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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Praying for the 'World'. | Matt 5:44 | MJH | 163615 | ||
Sonlite. You are in a good place. I joined in on this forum some time ago and it has been very fruitful for me in exploring new ideas and questions about the scripture. Many people hear are wroth listening to. I too have been raised in the church and held pretty much to the same doctrinal views for the first 29 years of my life. After joining a new church and meeting some new people, my views have been challenged a lot. After 4-5 years of this, I now actually have many more questions than before, but my views of God, Jesus, and His Word have become so much more great. The awe and worship of such a great God has changed not just my thinking, but my life and actions. There are MANY benefits for growing up in and staying within the same community of believers (there is plenty of Biblical evidence that this is the ideal.) However, doing so can make one think that "we have it figured out." All questions have an answer that is correct and that's that. But is that possible. Can a finite being understand fully an infinite God? Systematic theology, for all its good points, often removes the "mystery" of God that is so wonderful. I cherish my up bringing and love the church that brought me into the world of God very much. Without their dedication, the roots of my faith would not have been so deep, and the trails I have followed may have uprooted some of my faith, rather that cause it to bloom. I have seen people loose much of their faith because they were knew to Christianity and followed many of the same paths I followed, but did not have that deep root into a faith that has been tested by time, trials, as well as joys. All questions are worth asking, even the "scary" ones, because ultimately, on the other end, your faith will be stronger and you will probably be asking more questions and more questions... MJH |
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2 | Praying for the 'World'. | Matt 5:44 | Sonlit | 163632 | ||
It's amazing, MJH, how much your circumstance resembles mine. At first I found different ways of thinking and teaching troubling. I realized I was very comfortable believing what I believed (after all, it was good enough for my mother and my father)and didn't want to be challenged, come out of my comfort zone, as it were. But the more I am challenged, as you so wisely stated, the stronger my faith has become. It has and is still quite a roller coaster ride....and I am convinced will continue to be until I meet Him face to face! | ||||||
3 | Praying for the 'World'. | Matt 5:44 | DocTrinsograce | 163637 | ||
Dear Sonlit, The topic had me digging around in my notes. :-) I really appreciated what Abraham Kuyper wrote on this very notion regarding a "discomfort" with the truths we wrestle with in Scripture. He goes even farther to suggest that it is sinful to place such high value on our comfort. He wrote, "When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith." It is interesting that we do never see Christ more concerned with people being at ease with their perspectives. Think about how he knocked the legs out from under the comfortable theories of people like Nicodemus, Peter, Thomas, Phillip, the woman at the well, the rich young ruler, to just a few. Indeed, I'd even venture to state that the times of least comfort as we wrestle over the truths of Scripture, are the most critical moments of our minds being transformed. Such transformation is not simply a matter of knowledge, but reflects the beginning of the changing of our deep, inner, heart knowledge -- what Paul called "epignosis" (Colossians 1:9) with which we are to be filled. I say "beginning" because such knowledge always manifests itself in a changed life. Anyway, thanks for bringing up the subject. I stuck a few more quotes in here for good measure. :-) In Him, Doc "No one truth is rightly held till it is clearly conceived and stated, and no single truth is adequately comprehended till it is viewed in harmonious relations to all the other truths of the system of which Christ is the center." --A. A. Hodge "A 'presupposition' is not just any assumption in an argument, but a personal commitment that is held at the most basic level of one's network of beliefs. Presuppositions form a wide-ranging, foundational perspective (or starting point) in terms of which everything else is interpreted and evaluated. As such, presuppositions have the greatest authority in one's thinking, being treated as one's least negotiable beliefs and being granted the highest immunity to revision." --Greg Bahnsen (The presupposition that, as believers, we most dearly hold, is the authority of the Scripture.) "It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'practical', 'outworn' or 'contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church." --Screwtape to Wormwood (C. S. Lewis) |
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4 | Praying for the 'World'. | Matt 5:44 | Sonlit | 163666 | ||
Thank you so very much for your wisdom and your willingness to give of your time to share it with us. It's funny, I have been wanting and wishing I could somehow find a site on the web where I could get some sound, theological answers. Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible that we should seek the counsel of many? I just happen to goggle something like "Biblical answers" and found this forum and I am thrilled and thank the Lord for directing me to this site. I am keeping copies of the input given to me by everyone who has responded in a notebook so that I can refer to them over and over while meditating over the truths, and spend time checking out the Bible references that have been included. What a help this has been, and I am so grateful. Thank you. | ||||||