Timeline for Is it possible for an unbeliever who is steadfastly unconvinced or skeptical to genuinely embrace a saving faith in Christ?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 15 at 17:09 | comment | added | The Editor | @Mark I am open to the view that unbelievers can pray to God to know Him. As Acts 10 (and 11) explains, Cornelius, although devout in the Jewish faith, did not at the time believe in Jesus. However, his prayers and alms pleased God (vv. 3-4), so an angel pointed Cornelius to Simon Peter so that he could learn what he needed to do. After hearing Peter, Cornelius believed and was baptized. | |
| Jan 15 at 17:01 | comment | added | user61679 | @TheEditor What do you think about this? | |
| Jan 15 at 16:52 | comment | added | The Editor | My response is too short to be an official answer, but I'll quickly say that "without faith it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Heb. 11:6, ESV; edit in bracket is mine). | |
| Jan 15 at 6:51 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jan 14 at 6:01 | comment | added | Michael16 | The reason can be anything. Anyone can change, however you have selected extreme examples that we would. It is possible for them to change but not likely. They would/can never convert. | |
| Jan 14 at 3:14 | comment | added | user61679 | @Michael16 That's a good point. But how often does God grant Acts 9 encounters to staunch non-believers in modern times? | |
| Jan 14 at 3:10 | comment | added | Michael16 | Are their unbelief greater than apostle Paul before his conversion? | |
| Jan 14 at 1:24 | answer | added | Dan Fefferman | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 13 at 21:43 | answer | added | pygosceles | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 12 at 18:51 | comment | added | CosmicGenis | @Mark that article is about faith and fideism. Faith is an intuitive concept, that means recognizing a system as correct and then putting it into practice. Fideism is forcing yourself to believe. UFOlogists who attend Roswell, NM with t-shirts saying "I WANT TO BELIEVE" without any intellectual grounding are fideists. I suppose those who see the Gospels as legendary but still wished to pattern their lives on Jesus (Leo Tolstoy and "Jesusism") would be practicing a type of fideism. | |
| Jan 12 at 18:42 | comment | added | user61679 | @Fomalhaut What are your thoughts on this question: christianity.stackexchange.com/q/99672/61679 ? | |
| Jan 12 at 18:39 | comment | added | CosmicGenis | @Mark saving faith = good behavior + intellectual assent | |
| Jan 12 at 11:33 | comment | added | user61679 | @Fomalhaut My question is about saving faith, not mere intellectual assent. | |
| Jan 12 at 9:38 | comment | added | CosmicGenis | I don't know why this question is so popular. Is it on the basis of "If you believe, then you're saved!"? Believers who sin are not better off than atheists in the long run. (Psalm 14, Psalm 53, 1 Timothy 5:3) An intellectual assent to a set of minimum facts will not take you far. | |
| Jan 12 at 8:24 | answer | added | Nigel J | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 12 at 4:20 | answer | added | Mama Bear to 4 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jan 12 at 0:54 | comment | added | curiousdannii♦ | Also there's the well-known phrase "the mind justifies what the will chooses what the heart desires." We like to think we're rational first, which leads to our choices and desires, but it's often actually the other way round. So usually the first step is for God to open our eyes to see that he is beautiful, true, and just. Our wills and minds will follow once we desire God. | |
| Jan 12 at 0:52 | comment | added | curiousdannii♦ | Well this is why a lot of Christians believe that it is God who overcomes everyone's disbelief. Ephesians 2 says we're dead in sin, and dead people can't make themselves alive. It is God who brings life to the dead, overcoming death, so that those he breathes life into can no longer help but live! If that's the case then it is precisely as difficult for the staunch atheist to become a Christian as it is for the apatheist, or even the person who's attended church all their life but never actually followed God. | |
| Jan 12 at 0:31 | history | asked | user61679 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |