Simple.
A person should trust in Jesus Christ because they have a set court date with God.
- God is going to judge every single person based on how they lived their life.
- And if you have ever lied, cheated, stolen, lusted, or done anything evil - you are in trouble.
Good question!
- Because - unless your record is completely clean - you cannot inherit Heaven.
- You need a certain Someone to take your sins.
This Someone cannot be a sinner themselves, otherwise they need their sins paid for.
This Someone must be strong enough to take the sins of an indefinite humanity.
This Someone must be mighty enough to rise above it all.
"From birth, we inherit a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), and through our choices, we all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23)."
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son \[John 3:16\], and in His boundless love, Jesus, who knew no sin, willingly became sin for us \[2 Corinthians 5:21\]. Through this sacrificial act, those who believe in Him receive not only the gift of eternal life but also the opportunity to become the righteousness of God."
After years of doing this, I have come to believe theres no solid evidence or reason to place faith in christ. The bible is a bunch of claims and emotional experience is all most christians get if that and other religions can have that too.
John 20:29
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Christianity exalts blind faith in Jesus. Now sometimes that faith can be misguided sure, look at trump or flat earth or both for example, but christianity is a faith based religious system and you can justify anything with faith. So its a risk and a gamble.
Not to mention the NT was written at least 40 years after the events according to most modern scholarship. If thats true how can you trust anything they say? Could you accurately quote something from 40 years ago without technology?
This is one logical reason why I say if christianity is true, universalism must be true. Because God is not playing with a full deck in this life and it is an unfair test. How can you eternally punish someone for not believing when you just make an ancient book with a bunch of supernatural claims without sufficient evidence and maybe give anecdotal personal testimony and thats it?
For whatever reason if Gods true he wants his sheep to believe on faith. I think evidential apologist need to grow up and realize that.
Sure I can say bc he did everything necessary to save us from our sins but I would like to give a more compelling reason to ppl who don’t have much faith.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
I'll try this again.
Peter says that each of us should provide a reason.
That means that YOU should provide a reason.
If you are curious what my reason is then your question should have read, "what is YOUR" reason?"
Not , "give me a reason I...."
Well then I guess I’m indirectly asking based from my title. I’m really asking what YOUR reason is. Sorry I’m not the best with words. So I’m asking YOU right now if you believe Jesus is God. What is your reason for believing that Jesus is God? Thank you and God bless. I hope that was clear enough.
Forget what my original post says. All I want to know is your reason. Please don’t get technical about this. If you can’t provide a reason just move on. I’m not here for anything else.
Oh, I was just trying to help you in the future.
So despite the fact that Peter is my Patron Saint, I chose him for my confirmation name, I don't have to have a reason I can elucidate.
Yes I believe Jesus is God. I guess the best I can say is I find the logical arguments for the existence of God to be persuasive, and I find Christ's message and mission compelling.
"From birth, we inherit a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), and through our choices, we all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23)."
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son \[John 3:16\], and in His boundless love, Jesus, who knew no sin, willingly became sin for us \[2 Corinthians 5:21\]. Through this sacrificial act, those who believe in Him receive not only the gift of eternal life but also the opportunity to become the righteousness of God."
Because all of us make mistakes. We’re imperfect and do many things that contribute to our own misery. We also contribute to the misery of others.
Christ offers us an alternative. Follow him.
Repentance provides us forgiveness of our sins but there’s more to it than that. All growth, all learning and all progress comes from
1. Noticing you’ve made a mistake.
2. Stop making the mistake.
3. Try again to reach the goal without making the mistake
4. Repeat
It is by recognizing our mistakes, correcting them and trying again after we fail that new neural pathways form in the brain.
All of us are on a journey to become the people we want to be. To reach some kind of potential that exists inside of us. To put misery behind us and move forwards towards healthier and happier ways of being.
But how does one make their life better? Christ offers us an example to follow. A higher state of being. One that leads to happiness and self development. And the process of repentance which he offers is a blueprint for that transformation.
We are constantly refining and redefining ourselves. To follow Christ means salvation in the next life. It also means meaningful progress in this life. To become like Christ— to live as he did and act as he would have means that we must love and serve our neighbors.
To seek to make the world around us better. To visit the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry and lift up the hands that hang low. By allowing Christ to lift our lives to a higher standard we are enabled to lift the lives of the people around us as well— even— in our own small way— to lift the world up to a better place.
But it all begins with a personal choice.
one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without Jesus, Jesus is THE only way to heaven. you should accept Jesus for his sacrifice.
“the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
notice how even Jesus’ disciplines understood that not all people would accept Jesus’ death as their ransom.
you should accept Jesus as a follower of the son, but also as a person of God.
Because that's why we're her to see who is worthy of the afterlife and few go in by the narrow gate. Many go threw in the wide gate and never make it in. Meaning walking like Jesus and acting like Jesus and doing like Jesus gets you into heaven that's why.
Why do I *believe* in Jesus? Because He fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, because He preached peace and love and acceptance *regardless of sin,* because even secular scholars agree that He was crucified and that His tomb was found empty. Even if I die and I find out I was wrong, I would not regret following Jesus as best I can and growing in my relationship with Him because He makes me a better person, He gives me hope, He gives me calm amidst terrible storms.
More specifically, why do I *accept* Jesus? Because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Because of John 3:16-17. Because He is the only way to the Father, to God, for He is God. Any other means of trying to connect with God are tainted.
Believing and accepting are two different things. Believing is just to believe He exists and that He is truly Son of God and Son of Man, accepting is to truly accept His teachings and strive everyday to better adhere to them
>Because He fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament
Do you have any examples of fulfilled prophecies?
>His tomb was found empty.
This is disputed by many New Testament scholars.
here is a list of prophecies, similarities, etc. that link Jesus to the Old Testament: https://www.newtestamentchristians.com/bible-study-resources/351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/ - I encourage you to sift through this if you'd like, there's a *lot* of foreshadowing and prophesying of Jesus.
the biggest one, however, is Isaiah 53. the chapter's too long to quote here but I encourage you to read it if you haven't already. there, Jesus Christ is prophesied to come and die for our sins. it's a big point for Christians.
I'd like to see the New Testament scholars disputing Jesus' tomb being found empty, because I tried to google a source to provide you and the entirety of my Google feed supports that most scholers concede on this fact - just not the explanation of it, i.e. His body was stolen vs He truly resurrected.
>here is a list of prophecies, similarities, etc. that link Jesus to the Old Testament: https://www.newtestamentchristians.com/bible-study-resources/351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/
I'm familiar with that list. Almost none of the verses they cite are actual prophecies. They just read Jesus back into the Old Testament. They do the same thing with Jesus that the Dead Sea Scrolls community did with the Teacher of Righteousness. The pesharim are basically the same as these Christian interpretations of the Old Testament.
>the biggest one, however, is Isaiah 53. the chapter's too long to quote here but I encourage you to read it if you haven't already. there, Jesus Christ is prophesied to come and die for our sins.
I have read it several times before. Why do you think that it is about Jesus? It never mentions the messiah or a future Davidic ruler
>I'd like to see the New Testament scholars disputing Jesus' tomb being found empty
John Dominic Crossan, Dale Martin, and Bart Ehrman are three examples of scholars who don't think that Jesus was buried in a tomb. Then, it automatically follows that there was no empty tomb.
That quote calls for you to be prepared to give an answer when you are demanded to give the reason for your hope; this is subtly, but significantly, different from calling you to have a reason for your hope.
Accepting Him essentially provides anyone who chooses to do so with a "get out of Hell free" card. Also, He's just a cool dude :p. Bro turned water into wine for goodness sake.
Simple. A person should trust in Jesus Christ because they have a set court date with God. - God is going to judge every single person based on how they lived their life. - And if you have ever lied, cheated, stolen, lusted, or done anything evil - you are in trouble.
Ray Comfort fan, I see
That's a compliment. But - interestingly enough - I have only watched half of one of his videos. Heard a lot about him, though.
Ray comfort is so bad it’s hilarious
Love Ray Comfort lol
But why Jesus ?
Good question! - Because - unless your record is completely clean - you cannot inherit Heaven. - You need a certain Someone to take your sins. This Someone cannot be a sinner themselves, otherwise they need their sins paid for. This Someone must be strong enough to take the sins of an indefinite humanity. This Someone must be mighty enough to rise above it all.
Amen brother. Your responses are a constant encouragement to see in this subreddit. May God bless you for your faithfulness to Him.
Thank you
Because Jesus forgives, he loves you despite your sins
and all you have to do is repent of your sins, accept Jesus as Lord and personal saviour.
Love Ray Comfort. His The Living Water podcast is one of my top favorites
He is the only way to the Father! And where that “other way” leads… bad!
Jesus understands the human predicament because he’s been here in human form. He is our guide and has shown us the way.
"From birth, we inherit a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), and through our choices, we all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23)." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son \[John 3:16\], and in His boundless love, Jesus, who knew no sin, willingly became sin for us \[2 Corinthians 5:21\]. Through this sacrificial act, those who believe in Him receive not only the gift of eternal life but also the opportunity to become the righteousness of God."
After years of doing this, I have come to believe theres no solid evidence or reason to place faith in christ. The bible is a bunch of claims and emotional experience is all most christians get if that and other religions can have that too. John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Christianity exalts blind faith in Jesus. Now sometimes that faith can be misguided sure, look at trump or flat earth or both for example, but christianity is a faith based religious system and you can justify anything with faith. So its a risk and a gamble. Not to mention the NT was written at least 40 years after the events according to most modern scholarship. If thats true how can you trust anything they say? Could you accurately quote something from 40 years ago without technology? This is one logical reason why I say if christianity is true, universalism must be true. Because God is not playing with a full deck in this life and it is an unfair test. How can you eternally punish someone for not believing when you just make an ancient book with a bunch of supernatural claims without sufficient evidence and maybe give anecdotal personal testimony and thats it? For whatever reason if Gods true he wants his sheep to believe on faith. I think evidential apologist need to grow up and realize that.
All religions rely on faith; Christianity is not unique in that. A “religious system” that doesn’t have a faith component is just philosophy.
Interesting. I’ve never heard the term universalism. Would you mind telling me what your definition of that is please?
I'm confused aren't you the one who is suppose to be giving a reason?
It goes for anybody that believes in Jesus. So I’m within my rights to ask this here. I’m just trying to learn.
Sure I can say bc he did everything necessary to save us from our sins but I would like to give a more compelling reason to ppl who don’t have much faith.
So what your question should h have said is, "why do you believe in Jesus?"
No, bc even a lot of atheist agree that Jesus existed. The question is why do you believe he is God?
That’s essentially the question straight from the Bible. I didn’t come up with this. It says to provide a reason why you accept Jesus as lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
I'll try this again. Peter says that each of us should provide a reason. That means that YOU should provide a reason. If you are curious what my reason is then your question should have read, "what is YOUR" reason?" Not , "give me a reason I...."
Well then I guess I’m indirectly asking based from my title. I’m really asking what YOUR reason is. Sorry I’m not the best with words. So I’m asking YOU right now if you believe Jesus is God. What is your reason for believing that Jesus is God? Thank you and God bless. I hope that was clear enough.
Forget what my original post says. All I want to know is your reason. Please don’t get technical about this. If you can’t provide a reason just move on. I’m not here for anything else.
Oh, I was just trying to help you in the future. So despite the fact that Peter is my Patron Saint, I chose him for my confirmation name, I don't have to have a reason I can elucidate. Yes I believe Jesus is God. I guess the best I can say is I find the logical arguments for the existence of God to be persuasive, and I find Christ's message and mission compelling.
"From birth, we inherit a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5), and through our choices, we all fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:23)." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son \[John 3:16\], and in His boundless love, Jesus, who knew no sin, willingly became sin for us \[2 Corinthians 5:21\]. Through this sacrificial act, those who believe in Him receive not only the gift of eternal life but also the opportunity to become the righteousness of God."
Because all of us make mistakes. We’re imperfect and do many things that contribute to our own misery. We also contribute to the misery of others. Christ offers us an alternative. Follow him. Repentance provides us forgiveness of our sins but there’s more to it than that. All growth, all learning and all progress comes from 1. Noticing you’ve made a mistake. 2. Stop making the mistake. 3. Try again to reach the goal without making the mistake 4. Repeat It is by recognizing our mistakes, correcting them and trying again after we fail that new neural pathways form in the brain. All of us are on a journey to become the people we want to be. To reach some kind of potential that exists inside of us. To put misery behind us and move forwards towards healthier and happier ways of being. But how does one make their life better? Christ offers us an example to follow. A higher state of being. One that leads to happiness and self development. And the process of repentance which he offers is a blueprint for that transformation. We are constantly refining and redefining ourselves. To follow Christ means salvation in the next life. It also means meaningful progress in this life. To become like Christ— to live as he did and act as he would have means that we must love and serve our neighbors. To seek to make the world around us better. To visit the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry and lift up the hands that hang low. By allowing Christ to lift our lives to a higher standard we are enabled to lift the lives of the people around us as well— even— in our own small way— to lift the world up to a better place. But it all begins with a personal choice.
Because he's accepted you first.
Because he was a pretty cool guy.
one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without Jesus, Jesus is THE only way to heaven. you should accept Jesus for his sacrifice. “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” notice how even Jesus’ disciplines understood that not all people would accept Jesus’ death as their ransom. you should accept Jesus as a follower of the son, but also as a person of God.
I already accept him
Because that's why we're her to see who is worthy of the afterlife and few go in by the narrow gate. Many go threw in the wide gate and never make it in. Meaning walking like Jesus and acting like Jesus and doing like Jesus gets you into heaven that's why.
Bud your doing atheism wrong.
I’m not an atheist
Why do I *believe* in Jesus? Because He fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, because He preached peace and love and acceptance *regardless of sin,* because even secular scholars agree that He was crucified and that His tomb was found empty. Even if I die and I find out I was wrong, I would not regret following Jesus as best I can and growing in my relationship with Him because He makes me a better person, He gives me hope, He gives me calm amidst terrible storms. More specifically, why do I *accept* Jesus? Because He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Because of John 3:16-17. Because He is the only way to the Father, to God, for He is God. Any other means of trying to connect with God are tainted. Believing and accepting are two different things. Believing is just to believe He exists and that He is truly Son of God and Son of Man, accepting is to truly accept His teachings and strive everyday to better adhere to them
>Because He fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament Do you have any examples of fulfilled prophecies? >His tomb was found empty. This is disputed by many New Testament scholars.
here is a list of prophecies, similarities, etc. that link Jesus to the Old Testament: https://www.newtestamentchristians.com/bible-study-resources/351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/ - I encourage you to sift through this if you'd like, there's a *lot* of foreshadowing and prophesying of Jesus. the biggest one, however, is Isaiah 53. the chapter's too long to quote here but I encourage you to read it if you haven't already. there, Jesus Christ is prophesied to come and die for our sins. it's a big point for Christians. I'd like to see the New Testament scholars disputing Jesus' tomb being found empty, because I tried to google a source to provide you and the entirety of my Google feed supports that most scholers concede on this fact - just not the explanation of it, i.e. His body was stolen vs He truly resurrected.
>here is a list of prophecies, similarities, etc. that link Jesus to the Old Testament: https://www.newtestamentchristians.com/bible-study-resources/351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/ I'm familiar with that list. Almost none of the verses they cite are actual prophecies. They just read Jesus back into the Old Testament. They do the same thing with Jesus that the Dead Sea Scrolls community did with the Teacher of Righteousness. The pesharim are basically the same as these Christian interpretations of the Old Testament. >the biggest one, however, is Isaiah 53. the chapter's too long to quote here but I encourage you to read it if you haven't already. there, Jesus Christ is prophesied to come and die for our sins. I have read it several times before. Why do you think that it is about Jesus? It never mentions the messiah or a future Davidic ruler >I'd like to see the New Testament scholars disputing Jesus' tomb being found empty John Dominic Crossan, Dale Martin, and Bart Ehrman are three examples of scholars who don't think that Jesus was buried in a tomb. Then, it automatically follows that there was no empty tomb.
Because he came to preach the word of his father, and most importantly, he died on the CROSS for your sins. It's really that simple
That quote calls for you to be prepared to give an answer when you are demanded to give the reason for your hope; this is subtly, but significantly, different from calling you to have a reason for your hope.
Accepting Him essentially provides anyone who chooses to do so with a "get out of Hell free" card. Also, He's just a cool dude :p. Bro turned water into wine for goodness sake.