What's the easiest way to explain the gospel?

by proclaim_truth 30 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  hamsterbait

  WHY WHY WHY could God not just wipe the slate clean and say "I am not going to kill anybody today because they are descended from a couple of naked people who ate a piece of MY fruit."

  OH NOOO NOOO NOOO - he decides to pick a race of stone age nomad savages, tells them to slaughter everybody living in the Levant and breed like rabbits untill the Messiah appears.

  Then, depending on which version of "Messiah " you believe in he may or may not kill you and send you to be tortured forever by another imaginary being called the DEVIL, who was thrown out of the Celestial House, and pushed under a bus for disagreeing with said God.

  And they all lived happily ever after eating food grown in soil fertilised by the blood of billions of children and others who, like the Devil maintained that none of this revenge and propitiation and "you are soooo wonderful" stuff makes any sense at all.

  HB
• 

  steve2

  Trying to derail this into yet another atheist thread?

  There is more than a faint trace of damning anyone who holds a contrary view, huh? Kind of like a flimsier Kingdom Hall experience. As if it is somehow "wrong" to offer alternative points of view. Besides, threads started by "athiests" or "agnostics" do not seek to exclude "believers" and indeed they do contribute. Where's the problem?

  Christ Alone if you would prefer "pure' threads where your chosen views are promoted and protected from alternative views, either state so explicitly at the outset or - with all due respect - chose a forum that shares your low tolerance for discussing alternative views. There are many available on the web who would help you secure 'pure' and 'untainted' threads. Go to it. What's stopping you?

  Moreover, I am not so simple-minded to conclude that because I dare offer a wider view on a topic that it will "take over" and dominate. Yet, if it does, I'd hope that the broadened discussion will inform and not simply inculcate a "set' viewpoint.

  Lastly, you are always free to "just" ignore a perceived "deviant" point of view. There is no requirement or expectation on my part that anyone should respond to it - although engagement with ideas and not labels would be preferred.
• 

  designs

  Roll over in the face of human injustice, sell your subjugated people out and you'll get to paradise.
• 

  Christ Alone

  chose a forum that shares your low tolerance for discussing alternative views.

  I'm sure most of the "real" atheists will agree that I am very tolerant regarding discussion of other views. I contribute to almost all of them. The OP was asking what the gospel says. But you did not wish to talk about that. You wanted to talk about how they are false. I didn't even state my belief but stated what the gospel message is.

  One of the biggest complaints that I've heard from other posters about JWN is that atheists try to take over all threads that have a shred of belief in them. It happens almost every single time.

  But it is funny that the ones that are so against judgmentalism are the ones that practice it the most. I didn't judge YOU personally by saying that the thread was being derailed yet again.

  You tell me to go find another forum? Who said that this was an atheist forum? You can't just claim it as your own and say that believers should go elsewhere.
• 

  bohm

  CA: Funny thing how you prefix pretty much every argument you do by an appeal to a group of people who agree with you and then try to twist it into you being treated unfairly.

  In related news, most of the "real" christians here agree i am awsome and correct in whatever i write.
• 

  Christ Alone

  If I am accused of having no tolerance, I can appeal to a group to prove the comment false. Don't understand logic, bohm? Cheer up!
• 

  steve2

  You tell me to go find another forum? Who said that this was an atheist forum? You can't just claim it as your own and say that believers should go elsewhere.

  Christ Alone, your assumption-making is getting in the way of clear discussion. I did not tell you to find another forum period. If you read my post in its entirety and not selectively quote, I raised the idea that if you - not other believers, my friend - did want a "pure" discussion there are forums that would happily meet your expectations.

  You label me an "athiest" for questioning the Biblical concept of "God".

  You use an emotive word such as "derail".

  You do sound very much like a JW who is protesting about people with differing views trying to take over the discussion.

  Meanwhile, your own huffing and puffing has more effectively derailed the initiating topic than my response did.
• 

  cofty

  To be fair CA is very open to genuine debate about real issues.
• 

  Sulla

  I'm in general agreement with CA. Though, I might suggest that the Creeds (Nicene and Apostolic) might be the best possible starting point.
• 

  Christ Alone

  To be fair, you do make a few good points, Steve. However:

  You do sound very much like a JW who is protesting about people with differing views trying to take over the discussion.

  That wasn't my point at all. The question was asked "What is the easiest way to explain the gospel?" I was pointing out that immediately the thread was changed into another believer v non believer thread.

  I talk with people of differing views all the time, and I am CONSTANTLY reshaping my views. I just felt that this was an honest question that was looking for an honest answer on how to explain the gospel. But it was changed into something like, "Why ask? It's false anyway." If I read that wrong, I apologize.

  I wasn't try to keep a thread PURE. I was trying to keep a thread on topic.

  That being said, you're right Steve...I think I derailed this more than anyone...oops...