Q: "I just talked to a JW and was wondering what do you say when he says how the jews have been completely rejected by God and never to come back?"

A: Hey R. There are plenty of verses in the Bible that show that God is not through with the nation of Israel. Here are several:

"Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 31:35-37

"I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew." Romans 11:1-2a

"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Romans 11:25

In the last verse, notice that the blindness of Israel is both partial and temporary.

The book of Revelation is very clear that a great multitude of Jews will come to faith in the future - 144,000 of them (Rev 7). I know that the JW's see this group as a special heavenly class of JW's but this goes against the plain reading of the text.

Israel is an important subject in the Bible. It is the apple of God's eye. Nevertheless, when speaking with JW's the doctrine of Israel is secondary to the Person and work of Jesus Christ. I think it would be a good idea to keep the conversation there when dealing with the JW's instead of letting them call the shots and pull your attention elsewhere.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

God bless,

John

Q: If an infinite number of things is impossible how do we account for eternal life or hell for that matter? is there any logical contradiction here? For instance if God cannot cease to exist wouldn't He by definition be infinite?  I know you don't claim to have all the answers and I definitely wouldn't be coming to someone who claimed they did. You're my brother and your humility and perspective on philosophical issues like this are helpful. I pray for discernment.

In Christ

D

A: Here we get into the whole issue of God and time. Basically there are 4 views on this relationship. The view I hold to (at least right now) is that prior to the creation God existed timelessly. God condescended into time the moment creation was actualized. In this way He has real, genuine interaction with His creatures. This was the view that Arron and I arrived at after much thought, only to find out that this is the view Craig arrived at after 13 years of study! Arron laughs about this, saying that between the two of us we have one working brain.

Back to the point. On my view, time was created to exist forever. One moment is added to another on into the future. Adding moments (or any actual thing) like this forever doesn't pose any logical problem because no matter how many moments you arrive at, the number will still be finite. Where we run into a problem is if we try to spin the clock backward
infinitely. This doesn't work because no first moment would ever be reached and without a first moment, we could never reach this present moment. The fact that we have reached this present moment is proof positive that there was in fact a first moment. As for God's eternality, recall that on my view, God existed prior to the creation timelessly,
therefore He never had to traverse an infinite number of moments. When we refer to God as infinite we are speaking qualitatively (not quantitatively). That is, God is infinte in His great making properties. For instance, He is omnipotent in the fullest sense of the word. Think about this: The gap between being and non-being is an infinite one. If such a gap is to be traversed it would seem to necessitate an agent of infinite power. This is what the creation is all about - God creating the universe (a being) from literally nothing (non-being).

God is by definition the Greatest conceivable Being, which entails exemplifying maximal excellence in all logically possible words. This basically means that God cannot not exist (if He could He would not be the Greatest conceivable Being - the one whose existence was necessary would be greater). The world God created is obviously possible so God must
continue to exist in relation to it. Though God is eternal, the number of actual moments He traverses since the creation will also be finite, no matter how fantastic the number becomes. Hard to fathom,yes, but not illogical as far as I can tell.

Hope this helps somewhat,

Blessings

John