Adam, we have to learn to distinguish between things we can do or might be able to do and things we believe are worth doing. After 20 years of being some sort of Christian, you have evidently decided to deny that Jesus or the Holy Spirit even exists, and you view the Bible as a pack of harmful lies. In my mind the valuable resources of time and energy I could spend answering your objections (at least to my satisfaction, if not yours) have to be spent in other ways at this time. We all make choices about where we think we can best invest our time. It seems to me that you are being rather smug by assuming that just because I don't keep on and on with the discussion it means that I am unable to offer any meaningful response to the so-called "hard facts" you are bringing up, and that that is the reason I am "bailing". I won't be manipulated by such suggestions.

You are speaking with someone that has believed the promises in the Bible and has seen deaf mutes healed in remote villages in India through actions I have taken such as rebuking demons in Jesus' name or laying hands on people. Many many other miracles I have witnessed. These things are not in my power to control or I would not be perplexed by my own wife's own health setbacks. (She had a dead tooth which was poisoning her body). What I can say is that prayer in the name of Jesus can work dramatically. What I have seen on video with T.B. Joshua is just like what I have experienced myself but more so. Give glory to your gods if you want to, but we were busy casting out such beings as you worship, and people were getting healed.

I see no point in discussing the ethics of the Jesus of the Bible with you. What interests me, first and foremost, is the issue of whether Jesus of Nazareth is alive today. I contend that He is. God gives proofs, but never so many as to overwhelm people and leave no possible room for doubt. Its always possible to create unbelieving constructions on everything faster than believers can refute them, just as it is easier to create garbage than to clean it up. Its also possible to respond in faith to God. God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Yes, hell is real, and plenty of people now who were clinically dead and resuscitated have seen the horrors of it. These were mostly people who never believed in the reality of such a place. A knowledge of Greek and Hebrew won't save you here. Neither will your disbelief. Realities are there which do not ask our permission to exist.

The Christian faith is not dying. Rather, it is the unbelieving versions of it which are dying - those that have a form of godliness but deny the power of God. Go to Brazil or Argentina or China or Africa or India and try to tell me that Christianity is dying. Hah! It is the occultists who are losing ground in those places.

Just as paganism was overcome in the past, by people who were closer to the historical facts, so Jesus Christ, who is well able to reveal Himself again today, will destroy all the renewed efforts of the devil. Perhaps by His second coming. It remains to be seen how God will do it.

I contend that because Jesus rose from the dead, the grave is empty and the church was built on that confession, the Jesus you do not believe in will ultimately triumph. He, having been dead, but now alive, has the authority to tell us what actually lies beyond death's door. And you don't like what He says. It is nothing like what your philosophical speculations and superstitions would propose. Since you are well versed in the Bible, I don't need to remind you.

At some point things need to be rounded off. I don't know if it can be done cleanly but all I can say is I hope that God's truth will prevail in your life before it is too late.