A Belated Posting...
To dear "Skeptic sister":
---
I remember you saying that you 'tried to be a Christian' in one of my posts, which is awesome that for a 'skeptic' you seem to have not only an open mind, but a striving for the truth. It isn't about trying everything to get the truth though... there is ONE truth, not multiple truths and each person does not create their own truth because that would be contrary to A. common sense and B. logical processes.
That being said, everyone wants to understand their past, present and future - which leaves us at this whole question of ultimate questions (why do I exist? who am I? and so forth)...
I wanted also to clear up a common lie that seems to get spread around... many churches today seem to get you in, bringing you to Sunday school and expecting you to blindly follow the faith/precepts of Christ without showing you logically that it is the truth, when "religions" and other beliefs of this world all seem to have their own skewered versions of this same truth, or even worse a system that doesn't make logical sense (like Evolutionary Humanism, which borrows from Christianity where it sees fit and then denies the giver of those very laws... having no origin or reason for anything they believe which negates itself as a belief system).
Anyway, I'm getting carried away, but what I'm trying to say that contrary to what the churches do not tell you (you have to get the information from coming to God and searching out His will in His word yourself) is that you cannot try to be a Christian without Christ.
Christianity is about a relationship with your creator/saviour, not good deeds. For it is impossible to make your own salvation, when you don't know anything yourself about the afterlife (and nor does anyone without Him), truth and salvation only comes from knowing Him and feeding off the pure milk of the word.
As a skeptic, it's obvious to see that you don't have faith that the word of God is really real and that His promises can be trusted, which means that you cannot take that first step - because without the trust of a child than He cannot reveal things to you as your Father.
Being a skeptic myself for the first 9/10ths of my life, I have a bit of an idea that your stumbling block to understanding faith in God/the ability to trust in God and see that He is real, could be the same things I had problems with.
---
1. All Christians Are Hypocrites!
The majority unfortunately are... all men are fallen, imperfect, concieted, sinful and usually selfish. But the purpose of Christianity is not to look at men (because many fail for lack of proper instruction which only comes from Christ Himself, as men get consumed with worldly things instead - how they look, making money, raising a family and devote little time to the Creator of All) but to look at Christ.
He is our example, not men.
Mar 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
But men have hope that:
Mar 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
2. Christians are Escapists All there is when you die is just a hole in the ground.
Then what about the supernatural? After death/near death experiences? Sightings of ghosts? Evidence that there's more than just death?
There's an awesome book that shows that the Christian world view is that only one consistant with the facts (of life, the universe... everything! :D)
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/green/runworld/runwch1.htm
I suggest you read it to get all the answers first on how true saving faith in Christ and not merely a label "Christianity" is the most rational, logical thing on the planet, and it takes far more courage and strength to accept that world truth than to ignore it or not think about our eternal destiny.
3. Science Disproves the Bible!
This was my major stumbling block, until I found the AiG book here:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/index.asp
and other resources (they're just endless), that I realized it was just an interpretation of the Evidence that "disproves the Bible" and ironically enough, that interpretation propagated by the media, is not consistant with the facts that are being supressed. It's actually propaganda to propagate one thing and ignore anything contrary to it. And as one who lives in China, surrounded by the subtly of the communist regieme, I know first hand how this type of brainwashing works!
For instance did you know little things like that the rib can regrow when taken out of a person (i.e when God took Adam's rib to make Eve)?
Or that natural selection (used interchangibly with the word 'evolution' in classrooms which actually mean seperate things - one is happening in nature through the vehicle of entropy, and the loss of genetic material (mutations) and the other is shown by nature to be a physical impossibility (non-living organisms creating living, or complex animals adding genetic material)) can be explained by the effects of the fall of man in Genesis 3?
---
Anyway, I hope this will open your eyes to real Christianity (the Word of God) and the lie that gets taught in Sunday school or in the media ("all good people go to heaven").
Also, that it will help you realize that being a skeptic is a good thing, if that means that you will also join in the search for answers and the truth. I too was a skeptic and my skeptism led me after gruelling months of trying to debate with evolutionary philosophy to the one thing I thought could never be true.
Once you break down the barriers of skeptism in the face of the truth:
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Then you cannot say that you have "tried" because there's no failing when He's got your back:
Mar 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
For you first have to believe His words (not blindly, but through logic, science and reason come to the knowledge of the truth), before you can obey them. Merely trying without understanding what you are meant to believe is not Christianity.
This took forever, :D but out of love... seek the truth:
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
*hugs you*
Ciao Bella!
---
I remember you saying that you 'tried to be a Christian' in one of my posts, which is awesome that for a 'skeptic' you seem to have not only an open mind, but a striving for the truth. It isn't about trying everything to get the truth though... there is ONE truth, not multiple truths and each person does not create their own truth because that would be contrary to A. common sense and B. logical processes.
That being said, everyone wants to understand their past, present and future - which leaves us at this whole question of ultimate questions (why do I exist? who am I? and so forth)...
I wanted also to clear up a common lie that seems to get spread around... many churches today seem to get you in, bringing you to Sunday school and expecting you to blindly follow the faith/precepts of Christ without showing you logically that it is the truth, when "religions" and other beliefs of this world all seem to have their own skewered versions of this same truth, or even worse a system that doesn't make logical sense (like Evolutionary Humanism, which borrows from Christianity where it sees fit and then denies the giver of those very laws... having no origin or reason for anything they believe which negates itself as a belief system).
Anyway, I'm getting carried away, but what I'm trying to say that contrary to what the churches do not tell you (you have to get the information from coming to God and searching out His will in His word yourself) is that you cannot try to be a Christian without Christ.
Christianity is about a relationship with your creator/saviour, not good deeds. For it is impossible to make your own salvation, when you don't know anything yourself about the afterlife (and nor does anyone without Him), truth and salvation only comes from knowing Him and feeding off the pure milk of the word.
As a skeptic, it's obvious to see that you don't have faith that the word of God is really real and that His promises can be trusted, which means that you cannot take that first step - because without the trust of a child than He cannot reveal things to you as your Father.
Being a skeptic myself for the first 9/10ths of my life, I have a bit of an idea that your stumbling block to understanding faith in God/the ability to trust in God and see that He is real, could be the same things I had problems with.
---
1. All Christians Are Hypocrites!
The majority unfortunately are... all men are fallen, imperfect, concieted, sinful and usually selfish. But the purpose of Christianity is not to look at men (because many fail for lack of proper instruction which only comes from Christ Himself, as men get consumed with worldly things instead - how they look, making money, raising a family and devote little time to the Creator of All) but to look at Christ.
He is our example, not men.
Mar 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
But men have hope that:
Mar 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
2. Christians are Escapists All there is when you die is just a hole in the ground.
Then what about the supernatural? After death/near death experiences? Sightings of ghosts? Evidence that there's more than just death?
There's an awesome book that shows that the Christian world view is that only one consistant with the facts (of life, the universe... everything! :D)
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/green/runworld/runwch1.htm
I suggest you read it to get all the answers first on how true saving faith in Christ and not merely a label "Christianity" is the most rational, logical thing on the planet, and it takes far more courage and strength to accept that world truth than to ignore it or not think about our eternal destiny.
3. Science Disproves the Bible!
This was my major stumbling block, until I found the AiG book here:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/index.asp
and other resources (they're just endless), that I realized it was just an interpretation of the Evidence that "disproves the Bible" and ironically enough, that interpretation propagated by the media, is not consistant with the facts that are being supressed. It's actually propaganda to propagate one thing and ignore anything contrary to it. And as one who lives in China, surrounded by the subtly of the communist regieme, I know first hand how this type of brainwashing works!
For instance did you know little things like that the rib can regrow when taken out of a person (i.e when God took Adam's rib to make Eve)?
Or that natural selection (used interchangibly with the word 'evolution' in classrooms which actually mean seperate things - one is happening in nature through the vehicle of entropy, and the loss of genetic material (mutations) and the other is shown by nature to be a physical impossibility (non-living organisms creating living, or complex animals adding genetic material)) can be explained by the effects of the fall of man in Genesis 3?
---
Anyway, I hope this will open your eyes to real Christianity (the Word of God) and the lie that gets taught in Sunday school or in the media ("all good people go to heaven").
Also, that it will help you realize that being a skeptic is a good thing, if that means that you will also join in the search for answers and the truth. I too was a skeptic and my skeptism led me after gruelling months of trying to debate with evolutionary philosophy to the one thing I thought could never be true.
Once you break down the barriers of skeptism in the face of the truth:
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Then you cannot say that you have "tried" because there's no failing when He's got your back:
Mar 10:27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
For you first have to believe His words (not blindly, but through logic, science and reason come to the knowledge of the truth), before you can obey them. Merely trying without understanding what you are meant to believe is not Christianity.
This took forever, :D but out of love... seek the truth:
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
*hugs you*
Ciao Bella!