Posted by AF [AF] on March 31, 1999 at 10:12:59 {ohFII14TUctWYktmF7cQdaOt1gg/Zk}:
In Reply to: **The King and His Son Parable posted by Rahab on March 30, 1999 at 14:54:18:
: I truly understand what you say. I have been there myself. But this story does line up with reality, because I have met the King. He changed my life, when no one, including myself could. He brought my feet up out of the pit and established my steps. I know, just like in the story, many will think it is "emotion" or "imagination", but I know that my redeemer lives, and I have met Him personally.
I'm glad that you've found a good measure of spiritual satisfaction. However, I know or know of many people who say the same thing about such supernatural experiences. Since many of their claims contradict one another, and so cannot all be right, what should a rational person make of these claims? Especially a rational person who has never had a supernatural experience?
I suppose I could lapse into a long tome about the underpinnings of such claims, but I will simply point out that in my experience people who claim supernatural experiences are just not believable. We have the JW "anointed class", longtime H2O posters such as "You Know", Gary La Motta and several others, Mormons who claim close encounters of the spiritual kind with God, Evangelicals who do the same - often loudly on TV and with fake faith healings - and claim that they talk to Jesus and he talks back, and a host of others. Why should a rational person believe you, among such a crowd?
: May I ask, what would it take for you to believe?
A supernatural revelation would probably do the trick, assuming I could verify that I wasn't hallucinating. Or a body of of objective evidence. Such would necessarily include good answers to questions such as, "If God reveals himself to some sincere persons, then why not to others?"
I once had an experience that had many of the hallmarks that "true believers" say characterize the answer to a prayer. Trouble is that the "answer" was diametrically opposed to supposed Christian principles and blew away my last vestiges of trust in the Christian God. Go figure.
In view of the dearth of evidence to believe as you would like me to believe, the most reasonable stance I can see is agnosticism - to admit that I simply don't know about a lot of things that others are convinced of.
: You are welcome to e-mail me privately if you want.
I fear that would be useless unless you could post something that shows that you're different from the crowd. In any case, thanks for your concern.
AF