If you believe me to be a liar, or if you believe me to be telling lies,. If you believe me to be promoting deception and delusion, then I have a special challenge for you.

Remember what was written earlier about how some men prefer accusation over thorough investigation, snap judgments over impartial and unbiased and well seasoned counsel. How some prefer: Pride over Humility, prejudice over justice, impulsiveness over patience, hatred over forgiveness, division over unity, accusation over thorough investigation, dissension over communal understanding, and domination over shared responsibility.

Let’s face it: it’s much easier to attack someone’s character, than to argue or debate, or disprove their position, especially if you have no idea what they’re talking about and have no expertise on the subject matter they are addressing. Especially, if you are just a poser, but you want to gain attention, and distract people from knowing the Truth. Therefore attacking a person is apparently the modern pseudo intellectual move of today’s jet set debaters, and the go to move for anyone lacking integrity. Which seems to be the majority. But I highly recommend not going this route.

So, Let’s apply these due considerations to your personal thoughts and accusations of proposing that I have lied, distorted, or in any way misrepresented the truth.

The fact is, I may have. I may have been deceived, may have misspoke, may have entered a erroneous quote, or an inaccurate figure, or prejudicial principle.

If I have, here is my commitment to you. I will print a retraction, but before I do, let’s be clear about the baseline. What exactly is being exposed? What exactly is needing correction? What exactly in the purpose and reason and cause for the action.

1. If it is a personal, ad hominem attack, it will be ignored, as it should be.
2. If it is a uninformed personal opinion or even an informed opinion that is addressing another opinion, it may be duly noted.
3. If it is a reasonable and thorough investiagation of the facts and proving with solid time honoring evidence, an error has been made, then, Yes, a retraction will be forth coming. On this condition …

I have a challenge. If someone is going to ask for my time and my due consideration, I am also going to require something of their time as well. And I will duly ask for the nature and the basis for such a dialogue. If the person wants to debate or argue points on which they are not informed, or on a subject that they have no fundamental working knowledge of then, it can be predicted that any such interaction will be doomed to being a fruitless endeavor. This I want to avoid not only for myself, but also for the other person, and anyone else involved.

Proverbs 26:4-5 (KJV)
4 Answer not a fool according to his folly,
lest thou also be like unto him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
lest he be wise in his own conceit.

Therefore, here is my challenge: If a debater will in good conscience take, the 30 Day–Name of God Challenge, and will do their best to grasp its meaning. I will allow them to weigh in on this subject. If not, then, my time is valuable and not worth wasting on a fruitless endeavor, that is predictably without merit.

Or if you believe, God to be a liar. Or his son to be a liar. Or his prophets who have recorded his word to be liars, I have another challenge for you. Prove one lie, but first, learn His Name, discover who it is you are accusing. If you don’t know His Name, what right do you have to attack His Character, His Testimony, and His Kingdom? You have proven your case is frivolous and without merit. You are a poser and not a true debater or leader who being heard.

As has been stated:

• The problem is–Many prefer lies over truth: Evil over Good, selfishness over selflessness, wickedness over righteousness, taking things from others rather than working for them themselves.
• They also prefer: competition over communion, violence over gentleness, avoidance over responsibility, fantasy over reality,  drunkenness over soberness, lust over self-control, and greed over generosity.

If you believe the promise of heaven and the afterlife to be a lie, and without substance at without the truth… If you believe hell it’s just a and allegory, or a metaphor, or a simile, or a literary tool or idea I have another challenge for you.

For every detractor, debunker, self inflated commentator, dismissible commentator, every self proclaimed accuser, debater, renouncer, skeptic, educated liberal, I have a challenge. In fact I have a number of challenges.

I also will make a commitment to any Challenger, debater, commentator, to post your own material on my website if you will follow through with the challenge and allow yourself to be tested by the same standards, that you would test me or any other person.

You who judge others do you judge yourself?

Romans 2:1-6 (NIV)
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”

Let me be clear, I do not advocate that we are not supposed to judge. That opens the door to complete chaos. Yes. I affirm we are not supposed to judge with prejudice and partiality, and with hypocrisy. That is obviously wrong. But we are to judge not only ourselves, but also others according to the Word of God. We are to test ourselves and to test others, and be careful that we do not fail the test.

2 Corinthians 13:5-8 (NIV)
5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you —unless, of course, you fail the test? 6 And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7 Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

So let us use our judgment wisely and not waste it on frivolous matters. Let us be sober minded and be able to defend the Truth reasonably, gently, and with due honor.

James 5:9 (NKJV)
9 Do not grumble against one another,
brethren, lest you be condemned.
Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

And …

Matthew 7:1-6 (KJV)
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

What I have discovered is that men who enjoy criticizing, and judging others, do not apply the same rules of judgment and criticism to themselves as they do to others.

This in and of itself disqualifies them from being a true witness.

Public disclaimer:

Someone might have gotten the idea from my presentation that I think that I am without error, without deception, without imperfection, or without genuine scholarship or without ability to miscommunicate fundamental truths, Facts and science and in history and in medicine politics etc.

So this is my disclaimer. I am not a scholar, a professor, an expert, an accomplished philosopher, And accomplish debater, or anything that is special. The one thing that I will claim is that I do believe God exists, that he loves, that he forgives, that he has emotions, and reasons, and acts upon his principles according to his own understanding.

Now, “before you get your panties tied up in a wad“, before you get your “undies stuck in the crack“, before you go ballistic, before you drop a blank, before you jump a rail, or fly off the handle, before you go Hari Kari (Seppuku), before you go kamikaze pilot, before you: blank blank blank blank blank blank.

I hope you see what I just did there. I set up a potentially good conversation to fail, even before it began. I dishonored my opponent, I threw out dispersions.

I offered no good communication to work with, just emotional attacks.

To be honest, I have been guilty of this in the past, and so her not to repeat the same errors in the future. I know we must have parameters to work with in order to establish good communication.

Instead of remaining calm, and using language to promote thought, and communicate clear ideas, I have used inflammatory, emotional imagery and accusatory language that promotes emotional and relational division, discord, anger, frustration, dissension, etc. etc. etc.

This is unacceptable language and an unacceptable style of communication for men and women who choose to honor the God of the Bible Should be taking.

 

I we say we believe that all men and women are created with the same eternal worth as ourselves, they we should honor each and every person on the earth as potential eternal brother and sister in Christ, with whom we will have an eternal relationship with them and with God, forever and ever and ever and ever.

And whatever is unacceptable in an eternal relationship is and should be unacceptable even here and now in our temporal relationships. For we know not who, nor whom the Lord will not choose to become his chosen son and daughter. Sometimes the most vile, ornery, and malicious man in the village will be will come to faith, while the most noble, wealthy and refined person will be left behind.  We know that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. So that we are without excuse, so that we should treat no one as though they were not going to become His holy child, and a part of His holy bride.

I don’t know about you but if you laid a hand on my holy child, or my holy bride, I quite naturally would have negative feelings towards you, towards your actions, towards your beliefs, towards your feelings, towards your reasons, toward your motivations, Towards your habits, toward your total mindset that allowed you to produce such evil actions that would allow you to harm, or abuse, or to attack (verbally physically or spiritually) one of my children.

If I was God I would be offended by you. If I had all power, and all knowledge–I would be strongly tempted to use that against you, and show no mercy.

 

In other words if I was Omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient and you had to contend with me on a one to one face-to-face meeting, I would be sure that you got yours. I would be 100% committed to allowing justice to play it’s perfect role in your life, That as you have done to others, and everything you intended to harm others, especially my chosen children, that everything you intended and want it to be done to them, it shall be done to you–100%, and that without prejudice, without bias, and without  impartiality.,.

And since I know this to be true from the very words and testimony of God himself. I will choose to be very circumspect, with my words, my thoughts, and my communication, that I myself will not disown myself of God’s Favor, and God’s Mercy, but will reflect that to everyone I meet. (At least in theory. I may mess up from time to time, but that is no excuse!) Therefore I will bar from my speech and my writing, inflammatory remarks such as mentioned above. I will confess that I have use such rules of communication and debate in the past. Like a fool filled with himself and his own pride, I did try to hold distain and anger and malice towards those who are ones that I considered to be evil and deceived, I did that in my ignorance, and have no such excuse to be ignorant in the future. And I am writing this down for all to read and all to judge.

Shalom,

Brother Thomas