Protestant Atheist Looking to Get a Christian Grip on Life

Janis2624

Janis2624

New Fapstronaut
Grew up in secular family, but with "Christian values and morals." Grandma taught basic things like Lord's Prayer, but that's it.

I started to get conflicted around 13, when "equal marriage rights" laws started getting popular. On one hand I instinctively "knew" it was wrong, but, if law makes it legal, it's not wrong is it? Spent following years looking for "truth," trying to solve this issue and only recently realised the Bible gives us boundaries and moral operating system. Reading Romans 1:26 solved my riddle.

Despite this, most of my life I grew up secular - masturbation/sex jokes, alcohol parties being main way of celebrating and interacting with my peers, porn being freely available etc. Trying to minimise damage incurred from immoral secular virus using one of fundamental truths I uncovered - NoFap.

I was able to successfully live through last year without PMO, which greatly helped my projects and day to day life, but... I made multiple attempts to get a girlfriend, but they didn't come to fruition. Desperation, loneliness and jealousy built up and I broke my streak, so here I am trying to get new Christian grip on life and fix mistakes of the past.

My future goal is to learn more about Catholicism, since Protestantism views truth as relative("times change, people change, religion changes"), which instinctively feels "wrong" and possibly convert.

Glad to have found and be part of this forum.
 
I was initially conflicted too with equal marriage rights. More accurately, I thought it was unnatural and something that is a byproduct of misplaced sexual desire that could be fixed if one tried hard enough. I also believed that if one didn't try to make that change, they would be killed by God in Armageddon. But that was before I gained more knowledge of the world and it's ethical concerns. People don't choose to be gay, and even if they do (somehow) it's of no harm to you. You might dislike it, as I once did, but why does it matter as long as their happy? They are the same as you or me, we do things so we can be happy; sometimes even in spite of what others think. I ask you: Who are we to judge them?

Furthermore, I learned that you need to live a life of principles such as: being generous, having a good basis of morality, not being too hard on yourself but always doing your utmost, having humility, abstaining from drugs and alcohol, associating with people who care about you, not being prejudice or biased, ceaselessly working towards goals, being disciplined and having balance in all things. I also learned that these are qualities that are somewhat encouraged by modern religion, such as with Christianity, but you don't need to be apart of Christianity (or any religion for that matter) to have them be important values in your life.

If I'm being honest with you, Christianity, along with most modern religion, twists morality and creates hate. The Bible has been cited countless times for atrocities, from the Middle-Ages onto present day. And although, I'll admit, there are some good lessons and values brought up in the Bible, it clearly isn't from a divine being who ordained his followers to write it (speaking as a person who read through the Bible thrice). Ultimately, people who leave religion altogether, often times, might not have any beneficial withstanding principles from their time in the religion, and they might end up making unfortunate mistakes; such as getting lost in one's own desire. And it's for this reason I would say secularism really isn't the causation of your strife, but it's most likely just a lack of a trained compass.
 
If you want to get started with catholicism see if your local catholic church has rcia get some good books on the church too I recommend the Baltimore catechism because it's easy to read and gives good answers try vol 3 or 4 it goes in depth with it's answers
 
There are a lot of different versions of the Christian faith, some are Catholic, some are Protestant, etc.
The central belief is the Death, Burial and Ressurection of Jesus Christ and The Bible being God's inspired word to us but, man made religions add and take away from God's word in subtle ways.

I would like to encourage you to read the book of John and see what God says regarding the simplicity of Salvation found in Believing on his promise of Eternal Life and not in man-made religion.

Personally, i think the answer is in his word and the fellowship we have as believers. Different variations of faith that we disagree on is hard to talk about because we musn't cause another believer to stumble. That being said, i truly believe you will find the most comfort in meditating on God's Word which is the Root of our faith.
 
Janis2624 said:
Grew up in secular family, but with "Christian values and morals." Grandma taught basic things like Lord's Prayer, but that's it.

I started to get conflicted around 13, when "equal marriage rights" laws started getting popular. On one hand I instinctively "knew" it was wrong, but, if law makes it legal, it's not wrong is it? Spent following years looking for "truth," trying to solve this issue and only recently realised the Bible gives us boundaries and moral operating system. Reading Romans 1:26 solved my riddle.

Despite this, most of my life I grew up secular - masturbation/sex jokes, alcohol parties being main way of celebrating and interacting with my peers, porn being freely available etc. Trying to minimise damage incurred from immoral secular virus using one of fundamental truths I uncovered - NoFap.

I was able to successfully live through last year without PMO, which greatly helped my projects and day to day life, but... I made multiple attempts to get a girlfriend, but they didn't come to fruition. Desperation, loneliness and jealousy built up and I broke my streak, so here I am trying to get new Christian grip on life and fix mistakes of the past.

My future goal is to learn more about Catholicism, since Protestantism views truth as relative("times change, people change, religion changes"), which instinctively feels "wrong" and possibly convert.

Glad to have found and be part of this forum.
Click to expand...


Hey,

Inter-faith apologetics is a messy area, full of terrible arguments and nasty accusations. I'm not going to try to persuade you in any direction. I will say that I consider most mainline Protestant denominations functional apostates, and the rest teetering on the edge of ruin.

All true Christians believe the basic creeds, treat the bible as revelation, and revere the Church Fathers. Start with those. If you do not already, then start attending churches; look around, and explore. Visit one a week, or even more if there's midweek services. Then of course, pick basic books on Catholicism, etc. and read from there. I read "In the Light of Christ" and found it a good read on that. But, I choose evangelical protestant so far.

Catholic and Orthodox church services are different from what you might be used to, but I imagine you can attend mass/divine liturgy without too much awkwardness.
 
Hey Now welcome! you can always join the Protestant Group if you want to talk things over and hang out. We have fun.
 
Janis2624 said:
Grew up in secular family, but with "Christian values and morals." Grandma taught basic things like Lord's Prayer, but that's it.

I started to get conflicted around 13, when "equal marriage rights" laws started getting popular. On one hand I instinctively "knew" it was wrong, but, if law makes it legal, it's not wrong is it? Spent following years looking for "truth," trying to solve this issue and only recently realised the Bible gives us boundaries and moral operating system. Reading Romans 1:26 solved my riddle.

Despite this, most of my life I grew up secular - masturbation/sex jokes, alcohol parties being main way of celebrating and interacting with my peers, porn being freely available etc. Trying to minimise damage incurred from immoral secular virus using one of fundamental truths I uncovered - NoFap.

I was able to successfully live through last year without PMO, which greatly helped my projects and day to day life, but... I made multiple attempts to get a girlfriend, but they didn't come to fruition. Desperation, loneliness and jealousy built up and I broke my streak, so here I am trying to get new Christian grip on life and fix mistakes of the past.

My future goal is to learn more about Catholicism, since Protestantism views truth as relative("times change, people change, religion changes"), which instinctively feels "wrong" and possibly convert.

Glad to have found and be part of this forum.
Click to expand...
Be baptized into One, True, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Buy the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Look for a Catholic priest and ask to be taught the Catholic Faith. The Roman Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ and the first Pope was St. Peter. The Church has been here since Jesus began it. You must not join the Protestants or Orthodox or any other Christian denomination. God wants us to be united as the Catholic Church is. Protestantism has many churches, which have many different and conflicting doctrine. It also began in the 16th century -- 1500 years after Christ.
"17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (St Matthew 16:17-19)
 
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