The words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 describe my thoughts on doing this blog.
1 Corinthians 2
Paul’s Reliance upon the Spirit
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the [a]testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my [b]message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not [c]rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Footnotes:
[a] 1 Corinthians 2:1 One early ms reads mystery
[b] 1 Corinthians 2:4 Lit word
[c] 1 Corinthians 2:5 Lit be
I am no great writer, philosopher or scientist. I come to you humbly and with a little bit of nervousness about what I am looking to do.
I am trying to study and gain a better understanding of God, the Bible and why I believe in Jesus as Savior of my life. In doing this I wish to share and use your questions as topics to study so that I might gain a better understanding of what peoples real views are and what the Bible has to say concerning them.
If you are not a Christian, I would like you to let me know what your biggest problem with Christianity is. Not what your biggest problem with Christians is...but the theology itself. There are plenty of folks out there that call themselves Christian, but are clearly not living the way they should.
If you are a Christian, please let me know why you believe. Give your testimony so that others can hear and also help me to spread the Word in a way that is consistent with 1 Peter 3:15.
1 Peter 3:15
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
15 but [a]sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a [b]defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and [c]reverence;
Footnotes:
1 Peter 3:15 I.e. set apart
1 Peter 3:15 Or argument; or explanation
1 Peter 3:15 Or fear
Help by reading what I post and link to and let me know if maybe I am missing the point or getting something wrong..I want to always be speaking the truth with wisdom.
I will try my best to address all questions as best I can and as soon as I can, so please be patient with me. This is going to be a real learning experience for me as well.
As a Christian I am called by God to share His Word to others. I am not called to judge, force or be belligerent...I am to present the message of God so that others may hear and decide what they believe. Salvation is between you and God only. You must decide what you believe, but you must do it intelligently. Don't let the false/bad witness of some who call themselves Christians, but do not live the life turn you away from God. Also, do not let the criticism of atheists or other non-believers keep you from ever investigating the claims of the Bible for yourself. You must search your own heart and mind and make these decisions for yourself.
This blog will be my attempt to share God's Word to those that want to do just that. I will invite people to ask questions and I will try to give the best answers I can. Mostly I will probably point you in the direction of articles and audio of those that are much better than I am in explaining the Bible. I hope that you will use this as a way to start thinking about what you truly believe in.
Thanks for checking this out and I look forward to your questions & comments.
Mark "ClydeFrog" Ritter
Mostly the problem with Christianity that I, and a lot of others have can be fairly simply stated in this quote:
ReplyDelete"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." – Richard Dawkins
Specifically, those that oppose things like medicine, technology, science (like Evolution and the Big Bang), claiming that it's all false and a book written by desert nomads 2000 years ago somehow contains more knowledge than all of modern science.
In addition, we have an issue with those Christians that try and change the laws to suit their own personal belief systems, such as banning gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, pornography, video games, etc. I know you mentioned to not say "Christians", but they do these things with their Christianity as support. Again, that somehow this book written 2000 years ago is smarter than all modern scientists.
This is Nivekeryas, by the way.
Howdy man...you are actually one whose real name I actually know ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting, I really appreciate it. I will look into what you said and try to get back to you as soon as I can.
Nivek! Dude! How's it going?
ReplyDeleteYour feelings toward Christians and Christianity are justified.
However, please keep in mind that your experiences don't represent all Christians.
Yes, some Christians are extremists. I don't think I need to describe these in much detail, as they're pretty well summarized by some of the more notorious televangelists of the 80's. Despite the Bible warning against it, they stand in judgment of everyone they see. They have a vision of how the world should be, and they try to impose that view upon people instead of allowing people to choose it.
Other Christians try to focus on God rather than on the religion itself. They rarely fall into the generalizations used by many others to describe Christianity. Some of them are even embarrassed to publicly admit to being Christian — not because they're embarrassed of their beliefs, but because they'd be labeled as something they're not: judgmental, out-of-touch radicals.
As to your other points... Many Christians fully support science. They see it as a way to observe God's creations. Many Christians are also doctors and nurses. Many have mixed feelings about euthanasia, and TONS play video games. And see movies. And listen to secular music. Etc. Some even support same-sex unions/marriages, though admittedly those are more rare.
Also, as someone entering the healthcare industry and who has many family members in that industry, I should point out that the issue of euthanasia is highly controversial even outside the confines of religion. Not all moral and ethical controversies are inherently religious, even though religious people will often tend to take one side or the other — natural, considering they're members of a group with similar beliefs as one another.
Erik ("Deg")
Informative and detailed post!! Thank you !!
ReplyDeleteOnline church services