Bible Question:
I grew up in a Christian home, but lately I've been searching for truth and trying to take my faith as my own. The biggest obstacle in my faith right now is the first hand stories I hear about people leaving the faith. I'm not talking about John and Jane who come to church once a month, sit in the back row, and read their bible once in a blue moon. I'm talking about former evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and seminary students. Charles Templeton is a prime example. Their conversion stories seem sincere, but they all come to a point where they see the world as it truly is and begin to doubt the existence of a loving God. Then they begin to find inconsistencies in the Bible that they had previously accepted by faith. Then they start thinking that if some of the Bible is inaccurate, then how can they trust it as a whole. At that point the foundation falls out beneath them, and all hope is lost. If John 10:25-30 is true, how can these people of faith come to a point where they can no longer believe? The most disturbing thing about the stories I've heard is that most of these people wish they were still able to believe, but their reason won't let them. They miss the hope and security of faith in Christ, but they've come to a conclusion in their minds that can not be reversed! Please help me as this issue is causing major distress in my quest for truth and my personal faith in Christ! At times it seems a curse to be such a deep philosophical thinker. Sometimes I wish I was able to have the simple childlike faith that many Christians have. |
Bible Answer: Yampa, Should you "quit being a deep philosophical thinker" or reason with God? Isaiah 1:18 18"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, Do not give in to those who would encourage you to "go with the flow". Those people will not be present with you at the judgement seat. Here are but a few scriptures that show it is possible to depart from the faith--which is another way of saying "lose your salvation." And these are true departures, not situations where the people were only pretending to be saved. Heb 2:1 2:1For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. NAS Heb 3:12 12Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. NAS 2 Peter 2:20-22 20For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "A dog returns to its own vomit," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire." NAS James 5:19-20 19My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, 20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. NAS Heb 10:26-29 26For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. 28Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? NAS Heb 10:32-36 32But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, 33partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. 34For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. 35Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. NAS Finally, Jude 5-6 5Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. NAS Beginning with the Nation of Israel, Jude gives example after example of those who had been "saved" by God (in the O.T.), only to ultimately "lose their salvation." This warning he gave to N.T. believers, lest they should wind up in a similar shape. AO |