Has this site strengthened your faith in your false religion?

Has your faith in your false religion (Buddhism, Atheism, Islam, Satanism, etc.) been strengthened by Christian apologetics or by reading the Bible? If so, you have reason to be concerned.

I wish it could be otherwise, but the Bible teaches that its message will have one of two effects on people: Either it will stir their hearts to faith, or it will harden them and drive them away. As the apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 2:15-16:

• "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?"

What St. Paul is saying is that the Gospel is not merely information that one can accept or dismiss. It is a living thing that draws some people near and pushes others away.

God recognizes that many people who hear His words will reject them, to their own destruction. As He told the prophet Ezekiel:

• "But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house."
  Ezekiel 3:27

Jesus Himself warned us that most people will not reach Paradise, and exhorted us in Matthew 17:13-14:

• "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Does that mean that God's Word is weak, or that it has failed? Not at all. For the Bible is not only a call to belief; it is a discerner, a witness, and a judge. As Hebrews 4:12 tells us:

• "[T]he word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

How do you respond to the Bible? Do you rejoice at its message, or do you consider it foolish and corrupt? Is it the aroma of life to you, or the smell of dead things? Either way, your heart has been laid bare - and your future has been revealed to you, unless you change.

Moreover, Jesus warns us in John 12:47-48 that this very Word will judge us on the Last Day:

• "And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."

Therefore, do not think that you have defeated or nullified this Word when you or your fellow adherents reject it. I tell you, you have not defeated this Word, it has defeated you:

• "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
  I Corinthians 1:20-25

I pray that God's blessing will be upon you as you consider this warning. May He give you eyes to see, ears to hear, that you may understand and turn and He would heal you.

Amen.

Faruq al-Dhimmi

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