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= Ten Hard Questions (for Christians)

== Common Topics on #Christan-Debate
The IRC channel christian debate is not really a debate channel. In any case this is a record of the most common issues found there. It's intended as a reactionary discussion. Please see [[Christian Steamroller]] for a more humorous and proactive article in the same vein. You may also be interested in [[Ten Questions Christians Can't Answer]] which is a more serious attempt than 'steamroller'.

=== Was #Christian-Debate any good?
I've finished documenting apologetics from IRC. The forum itself has become passe, and as a result there are less people there and the arena is no longer valid. But for a while it was, to a point, and this is the record of the most interesting topics I could find.

== 1. What would it take?
Christians often admit (see: [[Special Concessions of Christianity]]) that iff (if-and-only-if) "There were contradictions in the Bible", or if "Jesus Didn't Fulfill the Law", or //et cetera//, if there was some evidence the New Testament was on shaky grounds, that they would re-consider their beliefs.

And yet, despite the [[Preponderance of Evidence against Christianity]], Christians merrily and happily don't bother.

To the Christian, it is easy to admit that "If". But they hasten to add, "it didn't happen that way". To the Christian, sure, if there was a problem they would at least stop to re-examine what was being said in the Bible. But the funny thing is, they claim, no such problem exists.

So what would it take for you to stop believing in Jesus? Does God himself have to bring you aside and tell you plainly and personally that he does not exist in any //form// and that that there is no other //savior// besides himself? Does he actually have to write a book and publish it, telling you what his plan for world salvation is? Then would you believe him?

I think this is just a really difficult question for Christians to answer.

== 2. Holy Ground
**Q: If Jesus was God, why didn't everyone around him have to take off their shoes (for it would be Holy Ground)?**

=== Discussion 1
b'b: read Philippians 2:5-11 for the answer to that.

e'z: (The answer) depends on your view of God.  If you view God as the all mighty creator that is to be feared and worshipped feared even more, then take off yer shoes.  If you view God as a friend, and a Person Who said He was a friend, then be yerself and relax.

//Part of why I am asking is in Joshua 5:14 I have heard many Christians say the captain of the lord's army was Jesus. And this captain commanded Joshua to remove his shoes.//

e'z: Ok, so, did Jesus command you to remove //your// shoes? Let's get real about life.  I have told one employee to do A, and another to do B, and another to do C. What Jesus commanded Joshua to do does not necessarily mean that you are commanded to do the same.\\
b'b: So, Jesus being VERY NATURE God CHOSE to adopt the nature of a servant while on Earth.\\
//God, a servant of Man?//\\
b'b: Yes, while incarnate\\
P's: that's the wonder of the gospel\\
e'z: or when He was 12 and it was time to teach and His parents wanted Him to be with them.\\
P's: God became man in order that man may become like God\\
b'b: God was also not incarnate, The Father.\\
e'z: man cannot be God nor can man be like God.\\
P's: man can become like God by grace\\
e'z: um, don't recall reading that book in the Bible\\
P's: 'be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect'\\

=== The Presence of God
The phrase “holy ground” is found only twice in the Bible, once in the Old Testament and once in the New. God Himself (as a burning bush) first identified the area in which He met with Moses on Mount Horeb (Sinai) as holy ground. It was there that God commanded Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let the people go from bondage to Egypt. At the moment Moses came upon the burning bush out of which God spoke to him, God gave him two commands: don’t come near and take off your sandals. Both commands were to impress upon Moses that he was standing on holy ground (Exodus 3:5). Joshua 5:15 describes a similar incident, but the phrase "holy ground" is not used.

It was not that the actual ground on which Moses stood was holy; rather, it was the presence of the holy God that made it holy. The direction to Moses to remove his shoes was in conformity with what was well known to Moses, for, having been brought up in Egypt, he would have known that the Egyptian priests observed the custom in their temples. Today it is observed in all Eastern countries where the people take off their shoes or sandals before entering mosques and synagogues as a confession of personal defilement and conscious unworthiness to stand in the presence of unspotted holiness. Moses responds by not only removing his shoes, but also by hiding his face, a sign that he understood he was in the presence of the glory of the divine Majesty and was conscious of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. In fact, Moses was so aware of God’s holiness that he was afraid to look at Him (Exodus 3:6).

In the New Testament, the event described in Exodus is reiterated by Stephen as he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin. He recounted the history of the Jews and their dealings with the God of their forefathers (Acts 6—7). He reminded them of the incident of the holy ground on which Moses stood and spoke to God (Acts 7:33). The holy ground was rendered sacred by the presence of God, who is the very essence of holiness. If Stephen's lesson is indeed that God is present anywhere, not just in a temple or a place set apart for divine worship. Solemn awe and deep seriousness are appropriate for coming into the place set apart for the worship of God, for wherever the Lord is constitutes holy ground.

source: https://www.gotquestions.org/holy-ground.html

== 3. The Eternal Covenant
Leviticus 26 and many places specify that the covenant with Israel is an eternal covenant which he will never abrogate, no matter how disobedient or idolatrous the Jewish people become. How then did Christianity come to take the mantle of "a light to the nations" from Judaism?

== 4. Impossible to keep the law perfectly
Given that many laws (such as #75, based on Numbers 5:6-7) call you to repent for your sins, it is obvious that God never intended people to keep the law perfectly -- since how can one keep the law perfectly without breaking it, if the law itself expects people to break it in order that they may complete the law by repenting for their sins.

For an essay written by God detailing everything wrong with the idea of "keeping the law perfectly", see Ezekiel 18.

== WIP
This article was a work in progress.