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| Conversations With God | |||||
 Printer Friendly Version - opens in separate window The book Conversations with God, by Neale Donald
Walsch is published by Hodder & Stoughton and the edition I am quoting
from here is copyrighted 1995. Like many books written these days that move away
from mainstream Christianity the author prepares the reader for criticism, "Thus will this very book
be called blasphemy - the work of the devil - by some" - p.196. However, that is not the statement I want to make
without evidence, I want us to look logical at what is written within
its pages and the claims it makes about itself. What is interesting is when we discover the claims
made about this book and consider the basis carefully we can only come
to one conclusion - to believe what is written here is illogical and
no one should be taken in by it. Please note from the points below -
this is the conclusion from Walsch's own writing not a biased outside
view. Why do I say this? 1. We read on page 3 that God says in response to Walsch's questioning that he "… communicate(s) with
thought… I often use images and pictures. For this reason, thoughts
are more effective that mere words as tools of communication." In other words the book was dictated by God but the author was thinking the words in his own mind. However the Bible also makes such a claim, "God, after He spoke
long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many
ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…" Hebrews
1:1-2. If this book is true and can be accepted then how
much MORE should the Bible be taken as the words of God. Yet this is
not the case indeed the book often belittles and indeed denies the truth
of the Bible. "Leaders, Ministers, Rabbis,
Priest, Books. The Bible, for heaven's sake! (God answers) Those are
not authoritative sources." - p.8. However, here we have the first problem - the Bible that claims to be the words of God, in the same way as this book does, cannot be trusted in the eyes of the author. Neither then can his own book which is built on the same foundation. 2. Another aspect of this book that shows its lack
of credibility and illogical reasoning, is its subjectivity. "So I have given you other
tools of knowing. And these are called feelings. And so too, thoughts.
Now the supreme irony here is that you have all placed so much importance
on the Word of God, and so little on the experience." I really wonder what the irony is because the Bible
is objective in its stance and the information it contains can be tested
and shown to be true. Not so Conversations, because the subjectivity
and feelings would change with each person. You can never have a clear
foundation and nothing is absolute and so nothing is a solid foundation. 3. On page 5 we are told that what is from God "contains
truth" but we still have to ask as Pilate did, "What
is truth?" Truth cannot be subjective because one man's
truth would be another man's lie. Truth must be objective and absolute
so as to be a proper tool of judgement. But there are no objectives
or absolutes in Conversations. On p.39 God says, "I have never set down a
'right' or 'wrong,' a 'do' or a 'don't.' To do so would strip you completely
of your greatest gift - the opportunity to do as you please…" With such a God, without absolutes, there can be no
truth because it is always changing. Hence the 'God' of this book is
not communicating truth and it is illogical to accept it. 4. Amazingly, the claim is, that God inspires books
such as Conversations and Course of Miracles but not the
Bible. In several instances (see pages 45 and 95) the Bible is even
misused in an effort to prove Conversations to be acceptable. When logical reasoning is applied to the claims of
this book we see that it is far more reliable to accept the Bible. We
then must conclude that it is dangerous to rely on the teachings of
Conversations because it is leading us into a totally different
direction than the True Scriptures. Below we look at just a few examples of the error
of Conversations. All of the quotes below teach the opposite
of the fundamental belief of Scripture. What are you going to choose
- this book that cannot be checked out or 'proven' in any way or the
Bible that can be established as true by test internal and external. Person of God "If you believe that God
is the creator and decider of all things in your life, you are mistaken.
God is the observer, not the creator." - p.13 "Excuse me, but why not eliminate
the events? (God answers) A very good suggestion. Unfortunately, I have
no control over them." - p.105. Conversations shows God to be subservient to
events and not the creator of all things. However the Bible shows that
He is the Creator and indeed the Sustainer of all life. Person of Christ "So who said Jesus was perfect?"
- p.192 Conversations as many such books, seeks to
belittle the person of Christ. However check out both the historical
evidence and the Biblical evidence and we find that Christ was perfect
and He is the only man ever to live such a life. The Devil and Hell "And so you have created
in your mythology the being you call the 'devil'" - p.14. "I tell you there is no such
experience after death as you have constructed in your fear-based theologies…
I do not send you there (to hell)… You, yourself, create the experience…
Yet even this experience is never eternal." - pp.40-41 Conversations wants us to believe the devil
does not exist and so we need not worry about hell. Not only does the
Bible show this to be untrue, but look into the world and see the evil
of man against man - this is not normal this is supernatural evil. The Devil is real, and an eternity in hell, is also
real for those who choose to follow him. He will be there and those
that choose to follow him will also be there. Man's failure and Man's future "No wait a minute! Who's
seeking to be like the devil? (God answers) You are! You all are! You've
even created religions that tell you that you are born in sin - that
you are sinners at birth…" - p.85 "There is no such thing as
'getting to heaven.' There is only knowing that you are already there."
- p.98. "You never do die. Life is
eternal. You are immortal. You never die." Man did not fail - man has no problems - just think
your way into an eternal future, says Conversations. The Bible
reality is that there is sin and as a result there is death, not just
physical but spiritual. We do not all have eternal life with Christ
automatically we need to accept the way that God offers us. Fall of Man and the Redemption
of Christ "You are saying that My Son
- who you called the One Perfect One - has saved you from your own imperfection
- the imperfection I gave you. In other words, God's Son has saved you
from what His Father did. This is how you - many of you - say I've set
it up. Now who is mocking whom?" - p.137 "You have had 647 past lives,
since you insist on being exact. This is your 648th." - p.204. Of course if there is no problem then there is also
no need of an answer. Reincarnation sounds so easy but again it is totally
illogical because it puts you at the mercy of fate and you never know
how many lives you have to live. You might never make it and the world
might end with you still in limbo. However history, archaeology and the Bible all show that Christ died and He died for a purpose. He is the One who can pay off your 'karmic debt' and set you free. If you think there is no disease then you need no
cure. If you accept that there is a disease called 'sin' then you need
to take the correct cure. In this case as we have seen by comparing
Conversations and the Bible, the only cure is salvation through
Jesus Christ. CONCLUSION I ask again, what are you going to choose - this book
that cannot be checked out or 'proven' in any way or the Bible that
can be established as true by test internal and external. Our eternal
future depends on our answer.
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