That echoes my experience, differing only in detail. Knowledge of God is possible, but not provable to an unbeliever, as you say. I am more sure than merely convinced, I know that I am my Father’s child. Sometimes he sends us things that are more difficult than others, say, kidney cancer. (Problems with relationships can definitely be more difficult than that!) But he knows that I delight in him, and he delights on occasion to toss co-instants to me that are pure fun, saying in effect, “Here, catch! 
” (Here is one such you may not have seen yet, Maggie, being newer here: Moving Day. )
Just to be clear… my skepticism was not about life after death but about the authenticity of near death experiences. Unlike MarkD, I am a Christian and although there are some things in that spectrum which I do not believe in, I am pretty solid on the basics: God created the universe, an eternal spiritual existence, Jesus is God and the doctrine of the Trinity, the Bible is the word of God, gospel of salvation by the grace of God asking for faith made alive in works, heaven and hell, and miracles due God’s involvement in our lives. But I have always been and remain a scientist, and I don’t believe an objective knowledge of God is possible, so I reject all the proofs for God’s existence. As I like to remind people just because something is true (or just because I happen to believe it) doesn’t mean an argument for it is sound (or that I am going to support a faulty argument just because I agree with the conclusion). In fact… I think there have been distortions of Christianity and its understanding of God in order to prop up such arguments.
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We’re on the same page there! NDEs and OBEs are definitely not in general trustworthy. I am not denying that some may be authentic, as well as visions, but I’m always reminded of this:
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I did not know until now what an NDE is. I guessed, and thought it meant “non-defined event” as in unknown, or potential intervention by God. . OBE I figured out (out-of-body experience) only because the first two things I thought of would have been really strange, dealing with obstetrics and obesity.
Like I thought LOL meant Lots of Love until someone told me it meant Laughing Out Loud.
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“my skepticism was not about life after death but about the authenticity of near death experiences”.
I understand that now. My problem was that I did not know what an NDE is. Now the light has dawned.
“I reject all the proofs for God’s existence” All proof can only be subjective, except by faith, which does not require proof. But realistically, how many average people understand and can verbalize proof of gravity. Don’t we all have to accept on faith that when we step outside we are not going to float off into space? On one hand, I believe and know for myself that God is good and holy and I will spend eternity in the kingdom reigned over by his Son. On the other hand, I can feel sad that my friend does not believe God exists; that Jesus’ death is irrelevant; that existence ends at the death of her body. I know I will find eternal joy and she will not.
Exactly.
In my case it’s the only thing I am 99,999999% sure about.
I am a sceptic as well, but how about this [OBL] one? Whatever the truth of the matter the guy believed it and it changed his life.
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(OBL? I don’t know what the ‘L’ is for – I presume the OB is ‘out of body’. 
)
That is an example of one that is likely to be authentic. A test of authenticity is whether or not there is anything contrary to scripture, the Bible being a reliable and objective standard. Nothing contradicting scripture does not prove that it is authentic, but something contradictory proves that it is not.
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Well I certainly agree that proof for God and anything spiritual must be subjective. But science does have a methodology for getting at things which are objective. It does this with written procedures which anyone can follow to get the same result no matter what you may want or believe. That is a solid basis for a reasonable expectation that others agree with those results. But for me that is practically the definition of all things physical. It is only the mathematical space-time laws of nature which make such demonstrations of objective fact possible. It is all about control and force. The laws of nature provide the means for setting up controlled conditions and the laws of nature thus force the results on everyone like it or not. But God and the spiritual are different – this aspect of reality does care about what we want and believe and doesn’t force things on anyone.
Absolutely! This argument by atheists and naturalists that religion is based on faith and science is based on something else is complete nonsense. All knowledge is based on faith and science is no different. After I show them the proof then they understand that it really comes down to reasonable faith versus blind faith. Science is certainly based on a reasonable faith – a faith that the methods of science work and faith that there are no demons out there arranging the evidence to deceive us. And it is true that religion isn’t always founded on a reasonable faith but that doesn’t mean that cannot be founded on a reasonable faith - because quite often it is.
I certainly know that only a God which is good is one which will have any respect and obedience from me, but I avoid any attitude of entitlement to leave my eternal well being in His hands. I don’t see how confidence in the goodness and power of God can change the undeniable fact of my own sin and inability to become a certainty in salvation that I can claim any ownership or entitlement to. Thus I insist that salvation always belongs to God alone and it remains Him alone to say. For me it is enough that God is good rather than about what God can do for me.
And you see that sounds like entitlement to me. I think it is a scientific fact that a belief in God is not of benefit to all people and that we need to leave it to God to know what is in their best interest. Romans 10: “6 But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” The righteousness based on faith does not seek to purchase favors, but only declares because we believe it to be true and strives to do good because we believe it is right.
Yes, my bad, out_of_body indeed. OBL was someone else, a RDC (really dead case) 
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It is not a sense of entitlement that I “deserve” eternal life, but rather faith that what God said is true. Our faith in Christ is not that He exists, or that He is God’s Son, but that He fulfilled God’s unbreakable Law. It is impossible to understand the New Testament without understanding the Old. God said EVERYONE must fulfill the Law; EVERYONE must continually be covered by a blood sacrifice after repentance in atonement for the forgiveness of sin, in order to receive eternal life, if they have ever been made aware of God’s demand that we be holy.
This means was made available to every person through Jesus’ blood (the atonement at Calvary) for those who remain in repentance for sin, and strive for obedience to Him. It is not our goodness that gives us eternal life, but our faith in Jesus, who made the act of atonement for us. For those who understand sin and righteousness, but do NOT accept Jesus’ blood atonement, the only other means possible is keeping the Torah Law of Yom Kippur, the once a year Day of Atonement blood sacrifice.
If I am going to Believe in God at all, I have to believe what he says about himself, and what he promises to those who obey him. God has left very clear instructions so every person can do as Paul said, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.” — II Corinthians 13:5 because we need to know - now, whether we are in a right relationship with Jesus. If we have gone off course; are ignoring His voice when He speaks to us and are actually living exactly the opposite of how He is trying to direct us; we need to know it immediately to correct the error. It will be too late after we die.
“To those who receive Him, he gave the power to become the children of God” John 1: 12 This “power” is the Holy Spirit, but even though He is available to every person who chooses Jesus, most never actively seek to make Him part of their lives; to look for His guidance or empowerment to serve God spiritually. If we are in a right, active, personal relationship with Jesus, we will also be in a discerning relationship with the Holy Spirit. He will be communicating with us continually so that we know where we should be, what spiritual issues in our lives God is dealing with, and what he wants us to be doing in his kingdom. Most people don’t recognize the Holy Spirit’s nudges and ignore them. Pastors don’t teach about Him. We are all meant to have absolute assurance of achieving our eternal goal, as the Apostle John had. Based upon God’s promise, we have the hope or prospect of eternal life in heaven with God if we continue to live by faith (1 John 2:24;25) The key as to receiving anything from God, is not hope, but faith. Faith is believing, and acting on God’s Word, knowing it is true. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11: 1) The thing about Faith is that it is absolute assurance; it is way beyond hoping God will give us what we want. It is certain knowledge that he will give us what he said he will give us. I know for certain I will have eternal life not by presumption, but by faith, because he said in His Word, if I continually look to Jesus as the leader/manager of my life; seek, hear and follow His directions and corrections; then, if I am obedient (and He will confirm this along the way, also correct us when we take a wrong turn if we listen), THEN , fulfilling my part, He will fulfill His part. God cannot fail. God promised eternal life through the atonement in Jesus’ blood, that substituted for the blood of goats and bulls in the O.T., for those who sincerely repent of sin, and sincerely seek to follow Jesus. God cannot lie. My entitlement to eternal life is only because of his unbreakable promise: if I keep my part of the contract (sincerely repent of sin, and sincerely seek to follow Jesus) He MUST keep his part and grant me eternal life.
The truth of the Words of Christ and His apostles when in a universal context, are the surest foundation on which anyone, in faith, can ever depend. After 50 years of dedicated Bible scholarship, I have learned to say, like David did, “Oh how I love thy Law (Word)” “I meditate in your Word day and night” “Your Word is the delight of my heart” . It is a strong tower and place of refuge. It is a mystery of spiritual strength, that the Word made flesh, Jesus, is the Word, Truths of God, made alive in us. Blessings in Him.
Now that is an example of some stuff in the Christian spectrum which I do not believe in. There is no magical power in blood or human sacrifice – particularly no power over God. Rather it is simply our own perversity that we will not change until the innocent suffer because of our own bad habits. And it is not about fulfilling/obeying laws or about divine demands, but about who we are and what kind of world we create around ourselves by our treatment of other people. Heaven demands perfection in the removal of sin because no matter where we may be, sin will change it into hell.
And I believe what you describe is a gospel of salvation by special knowledge, which is a distortion of Gnosticism. Instead I believe the words of Jesus saying of salvation “for men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” This is a gospel of salvation by the grace of God alone. To be sure He asks us to have faith, which means as I have explained that we speak because we believe it to be true and do good because it is right. Pascal’s wager is the opposite of faith, seeking to purchase salvation with your integrity. It is disgusting.
Yeah this is an excellent description of what I think is most distorted in some sectors of Christianity. This idea that faith means God giving us the power to save ourselves. I don’t think faith is any such thing.
I would suggest that you become more aware of the full spectrum of Christian belief which is quite a bit more than what you have been taught.
…is not all true.
Indeed! I couldn’t agree more!
You need to do a better job of explained why you infer your ‘entitlement’ issue. I don’t think that it’s because I am dense that I don’t get it.
Reflecting on that, I’m thinking it is a passive power, so to speak, a legal right, an ‘empowering document’ of adoption, if you will, since we have been adopted into Jesus’ family, and not your mistaken entitlement idea. It is nothing of our own doing, your ‘the power to save ourselves’ – it is no such thing. (You need to give up that part of the ‘spectrum’ and make it a little narrower. )
Whenever Christians speak of promises and rights I wonder to which court you’d press your case if your expectations are not met. 
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If your expectations are not met then you are not expecting the right things – your case would be thrown out.
…of something straight out of scripture.
Legalists are amazing! They think they can even bend God over a barrel with their imagined contracts. I do not believe there is anything Christian about such entitlement, no matter how many scriptures they bend to prop up such a thing.
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