It's good that you now accept that the Christian faith is not blind. But you seem to have ignored the accuracy and integrity of the Bible as an ancient text. This cannot be lightly dismissed just because one might dispute what the text discusses. On the basis of scholarly investigation, as I mentioned, it is established that the Bible is a quality ancient text that testifies to the life, death, resurrection, and teachings of Jesus. If you have ever read the research you would know that this is not just a wish or a self-proof. For example, there is a book called Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf. Prof. Greenleaf was a "father" of the Harvard School of Law, whose students challenged him to apply his legal methods to the resurrection of Christ. He was an unbeliever when he began his investigation, but a believer by the time he finished.

So since it is reasonable to accept the miracle of the resurrection, by what right do we summarily dismiss any other miracles in the Bible? By definition, a miracle is a violation of known scientific laws, either in the event itself or the circumstances or timing of it. So we cannot dismiss Biblical literacy on the basis of its accounts of miracles.

You say that Noah's Ark could not possibly have contained all pairs of animals and food, but this is based upon false assumptions. The animals did not need to be adults; they did not need to be all variations (e.g., a pair of wolves have the genetic capacity to produce all breeds of dogs); some may have been in hibernation. And the Ark was not what is typically shown, but a huge sea-worthy vessel: see [link to www.worldwideflood.com] .

You cite Origen about the days of creation while ignoring the fact that Origen was not a Bible writer, a prophet, or alive during creation week. God is light, is he not? And who is to say that no temporary light source could be used during the first few days? Origen is simply using poor logic and arrogance.

After that, you return to your baseless assertion that salvation by faith is blind, just because it's "unproven". This is a contradiction of your opening paragraph, since you did not dispute my explanation of the rational, forensic basis for this faith. The proof you demand has already been given, but you reject it because you want some other kind of evidence that you'd never demand for any other past event. You are using a double standard against the Bible.

As for my alleged "rigid" definition of a gift, it is no less so than your "rigid" definition of proof. You falsely assume that a gift must be used immediately and given in its entirety. Rather, a gift is a gift because it was not earned or paid for. You are thus committing the fallacy of equivocation by using irrelevant analogies. You do the same with your objection to my analogy of salvation; we will indeed "die" if we do not accept Jesus as Savior.

Re. Jesus' blood, I never said it was his suffering that saved us; you are burning a straw man here. And his statements about eating and drinking his blood were clearly metaphorical in context. Also, it is not our spiritual bodies that make up the temple of God, but our spirits, ourselves.

My claim that we are already in the Sabbath rest is hardly "hasty" since it is in scripture explicitly. Read those Hebrews passages again. Finally, when it comes to "rigid" opinions (you sure like that word!), you have plenty of your own, as I hope is obvious by now, as you clearly force-fit your own interpretations into the text at least as much as anyone else.

At any rate, I stand by my interpretations, having backed them up with both scripture and references to external support, and having exposed several fallacies on your part and that of Origen. What gets a person into heaven is not their own works or righteousness but only those of Jesus, "the author and completer of the faith". I rest on and in what He did so that all the glory goes to Him rather than me. With Paul I say,

"Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Cor. 1:20)