Why Christianity

[Tellyontellyon]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

 

[d taylor]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

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Analogy of faith as taught by Free Grace theology. Always start with clear and understandable Bible passages, example. Jesus states to believe in Him for eternal life. That is a clear and straight forward declaration from Jesus so all other, more difficult verse must not violate a verse that is straight forward and easy to understand.

Condition and Consequence: A Key to Correct Interpretation – Grace Evangelical Society

What Are The Clearest Gospel Passages? – Grace Evangelical Society

 

[Unqualified]

Go to a good Bible believing/preaching church and listen. Or watch alistair begg on YouTube. He’s from Scotland. His church is in Cleveland. He is one of the best.

 

[BobRyan]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

Read the Bible

Start with Genesis 1-3
Then John 1-4

You can find a Bible here

Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 1 - New American Standard Bible 1995

The Creation - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light...

www.biblegateway.com

 

[SabbathBlessings]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

First, before you listen to other people to form your beliefs, you need a foundation you so know what is Truth and what is not. My suggestion is to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you and than start reading the Bible from cover to cover. Once you're done, do that again. In between, try individual Bible studies like looking up every place the Bible says, faith, or love, or whatever interests you. One verse does not delete another, so see how they compliment or harmonize together. Once you have an idea of what the Bible says, than start looking for a church that is based on what the Scriptures teach. If you find a pastor not preaching what is in the Bible, look for another church. Pray constantly for the Holy Spirit to speak to you through His word and guide you. He will.

Jer 29:13And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

God bless!

 

[truthuprootsevil]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search.

The best way to approach a search for God is to open your heart up to him entirely / and not for a day or week or month but for the rest of your life / because it might take the rest of your life for him to reveal himself to you. Then he could do it the next day, if it's his desire.

In the Bible you will find people who knew God, knew His prophets, people who prayed to God for years or the majority of their lives before they got an answer from him.

And while you are waiting he will be continually leading you in the right direction if your search is true and genuine.

His holy spirit whom he left here for a man will help you in your journey in your search for the truth but only if you are fully and truly open to him and there are many, many, people who are not and blessed are they who are.

 

[Fervent]

You seem to be struggling with the apologist's gap. I overcome it in two ways, first I compare what must be true about God in order for Him to even be possibly real with what Scripture says about God. In order to accomplish this, I examine the premises of the ontological argument and ask, what about God is it that makes the ontological argument forceful? Which, in my estimation is the fact that God is the one truth that is so blazingly obvious that the only way to deny His existence is for it you to fail to even begin to grasp the concept. God is the one true axiom. The question is, is that expressed anywhere in religious texts? I'm not sure if it occurs anywhere else, but there are two distinct aspects of the Bible that express this. The first is Exodus 3:14, where God refers to HImself as what can be roughly translated as "I exist because I exist" or perhaps more accurately "I will continue existing because I will continue existing". This allows me to accept the Bible as at least one possibility to find more information about God, so the question is then narrowed down to whether the Jews are right and Jesus was a false prophet or if the Christians are right and Jesus is God incarnate. What settles this for me is that I find all non-miraculous explanations of the resurrection to not be as good as accepting the resurrection was a true event, and as a consequence I trust Jesus. Though that conversation requires much more in depth discussion. As for who among the Christians is right in their doctrine, for that I just use critical thinking skills and come to my own conclusions to the best I can and hope that my sincerity is enough, recognizing that I will inevitably not understand things or come to wrong conclusions and need to adjust them in light of new information. Hope that helps.

 

[Delvianna]

Everything SabbathBlessings said. Scripture teaches us that the Holy Spirit interprets for us, so pray and ask for guidance. It's actually the 1 prayer you can have 100% trust in that God will answer because he doesn't want people to be led astray. There are a lot of verses that says "don't be deceived". Don't be afraid of getting it wrong on the first go-around, because God builds on understanding. If you don't understand something, just keep going. God will eventually guide you to understand it. From personal experience, sometimes it's taken me almost a year to understand a certain scripture or point, so don't expect instant answers or understanding either. Let the Lord guide as he will back up every thing he shows you. If you have an idea and a verse contradicts that idea, then you can be assured that idea is wrong but constantly stay open minded because God wants us to be able to be taught (stay teachable) which includes humility, which is accepting when you are wrong so that you will eventually reach truth.

Always check everything someone preaches because there's a lot of bad doctrine, false teachers and error driven sermons. Let God be the one to show you the truth and never stop looking for it.

 

[fhansen]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

Just keep wanting to know. The quest is a good one, the most important and right quest, for Truth, that a person can make, in fact. God’s already inside you, drawing and waiting for you to ask, see, and knock. And He’ll respond.

Christianity is the answer because it reveals the true God who is love. You’ll come to understand that goodness and order and meaning and love lie at the very foundations of this universe even if this world, run by humans for all practical purposes and ending in death, so often seems meaningless, chaotic, unjust, and loveless.

 

[Aussie Pete]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

I would start with John's gospel. It is written with the intent of revealing the real Jesus. Ask God to reveal Himself to you. God is more interested in us knowing Him than we are in knowing God.

 

[Unqualified]

Do you see any good fruit from Islam? Eastern religions you have tried. Do you need love are you hurting. The Bible would inform you much. And Judaism has zeal ‘but without knowledge. Only Jesus said the truth will set you free. He is the truth. For the human He is complete. Not trying to put everyone else down but to give you some perspective on the other god believing and not religions. And I don’t think you want religion. But peace with God.

 

[DragonFox91]

I could give you a long list of research & arguments that helped me. Those research & arguments are very good & very right, but I didn't start there in the beginning. I started w/ the Bible & reading it for myself. You need to read the Bible for yourself. Have you read it for yourself? What did you think?

 

[Freth]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

Why Christianity specifically? In Christianity...

• God claims to be the only God and that there are no others.
• God is our Creator. Our origins are explained.
• God explains where sin and evil originated and why we are in the predicament we're in now.
• God calls for us to love Him and love others. He is a just and right God.
• God loves us, otherwise He wouldn't have a plan in place to save us.
• God sent His only Son in the flesh for our salvation.
• God has a complete design for all of creation, from beginning to end and on through to eternity.

All of these things and more are explained in detail in the Bible.

In Christianity the Bible is the word of God (Matthew 4:4), the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15). It is how we determine what the truth is; the Bible is the standard of truth for man. It is an inexhaustible book. Each time we sit down to read it we learn something new.

God does not leave us alone when reading His word. If we pray for the Holy Spirit, He will help us understand what we're reading. The Bible will verify if what we're seeing, hearing or reading is the truth.

In other words, Christianity has a solid foundation for us to determine what God's will is in our lives. The past, present and future concerning all things God and man are completely covered in the Bible, so that we can be informed and decide whether to follow Him or not. If we decide to follow Him, the Bible is our guidebook for His will in our lives.

Here are some resources for Bible study:

You may want to try a one year plan for reading the Bible. I also recommend Bible Study Guides, as they focus on one subject at a time, and give you a weekly study. The site gotquestions.org seems to be an unbiased source that has Bible studies. Many churches have Bible studies online. My own denomination has a Bible Study Guide archive going back to 1852.

Online tools like Bible Gateway and Blue Letter Bible make it easy to search for keywords and find scripture on a subject, compare translations side by side, and delve deeper into word meanings and original languages. Also see Nave's Topical Bible if you want to search by subject.

If you prefer using books, I recommend a Strong's Concordance and a Nave's Topical Bible. Both of these can be found cheap at used book stores like Half Price Books; no need to buy them new. I keep an Amplified Bible as a study tool as it will expound on word meanings verse by verse. (Note that Bible Gateway gives you access to most translations including Amplified, and Blue Letter Bible has Strong's built in, so you can get started online without buying books as per the previous paragraph.)

 

[Clare73]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

Start with reading the Bible. Choose to believe it until you can't. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding.

 

[eleos1954]

I believe in God.. but I don't know God. I don't know if God corresponds to any particular scriptures. How does one begin to sift through the different ideas to come to the truth.. what is the best way to approach the search?

Steps to Christ

 

[timf]

what is the best way to approach the search?

Perhaps the best way is to be "of the truth" (John 18:37). This can mean searching for truth and not settling for something that simply feels good.

If you sift through all the garbage, you can find a nugget of truth or two and start to put the pieces together. Here is a short (19 minute) video in which you might find a nugget or two. With enough puzzle pieces, the large picture can begin to come together.

https://christianpioneer.com/videos/video%20tract%20christianity%20comp.mp4