Theism vs. atheism

An idea came to me while digesting the recent debate I watched between an atheist and a Christian. The Christian is Dinesh D'Souza. You can watch the debate by going to King's College news site and looking for the "Watch the debate" link.
http://www.tkc.edu/advancement/media/newsrelease.asp?id=55

Also Dinesh spoke at our church "Dinesh D’Souza on What’s So Great about Christianity?"
http://cedarpark.org/resources/media/

The idea is, that while debating atheists, to defend Theism instead of religion. And what I mean by that distinction is to consider the aspects of religion that are man made, and to limit or eliminate them from what is defended. And to consider the aspects of what it means that there is a God and why it is important to investigate who and what God is, and the rules He has made for us. Possibly this could thwart some arguments by atheists that put down Christianity - you can surprise them by agreeing with them that religion (how to best observe God) is man made, but that you disagree on the point of the existence of God, and therefore the legitimacy of investigating His existence and what His rules are. I think a healthy part of that does include
how religion has positively impacted civilization, although not perfectly, because it is not ultimately from God. Religion is just our way of studying who He is and in fact is a science as well as an art. And from there, it can flow that Christianity has made the best contributions to civilization, as well as having it's mistakes, because it has identified God, but it is still man made, so is admittedly flawed. Of course this conclusion of which religion has best identified God would not need to be part of the base debate of atheism vs theism. Using this distinction between theism and religion, could possibly reveal that the whole argument,"that atrocities committed by Christianity indicate that we have a flawed belief and therefore there is no God" is pointless, if you agree with the atheist that the religion of Christianity is man made in its final form. And then add, "Just as their atheism is man made."

God (Christ) made us with the ability to reason and choose, we chose to deny Him. Every denial and deviation from Christ - every man made understanding - including every form of religion, including every practiced form of christianity, has resulted in some amount of injustice. Atheism is far removed from Christ, and therefore you see many more atrocities like Stalin, Hitler, Mao etc. If we can discover who God is and live by the rules and laws that He has created, we will no longer have injustice. (Side note: one of His laws is that now that we are fallen, we can not get back up on our own, we need his atonement for ourselves, and His ultimate return and rule, to have the justice we seek.)

Jesus, please forgive all my sins and be my Lord, Amen.

A quick note on heaven.

Acts 4:12
¹² Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

God is very disappointed when we don't believe what he wrote to us. It is extremely judgmental of us to decide that we can not know the way to heaven and the way that people must take to go to heaven because God has made it very clear to us.

Acts 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

It doesn't matter how bad or good we are. We have all failed to make it on our own. We must believe in Jesus and pray to Him believing as best as we know how, something like "Jesus, please forgive all my sins and be my Lord".

If a person doesn't do that (not that exact prayer, but that type of prayer). Then they will go to hell. It is the utmost of arrogance and pride to say "I can not know if someone is good enough to go to heaven". Because no one is good enough. I am not, you are not, no one is good enough to go to heaven. We all must accept Jesus' death on the cross which paid the price of our sins.

It is true, that I can not know who is going to heaven, because I do not know who has truly said "Jesus, I can't do it on my own, I am wrong, please forgive me, I accept your payment for me sins, I want to be with you in heaven.". I do not know who has said and believed that in their heart. But you are making a - serious - eternally - deadly - error if you will not believe the plain words that Jesus told us that you must accept him. Either for yourself or for others. We must accept the truth that if someone doesn't accept Christ, it is impossible for them to go to Heaven. And also advise people of these truths.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, then you are going to heaven. If you have not, you are not. It is that simple. Then after you have, if you do not tell others you are guilty of not helping them go to heaven as well. You will not loose your salvation by failing to tell others the truth, but you will bear the consequences in some form.

So, I really do wish you would forsake your pride and/or complacency or whatever it is that makes you think that getting to heaven is somehow based on if someone is a nice person and you could never know if they are nice enough. Yes, it is saddening to think that a loved one isn't going to heaven, so it is convenient to explain it away as "how can I know". Well we can know as much as they tell us. If they deny Jesus (have never accepted Jesus), then they are going to hell. Our fright doesn't change the truth.

Don't base your belief in the Bible on the failures of some human to live up to it's standards, saying "I don't want to go to church, it is filled with all those sinners." Exactly!!!! we are all sinners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we all need JESUS!

I haven't tried to offer proof, it would make this note much longer. But I hope I have made the truth very plain. And I hope and pray that you will come to believe it.

Well, that wasn't as short as I thought it would be. I do hope you carefully read it though to
at least understand what I said.

Jesus, please forgive all my sins and be my Lord, amen.