The more I try to understand Christianity the more confused I get

[ChristianGirl_96]

From reading the Bible.

 

[Sunshinee777]

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known"
It's not the wisdom of your own understanding but the wisdom of God which is received as Holy Spirit when you born again in Jesus Christ.

 

[Scott Husted]

I have been trying so desperately to grow my faith and relationship with God and I’m now more confused then ever. To clarify I am not doubting God existence but I’m just doubting my understanding of God. I used to be so sure about what I believed but now when I’m trying to learn more, I’m not anymore. I also don’t understand why Christianity is so confused about so many things and why we have so many denominations. We all read the same bible but somehow come to drastically different conclusions. Why does the bible seem so contradictory sometimes? I used not to think so but it wasn’t until I debated a Jehovah Witness, who used the scriptures to support his statements that Jesus was created and obviously as someone that believes the trinity I don’t believe that but it’s hard to convince someone else when Jesus is so often in the scriptures referred as the only begotten son. Then I use John 1:1 to show him that the Word was God and Jesus is the word. However then he says that he does believe Jesus is a God but not the almighty God. I say that there is only one God and that God is jealous if we worship other gods. However then he shows me a scriptures that say God even calls us gods ( Psalms 82:6 & John 10:34). I didn’t know of this scripture so how can I refute something that is clearly biblical. I understand that some people will say some of these scriptures are not literal and are figuratively but how can you distinguish what is literal and what is figuratively. It’s things like these that confused my faith the most. I will blame in on my lack of understanding or wisdom but it’s just so hard to understand sometimes.

The God at the beginning of the Bible is not God, it's our perception of God, and the journey into the truth that he is relational and inward.

 

[JacksBratt]

But that’s the one thing I don’t want to confuse at all. I don’t believe in religion and that’s why I don’t follow any denomination at all. I want to only know Jesus and God however and I have a desired to preach the gospel to others but it wasn’t until I talked to other people who knew even more than the bible than me that I realized that I really don’t know the bible as much as I thought I did. I don’t understand why the bible says one thing that and then another thing, like I said I will blame it on my lack of understanding. My question is simply how can I understand the word. I also don’t believe in just reading the New Testament and the Old Testament js not as important. I believe both are equally as important. So I want to understand the whole picture of the bible.

You are right... there is no "religion" that is perfect. Christ didn't come to bring "religion".

As for your quest for understanding the Word of God.. The best thing to do is read it and get a good concordance or reference bible or several resources like this.. They can help you look up the original meanings of certain words and phrases.. and... link them with other like words and phrases in the bible.

You can look at commentaries given by other scholars but take them with prayer and if they don't seem to line up.. move on.

Do all of this with prayer. Asking to be lead by the Holy Spirit..

I think you will see the OT and NT open up to you to be the magnificent supernatural work that it is.

 

[Aussie Pete]

I totally agree and the more I read the opinions on the forum the more confused I get. No two people seem to agree on one subject and then they argue with each other. Only causing further confusion. I don't believe people who say the word is easy to understand. Even those persons who believe they know it all fight among themselves, fight for their right to be absolutely right. They say go to the authority, well they don't understand the authority so what good does it do the newbies?

The confusion comes because many people rely on their own logic and reason in order to try and work out what the Bible means. To quote a well known British evangelist from the 70's, "It doesn't go like that." The Bible is a spiritual book for spiritual people. How do I know? It says so! That is why it is so important for believers to spend time in the word, praying and seeking reality and truth. It is vital not to get hung up on things that are not clear. No one except God knows the truth about the last days, the rapture, and other controversial parts of the Bible. It's OK not to know. I'm still learning stuff after nearly 50 years. I do know where to go for answers though.

 

[Aussie Pete]

The Christian faith is real. The doctrine of Sola Scriptura, however, has often served to undermine the faith, causing much confusion and division because through it each individual reader now becomes the authoritative interpreter and determiner of Christian truth, with little or no regard for the historical understanding and teachings of the church that received, preserved, and proclaimed the faith since the beginning. That same church, that Jesus established, would go on to assemble the canon of Scripture and hammer out the doctrine of the Trinity at council centuries later, which definitively declared the deity of Jesus Christ in the latter case. Going round and round debating Scripture with others, especially with a couple of JW friends incidentally who often had plausible enough arguments for their positions, finally caused me to see through the fallacy of the doctrine of SS.

Anyway, Christianity has never been about bible study as in, "may-the-best-exegete-win"; most believers down through the centuries have arguably been illiterate and the church received and preached the gospel before a word of the New Testament was written. It's always been about a faith received and handed down first and foremost.

The trouble is that the organisation that claims to have handed the gospel down bears only a passing resemblance to the church that Lord Jesus heads up. I don't have a problem with Catholic people. I'm currently editing a tract that a Catholic young woman has produced. I don't agree with every line, but most of it is fine. I plan to put a link to it on our website. I do have a problem with Rome. The Kingdom of God is not of this world. Roman Catholicism is worldly to the core.

 

[Albion]

The confusion comes because many people rely on their own logic and reason in order to try and work out what the Bible means.

Am I ever in agreement with that comment! It's understandable that an inquirer or seeker or even a new member would be overwhelmed about much that is Christianity if not about the basics of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. But sending them straight to the Bible is probably not going to resolve all the "gray areas" in their thinking so much as taking some course of study at the hands of people who are qualified to teach will. The "Christianity Explored" course that some congregations (of different denominations) offer comes to mind as one possibility.

 

[fhansen]

The trouble is that the organisation that claims to have handed the gospel down bears only a passing resemblance to the church that Lord Jesus heads up. I don't have a problem with Catholic people. I'm currently editing a tract that a Catholic young woman has produced. I don't agree with every line, but most of it is fine. I plan to put a link to it on our website. I do have a problem with Rome. The Kingdom of God is not of this world. Roman Catholicism is worldly to the core.

The church necessarily has one foot in this world and one in the next. And the church, itself, is necessary, human foibles and all. Without it and the creeds and teachings that it defined at councils and the overwhelming good that its members and witnesses have done down thorough time along with a handful of rogues, Christianity would look very different than it does now, if it even existed at all as more than a minor footnote in history books.

 

[Aussie Pete]

The church necessarily has one foot in this world and one in the next. And the church, itself, is necessary, human foibles and all. Without it and the creeds and teachings that it defined at councils and the overwhelming good that its members and witnesses have done down thorough time along with a handful of rogues, Christianity would look very different than it does now, if it even existed at all as more than a minor footnote in history books.

We are in the world, not of it. Lord Jesus is Head of the church that He is building. His church cannot fail. The Church that Lord Jesus is building includes everyone who is born again. Any denomination that claims to be the sole source and interpretation of truth is simply wrong. Any honest appraisal of the Roman Catholic organisation will show that it is of the world. The Vatican is a nation in its own right. It has an army, its own currency and issues passports. Countries have ambassadors to the Vatican. It has its own bank. Doing good is not enough. Rotary and the Lions do good, so do the Red Cross and many other charities. The question has to be, "What is this achieving for the Kingdom of God?" Hint. If it is not glorifying Lord Jesus and spreading the gospel, it is dubious to say the least.

 

[Aussie Pete]

Am I ever in agreement with that comment! It's understandable that an inquirer or seeker or even a new member would be overwhelmed about much that is Christianity if not about the basics of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. But sending them straight to the Bible is probably not going to resolve all the "gray areas" in their thinking so much as taking some course of study at the hands of people who are qualified to teach will. The "Christianity Explored" course that some congregations (of different denominations) offer comes to mind as one possibility.

I was in the military (Navy) when I got saved. I travelled a lot, courtesy of the taxpayer and met many Christians from many cultures, including Japan. I was at sea for 3 years. I discovered that Christians generally agree on what matters and argue about trivialities. I also discovered that some people are Christians in name only, the spiritual equivalent of fools gold. I had little choice but to study the Bible for myself. I'm glad. Once I left the Navy (1975) I started reading a lot more Christian books. I especially like Watchman Nee. He can be hard work but worth every sentence. I recommend to new believers "Growing in Christ", which is a Logos publication and "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee. But the source is the Bible. Every Christian needs to know it.

 

[Albion]

I liked reading your account of your history, but I definitely do not recommend Watchman Nee to anyone! He's easy to read, but that's about all.

Watching Out For Watchman Nee

 

[lsume]

I have been trying so desperately to grow my faith and relationship with God and I’m now more confused then ever. To clarify I am not doubting God existence but I’m just doubting my understanding of God. I used to be so sure about what I believed but now when I’m trying to learn more, I’m not anymore. I also don’t understand why Christianity is so confused about so many things and why we have so many denominations. We all read the same bible but somehow come to drastically different conclusions. Why does the bible seem so contradictory sometimes? I used not to think so but it wasn’t until I debated a Jehovah Witness, who used the scriptures to support his statements that Jesus was created and obviously as someone that believes the trinity I don’t believe that but it’s hard to convince someone else when Jesus is so often in the scriptures referred as the only begotten son. Then I use John 1:1 to show him that the Word was God and Jesus is the word. However then he says that he does believe Jesus is a God but not the almighty God. I say that there is only one God and that God is jealous if we worship other gods. However then he shows me a scriptures that say God even calls us gods ( Psalms 82:6 & John 10:34). I didn’t know of this scripture so how can I refute something that is clearly biblical. I understand that some people will say some of these scriptures are not literal and are figuratively but how can you distinguish what is literal and what is figuratively. It’s things like these that confused my faith the most. I will blame in on my lack of understanding or wisdom but it’s just so hard to understand sometimes.

God is not the author of confusion. The aforementioned Scripture should Speak to you. The world is lost and the spiritual depravity seems to be increasing. All anyone can do is seek. Christ shall appear a second time to those who look for Him. Please pray on this. I thought I was born again in my early 20’s or possibly my late teens. Christ came to me after God The Father called me. I believe that the only contribution we make towards our own salvation is the simple faith to let God in.

 

[Strong in Him]

Why does the bible seem so contradictory sometimes? I used not to think so but it wasn’t until I debated a Jehovah Witness, who used the scriptures to support his statements that Jesus was created and obviously as someone that believes the trinity I don’t believe that but it’s hard to convince someone else when Jesus is so often in the scriptures referred as the only begotten son.

Firstly, the JWs use their Bible, which says in John 1:1 "the Word was with God and the Word was A God". They will try to persuade you that this is an accurate translation from the Greek, but it was proved in a court of law that their founder knew no Greek at all. Also, that contradicts Isaiah 43:10 (one of their pet verses) "before me no god was formed, not will there be one afterwards", and Isaiah 46:9, "I am God, there is no other.

Also, Jesus is God the Son, the 2nd person of the Trinity.

As for denominations - I know; I hate them.
But we all basically believe the Gospel, that Jesus is Lord and Saviour, died and rose again and there is no salvation without him.
Cults usually revolves around their founder and have a book besides the Bible (which actually they believe to be more important than the Bible.) We have Jesus - THE Word, and the Bible.

 

[Psalm 27]

Firstly not every Christian reads their Bible. Sorry, but it’s true.
People will go out of their way to read a Theological commentary before picking up their ‘dust gatherer’.
Secondly, There are so many versions, And they differ greatly. NKJV is mine.
Thirdly, JW’s are experts in causing confusion, especially with new believers. many who are new to the faith, seem to get a visit from them for some strange reason, call it a spiritual attack if you like.
Try just reading John, and repeat. You’ll be fine-and ask The Lord Jesus to reveal His truth

 

[timothyu]

Amazing the power JW's have in being able to divert conversation by the mere mention of their being.

 

[Silly Uncle Wayne]

I have been trying so desperately to grow my faith and relationship with God and I’m now more confused then ever. To clarify I am not doubting God existence but I’m just doubting my understanding of God. I used to be so sure about what I believed but now when I’m trying to learn more, I’m not anymore. I also don’t understand why Christianity is so confused about so many things and why we have so many denominations. We all read the same bible but somehow come to drastically different conclusions. Why does the bible seem so contradictory sometimes? I used not to think so but it wasn’t until I debated a Jehovah Witness, who used the scriptures to support his statements that Jesus was created and obviously as someone that believes the trinity I don’t believe that but it’s hard to convince someone else when Jesus is so often in the scriptures referred as the only begotten son. Then I use John 1:1 to show him that the Word was God and Jesus is the word. However then he says that he does believe Jesus is a God but not the almighty God. I say that there is only one God and that God is jealous if we worship other gods. However then he shows me a scriptures that say God even calls us gods ( Psalms 82:6 & John 10:34). I didn’t know of this scripture so how can I refute something that is clearly biblical. I understand that some people will say some of these scriptures are not literal and are figuratively but how can you distinguish what is literal and what is figuratively. It’s things like these that confused my faith the most. I will blame in on my lack of understanding or wisdom but it’s just so hard to understand sometimes.

In the particular instance of JW I'd recommend either not getting into debate or at least preparing yourself better (there are videos on you tube discussing the problems with JW).

As a more general thing, the same sort of approach would be true. James, puts it nicely when he says that the cure for being waves tossed around by the sea is to pray for Wisdom.

Or to put it another way, don't try putting out fires with a water pistol!

The answer lies in spending time in the scriptures. The more you do that, the easier it will be to spot problems and falsehoods in other peoples's views, but also to always be aware of potential falsehoods in your own views. If you don't know something, admit it and go and find out. Read widely and always ask yourself what makes sense of what you already know, it may be wrong but like taking a dead end in a maze, all you have to do is back track to where you know something is true and try a different route. Sometimes you have to backtrack a long way, knocking back theology that you may have been holding on to for a long time, but which causes everything else not work.

At the end of the day, God is not a God of chaos and other people's ideas may wholly right, partially right or totally wrong - but you will only find that out by actually giving it due consideration. And don't assume that you have to know everything about everything - it'll take too long. I have over 30 years as a Christian including 4 years of full-time study and there are still tons of things I am not sure of - but there is far more that I am sure of.

 

[fhansen]

We are in the world, not of it.

True enough, but we're in the world-and no one personally escapes its influences completely.

Lord Jesus is Head of the church that He is building. His church cannot fail.

Yes, and it hasn't-that’s a mark of the church in fact.

The Church that Lord Jesus is building includes everyone who is born again. Any denomination that claims to be the sole source and interpretation of truth is simply wrong.

And yet there's only "one Lord, one faith, one baptism". And some who claim to be born again can't agree on whether or not the Lord Jesus is actually God, on what, exactly, the faith consists of as a body of beliefs or how the virtue of faith is defined and is meant to work in our lives- how it justifies- and on the role of Baptism, whether it regenerates or not.

Any honest appraisal of the Roman Catholic organisation will show that it is of the world.

The Vatican is a nation in its own right. It has an army, its own currency and issues passports. Countries have ambassadors to the Vatican. It has its own bank.

And it's pure speculation as to how God's church is supposed to look today. It is an establishment, even in the early days, with a unity of some sort such that, for example, it could actually call councils together and make decisions for the whole body. At one time this unity and the authority behind it was such that the decisions of the various churches throughout the east and west as made by their representing bishops spoke for the whole church-and most of those decisions are still recognized, consciously or not, as valid by a great many Christians including Protestants and their denominations.

Doing good is not enough. Rotary and the Lions do good, so do the Red Cross and many other charities. The question has to be, "What is this achieving for the Kingdom of God?" Hint. If it is not glorifying Lord Jesus and spreading the gospel, it is dubious to say the least.

We spread the gospel in large part by how we love, how we’ve changed -into something others want-and we tell them why. And another honest look at history, without pop-mythology and beyond abuses that genuinely occurred, largely by church members/leaders not heeding their own church's message, will tell us that:

The church, through the ideal she now had via the gospel, created order and hope in a lost and dying world, introduced increasing light into darkness, our enemies were now to be loved rather than conquered; altruism became an authentic human value. Eternal life begins now and improving the lot of the poor and increasing quality of life in general are godly pursuits alongside of preaching. Talk alone, as they say, is cheap. Through the dark ages the western church, via monasteries mainly, preserved what knowledge had been accumulated up until then and when able began to develop the school system for educating the young, and later the university system for higher levels of learning. The arts were promoted along with the sciences where strides were made sometimes by Catholic clergy themselves. Philosophy, now increasingly dismissed as irrelevant or even harmful, was a major pursuit from fairly early on and many of our Christian concepts have been clarified with the aid of reason in any case IMO. We’re by no means supposed to turn off our brains or become anti-intellectual. Hospitals and orphanages were built, untold amounts of volunteer work and money were donated to feed the hungry and cloth the naked. At one point earlyish in the game some may’ve even thought that heaven was meant to be realized here on earth. And there’s nothing wrong with trying.

But certainly the church learned the hard way that getting directly and too closely mixed up with civil, temporal powers was not a wise choice in the long run- even if it seemed beneficial at the time. A lot of this, BTW, is our common Christian and human history-and to think that we would’ve necessarily behaved differently in very different times is naïve and self-serving IMO. There were true saints who did just that though- “behaving better” by actually taking the gospel most seriously to heart, often giving up everything to follow God and leading others to do the same, often during drastic times historically and sometimes at the chagrin of church leaders and officials who personally preferred the more normal and comfortable and conformed life themselves. Either way while darkness may be increasing in our world the light of love is also increasing, and mankind in either the individual or the corporate sense, inside the church or without, does not embrace said light overnight by any means. But the message has always been true- in spite of the messenger.

 

[JacksBratt]

True enough, but we're in the world-and no one personally escapes its influences completely.

True

And yet there's only "one Lord, one faith, one baptism". And some who claim to be born again can't agree on whether or not the Lord Jesus is actually God, what, exactly the faith consists of as a body of beliefs or how the virtue of faith is defined and is meant to work in our lives- how it justifies- and on the role of Baptism, whether it regenerates or not.

Yes, there are all sorts of disagreements... However, the body of Christ, the church, Christ's bride, children of God.... anyone who believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.. as their savior.... Period. No denomination has an exclusive right to being saved or having a key to salvation.

And it's pure speculation as to how God's church is supposed to look today. It is an establishment, even in the early days, with a unity of some sort such that, for example, it could actually call councils together and make decisions for the whole body. At one time this unity and the authority behind it was such that the decisions of the various churches throughout the east and west as made by their representing bishops spoke for the whole church-and most of those decisions are still recognized, consciously or not, as valid by a great many Christians including Protestants and their denominations.

Christ's church.. is the whole of all believers... We are His arms, legs, feet and mouth... We are in all nations doing His work... Not confined to one denomination.

 

[fhansen]

Yes, there are all sorts of disagreements... However, the body of Christ, the church, Christ's bride, children of God.... anyone who believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.. as their savior.... Period. No denomination has an exclusive right to being saved or having a key to salvation.

Yes, God is pleased by faith, and I'd even submit that the faith of Mormons and JWs, as erroneous as they are, still please Him. Presumably no one's faith, especially as individuals, is 100% perfectly informed. And yet knowledge is vital, and the more correct our beliefs and understanding the better of course. And everyone draws their doctrinal line in the sand somewhere, beyond which they believe we cannot step without subverting the gospel completely.

Christ's church.. is the whole of all believers... We are His arms, legs, feet and mouth... We are in all nations doing His work... Not confined to one denomination.

The Catholic church, for its part, views all Christians as part of the one Church, some more perfectly united and some less so depending on variations of beliefs but still united, still all part of one fold ultimately. While some non-Catholic Christians may have all kinds of not so positive views of the CC.

 

[Marc Perry]

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

That is the thing that unites Christianity.