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: Greetings, yampa78; I don't whether or not "true Christians" can lose their faith. As the replies to your question illustrate, this is a question that Christians have debated for centuries and are likely to continue doing so. I for one am quite comfortable not knowing the answer. Why? Because I'm the only "true Christian" I know. Outrageous! Please bear with me. I know lots of people who certainly seem to be true Christians, people whom I am about 99 percent sure are true Christians, people whose judgment and wisdom I trust - but not quite as much I trust Jesus and his word. There is no one on Earth whose ideas or opinions in spiritual matters I would accept in contradiction to the Bible. So I can't tell you whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life. Yours? Hank's? AO's? Charles Templeton's? Others? Don't know; can't say. I can only tell you with absolute certainty that mine is but should you believe me? No. Are there contradictions in the Bible? It sometimes seems so. But nothing in the Bible contradicts the Gospel. If the numbers in Numbers don't seem to add up, does that mean that Jesus is any less the Son of God, any less my savior? Hardly. I love the Bible; I study it and I sometimes teach it; I even get to preach on it occasionally. But make no mistake - I don't believe in Jesus because I believe in the Bible; I believe in the Bible because I believe in Jesus. I think maybe some of the people you cited put their faith in the wrong place - in the Bible, not in Jesus himself. The Bible points to Jesus from beginning to end. But what's more valuable - the treasure or the map? Jesus is the treasure; the Bible's greatest value to me is that it describes the treasure and shows how to find it. See 2 Timothy 3:14-17. Peace and grace, Steve aka Indiana Jones |