Some Questions for the Christians Here

Here's the Christian version of this tread. I'll give my answers later.

To the non Christians I ask you to not turn this into a Christian bashing thread. This a place for us learn from Christians.
The Muslim thread is here: https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/some-questions-for-the-muslims-here.99687/
And atheism one here: https://www.nofap.com/forum/index.php?threads/some-questions-for-the-atheists-here.99691/

Why are you a Christian?
What convinces you that Christianity is true?
What's your favourite verse(s) in the Bible? And why are they your favourite verses?
Is there anything in Christianity that you struggle with?
Do you think it's possible you'd ever stop being a Christian? If so what would it be that would convince to stop believing in Christianity?

 

I'm a Christian mainly because I grew up in a Christian home but there was a time when I questioned God and didn't believe in Him and Christianity but as I went on my journey, I discovered and realized that He is real.

I believe that Christianity is true because of the many prophecies that have been fulfilled in real life that the Bible prophesied, eg. Israel becoming a nation, the many miracles that I hear about all the time from Christians, in none of the other religions, has the God ever died for the sins of not only His believers but the entire world and that's pretty special and I guess TBH, Christianity makes the most sense to me.

My favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Romans 5:20 where in the former we are reminded that if we are in Christ, we are a new creation and the old self has passed away and I like it because it reminds me, and I struggle with this, that I'm new and that my PMO past shouldn't define my present or future.
In the latter, it states that where sin abounds, grace superabounds. I like this one, because, it explains that any time I sin, God's grace is greater than my sin and can cover my sin.

I struggle with lying, reading the Bible properly and meditating on the Word, worship and praying, judging others.

No, especially not in these Last Days. We are living in the Last Days and I don't want to be sinning and caught up in the world.

 

I'm a Christian because I was convinced it was true. Christianity is quite unique among religions.

First of all, Christianity is the only religion where God died for you, and not necessarily vice-versa. No other religion has such a teaching.

Secondly, Christianity is the only religion where good works have no bearing with your Salvation (or reincarnation depending on religion). It is quite comforting not to fear God like you would in a works based system.

Thirdly, Christianity has so much freedom of belief. You don't have to agree with everything one group says to be a Christian.

Those are just a few reasons why I chose to be a Christian.

One of the things I struggle with is trying to find a denomination. That is pretty hard to be honest.

I don't think I'd ever deconvert. I tried out New-age/Taoism/Buddhism one time mixed with my Christianity, but I didn't like it.

There isn't really anything that could make be deconvert. Any "evidence" someone could share could easily be a forgery or something similar. So that knocks out atheism. Already tried Eastern Religions out a bit and didn't like them. Can't really see myself as a Muslim. And the thought of being a Wiccan makes me lol. So, nothing can really convince Christianity is wrong.

 

Well here's my answers.

Why am I a Christian?
Simply I believe Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead.

What convinces me that Christianity is true?
What makes or breaks Christianity is whether Jesus rose from the dead. No one has been able to prove to me that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, so even though I don't think everything in the gospels can be fully trusted nothing seems to warrant me distrusting the accounts of the resurrection. Also, I've had prayers answered. Such answered prayers may be coincidences but they there's nothing to say that they weren't answered prayers.

Favrioute Bible verses and why:
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast.
I like those verses because it reminds me that I'm not better than anyone else.

Song of Songs 2:2 Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women.
Beautiful and poetic is my reason for liking it. I like all of Song of Songs because it's full of poetry and mystery.

Luke 5:31-32 It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
This verse brings me hope because I'm such a sinner.

I like the Sermon on the Mount especially when Jesus says that peacemakers and the merciful are blessed (Matthew 5:7,9), when talks about not giving an eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth but turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-39) and when he warns about false prophets at the end of the sermon (Matthew 7:21-23). I don't know if I can say I like everything that I mentioned (in the sermon), but it challenges me and inspires me.

I also like the Seven Woes speech by Jesus in Matthew 23:1-36. I like the passion and bravery shown by Jesus here.

I wasn't expecting to choose so many verses as I'm rather cynical about Christianity. Maybe I'm not as cynical as I thought.

Is there anything in Christianity that you struggle with?
Yes... There's plenty of things. Although I think I have more of a problem with the way some Christians act. I think I understand how Gandhi felt when he said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." It seems to be a great number of Christians are self-righteous and unauthentic. Some act like they're sinless. There also seem to be a lack of logic and reason in the way Christians interpret the Bible. I'm not saying every Christian is like that but a lot are.

But I also struggle with the Bible. On one hand, I struggle with good moral teaching like loving people because at times I'm not the most loving person. Also, things like forgiveness because at times I want to hold grudges. Then there's not looking at women lustfully which sometimes I do.

On the other hand, I struggle with some of the claims in the Bible because some seem to not make sense. Like when it says in Romans 13:1 all authorities are established by God. So basically God established Hitler and other rulers who have done great wrongs? I can't accept this verse! I mean if God is all knowing, powerful and loving how can give power to people who would do such evil? This very idea troubles me. But really it seems like Christians don't really believe since many vote in elections. If God establishes our leaders we should stay at home and pray for our next leader since it's God who decides. But no one does that (even the most devoted Christian) because at the end of the day we choose our leaders by voting. I like the book of Romans but I think this verse is nonsense. Really the Bible isn't in favour of democracy since the writers had never experienced it.

I think I love Jesus but I don't like everything that he said. At times he seems to be rather mean in what he says to people and other times he seems to be out of his mind. I don't like the Gospel of John really. To me, it seems that the writer is trying to turn Jesus into a flamboyant superhero. I don't think it can be completely trusted.

I have issues with some the Old Testament laws. Like in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 where it says a rapist must marry the woman he's raped. I know there's culture aspects to many of the laws but I still find it disturbing.

I struggle with the bloodthirsty Psalms. Don't get me wrong I like certain chapters like 23, 40, 51 but Psalms like 137 where they are rejoicing in the death of babies is perplexing. It's not just that chapter though, there's quite a number of Psalms that seem to rather violent. I also hate the self-righteousness in some of the Psalms. At times the writer seems to full of himself. Countless times he brags about how righteous There seems to be a contradiction since in 51 he's writing about how much of a sinner he is yet in many of the other Psalms he's talking about how righteous he is. Personally, I don't see the Psalms to be God's word to anyone. They're just some guy who's writing poetry about how he sees the world and what he thinks of God.

But really I view the whole Bible like that. I use to think the whole Bible was the infallible word of God. But as I have studied it I have notice that there are contradictions and some things just don't make sense. Really the Bible cannot be the literal word of God because it's stuck within the culture and time period it was written in. Surely if God telling people what to write, then why didn't he warn them about certain cultural and historical aspects that would cause other cultures and time periods problems? I think the Bible is a book written by men. I think it's probably the best book to read if you want to find out about God, but when read logic and reason needs to be used.

Finally, I have issues with how the Bible has became westernised. One thing I admire about Muslims and the Quran is that they haven't allowed anyone in the west to interfere with their scriptures. The writers of the Bible were Middle Eastern yet the canon of scriptures was decided by western Europeans. I wonder what the Bible would look if the very writers decided what books were a part of the Bible. I wonder if aditional books would have been added. I would think that the Book of Enoch would be a part of scripture if the writer of Jude was involved in organising the canon.

Would I ever stop being a Christian?
I would stop if someone proved to me the resurrection of Jesus never happened.

 

Hey I heard about that. Can you tell me about the books?

 

I know a couple of things about it.

The Apocryphal books are books we as Protestants do not consider to be inspired by God. Martin Luther wrote on this subject a bit, the Wikipedia article is alright to learn about this stuff. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_biblical_canons

The books are considered uninspired by many Christians because of contradictions with the rest of the Bible, their non-existence in the early church, or the belief that they were modified (the Gospel of Thomas is a great example, it was fabricated by Gnostics in the early centuries.) Enoch is an increasingly controversial book in biblical Canon. Those that are taken by conspiracy theories and the study of demons believe Enoch to be canon, and there is some evidence that can be used to support this conclusion. However, the evidence is not strong enough in my opinion to support such a conclusion. I have read Enoch and the Gospel of Thomas, and honestly they aren't really worth reading. Enoch is an interesting read admittedly, but the Gospel of Thomas is esoteric nonsense from Gnostics (literal heretics, condemned by the earliest Church Fathers.)

There are a couple others, but they are rather unimportant. The Catholics and Orthodox include many of these miscellaneous books in their Canons.

 

That's what I was wondering about. I was wondering if they were not included because they might have been tainted or changed from the original or made up contradictory to the Bible.

 

Apparently Jude 14 is a quotation from the Book of Enoch. I've listened to the audio book of it on YouTube. It's a rather crazy book - a bit like Revelations.

I've got a hard copy of the NRSV that contain the Apocrypha. On the YouVersion app you can read it in the CEV and CEB, I think there's another translation that has it but I can't remember which one. I find it interesting to see the reaction of some Christians whenever I put quotations from it on Facebook. Quite a number of them freak out because they've never heard of it... Apparently Donald Trump read from it during his inauguration. Lol!

I've read the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary. They're interesting reads but incomplete.

Also read 3rd Corinthians and the Acts of Paul and Thecla. 3rd Corinthians is poorly written, pointless piece of work. It's obvious that the Apostle Paul didn't write it. Acts of Paul and Thecla is nuts. It claims that Paul said sex (including within marriage) is sinful. Its story kind of reminds me of the book of Susanna.

Some people think The Shepherd of Hermas should be included in scripture but I've never read it myself. But I do find these book that didn't make it into the Bible to be rather interesting.

 

Some interesting thoughts, they got me thinking last night @icandoallthings

It's not just Hitler though. It seems like if God is choosing rulers of the nations his decisions are really bizarre. One thing from history that mystifies me in the light of Romans 13:1 is the English Civil War. We have Charles I who seems to really believe in that particular scripture. He thinks his rule had been established by God. It's very obvious during his trial he thought God was on his side for he refused to answer any question the court asked. It wasn't until the sentence of death by beheading was called out by the judge was when he decided to speak. Charles thought he was established by God and no man could take away what God had given him. Yey men did take it away. Equally those who were putting him on trial believed God chose them to end his rule? So who's side was God on? If God had established him why was he beheaded? Did God get bored of Charles? Or maybe God just doesn't care? Maybe he just lets us humans to get on with it? I'm not expecting you to have the answers but this is what I wonder when I read this verse.

Maybe in the strictest sense I'm cherry picking but I don't think my reasons are because I don't like the verse. I accept verses that bring the conviction of sin like when Jesus talks about not looking at a woman lustfully, or when he says we should forgive those who wrong us. Such are hard to follow but I believe they are right. My reason for rejecting a certain verse is if logic or reason causes me to do so. There's certain parts of scripture I reject even though I actually like it. I like the story of the woman caught in adultery - it's a beautiful story of redemption but due to witnesses not agreeing on the account I can't accept it. Something like it may of happened but the account in John 8:1-11 can't trusted imo.

Romans 13:1 is a but like Ephesians 6:5 or any other NT verse about slaves obeying their masters. Some hate the Bible for not speaking out on slavery but when you look at such verses in their historical context such verses make sense. I heard historian Tom Holland talking about this in a podcast once. He said that the idea of the abolishment of slavery would have never enter the Apostle Paul's mind. It's not the Apostle's fault that his writing was used to justify the transatlantic slave trade, nor is he to blame for Charles I arrogance. I think it's clear he had no idea that his writing was going to be used so extensively. I don't think he could see into the future so he couldn't know about democracy. So since he did know about democracy I don't think we can apply Romans 13:1 to our democratic systems today. I think what he wrote was a comment on his government because back then people had no say in their rulers. But due to democracy we do. Today if God chooses who's our leaders then there's no need to vote, if there's no need to vote the people who fought for our rights to vote waisted their time.

 

We're already seeing it on college campuses where conservative speech is attacked.

 

@icandoallthings most modern translations add notes to the text to make the readers aware. I know for a fact NIV, ESV and NLT have the note before chapter 8 starts. Below I'll enclose a screen shot of the where it's done in the NIV.