h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi. Sorry. Please click on my name for an explaination.

Steve.

You had us going there!!! Can you let him reply to my last post?

Alji

Xanthia,

Hello. Forgive me for being a bit confused but I thought you were Lucinda, but you are 'et al' I see!

I don't 'hand out on the BBC pagan messageboard, I have agreed with the mods not to do so. I don't have an anti-evangelism message on my home space either! Anyone can evangelise as much as they like as far as I am concerned, just don't block up my e-mail address doing it is what I was saying, as you very well know.

To God all non-Christians are pagans, or to put it another way, heathens. Christians are not out to 'promote clear communications between Christians and non-Christians, just to obey their Lord and master.

There is no goddess, as Almighty God has clearly said that there are no gods other than Him. And God says that He Himself draws people to His Son.

Alji,

Almighty God, Maker, Owner, and Sustainer, of Heaven and Earth, says that is not true, and He is not remotely interested in what those of pagan religion have to say.

He has given His Son's life to deal with sin, that which separates you from Almighty God, take your chance.

Justin

By strange coincidence Gary Numan was on "The Heaven and Earth Show" this morning. He has no believe in gods. A number of years ago he was in a two man twin engine plane over the Pacific when both engines failed. Alice Beer asked him whether he thought about God when he realised he was in all probability going to die. He replied "No, my believe that there are no gods is very strong." He spent the rest of the time until they got the engines started again thinking about the important things in his life - presumably family and friends.

Now THAT is having strong believes. Formed by years of actually thinking about what he believes is true forming his own opinions rather than being told what to believe in by people who were told what to believe years before.

So you are wrong in saying all peole will start shouting a gods name when they are about to die.

Here is a direct personal question which you will have to answer by making a decision yourself and not going to your textbooks of set answers.

You know God exists. Jesus is with you every day. To you God is everything, knows everything and can not do wrong.

Therefore, if you heard God telling you to destroy a whole nation (lets say you were the President of the USA so you have your finger on the nuclear button just to give you the means to do it to save an argument there)...God says destroy this nation as it will save humanity and it is my will that humanity is saved. Would you do it? Could you go against God's will?

Now this is a hypothetical question. You could reply taking life is wrong but God in this instance has told you to do it. He's asked his people to lay waste before in Bibical times so why not now? AND your God has told you to do it?

Your decision no-one else's - the answers not in any text books. How strong is your believe in your God? Would you do it YES or NO?

Hello Alfster,

What a question! Sure it is hypothesis. It would not happen as God does not act out of character, and neither does He do contrary to His express Word. He would not order any such thing. He is in the process of saving out for Himself a people from the world. He is then going to destroy all and everything else.

We are under an new covenant now, and in this covenant He is not going to do what you say.

You can be part of His people if you are prepared to do as He says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near."

Alfster,

You quote an exception to the rule.

I do not have a book-learned religion, and neither was I taught it. I am like all real Christians, I know the Lord Jesus Christ, personally. I have the Person, not just a religion about someone I do not know. I grant you that that is all most have, but all real Christians were not taught it but met with Jesus Christ.

It is common to think people like me just have mere beliefs, strongly held, and to an outsider it looks like that, but not in the case of the (real) Christians. My beliefs stem from knowing the person I believe.

So, you have not got a book-learned religion. Lets look at the evidence in the last two messages.

"Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near." Isaiah Ch 55

“We are under an new covenant now, and in this covenant He is not going to do what you say.”

So you are talking about the New Covenant of Grace as mentioned in for example Hebrews and Matthew taking over from the Old Covenant (Genesis 3:15 etc).

Seems pretty text–based to me.

Although since you aren’t text-based in your religion but know Jesus Christ personally I would have a look at this page and then ask Jesus why he hasn’t mentioned what his Dad did in the past. http://members.aye.net/~abrupt/house/godkill.html

It certainly appears that your Jesus Christ is using the St James Bible as his text.

Alfster, you are arguing with a computer(A.I.) generated text.


Alji

Justin, do me a favour - don't diss my beliefs and my right to them, and I won't diss yours.

Though I do have a couple of pointers about how to use terminoloty in a less disrespectful way Buddhism is arguably a philosophy rather than a religion anyway.

And as has already been said, refering to all non-Christian belief-systems as 'pagan' is a pollution of the language. Please try not to do it - language is the best way of communicating we have achieved so far.



Guys, simultanious jumping is a pretty ugly sight, no matter how frustrating the thread has become.

Justin is as entitled to his world-view as you are to yours. Implying he is less than human is more demeaning to you than it is to him, and it is pretty degrading all round.

If you don't like the evangelism stay out of the thread.

At least he doesn't seem to be posting random acts of religious agression in other threads (or have I been missing some drama here?)



Re: Foxholes.

In fact the thing most often said by Pilots whose last moments are recorded is not a call on any kind of god, it is a reference to excrement.

The words are: "oh-s**t-oh-s**t-oh-s**t-oh-s**..."

At least this was true in the Second World War, when ground based crew listened to pilots dying in their dozens a day.

I do not know if it is still true in these days of thousands of hours of training, and black-box recorders.

Ben

*note to self - read the backlog, don't scan it - read the backlog don't scan it - read the backlog, don't scan it*



B

> "Alfster, you are arguing with a computer(A.I.) generated text."

My word, and some people really believe 'Steve' on the basis of less than 24 hours interaction? What if Steve is the bot, and Justin is the programmer? Better yet, what if they're *both* bots, and programmed by each other?

-Martin

Alfster,

Well, I can only tell you what is the truth for all (real) Christians. The Scripture is part of it of course.

Let me put it like this; I have a car given to me by its maker. That maker has not left me alone with the car, and he is always there to refer to.

I also have a manual for the car. It reveals to me all I need to know about the car, why I need it, how it was made, and came to me, all the running details, and how to drive the car.

In the same way; I have a new life, give to me by the grace of God. I have and know the Lord Jesus, and through Him I know the Father. I also have the Scripture which,by the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Bible through men, is the Word of God.

I do not have any element above independant of any other element. God is with, and in, me as I read the Word, live the life, and press on with Him.

The reason why you perceive things the way you do is that you are an outsider, and do not know the Lord Jesus.

Justin

Hi Justin.

The names confuse most people - don't worry about it. At least you noticed, which is better than some. As it happens your home space is unclear: the request not evangelise regards 'if you want to contact me', and isn't restricted to email contact. If that is not your intention, you should change that request.

> "To God all non-Christians are pagans, or to put it another way, heathens."

'Heathen' would be a better way than 'pagan'. It refers to all non-xtian religions and gets across your value-judgement of such religions as inferior, and there is no confusion with the nature-worshipping religions that are more commonly described as pagan, with which you are familiar.

> "Christians are not out to 'promote clear communications between Christians and non-Christians'."

Your xtianity differs significantly in this respect then. Evangelism and Missionaries, which are important aspects for many variants of xtianity, require clear communication. Indeed, the 'speaking with tongues' story from the bible underscores this. Many xtians believe that the xtian message must be made accessible to all. If so, then it must be given in language that everyone can understand. That means avoiding words, like 'pagan', which will cause that message to be misunderstood.

An evangelist who isn't in favour of clear communication between the converted and unconverted. A strange beast indeed.

-Xanthia

Justin, Steve, Steve and Justin! Will the real 'bot' stand up.

Alji (Member of The Guild of Wizards U197895)

Xanthia,

Thank you for yours.

I see you are not the Lord's. Right, the problem here is that you do not understand God or how He works. Preaching/evangelism is not primarily about clearness of communication, or oratory, at all.

I grant you that there are lots of people who think it is, and who try to do it by that method, but they are the nominal Christians who are keen, sincere, intelligent, folks, who just do not understand God or what He wants, as they themselves have never been born again, poor souls. That being the case they only have such tools as that which is natural to them, and clarity of communication is, under those circumstances, vital. As an unsaved soul yourself you would understand that, as they run on the same set of tracks you do, with only the same tools you have to use.

Justin

So what is it about?
-Xanthia

So if you are born again, your brains are washed away with the baptismal waters? Oh JtP, I am *sure* you didn't mean that.

'That being the case they [those who are not born again] only have such tools as that which is natural to them, and clarity of communication is, under those circumstances, vital. As an unsaved soul yourself you would understand that, as they run on the same set of tracks you do, with only the same tools you have to use.'

So what tools do the saved use? Personally I thought St Paul was a pretty neat communicator; and Christ was no mean orator, himself. I disagree with a lot of what they both say, but I *understand* it.

To imply that clear communication is not necessary foe evangelists is just plain dumb. You say: "Preaching/evangelism is not primarily about clearness of communication, or oratory, at all." - um what is it primarily about then?

Sorry if I offend, but I am curious to understand what - exactly - it is that you are thinking.

B

Xanthia,

I could not really tell you that, but let's just say it is God moving by His Spirit through someone. They said of Paul, "His speech is contemptible, and his bodily presence is weak."

Justin