Ten Random Questions

[Cian]

I would like to apologize for using "broad" terms I will try to be more specific in the future.

Some of you asked why I asked to these questions; I asked for the sake of knowledge, to learn the perspectives of others of my former faith.



I once believed in God. I loved God very much; I thought I had a very personal relationship with Jesus. I lived my life by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. About three years ago I began losing this feeling that God was with me. I began to lose faith. A feeling of emptiness came over me; although it took time I eventually accepted this feeling and came to the conclusion that there was no God. How did I come to this conclusion? I believe I matured and gained critical thinking skills. I no longer could blindly follow the faith I had. I lost faith in Jesus as anything more than a historical figure; God, an idea created by humans to explain the unexplainable. Heaven is an idea created by humans to satisfy their fear of death. What does a conscious being fear more than ceasing to be conscious? Hell is a concept created to keep followers in line.



New Questions:



Why do you think I lost faith? Did God abandon me or did I abandon God?



I once believed, by your doctrine I had once accepted Jesus Christ, am I always forgiven or do I deserve Hell?

 

[Treasurer]

Now mind you this is my opinion. And I dont come to this conclusion lightly. I think there are many of us who have heard about Jesus. But you know it is one thing to here about someone, and another thing to believe in someone. They really are two different things.

Look at people who believe in themselves opposed to people who dont believe in themselves. They dont excel in life, they hate themselves, which reflects on others in their lives- it bears the fruit of this scripture: Love thy neighbor as thyself. (Actually it is the opposite of this scripture, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. So the fruit of the tree of good and evil would be what leads to death-- self destruction).

My life, when I believed I was saved, was on a path to self destruction. Which means I wasnt on the right path. Which means I didnt believe. Lets say it this way, I was being led astray, off the path of righteousness. Didnt mean I couldnt be saved. Didnt mean I didnt want to be saved. Just meant I didnt know how to be saved. I dont think we always get the message. What believe means.

If I didnt, and I thought I did couldnt that mean others are confused too?

You know most of us arnt willing to accept Jesus. We are more willing to believe in lets say just for an example--a pill. I have this pill and I promise you it will cure your pain, and take away your disease that has made you sick your whole life. Now that you are willing to believe. You will take and do what ever it takes to buy this pill. For yourself, or your mom, or your wife, or child. Because their life depends on it. Do you see what I am saying.

Jesus used a simular parable. He used a great treasure. Or pearl. And this man found out about this treasure in this field and he went and sold all that he had, to go and buy this one field so that he could possess this great treasure. Well that treasure is the kingdom of God. And the way to get to that treasure is Jesus. But we are not willing to accept those terms to get that treasure.

We have to find the treasures of God more valuable than the treasures of this world. And we dont. We have a death grip on this world. And until you are willing to find Gods wisdom more valuable, and Gods understanding, Gods knowledge more valuable, Gods counsel, Gods strength in your weakness, Gods Spirit and not the flesh- then the world is always going to have its hold on you. And you will never experience Jesus in your heart.


Here is a scripture: Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.


You see what happens to a person when they accept Christ Jesus is they die with him. I dont know if you know/understand what that means. You life as you knew it is dead. You have walked away from it. Have you ever read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? Where two angels were sent to Lot and his daughters and wife to spare them from destruction of the city? They were told not to look back, it was the story where Lots wife did look back and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Well this is a symbolic story of our death if you will. We die at the cross of Christ, when we die we dont look back. Our lives go forward for ever.

If you look in Revelation you will see a symbolic reference to the crucifiction of Christ being at Egypt and Sodom (11:8)

Jesus tells us that our lives are new, we are new creatures in Christ. And we have been given the fruit of the Spirit of our Lord. And it transforms us, showing that we are a new creation in Christ. And the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law ( galatians 5:22)


So to believe in Jesus, means we believe his words to be true. We take them into ourselves, we accept them, and we use them in our lives. They are not just words anymore. They become a living breathing part of us.

 

[Adstar]

Why do you think I lost faith? Did God abandon me or did I abandon God?

Because your trust was in your own "feelings" and Not in the Word Of God. For a ship to remain in the same place it puts its anchor into firm sea bed. By trusting in your feelings you are like a ships crew who cast there anchor into their own ships hull.

I once believed, by your doctrine I had once accepted Jesus Christ, am I always forgiven or do I deserve Hell?

Everyone deserves to be cast into the eternal lake of fire. We are not saved because we are worthy. We are saved because we Believe in the Word Of God, Jesus.

Romans 10
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” hat is, the word of faith which we preach 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Our anchor is with the Word of God.

All Praise The Ancient Of Days

 

[andrewclements]

1. Do you feel that you have have a personal relationship with God?
I don't just feel that I do, I know it!

2. What experiences have you had with God?
Too many to mention! Some are also secret!

3. Do you feel that God has proven Himself to you?
Yes he has. But then again God doesn't need to prove himself to anyone. He's God after all. He runs the show!

4. Do you believe that God interferes with events on Earth?
He has total control over them

5. How closely does modern Christianity follow the teachings of Jesus?
In most places it doesn't follow it nearly closely enough.

6. Do you believe that Satan actively interferes with peoples lives, causing them to sin?
He interferes through temptation but man chooses how to respond to his interference. I am an active enemy of Satan and soldier of Christ!

7. Is the Bible open to interpretation?
No, there is one true interpretation, that of the greatest teacher, the Holy Spirit but it is open to different applications to individual lives.

8. Do you believe you possess an eternal spirit?
Definately

9. What is your interpretation of Heaven?
It exists, I'm going there, hope you'll be there too!

10. What is your interpretation of Hell?
It exists, I'm NOT going there, hope you'll NOT be there too!

 

[jnhofzinser]

I once believed in God. I loved God very much; I thought I had a very personal relationship with Jesus. I lived my life by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. About three years ago I began losing this feeling that God was with me.

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

In effect, God asks us to use our memories as well as our minds. This struggle is beautifully illustrated in C.S.Lewis' "The Silver Chair". In that book, the Queen of the Underworld represents what might be considered "critical thinking skills". The marshwiggle Puddleglum (a vastly less attractive character than the Queen) represents tradition and history. In the end, victory is achieved precisely because "tradition and history" is "grounded" -- that is, it doesn't take things out of context, and conveniently pick-and-choose evidence like "critical thinking skills" often do.

Why do you think I lost faith?

Perhaps because your faith was less important to you than your desire to make you own choices...?

 

[Bloomin' Pyro]

1. Do you feel that you have have a personal relationship with God?

Yes.

2. What experiences have you had with God?

Daily, the Lord has convicted me of my sin and forgiven me. In years past, He enabled me to walk despite a disease known as spina bifida.

3. Do you feel that God has proven Himself to you?

Time and time again.

4. Do you believe that God interferes with events on Earth?

I believe He involves Himself with some earthly events, yes.

5. How closely does modern Christianity follow the teachings of Jesus?

That depends on what you mean by "Christianity." True Christianity follows the teachings of Jesus. There are, however, leeches and parasite organizations that have tried to latch on with the Church, professing to teach Christ's commandments, but are false teachers and false prophets.

6. Do you believe that Satan actively interferes with peoples lives, causing them to sin?

Yes.

7. Is the Bible open to interpretation?

Only interpretation as the Lord truly leads (i.e., it should be prayerfully considered and studied).

8. Do you believe you possess an eternal spirit?

Yes, the Holy Spirit, but also a soul that will gain a new body.

9. What is your interpretation of Heaven?

An infathomable place that's certainly better than the alternative in the superficial way humans can comprehend it.

10. What is your interpretation of Hell?

An infathomable place that's certainly worse than the alternative in the superficial way humans can comprehend it.

 

[mortsmune]

I would like to apologize for using "broad" terms I will try to be more specific in the future.

Some of you asked why I asked to these questions; I asked for the sake of knowledge, to learn the perspectives of others of my former faith.



I once believed in God. I loved God very much; I thought I had a very personal relationship with Jesus. I lived my life by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. About three years ago I began losing this feeling that God was with me. I began to lose faith. A feeling of emptiness came over me; although it took time I eventually accepted this feeling and came to the conclusion that there was no God. How did I come to this conclusion? I believe I matured and gained critical thinking skills. I no longer could blindly follow the faith I had. I lost faith in Jesus as anything more than a historical figure; God, an idea created by humans to explain the unexplainable. Heaven is an idea created by humans to satisfy their fear of death. What does a conscious being fear more than ceasing to be conscious? Hell is a concept created to keep followers in line.



New Questions:



Why do you think I lost faith? Did God abandon me or did I abandon God?



I once believed, by your doctrine I had once accepted Jesus Christ, am I always forgiven or do I deserve Hell?

You don't say anything about how you came to believe in God or if there were any specific circumstance surrounding your loss of "feeling" of closeness to God. But I will tell you my perspective on your question.

First of all, it is almost a certainty that you "lost" your faith because you "matured and gained critical thinking skills." I have been a believer for 45 years. I have experienced many times when the feeling of God's closeness drew far away, often for many years.

Faith is not about a feeling of closeness. It is about believing the truth because you know it is the truth. I think you "fell" away from your "faith" because you were not truly grounded in the truth and apparently were dependent upon this feeling you mention. God never abandoned you. He has never abandoned me, though there have been times when it felt very much like He did.

The truth about Jesus is that He did come this world. He was a person who really lived. He did die on a cross and in doing so fulfilled multitudes of OT prophecies to the letter, even down to details like the soldiers casting lots for his garments. Then He rose physically from the dead and was seen by many for 40 days afterwards. Those who believed in Him forever changed the history of the world by their faith.

You have fallen from your belief only for one of two reasons. You either never really had any true faith to begin with, or you were not grounded enough in your faith, basing it on the wrong things, and were sidetracked by deception which for whatever reasons, you chose to believe. Your relationship with God was apparently not very valuable to you if you were willing to forsake it so easily.

You say you are 18 years old. Back when I was younger than you are, there was a man who was friend of my parents who was an agnostic. One day we were discussing my faith in Jesus Christ. I will never forget something he told me that day. He said, "You're just a kid. Wait until you get older. After you have lived a while, you will realize how foolish your religion is and come to your senses." I assured him that day that that would not happen.

I am now 52 years old. I have followed Christ for more years than twice your age. I have been through many hard trials. I have seen many things and heard many things. There have been times when it felt as though God was not there, that it was all a big hoax, but through it all I stood by my faith, for deep inside me was the Rock of my Foundation. Nothing yet has made me turn away from God and His Son Jesus Christ. Each time I have come through a trial of my faith, I have come through the other side more certain than ever of my faith in Christ and in the Word of God.

I would like to encourage you to take another long, hard look at what you say you have rejected. Without faith in the One who made us, our lives have no meaning or purpose. There is only death awaiting us at the end.

Jesus rose from the dead and showed us that death was not the end. He will come again and take us to be with Him so that where He is, we may be also.

 

[Rev. Smith]

1. Do you feel that you have have a personal relationship with God?
Different people mean different things by this. If you are asking, do I believe that God is aware of me, and aware of my prayer, devotion and desire to live in accord with his will, then yes. If you mean it in the sense of some protestant sects, that he guides every stage of my life, that mankind is nothing more than meat puppets in some cosmic drama, no.

2. What experiences have you had with God?
God infuses our world, our lives and his creation. I have touched God with my soul in meditation and prayer, I have felt his call to serve him as a priest, I have felt his demand that I serve my brothers and sisters with food, clothing and shelter. I have felt the strength of the Holy Spirit fill me in times of doubt and pain, I have felt the constant urge to do more, be better, be like Jesus.

3. Do you feel that God has proven Himself to you?
That would be a little cheeky don't you think?

4. Do you believe that God interferes with events on Earth?
I would not say interfere, which implies that we have some claim on creation the equals or exceeds God's. Geroge Bush has elected to interfere in Iraq, since the claim of the Iraqui people to be left alone in peace was at least as strong as America's claimed security interests. Since we can make no claim to creation that equals God's we can't impose the judgement implied in "onterfearance" on God. God does, I believe, continue to perfect his work by involvement in our universe.

5. How closely does modern Christianity follow the teachings of Jesus?
Almost nothing is left in most denominations, we have become the church of Paul and Peter and James. We have become the Church of The Bible, exhaulting the book itself over the God whose will is partially expressed within its pages.That's why a number of Pastors (from different confessions) and I have been talking about joining together in a echumenical order whose purpose is to re-focus our lives, and the lives of those who listen to us on the teachings of Jesus as the sole, perfect and complete revelation of God.


6. Do you believe that Satan actively interferes with peoples lives, causing them to sin?
Evil tempts man to sin, but man chooses to sin, or not. We are responsable for how we live our lives, including how we deal with temptation.

7. Is the Bible open to interpretation?
It stared out as 78 books, but now some protestants use ony 66. If we can't even agree on what constitutes canon how are we to agree on what it means? God gave us reason, why should we presume he didn't intentd that we use it?

8. Do you believe you possess an eternal spirit?
Yes.

9. What is your interpretation of Heaven?
That it is where God dwells, and where the souls of men are mostly destined to reside, until our ultimate purpose or use to God is revealed.

10. What is your interpretation of Hell?
That is where those who reject God, and choose to deny his grace will dwell in the next life, until they are redeemed, cast into the lake of fire (probably not a literal lake) and destroyed, or put to the ultimate purpose God has for them, again not yet revealed.

11. Why did you loose faith?
Because you stopped listening.

 

[JJB]

I once believed in God. I loved God very much; I thought I had a very personal relationship with Jesus. I lived my life by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. About three years ago I began losing this feeling that God was with me. I began to lose faith. A feeling of emptiness came over me; although it took time I eventually accepted this feeling and came to the conclusion that there was no God. How did I come to this conclusion? I believe I matured and gained critical thinking skills. I no longer could blindly follow the faith I had. I lost faith in Jesus as anything more than a historical figure; God, an idea created by humans to explain the unexplainable. Heaven is an idea created by humans to satisfy their fear of death. What does a conscious being fear more than ceasing to be conscious? Hell is a concept created to keep followers in line.



New Questions:



Why do you think I lost faith? Did God abandon me or did I abandon God?



I once believed, by your doctrine I had once accepted Jesus Christ, am I always forgiven or do I deserve Hell?

Well, God cannot abandon us as He is faithful. I do not know why you lost your faith -- I am not a mindreader, nor do I have the mind of Christ to understand men's hearts. All I can do is take you at your word on losing your faith. Jesus did tell the parable of the seeds that fell on rocky soil, fertile soil, etc. Have you read that recently?

I do believe that God will preserve the faith of those who truly believe. I am not a Once Saved, Always Saved believer. There is a slight difference between OSAS and perseverance of the saints.

 

[jlecaroz]

Here are ten random questions that came to mind. I know these questions have been asked before, but please bear with me.

1. Do you feel that you have have a personal relationship with God?
2. What experiences have you had with God?
3. Do you feel that God has proven Himself to you?
4. Do you believe that God interferes with events on Earth?
5. How closely does modern Christianity follow the teachings of Jesus?
6. Do you believe that Satan actively interferes with peoples lives, causing them to sin?
7. Is the Bible open to interpretation?
8. Do you believe you possess an eternal spirit?
9. What is your interpretation of Heaven?
10. What is your interpretation of Hell?

1. Yes, however not as personal as I should.

2. I have experiences daily through prayer and reading God's Word.

3. Yes 100 times over, through answered prayers and salvation.

4. Yes, though Interfere I think is the wrong word, as it implies negativity. I believe that he involves Himself continuously.

5. That's debateable, as it comes down to the individual believer.

6. 1 John 3:8 - He that commiteth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the begining. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. AND 1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking to destroy whom he may devour.

7. NO Galations 1:11-12 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me (Paul) is not after man 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, if you believe that Christ is the Word (gospel of John) and this is His revelation, there is no alternate interpretation.

8. Yes 1 John 5:11 - And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

9. Not sure what you're looking for here. I believe that heaven is where we will spend eternity with God, and there will be much rejoicing and happiness.

10. A bad place to end up. I believe in a literal Hell full of fire and Brimstone