ARGUMENTS FOR GOD YOU AGREE WITH: From Failure to Perfection

By William "Bill" Schroeder

While offering our opinions and philosophies as a defense against anyone trying to convince us there is a God, our attitudes and actions betray us into admitting that He exists, that He is out to get us, and that we need Him to get us. How do I know this? Well, some of it I learned from Calvin and Hobbes. So please, step inside, sit down, and let's learn from them. In this little book, the readers are challenged to reconsider their views on what someone has called the four most important questions: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. When you are done reading this book, you will have to decide whether the author is just one more person adding his book to the countless others that fill bookstores and library shelves. Or this book has introduced you to Him, Who is both the Source and the destination of your life; and your life will never be the same. But how will you know until you pick it up and read?

"Most writers who address the atheist or agnostic try to marshal formidable arguments that demonstrate the wrongheadedness of that worldview. Not so this book. You will enjoy the author's conversational style, his use of the insightful messages of Calvin and Hobbes, the fact that this book is not at all pretentious or stuffy, but one that seeks above all to communicate with people where they are. If you want to understand the Christian message without being preached at, this book will provide that understanding--with a touch of humor. And if readers let down their guard long enough to hear, truly hear, what the author is conveying, they will be richly rewarded." --Dr. Joel Heck, professor, Concordia University, Texas

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685704483

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ARGUMENTS FOR GOD YOU AGREE WITH

From Failure to Perfection

William Bill Schroeder

ISBN 978-1-68570-447-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-448-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by William Bill Schroeder

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved

Luther’s Small Catechism—A Contemporary Translation © 1995 Northwestern Publishing House

Cover Design by Erin Michal

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Story of Sisyphus

Introduction

Part 1: The Proofs We Give

What We Know about Being Good

Justification

Why Do We Feel We Need to Be Perfect?

Failing at Love

Part 2: What We Need to Know

Section 1: Out to Get Us?

Source

Man's Efforts

The Three-Letter Four-Letter Word

Section 2: Get Us How?

Fugitive Apprehended? Or Captive Rescued?

Restoration

Who's in Charge Here?

God's Means for His Actions

Transformation

The Bible's Secret Nonsecret

The Second Secret—An Unexpected Way

The King and You, a Brain Video

A New Allegiance

It'll Take Me Forever to Pay That Off!

How to Know for Sure

Conclusion: Where Are You in All of This?

Where Are You in All of This?

About the Author

Notes

Georgene, I am daily thankful for your love, support, wisdom, encouragement, prayers, and being the woman of faith that you are.

The Story of Sisyphus

According to the Greek myth, Sisyphus was the king of a place called Ephyra (or Corinth). He was a sly, tricky person who somehow cheated death twice. This infuriated the god, Zeus, who gave him a never-ending punishment—he was to roll a boulder up a hill in Hades only to have it roll back down thus having to try again and again and again, never succeeding in getting it over the hill.

Introduction

Welcome. Come on in. I've been expecting you three. I am so glad you are here. I expect others as well, but you three for sure.

What do I mean? Well, one of you considers yourself a believer in God. At this point, you aren't sure you know Him or trust Him, but you do accept that He exists. You are here to see if you can find out more about this God and see how you and He intersect. Good. This book will take you a long way down that road.

One of you is an agnostic. You are genuinely unsure if there is such a thing as a higher being, and if there is, you wonder what they/it might be like. You aren't sure what believing means, but you want to find out if there is some truth or reality to these arguments. I am delighted that you are checking in. This book will give you a solid place to start.

The last of you three is an atheist. I am also pleased that you have taken an interest in this book. Maybe you are here simply to see if I have a new argument for God you haven't encountered before, and you might want to refute it. That is fine. Go ahead. I have no objection to that. I am not here to argue. I just want to present things the way I see them. So take a look and enjoy the read.

But maybe you are here because you are closer to being an agnostic than you think. I hope this isn't too presumptuous of me since I don't know you, and I have never been an atheist. It just seems to me that some atheists are fighting against a God whom they say doesn't exist as if He does exist. Yet, I know most are parked in the atheist camp because they genuinely do not perceive any proof that there is a God.

Either way, I am not trying to attack you or make you uncomfortable. As you will see in a moment, I am not good at debating. I will not be on the attack until you cry uncle. I am what the Bible calls a pastor-teacher, and this book is simply me laying out what I have learned and taught over the years of my ministry.

I am warmly inviting you to come on in, sit in a comfortable chair, and let me have a one-sided dialogue with you, into which you may interject your comments—or stronger words that express your thoughts if you feel that is necessary.

I am starting with the declaration that there is a God, and He is the God of the Bible, the only God there is. Thus, my position is that all people, at some point, will have to come to terms with this God. The first part of this book explains why this is true. The second part introduces you to this God and explains the Christian faith dynamically.

First, I want to explain how I came up with the title for this book. I have, for a long time, been searching for the perfect arguments to overcome anyone I dialogue with about God and faith. I know, I know. These militaristic thoughts contradict what I just said about not wanting to argue. But this sentence is referencing my younger, wanting-to-convince-everyone days when I thought my failure resulted from not having all the right pieces of information lined up for battle.

Since then, I have admitted that I am not good at debating. I have read many good arguments. The problem wasn't that they weren't good. The problem was that they weren't good for me. My mind can't hold them, and I get too nervous in debates to be able to use them well. I have read many fine arguments from philosophy, creationist thought, and science, but I am neither a philosopher nor a scientist. Plus, I can't remember all the points of the arguments in order to marshal them for offensive or defensive use in my discussions. Again, there are many fine resources out there with great arguments in the realm of creation. If you want to see them, I can give you a list.¹

There are many good books giving great philosophical arguments.² Philosopher Mortimer Adler wrote a couple of well-respected works arguing for God solely from a philosophical perspective. A few years ago, I even read a blurb about some mathematicians who said they can mathematically prove the existence of God. But, again, my mind doesn't have the capacity to grasp all the arguments, let alone use them in any beneficial way to at least convey the ideas or convince someone else of them.

You see, I am not the best champion for God to go out and try to win arguments and debates with those who are skeptical or resistant to God and His message. My concern is that I don't want to take someone on and have them trounce me in a short-lived (and greatly lopsided) battle of wits and have that person think they have defeated Christianity when they have only defeated one poor combatant who wasn't much of a match anyway.

That is why I wrote this book. I can lay out my points for you to consider without being flustered by interruptions or being taken off topic by a counterargument that I would need to stop and think about (and forget what we were discussing in the first place!). Plus, you can respond however you choose.

So do you see where I am coming from? I've been looking for some arguments for God that all who hear them would have to say, Yes, you are right, even if I deliver them poorly. I have been looking for statements that will stand alone without needing argumentative reinforcements from myself.

I have finally found them. And found is the word. I did not think them up myself. As a matter of fact, I got the idea for them from someone else. My source for what follows came from two old friends with whom I meet every few years. You may know them too. They are those two great philosopher-theologians of our time, Calvin and Hobbes. Every few years, I get out all the Calvin and Hobbes books I have accumulated and reread them (with a long enough interval in between so that I don't remember the great lines and can have a good chuckle again).

As I was reading through one of the books one day, I came upon the argument for God I had been looking for. Calvin and Hobbes are lying on a hill, enjoying a nice summer day. Hobbes, being the more introspective one, turns to Calvin and asks, Do you think there's a God? The next frame shows Calvin staring off into the middle distance, obviously chewing on the question. In the last frame, he finally gives his answer and says, Well, SOMEbody's out to get me (emphasis in the original).³ Bam! There it was, the argument that there is a God.

And it is an argument that everyone agrees