Online Debate

It used to be something I did, was argue incessantly with Atheists on YouTube. And then I read the scripture, "They fast for strife and debate." I realized that was my fast. I was ministering to an audience, that---having made the mistake again---can only seethe with hatred and slander and abuse.

Paul lists debate as a sin in Titus 3:9. And I realized apologetics is a useless field.

The more we argue with nonbelievers, the more we show ourselves on their turf. The constant debates are sinful.

When atheists ask for evidence, I have piles of it. I can literally write entire books on the evidence for God's existence. If they don't want to believe, they don't want to believe. It's not for a lack of evidence that these atheists lose their faith. It is a lack of faith. A lack of desire for God.

An atheist posted a nasty little remark on a channel. I could have gone through the entire schloop. What would it have accomplished? Unless he were willing to learn---unless he had desire for God---there'd be no breaking through to him.

Truthfully, what brings men to God is a life well lived. A life of obedience, and then the following joy. We can talk until we're blue in the face, but unless we minister with power---the power of the fruit of God's Spirit---we can never accomplish a persuading argument.

What would happen? I would talk for hours with this person. Maybe even days. Every comment I'd sense his undying hatred. His quarrelsome spirit. The yoke of the burden of the conversation would hang over me. He, in his foolishness, would bring up some obscure point of nihilism. He just doesn't want to see the evidence. The evidence is that God's law works. It works better than our faulty understanding. A whole generation are taken away in their wickedness. They think all day on violence and lust. It is not curiosity, nor nobility that atheists start quarrels. It is merely their own hatred for your soul. The demon within them, which wants to destroy all peace.

Quarrel not. Debate not. Nobody was won to the faith from an argument.