Keeping your faith

[JusticeMachine]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...ists/?tw_p=twt

I read this article, and it really bothers me. I think his arguements are the same ones I hear from friends who dont believe, and I dont know of any satisfactory answers to them.

Maybe, we are basing our faith on the wrong things.

[KingsGambit]

I read this article, and it really bothers me. I think his arguements are the same ones I hear from friends who dont believe, and I dont know of any satisfactory answers to them.

Maybe, we are basing our faith on the wrong things.

What are you basing your faith on?

[RBerman]

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...ists/?tw_p=twt

I read this article, and it really bothers me. I think his arguements are the same ones I hear from friends who dont believe, and I dont know of any satisfactory answers to them. Maybe, we are basing our faith on the wrong things.

That question will always be with you; faith by its very nature lacks the sort of proofs that modern science tells us should ease our doubts. I certainly have "What if this is all a big mistake?" thoughts myself from time to time. If you find doubt taking hold of your life, you should let your church leaders know so that they can pray for you and with you. Ultimately what saves us is not the size of our faith but the Christ in whom we place our faith.

Caedmon's Call

My faith is like shifting sands
Changed by every wave
My faith is like shifting sands
So I stand on grace

© source where applicable

[JusticeMachine]

What are you basing your faith on?

My faith is based on savation and grace. I guess my question in bringing this up, is that, I worry that we aren't selling that message. (selling may not be the best word, but it is where my back ground is, so I use it) I don't think Christianity in America is putting out that message effectively

[JusticeMachine]

That question will always be with you; faith by its very nature lacks the sort of proofs that modern science tells us should ease our doubts. I certainly have "What if this is all a big mistake?" thoughts myself from time to time. If you find doubt taking hold of your life, you should let your church leaders know so that they can pray for you and with you. Ultimately what saves us is not the size of our faith but the Christ in whom we place our faith.

Caedmon's Call

My faith is like shifting sands
Changed by every wave
My faith is like shifting sands
So I stand on grace

© source where applicable

I agree with you. However, I don't think that is the message mainstream Christianity is putting forth.

[RBerman]

I agree with you. However, I don't think that is the message mainstream Christianity is putting forth.

There is indeed a lot of fuzzy thinking about Christian faith circulating out in the general public.

[Little Shepherd]

His main issues were basically how can a good God send people to hell, and unanswered(code for "not answered the way I want") prayer? Well, he was Pentecostal, so skipping important stuff like the veracity of the Resurrection claims and going straight for the fluffy emotional stuff is pretty much to be expected. As for "satisfactory answers," I suppose it depends on who you ask. Which answers have you heard, and what about them did you find unsatisfactory?

[seanD]

I'm always suspicious of people who suddenly turn from fundamentalist preacher to fundamentalist atheist. In fact, I'm always suspicious of people who are over-the-top in religious pretense. His deconversion doesn't seem organic to me or a natrual course a theist would take. A more genuine course seems like the person would perhaps stray from the faith but keep a more general spiritual outlook. I suspect that he was either a fake Christian to begin with (with ulterior motives) or he still has an attachment to the faith and this is more of an attempt to PO God. This is the statement that makes me suspect the latter is true...

"The next big issue was the failure of prayer,” DeWitt said. “People are passing away, whenever we pray for them to live. People aren’t getting jobs, whenever we pray for them to have jobs.

“The harder we tried to alleviate suffering within our church, it seemed like the worse things got,” he said. “It didn’t seem like prayer made any difference. It just continually crushed my heart.”"

[Chaotic Void]

Yeah, I'm in agreement with Little Shepherd here... in my experience (pun intended), most Pentecostals hinge their faith in Christianity on emotional experience rather than whether or not the Resurrection actually happened.

However, I find a lot of Christians (not just Pentecostals) have skewed priorities when it comes to why they believe in Christianity. Some say it's the experience they have/had, others say that it's the fact they've had answered prayers, and others yet believe because of a rejection of other beliefs/ideas/moral stances (ie, Evolution, Homosexuality, Abortion, Alcohol). Though many of those things are a part of Christianity, Christianity is not rooted in those things. To put it another way, while 'A' may be contingent to 'B' being true, 'A' could be found invalid and 'B' could still be True.

[maudman]

But why are so many converting when it places them in harms way in scripture.. We tend to not realize that Many were going to die for their beliefs and faced serious dangers and persecutions.. Today are People leaving their faith for reasons of Pride it seems... Strange that that is the root of Perdition...

[KingsGambit]

But why are so many converting when it places them in harms way in scripture.. We tend to not realize that Many were going to die for their beliefs and faced serious dangers and persecutions.. Today are People leaving their faith for reasons of Pride it seems... Strange that that is the root of Perdition...

I don't have the exact quotation handy, but I recently read something from Craig Blomberg where he wrote that people leaving the faith for flimsy emotional reasons was an insult to all the martyrs throughout Christian history. I agree.

[The Remonstrant]

I'm always suspicious of people who suddenly turn from fundamentalist preacher to fundamentalist atheist. In fact, I'm always suspicious of people who are over-the-top in religious pretense.

I'm always suspicious of people in general. (Oop! Cat's out of the bag...)

[The Remonstrant]

However, I find a lot of Christians (not just Pentecostals) have skewed priorities when it comes to why they believe in Christianity. Some say it's the experience they have/had, others say that it's the fact they've had answered prayers, and others yet believe because of a rejection of other beliefs/ideas/moral stances (ie, Evolution, Homosexuality, Abortion, Alcohol). Though many of those things are a part of Christianity, Christianity is not rooted in those things. To put it another way, while 'A' may be contingent to 'B' being true, 'A' could be found invalid and 'B' could still be True.

Yeah, I've had an incredible amount of unanswered prayers to the point where at times I've questioned whether God even cares for me or he has "pet" favorites who apparently he does...

But the foundation for my (unfortunately) incredibly weak faith (I'm not bragging here!) must be in God and more specifically the Christ written of in the Scriptures who died, was buried and raised not only for the world, but for me. Otherwise, my personal experience has been far too ambiguous -- or rather, ambivalent -- to rely on for faith in God.

If all's well, maybe God's favoring me and blessing me for whatever the reason. But what if one day I'm out on the street begging for bread and all my external circumstances are absolutely deplorable? Maybe God doesn't care or even exist. What if the tide turns and the wind blows another way? This is not "faith" at all. Am I still far too easily driven or swayed by my feelings in relation external circumstances and faith in God? Unfortunately, yes. But I don't respect it in myself or others. That is no foundation at all.

[Ladybug823]

I noticed something in the article. He was basing his faith on God doing what he wanted.

"People are passing away, whenever we pray for them to live. People aren’t getting jobs, whenever we pray for them to have jobs."

“The harder we tried to alleviate suffering within our church, it seemed like the worse things got,” he said. “It didn’t seem like prayer made any difference. It just continually crushed my heart.”

Prayer is not meant for getting our way, leading a Christian life is not about having comfort or even a halfway decent life on this earth. People live as Christians and the most powerful ones often lead wretched lives. The apostles often were put to death in wretched ways and lived off of nothing but others kindness to them.

It's not about our living peacefully and comfortably in this life, its about putting our faith in God in such a high place here that it does not matter what our circumstances, all that matters is that we handle them with grace and with strength in the Lord. That is what Christianity is meant for not the lie that we are to be comfortable happy people for 70 years or so.

[Phat8594]

I noticed something in the article. He was basing his faith on God doing what he wanted.

Ironic isn't it? Since faith is the exact opposite of God doing what we want....faith entails us doing what God wants. Not our will, but His.