As God’s partners, we beg you
not to accept this marvelous gift of God’s kindness
and then ignore it.
2 Corinthians 6:1
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2, Ephesians 5:1-17
Pilgrim’s Progress Stage 3 Part 3
Relate: A little farther down the road, Christian notices three men sleeping just off the path named Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. They are bound in chains. Maybe, at first, they do not even know they are in chains. But even after being told, they don’t seem to care. Christian, still on a spiritual high from his experience at the cross, does what any newly transformed person would do: he tries to wake them up. He calls to them. He points out the chains. He tells them about the Lion that prowls the road. Their response threw a wet blanket on his zeal and passion. Simple says, “I see no danger.” Sloth says, “A little more sleep.” And Presumption says, “Every tub must stand upon its own bottom.” Then they go back to sleep. And Christian walks on, troubled but unable to help them.
They say that the opposite of love is not hate. It is apathy. And these three characters have that in spades. Simple doesn’t know enough to be afraid. He has buried his head in the sand and now cries out, “There is nothing to see here.” Sloth knows but just does not care. He thinks, “I should really do something about those chains… tomorrow. Today, I am just too tired to deal with it.” Presumption has convinced himself, or at least pretended to convince himself, that it isn’t a big deal. In response to Christian saying, “You are sleeping as though over the depths of a bottomless sea,” Presumption says, “It’s not that deep.”
React: None of these three are enemies of Christian. None of them is actively opposing him, as so many others will do along this journey. They are just… asleep. And that may be the more dangerous condition. The openly hostile opponent at least knows that something is at stake. These three have made peace with their chains and are snoring through their own destruction. Bunyan spent years in Bedford jail for preaching without a license. He understood something about the cost of spiritual complacency in ways that most of those in safe and comfortable contexts rarely do. I think if he were writing this book in the modern West, this concern would have covered more than a passing paragraph.
There is no such thing as a spiritually neutral position. There is no coasting through the kingdom of Christ. You are either alive and awake and walking out your spiritual journey with Christ. Or you are in chains, doomed to destruction. Simple underestimates the danger because he has not examined it closely. He has closed his eyes to the overwhelming evidence of God. Sloth knows the danger but thinks it is farther off and not worth disrupting his convenience and comfort. He is the reckless driver convinced accidents only happen to other people. Presumption has rationalized the danger away. All three errors are alive and well today, just with different clothing. The cross cures all three conditions. But only if you’re awake enough to reach it.
Respond:
Dear God,
THE RIVER WALK 
every theist claims that their god is obvious, and not a single one can show that their god exists. They all use the same supposed “evidence” and insist that it only shows their god.
If you were to say that there is no definitive “proof” of the existence of a god then I would fully agree with you. But there are multiple proof that certainly tip the balance heavily in favor of the existence of a god existing. I am not saying this is definitive proof of “my” God existing. Big difference. For that I would go nowhere else then the 10 abductive proofs of the historical resurrection of Christ.
There are no such “proofs”. There are vague arguments which all depend on presuppositions. Nothign shows a god is needed at all.
And your god doesn’t exist just like any god. There is no evidence, much less proof, that your jesus christ merely existed, much less was resurrected.
No man/god can be shown to exist. Appeals to a historical jesus fail since no christian worships a delusional jewish man.
There was no empty tomb since there was no full tomb. Christians can’t even agree on where it supposedly was.
Women’s testimony is only questioned in legal matters. The claims about the resurrection were not legal matters. Notably Paul manages to not know they were supposedly involved at all.
No eyewitnesses, and paul’s “500” are never heard from again. Curious how they evidently weren’t impressed enough to tell anyone about it.
No evidence James existed or the apostles did. nor is there any evidence of any “martyrdom”.
All writings were decades or centuries after the supposed events, events that Christians cannot agree on when they happened.
Many cults grow. If that is an argument, then Islaim is more “true” than Christianity and has splintered far less.
Your bible is a set of claims. You need evidence to show that the claims happened and there is none.
The moment you say there is no evidence that Jesus even existed, you demonstrate how ignorant or biased you are. I could line up dozens, if not hundreds, of scholars who are Muslim Jewish or atheist that acknowledge that Jesus existed. It is something that has been about as firmly established in history as anything from that time can be. And that isn’t me saying that. It is atheist scholar Bert Ehrman. Or the atheist Maurice Casey who wrote a book criticizing popular atheist pseudo scholarship against Jesus historicity. And there’s Antonio Pinero the agnostic historian who popularized the dichotomy of the Jesus of history vs the Christ of faith. Then there is Geza Vermes the secular Jew and one of the key figures in the Third Quest for the historical Jesus. If you cannot even acknowledge that Jesus is a person of history then your head is buried deep in the sand.
Again, there is bno evidence your man/god existed. There is also no evidence that a historical jesus existed, a delutional jew who claimed he was the messiah. There may be more probablity that delusional fellow existed but there is still no evidence.
There are no “hundreds” of scholars who say that this man god existed, and it is no surprise you can’t name a single one. The Muslims think jesus simply a human prophet, the jews think him to be fiction or delusional. That isn’t your jesus christ son of god.
Ehrman thinks a historical jesus existed, the delusional jew, so he does not agree with your religion. Casey also has no evidence for either the delusional jew or your divine messiah. Pinero and vermes, also have nothing to support your religion’s claims
do you worship a delusional jewish man? yes or no?
Are you moving the goalpost? You said there is no proof Jesus existed. I line up four of many scholars that absolutely disagree with me about who Jesus was, but acknowledge Jesus existed. Pretty much every single historical scholar of every theological stripe absolutely disagree with your second sentence here. If you can’t even recognize this then there is no point in going further. You are more concerned with hearing yourself speak than in exploring truth.