Question of faith!!  

faith

Wow, that's a pretty interesting theory...Ive heard something along those lines before...

A Russian Physics wrote a book "Worlds in Collision" that takes some of the books in the Bible and shows that such things happened. Such things as Mooses and the Plagues oon Egypt. He shows how Cosmic events caused them. The Great Flood is a recurring thema in many different cultures. The time the sun stood still in the sky, the orientials ahve a ledgen wher the spirtit would not let the sun set, and the Native Americans have a story of the sun not being allowed to rise. It is an excellent book written by a person who does not beleive in religion. It may change how you view the Bible and other historical stories.

That's pretty much waht my pastor said except for the "whoever you choose to believe in" part. He basically said that it's a matter of my faith and that one day i will meet god and that all those who don't believe as us will go to Hell....that really didn't answer my question and it kept sitting there, molding in my already decrepit brain until tonight...lol

Yes I have heard that before, but I guess what I'm really saying is how do we as christians know we have it figured out? I'd surely hate to die and find out that the Buddists had it right and then I'd have to come back as some low level life form, or to find out that Islam was correct and I'd missed out on Nirvana...

I know my God in my heart. I know He is real because He changed my life, and made it meaningful. He healed me of severe asthma. He comforts me by His Holy Spirit when I am sad and discouraged, and soothes my soul. I know Him because I spend time with Him, reading His word, praying, and listening for His Voice. If you do that, you will know the truth.

Wow, for someone who is not a student of religion you seem to have the basics figured out well...

I try never to do anything halfa$$ed.....it's not my nature.

That is definitely a good thing to live by...can't fault you one bit...

Honestly I never heard any ramblings there...just one question for you....Have you ever thought of becoming a pastor?

I have asked several pastors of my church this very same question over the years, and have never had one of them explain it to me in such a complete way. I was raised in a Christian church and taught to believe the bible in it's most literal form. Unfortunately you can't teach faith. I always had the faith to believe that it was all true, but yet I still had the question. I never wanted to be a "try it before you buy it" kinda guy so I just went along with it. It wasn't until a couple years ago when I was living behind a dumpster that I actually tested it out and told God that I couldn't handle things on my own. Shortly after that I found an awesome church right there in town and on the first sunday I went the pastor preached a sermon on Hills and Valleys. It felt as if he was speaking to me exclusively out of the several hundred in the congregation. I went back for the next few weeks, and each one of the sermons were amazingly about similar situations to something I was going thru at that very time. I was spellbound. I decided right then and there to put my faith into christianity and never look back. I wasn't even in control of my own legs when the pastor had altar call the 4th week, and I found myself standing with about 30 others in front of the church. Wow what a moment I will never forget. Yet though I put my faith into it, the question still remained, so I figured it was worth asking. Because as I said in the other comment, I'd hate to live my whole life and find out after I was gone that the whole time someone else was right and that now I would have to accept the bad thing that would become me.

You, my friend, had a true, Holy Spirit conversion. Many people spend their entire lives in the Church without meeting Jesus, and then like you, a prodigal son, they finally find Christ in the "muck and mire". Christ usually only becomes real to people when they meet Him in their own wilderness. When their religion has failed them, when their friends have abandoned them, when their own understanding fails them, that's when Christ steps in and says, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will never leave you nor forsake you."

That's real Christianity. The rest is just arguing over words.

Talking to people about religion and getting them to convert through pretty words and arguments only gets you so far. Faith isn't something that can be accepted on a merely intellectual level. And people who are born into their religion often fall away because they never made the "connection". Their understanding is merely superficial. It doesn't reach them where they live and they eventually fall away or live their lives practicing something they don't really believe in.

You and I, we have experienced the "real Jesus". We KNOW who He is because we've met Him in our deepest hour of need. We've been to the foot of the Cross. No amount of theological wrangling and arguments over who's God is bigger or who's truth is really true will ever change that.

you are very correct, but as she said in her response....there is nothing definitive about that that someone else can't come behind and say "yeah, well what about this" I believe it though and that is enough for me...I never NOT believed it, I just wondered how we REALLY knew that it was right, and not just an elaborate fairy tale based on actual history that people embraced at one time and passed down like a tradition. As you can see I'm always full of questions..lol...even if I know the answer, I still like to ask simply to see what others will say. I love hearing so many differing opinions on things like this. It provides me an amateurish study into society and sociology.

I never thought you didn't believe. All I can say is I was raised atheist, the only time God or Jesus was said in our house was when the adults were swearing or telling a joke. When I found the lord and wanted to pray at Christmas dinner they almost threw me out. They brow beat and humiliated me. I know how it felt without Him, now I know how it feels with Him. I would not trade how I feel now for anything. Jesus is such a gift to me that I don't even think I could explain. No other religion can offer me a God that loves me so much that if I only believe He will be inside me.

That's awesome, being raised atheist and still going against family teachings and finding God...It shows that God's power is greater than any man's...

It also shows man's or woman's in my case, desire to find a higher power.

You have an awesome story suitsme, and am glad to made you as a new friend.

That was an awesome analogy...I never thought of it that way before...the only difficulty i see in that is for a new believer. Someone who has just come into the faith probably hasn't had any relationship with God, let alone a constant one, how would one even explain faith to them? Or would that have to be a faith built over time?

Sorry, I was sick for a while. Faith builds over time as you notice how God helps you in times of trouble. We can just encourage new beleivers to read the Bible and have a quiet time every day with God in order to build that relationship.

huh?

I think AnuLush drank too much before this post, only roz can answer this one!

I think they just want a piety +