How did you ascertain your faith?

M

Mr.Bill

New Member
I have been bringing this up from time to time, but it never really gets properlly adressed. My question to you is this: how did you come to decide upon your beliefs and your belief system. Or was there no decision, and you've merely been this way all your life. With so many of you having such fervent beliefs, I'm curious as to how you came to your decision, as it is a rather large one.
 
I was raised in the church, and never understood what it meant to be a Christian. I saw a lot of bad things happen throughout my life, and I had a lot of bad things happen to me. I had sworn of the church after seeing all that I saw growing up. When my daughter was born, at the age of 22, a group of people spurred by my wife begain praying for me. I was drinking, doing drugs regurally and almost threw my marriage away on an affair. (which didn't happen) My wife convinced me to attend a Bible study group with her that she was attending and I went. I learned something about myself that night and went to the church they attended. Something changed in me that night and my focus in my life shifted. A hunger grew inside me to know more about this man Jesus Christ, who I grew up knowing about, but never really knew. While I have had struggles the past 5 years in my life, I do not doubt that God used those people in that study that night to save my life, and my marriage. I have continued to learn, and understand what I believe. I, like you, have lots of questions. I seek answers to bolster my faith, not discredit it.

I'm not sure of what your looking for, but my life changed 5 years ago, and I can only thank God for it.

Cory
 
I came to God again at 32. I did believe and always have. But I had a problem with Christian and the bible not making sense or adding up. Then One knight in Florida I bought one a bible, I heard of the evidence of creation museum in Texas and started researching again about the theories science had. BTW I was an triage NCO in the Army, I knew how limited the doctors where in their knowledge of the Human body, it only followed thru in other areas of science.

Now do not get me wrong, We have a load of knowledge about the human body and science in general, but like so many of us are found of saying, the more we know the more we know we don’t know.

Anyway God called me back, through people in my life and through commune. God told me strait. He called me to preach, I knew that when I was 14 but I was a bad ass and a hellion hardcore. Once I got over what my family and friends who say? (I have a Christian bashing family)

I still struggle, but I think the defining moment for me is when I finished the spiritual man, it tied so my lose ends and summed up Christian spirituality so well. Since all that a little over 2 years ago, God has never let me down, and everyone says I am a calmer person now. LOL All I know is I am a follower of Christ and I try to reflect those qualities in my walk in life.
 
Raised Christian until I realised that by beliefs were without substancial basis (not saying there is no basis, just that mine didn't have any). I wiped the slate clean, belief-wise, and as of yet see no better perspective than that of an atheistic / agnostic materialist.
 
I was raised Catholic but in my teens I didn't agree with many of their teachings and dogmas. I did some research into other religions and churches. I recommited myself to Christ at 15 and attended a baptist church then and now attend and evangelicl or non-denomination Bible believing church (www.harvestbible.org)
 
Hmmz. Let us channel this a bit. In deciding what you are going to believe, there are three main ways to go about it, as is accepted by the general philosophical community. They are 1. reason (evidentialism), 2. faith (fideism), and 3. emotion (relativeism). I am wondering which thinking strategy you all chose in this.
 
Faith
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Hummz, faith alone?  I personally don't think that's a very good thinking strategy, as it does not narrow down the options and it relies too heavily on luck to obtain the truth.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Mr.Bill @ Aug. 31 2004,11:28)]Hummz, faith alone?  I personally don't think that's a very good thinking strategy, as it does not narrow down the options and it relies too heavily on luck to obtain the truth.
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Not Luck, the Holy Spirit.

Luck is chancy

God has never let me down

Jesus Christ preformed miricles by faith.

Luke 7
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
9When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel." 10Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Luck will never impose on Faith
Between all I could choose to relie on, I'll take faith
biggrin.gif
 
Bill if Jesus appeared to you and asked you if you believed in him, would you ask him for his identification?
 
You are right, luck is chancy. What I am getting at is that I am guessing many of you have only [/I]truely been exposed to one religion, namely Christianity. Maybe not, maybe this doesn't apply to you, but it doesn't really matter; this is a universal concept. Ok, so someone chooses a religion to believe in based on faith. His or her reasoning? Nonexistant, the person merely had faith that it was the right choice. Maybe that was the right choice, and maybe he or she justifies that choice with evidence gathered after the fact, but the fact of the matter is that the person got there merely by luck. There are thousands of religions abd belief systems out there, and all of them are 'right.' So long as obtaining the truth is your goal, faith alone is one of the worst ways to go about it.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Arkanjel @ Aug. 31 2004,1:32)]Bill if Jesus appeared to you and asked you if you believed in him, would you ask him for his identification?
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I'm assuming that's a rhetorical question.  Yes, if I saw Jesus and he was real and indeed himself, the son of god, I would convert to christianity.  I suppose I woulb be skeptical at first, since any old bum can walk up to me and claim to be Jesus, but I know what you mean.  My point is that if your thinking strategy on how to go about choosing that to believe is based entirely on faith, and some bum (who was actually just a bum) walked up to me and claimed to be Jesus, I could choose to believe in him, because that's my thinking strategy after all.  A good analogy actually, thanks.
 
faith for accepting the unknown, but I do believe in a creator over a cosmic explosion. It's like dynamyte going off in a printing press and getting the constituion. How likely is that the big bang could happen and everything so perfectly fits into place?
 
Well, I think that sometimes it takes more faith to believe a God does not exist than to understand he does.  Um, if you look around outside I think that it's pretty obvious this world was designed by a Creator, and how remarkable it is that we live on such an interesting, beautiful, and vastly different planet.

Some people make a big deal about how we are Christians, and yet I think the argument should be more of how can you not be.
 
Then why a Christian god and not, say, a Muslim god? What if you were born in Iran? Vietnam? How do you know that your religion is the only one that is 'right'? Or is there even a 'right'? Theeese are the questions.
 
Fortunately for me I have a way to back up my faith in Christ. Its scattered all over the bible. Its called prophecy. No other "religion" can make this claim. Prophecy has been fulfilled in the past, it is being fulfilled in the present, and it will be fulfilled in the future. Almost all prophecy that is in the bible is extremely detailed, yet another claim that cannot be made by any other "religion". My faith in Christ is based off of His promises. His promises are fulfilled when I accept Him as my Lord and Saviour. My "personal relationship" with Christ is what gets me through my day, its what makes me stand in awe of His beautiful creation, it reassures me when Im going through troubled times. He has not let me down yet, and he surprises me with double what I need, EXACTLY when I need it. So I guess I dont ascribe to any religion, unless you want to call a relationship a religion.

In Christ,
Gabriel
 
I studied different religions, if you would have read my past posts. I came to Christ he called to me. I believe that other religions are confused, I believe in CHrist as the son of God. The others have some truth, I was not born a christen,I was born into a a family of witches. I have tasted and sample pretty much weel... alot of different religions. Christ did not come to preach religion but a personal and fufilling relationship with God, The Son and the Holy Spirit.

I know I have the right one because every moring I talk with God and I open my heart and wait on the Lord. He has never failed me.. Nor as the bible ever lead me to a harsh or regretful decision.

That was do thru Faith my friend

And that is the truest freedom
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Then why a Christian god and not, say, a Muslim god?  What if you were born in Iran?  Vietnam?  How do you know that your religion is the only one that is 'right'?  Or is there even a 'right'?  Theeese are the questions.
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Well, no other religion is as factual as Christianity.  There is evidence in research today of events that happened in the bible.

There is a very recent discovery where a small group of researchers believed they found the place where John the Baptist may have did some of his baptisms, and a cave where he may have lived.

There is another where scientists believe they have found the brother of Jesus', Joseph's, tomb.

Scientists have determined that there was once a great flood, several thousand years ago, and about the same time frame as when Noah's ark was built, and the flood mentioned in the bible happened.  Um, it's been a long time since I read about it, but I believe they traced a form of algae that was associated with this flood (by date, classification, etc) all the way to central america.  Also of interest, the traces of algae was found only a few feet below water, but they claimed this algae does not grow in such a shallow area, and that it grows in the deeper parts of the ocean - partial evidence that, indeed, a great flood had occurred.
There was also an incredible number of deaths during this period, and is claimed to be recorded that the world's population dropped dramatically.

In even the earliest forms of the bible (the dead sea scrolls) Jesus testifies that 'not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down'.  He was talking about the temple's destruction, and sure enough about 70 years after Jesus' death the Roman army destroyed the very temple he was talking about.
 
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