Went to Cornhill today, first day of term, pretty excited. Sat next to a guy who’s just done 8 years of prison ministry at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, as seen on Ross Kemp on gangs… pretty cool! The guy on the other side was from Bedford where I grew up… small world!
Anyway… I got home early, so popped to a barbers near Brighton station – hair was a serious mess! Having hair cut, by a girl, mid-twenties probably… and we got talking about the gospel… people always ask about work, so working for a church is a great conversation starter (also a conversation killer!). We only had about 5 mins to talk… but three big blockers (as Tim Keller calls them) came up…
- I work for a church… oh I’m not religious
- Do you believe in God?… oh no, I believe we’re here because of evolution
- I believe Jesus says and does what only God can do (and proves it)… ok, but how do I know he’s the right God, there’s so many out there
It was clear that there was unfounded prejudice about Christian beliefs, a narrow-mindedness to look into the evidence, but I think deep down a desire to know the truth. Good chat. Same issues always come up don’t they, nothing new under the sun…
I read 2 Samuel 12 and wondered why your god strikes children dead because of the adultery of their father.
Are you sure you are worshipping the right god, because I can’t find any evidence of any god killing children?
Hi Steven,
Thanks for your comment. It’s a horrible story isn’t it! David sleeps with a lady, gets her pregnant, and has her husband killed. God is rightly angry at David’s rebellion against Uriah and Bathsheba, but more importantly in disobeying Him! It’s a classic case of ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ – the curse of the sword remains with David’s family and God kills his son.
It’s terrible, but it shows just how serious God takes rebellion against him… ‘The wages of sin is death’ – Romans 6:23… we’re all sinners, all deserving death… but God is merciful, he saved David, and he gives you too the offer of Life in Jesus!
If God doesn’t take sin seriously then…. on what basis can we be angry at evil that happens in the world?
For that matter… why would you say that it’s wrong for God to kill that child? I’ve given my reason why I think God is right to do that… why, objectively, would God be wrong to do that?
If you live anywhere near Brighton, we’re having a session at Bishop Hannington Church this week on Wednesday (23rd Sep), 7.45pm (bhmc.org.uk) – looking at passages like this… how can we believe in a God who destroys nations??
Also, on Sunday 1st November, same place, at 6.30pm, we will be having a cafe night, looking at questions posed by New Atheists… like this!