Glenn wrote:
"One of the real contradictions I find in this entire issue is that those
who won't believe that there was a talking snake, because it is so absurd
to believe in such things, see no problem believing that a man dead three
days got up and walked around."
Try the word "don't" rather than "won't" in the above.
And substitute "believe" for the four words "see no problem believing."
With those substitutions, and they are important substitutions, IMHO,
I can identify with the position. Let me rephrase:
One of the real contradictions I find in this entire issue is that those
who DON'T believe that there was a talking snake, because it is so absurd
to believe in such things, BELIEVE that a man dead three
days got up and walked around.
While I DON'T believe there was a talking snake, if I can be shown
that such a belief is important to Christianity, I'll revisit the issue.
But
I don't see it as important.
Of course I "see a problem" of believing a man dead three days came to
life again. But that belief IS important to Christianity. It took me
probably
a year or more of studying that claim, and all the issues surrounding it,
before I could honestly say I believed it. I am convinced now that it was
not through any reasoning of my own that happened, but rather by
the work of the HS, a work only possible when I opened myself
(not just my mind, but my whole being) to whatever God wanted of
me. This move is darn hard for some of us to do!
The fact is, God DID move in my heart -- in a way that was, and is,
uniquely
mine. The willingness to trust had to come before the trust which had to
come before the belief. In secular matters, we usually
reverse that order of events. That does not work, IMHO, for
a relationship with the almighty.
Burgy
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