It Has Been 13 years. Funny how Stuff Changes

[Sors]

Been years since I posted here. I have read a number of threads of people who lost their faith. How bout a thread of someone who got it back.

Faith is a really tricky concept. It really isn't about proof. My youth leader in High School, after tiring from my constant questioning, finally told me..."sometimes its just about faith." and he quickly ended the conversation. To be fair, he was right, but not quite how he meant it. His problem with me was my belief in evolution, and my disbelief in the "literal" truth of the word.

Growing up in a fundamentalist church, it was made pretty clear to me: Literal truth...7 days, Dinosaurs hanging out with Jews, moon dust disproving evolution. Don't believe this then you are going to Hell. But science was common sense to me. I thought evolution was a far more beautiful explanation than the creation story. I still do.

So I called myself a deist for many years. I wanted to believe in God, and in a small way still did, but could not accept a loving God after all the crap that had happened to me (not going into that here) ...God could not have been part of that. And then stuff changed. I had a son..out of wedlock. And I thought about how I wanted to raise him. The answer was in a Christian church. I didn't necessarily buy into Christianity, but I could easily do a comparison of my friends who grew up in the church vs out of it.

So I had many a discussion with the minister at a local church. And the damage that fundamentalism had done was soon gone. I don't mean to upset fundamentalists...I just want you to understand that insistence in literal truth of the creation story drives people away. But I started to realize that Christianity is not believing in stuff that contradicts science. It is believing in the Apostle's Creed. Most important part below in my opinion...

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;

Faith. I have it again. And I feel great.

So, not sure what the Stone Campbell movement thinks of my baptismal...Disciples of Christ when I was 8. But I am now attending a Presbyterian church. I plan on arguing a lot with these crazy Calvinists.

 

[princesstatyanna]

Been years since I posted here. I have read a number of threads of people who lost their faith. How bout a thread of someone who got it back.

Faith is a really tricky concept. It really isn't about proof. My youth leader in High School, after tiring from my constant questioning, finally told me..."sometimes its just about faith." and he quickly ended the conversation. To be fair, he was right, but not quite how he meant it. His problem with me was my belief in evolution, and my disbelief in the "literal" truth of the word.

Growing up in a fundamentalist church, it was made pretty clear to me: Literal truth...7 days, Dinosaurs hanging out with Jews, moon dust disproving evolution. Don't believe this then you are going to Hell. But science was common sense to me. I thought evolution was a far more beautiful explanation than the creation story. I still do.

So I called myself a deist for many years. I wanted to believe in God, and in a small way still did, but could not accept a loving God after all the crap that had happened to me (not going into that here) ...God could not have been part of that. And then stuff changed. I had a son..out of wedlock. And I thought about how I wanted to raise him. The answer was in a Christian church. I didn't necessarily buy into Christianity, but I could easily do a comparison of my friends who grew up in the church vs out of it.

So I had many a discussion with the minister at a local church. And the damage that fundamentalism had done was soon gone. I don't mean to upset fundamentalists...I just want you to understand that insistence in literal truth of the creation story drives people away. But I started to realize that Christianity is not believing in stuff that contradicts science. It is believing in the Apostle's Creed. Most important part below in my opinion...

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;

Faith. I have it again. And I feel great.

So, not sure what the Stone Campbell movement thinks of my baptismal...Disciples of Christ when I was 8. But I am now attending a Presbyterian church. I plan on arguing a lot with these crazy Calvinists.

I am so glad that you got your faith back

 

[Doug Melven]

I am glad you got your faith back as well and I hope you make those Calvinist's heads spin.

 

[Tom 1]

Been years since I posted here. I have read a number of threads of people who lost their faith. How bout a thread of someone who got it back.

Faith is a really tricky concept. It really isn't about proof. My youth leader in High School, after tiring from my constant questioning, finally told me..."sometimes its just about faith." and he quickly ended the conversation. To be fair, he was right, but not quite how he meant it. His problem with me was my belief in evolution, and my disbelief in the "literal" truth of the word.

Growing up in a fundamentalist church, it was made pretty clear to me: Literal truth...7 days, Dinosaurs hanging out with Jews, moon dust disproving evolution. Don't believe this then you are going to Hell. But science was common sense to me. I thought evolution was a far more beautiful explanation than the creation story. I still do.

So I called myself a deist for many years. I wanted to believe in God, and in a small way still did, but could not accept a loving God after all the crap that had happened to me (not going into that here) ...God could not have been part of that. And then stuff changed. I had a son..out of wedlock. And I thought about how I wanted to raise him. The answer was in a Christian church. I didn't necessarily buy into Christianity, but I could easily do a comparison of my friends who grew up in the church vs out of it.

So I had many a discussion with the minister at a local church. And the damage that fundamentalism had done was soon gone. I don't mean to upset fundamentalists...I just want you to understand that insistence in literal truth of the creation story drives people away. But I started to realize that Christianity is not believing in stuff that contradicts science. It is believing in the Apostle's Creed. Most important part below in my opinion...

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;

Faith. I have it again. And I feel great.

So, not sure what the Stone Campbell movement thinks of my baptismal...Disciples of Christ when I was 8. But I am now attending a Presbyterian church. I plan on arguing a lot with these crazy Calvinists.

Different experiences but I can certainly relate. It’s amazing how far off track we can get by not actually investigating what we’ve been taught. I was part of a church whose whole culture was rooted in a superficial and poorly developed understanding of a handful of scriptures.

 

[Sors]

I am glad you got your faith back as well and I hope you make those Calvinist's heads spin.

Oh.. it has already started. I went to Sunday school 2 weeks ago for the first time. Can you guess what the lesson was? Romans 13... I laughed hysterically. They all looked at me like"who is this crazy new person"...and then I saw a friend from when I was 9 and all was cool.

 

[Southernscotty]

Praise God. I pray that God will continue to open your eyes to understanding :]

 

[mnorian]

Been years since I posted here. I have read a number of threads of people who lost their faith. How bout a thread of someone who got it back.

Faith is a really tricky concept. It really isn't about proof. My youth leader in High School, after tiring from my constant questioning, finally told me..."sometimes its just about faith." and he quickly ended the conversation. To be fair, he was right, but not quite how he meant it. His problem with me was my belief in evolution, and my disbelief in the "literal" truth of the word.

Growing up in a fundamentalist church, it was made pretty clear to me: Literal truth...7 days, Dinosaurs hanging out with Jews, moon dust disproving evolution. Don't believe this then you are going to Hell. But science was common sense to me. I thought evolution was a far more beautiful explanation than the creation story. I still do.

So I called myself a deist for many years. I wanted to believe in God, and in a small way still did, but could not accept a loving God after all the crap that had happened to me (not going into that here) ...God could not have been part of that. And then stuff changed. I had a son..out of wedlock. And I thought about how I wanted to raise him. The answer was in a Christian church. I didn't necessarily buy into Christianity, but I could easily do a comparison of my friends who grew up in the church vs out of it.

So I had many a discussion with the minister at a local church. And the damage that fundamentalism had done was soon gone. I don't mean to upset fundamentalists...I just want you to understand that insistence in literal truth of the creation story drives people away. But I started to realize that Christianity is not believing in stuff that contradicts science. It is believing in the Apostle's Creed. Most important part below in my opinion...

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;

Faith. I have it again. And I feel great.

So, not sure what the Stone Campbell movement thinks of my baptismal...Disciples of Christ when I was 8. But I am now attending a Presbyterian church. I plan on arguing a lot with these crazy Calvinists.

Hi Sors;
welcome to CF; May the Lord Jesus guide you here as well as in the world; and may you find friends and what ever you need from the Lord here. I do have a question for you; do you like music--Praise & Worship music? Well we have a new forum here at CF just for P&W music and at the top is a directory of other Christian music threads around CF; come and take a look!

Praise and Worship Music

To The

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Been years since I posted here. I have read a number of threads of people who lost their faith. How bout a thread of someone who got it back.

Faith is a really tricky concept. It really isn't about proof. My youth leader in High School, after tiring from my constant questioning, finally told me..."sometimes its just about faith." and he quickly ended the conversation. To be fair, he was right, but not quite how he meant it. His problem with me was my belief in evolution, and my disbelief in the "literal" truth of the word.

Growing up in a fundamentalist church, it was made pretty clear to me: Literal truth...7 days, Dinosaurs hanging out with Jews, moon dust disproving evolution. Don't believe this then you are going to Hell. But science was common sense to me. I thought evolution was a far more beautiful explanation than the creation story. I still do.

So I called myself a deist for many years. I wanted to believe in God, and in a small way still did, but could not accept a loving God after all the crap that had happened to me (not going into that here) ...God could not have been part of that. And then stuff changed. I had a son..out of wedlock. And I thought about how I wanted to raise him. The answer was in a Christian church. I didn't necessarily buy into Christianity, but I could easily do a comparison of my friends who grew up in the church vs out of it.

So I had many a discussion with the minister at a local church. And the damage that fundamentalism had done was soon gone. I don't mean to upset fundamentalists...I just want you to understand that insistence in literal truth of the creation story drives people away. But I started to realize that Christianity is not believing in stuff that contradicts science. It is believing in the Apostle's Creed. Most important part below in my opinion...

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;

Faith. I have it again. And I feel great.

So, not sure what the Stone Campbell movement thinks of my baptismal...Disciples of Christ when I was 8. But I am now attending a Presbyterian church. I plan on arguing a lot with these crazy Calvinists.

Great to hear you're back! I'm not sure if I was here yet when you were here last, but if the avatar pic you're using is the same one you used back then, I think I may remember coming across it a few times several years ago. Maybe it wasn't you, I don't know. Either way. Welcome back to CF! And you'll even find that some of us have a very similar outlook on our faith as you do now.

Peace,
2PhiloVoid

 

[Dropout_Theologian]

Welcome to CF. I laughed when you mentioned Calvinism, prayerfully may you have more luck than when it was the other way around for me. I have felt the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith - Wikipedia held a reasonably moderate stance, though I may be incorrect in regards to their identities.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Hi and welcome back.