First of all, you are making this far too personal. My speculations are not directed towards you, they are trying to describe the mind set of general attitudes out there. Such as my very last statement which you call disingenuous. You have not met that man?... the one who says I’m a good person, I deserve heaven, I don’t sin much at all, etc., but never darkens the door of a church or sincerely prays to his Lord on a regular basis except to ask for a lottery win? These are the people that concern me the most because as Jesus says “father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
I also believe you misinterpreted my words in the first line. No, reverend, I am not offended in the least by anyone’s words on these boards. I always figured the man who gets upset or feels offended is the one who is quite insincere in his own skin. And that is not me. I am a grateful Christian certain of Jesus as One and Only and ready to accept suffering and setback during our earthly trial even though I do not necessarily enjoy it.
Finally, so you have at least honestly declared you thought you knew the truth on various occasions but now you realize you did not or could not have known. Ok, I believe you. But what you go further to imply is that none of us can know the truth. Why is that? Because you have been given that knowledge that no one can know?
Well, I am sorry but I do know. I know just as well as St. Peter knew and St. Paul knew. I know just as well as the glorified saints of the Catholic Church knew. God reveals Himself to those He chooses or to those who keep the demands of His covenant, and for other reasons as well. I have been given way, way too much to not be sure. For me to turn my back on God now would be eternally fatal. The evidence for Jesus Christ as the Son of God goes far beyond just Scripture. I really am not concerned if certain passages in the Old Testament do not seem to have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. The devil is clever and all it takes is a seed or two of doubt for many souls to remain uncommitted. That is a comfort zone for them, but not nearly as justified as they would be led to believe.
So you or another can go through this life convincing quite a number that we can never know who God is, or which one is God, or what we are supposed to do, or if heaven and hell even exist, and you can tell them all not to worry. But quite frankly, I find that type of “kindness” to be awfully dangerous if not diabolic in some ways. No, you would not be accused of evil I highly doubt, but such ignorance is doing the devil’s bidding. It is keeping God’s people in the dark and it shows in how they choose to live their lives.
So if I have offended you (again) then I am sorry. Perhaps I am not clever enough to put this in kinder words or less direct words. But these religion boards never seem to change. They are filled with skeptics who think if they can top the Christian guy they are talking to then they have won an important battle and the war is going well for them ---- especially because there are so many willing ears around here to embrace their message. And then once again I summarize with my speculations why there are so many eager unbelievers and doubters. Because I do doubt their sincerity, I believe they want the easy way out in life and it is as Jesus says --- their hearts are sluggish. There is simply too much at stake here for me to be overly polite or cowardly about this.
