>>5976747 pb
Actually you are correct. The argument is circular. That's not the real problem. The real problem is that it misrepresents God. He says you can know before you believe (trust).
Isa 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
The invisible God, whom no man has seen nor can see because he is like water to fish and air to birds, has made himself known by causing to be written, by subtle nudgings on men, a history of God working in the world.
It is written in the same way that he wishes to be known; behind the scenes there is the story of his works. The whole record is written in double entedre. The second meaning speaks of an event that none of the human authors could know about; the cross. You can read the literal history, or you can dig into the double entendre and see the cross.
Isn't is curious that modern theologians forbid you from looking into it. It is called sensus plenior. They say that you are not permitted to read it because you are not an apostle.
God revealed himself in the literal history to be both Holy and Love. He didn't want us to mix those ideas because we mess it up. If we see a criminal go free, we don't think that there is great mercy there. If we are the criminal and don't get to go free, we don't think there is great justice.
All of the sensus plenior participates in painting the prophecy of the cross where God reconciles holiness and love; justice and mercy in one act.
The 'Christian' churches teach that Jesus died to save them individually…. how special is their man-centered gospel. They get to play God and choose what doctrine they want to believe as they sort through the yellow pages and pick a church to their liking. They teach that they are the sheep and everyone else are goats.
Jesus died on the cross to culminate the hidden prophecy, the mystery hidden from the beginning, of the character of God as being the invisible, silent hand who has everything under control.
They teach that we live in a fallen world controlled by a comic book devil. God is in control. Men usurp God's position when they choose good and evil for themselves, and they make themselves to be enemies of God. You don't think you do it? How many choices do you make 'for your own good or pleasure' instinctively without even thinking about it? Our carnal mind is at war with God.
He places us in the insane asylum for people who think they are gods. We cause pain, suffering and death. But he uses even that to bring us back to him. Suffering is the schoolmaster to the flesh. The law is the schoolmaster to the mind and spirit.
God wins because he has never lost. He doesn't have to gain control back from the Christian devil. He never lost it. He gives you what you want.. to be a god, and lets you wallow in the consequences as you reap what you sow. We often can't trace suffering to a particular sin, though sometimes we can. But we all contribute to the storm of suffering.
Though we know God, we do not acknowledge him as God nor give him thanks.
You do know and can know more. God said so.