What if I'm wrong?

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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Well you won’t know you don’t exist anymore so that’s good right? I think we supposed to pray but I need to and I’m not so....

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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It's going to be alright. In fact our next life will be amazing!

Philippians 4
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

You must be very blessed to have such warm thoughts towards your parents My life has been very stressful and I thank God for helping me endure. Do you have one friend who has been loyal? I hope so.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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What do you mean when you say that things over the past year amped up this fear inside of you that maybe you’re wrong and death is the end?

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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What would will help you get independent?

Perhaps you could explain what would be the downside if you were wrong?

theoneandonlypencil said:

The past year I've had to do a lot of personal growth and spiritual growth. Not to mention I've finally begun to ask hard questions--some of which I've had to accept there just isn't an easy answer to. Perhaps it's also the extensive time I've been stuck around atheists both casually and for the purpose of debate that's weighing me down.

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It IS written: "bad company corrupts good morals"

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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My son just told me the same thing.

And so, what if we're wrong? Well, if we're wrong and all that then happens upon our demise is that we cease to exist, we won't know the difference. So, it doesn't sound like anything to worry about to me.

Two thoughts:
1. At a practical level this sort of gets to (Blaise) Pascal’s wager. Think of a 2x2 matrix - on one dimension is how you live: either with faith in God and according to the morals/virtues associated with that; or independent of that and with say great fervor for sin. The second dimension is what ultimately ends up being true: either God does exist and there is eternity or, as you fear, there is a void of nothing and no eternal existence. That leaves you living faithfully and being in heaven; living faithfully and not existing (but still having lived an upstanding life); living sinfully and not making it to heaven for eternity or wasting a life on sinful living and no eternal consequence. On balance better to live a good life of faith even if there is no eternity.

2. As many theologians have commented we are seemingly wired to desire something pure and perfect. Ironically even an atheist communist is wired to yearn for perfection. But because their atheism rules out a heaven they pursue that perfection in this life (I think improving the lot of people is noble and valid but believe perfection is impossible in a human society because it is a society governed by fallen humans and not heaven ordered by Gods grace....but that is perhaps a different topic).

There is a beauty and truth to the idea that we can be connected as believers with other believers; that God is not a God of the dead but the living; and that God in the person of Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to conquer death so that we could always be connected as believers for eternity and be with God for eternity. Other forces will seek to tell you that this is a lie in an attempt to separate you from God. My advice would be to stay deep in prayer, live a faithful virtuous life; and at a practical instead of worrying about your parents death and separation from them convert that energy into spending time with your parents and other loved ones and appreciating the gift that they are.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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I think a lot, if not most of us, know this feeling really well. It's part of the existential crisis of faith--we believe, but don't know. Faith isn't reasonable, but is a leap--and it can feel like we are free falling without any knowledge about where we will land, or even where we are. It's faith, and faith is risky, it's daring. Faith says, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief!"

Which is why we must feed our faith, looking to the Holy Spirit's work in our lives through God's Word and Sacraments. Faith is a daring, bold confidence in God's grace, to paraphrase Martin Luther.

-CryptoLutheran

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

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Almost 20...... I'm 68. You think life goes past quickly? Wait until you get to my age!

If there is no life after death (there is - Lord Jesus came back to prove it), then we will never know. If there is no next life, then this life has no meaning. Thank God that we have every reason to believe that there is life after death.

theoneandonlypencil said:

I've finally begun to ask hard questions--some of which I've had to accept there just isn't an easy answer to.

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I've found that when I work myself into a mental stalemate, and prayed it through as best I can, it's best to lay the matter down for a while and tend to what's actually on my plate. They are usually more practical matters, and they usually add up to character development in ways that my mental quest never could effect. And then I often will stumble upon the answer to my original question down the line sometime, often without any real exertion on my part. That is exactly what happened to me when I was first Saved. I had come out of studying JW doctrine, and I couldn't commit one way or the other to the deity of Christ. As was typical for me, I got myself into an intellectual know. I finally decided the Lord was able to show me when the time was right, and I got on with my life. And He did just that. We have our intellectual life, and our spiritual. They are related but not the same, and sometimes we are required to sow into the spiritual in overt preference to the intellectual. Then the intellectual will fall into line.

This kind of thing is in all the stewardship parables. Be faithful with the little you have, and more will be given when the time for accounting comes. That time of accounting and promotion is not just in the eternal by and by, it is also periodic along the road of the travels of our Earthly sojourn.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

Click to expand...

No one has yet disproved the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:13-14,17-19 KJV
[13] But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: [14] And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. [17] And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. [18] Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. [19] If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

Click to expand...

Jesus said to trust him. Either he was straight with us and was whom he said he was...or else it's all a myth. There really is no "halfway house" with this issue.

It may come down to whether or not a person finds the Bible to be persuasive or not. Either we think it is believable and the whole story is therefore convincing, or else it is just a compilation of the thoughts of some people from long ago.

My judgment is that the Bible, which has been attacked on factual grounds many times by skeptics and found to be credible after all of that, is not, in fact, in the category of the Book of Mormon or Mary Baker Eddy's musings (for example).

But in the end, worrying yourself about what is otherwise unknowable isn't going to gain you anything, so try not to dwell on those thoughts.

theoneandonlypencil said:

The past year I've had to do a lot of personal growth and spiritual growth. Not to mention I've finally begun to ask hard questions--some of which I've had to accept there just isn't an easy answer to. Perhaps it's also the extensive time I've been stuck around atheists both casually and for the purpose of debate that's weighing me down.

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There is nothing wrong with having hard questions or doubts, so long as you are prepared to look at the answers.
Two questions you should be asking your atheist friends:- why or what do you believe and what evidence do you have for that belief?
Be sure if you ask them, that you can answer them!

If your parents are Christian you will met them again.
If Christianity is false we will never know.
This is where Pascal's wager comes in by living as a Christian you serve God, if there is no God etc, you have lost nothing by living to the highest standard you can, while those who follow it the reverse way, loose everything.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

Click to expand...

Hello bud,

Kinda funny, I was just watching a sermon on "What is Truth?". Anxiety and doubt will always try to ravage the mind from time to time. How we deal with it and knowing where to place it that leads to maturity.

The Holy Scriptures are historical documents that give revelation(revealing of truth), testimony, and teaching of things that have transpired long before you or I have existed. Like anything else you need to properly investigate it with all your heart and come to the conclusion that it speaks the truth or it doesn't. If you are uncertain of the things you know, then I recommend to carve out time and do your due diligence to see if there is truth in what it says. Know what you believe, otherwise, the foundation of your faith will be on sand instead of stone. When the rains and thunder comes, either you will be washed away or you will hold strong against the storm. Be sincere in your search for truth, or you will be wasting your time. Ask all the questions that your heart has, God is definitely not afraid of your inquires great or small.

When I was your age, I thought I had all the time in the world. I video games quite a lot of it away. As I approach 40, I am married and I have learned the value of family/tradition. I wonder how will I take care of my parents and my inlaws in the coming years. My wife and I have no children, and I don't think that is going to change. Who is going to take care of us when we get older? Thankfully I don't have to have the answers today and the Lord God has proven himself that he never abandons nor forsakes us. That I will be the one to close the eyes of my Mom when she passes as it should be.

I am so grateful when the anxieties keep me from sleeping, I can talk it out with my God and savior and just hand it to him.

theoneandonlypencil said:

Hey, I'm going to try to make this short since I tend to make my posts ridiculously long..


So basically, due to a lot of things the past year, I've been having this constant fear; I truly do believe in God and Jesus, but on the off chance...what if I'm wrong? What if when I die, I just cease to exist? My parents are climbing in age and aren't very healthy these days, and it also weighs on my mind to think that there could be a chance that once they're gone, they're gone for good and I'll never see them again. Life is going by so quickly since I'm almost at 20, and it is filling me with such anxiety.

Click to expand...

I don't know if I'm wrong about something unless I know that something opposite to what I have been believing is right. And for me to come to that point, I need a real, strong justification. It can't just be convenient. It also has to be true.

The questions you are asking are very open-ended. If Christianity is not true, then what you need to do will be different in the case of Islam being true as opposed to atheism or Hinduism or whatever. If you don't know that any of them are true, why are you fretting about being wrong?

If you have questions about the Christian faith, continue to explore them, and study them within a Christian context - the faith has been around for 2000 years and there have been many questions asked of it during that time, and it's still around today. I invite you to bounce any such questions off of me for my take on them.

Now for me, if there's no afterlife at all, it won't matter. I won't miss my dead relatives because I will not be thinking or feeling or anything else. The problems I have personally will be over. So that's not enough to change the way I live at all. If nothing else, I will have lived with faith and purpose. But I believe there is an afterlife, and that I will meet God when I have crossed into it. He has revealed enough to me that I cannot dismiss, abandon, or ignore it. And I will continue to follow Christ - I owe him my life.