A couple of years ago I was flipping channels to find something worth watching and landed upon a special by Bill Maher basically disproving Christianity. I was intrigued so I watched for a while until I'd had enough barbs and cynical comments at what felt like my expense that I had to shut it off. But, apparently I watched it a little too long because it did something to me. It planted a little seed of doubt. I started to question if my faith was really a real thing. It was so easily disproved by Bill Maher after all. :)
I never stopped believing, yet every once in a while I still feel the enemy whispering words of doubt into my ears about the authenticity of my faith. Then I feel completely guilty if I entertain those thoughts at all. Over the last few days I've been reading a novel that speaks often about worshipping other gods and calling upon them in times of need. And, for some reason I've found my doubts being magnified. (Don't worry the book is not condoning these practices. I haven't gone completely off the deep end.) But, my thoughts have been racing with things like this....
These people calling on other gods are having ups and downs in their lives too.
Some ups could be credited to crying out to their gods.
How is my faith any different?
Is Jesus really real?
Sheesh....even as I write this I feel horrible! Something about bringing your thoughts out in the open is very humbling.
The good news is that the Lord's voice is and always will be stronger than the little seeds of doubt the enemy is whispering into my ear.
Today I was reading John 7:16:
"My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him."
Guess what God's will is?
"For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40
"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." John 6:29
So what sets my faith apart from worshipping other gods? Or putting my faith in a job, or money, or family?
If we choose to do God's will, which is believe in Him, we will find out that his teaching is the truth. As my Bible commentary says,
"this enunciates a very important fact: recognizing the truth of Jesus' teaching is not dependent upon intellectual ability or formal learning, nor is it a reward for the noble search for truth. It depends, rather, upon the person's willingness to do the will of God...This means that only those who believe in Jesus will recognize the truth of his teaching. Believe, that you may know! This is not surprising, for why should God reveal truth to those who refuse to believe in his Son."
The thing is, I know my faith is real because if nothing else...I feel it. Even if I don't have all the answers and can't always express how I know.....I just know. Because I believe in the "one he has sent" and the truth in his teaching has been revealed to me in too many ways to count.
That belief will constantly be challenged in one way or another by this world we live in. Because Satan runs rampant in our everyday lives. But, praise God for his Word that we may be reminded and encouraged and built up in in Him every day.
4 comments:
you make some good points with questioning faith, and i think it is healthy to do that once in a while (keeps us on our toes) and i like your simple logic that we "feel" Christ in us and obviously because we believe the what the bible says.
If you wanted some more facts on the subject though, check out Dr. Stephen C. Meyer's website http://www.stephencmeyer.org/. he proves Christianity from a scientist perspective only, it is very interesting. Anyway, check it out if you need a little more hard core evidence next time. :o)
Whenever I feel those doubts starting to rise, I go back to the Word. I determined a long time ago that the Bible was absolutely true and had no errors, so it is the one thing I can depend on. It is more dependable than my feelings, my thoughts, my knowledge. It came from God who knew that I would have times like that, and He provided every assurance I would ever need in His Word.
Hi Tami! This is the first time I've read your blog and lo and behold you grabbed my attention right away. If I may I'd like to share a bit of my story with you in regard to doubt.
When I was about 23 I had been blogging about my studies in the Bible for a year or two and one day an Atheist got on my blog and tore me apart. He told me that Christianity couldn't be true because there were religions that existed before the Judeo/Christian faith and surely if any were true it would be the first one. He said Zoroastrianism existed well before Judaism. I had never heard of that.
In fact I found a lot of other objections to my Christian faith such as "Jesus is just a myth" and that his story is just a copycat of other pagan myths like Mithras and horus, etc. Supposedly there were many other "gods" who had died and risen from the dead, who were called "the son of God" who had 12 diciples, etc.
I came to a very real realization that I had no idea whether or not my faith was in anything real. I came home to Susan completely rocked and wasn't sure what to do. I began to seek for answers and determined wherever the truth might lead that where I would go. There is, after all, no point in believing something that is not true.
As I came to find out, there are better answers than there are objections against Christianity. For instance, while Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion, and it did exist prior to the earliest book of the Bible, it doesn't predate the biblical record of events. The Hebrew culture was a "memory culture" and were ones to pass down tradition orally and very reliably. In Jesus' own day there were many pharisees who had committed the Pentateuch to memory completely. With the availability of mass producing literature we have largely left the capacity to memorize behind, but it is certainly possible. All this to say, the creation account, the flood account, the patriachs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) were not written until Moses, but they were handed down faithfully and carefully by oral tradition and that oral tradition would long predate Zoroastrianism.
When it comes to the pagan god parallels, it is true that these stories have some similarities in their traditions and that these traditions predate Christ. What they don't tell you, however, is that although these traditions predate Christ, the parts that sound just like Jesus don't appear within the Mithras/horus traditions until years if not centuries after Jesus, making them the copycats and not the other way. Not to mention liberal scholars over emphasize the notion that the pagan gods experienced resurrections like Jesus (I don't think taking a dismembered god, finding only 7 of the 8 pieces of him and then turning them into a constellation is the same thing as the bodily resurrection that the apostles preached of Jesus.)
When these and so many other objections are put in context they fall apart to nothing of real content. Atheists are great at rhetoric but terrible on facts.
Because of what I went through with almost losing my faith and then realizing that I would have to have more faith to be an atheist than a Christian I have dedicated my life to the proclamation and defense of the Christian faith. I just thought I'd take the time to encourage you that what you believe is actually, factually, historically, scientifically, and philosophically true and consistent. And although we can truly know Christ personally and intimately through experience and faith, I want to urge you to find the solid rock of truth upon which we stand because it is firm. Our faith is true whether people believe it or not. Mormons cannot say that nor can Muslims or Hindu's.
The reality is that about 2,000 years ago God took on flesh and dwelt among us. He lived and walked upon this earth, he taught provocative and powerful truth, he died on a cross and he rose bodily from the dead on the third day and was seen by many eye witnesses, friend and foe.
Here are some resources for your edification and encouragement:
www.str.org (my favorite)
www.reasonablefaith.org
www.risenjesus.com
www.carm.org
Books:
I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Frank Turek
The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (The Case for Faith and the Case for Christ are also wonderful reads)
If ever you have a specific issue I would be happy to point you to the appropriate resource. I hope this helps, God bless.
Post a Comment