“It is not the ordinary affairs of this life, the fleeting and transitory concerns of today or tomorrow; it is not whether we shall live all freeman, or die all slaves; it is not the momentary affairs of empire, or the evanescent charms of dominion – nay, indeed, all these are but the toys of childhood, the sportive excursions of youthful fancy, contrasted with the question, What is man? Whence came he? Whither does he go? Is he mortal or an immortal being? Is he doomed to spring up like the grass, bloom like a flower, drop his seed into the earth, and die forever? Is there no object of future hope? No God – no heaven – no exalted society to be known or enjoyed? Are all the great and illustrious men and women who have lived before we’re born, wasted and gone forever? After a few short days are fled, when the enjoyments and toils of life are over; when our relish for social enjoyment, and our desires for returning to the fountain of life are most acute, must we hang our heads and close our eyes in the desolating and appalling prospect of never opening them again, of never tasting the sweets for which a state of discipline and trial has so well fitted us? These are the awful and sublime merits of the question at issue. It is not what we shall eat, not what we shall drink, unless we shall be proved to be mere animals; but it is, shall we live or die forever? It is as beautifully expressed by a Christian poet –
Shall spring ever visit the mouldering urn?
Shall day ever dawn on the night of the grave?
- Alexander Campbell
Campbell-Owen Debate, p. 13
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"When we stand before God in judgment, we will not stand in groups to be judged by what characterized each group as a whole. I fear that many have this concept, that is they belong to a church which is noted for its good works, that they individually will be judged favorably even though they personally were no part of that which made the church effective. In judgment we stand alone that, " every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."" "There is no half-way house on the road of apostasy. When a man begins to deny the faith, he almost universally ends in a complete denial of it." They (the disciples) proved slow learners, the Gospels tell us (Mk. 8:17-21/9:10,32/ John 12:16). Even by the time of Jesus' death they did not really understand what was going on, and the resurrection took them completely by surprise. Then at last the truth began to dawn on them, and Jesus' patient teaching, remembered but not yet understood, began to come to life as well. They had learnt their lessons well, and before long the loyal activists in a dimly understood cause became the theological brains behind the world's most successful ideological movement." “I do confess the Catholic church is not a Bible based church. It can’t be. It existed before the New Testament. Catholics wrote the New Testament, protected the New Testament, translated the New Testament, and carried it on to the book we have today.” "If one is faced with the choice of a life compromised by sin, or a death for righteousness, he does not HAVE to live. A man way choose to starve to death, rather than steal food. On the anvil of this wilderness experience is hammered out Jesus' decision: 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work.' (John 4:34) It is far better to starve for sake of a right principle than to eat food misappropriated." “As an atheist my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” "the silence of the inspired apostles, on any theme, is to be sacredly and unscrupulously regarded as much as the positive teaching" "Jonah was a 'sign' to the Ninevites in that he appeared as one delivered from death. It was the knowledge of this which attested his preaching and caused their repentance. The point of the comparison with Jonah lies, therefore, in 'the authorization of the divine messenger by deliverance from death'. Jesus' preaching, which his hearers are rejecting, will in due course be attested by a still greater deliverance; therefore their condemnation will be the greater (verse 41). "In the argument concerning moral evil, atheists claim that an all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God cannot exist alongside moral evil. In other words, because God does not intervene to fix the problem of moral evil, he is immoral, and thus, as an essentially moral being, nonexistent. Yet, as we will see, many atheists will contradict this argument against moral evil by going on to label as immoral the very interventions God would naturally use to fix the problem of moral evil. Why are these divine interventions immoral? The reason divine intervention becomes a problem for these atheists stems from the value they place on human autonomy. Divine intervention suppresses self-rule...One regiment marches under a banner that reads "God Should Fix Everything"; another holds high a banner that says, "God shouldn't tough anything."" |
Nathan Battey
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