"We cannot consciously choose what we believe."__ Internet Poster The Bible specifically contradicts and repudiates that claim. Christendom's core Bible verse, John 3:16, assumes that humans can choose what they believe. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." We CAN choose to believe that John 3:16 is the truth and get the gift of eternal life ~ or we can choose not to believe John 3:16 is true and get John 3:16's perish. "choose you this day" , , , "And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 This also involved consciously choosing what one would believe. There was a set of beliefs behind them choosing to serve the Lord. Human Sin and the desire to protect that sin and to continue to sin, is the father of the notion that beliefs cannot be consciously chosen. When a person allows themselves to believe that beliefs cannot be consciously chosen that means they can say to themselves: "Hey I have no control over what I choose to believe, therefore I will NOT repent of my sins and believe in God because I know that doing that would require me to give up my sinning." Here we can list our your most enjoyable sins that we want to hang on to. Believing that beliefs cannot be consciously chosen will allow us to keep on enjoying our favorite sins ~ and THIS, at bottom, is what UNBELIEF is all about and has ALWAYS been about. Free Will is heavily assumed throughout the Bible and the entire Bible is written on the assumption that beliefs CAN be consciously chosen, and in fact one's eternal destiny is based upon what one chooses to believe. JAG
It has to be consciously. The Bible says the method of knowing God is by faith, repentance, study, meditation and prayer. All conscious acts. The decision is a moral decision. God doesn't care if you want to eat steak or chicken. He cares if you want to keep his commandments. Love the Lord thy God and Love our neighbors. You will get responses that suggest for you to hate God and your neighbor. Their response is sometimes unconscious as they say it so much that it's become natural with a reprobate mind. While, we are asked to continue to study and pray to increase our faith and belief in Christ.
Its a clear bold perish to your head. What perish? John 3:16's perish. You have been given Free Will. That means you choose. You MUST choose. Doing nothing about John 3:16 . . . IS itself . . . making a choice. When you write posts like the one you just wrote, that's a pretty good indication that you have already made up your mind and you're going to say NO to John 3:16. So you, most likely, have already chosen. You have chose the perish of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Two choices: (1) believe and get eternal life. or (2) refuse to believe and perish Best JAG ``
if the bible were the truth, when someone read it, they would just go... duh, why didn't I see that before, there would be no need to defend the bible, it would just make sense, why doesn't the bible do this, because obviously man wrote the bible, not a god
I'm sure when you wrote that you thought you were being clever, logical and wise. The Bible isn't questioned by believers, It's questioned by those who lack faith, hope and charity. Mostly we see people taking words out of context in the Bible to say it's not written by the inspiration and revelation from God. What their reasons are is different for each person. Sometimes it's because they broke a commandment or more and in order to hide their mess they've created, they deny God and even attack God and the Bible to do so. They need others for safety. You know, safety in numbers. Look at it this way, how many people pick up an Algebra book read it on their own and say, "oh, I fully understand it." Like, 1% of the students if that many. This was your weakest approach so far on the topic. I'm disappointed with you.
So what evidence supports your claim/assertion? The fact that the creation story in the Bible conflicts with science, the Exodus story conflicts with modern archaeology, and the Gospels are anonymous hearsay accounts, suggests the Bible was written completed by humans and is mostly myth and legend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus
