Not yet Christian

[Arthur Dietrich]

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

 

[Rafael]

Doing the practical works of Christianity, and fulfilling love with truth and action. Helping others and encouraging others to be a light of the truth, and thus showing their experience and faith in Christ. I've worked at missions in the cities where food, shelter, and clothing were given to the poor. People with a heart for activism inside all the Churches are needed; who are willing to organize efforts to see over the needs inside the Church, and instruct others in how to become servants of their fellow man. These are the examples Christ set for us with His life and told us to follow Him with love in truth. It envolves sweat and work - action, applied to faith to really please God, for He said why give me lip sevice and not obey me - why say you love me and not obey my commandments to love. The challenge is there, to us, for a lifetime - to build treasure in heaven by doing His works or by building up treasure for ourselves where moth, rust, and thief come to destroy. It's not just believing, but doing, as even demons believe in God and tremble.
Doing the works gets me closer to Jesus, and confirms in my heart and conscience that I am pleasing Him and doing what is right.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1 Timothy 6:18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;

Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

I JOHN 3:16-19 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can. the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with ACTIONS and TRUTH. This then is how we KNOW that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

I suggest 2 books that might help you:

"Mere Christianity" - by C.S. Lewis
"The Everlasting Man" - By GK Chesterton

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

...What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

Sure it's more then a feeling.

We can see all the fulfiled biblical prophecy. For me, as a Catholic, I see the power of the Church, which has stood the test of time for almost 2000 years, and for me at least, everything just makes sense.

Give this a read too: Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth:
http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

 

[theseed]

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

Lot of other religions have stood the test of time. When I became a Christian, I accpet Christ claims ans implicitly true.

All of sinned Romans 3.23; I find this to be explicitly true and self-evident, Paul attempts to prove this in the first three chapters of Romans, in fact, its an apologetic Epistle.

Now, to me, it logically follow, that God would not tolerate sin, in the Book of Isaiah, it says that our rightous works or as filthy rags to God. God demands perfect rightousness.

Also, logically follows that God wants all the glory he can get from mankind

And if God wants to get as much glory as possible, then why would he not send is one and only son to save the world? John 3.16. What greater sacrifice could God had? And as I believe the bible claims, Jesus was fully God and fully man, but being humble, made himself to be nothing, so he put his God "powers" if you will aside. Philippians 2.
Which leads me to my next question, What greater glory could God bring to himself, than to come to earth to save men by suffering and dying on a cross?

In the New Testament, Christ is the sacrifice that all the Old Testament sacrifices, pointed to, as well as signs and prophecies.

By faith, I accept that Jesus rose again, and that I will live just as he lives, becasue I have believed in Him.

Christians believe that the Bible is a story about the fallen state of man into sin, and God gradually and complexly revealing is plan for redemption and carrying it out in his own time.

In Pauls writings in the bible, he says our faith is useless, if Christ did not rise from the dead, and we remain dead in our sins (1 Corinthians 15).

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"
Hebrews 11.1

So, faith is believing in something you can not see which is expressed by good practical works.

I also suggest Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, the title was origally meant to be sarcastic, but C.S. Lewis had a change of mind and heart after investigation

Another book, The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel is about how Strobel, a journalist, set out to disprove Christianity but also changed his mind after investigation

 

[michael servetus]

Hi Art!

What a great question!

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

When you examine all of the other religions out there, only Christianity offers Grace! Every other belief system is based on works, steps, etc.

That is what sets Christianity apart from other religions and makes it true.

 

[michael servetus]

I suggest 2 books that might help you:

"Mere Christianity" - by C.S. Lewis
"The Everlasting Man" - By GK Chesterton

Great Choices!

 

[Pseud]

What makes you know Christianity is right?

I personally know Jesus Christ!

 

[BarbB]

Arthur,

I had only a passing knowledge of Christianity when I was saved. Granted that I grew up in the church, but really knew nothing.

I was saved when I was at a point in my life where I could not bear to live alone without God. On the advice of a Christian friend, I went to my knees in my bedroom and cried aloud to God that I couldn't do it by myself - life stunk, it was bitter, I was sick of it. It was this or die! And God saved me - not right away, but gradually I became aware that I was different, that I believed with my whole heart in God and the Lord Jesus Christ and that the Holy Spirit was within me helping. I would never be alone again.

PM me if you want more info or to "talk".

 

[chilehed]

Christianity claims that God entered time and space as a real, historical person. If this is true, we can look to see what evidence there is for this person.

First, how do we decide that a person's existance is "proven"? We can't demand the same standard of proof as we do for scientific endeavors, since this is not an experiment that can be repeated. So we rely on historical documentation: what ancient documents are there that attest to the event, how many copies exist, how widely scattered are the copies and how well do the copies agree with each other?

By this standard of proof, the existance of Jesus and the historicity of the astounding claims about him are proven far more conclusively than the existance of other ancient individuals (including Aristitotle, Plato, and Confucious).

For a full treatment of this, I recommend "Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Volume 1", by Josh McDowell.

 

[Ken]

In a word: Jesus, His claims regarding Himself, and His works, namely rising from the dead, gaining victory over death and the grave, now seated at the right hand of the Father ever interceding for the saints.

authors I would reccomend:

anything by John Calvin

anything by Martin Luther esp The Bondage of the Will

anything by John Owen

anything by Jonathan Edwards

anything by BB Warfield

anything by Francis Turretin
http://www.ichthustref.nl/hoofdmap_links/lexikontheologen/theologen/Turretini,%20Francesco.htm

see http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/classic.htm
for a vertiable treasure trove of wisdom, literally a lifetime of reading

also, for modern authors from the same page, see http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/contemp.htm

anything by AW Pink
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/pinks_archive.htm

anything by John Murray eg
http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/soul.html
http://members.aol.com/RSICHURCH/reform1.html

anything by Charles Hodge

anything by his son, AA Hodge

anything by Cornelius Van Til

anything by John Frame

anything by RC Sproul

anything by Michael Horton

anything by JI Packer

anything by Martyn Lloyd Jones

anything by James Montegomery Boice

anything by Francis Schaeffer

anything by John Piper

and the list could go on......

ahhh, so many books, so little time!

 

[chilehed]

You may want to try "Summa Contra Gentiles", by St. Thomas Acquinas. It's a masterpiece of logical reasoning, and VERY worthwhile.

It's a very difficult read, though. It's very tightly reasoned, the grammatical structure is a bit archaic, and it helps to have a good background in Aristotle (which I don't but I'm struggling along anyway).

 

[seebs]

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

Well, in the end, it comes down to this: If, as I believe, the thing which has transformed me and made me a better person is God, then I recognize Him in the Gospels. That's a good short-cut, I think.

 

[pmarquette]

Might try reading : The Christ Commission , Gift or Acbar , or The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino

small books , good story line , simple and concise ... yet a heart felt message

enjoy ...

 

[marc]

When I was saved I had almost zero knowledge of Christianity, but signifigant knowledge of the new age philosophies. When God knew I was finally ready he brought me a bible through one of his believers. At home alone I read Mark. Because my heart was ready I recognized the truth. I still didn't have a clue about what the cross meant(it took months until I did). I didn't learn that I was born again for about 2 months, and I definitely didn't have any magical feeling. I just saw with God's help that truth is truth. As I spent more time reading the Word my faith grew. As I learned more about the prophecies that have happened my faith grew. When I was empowered by the holy spirit for the first time may faith grew. I wasn't saved until I was 29 years old. When I went back after being saved and looked at the koran and book of mormon and buddhism my faith really grew. Before I was saved I didn't know what a Jew was or a Mormon or a Jehovah's witness or a born again christian or a muslim. I knew what a catholic was(they were all the drunk violent people in my town).I grew up in a town that was full of dead catholics. As I found out later on that one of my friends mom that I grew up with was actually a believer in the catholic church. cool thing. Most were not. Most of us were atheists who claimed to be catholic just because we grew up there. And just to be clear I'm not bashing the catholics, I have some great sisters in the Lord that are catholic. Many many people in the catholic church need to know Jesus personally.
Jesus is not a religion!!!! He's a savior. Almighty God in the flesh.
I like to define it this way.
Religion is man attempting to reach God.
Christianity is God coming down to reach man. We can do nothing of ourselves it is a gift.
I hope this helps.

 

[sawdust]

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

I've been thinking about your question because you're not the first I've heard ask it and I've often asked it even of myself. Although I could recite heaps of scriptures and relate heaps of experiences that make me "know", when I boil it all down I think the real reason I know is because God willed it to be so. He came to me and made Himself known. I didn't really do anything! Even my responses have ranged from "I'll believe it when I see it" type attitude through to "wholehearted agreement". But He just kept coming back (not that He really left) irrespective of my response at the time. He wants to be known! I don't pretend to understand that but it's just the way it seems to me. I know there are many who would say that "He couldn't want to know me then because of (insert reason here)" but I think that's more due to our unwillingness/blindness/deafness, call it what you will. (maybe even our stupidity! ) I know the scripture says that "He wants all to be saved" so I believe no-one is outside His good pleasure. All I can suggest is you sit down somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed and ask Him to come and reveal Himself. Just keep an open mind and honest heart in the doing of it and show Him your dinkum (serious) about knowing Him. If He doesn't seem to show up the first time keep going back until He does. He really is truly amazing and does far more than you or I could ever imagine. If you want that security thing let me suggest you start there. Let me know how you get on. (if you want)
take care

 

[Svt4Him]

May I recommend :http://www.livingwaters.com/start.shtml

It has a few on-line audio items I highly recommend.

 

[wonderbread7]

The reason I am a Christian is because i have seen the miracles of God and the changes He has done through myself and others around me. I contemplated, as an agnostic, how God, who was perfect, could ever put myself in His presence knowing how imperfect I am. That's when I truly began to understand what Jesus was. God loved us so much that He came to earth to do what we could not do; live a sinless life. Not only did he do that, but He also died for our sins cleansing us in the eyes of God. He also came back from the dead so that we might have a relationship with God that would be through Jesus as a mediator. This may be a lot to soak in but if you honestly ask God to give you the wisdom to do so, I have all faith that it will some in time. Also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis will give you a very clear understanding of what i previously stated. Lewis himself was an agnostic for some many years. The book answered a lot of questions i had. If there is anything else you want to ask please PM me. I would love to do anything i could to answer your questions.

 

[tinkerbell]

Ok. I'm a theistic agnostic. However, I'm not entirely happy as such. I'm the kind of person that, while open minded, needs security.

I tried settling in one religion, but felt I was only doing so to feel secure. I still had many questions and some doubts.

What makes you know Christianity is right? Surely there is more to it then 'just a feeling'.

It is certenly not based on a "feeling" if that were the case, I fear Christianity would be in great danger!! When one becomes saved, there is not this automatic feeling that falls over them and rests on them for the entirety of their life. That is a misconseption. I see the effects of God working in my life - that is how I know Christianity is right. I see where God has led me and I see His continnuall guiding, there are places in my life where it is Very clear that he has led, and there is no other possible explination. My suggestion for you is to spend some time and prayer and reading the Bible with an open mind and heart every day. You don't have to read a lot, just a chapter or two, adn see what kinds of things you discover. Christianity is something really hard to explain, you must experiance it on your own. I will keep you in my prayers. Good bless you on your journey!