My Adventures With a "52-year Deist" (with commentary!)

Perhaps you already know that I have a Twitter account (@sheetsjr). The adventure I am about to unfold before you started last Sunday, January 16. I was simply (and I believe appropriately) frustrated after hearing another sermon that never once mentioned the Gospel or Jesus, yet the preacher gave an invitation to come to Christ at the end. So I tweeted:

@sheetsjr: "Preachers, if you don't preach the Gospel, don't give an invitation. Conversions to moralistic deism or behavior modification are worthless."

Now for those not familiar with Twitter there is tab option that allows you to see if anyone has tweeted your name (in my case, @sheetsjr). So on Tuesday, the 18th, I clicked just to see if anyone had lately and found this waiting for me, which was posted on the 16th: (I'm removing the actual Twitter name)

@----------: "Which of the four gospels should preachers preach, they are all different, and contradict each other."

Hmm, I thought to myself. I don't 'follow' this person on Twitter nor does he follow me. So he must have found my comment by using word search for "deism" and found my tweet. Then I thought, "and this is a rather simplistic and sweeping statement." So I responded with such a comment:

@sheetsjr: "All four. I question your sweeping and rather simplistic premise concerning them."

To which the self-proclaimed (it says this on his profile) "old fart and a deist for 52 years" replied:

@----------: "All four do contradict each other in regard to the supposed resurrection story. Read and compare them."

OK. So he wants to talk about the resurrection (remember that). And in my thinking I want to point him to the empty tomb, since that is the only Christian doctrine of importance in this immediate story. For example, there is not a doctrine of "who got to the tomb first" that the Christian faith depends on. But there is a doctrine of the empty tomb which is of central importance. So that is the direction I went and I tried to do it logically and rationally (which is what deists claim to promote):

@sheetsjr: "Tell me, if 5 people saw a car accident and gave 5 varying accounts to the cops; does that negate that there was a car accident?"

Apparently this was too much for this deist to handle. He replied, in rapid succession:

@----------: "that is the oldest ploy. How many angles were at the tomb and where were they stationed?"
@----------: "tell me how many people were present when the empty tomb as discovered? What time of day was it?"
@----------: "Tell me who carried the cross that Jesus was supposed to be nailed to? How many of the thieves believed in him."
@----------: "Your accident defense is totally ridiculous, useless, and void. Wake up and smell the roses."
@----------: "It would negate it if all reported a different time of day, make of car, or who was driving."

Now this is Twitter. One only gets 140 characters to say something. I could have a discussion on each of those questions, but I wanted to stay on his original point, which was concerning the resurrection account in all four Gospels. So I tried to stay on topic as well as eek a little more Gospel into the point:

@sheetsjr "You're dodging and becoming unhinged. What Christian doctrine is threatened? The tomb was empty. The Messiah defeated death."

Apparently, this is the line that foaming at the mouth commences for deists. Just say the word "Messiah." Again, in rapid succession (and no I have not edited the wording or spelling at all):

@----------: "Now you aentered another bucket of worms Jesus never fullfiled the signs of the Messiah may i suggest you read your bible."
@----------: "You are like so many others, you deny what is before yours eyes, and try to rationalize the errors to match your beliefs."
@----------: "Be gone now I have no time to waste on you."

Hmm. That last line threw me. Wasn't it him who started this "discussion" with me out of nowhere on Sunday? And yet he has "no time to waste" on me. Anyway, I wasn't going to reply until I thought of another example concerning eye witness accounts and the truth of an occurrence in history. So I wanted to give it a shot. I'm stubborn like that sometimes. And again, I'm still staying on my case for the resurrection story which is what he originally brought up. So I ask again using a relatively contemporary example:

@sheetsjr: "Answer: According to witnesses, how many shots were fired at Dealey Plaza? Then answer: Was Kennedy assassinated?"

Of course, as anybody who has seen the plethora of History channel specials on the Kennedy assassination would know, the answer to the first question is, "Well, some said 3, some said 4, some said 5... and even with the police radio recording it is hard to tell due to echo and all the other noise. Also, nobody is even sure for certain from what direction the shots came." And the answer to the second question is simply, "Yes."

But this was too much for the deist. He replied (and warning, the unhinged becomes a tad vulgar; I have removed the actual words used):

@----------: "Who gives a ****, you donot answer any question posed to you. A typical Christian EVADE now **** off."

I had many things to say in response and a few verses in mind (1 Cor 1:18, 1 Cor 2:14, 2 Tim 3:7) but it was obvious he was not interested in any type of serious conversation. He was completely unhinged. He wanted to make his point, plug his ears, and move on.

And so be it, for at this point I believed this is what Jesus was talking about during the Sermon on the Mount when He said this: “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you" (Matthew 7:6). And I found what the ESV Study Bible note says on this to be appropriate:  

Pearls symbolize the great value of the message of the kingdom of heaven. Believers are to be merciful, forgiving, and slow to judge, yet they should wisely discern the true character of people and not indefinitely continue proclaiming the gospel to those who adamantly reject it, so that they can move on and proclaim the gospel to others.

So there you have it. My Twitter adventures with... well... swine.

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