Cheryl Schatz

Peter, I quoted a Scripture that said that a person must believe that God exists before he can draw near to Him. Your response was: Not sure why this needs to be said – as it is a trivial point. It is not different than saying “no one can read the Bible unless they read the Bible”. Your doing this sidesteps my question of how your view deals with atheism. That is just plain silly. You are accusing me of saying that no one can come to God unless one can come to God. It seems to me that you are having a difficult time being objective and evaluating a viewpoint that is different than the one that you so strongly embrace. When I read your analogy it seems that you find it somewhat difficult to respond without prejudice. I haven’t had time to read through the comments you made as I am squeezed for time and running into serious deadlines over the next number of weeks. The other day I spent an entire day responding to your every point but I rarely have that kind of time. When you respond with a trite comment it makes me concerned about your inability to be objective. Today I just felt compassion for you. I don’t know what your situation is or how many detractors you have had in your journey, but I feel you must have had a lot of enemies. You are fighting so hard for a position that you appear unwilling to stand back from the position long enough to even understand what you are objecting against. I feel a sense of care for you today to pray for you. I am only going to respond to one other point that shows up just above the comment box I am typing in. I feel too overwhelmed today to even read through your multiple comments. In your last paragraph you wrote: Also, and unrelated, you previously said that only believers get saved. If you read the Scripture I quoted, in essence it says that only those who acknowledge God’s existence can come to faith in Him. Those who just acknowledge God’s existence are not yet believers. There are also unbelievers who are not atheists. But Hebrews 11:6 specifically deals with those who deny God’s existence. Conversation is great but understanding one point at a time is better. And asking questions without accusing is even better. I pray that God’s grace is there for you today as He draws you in His love.