Is it ok to debate God in from a Christian viewpoint (Christian to Christian)

Back in the day there was man named Socrates. He would debate with people he met about anything and everything but particularly issues of morality and he had a famous method for how he would go about doing it. A good example of how his method worked can be shown in one of his debates on Courage. Socrates heard a man proclaim “Courage is a fine thing” and that man thought he was not saying anything radical or too extreme by saying that. But Socrates asked him if he thought ignorance was a fine thing and the man agreed it was not, so Socrates then argued you could be courageous in ignorance and that this courage was not a fine thing. While the other man did not drop his basic view he had from the start that Courage was fine, but he did refine his view on how he would have to phrase his resolution of courage is fine to “informed Courage is a fine thing” Basically this famed example of the Socratic Method of finding something to agree on first that has bearing on what they don’t agree on, was a semantic argument. Socrates brought the man to realize he cant just say things without defining exactly what he means by them or he could end up saying bat crazy stuff when a viewer of the statement takes the word to mean something it generally means to them but its not exactly the thing another person will hear when they hear that statement. I attempted to derail this debate and put the terms in my favor by offering definitions for the phrase “debate God” sense my opponent offered none to prove a point. But it seems that did not help me at all. The term I should have had defined was not the phrase “debate God” but just the term “debate”. Any of you with a passion and interest for debate on this website probably spotted exactly what I did in my opponents argument and that was the changing definition of how my opponent used the term debate. “we are not to debate about the father because in doing so we are trying to be right. ” Hear my opponent used debate in the sense he wants to argue against in the resolution…. .but the term debate wasn’t negative in his whole argument…. in fact the term debate changed its uses in the same sentence below… “Instead there are alternatives to debating such as that of giving a point but when you debate you say things to prove the other wrong with in a way the goal of winning and being better than the other. ” Within that single sentence my opponent stance lost all of its weight against his resolution stance “debating god with fellow Christians should not be done” the resolution he wants to debate. Like the man Socrates confronted about Courage he must refine his view and change it to “debating with self-serving purposes among fellow Christians about God should not be done”. Or at the very least keep his resolution but change the term ‘debate’ with ‘argue’ and create a distinction between the use of the two terms, in much the same way I have heard most of us here at DDO define “arguing” and “debating” as. When we say “arguing” we most of the time mean that ‘bad’ kind of debating my opponent started debating against. When we say ‘debate’ though we most often mean the second kind my opponent advocated doing as an ‘alternative’. As for my opponents scripture references, I would like to point out they are all about how to look at people, and that’s with a humble heart. Below I have listed some scriptures that actually do pertain to debate. 1 Peter 3:15-16 . http://www.biblegateway.com... Isaiah 41:21 . http://bible.cc... Acts 19 . http://www.biblegateway.com... also as for what Jesus himself said concerning debating, he did not say don’t do it. he said if you have a quarrel with another Christian you try and convince each other to resolve your dispute. If still in disagreement you get 3 friends to help back you up as you debate, and then if your not in agreement then you bring your conflict before your entire church congregation and if still not then you be done with this fellow Christian of yours and go your separate ways. So actually Jesus suggested if debating does not help you out you should debate even more with more people involved when you think about it. Now I’m going to make my positive case for why we should debate using all three interpretations of the resolution I spoke of last round, including the one I said I would not because I have come to see in light of new events that it serves my purposes to do so. #1 Debate with God himself: We should debate with God himself if we have a problem with him even if we are his follower. Jacob would have never grown into Israel if he had not first wrestled with God, and the Israelites would have all been killed except for Moses had Moses not made a case for there lives to God when he said he would kill them all and keep his covenant to Abraham through Moses alone. Now perhaps you might dispute that God intended to really do that, he knew Moses would speak up, but what is not disputable is that God wanted Moses to speak up. If we hide are doubts from God by trying to just not think about them they will remain a stumbling block for us, if we offer them up to God though he will tare them down for us. #2 Debate with other Christians thoughts about God Its important we do this for personal study and our spiritual growth. Suppose a brother Christian in your church has come to reason there is no way to deter people from a path to hell because they believe God predestined them to live a life that would make them chose hell before they were born. So your brother Christian finds no motivation to witness for it is trying to change something that’s always been out of his hands. Suppose you know this thinking is faulty for one reason or another and you want to correct him so he goes on to witness again because it is the Great Commission to do so, The only way your going to get through to your brother in Christ is if you debate with him on the issue trying to teach him there is hope for reaching the unsaved. #3 Debate the existence of God with fellow Christians This one by its very nature implies the debaters are arguing devils advocate since they are already in agreement on the issue that God exist, so obviously this is not a case where one is “trying to be right” over the other person. It is good and important for us Christians to debate devils advocate debates like this among ourselves to train ourselves to witness to the unsaved non-believers. In my experience every atheist on this site, while they might be able to recite all the cases against belief in God that have ever been made, there is usually just 1 or 2 that matter to them emotionally. And they will not give faith a chance until someone can satisfactorily refute that particular cause for doubt. For one atheist I debated with it was clearly a charge about there being lots of religions out there to have faith in, and they could not see why have ‘faith’ in ours and not those others. If I argue devils advocate with you as a practice mock debate, you will have time to memorize what your response is to a classical atheist made point like that. Should you just go witness on the streets though and end up hearing that reason for doubt for the first time you might freeze up without an answer or give one that’s not effective, and lose the opportunity to plant a seed of doubt in there reason for doubt. So those 3 interpretations have let me describe 3 different reasons for why we should ‘debate’ with our fellow Christians. The benefits are Growth, Study, and Witnessing.