02/26/2021 – Day 285 – Proverbs 29 – 30 – “Rebuking over flattery for love of a brother…” and continuation of: “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist!””
“Proverbs 28: 23: “He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward Then he who flatters with the tongue.”
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/proverbs-27-5.html
And another one, that we ignore at our own peril and that of our children, and our children’s children: 29:15: “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” My footnote reads: “A child doesn’t learn to do evil; he naturally knows how to be selfish and lie. However, he must be taught to share and be truthful.”
It is interesting to me that in little children, if you overlook their natural cuteness, and observe, you will see original sin in action. Yet, look at the flip side: “created in God’s image”: As I noted, Muslems don’t believe this. But, I have never ran into a child atheist. A skeptic would retort: “Little kids believe anything you tell them.” To that , I remember my youngest brother’s first sentence that I had ever heard , speaking to our other brother four years older: “Rob , you lie everything!”
But seriously, we all seem to have an innate yearning for heaven, for a paradise lost. Why is that? We hunger, we have food; we have a sexual desire at puberty, we have marriage… If every innate yearning has a fullfillment, then why wouldn’t a yearning for God’s presense and his unfathomable love have a fullfillment as well.
Check this out, it is objection # 4 in “objections to the idea of heaven” , pg #100 , in my ” Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics”by Peter Kreeft and Ronald K Tacelli” (isbn: 978-0-8308-2702-2. I leave it for y’all for I highly recommend it re: to “Be prepared to defend the hope that is within you…”):
“Objection 4: The very form, or structure of the idea of heaven is mythic or legendary. The golden streets are just another version of the “happy hunting grounds” or the Elysian Fields.
Reply A: Distinguish the imagery from the substance. To disbelieve in the substance because you mistook the imagery for literal description is as foolish as disbelieving in the moon because you mistook the ‘man in the moon’ for a literal man.
Reply B: The fact that all religions and cultures have some version of heaven or paradise is evidence for, not against, its reality. If everyone (or nearly everyone) believes a story, only snobbery would conclude from that fact alone that the story is likely to be false rather than true.”
Note – archeaelogical evidence has pointed to a widespread belief in a catacylismic flood. (and paleontological evidence of a worldwide flood as well) Again, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheiest!”
Ok, that was a fun little trek down the daisy trail of faith on this Saturday morning. I didn’t plan that one.
Soli Deo Gloria!