A Question for Atheists

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Atheists often ask "How could you believe in a God that would allow so many bad things and so much suffering?"
My answer:  "How could you not believe in God when this life is so full of bad things and suffering?  If you don't believe in God, then all you have are the bad things and the suffering, with an ending of nothingness.  You have no hope that Someone is watching over everything, that He will help you through it all, that He will eventually fix all the broken things, dish out ultimate justice, wipe away all the tears, and make all bad things good again?"  
I'd rather have a hard life with God by my side and with hope that 'the best is yet to come' ... than have a hard life without God and with no hope of things ever being better.
(And they call Christians "crazy" for believing.  I think it's more insane - and discouraging and hopeless and irrational - to not believe.)
[Click here for Why We All Want There To Be A God.]

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List of Calvinist Preachers, Authors, Theologians, Websites, etc.

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I  found a lot more names to add to my list of known Calvinists (found in my various  "How to Tell if a Church, Pastor, or Website is Calvinist"  posts).  But instead of adding this huge list to all those posts, I am going to put it here, and I'll just provide a link on those posts to this one.  [FYI: I added a note at the bottom of this post on May 5, 2021.] So here it is, a "master list" of known Calvinists to help you be careful and discerning about who you listen to and where you get your theology from.  There are plenty more Calvinists out there, but these are just the names that I ran across the most.   These are either definite, self-professed Calvinists or "most likely Calvinist," in my estimation.  (I haven't heard of most of them, but it's good to know their theology before I do.)   After finding these names in various places online, I looked up each person to see if they are Calvinist.  If they did not self-identify ...
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Sermons by Tony Evans (repost)

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(I recently fixed the broken links as well as I could, had to switch some out for others) Tony Evans is my all-time favorite pastor.  He always gives messages that convict, challenge, and comfort.  Here are some sermons that I have listened to or am going to listen to.  For more, simply go to his website by clicking here .  There are so many great ones to choose from. You can't go wrong with any video of his.  I found him to be the most biblically-accurate preacher (especially as I researched Calvinism and found out how wrong it is), who is also great at helping us practically apply God's truths to life. Reversing Anxiety Consequences Keeping the faith when life gets hard Trusting God in a storm How to have strength in your struggles How to overcome your worry How to Get Your Prayers Answered Trusting The God You Believe In God knows what He is doing How the enemy tries to distract you from God's plan Grab your sword The Secret to Powerful Prayer Spiritual W...
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Though they have eyes, they will not see

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[I originally posted this on one of my other blogs , Oct. 2021] So   according to this article , it appears that scientists have found evidence of the type of biblical destruction that happened to Sodom.  They say they found a town that was destroyed by a blast of heat so hot that it pretty much melted everything.  They say that there's no earthly natural heat source that could do this, so they speculate that it must have been an asteroid that exploded over the town, melting everything.  Oh, and they speculate that the reason no one lived there afterward was that the asteroid impact might have brought over so much salt from the nearby Dead Sea that nothing could grow.  This, they say, must be what inspired people to make up the story of Sodom in the Bible. But I say that here's your "asteroid," scientists: "The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the Lord out of the heavens.  Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, incl...
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This One's For You! (A Christmas Sermon)

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Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.) "Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)" (Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel) Merry Christmas, Everyone! [FYI: I've written before about how I disagree with woman being head pastors.  And it seems that, at Willow, the head pastor is a man but there are several teaching pastors under him, including women.  To me, that's a gray area.  And I'm not sure yet what I think of it.  But  since it doesn't break my hardline, definitive "no woman head pastor" rule , I've decided to ...
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Is God Drawing Lines in the Sand (repost)

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(R eposted from a few years ago, updated slightly.  Part of the "End Times" series.) It’s amazing and disturbing how brazen our society is in attacking everything about God and everything He created:  marriage, monogamy, sex, family, sexuality, the scientific reality of gender, morality, modesty, the value of a person, the right to life, the existence of "right and wrong," the Bible, Jesus, and Absolute Truth.  Not to mention God Himself, His very existence. We are destroying everything associated with Him (except nature – we worship that), and then we call ourselves "progressive." But you know what I think about it all?   I think that God is letting it happen because He is drawing lines in the sand.  Through all these divisive issues and all the immorality, God is saying “Pick a side!  I am forcing you to decide which side you want to be on ... because I am coming back soon to take My people out of here.  So I need you all to decide: ...
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Why Would Anyone Follow Jesus?

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            As I was listening to a Christian radio station, they interviewed a random woman on the street who said, “I think the writers of the Bible just made it up to get people to follow them.”             And I laughed out loud at the thought of that.  I wanted to ask her if she ever really read the Bible, if she knew what it teaches.  Because if she did, she would have to wonder why anyone would make up some of the things we find in the Bible and think it would cause people to go, "Oh yeah, that sounds great to me!"              If you were going to make up a religion and try to get followers, you certainly wouldn’t tell us that . . .
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Calvinism: False Gospel or True (but warped) Gospel?

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Here are some new comments  which were recently added to the Soteriology 101 post  Calvinism Obscures the Simple Gospel .  It's kinda a  friendly "debate" among non-Calvinists about if Calvinism is merely a warped version of the true gospel or if it's a false gospel.   (These are lightly edited for clarity.) Kay made this comment: In my opinion, Calvinism is a  different  gospel, not [merely] obscuring the gospel.   How can [Calvinists] believe what they do and still be considered the true gospel?      Brian   (non-Calvinist) replied: Welcome Kay!  Thank you for the question.  Here is my take for what it is worth.  Calvinism, imo, has a deformed view of the true gospel, but still the true gospel. Calvinism’s Gospel – God has provided salvation sufficiently for all and planned for it to be “freely” and irresistibly accepted by some. NT Gospel – God has provided salvation sufficiently for all and pla...
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Spiritual Warfare: If you don't believe in the devil ...

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I just found a great warning in an article ( "'Nefarious': From strange ailments to car accidents, the spiritual warfare that occurred while filming" )  from the director of a spiritual-thriller movie who knew that filming a movie about demonic possession would lead to opposition from unseen forces (my paraphrase):  If you don't believe in the devil - if you don't think you need to take him seriously -  then just start opposing him and see what happens.   Start praying more.  Start reading your Bible more.  Start memorizing Bible verses more and speaking them out loud as needed.  Start saying "no" to temptations.  Start confessing sins to God, asking for forgiveness.  Start forgiving other people.  Start thanking God for things, out loud.  Start cleaning up your lives, homes, and habits, getting rid of things that glorify evil.  Start listening to praise music.  Start obeying God in something, no matter how small....
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Two inspiring testimonies: Jim and Rob

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I found these while looking up videos on forgiveness for the next Spiritual Warfare post I'm writing, but I wanted to share these in their own post: "Jim Carrey: Shocking Faith Testimony 'Suffering leads to salvation'"  (5.5 minutes long) "Comedian Rob Schneider discovers Jesus, forgiveness: 'I needed...to be home"  (17.5 minutes long - Well said, Rob!) And here's a bit more about Rob's journey , including two great comments he posted. It's so wonderful to see hurting people come to Christ!
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