Questions and Answers: Why is it so hard for PhDs to believe?

Obey your flesh and descend into darkness

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

Question:

Why is it so difficult for a doctor of philosopher to believe The Holy Bible? I am about to witness to a PhD philosopher.

Answer:

It's important that you realize what your responsibility is and is not. You are responsible to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. You are not responsible to lead this PhD to Christ. The Holy Spirit does that through you if it is to happen. So, you need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit regardless of how the conversation goes. You need to be in submission to the Spirit, and then you will have done your responsibility. God knows all about this and He is not worried.

Why is it so difficult for a doctor of philosopher to believe The Holy Bible? Because they have been educated into ignorance and arrogance. You are likely to run into a lot of pride and a closed mind and many tactics and memorized statements. The Universities actually are training grounds to train debaters against God. I was just talking to someone about the fact that every class at the University of Wisconsin is laced with Evolutionism, which is a distraction to whatever is being taught. The man to whom I was speaking said, "Well, it's science, that's why." I didn't tell him that this was a stupid answer, but it really was. Instead, I said, "Creation is science." He came back with, "Evolution is universally accepted here so there is no discussion." That is called a summary dismissal. It says, "Your thoughts are not valid and I don't want to hear them." That is how most of those who have been brain washed by the institutions of "learning" react to the truth. There may be a time down the road when the words that were spoken may have an effect on this man, but right now there is no effect. If there is never an effect, God may have had me talk to him for the sole purpose of judgment day when God speaks to him of his disobedience and he says, "No one ever told me." God will say, "Remember when I spoke to you through Bob, but you rejected Me at that time."

Now, you will likely not be dealing with Evolution, at least not at first, unless that is where the PhD wants to go. You will be sharing your faith in Christ, I assume. For anyone to receive Christ, a miracle has to happen. Faith is actually not belief that is based on nothing. Faith is based on a direct revelation from God. God speaks. You hear. Faith comes. In reality, lack of faith, Atheism and every other cult, is belief that is literally based on nothing. I could explain that, but it would take a little while. You can look here: http://seekfind.net/Science_and_Logic_are_Limited_Tools.html

Are you sure the person is NOT born again? It is always a good idea to find out where someone is coming from before speaking. As you listen to them explain what they believe, a couple of things happen. You learn about them and invest in them and you gain trust and rapport with them. Unless you connect, you cannot influence. I'm speaking, of course, of the Holy Spirit working through you and influencing the other person.

I said all that to say this: You need to depend of the Holy Spirit, not the human intellect. This is not about you. It is about the moving of the Holy Ghost. You are merely a witness. You yield to the Holy Spirit. Pray that God give you the words to say. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He directs you. Let Him speak through you in love. The Scripture says, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost." Pray for your PhD before and after. Just be obedient to God and you will be OK.

Do not get trapped into a debate. This is a witness of you to the PhD. The PhD will receive the witness of Christ or not. You have no control over that. It's not about you. It's about the Holy Ghost flowing through you.

He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is a folly and a shame to him. Listen first. Understand. Then answer.

A soft answer turns away wrath. Have tact but not so much tact that you don't make contact. Speak the truth in love. Rather than saying, "I disagree with you and here is why," say, "I understand what you are saying. (you might even re-phrase what was said to prove that you heard it) Would you like to hear my reasoning for believing in Jesus?"

When there is resistance, shift into neutral and draw out the resistance. "Hmmmm. You seem to have very strong feelings about this." Then you are back to listening and drawing out until you sense an open door from God and God gives you a word to say.

One other thing that I have noticed with highly educated unbelievers: they want to turn things into a debate and then shift all the responsibility to prove even the existence of God onto you. That lets them just sit back and not be convinced. It turns the conversation into a silly game that they are sure to win. You could attempt to do the same thing by telling them to convince you of the validity of their belief system while you refuse to take anything they say as being valid. Don't do it. It is stupid. It's what the Universities are teaching kids to do. They take the position that Atheism is the default and the obvious "truth" and anything that conflicts with that "truth" must pass the highest level of scrutiny. Well, that is not the case. God clearly states that He is obvious and only a fool would say, "There is no God." So God expects them to find Him. God doesn't want to play a game where He offers an argument and they come up with some lame excuse, though stated with condescending pomp, why that is not adequate proof. No. Everything that scientific method can examine cries out, "God is and God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

So it is important to realize that if the PhD is dogmatic and closed-minded you are dealing with a fool. The Proverbs speaks to the catch 22 of this situation. If you answer a fool in his folly, then you become a fool just like him. On the other hand, if you don't answer a fool in his folly, then he gets even more filled with pride thinking that he has proved his point. Since, in the natural, this is a catch 22, you need to be led by God at each moment as to whether or not you should even continue the conversation.

May God bless you in your conversation and hold you in His will. May His grace be multiplied to you as you enter into this experience and may you grow in Christ through it. Do not fear the PhD. Stand in awe of the One who created the PhD and the entire Universe.

Questions and Answers: Why is it so hard for PhDs to believe?

How can we know anything about anything

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Ever Learning but Never Coming to a Knowledge of the Truth

Evolutionism

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