Analytical

[EB3]

Any help for the analytical Christian? I enjoy watching apologetics but I believe some questions just can't be answered. I keep Saying that's the conclusion I've come to but then I end up pondering again. This has done more damage to my walk then good, and unfortunately causes doubting or at least wondering. I feel like my walk is based on a strong hope rather then a definite.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Any help for the analytical Christian? I enjoy watching apologetics but I believe some questions just can't be answered. I keep Saying that's the conclusion I've come to but then I end up pondering again. This has done more damage to my walk then good, and unfortunately causes doubting or at least wondering. I feel like my walk is based on a strong hope rather then a definite.

I'd advise to ensure your faith is based on Jesus Christ. If it's based on the bible, this can and tends to result in severe disillusionment.

 

[Albion]

Is it necessary to have the answer to everything we might contemplate?

 

[Tigger45]

Many of us here are also analytical and enjoy apologetics but the complete study of God is beyond human comprehension and calls for embracing mysticism for what we fully can’t grasp.

 

[public hermit]

I can relate. My conclusion: certainty will never replace the need for faith. No matter how much I learn, I still have get up every day and live life trusting the God who brings into existence that which would not be, and raises the dead. We walk by faith until that moment when we see our Lord face to face. There's no way around that.

 

[bèlla]

I think you’ll find peace by accepting the things you can’t know and those you don’t. The majority of what I learned from God didn’t hail from books. It was attained in His presence. Knowing is found in experience. Its knowledge made real.

~Bella

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Any help for the analytical Christian? I enjoy watching apologetics but I believe some questions just can't be answered. I keep Saying that's the conclusion I've come to but then I end up pondering again. This has done more damage to my walk then good, and unfortunately causes doubting or at least wondering. I feel like my walk is based on a strong hope rather then a definite.

In line with what Brother Public Hermit and Sister LaBella have said above, just know that a number of your fellow Christians have had similar epistemic experiences in our walks of faith. So, you're not alone in this. Maybe find some comfort that some of this 'disquiet' in your heart and mind means that there's more for you to explore and contemplate and that God's plan in Christ for each of us is intended to feel 'bigger' than we can comprehend. I know this last bit isn't an idea that some of our fellow Christians smile much on, but I think if they're paying attention well enough to the meaning of what has been written by the New Testament authors, they'll come to not only recognize the Transcendence of the Spirit of Christ as they already do, but also realize that there can be a bitter-sweet human feeling accompanying all of this as we step each foot along The Way.

Perhaps you already know what I'm about to say, but I'm saying it as either a reminder or as a statement of encouragement: maybe keep in mind that when Paul the Apostle speaks about 'hope,' he's not talking about the colloquial sense of the word that we all are used to hearing today. Rather, when he talks of hope, he's speaking of a kind that is anchored in things that have yet to come and to be realized, even if they are only partly revealed to us during these last ~ 2,020 years ...

Peace!

 

[Aussie Pete]

Any help for the analytical Christian? I enjoy watching apologetics but I believe some questions just can't be answered. I keep Saying that's the conclusion I've come to but then I end up pondering again. This has done more damage to my walk then good, and unfortunately causes doubting or at least wondering. I feel like my walk is based on a strong hope rather then a definite.

Absolutely there is help. When I first got saved, I made a declaration that I would not believe anything that I did not understand. That lasted about 6 months. I thought the Christian life would be a breeze. What could be easier? Go to church, I enjoyed that. Study the Bible. That was great too. Pray? Sure, anyone can do that. I did not realise how vast and incomprehensible is the wisdom and power and love of God. I realised that if I kept to my original premise, I'd believe very little.

Somewhere along the line we have to take the words of Lord Jesus seriously. He said that we need to become childlike in order to enter the kingdom of God. When my son was a toddler, he was fascinated by lights. I'd pick him up and he would flick the switch, with wonder in his eyes. We do not need a degree in electrical engineering. We need to know where the light switch is.

It's OK to ponder, but do it with the Lord. He will often answer deep questions, if you humbly persist. Example: Why did God allow Adam and Eve to continue the human race after they disobeyed God? That was bugging me. Surely God could have stopped them multiplying and produced a new Adam and Eve? I asked the Lord this question several times. This is what He said:

"I did start again. The Lord Jesus is the "Last Adam". He obeyed perfectly in every way. He defeated Satan in the wilderness, unlike Adam in Eden. The cross is the new "flood". It terminates all of the fallen human race. Jesus rose again to found a new race of people, the Christians".

Obviously people only get to enjoy being new creations if they are in Christ Jesus. But you can see the wisdom, love and power of God at work. Adam and Eve were allowed to continue their existence. God's plan and purpose for man is being fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. Satan is defeated and mankind revealed as the glorious handiwork of our loving Creator.

 

[Mathetes66]

Any help for the analytical Christian? I enjoy watching apologetics but I believe some questions just can't be answered. I keep Saying that's the conclusion I've come to but then I end up pondering again. This has done more damage to my walk then good, and unfortunately causes doubting or at least wondering. I feel like my walk is based on a strong hope rather then a definite.

Jesus didn't say we walk by analytics but by faith. The Apostles said the same thing. The problem is not what we don't know or understand in the Scriptures, the problem is obeying what we do know.

Deut 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

John 16:12,13 I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.

God doesn't reveal things to us from the Word until we are able bear it. This depends on our maturity level. Paul could only preach Christ & Him crucified to the Corinthian believers, because of their immaturity. They had not yet learned to fully walk in the Spirit & were still walking in the flesh & acting like mere children.

Another thing that is more important is developing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives & living by the more 'excellent way', love.

We humans are curious & we want to have all the answers. I remember the day that I laid that to rest when I came across a verse in Scripture in Ecclesiastes, 3:11:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

It was then I changed my occupation in life from seeking to find out all the answers & mysteries of God's creation & instead chose to teach & love my fellow neighbor, seeking to preach the gospel message that people might be saved & built up in the faith.

I Cor 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy & can fathom ALL MYSTERIES & ALL KNOWLEDGE--

and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do NOT have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor & give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

9For we know IN PART & we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became A MAN, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For NOW we see only a reflection as in a mirror; but then we shall see face to face. NOW I KNOW IN PART; THEN I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope & love. But the GREATEST of these is love.