I spent a long time as a Christian. I’m able to look back on much of that time very fondly. I loved my fellow brethren, and I truly wanted to learn more about God’s will and do my best to follow it. But there was also a deep fear tied to my belief. I think that’s fairly common among fundamentalists, but it may apply to more moderate Christians as well.
Where did this fear come from? There are certainly a number of passages that talk about God’s love for mankind:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? – Rom 8:31
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Rom 8:38-39
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. – 2 Pet 3:9
But despite his love, God can get angry too. And you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry:
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. – Heb 10:26-31
The scariest thing about this is that facing God’s wrath will be a complete shock to some people. There are those who think they’re doing what God wants, but are completely missing the mark:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” – Matt 7: 21-23
What if you believe in Jesus and love God, but aren’t doing God’s will? Is your sincerity enough? This was a thought that plagued me when I believed. If some people would get to Judgment Day only to find that they weren’t acceptable, then why couldn’t such a thing happen to me? How did I know my beliefs were the correct ones? My brother and I used to talk about this a lot. Through study, he and I both began to think that a couple of the doctrines we had always been taught in the Church of Christ were incorrect. Coming to that conclusion was extremely difficult. Were we reading and understanding our Bibles correctly?
As an illustration, consider a minor passage: 1 Corinthians 11. The beginning of this chapter says that women should have their heads covered when they pray. But the passage is confusing. Paul says that since women have long hair, they should also wear a covering when they pray or prophesy. He spends several verses giving reasons why a woman should cover her head, but then in verse 15, he also says that her long hair is given to her as a covering. So do they still need a separate one? Most confusing at all, verse 16 says:
If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
What does that even mean? Does it mean there’s not a practice of being contentious? That sounds like a crazy thing to have to say. So maybe he’s saying that the head covering is not supposed to be a practice if anyone makes a fuss over it. But that doesn’t make sense either. I mean, what other doctrines are given that caveat? Did any of the 10 Commandments have such an escape clause? The whole passage is confusing. What are Christians supposed to do? Either God wants the covering, or he doesn’t, but that passage can be read any number of different ways.
And of course, that’s far from the only vague passage. When you’re raised in a denomination, you’re taught to read the Bible a particular way. “Predestination” means something very different, depending on who you’re talking to. Who’s right? And what if you were raised in one of the groups that thinks they’re right, but to whom God will say “depart from me, I never knew you”? My brother and I realized how difficult it is to unpack all those preconceptions in order to clearly see the scriptures for what they really say. It’s scary.
Here’s the Point
But eventually, I realized that my fear was needless. The Bible says that God is fair, he doesn’t play favorites, he loves us, and he wants us to find the truth. Jesus said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7). If those things are true, then there’s no reason for us to be so worried about getting it wrong, as long as we’re sincerely seeking the truth.
It’s important to realize how significant that point is. If we’re really looking for the answers, then no question is going too far. So if we dig into the Bible and think “it doesn’t make sense to me that God would send people to Hell,” we shouldn’t run from that thought — we should investigate it. It’s okay for us to ask why God would command genocide in the Old Testament. It’s okay to wonder why he seems so hidden. It’s okay to ask why he would inspire people to write a message, but not protect the originals or ensure its accuracy. If God supports our search for truth, then all of these questions are valid. In fact, the people who pursue these questions obviously take the issue seriously. Wouldn’t that be more pleasing to God than those who never question what they’ve been told?
If you believe in God, then have faith in his character. Have faith in his promises. And take him seriously enough to challenge those who claim to speak for him (the writers of the Bible). Don’t let people tell you that you can’t question God whenever you express doubt about a passage. The Bible is not God. So show God the respect he deserves and critically examine the Bible before you accept the claim that he inspired it. If he’s real, he’ll be much more pleased with an honest seeker than with someone who’s too scared to ask the tough questions.
Finding Truth 
I realize that this time, you actually ARE addressing Ark. and I presume he will answer for himself. but for me, the answer to your two above questions would be, “Yes, until I’m presented with sufficient, irrefutable evidence to the contrary.” And that, my mentally mute friend, does not make me a closed-minded hypocrite.
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@Arch ,
Mental masturbation?!?!? Ouch!!
As time consuming as it is, I try to go over the entire string before adding my thoughts to a comment thread and, having done that here, I find that — for my money — Portal001’s remarks were the only ones that got me nodding my head.
Maybe it doesn’t come across –and it certainly hasn’t come across to you — but I really am trying to invite conversation rather than debate. I’m more interested in learning than in debating but, as my wife used to remind me all the time, I “just need to be right all the time.”
So, if you and I are participating in some sort of spiritual ‘circle jerk’, I consider it a very sad thing indeed and more representative of my character deficiencies than my intention.
Peace,
Paul
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CC – do you not recall my saying to Portal: “so we might as well relax and enjoy the conversation”?
Portal accused me of “trying to win” – I explained the accusation was incorrect, on the grounds that no one was likely to change anyone else’s mind, so what, actually, would I “win“?
Hey, dickhead, how ya doing?.I reckon you should find out what atheists really believe when it comes to gods,( I can’t be bothered to explain it again to an idiot who never fires on all cylinders) and especially the god you dribble over and the silly book you think he was influential in its composition..
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Speaking of the “silly book,” Ark, I was doing some reading today that put some real numbers on an event I could previously only imagine, the Exodus, about which I’ll be writing shortly on my own site.
The Red Sea, at it narrowest point, is 19 miles across (I’m metrically-challenged, so you’ll need to convert that to kilometers yourself). Numbers 1:46 relates there were precisely 603,550 men aged 20 and up – those, along with wives, children, the elderly, and the “mixed multitude” of non-Israelites, i.e., servants (hmm, slaves have servants?) would have numbered some 2 million people.
If we are to believe this tale, we not only must believe that this vast body of water parted, and remained parted, while the weakest and most infirm of them walked the entire 19 miles!
But wait, there’s more! The author of the article calculated that if the motley crew had marched ten abreast, the entire column of 2 million people – not accounting for livestock – would have reached back 150 miles.
The Red Sea, then, would have had to remain parted long enough for the weakest of them to walk 168 miles – average walking pace is 3 miles per hour, so it would have taken a minimum of 56 hours for the Israelis to cross the narrowest point of the Red Sea – 2, 24-hour days, plus 8 additional hours, assuming no lunch breaks, potty stops, and no time to for sleep – any Christians want to take a stab at the inerrancy of that story?
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The Potty Stops must have been the clincher.
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Arch,
In other words the rules apply to everyone but you.
That kind of thinking is called narcissism.
.
So not only do you suffer the malignant ignorance inherent in atheist, but you suffer from a malignant psychosis.
The reason Christians are beginning to rise up in protest is because they see malignant ignorance and psychosis being enshrined into our laws and culture.
Ignorant, psychotic tyrants have ruled over men since time immemorial.
So your thinking is a retrograde, reactionary trip back to the ancient barbarism that in the entire history of man, only Christian Western Civilization could dispel.
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Ark,
Atheists tell me what they think every time they comment to me.
I’ve been commented to by atheists ad infinitum.
Atheists are quite clear about their non-ability to think, and their contempt for reason, truth and normative ethics.
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SOM: why must you get so testy? It’s just a discussion. I recognize that Ark gets pretty down and dirty, but Arch seems to maintain a fairly even keel, albeit a little on the sarcastic side.
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@silenceofmind, “I think you would be safe in characterizing me as a Christian from my comments defending the Bible.”
Your comments on this blog have never caused me to think of you as a Christian. Please don’t assist the decline of Christianity by claiming to be one.
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So my answer of “Yes, until I’m presented with sufficient, irrefutable evidence to the contrary,” leads you to draw all of those other conclusions:
It’s looking more and more like you should – for your own sake, understand – follow my advice and tell your mind to exercise its right to remain silent, you’re making a fool of yourself, which doesn’t play, even in the hood.
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Arch,
Let me explain the obvious to you in one sentence:
You are as sure in your thinking as the Christians you label as closed minded.
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Moi?:-)
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“You are as sure in your thinking as the Christians you label as closed minded.”
Where did I label Christians? Please copy/paste the entire comment.
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Reading even one of your comments once is more than enough.
Life is too short to have to repeat your own comments back to you.
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So that’s your excuse for falsely accusing me and not having to prove your claim? Is that something you learned in the hood? (I’m reasonably certain I’ve spent far more time “in the hood,” than you have.)
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SOM,
Sometimes I can’t work out if your being serious in your comments or not, to state that atheists are mot able to think is ridiculous. If I was an atheist your recent assertions wouldn’t encourage me
Arch ,
I don’t know you at all, so it was pretty arrogant of me to make the accusation that you are debating to win a game.
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Brilliant,
I’m typing this on a phone, meant to write not* instead of Mot.
Hope everyone has a great Christmas and safe new year
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I’ve already told you, Portal, it’s OK – it’s all just part of internet give and take, and no reason for anyone to get more than semi-serious – you did nothing wrong, and I am not offended in the least!
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00,
Atheists speak for themselves. I merely call a spade a spade.
Atheists need to be told what to think just like their postmodern Christian counterparts.
The Western Heritage, beginning with Plato and Aristotle, continuing with the great Catholic thinkers Saints Augustine and Aguinas and John Locke and the Founding Fathers, is a journey in the pursuit of reason and systematic thinking.
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I agree completely! Merry Christmas everyone! Let’s all join our voice in a rousing carol!
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Ah yes, the Founding Fathers – let’s take a look at what some of our Presidents had to say:
How did that last one get in there? Oh, yeah, “hanging chads” —
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I agree with everyone of your quotes except the one from Bush.
He is untrustworthy.
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Finally! We agree on something!
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@ Silence: “To be an atheist one must give up the ability to reason. For to believe that everything came, all by itself from nothing, is to believe the absurd.”
…but believing in a “holy book” which was written, translated, copied and dispersed by mere men, who claimed there were miracles that proved it all (just cant see them anymore), who claimed that god told them to write it all down (a god who was his own father and own son, a god who prayed to himself, a god who is all powerful but cant speak everyone, who cant write his own book, who cant inspire a perfect book, a god who was so loving that ordered the genocide of entire nations including women and children), isn’t absurd?
c’mon, we’re being silly. Are you really an agnostic deist?
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