert. You don't know which day you'll die, you don't want to die in you sin. God is a merciful God, cry out to Him...he is mighty to save.
@@rpavich I have *_always_* found that when I ask a Christian a very direct straightforward forward question, the Christian will always *_avoid answering_* the actual question, and instead will just make additional unsubstantiated claims as if proposing more claims validates their unchallenged beliefs. And you are about to do just that. Let me prove that to you right now by asking such a question. If I don't get a response (which is what most Christians have done), then have a great day! *What evidence can you present that will demonstrate that I already know gods exist?* I am the one who has provided evidence to support my assertion of not having any good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods. You have not, nor plan to any presented evidence for your claims. You will only provide quotes from a fabled book of mythological tales invented by ignorant bronze aged goat herders making claims that their fictitious god is an almighty creator. Prove me wrong.
Mike Cordner ....... The Christian God Jesus is Satan the devil and he is not coming back... Christians worship Satan with a human sacrifice of Jesus to Satan... you've been deceived... repent accept Jahovah an do good works.
Those people that feel that there is NO GOD, God need to put them to the test so they will then learn that there is a GOD.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel that they will start calling his name
To the atheists out there. I have built my life on my faith. My entire worldview is based on my faith. Please stop with your arguments. I do not want to wake up from my delusions. My delusions feel good. If you don't stop with your argument, I'll insult you, call you a fool, and possibly use the government to help strengthen my delusions.
God bless Lee Strobel. His insight into apologetics has edified believers and brought many who were lost into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.👍
Amazing Job Lee Strobel is incredible how you went from being an atheist to be a Pastor. It would be a privilege for me to get to meet you someday. You're a great person and as a Christian sometimes I have doubts and questions but at the end God gives me answers through his word. There are some questions I have that have remained unanswered, but I still have faith In Jesus and I have faith that when I die I will be in front of Jesus and I will ask him all the things I want to know. Keep defending our faith Professor Strobel.
I don't worry about God proving Himself to me, I worry about proving myself to God!
Hope you picked the right one then
If we repent and put trust in Christ Jesus, the son of God, He will reconcile us to our Father in heaven.
Brother, you can not prove yourself to God. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. That is why God, in his mercy, sent his Son to live a perfect life, doing something that is impossible for all men. He did what we could not and paid the penalty we owe so that we could be reconciled to Him. Our faith in Christ's work of redemption, and his bodily ressurection from the grave covers us in his righteousness. When God looks at us, he sees his Son's righteousness and his perfection. That's the good news! We are perfect to God because we are perfected by him. Yes, we still have a sin nature, we will struggle and have failures, but his blood covers it all, and we now look forward to the day when we are gathered to him and he will make us whole, never to sin again, and to enjoy and praise him forever.
One of the most incredible videos I have EVER watched. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼❤️
My goodness, I can remember listening to Lee on the Larry King show, oh so many years ago, and he was promoting his book, Case For Faith, or it may have been Case For Christ, anyway I can remember thinking ,wow this guy is so excited about being a Christian. Anyway I finally got those books, and amazingly it opened up my knowledge and introduced me to some of the greatest minds of Christianity, PHD level brilliant theologians. Thank you Lee. And Larry King for that matter.
Amazing work Lee, thank you for the encouragement.
Mr. Strobel is such a gift from our Lord with his ability to communicate the gospel in real world, contemporary, simple terms.
He’s an expensive gift..10-20,000$ to have him speak at your church
Lee Strobek,
These are very heart warming, inspiring stories. Truly, a loving heart is very powerful. People truly have a need for it.
And yet my heart aches a bit. I wonder were these people that were atheists come on intellectual appeal or was there repentance involved?
The other is more heart rendering. Is this love leading them to the lying Jesus??? Most modern bibles quote Jesus in a lie. Surely you know that.
The ESV, NIV as of 2011, NASB, NET etc quote Jesus in a lie
In John 7:8 their Jesus says. I am not going to the festival. (not me, count out). He waits and then goes. Liar! BLASPHEMY!!!
In the despised KJB, Jesus actually said, I am not going up yet to the feast..(not now, not yet). He waits and then goes..
God said He preserved His word. Psalm12:6,7. Does you bible admit that? If not, anything goes eventually.
Does it have 1 John 5:7 or v 8 split to hide the missing v 7.
1 John 1-3. The litmus test, try the spirits, Does yours have that correctly?
We are watched and trusted when we walk with Him for awhile.
Answer bv this question please. How will Jesus judge those who honor the lying Jesus? Will God not be full of wrath? Will it be even worse for those who changed God's word? And for those who promoted the blasphemy and paraded that Jedus as the true Jesus?
Very, very serious charges!
A small point: Lee might have been a crude person as an atheist but atheism wasn’t the cause of the crudeness. Many atheists are loving, kind, and empathetic so dropping atheists isn’t a requirement to be a kind decent moral person. All that is required in a will to be kind.
Well Lee specifically said that atheism was the reason why he was a hedonist. "If there is no god and nothing matters, why not live for my own pleasure? Who cares what others think or who I hurt? It doesn't matter in the end anyways"
Mr Strobel, I appreciate your approach and openness to biblical questions. I have a biblical question that pastors seem to avoid. I have been looking for a serious truth seeker to help me to come to truth. So I'm moved to ask you to hear what I believe that God is showing me from scriptures.
Well, what is on your mind and heart? If youtube fails (I don’t check super often) message my Instagram found_in_reverie
Daniel don’t get too caught up in needing every question answered before you believe completely. Remember the thief on the cross…he simply had a change of heart, repented of his wicked ways and joined Jesus in paradise when he died. All in the space of a few hours. The gospel can be taught to someone in less than 5 minutes and if they believed in their hearts then they are saved. It’s so simple that a child can understand it. There’s nothing wrong with loving God to the point where you seek answers to your questions. God wants you to seek after him and if you do then knowledge will be given to you. Maybe not all at once lol. Just remember that Jesus Christ is the truth, the way and the life. He took your place on the cross and paid the price for your sins. And mine. And everyone who repents and believes. I wish you well on your walk with Christ my brother just don’t let unanswered questions cause you to doubt that essential truth. God bless you and your family. Peace be unto you ✝️❤️
22:00 does anyone know the name of the video for the debate?
Hello. I am an atheist. I define atheism as suspending acknowledgement of the existence of gods until sufficient evidence can be presented. My position is that *_I have no good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods._*
And here is the evidence as to why I currently hold to such a position.
1. I personally have never observed a god.
2. I have never encountered a person whom has claimed to have observed a god.
3. I know of no accounts of persons claiming to have observed a god that were willing or able to demonstrate or verify their observation for authenticity, accuracy, or validity.
4. I have never been presented a valid logical argument which also employed sound premises that lead deductively to a conclusion that a god(s) exists.
5. Of the 46 logical syllogisms I have encountered arguing for the existence of a god(s), I have found all to contain multiple fallacious or unsubstantiated premises.
6. I have never observed a phenomenon in which the existence of a god was a necessary antecedent for the known or probable explanation for the causation of that phenomenon.
7. Several proposed (and generally accepted) explanations for observable phenomena that were previously based on the agency of a god(s), have subsequently been replaced with rational, natural explanations, each substantiated with evidence that excluded the agency of a god(s). I have never encountered _vice versa._
8. I have never experienced the presence of a god through intercession of angels, divine revelation, the miraculous act of divinity, or any occurrence of a supernatural event.
9. Every phenomena that I have ever observed has *_emerged_* from necessary and sufficient antecedents over time without exception. In other words, I have never observed a phenomenon (entity, process, object, event, process, substance, system, or being) that was created _ex nihilo_ - that is instantaneously came into existence by the solitary volition of a deity.
10. All claims of a supernatural or divine nature that I have encountered have either been refuted to my satisfaction, or do not present as falsifiable.
ALL of these facts lead me to the only rational conclusion that concurs with the realities I have been presented - and that is the fact that there is *_no good reason_* for me to acknowledge the existence of a god.
I have heard often that atheism is the denial of the Abrahamic god. But denial is the active rejection of a substantiated fact once credible evidence has been presented. Atheism is simply withholding such acknowledgement until sufficient credible evidence is introduced. *_It is natural, rational, and prudent to be skeptical of unsubstatiated claims, especially extraordinary ones._*
I welcome any cordial response. Peace.
Very well written
@@railx2005 Thanks for the kind words.
I have observed God. I drowned in the ocean. I watched myself die from outside of my body. Next thing I knew I was up in the sky with a warm sunshine feeling shining on my back. I knew without any shadow of a doubt that I was in the presence of God. All of life made sense in that moment too, all the pain, all the sadness and grief. Every single experience of my life made sense. It was incredible. I was completely at peace and so calm.
I then asked God to please let me live because my mother would not be ok if I drowned at that moment. She was going through a very hard time and it would tip her over the edge. Next thing I knew I was back in my body and the sea spat me out.
Here I am today.
I didn't go on to live a life of worshipping God faultlessly. Very far from it. But I do absolutely know that I have been in the presence of God.
@@annaleitch2760 Imagining a god is NOT the same as observing a god. Wouldn't you agree?
Theo Skeptomai 100% agree.
Thank you so much Lee Strobel for all that you do in the name of JESUS. JESUS CAME TO GIVE US LIFE IN ABUNDANCE. The blessings on our lives are unexplainable. I praise God that we are not supposed to be rich only in our salvation, but rich in every way. I don’t serve a God of poverty. What kind of logic is that if we worship a God who doesn’t bless us while we are on earth. WE ARE BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING!
Shalom! ❤️
You can be a person of deep personal Faith but not what anyone would call 'religious'. I have followed the Guidelines of Problacism for many years and consequently I have been given everything I could possibly ever need or want. I also don't suffer from any anxieties, fears or depression. Problacism does not require any prayer, churches, iconoclasm or worship. All it requires is that you lose all your ego and indiscriminately help everyone who is 'sent' to you without any expectation of recognition or reward. Trust in the Universe and be Relentless.
No one who was writing what ended up in what we call the Bible was thinking at the time that they were writing what would be considered scripture or God's word in the next 500 -2000 years. It's a hodge-podge of folk stories and accounts of events by people who were not well educated and weren't abiding by the modern principles of journalism, which is to write facts without bias or attempt to persuade readers/listeners of a certain point of view. We have no original pieces of what is now the current Bible. Everything we have now are copies of copies of copies (and so on many times over) with inevitable mistakes, additions, omissions, and interjections designed to influence readers or please the people who paid for a copy to be made. Some books of the New Testament are outright forgeries. Not written by Paul, even though they tried to make it appear that way. Church policies have been based on some of those forgeries. We have to remember that two to five thousand years ago, there weren't printing presses to make copies easily and accurately. Each copy of any piece that is now part of the Bible was made through a difficult, time-consuming process. No one was proof-reading for accuracy. Of course mistakes happened, even when someone had the best intentions. The stories in the Bible are not original to Judaism or Christianity. They existed in ancient literature and in religions that pre-dated Christianity and the Bible. Many religions have a virgin birth story, a flood story, parting of a sea, walking on water, and many others from ancient mythology. I didn't know all these things when I was growing up in a fundamentalist Christian church. It was clearly implied that somehow God directed people to write the Bible, that the earth was maybe 6000 years old, and the earliest Christians were similar in beliefs to modern fundamentalist Christians. I'm glad I have taken the time and effort to learn more beyond those ideas. Don't be afraid of the truth. It is a good and healthy thing to understand the truth, even when it opposes something you believed for a long time. There are blatant contradictions in the scriptures, leading to the obvious conclusion that one must be a lie, because both statements can't be true. Again, maybe there were good intentions but still there were serious mistakes such that we can't know what was originally written. We might desperately want to believe that it's God's word but that just isn't the case. There was no god writing any of it, with the possible exception of the ten commandments. The gospels were written decades after Jesus and his apostles died, in Greek, although the apostles and Jesus spoke Aramaic and didn't know Greek. Yet they appear to contain quotations directly from Jesus. It would be as though some completely illiterate people were trying to quote in a foreign language what someone said 75 or more years ago. The birth story of Jesus is vastly different in the gospels. Read it for yourself. You can see that they can't all be true. People who believe there are no Bible contradictions simply haven't looked at the gospels and compared what they report. I don't know that any readers here are interested in the pursuit of truth, at least my definition -- looking for facts without influence from what I wish to be true. The God portrayed in the Bible is a pretty awful character, not loving in the slightest. He ruthlessly killed people by the thousands, often on a whim for slight reasons. Why would God create a world and then destroy the whole thing in a flood? Why, if God knows everything, wouldn't God be able to avoid mistakes? Couldn't God have made sure the Bible would be accurate and consistent? If it's so important, you'd think that would be Job Number 1. Wouldn't God save his chosen people, the Jews, from Nazi obliteration? If not, why not? Are there actually instances of talking donkeys and serpents? How can we believe some of the fantastical things in the Bible? The word "faith" seems to mean believing something for which there is no evidence and feeling good about it. There is no validity to any god or goddess hearing our prayers. Those who convince themselves of this are delusional and I'm sorry that this continues to happen. When someone is quite sick you often hear people talking about praying for them. There isn't anyone hearing these prayers. It's fiction, designed to make people feel less anxious. It seems to them that they're doing something constructive when they pray. We all know deep down that the prayers aren't doing a bit of anything helpful. Instead, do something loving and helpful for them or their family. That is meaningful and provides needed encouragement and a sense of community. People throughout history have apparently had quite a large number of gods. They come and go, but apparently serve a purpose in comforting people with the thought that some supernatural being is in charge of important matters -- war, love, sex, the sea, weather phenomenon, fertility of animals and crops, etc. We're no different than the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Norse people, Mayans, and so on. We like the idea that some being way up in the sky is in charge and knows everything we think about. Many people especially hold fast to the belief in a life after we die. When I hear a person like the man in this video, I think how they may be motivated by good intentions (although many are motivated by greed and desire for power and fame) but they carry on over time and keep people from thinking over the problems in life and what is true and useful. Definitely love your neighbor. Treat others the way you would want to be treated. That is ancient wisdom that will serve us all well.
Hi Mr Lee Strobel
How are you? I am Megan Lee from KL
I was wondering what is the Apologetics about and do you have any comments on it?
How can it be settle as a Church and as a Christian; its Y2024-AUG and my brother from Barclay is coming bck for visit. I hope that you give me feedback soon as time is essence.
Also what about the Case for National-Pensonic?
With regrds to meat grinders and the general public, etc. I have about 5Q- Hope it can be resolve so can move on.
If possible I hope t visit your website and perhaps, give you a tingle :)
I love being an apologetic Christian simply because we don't need happy-go-lucky clapping laughing types of preachings like the prosperity preachers do but instead we enjoy the meat and potatoes of the Bible that will make us grow
Apologetics! Bring it on!
Where can I find that poem by Maggie?
Lee Strobel's story in a nutshell: "My wife left me, therefore god exist". Not the best, but still better than J. Warner Wallace's "Did I mention I used to be a cop" shtick or William Lane Craig's ever-worsening word salad. But hey, they all sold a lot of books so it must be true.
Donovan, Sorry if that was your takeaway. If you did not know his amazing backstory, I could understand the confusion.
“Almost” everyone there & watching knows his epic testimony. Try watching his movie “The Case for Christ” from 2017.
It is the full story of how he came to believe in Jesus. Some people need facts & statistics, others only need a very small amount of faith.
The movie is worth your time, but in the end it is your decision.
God Bless your search for truth. This short video doesn’t really touch on his journey for the truth of Christ...other than why he started it.
Brad
I hear Lee's next book will be called "A Case for Cash"
So now he goes on to promote his proof of heaven with yet another book. Here is the problem with anything Strobel has said or will say. I'm not the only channel on youtube that is debunking his claims from his interviewees one by one as I have an entire playlist just on Strobel's C For C. He is an award winning legal journalist in the past but yet never checked a contrary opinion in his interviewees. He never fact checked his so called evidence--he used their books and it is in his own book C For C as sources. Almost all of his interviewees were fundamentalist--could you be more biased? And now yet he has another book more opportunistic for money being made from his base. Same category as the Burpos. So know I take nothing seriously from him as objective. Cheers, DCF
What a shame that ppl can only be their best by pretending
Jesus never wanted us to pretend.
He knows our heart. No fooling. But never stop seeking out who he is.
Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven !!!
Many are mislead by false teachings, such as "many ways lead to heaven," "God loves us all, so I will go to heaven," and "I'm a good person, doing good deeds, so I will be in heaven," or "When I die, I will be reborn on earth." ALL of these are false, man-made teachings!
The Holy Bible teaches us why we MUST make Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
In John 15:5 Jesus makes this startling claim: “apart from me you can do nothing.” As true believers, we must pray earnestly and specifically.
We pray that the Lord would give all people a desire to talk about things of faith and to be willing to think critically about their own lives and worldview. We ask the Holy Spirit to help these people embrace the reality of absolute truth found only in Jesus.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to heaven, and be eternally joined with our Heavenly Father.
AMEN .
Hallelujah!
Love Lee Strobel! God has blessed him truly with great intellect.
Still fails to evince, much less prove the existence of any god, past or present.
Amazing
If suffering is the inevitable result of God giving us free will then will we have free will in Heaven?
Virtual Willis Good question! I have a question to answer your question: Do you think that having free will in heaven may lead us to hurt people out from our selfish way of living? No. People that will get in heaven are those who love humans as God loves us. So... even if we will have free will in heaven, we will never use it against other humans for many reasons. One will be that in heaven all of our need will no longer affect us. So I will never ever be put in a situation that my “free will” will make other human suffer.
Just be authentic, the hands and feet of Jesus in all that we do. We are sinners saved by grace. Extend that grace to all who we come into contact with. 💞 Trusting God to do the rest.
Also at the end of this video..it’s a reminder to me that God’s word will not go void! We are called to be His hands and feet. Trust the outcome is in His hands.
“so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
We were sinners Romans 5:8
But Lee, didn't Jesus pronounce judgment on John saying the least in the kingdom will be greater than John the baptist?
No because you're reading it wrong..John is used as a comparative model..hes not saying John is low on the scale. Hes stating as important as john is, the least of us will be as important as that.
Thank you
Hallelujah
hey Lee..you did all this research, to become a Christian...why not take it further and do some research, on the Early Church, and the Church after it became legal under Constantine....why has culture dominated the Church for all of these years...
mister h ee as the strength of a giggling bisen and the courage of a big plane
Can someone give me his best evidence from his case?
I'd love to hear it.
The best advice I can think of is to balance this pablum with some Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Mat Dillahunty, Seth Andrews and other thinking atheists….none of which Strobel will debate.
@The Republic Tribune Remember the gospels were written 65-110 years after the supposed death and resurrection. There were no eye witness accounts when these were written, only stories passed on….among a largely illiterate, superstitious and ancient civilization. Also, there are no original copies of the gospels, only copies of copies of copies. When Christianity started to get some traction the burial place of Christ was forgotten or unknown.
Strobel is a theological lightweight…..but a rich one at that. Try to get him to speak at your church…see how much that’ll cost you in “ love ❤️ offerings”…10- 20,000$
@The Republic Tribune fair enough. I see your anxious to learn. Why not give Seth Andrews, Matt Dillahunty ( Strobel refuses to debate him), and especially Christopher Hitchens. These are distinguished atheists who are objective and from what I can see are without any axes to grind. At least give the other side time to present their view. You’ll be better able to defend your position having heard both sides.
@The Republic TribuneI don’t know when Strobel refused either. It was a claim Dillahunty made on one of his radio broadcasts. All the the best to you in your search for truth. It appears you’ve wisely left emotion out and objectivity in in your search
@The Republic Tribune what if the body was simply stolen?
It's like me going to my garage and my car is missing and I say it must have come alive and drive off.
“They were down in the basement praying for William Lane Craig”.
Tell that to the parents of the 9 million children that die every year before they reach the age of 5.
Their prayers went unanswered.....and worse yet, if they were praying to the wrong God, according to William Lane Craig, they and their children will spend eternity in hell ( now that Limbo has been discontinued).
Alfred Campbell would you entertain me and describe what you mean in parentheses plz?
If you think 9 million children dying every year before they reach the age of 5 is bad, over 60 million children are killed every year before they are even born! And who is there to help those children besides Christians? Atheists don't care about the murder of children unless it fits their narrative. Let's worry about those 60 million children that are MURDERED every year over 9 million that die from other causes
@Winston Kent yeah im in the 21st century alright, but we just went full cycle to pre-israel canaan. All we need now are the sacrificial altars and the cow idols, and we'll be just the same. Hopefully we do not share the same fate as the canaanites of old, however we can only hope that God's new testament to us that he gave with his son is enough to stop him
Agree with Craig, God is not responsible for our sins. Jesus with his blood cleansed the world of all sins and pushed the demons to the underworld but man still has the stains of sins handed over from our fore fathers. This sin has a domino effect that keeps going until we a human breaks the chain and return to God. Each one of us can make the difference, keeping up the hope and prayers
@@bryanhauschild4376 it’s a Roman Catholic thing, sort of like purgatory….it’s where unbaptized children go. It’s like heaven except god isn’t there….I’m not making this up. I was taught that in 2nd grade.
Hello. I was wondering why you still choose to be Christian even though there are contradictions in the Bible. There are so many of them, and yet it only takes one to disprove the entire Bible. I know many can be explained away, but others simply cannot. The biggest contradiction, in my opinion, deals with the very core of Christianity. God’s love. Some verses says that he loves everyone, earnestly wishing that everyone would be saved. Others however, says that he does not and the Bible goes so far as to say that he only loves the elect (which is the few) and that the vast majority of people he predestined to go to hell.
Verses that prove God DOESN’T love everyone:
John 15:16, Acts 15:17-18, Romans 9:11,
1 Thessalonians 1:4, Proverbs 16:9,
Romans 9:15-23, Acts 13:48, Romans 9:21-23
Verses that prove God DOES love everyone:
John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 John 4:8,
Romans 11:32, 1 John 2:2
And if somehow you have an answer, then my next question is, if God loves everyone (in any way, shape or form) then why did he create people he KNEW would end up in hell. Is he an evil god that loves to watch people burn?
Thank you for taking the time to read my question.
Excellent questions! As a high school apologetics teacher, I would love to answer your question. Years of study of the Bible have yielded these answers. I hope they help you on your journey.
First, a contradiction does not disprove the Bible, because the Bible is a patchwork of dozens of literary types, written from different perspectives at different times. Some of the books are meant to be taken somewhat literally, at face value, but many must be heavily interpreted in order to discern the real message God was revealing through the human authors.
Several things will help dispel the issues you are struggling with: 1) Proper interpretation of older texts. 2) Correct understanding of Hell in Christian Theology.
1) The Bible shows a developing understanding of who God is. The first people that God revealed Himself to had very primitive, ancient worldviews and could not comprehend God in the fullness of His mercy. He met them where they were. The Old Testament revelation is, therefore, not perfect for a Christian to just take at face value. This is why it seems to conflict some of the later revelation. Jesus himself reinterpreted the Old Testament and clarified its meaning (see the Sermon on the Mount).
2) Hell is based on our decisions, not on God's arbitrary judgment. It's less like Santa's naughty list and more like the end result of our life choices, and the status of our heart when we die. Christianity isn't a report card, but a relationship.
To answer the question about creating people He knew would go to Hell, look at it this way: your question implies that God's foreknowledge makes free will impossible. But if we really believe in free will, that God respects our decisions enough to let us deal with the consequences, then God's knowledge of what we will choose doesn't mean He is pushing us to choose those things. And if we say God can intervene to save us from evil choices, then He is not really letting us be free.
I hope these very simplified versions of the answers to your questions may help you as you continue to explore. I asked many of the same questions years ago, and with the help of prayer, research, and good teachers, I was able to find the answers I needed. God bless you!
joezilla07 You say that a contradiction does not disprove the Bible? So the Bible is not God’s Word? If it is, then shouldn’t it be free from error?
@@jennifercarrico681 The Bible is the Word of God in the words of human beings. He inspired human authors with truth about Himself, but worked through their own personalities, memories, biases, and worldviews. The result is a larger narrative that, when viewed as a whole, fits together remarkably well. But there's a development there. It isn't as simple as the idea that everyone who contributed to biblical writings knew everything about God, or that He dictated things directly to them. It is free from error in the sense that it teaches us exactly what God wants us to learn about Himself...but we can only properly interpret it with the help of the Church--the organized group of believers. The Church came before the Bible and helped compile it.
joezilla07 But the Bible said it’s “God breathed.” Are you saying God has no control over the people who wrote his book?
Jennifer Carrico He could control them if He wanted, but He has given us free will, and respects that in the process of biblical inspiration. He worked through human authors to get His message across.
Reading the books of the New Testament, we probably asked ourselves more than once: *"Why 2000 years we do not see those miracles that accompanied the Сhurch of Christ in the I century, as described in the New Testament?"* Why do the so-called preachers of Christ have to prove that Jesus really existed and atheists boldly deny the historicity or divine origin of Christ? Maybe because the Сhurch of Christ has not existed for 2000 years?
The Сhurch does not exist in the form in which it is presented in the books of the New Testament, but there are Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other christian sects claiming to be the place of the Church, but they not have the only thing that distinguishes the divine from the human and is characteristic of just the Сhurch of Christ -the reinforcement of the word with signs, that is, miracles (Mark 16:15-20). Therefore, some researchers doubt the historicity of Christ, and some of them are not opposed to declaring him a an ordinary philosopher, teacher. But even if Jesus were an ordinary philosopher, his disciples would be ordinary followers of Jesus. And they would not dare to write about the miracles that not only Jesus, but also his disciples, could perform. In this world, the great fertility of atheism can be explained by the fact that there is no main opponent of critics of the Bible - the Church. If there were the Church in our time as described by the authors of the New Testament books, where miracles are performed, the sick are healed, where prophesied, and the dead are raised, no one would doubt the historicity of Christ. Then there would be the same controversy throughout the world as in the first century - Jesus the Son of God or the false prophet who seduces the world by miracles. As a result, we can say that the emergence and development of christian sects and atheism was the result of the fact that over the 2000 years the Сhurch of Christ did not exist.
Find *"The Mystery about the Church of Christ"* video on RUclips. The video reveals the prophecy of the disappearance and reappearance of the Church of Christ before the End of the World. Watching this video will give hope to all who sincerely seek God and will interest those who are not too lazy to think freely. Click on my name to watch the video (The video is in Russian, but English subtitles are included).
You weren't making any money being an Atheist and now you're a multi millionaire preaching to the gullible. Well played sir. (or should I say paid?) ( net worth $8 million$$)
@20:00
Bible has contradictions
Supposed Contradict, all questions are already answered
Contradictions in your brain not bible
@@abhi__fitnesspbx I can list at least a hundred of them. Comment back and I'll list some of them here.
Also it's mythology.
@1:10 if you don't run around sinning, jesus died for nothing.
Yah you twisted that. Jesus calls you to repent, to go on sinning is mocking God. When you ask Jesus into your heart and you're serious, you actually go through a transformation. You begin craving information about Jesus and as you mature in your faith your dependence on Him grows and so does your trust. You start to want to change and actually try to turn from sin and when u slip up and do, you feel extreme disappointment in yourself because when you're truly saved you dont want to do anything to risk losing Jesus in your life. Jesus is always with you, but when you first come to Christ, you go through spiritual warfare pretty quickly and some followers backslide because the true gospel has never been explained to them..you dont get salvation from some simple prayer, you actually have to pray and read your bible and follow how the Lord calls u to be. The holy spirit cannot reside in you while you're out sinning it up..thats an oxymoron in itself.
@@lisaedgett8714 Agreed, Jesus could have also fell in the bathtub, hit his head and died for our sins in this manner.. Making the whole Mel Gibson movie unnecessary.. The requisite innocent blood still would have been shed for the remission of sins.
Sorry Mr. Strobel, if Jesus lived in your house he'd do the same thing He did as recorded in the bible...He'd command all men to repent! He'd say "unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God"
What a con man.
Slavery is not clearly a sin in the Bible and other religious Holy books. The attributes of your God countradict becuse of it. Example, your God cannot be all knowing, perfect, all loving and all powerful becuse Slavery would be a sin, so either your God is not all powerful, all knowing, not perfect for not knowing Slavery is immoral or your God could be all powerful, all knowing but evil if your God doesn't think slavery is wrong. Your God properly doesn't exist and there are many other examples I can use to to demonstrate the countradictions. Simple.
Humanity compassion towards enslaved people ended the Trans Pacific's slave trade. Most people back than and today are religious and is why most abolishionist where Christians. The slaves owners were also Christians. The abolishionist attributed their anti slavery to their God but Abolishionism is not supported by biblical scripture. They were the progressive Christians of their day and like modern progressive Christians who support LGBTQ community their morality doesn't originate from scripture. Morality doesn't come from God's and holy books. Modern Democracy for example has secular origins from the Age of Enlighnment.
There is no good reasons to believe in any God's and Religions, and it's why I dont believe in them.
If that is what you believe, than I'd even wonder why you are watching this video.
@@dorothyanderson8124 I like to learn other perspectives.
@@wingzero7316 So do I. But if learning comes with a completely closed mind isn't learning.
@@wingzero7316I'll be honest. Some things are too dangerous to learn. Thats why it is dangerous for me to go into atheist videos.
@@dorothyanderson8124 You the one with the closed mind. I learn about other views and I doudt you do.
i am going to cut and paste this cos i say it so often, i have been atheist all my 66 years, i have one book on religion, the bible, stolen from school so i could finish colouring in the illustrations. all this time i have never even considered buying a book on "how to be a more effective atheist" or felt insecure in my reasoning enough to seek help or advice (even the thought makes me laugh), if you need a team of experts defending your faith, and remember god DELIBERATELY hides so you HAVE to use faith, then you are doing your religion wrong. if you believe that jesus is good, and he is your saviour, that's all you need. happily apologists are going to be the nail in the cross of religion cos we all know how much your average church goer wants to do history, science and theology homework.
To bad according to your beliefs you have no hope. You have no real explanation of GOOD and EVIL.
I am an atheist. I define atheism as the practice of suspending the acknowledgement of the existence of gods until sufficient evidence can be presented. My position is that *_I have no good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods._*
And here is the evidence which supports my position.
1. I personally have not observed a god.
2. I have have never heard a first person account in which that person has observed a god.
3. I have found no accounts of persons that have observed a god that can be verified for authenticity, accuracy, or validity.
4. I have have never been presented a valid logical argument which employed rationally sound premises that lead to a conclusion that gods exist.
5. All of the 46 logical arguments I have encountered all have been demonstrated to have multiple fallacious or unsubstantiated premises.
6. I have never observed a phenomenon in which the exist of gods was an neccesary antecedent for the known or probable explanation of the causation of that phenomenon.
7. There have been thousands of proposed and generally accepted explanations for observable phenomena that were based on the agency of a god(s), that were later and subsequently explained by more rational and substantiated evidence that excluded the agency of a god(s).
8. I have never experienced the presence of gods through intercession of angels, answer to a petition, any truth by revelation, fulfillment of prophecy, the miraculous act of divinity, or an observation of any supernatural event.
9. Every phenomena that I have ever observed has emerged from neccesary and sufficient antecedents over time without exception. In other words, I have never seen any phenomenon (entity, process, object, event, process, substance or being) that was created instantly by the solitary volition of a single deity.
ALL of these facts lead me to the only rational conclusion that concurs with the realities I have been presented - and that is the fact that there is no good reason for me to acknowledge the existence of gods.
Here is the problem with your giant list there. You know that God exists just the same way anyone does...that God has put that knowledge in your heart. You won't admit it, you won't like it, but you know...wayyyy deep down....that its true. I know it's true because God cannot lie and God has stated that. I also can say (as an aside) that as an atheist for 40 years I said the same thing. Thankfully God changed my heart to recognize and love as true, what I once hated and denied. I knew all along (while I was making long lists of why not) that God existed and that if I died, then I'd get my just desserts. (just like you do)
So I'm asking you...repent of your unbelief, trust Jesus for your salvation before you get your just dessert. You don't know which day you'll die, you don't want to die in you sin. God is a merciful God, cry out to Him...he is mighty to save.
@@rpavich I have *_always_* found that when I ask a Christian a very direct straightforward forward question, the Christian will always *_avoid answering_* the actual question, and instead will just make additional unsubstantiated claims as if proposing more claims validates their unchallenged beliefs. And you are about to do just that. Let me prove that to you right now by asking such a question. If I don't get a response (which is what most Christians have done), then have a great day!
*What evidence can you present that will demonstrate that I already know gods exist?*
I am the one who has provided evidence to support my assertion of not having any good reason to acknowledge the existence of gods. You have not, nor plan to any presented evidence for your claims. You will only provide quotes from a fabled book of mythological tales invented by ignorant bronze aged goat herders making claims that their fictitious god is an almighty creator. Prove me wrong.
@@rpavich Like I said you would no response. Have a great day.
Mike Cordner ....... The Christian God Jesus is Satan the devil and he is not coming back... Christians worship Satan with a human sacrifice of Jesus to Satan... you've been deceived... repent accept Jahovah an do good works.
You are correct, the positive claim is the responsibility of others making the claim, your position is the null position..
Those people that feel that there is NO GOD, God need to put them to the test so they will then learn that there is a GOD.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel that they will start calling his name
Which god? Thor? Zeus? Allah? Baal? Yahweh? Vishnu? Ra?
Virtual Willis No, Thorishes
Everyday is a test and you get by just fine without a god.
war stories....stay focused on the subject, at hand...
Seriously, this is very unimpressive
"How to waste 38 minutes and not learn a fking thing".
To the atheists out there. I have built my life on my faith. My entire worldview is based on my faith. Please stop with your arguments. I do not want to wake up from my delusions. My delusions feel good. If you don't stop with your argument, I'll insult you, call you a fool, and possibly use the government to help strengthen my delusions.
@@weobeyjesus4565 Prove it.
Sending love to you Sarah.
I'm curious, have you changed your position four years later?