After a Three-Month Hiatus, a Fall from a Ladder & a Broken Wrist, Evangelist Jimmy Roughton Returns to Union Gospel Mission to Preach
After being away from Union Gospel Mission for a quarter of a year, Jimmy Roughton returned to preach at UGM on the cold night of December 13 -- despite suffering [a little? a lot? dunno.] from a fall from a ladder that likely immediately preceded a significant injury (a wrist that was broken).
It was good to see his group from Capital Free Will Baptist Church up on the pulpit, with Roughton rough-and-ready to seduce and inspire the happily-captivate crowd at UGM.
Roughton told us in his opening words that he was now in his 27th year coming to the mission.
I recall the first preaching I had heard from Roughton on June 13, 2009. At that time and up to the current time, Roughton is the only preacher I had ever heard evoke Pascal's Wager -- which is something he would do, occasionally thereafter at the mission. He would evoke Pascal's wager, yet again, last night [12/13/17].
Last night, Jimmy evoked Pascal's Wager. He did so near the end of his talk, citing Pascal explicitly. Pascal's Wager is this: "Even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living one has everything to gain, and nothing to lose."
Jimmy's variant of the "wager," told to us in prior visits to The Mish, involves wagering that God exists (and that Christianity is The Way) because it is the reasoned bet. He tells the mission congregants that they lose nothing by becoming Christians, and very potentially have everything to gain by being in heaven for all eternity. Faith, Jimmy tells us, is what you choose to believe.
The best argument against making the wager is one that I make, borrowing from Daniel Dawkins: "I'm not at liberty to choose what I believe. My beliefs choose me. I endeavor to be open to whatever seems true." Daniel Dawkins expands on this argument writing that "Pascal's Wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God." In addition, according to Dawkins, an omniscient God would presumably see through the deception.
Jimmy had told us in prior visits that we must choose to believe something with respect to God. Even choosing nothing is a choice. Fence-sitting agnosticism, he told us, is the only impossible position. With respect to God, we are compelled to reach a determination, if we think on the matter; it is an issue of infinite importance.
But beyond saying there was more than a twinkle of a chance that God exists, Jimmy in the past, Jimmy has disparaged science-based and other non-believer arguments against God's existence, and told of conclusive evidence of God's/Jesus's existence which should convince even the most hard-hearted science lover.
It was good to see his group from Capital Free Will Baptist Church up on the pulpit, with Roughton rough-and-ready to seduce and inspire the happily-captivate crowd at UGM.
Roughton told us in his opening words that he was now in his 27th year coming to the mission.
I recall the first preaching I had heard from Roughton on June 13, 2009. At that time and up to the current time, Roughton is the only preacher I had ever heard evoke Pascal's Wager -- which is something he would do, occasionally thereafter at the mission. He would evoke Pascal's wager, yet again, last night [12/13/17].
Pascal's wager
Last night, Jimmy evoked Pascal's Wager. He did so near the end of his talk, citing Pascal explicitly. Pascal's Wager is this: "Even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should wager as though God exists, because so living one has everything to gain, and nothing to lose."
Jimmy's variant of the "wager," told to us in prior visits to The Mish, involves wagering that God exists (and that Christianity is The Way) because it is the reasoned bet. He tells the mission congregants that they lose nothing by becoming Christians, and very potentially have everything to gain by being in heaven for all eternity. Faith, Jimmy tells us, is what you choose to believe.
The best argument against making the wager is one that I make, borrowing from Daniel Dawkins: "I'm not at liberty to choose what I believe. My beliefs choose me. I endeavor to be open to whatever seems true." Daniel Dawkins expands on this argument writing that "Pascal's Wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God." In addition, according to Dawkins, an omniscient God would presumably see through the deception.
Jimmy had told us in prior visits that we must choose to believe something with respect to God. Even choosing nothing is a choice. Fence-sitting agnosticism, he told us, is the only impossible position. With respect to God, we are compelled to reach a determination, if we think on the matter; it is an issue of infinite importance.
Christianity and science
But beyond saying there was more than a twinkle of a chance that God exists, Jimmy in the past, Jimmy has disparaged science-based and other non-believer arguments against God's existence, and told of conclusive evidence of God's/Jesus's existence which should convince even the most hard-hearted science lover.
Jimmy's topic last night: Belief and having Convictions
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