My Honest Thoughts on Religion
- Locked due to inactivity on Oct 21, '20 3:54am
Thread Topic: My Honest Thoughts on Religion
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It helps a little.
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Ok, the links didn't work, but like tons and tons of rips I can see where they're coming from, but like, in the knees and a few here and there should be fine.
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just realized they didn't work because this account isn't leveled up -
There seems to be a lot of reasons you are wrestling with the idea of being a Christian, though I think it makes sense to be questioning them.
The thing is, none of what you mentioned has anything to do with being a true Christian. Christianity is not about following a list of rules, it's about where you'll spend eternity and restoring a personal relationship with God.
Being a Christian is about learning to walk with God, living for Him. And if those things (or any) get in the way of you following God, and are taking priority in your life, then yes, you shouldn't do them, but that is something between you and God. You'll know when something is wrong or taking priority because He'll tell you so.
The Bible doesn't address many things like movies or celebrities, but it does say how to live in a way that pleases God, and while it does talk about things like modesty and idolatry (referring to anything you make the ultimate priority of your life), it's not a direct list of instructions with measurements of what is acceptable and what's not. As long as you are personally living for God and doing your best to please him, it doesn't really matter what you watch or wear or who you hang out with. Now, those things can affect you, and there are reasons to be cautious about certain things, but you just have to be mindful. The real question is: What will happen to you when you die?
Do you believe that there is a heaven and a hell like the Bible tells us? If so, it is very important that you decide whether or not you want to be a Christian.
All you have to do to be a Christian is to believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and God raised him from the dead three days later. If you believe that, you can know for sure that you are a Christian and will go to heaven when you die. Nothing else has any effect on that. -
It sounds like what your parents have are spiritual preferences, not spiritual principles.
Their decision to not let you be alone with boys is entirely their decision. It's not biblical to say, "Oh you can't be alone with boys." BUT. Your parents do have a point. If you're not alone with a boy, you won't have the same temptation to actually sin. Plus I mean you're still young and those rules change as you get older.
Tattoos for instance are not sinful. It's not wrong or against the Bible to have a tattoo. I'd do your own biblical research if you want to back up your own reasoning if you want a tattoo or piercings. I think in some situations, tattoos can lead to sin. Such as, is that tattoo now an idol? Is the actual tattoo somehow contradictory to God's word? (i.e. depicts satanic things, curse words, etc.) What were your motives for getting the tattoo? If you got one just to spite your parents, I would say that's wrong because the Bible says to honor your father and mother.
I do not believe that watching fantasy related things is wrong either. I mean I grew up thinking Harry Potter was all witchcraft and bad news. But honestly after seeing it, it's really not. Yes, actual witchcraft is wrong. There are demons in this world and those practices just aren't safe. But things like Harry Potter are just clearly fantasy. If you were to compare something from an actual pagan occult to Harry Potter you'd see the vast difference. And honestly, your one spirit can feel the difference. I mean personally if I'm around something like a ouija board I don't feel right. That's something the Holy Spirit will show you.
You can be an emo and still be Christian lol. Now there are things that God will call you to do that are very much not emo, and it should be your choice to follow God and not your own personal preference. But if you want to wear all black, like certain music, etc. then that's your choice and I think that's fine as long as it's not tempting you to sin in any way. God is for everyone.
But like you said. You should follow God if you want to, not because your parents want you to. I'm not saying you should completely defy your parents because they still deserve respect. But it is your life.
If you want to do things that your parents say you can't, then I'd acknowledge what they're saying, but also ask them why. Challenge them to back up their words with scripture. And then do your own research and be like, "but actually the Bible says this" -
Ok, I might just have you two take over because you guys are explaining everything much better than me.
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Honestly, what could have caused some nobodies in Rome to burn to death as candles for a psychotic emperor like Nero?
Why would people face fire, crucifixion, beheading, and torture for Christ in the early church all the way into the modern day?
What would cause people to give up everything to follow a man believed to be the prophesied Messiah?
Clara, what you are experiencing is normal for anyone who has grown up in the Western church. Everything you have described is what I felt and struggled with when I was younger. I'm 25 now and have become a devout believer in Christ, but only after a journey through questions and seeking real answers.
I became an agnostic at 14. Nothing about religion made sense to me, so I vowed to not worry about it and just live the life I wanted to live. I viewed Christians as judgmental and unconcerned for people who have been left to the fringes of society. I was going to live for music, writing, and hopefully a meaningful relationship. For a period of time, I wanted to call myself an atheist to get further away from "my parents' beliefs," but I couldn't shake the fact that deep down I believed there was some sort of spirituality or deeper purpose for the universe.
So I looked at the religions that at one time seemed "forbidden." I was disappointed by most organized religion, so I looked into things considered new age and witchcraft. None of it seemed right.
If my salvation or enlightenment depended on my ability to meet some standard or law, I knew I could never make it.
My central question was the same thing: If I cannot be good enough, if the things I want to do are not good and the people I want to hang out with are not good, then what's the point? If God wants us to be good, why doesn't He come to earth and show us how to be good? Why can't we meet such a high standard of so-called goodness?
Short answer: None is good. Only God is good.
But how are we in the situation we're in now? Biblically, the fall of man is the curse that has touched all of mankind. No one is exempt. We all want to be god over our lives. We all, in our flesh, would rather rebel against God, do our own things, and be worshipped as something great ourselves. It's a hard thing to face our own inability to be God.
And still, deep down, we long for good things. So we idolize earthly things as if they can fill the space of a relationship with God. I wanted love so badly. I looked to relationships with people to make me whole. Yet they couldn't even carry the weight of their own humanity. Who was I to expect them to be my reason for living? None of us can save each other.
But why is the fall so bad? Why is sin so bad? Why can't God just let us do what sounds good to us? The center of the matter is who God really is. If He is the Source of all goodness, holiness, righteousness, peace, joy, love, light, and truth, there is no lasting goodness apart from Him.
We misunderstand what God's holiness really is. If God is perfect completeness and order, everything apart from Him is chaos and disorder. If God is perfect love, everything that is contrary to His nature is hate. We think we are loving, that our intentions are pure, but in reality human love is motivated largely by selfishness and satisfying self. God's definition of love is agape love. It's the willingness to lay down our will for the good of another. It's sacrificial. It does not come naturally to us.
If every commandment of the law comes down to loving God with all of our souls, minds, hearts, and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves, we start to see the spirit of the commandment and not merely the letter. The law was brought in to show us God's character, His own righteousness and goodness, and our own depravity and inability to meet this standard. We must understand why Jesus' blood sacrifice on the cross is so precious, that He would give His own life to save us, to cleanse us, to give us spiritual new birth, and to dwell with us by His Holy Spirit.
By trusting what God says about sin, how Jesus is the only one who can save us from the cost and consequences of our sins, and that sin draws us away from our loving Creator God who made us for a reason, to have an eternal relationship with Him, we can repent (change our belief) about sin.
It's not about keeping legalistic rules in order to please God. The foundation of a relationship with God can only be real love flowing from our free will. This cannot be coerced, engineered, or simulated. No one can scare someone into truly converting to Christ. When we see Christ for who He is and that He is everything we our thirsty souls need, we can trust that He will do exactly as He promised.
I also want to touch on life after getting saved. This is sanctification.
Spoiler alert: You cannot sanctify yourself. Just like how we can't make ourselves good before salvation, we cannot expect to after salvation. A new birth takes place. I don't think any of us gave birth to ourselves.
Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
I don't believe we learn enough about the importance of the Holy Spirit. He is literally God, indwelling every born again believer. I have witnessed His leading in my life, even before I truly put my faith in Christ. The still, small voice when I couldn't bring myself to trust Christians or church people, pointing me to seek God simply through His own Word. Convicting me, yet not tossing me into condemnation. Like the voice of a Father who really does love His children, and wants them to see that His plan is better than the plastic, empty things of the world.
God didn't just tell me to give sins up and leave me to myself. He showed me that if I trust Him, even with the things I didn't understand, He would show me what His intention was in the first place. He would show me what love really means. How to live in a way that genuinely yields purity, beauty, creativity, peace, and joy. To make art for His glory and draws others into a living relationship with the only one who can satisfy the human soul.
It wasn't a drudgery. Trusting God healed me of the endless pain of spiritual depression. I know in truth the difference between physical pain and spiritual pain. Life outside of relationship with God is the worst pain I've ever known. The emptiness, filthiness, and misery nearly drove me to suicide. The only time that pain went away is when I confessed that I was wrong and asked God for help. He never failed me. I cannot describe to you to peace that has filled my heart since I decided to follow Christ in truth back in 2015. I'd give anything for Christ.
If this was just dead religion, I wouldn't have bothered. I can honestly say that Christ is real. Again, it's not something you can force on anyone to believe. It's as simple as what God's Word says: Taste and see that the Lord is good. Regardless of what people say, good or bad, we all have to consider what God Himself says and meet Him for ourselves.
One thing that has left me unsatisfied in the modern Western church world is the damaging prosperity gospel. We are so well fed, so rich, so entertained, and so self-dependent that so much of church has becoming "playing church." We are lacking holy conviction, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, a brokenness over the lost world, and willingness to undergo suffering for the hurting to be made whole.
No wonder so many have become atheists if they've grown up in dead churches with sermons that are little more than motivational speeches, with Christians saying one thing then doing another. We either care very little about sin or make up legalistic rules to become puffed up and self righteous. We're missing the point. -
Real biblical Christianity is falling in love with God. It's trusting Him. It's knowing Him personally through the words He has spoken. It's seeing holiness as beautiful and good, flowing only through Christ. It's a faith that God will do as He said He would do. It's all-consuming.
This is already too long, but I have to share with you what actually strengthened my faith as a Christian:
- Read the Bible for yourself, not as a some religious ritual to check off a to-do-list. Read it like it's a love letter from God to you, because it is. I started in the New Testament first, then read the Old Testament. It helped me to see the Old Testament not as a bunch of random stories or history, but a purposeful, interwoven message about the coming Messiah who would save mankind and reconcile us with God.
- Consider the diverse group of people who have a living faith in Jesus:
Paul the Apostle - a former Pharisee that made it his life's mission to persecute and kill Christians, only to be stopped by Christ on his journey.
Richard Wurmbrand - a Lutheran pastor who spent 14 years in a Romanian prison for his faith.
Corrie ten Boom - a Dutch Christian who helped Jews escape during WW2 and ended up in a concentration camp.
George Mueller - a man who took God at His Word, trusted God to provide, and ran an orphanage for the impoverished in Victorian England.
Lacey Sturm - a woman who became an atheist when she was younger, doubting God's goodness, who came to believe in Christ through an encounter with God at 16 years old, the day she had planned to commit suicide.
Not to mention millions of Christians who live in nations like North Korea, China, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and India, where faith in Christ can cost you everything.
As for the things you listed, some points sound legalistic, but there's one thing I see very clearly: your parents love you. Some things feel so restrictive because as adolescents we are forming our identities and are naturally seeking to distance ourselves from our parents. We're not meant to be carbon copies of our parents, but we must love and honor them.
While I fall into the camp of believing a lot of good can be done through subcultures (I've always been drawn toward the punk, emo, metal, anime, and fantasy styles), there is an argument to made for discernment. Not everything in these cultures is bad, and not everything is good.
God is concerned with our hearts. What am I really seeking after? Am I doing something that's drawing me nearer to God? Can I use this opportunity to love God and love people? Or is it something only concerned with myself and pleasing the world?
It requires a much deeper and honest searching of my heart than legalism can ever produce, motivated by love and not self-righteousness. -
I see.
But, maybe I just don't have that devotion to search. I don't want to have to worship just because I'm afraid I'll go to hell, but that won't save me, in the end. So at this point, nothing motivates me to want God.
More and more, I find that what I was taught seems to be a little twisted, and it's caused (and continues to cause) me trauma.
I don't really have it in me to try again.
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