A Surprise Telephone Call

I just had a telephone call from a Christian who wanted to talk to me about the role god plays in my life. This is the first time I've had a proselytiser call me on the telephone so I am posting the basic gist of our conversation here while it is still fresh in my mind (and before I forget it).

I can't remember how he started the conversation, but I quickly interrupted him to ask which god he was talking about. He said it was Yahweh, the god of the bible.

So then I asked him to describe his god otherwise I wouldn't know what we were talking about.

He said things like god is perfect, righteous, just, kind, loving, etcetera.

I said that was interesting but how would I recognise god if I saw him.

The Christian said it doesn't work that way. He said god is invisible.

I pointed out that god "spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend". [Exodus 33:11]

I forget exactly what the Christian said but it was something about the bible having many things to say and it is unfair to pick out just one verse at a time.

I pointed out he had done exactly the same thing to me - quoted a single verse that says god is invisible!

Then I told him I wasn't relying on just one verse because Jacob had also said, "I have seen god face to face and my life is preserved."

I got the impression from his tone of voice that he thought I was making it up and he tried to call my bluff by asking where that text appears in the bible - book, chapter, and verse.

I told him I didn't know for sure but suggested he could find it easily enough. "Have you got a Concordance," I asked him.

There was a short hesitation and then a very cautious, "yes." (I don't think he knew what a Concordance was.)

So I told him to look up the word "Jacob" and that would take him directly to the verse.

But he never did find it - so I found it for him [Genesis 32:30] - because I actually have a Concordance.

Again I've forgotten his exact words, but he started pushing the idea that I had taken the verse out of context.

That's the thing that really irks me about Christians: this guy had obviously never heard about Jacob seeing god face to face until I mentioned it, and now, just a few seconds later, he was trying to tell me that I had it wrong and he knew what it really meant!

As it happens he never did get around to explaining the context and the conversation ended not long afterwards.