What Makes it Hard to Believe?

MehGuy said:

Lack of convincing evidence.

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I suppose this is partly because there is this thing called faith but also because your not listening your searching for answers but your not having a leap of faith and putting yourself out there but God loves us all whether we believe in him or not

I also believe a lot of people don't believe in God not because of him but because of how they have seen people who call themselves Christians and say they are follow God abide his power his word and not been good

HopeS746 said:

I suppose this is partly because there is this thing called faith but also because your not listening your searching for answers but your not having a leap of faith and putting yourself out there but God loves us all whether we believe in him or not

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Uh huh.

HopeS746 said:

I also believe a lot of people don't believe in God not because of him but because of how they have seen people who call themselves Christians and say they are follow God abide his power his word and not been good

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Here is my free tip of the day:

If you want to know why certain people don't believe in a God, just ask them.

Studying apologetics, both on my own and for school, has honestly bolstered my faith to a point of no return. I no longer find it hard to believe, and haven't for years.

But I understand those who have a hard time believing. I am a skeptic by nature, and I have to "look into" things after they're first presented to me. The thing is, I will genuinely look into it. Christianity asks to be questioned and scrutinized. But those questions have to be asked with the intent of finding the answer... not just for the sake of "questioning it."

That being said, I think the Church at large needs to do a better job of conveying the true Gospel to non-believers. I'm not talking about street evangelism; I'm talking about demonstrating the love of Christ.

Paul gave a great example of this in 1 Corinthians 9:

19 Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. 20 When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law,e]">[e] I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.

22 When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. 23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

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EazyMack said:

Studying apologetics, both on my own and for school, has honestly bolstered my faith to a point of no return. I no longer find it hard to believe, and haven't for years.

But I understand those who have a hard time believing. I am a skeptic by nature, and I have to "look into" things after they're first presented to me. The thing is, I will genuinely look into it. Christianity asks to be questioned and scrutinized. But those questions have to be asked with the intent of finding the answer... not just for the sake of "questioning it."

That being said, I think the Church at large needs to do a better job of conveying the true Gospel to non-believers. I'm not talking about street evangelism; I'm talking about demonstrating the love of Christ.

Paul gave a great example of this in 1 Corinthians 9:

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Basically.

The more I study the Word the stronger in my faith I become.

As far as struggles -- In the past I struggled with faith because I was trying to apply my world view to Scripture when it should have been the other way around.

I think until people truly submit to the authority of Scripture there will be plenty of reasons to doubt that you cause yourself.

HopeS746 said:

I also believe a lot of people don't believe in God not because of him but because of how they have seen people who call themselves Christians and say they are follow God abide his power his word and not been good

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Maybe. Personally, if I believed, that would be that. The actions of others wouldn't be the deciding factor for me. When I was Christian, I had no problem with the fact that some other Christians were doing things that I thought were wrong in the name of the religion. The only thing that stopped me from believing was no longer believing.

Cearbhall said:

Maybe. Personally, if I believed, that would be that. The actions of others wouldn't be the deciding factor for me. When I was Christian, I had no problem with the fact that some other Christians were doing things that I thought were wrong in the name of the religion. The only thing that stopped me from believing was no longer believing.

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Aha ok guess it might be different for different people

HopeS746 said:

Aha ok guess it might be different for different people

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Ah, yes, people are indeed different.

Freakconformist said:

1. Hypocrisy within the church.
I have always had a hard time reconciling the messages of Grace, God's willingness to overlook our sins because of his overwhelming love for us, and the attitude of the people within the church that say "You better live up to our definition of what a Christian is (that isn't even biblical) or else". I truly believe that what I call the American Church is living under the rule of the Pharisees. We have a group of extremists right now holding themselves above everybody else and continually creating a list of rules and claiming that if you don't live up to their expectations then you aren't "Christian" enough.

I have two words for those people: ______ that.

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This. I do believe - my friendship with God is nowhere near perfect, but what friendship is? There's a reason why John 6:68 is my favorite verse.

How-ev-er. If I said what I truly think of American Christian culture, one or more of you guys would report me for foul language. So let's just cut some corners and say that the American church falls short of displaying God's grace.

Because humans tend to have a very linear way of thinking. They also think too much about what they already know, and neglect to focus on what could be possible. And that 'what could be possible' may constitute up to 90% of what's really out there. So how can reliable evidence be reliable if you only know 10% of the picture?

We're not as intelligent as we'd like to think we are. 'Evidence' in any capacity is always going to be flawed. I could prove that two plus two equals four, but you could still argue that point. So even if there was solid evidence for the existence of God, you still couldn't really prove it.

Even after physically watching Jesus rising from the dead, there would have been naysayers. If your mind is wired a certain way, then you won't have the same belief system as the next guy - and for something to be proven, it must be believed by everybody - and nothing on this Earth really is. There's always going to be some crackpot out there that will argue until he's blue in the face that humans can survive without water, and that the sun is our God, etc...

redblue22 said:

What makes it hard for you to believe in God, Jesus, christianity, christians?

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Nothing on God's end, but daily sinning makes it hard for me to feel like I'm worthy to even be a Christian

Messy said:

Why christians? I believe in God. I don't care what others do. Weird to let your faith in God depend on a christian who treats you bad.

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I've always thought that it's "knowing the tree after it's fruits" to look a bit how followers of particular religion are like. If a religion (or some version of it) makes consistently people behave bad, it's a good bet that there is something wrong with the religion itself. And vice versa: if followers of some religion are good people, it makes the religion more attractive aswell.

I want to eat only fruits that make other people healthy, if I see them come sick after eating particular fruit, I'm not touching it.

For me it's not the belief I have trouble with-it's imbedded to deep for any form of doubt and disbelief. My problem is sometimes holding fast to those beliefs that have me attached to that immovable foundation. I find myself swaying, so to speak-due to a war within that wants to constantly draw me over to the other side. My weakness which coincides with fleshly lusts waging war against my soul...

Paul describes it perfectly in his description of the "Conflict of Two Natures" as written in the Book of Romans.

I suppose its inevitable that stumbling blocks come...

I feel that we all have to recognize the evil within ourselves-to discern what exactly our sins are, so that we can overcome them..

ReesePiece23 said:

Because humans tend to have a very linear way of thinking. They also think too much about what they already know, and neglect to focus on what could be possible.

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Well, that would be the difference between atheism and agnosticism. I personally say that I'm an agnostic atheist because while I don't think I can disprove gods, my conclusion is that no deities exist. I acknowledge that they could exist, sure, but I don't see a reason to treat the concept differently than any other idea that humans have come up with.

redblue22 said:

I find it interesting that many see beliefs as separate from action.

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In what way?

There is a difference. Faith without works is dead. Any man can choose to believe whatever he wants to believe. But until he acts out on that belief, his faith is nullified and unable to attain to that perfection-the completion of Christ's works within the heart and soul...

EazyMack said:

Studying apologetics, both on my own and for school, has honestly bolstered my faith to a point of no return. I no longer find it hard to believe, and haven't for years.

But I understand those who have a hard time believing. I am a skeptic by nature, and I have to "look into" things after they're first presented to me. The thing is, I will genuinely look into it. Christianity asks to be questioned and scrutinized. But those questions have to be asked with the intent of finding the answer... not just for the sake of "questioning it."

That being said, I think the Church at large needs to do a better job of conveying the true Gospel to non-believers. I'm not talking about street evangelism; I'm talking about demonstrating the love of Christ.

Paul gave a great example of this in 1 Corinthians 9:

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Bolding mine.

Not from what I can see, for much of history questioning was a good way to get burnt alive. And to this day we see the only decent witness to the claim of resurrection reviled. Doubting Thomas is a term of derision.

Christianity only asks to be questioned by those who seek the 'correct' answer.

1 John 3:19-20
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.