finding truth in Christianity

[Jesusthekingofking]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

 

[Tone]

Continue in your search fearlessly, knowing that He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Whatever land is before you, take it for His glory, IOW, EAT!

 

[chevyontheriver]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

We find the truth on our knees.

We often think we know all about the other side, we know exactly how they are all wrong. But then often there is some truth on both sides and we are not willing to see the other side at all, or some historical slight provided by both sides, and we feel hurt by something from long long ago. I mean, I could be all indignant about what happened at Tyburn Tree. Point is we are wrapped up in our understandings and don't see the other sides as they actually are. We all have warts.

We've got to stick as close to the Bible as we can. If you want to explore some Catholic approaches to the Bible I'd recommend Dei Verbum. Link here: Dei verbum

And we need to figure out if we can hang together. If we can't, given the turning of events in our culture, we are going to hang one by one, alone. This is the time to undo what we can of the old animosities.

 

[Mr. M]

Ignore this:

that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right?

Turn to this:
John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;
for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will
tell you things to come.

1 John 2:27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need
that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and
is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

In other words, study your Bible with a hearing heart. The Holy Spirit has answered every question
I have ever asked during my devotional time.

Luke 11:
9 So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

 

[timothyu]

Truth?

Ask yourself what is Christianity about... Jesus

What did Jesus say He came to teach?... the Gospel of the Kingdom

What was this Gospel?... the good news that God's Kingdom, His governance would soon rule over mankind once again.

Why is that good?... Because since the Garden when Eve first put her will before the will of the Father creating sin, mankind has followed suit and put self and self interest where gain at the expense of others is sought and each of us will redefine good and evil to self justify why we should be allowed to do so. This is backward to God's will and causes all the problems in the world, hence it should not be put ahead of the will of God.

What is the will of God?... That we put His will before our own, thus loving all as self, hence putting others before self interest.

How will this governance come about?... God created a being. Not a man , not a god, but a being like Adam which must fulfil His mission of doing only the will of the Father and not His own even if it leads to death. It happened.

What will that accomplish?... It will reverse what Eve and Adam did and open the door to a new world for those with the wisdom to understand how God's way is better, and that it should not be placed second to our earthly desires. Because we are human and not like the second Adam, we will stumble, but our fruits will show our worthiness to be resurrected and allowed into the new world under the Kingdom of God. Like Eve had choice, so now do we.

All the rest is icing on the cake and background info, or man trying to self determine the will of God and make it over in their own image, to suit their own purposes. It's your choice whether you want to follow why Jesus came or prefer instead to get into religion.

 

[Soyeong]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

It is not as though there aren't many Catholic denominations, as though Catholics don't ever disagree about how the Bible should be interpreted, or as though there can't be unity if there is any disagreement about how to interpret the Bible. Not reading or interpreting the Bible for yourself and refraining from challenging Catholic doctrine can just as easily be open to false teachings and letting wolves stay in the churches.

I've been wrong about many things in the past and I likely will be wrong about many things in the future, so the chances are pretty good that there are currently things that I believe to be true that I am wrong about, I just don't know which things those are, and probably won't find out unless I do my best to evaluate the positions of people that I disagree with as objectively as possible. So I see learning as taking in new true and false information, reinforcing true beliefs, and weeding out false beliefs. The problem naturally comes with mistakenly reinforcing false beliefs or weeding out true beliefs, but such is the risk inherent in learning, which is far less of a risk than never revaluating our own beliefs and never learning.

I have personally found that studying the Bible from a perspective that takes into consideration its Jewish cultural and historical context to be fruitful in helping to correctly interpret it.

 

[Soyeong]

Honestly, all you really need is the New Testament and to ask yourself what Jesus would do.

All the various denominations do is water things down by getting lost in the details and forgetting the important bits about Christ's teachings which is to love God and to love thy neighbour. What's left of the visible church is fine and offers some structure, but joylessly going to church to sing Victorian songs of praise and needing the company of other believers to have faith doesn't seem the best way of glorifying God to my mind and completely neglects the fact that God is the big three O's and will reach anyone He wills regardless.

Honestly, there has never been someone whose teachings were more thoroughly rooted in the Old Testament than Jesus. When asking ourselves what Jesus would do, we should consider that he did go to synagogues on the Sabbath, he did read from the Old Testament, he did live in obedience to the Mosaic Law, and that flipping over tables is within the realm of possibility.

 

[Jesusthekingofking]

Ask your self what is Christianity about... Jesus

What did Jesus say He came to teach?... the Gospel of the Kingdom

What was this Gospel?... the good news that God's Kingdom, His governance would soon rule over mankind once again.

Why is that good?... Because since the Garden when Eve first put her will before the will of the Father creating sin, mankind has followed suit and put self and self interest where gain at the expense of others is sought and each of us will redefine good and evil to self justify why we should be allowed to do so. This is backward to God's will and causes all the problems in the world, hence it should not be put ahead of the will of God.

What is the will of God?... That we put His will before our own, thus loving all as self, hence putting others before self interest.

How will this governance come about?... God created a being. Not a man , not a god, but a being like Adam which must fulfil His mission of doing only the will of the Father and not His own even if it leads to death. It happened.

What will that accomplish?... It will reverse what Eve and Adam did and open the door to a new world for those with the wisdom to understand how God's way is better, and that it should not be placed second to our earthly desires. Because we are human and not like the second Adam, we will stumble, but our fruits will show our worthiness to be resurrected and allowed into the new world under the Kingdom of God. Like Eve had choice, so now do we.

All the rest is icing on the cake and background info, or man trying to self determine the will of God and make it over in their own image.

this is too general every protestant would affirm this essential, but did you see them working together? no they prefer making their own doctrine as primary and split from each other

 

[Soyeong]

Well yes, Christians *are* Jews, they just changed the name while the ones that didn't take to Jesus went their own ways. New Testament supercedes everything in the Old Testament, which is generally for the best as while the Old Testament was pretty darned good by the standards of the day and how awful the pagan cults and civilised empires of the day were Jesus' way was proven to be the wiser and certainly a necessity for the Western world (at the time of Jesus northern Europeans were still charging into battle stark bollock naked and taking severed heads for pagan gods and the more civilised Romans still lined their streets with crucified slaves and rebels).

There is nothing that states that all Christians are Jews, though Jews can become Christians. The same God who gave the law to Moses also sent Jesus, so God does not supersede himself. Jesus did not come to start his own religion to supersede the Father, but rather he came to bring fullness to Judaism as its Jewish Messiah in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy. He practiced Judaism by living in sinless obedience to the Mosaic Law and by teaching his followers to obey it by word and by example. All Christians were Torah observant Jews for roughly the first 7-15 years after Christ's resurrection up until the inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10, so Christianity at its origin was the form of Judaism that recognized Jesus as its prophesied Messiah.

In Act 17:11, the Bereans were praised because they diligently tested everything that Paul said against OT Scriptures to see if what he said was true, so the OT is the standard of how we know that what was said in the NT is true. About 1/3 of the verses in the NT contain quotes or allusions to the OT, which the NT authors did thousands of times in order to establish that it supported what they were saying and to show that they had not departed from it, so they certainly saw the OT as still being authoritative, if not more authoritative than their own writings. Jesus was not in disagreement with the OT, but rather he set an example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law and he did not hypocritically preach something other than what he practiced.

 

[timothyu]

Europeans were still charging into battle stark bollock naked and taking severed heads for pagan gods and the more civilised Romans still lined their streets with crucified slaves and rebels).

Imagine what they could have done with the internet and fireworks.

 

[timothyu]

this is too general every protestant would affirm this essential, but did you see them working together? no they prefer making their own doctrine as primary and split from each other

Too general? It's enough. All the rest you stated is simply as I stated in the last line, self interest once again putting itself ahead of the will of God. Man making God over in our own image.

 

[Jesusthekingofking]

Too general? It's enough. All the rest you stated is simply as I stated in the last line, self interest once again putting itself ahead of the will of God. Man making God over in our own image.

if that's enough why don't I see most of the churches agreeing with each other and working with each? instead of attacking each other with their 'own' doctrine?

 

[zoidar]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

I have found a good basic understanding of the Bible. Do you really need to find the perfect theology? The important thing is to know Christ. I don't think any church out there got it all right. I think you should deepen your relationship with Christ, and see your journey in theology like something interesting, not something you need perfect understanding of. At least this is how I see it. Some basic understanding is of course necessary, but you allready know that.

 

[timothyu]

I see most of the churches agreeing with each other and working with each? instead of attacking each other with their 'own' doctrine?

Because in typical human tradition they can't help making God over in their own image. They missed the whole point of the Gospel of the Kingdom. They were supposed to represent the Kingdom of God but decided 1700+ years ago to stop representing the Kingdom and rejoin the world of man which they did.

They teamed up with the world of man and eventually became a worldly power themselves, effecting each and every denomination that followed with that betrayal and the blind lead the blind. Thankfully some within stuck to the scriptures and what Jesus taught about the will of God and how our self serving will was detestable to Him, simply because we would no longer let Him work through us.

 

[Jesusthekingofking]

I have found a good basic understanding of the Bible. Do you really need to find the perfect theology? The important thing is to know Christ. I don't think any church out there got it all right. I think you should deepen your relationship with Christ, and see your journey in theology like something interesting, not something you need perfect understanding of. At least this is how I see it. Some basic understanding is of course necessary, but you allready know that.

but this is not how some churches approach it. if it's all about relationship then our sermon won't be few hrs long.

 

[fhansen]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

Yes, be brave in your search for truth. Heck, I even read JW literature at one time just to give them a chance, and non-Christian religions, philosophies, etc before that. But I fell in love with the Bible to my own surprise, because I heard a different voice there, the voice of truth concerning important matters that humans cannot ascertain on their own, and of a calm and kind authority in revealing that truth.

But while divine inspiration itself is evident within and behind the words, Scripture is often vague on many matters; it was never intended to serve as a catechism, for example, and sincere people can vary greatly on their interpretations, often with contradictory but quite plausible arguments. Even highly educated Bible scholars and theologians disagree with each other on relevant matters all day long.

Read early church histories and the decrees and canons of the early councils. Read the early fathers. Read the catechisms of those ancient churches and consider that a continuous historical legacy back to the beginnings of Christianity is only a good-and necessary-part of our understanding the faith.

 

[zoidar]

but this is not how some churches approach it. if it's all about relationship then our sermon won't be few hrs long.

Isn't the sermon part of the relationship with Christ?

 

[Pioneer3mm]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

It seems that you are searching.. for answers on certain issues.
- There were similar threads/posts..
---
Maybe, you need/continue..to read/research more.. on those topics/issues.
- As some posts already suggested.
----
I have been studying the Bible, Theology & History..for 50 years.
- Still learning..
---
More of His grace to you..
- On your spiritual journey.
---
Note:
One of the interesting books.
"Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution-
A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First"
- by Alister McGrath
---
Maybe..you already read it.

 

[chilehed]

so how does one find truth in Christianity.

I struggled with this exact question for a long time. After much prayerful study, this was my conclusion:
Why I believe in the Magesterium of the Catholic Church

 

[Dave L]

I was baptised in a protestant church, so my exposure is merely protestant. The problem with protestant is that we the bible only mindset, we are proud of our reformation in the 16th century, and that can makes us bias and willing to open up to the true christianity. The sad part about protestantism it is a mess, each denomination interpret their bible in their own way and no true unity btw them, each claim they are right and know how to read the bible best, this open up to false teaching and invite wolves into the churches.

so how does one find truth in Christianity. i don't deny the authority of the bible but i'm interested in the correct interpretation of the bible. that being said I've to read the early christian writings, read tons of theologian from different branch of christianity including roman catholic and eastern orthodox, study hard about church history.. right? I was an ostrich I mainly listen to whosoever pastor me in a church, I think it's time for me to do my due diligence. What are some of the advice I can get for those who have went through it?

If you find the starting point of the Reformation, you will find truth in its purest form. Luther, Calvin, and the rest of the Reformers believed the same. They were Augustinians. Augustine proved Pelagius wrong about free will spawning Luther's "The Bondage of the Will" which Calvin and the rest mirrored.