The Case For Faith: A Journalist Investigates The Toughest Objections To Christianity Quotes
"Only after suffering, only after disaster, did Old Testament Israel, do nations, do individual people turn back to God."
"The universe is a soul-making machine, and part of that process is learning, maturing, and growing through difficult and challenging and painful experiences."
"Pain and suffering are frequently the means by which we become motivated to finally surrender to God and to seek the cure of Christ."
"The very worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the world ended up resulting in the very best thing that has ever happened in the history of the world."
"God’s answer to the problem of suffering is that he came right down into it."
"If it weren’t for suffering, it wouldn’t have been possible."
"In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures on earth, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel."
"The point of our lives in this world isn’t comfort, but training and preparation for eternity."
"Suffering seemed as likely to reinforce faith as to sow agnosticism."
"I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?"
"He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us."
"Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his."
"There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering."
"The cross of Christ is God’s only self-justification in such a world as ours."
"A living system must do at least three things: process energy, store information, and replicate."
"The truth is that a one-cell organism is more complicated than anything we've been able to recreate through supercomputers."
"But the origin of such a sophisticated system that is both rich in information and capable of reproducing itself has absolutely stymied origin-of-life scientists."
"The origin of life appears to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to be satisfied to get it going."
"But if you just choose letters at random and put them together haphazardly—including upside down and backwards—then what are the chances you’d get words, sentences, and paragraphs that would make sense? It’s extremely unlikely."
"The synthesis of key building blocks for DNA and RNA has never been successfully done except under highly implausible conditions without any resemblance to those of the early earth."
"Every cell of every plant and animal has to have a DNA molecule. Think of it as a little microprocessor that regulates everything."
"The problem of the origin of life has turned out to be much more difficult than I, and most other people, envisioned."
"If there isn’t a natural explanation and there doesn’t seem to be the potential of finding one, then I believe it’s appropriate to look at a supernatural explanation."
"The evidence is compelling. ‘Convincing’ suggests it’s a little more likely than not; ‘compelling’ says you have to really work hard not to get to that conclusion."
"God is the most generous, loving, wonderful, attractive being in the cosmos."
"The punishment of hell is separation from God, bringing shame, anguish, and regret."
"God's decisions are not based on modern American sentimentalism."
"Hell is the final sentence that says you refused regularly to live for the purpose for which you were made."
"Hell is primarily a place for people who would not want to go to heaven."
"No one will go to hell simply because all they needed was a little more time."
"People in hell will deeply grieve all they’ve lost."
"It would be unloving—a sort of divine rape—to force people to accept heaven and God if they didn’t really want them."
"What hell does is recognize that people have intrinsic value."
"God considers people so intrinsically valuable that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die so that they can, if they choose, spend eternity in heaven with him."
"It was necessary to pick one’s way over the bodies of men and horses."
"God does everything he can to give people a chance."
"Christianity insisted that every single human is loved by the Creator."
"Without Christianity, there would be an awful lot of grays."
"Christianity adds so much meaning, hope and beauty."
"Without the Christian foundations...our economic and political life together would not only be far poorer."
"The Roman church insisted on the humanity of the Indians."
"It’s not Jesus’ teachings that are at fault here; it’s the actions of those who...greatly strayed from what he clearly taught."
"It’s one thing to claim to be a way—but the only way to God? That sounds pretty judgmental."
"Christianity is based on what, according to the Bible, Christ has already done on the cross."
"Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life as a gift."
"Other religions are based on the system of people doing something to earn God’s approval."
"Jesus didn’t respond by saying, 'Wait a minute! Don’t go calling me God—remember, I’m just a great teacher and a very moral man.'"
"According to the gospel of Mark, Jesus told his followers that his purpose was 'to give his life as a ransom for many.'"
"He was willing to die a horrible death to pay for the sins of the world so that people could be made right with God."
"Christianity wasn’t pulling some kind of scam to get ahead by saying he was God."
"According to the Bible, nobody can do anything to earn God’s favor; rather, Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life as a gift."