Day 9. The Cool Group. - Saturday, 26/11/2005
We presented our Apologetics today. In our group we pretended that I was a Schoolie, and I asked questions about whether or not it's fair and loving for God to send people to Hell (see Day 5). At the end of the discussion, Noof threw in a “wise man's quote” that “because God loves you, He wouldn't force you to spend eternity with Him if you didn't love Him.” I felt we didn't get enough time for our Apologetics this year, and last year we also had some scientist or something come over to talk about Intelligent Design. To me this year we didn't seem to have prepared ourselves at all (1 Peter 3:15).
Marika and Bradley gave their testimonies at lunch, and Bethany at dinner.
I was really looking forward to tonight, because tonight I was in the Cool Group. I call it the “Cool Group” because last year it was this group that I was in when all kinds of cool stuff happened. In the group are Lisa, Noof and Darcy (who's replaced Nathan from last year, but it's still just as cool).
Tonight we spoke to three girls who said they were Christians, and one of them platted my beard again. They said they were going about Schoolies telling people to repent. The way they explained it didn't sound too tactful, but maybe I'm wrong. We soon got to see them in action though, and I'm pretty sure that I was right the first time.
A guy decided to challenge me while we were talking, to tell him why I knew that God existed. He demanded that I tell him my testimony on the spot, which I did in less than 15 seconds, telling what God has done in my life and explained that nobody can prove that God exists to another person, as He reveals Himself to those who search for Him with all their heart (Deuteronomy 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 7:7-8, Acts 17:27, James 4:8).
But those three girls all jumped in after my testimony and started yelling at the poor guy so that all he heard was, “I can't prove God exists after all”. What's more, he thought I was trying to prove that God did exist, and so he thought he had won an argument that we weren't having and said, “See? That proves it! He doesn't exist!”
Before I could start my apologetic on this, the three girls chased him down the beach yelling, “Yeah, so shutup. Shutup shutup shutup!”
I was determined to talk to him again, because he seemed to have been hurt by people telling him to believe in fairy tails that sounded too good to be true. God doesn't want us to believe in Him like some fairy tail. He wants us to have an actual, real relationship with Him and to get to know Him personally our selves. I can't prove to you that God exists. If I were to eat an apple, and find out that it was delicious, I could tell you it was delicious because I had proven it to myself, but I couldn't prove it to you. You could tell me all kinds of scientific theories or quotes from philosophers to try to prove to me that the apple is not delicious, and I wouldn't believe you. Because I know for myself. I can't prove to you that it is delicious but you can easily prove it for yourself by simply tasting it.
What do you have to loose from searching for God with all of your heart. If He doesn't exist, then it's not going to kill you. By meeting God, you couldn't offend some other god, because it would already be offended that you didn't believe in it, or if you believed in it for no reason whatsoever, and never got to know it. God's not going to take all your money. He owns it all anyway.
Of course like all analogies, the one about the apple falls apart when you try to read too deeply into it. For example, to make it work you have to assume that everyone has the same taste in apples.
Another shallow analogy I used last year, was to pick up a cup off the ground (probably not such a crash hot idea at Schoolies) and put my pen in it. Then I set it back so you couldn't see the pen, and said. “Let's say that all religions have a cup, and every religion argues that the pen is in their cup. But they don't let you see their cup, because they claim that the pen is too sacred and can only be seen by special religious leaders who had purified themselves, and that it is up to them to describe the pen to the common people. So each religion keeps their cup behind closed doors.
But then this bunch of people comes along and puts their cup on display, and says, ‘Look for yourself! The pen is in our cup. I have seen it, and believe, won't you?’
And other people are running around saying, ‘I have looked in their cup and there's nothing there. Don't look in the cup, you'll only set yourself up to get hurt with disappointment.’ And of course you have the atheists who say that there is no pen, and then there are the postmodernists who say that the pen is in everyone's cup at the same time. You don't even have to try to prove that one, because it doesn't make any sense to begin with.
“But the cup on display is too easy. All you have to do to prove to yourself whether it's true or false once and for all, is to look in the cup for yourself. It's that simple.” Once again, please don't look too deeply into this analogy. Especially as I made it up on the spot last year, and without the context of the conversation that led up to it, it probably doesn't make any sense at all.
We also talked to two people from the Wilderness Society, who we seemed to get along with very well. They wanted my take on whether or not animals have souls or would be resurrected, and I said that Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 seems to imply that we don't know, but we have been given responsibility for them, and we should treat them with mercy (Genesis 1:28;9:5, Numbers 22:21-33, Luke 12:6, James 1:18;3:7).
Marika and Bradley gave their testimonies at lunch, and Bethany at dinner.
I was really looking forward to tonight, because tonight I was in the Cool Group. I call it the “Cool Group” because last year it was this group that I was in when all kinds of cool stuff happened. In the group are Lisa, Noof and Darcy (who's replaced Nathan from last year, but it's still just as cool).
Tonight we spoke to three girls who said they were Christians, and one of them platted my beard again. They said they were going about Schoolies telling people to repent. The way they explained it didn't sound too tactful, but maybe I'm wrong. We soon got to see them in action though, and I'm pretty sure that I was right the first time.
A guy decided to challenge me while we were talking, to tell him why I knew that God existed. He demanded that I tell him my testimony on the spot, which I did in less than 15 seconds, telling what God has done in my life and explained that nobody can prove that God exists to another person, as He reveals Himself to those who search for Him with all their heart (Deuteronomy 4:29, Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 7:7-8, Acts 17:27, James 4:8).
But those three girls all jumped in after my testimony and started yelling at the poor guy so that all he heard was, “I can't prove God exists after all”. What's more, he thought I was trying to prove that God did exist, and so he thought he had won an argument that we weren't having and said, “See? That proves it! He doesn't exist!”
Before I could start my apologetic on this, the three girls chased him down the beach yelling, “Yeah, so shutup. Shutup shutup shutup!”
I was determined to talk to him again, because he seemed to have been hurt by people telling him to believe in fairy tails that sounded too good to be true. God doesn't want us to believe in Him like some fairy tail. He wants us to have an actual, real relationship with Him and to get to know Him personally our selves. I can't prove to you that God exists. If I were to eat an apple, and find out that it was delicious, I could tell you it was delicious because I had proven it to myself, but I couldn't prove it to you. You could tell me all kinds of scientific theories or quotes from philosophers to try to prove to me that the apple is not delicious, and I wouldn't believe you. Because I know for myself. I can't prove to you that it is delicious but you can easily prove it for yourself by simply tasting it.
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”
Psalms 34:8 (NKJV)
What do you have to loose from searching for God with all of your heart. If He doesn't exist, then it's not going to kill you. By meeting God, you couldn't offend some other god, because it would already be offended that you didn't believe in it, or if you believed in it for no reason whatsoever, and never got to know it. God's not going to take all your money. He owns it all anyway.
Of course like all analogies, the one about the apple falls apart when you try to read too deeply into it. For example, to make it work you have to assume that everyone has the same taste in apples.
Another shallow analogy I used last year, was to pick up a cup off the ground (probably not such a crash hot idea at Schoolies) and put my pen in it. Then I set it back so you couldn't see the pen, and said. “Let's say that all religions have a cup, and every religion argues that the pen is in their cup. But they don't let you see their cup, because they claim that the pen is too sacred and can only be seen by special religious leaders who had purified themselves, and that it is up to them to describe the pen to the common people. So each religion keeps their cup behind closed doors.
But then this bunch of people comes along and puts their cup on display, and says, ‘Look for yourself! The pen is in our cup. I have seen it, and believe, won't you?’
And other people are running around saying, ‘I have looked in their cup and there's nothing there. Don't look in the cup, you'll only set yourself up to get hurt with disappointment.’ And of course you have the atheists who say that there is no pen, and then there are the postmodernists who say that the pen is in everyone's cup at the same time. You don't even have to try to prove that one, because it doesn't make any sense to begin with.
“But the cup on display is too easy. All you have to do to prove to yourself whether it's true or false once and for all, is to look in the cup for yourself. It's that simple.” Once again, please don't look too deeply into this analogy. Especially as I made it up on the spot last year, and without the context of the conversation that led up to it, it probably doesn't make any sense at all.
We also talked to two people from the Wilderness Society, who we seemed to get along with very well. They wanted my take on whether or not animals have souls or would be resurrected, and I said that Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 seems to imply that we don't know, but we have been given responsibility for them, and we should treat them with mercy (Genesis 1:28;9:5, Numbers 22:21-33, Luke 12:6, James 1:18;3:7).
posted by Mathieu | 3:19 am
1 Comments:
you had me waited for so long, hopefully there's more to come...and you have an amazing memory!
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