WHY Christianity?? as well as its confusing parts and its best parts

jfarag92

I want to know why all you chose Christianity, whether you converted, chose to accept your family's faith etc.    please no sunday school answers.

In addition, i want to know all the questions/paradoxes you have whether about the bible or the faith, so that they can be sorted out and corrected.  in addition, many non-christians and those with weak faith will have similar problems with the faith and knowing the answers will help guide them on the right path. 
also post questions or problems that you know some other christians/non-christians have, so we can sort all them out.

so this thread should help us to strengthen our own faith as well as planting the seed in others.

the_least

What other religion has people that would rather die than simply offer incense to a false God. What other religion has people (St. Stephen) that while being stoned to death for absolutely no reason were begging God to forgive those who were stoning them.

This is obviously only one of a million reasons.

geomike

Christianity is the oldest religion out there. Now, the other religions that were introduced, just think about it, what happened to the people that didn't know about it. Where do they go?
It's basically common sense.

ebnyasoo3

Dear jfarag92,

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit one God amen.

That is a good question. And I would like to start by sharing a story. I was born and raised as a Coptic Christian but there was this point in my life when I doubted the existence of God and doubted Christianity so I had to look around to find some answers and here is what I have found.

About our existence, there are two possibilities: either we came by chance and we have evolved from very simple cells to humans or we were created. The first option is not possible because nothing can come out of nothing. If I tell someone that the pyramids came out by themselves without anyone building them. And that it took millions of years for the pyramids to form. No one will believe me because there is no way that the pyramids could have formed on their own. There had to be someone to design the pyramids. And since we, as humans, are more complex that the pyramids. Then we had to have an intelligent designer who have created and designed everything that exists.

So now we agree that there must be an intelligent designer whom we call God. Now we have many different religions to choose from. So I looked at myself and I saw that we were created perfectly. We have nose to smell. We have eyes to see. We have a heart that can love. Then this intelligent designer, God, must be a loving God who cares about us. Who loved us before He even creates us. If we look at all of the religions, we will never see a loving God like our God in the bible. We would never find a religion that tells us to love our enemies. So Christianity must be the only right one.

So then Christianity has to be the only true religion. But there are many denominations in Christianity, which one is the right one. I heard a sermons by Fr. Anthony Messeh in which he wanted to find the original church that Christ has established Himself. This church is the Coptic Church that has not changed its beliefs since the time of Christ. The Coptic Church in which many saints where martyred to keep this faith for us.

An this is the reason why I accepted to stay in the coptic orthodox church.
In Christ,
Ebnyasoo3

clay

This is a personal question, I perceive, and thus I will give a personal answer.

I believe, because I cannot not believe. I see the world through the lens of Christianity and life just makes sense to me. In times I live in doubt, life loses colour; it becomes a dry, eerie sort of place this world. Even though I feel free to imagine more sin, and rebel against "the tyrant God", the coldness of the distance becomes palpable and overbearing.

Even when I feel unsure of the merit of certain doctrines, or the validity of certain Bible passages, verses or Biblical counsel, I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so historically sound, even from a secular perspective, I have faith in these things, and I have been rewarded for this faith.

Christianity has a wholesomeness to it; it is a religion, a way of life, a school of thought and has and continues to contribute a great deal to the world, to science, to culture and to academia. More to the point, there is Jesus. There is real freedom and power in His Name. The amazing grace He has given to me uplifts me, and gives me peace. I live in a chaotic world, and yet I feel secure and with purpose. He gives me an example to follow and emulate.

I don't have much time, but I could go on waxy lyrical. Maybe I will write more later.

Ioannes

I was raised in a liberal houshold. I was told to believe whatever I thought was good. I was protestant for a long time (church of Christ, then the more new age non-denom). Later, seeing the things I saw and the inconsistencies in their doctrine, I rejected all things and opted for a Nihilist perspective (see Friedrich Nietzche). I researched all major religions, and came to the conclusion they were incorrect, on the basis of the research I had done. I did NOT want to study Christianity as I saw it as a farce. My girlfriend at the time, who was Ethiopian Orthodox, first introduced me to the faith. Being as skeptical as I was I vehemently opposed and attacked it, only to be proven wrong on every point. Which made me even more opposed to it and more angry at God, yet I was drawn to it, strangely.

Long story short, I meticulously researched every aspect I possibly could. Down to the last detail to make sure that this is correct. Because of opposing so much of the church for so long I am not able to combat my very arguments that are used by atheists and other religions alike. I know the bible more than I ever did before, and still learning as well. I do NOT regard Orthodoxy as a religion, but as the true revelation of God unto man.

mabsoota

i like these answers  :)

ioannes, if you've been in the 'church of Christ', i can totally understand how you had a negative experience of 'protestantism'. i had a friend who had also come out of this group, and i am sad to say i would not actually classify it as 'protestant', not even as 'Christian'. my friend experienced very heavy pressure to attend every single meeting, and was not allowed to ask questions. there was also faulty teaching.

i would like to ask you, for the benefit of many people who find Bible study difficult, how is it you now know the Bible better, and what brought you to that point?

back to the main question. for me, the difference in Christianity is forgiveness. no other religion can show you how to obtain forgiveness for wrongdoing, nor give you God's power to forgive again and again and again. forgiveness goes together with love, and it was seeing God's love in action (i had been told nothing of the faith at this stage!) that promted me to ask questions about the source of that love.
i hope more people can give their answers too, it's very interesting  :)

DanieM

Hi jfarag92, this is a brilliant thread.

I wanted to find God, and tried to find him through looking into other faiths. Christianity to me was the one which found God and peace through Love, Wisdom and self discipline. Other faiths seem to find God through one of these, but Christianity i the only one which works through all 3.

Tewahedo

There is only one God
and only one religion given from the one God
.  There are many different faithes but they all don't lead oneself to eternal life.  Only the right faith within the right religion does.  To find out which one is the right faith, I will let you read the book of Isaiah where it says, ... stand on the cross road and ask which one is the oldest road and go on that path.... ( I might not have quoted the verse exactly but you get the idea.  If you want mor info read the Holy Bible)

Pray for me the sinner

ilovesaintmark

Christianity is the most beautiful thing on the face of the earth!  It makes sense.  Quite honestly everything else sounds silly or just does not make sense.

There are no paradoxes and contradictions.

Ioannes

I always actually like the Church of Christ, I also used to attend a Methodist church as well. I actually have very fond memories of them, it is the more modern non-denom and evangelicals I had really strange experiences.

How do I know the bible better? I know it better because I respect it more than I did before. Before I would use it to justify personal views and biases. Now I look to the church fathers for help in interpretation. The OT is no longer just old fairy tales that have no bearing on what we believe today. It is like the bible and the church go together, without the church the bible is left open for anyone to interpret it in any way.

mabsoota

thanks for yr explanation.

jfarag92

[quote author=ilovesaintmark link=topic=9324.msg115342#msg115342 date=1276106788]
There are no paradoxes and contradictions.


make that misconceptions or parts people have trouble grappling

ZanAmrikai

After about age 10, my family no longer attended church.  Before that, it had not been a huge part of our life--anything to do with God. I mean, we went to church on Sunday and I went to Sunday school, but it was not some overriding factor in our family.  After that, I became agnostic, then atheist.  In high school, my main question about God was, "Where did GOD come from? If you can answer that, maybe I will believe."  (By the way, I still think this is a pivotal question, but I do not think we will ever have an answer to it.)  In my late teens, I began to feel like life made no sense, like for a while things would be ok, but every few months, I would return to a feeling of pointlessness. I started to think maybe there should be an answer in religions and I was willing to investigate just about any religions, although I did feel like Christianity was the stupidest one.  I went to the library (many years before computers!) and researched what I could about different religions.  I was into a lot of ESP and reincarnation and other things that today are called New Age but back then, nobody had a name for it.  I "tried out" Hinduism--by that, I mean I pretty much devoted myself to it for several months, but again, I returned to that feeling of emptiness. It was the same with anything I chose to "try."  Finally, I remembered my father had once said to me that he would give me a dime for every page of the Bible I read IF I read the whole thing.  I was thirteen at the time. I got about three pages into Genesis and gave up.  But this time, age 19, I picked it up on my own, and after reading some of the Old Testament, I was incensed that I had not been born a Jew.  I thought it was the way to go, and since other famous people who had not been born Jewish had converted to Judaism, I figured I could do.  So I began studying on my own, and trying to keep all the laws--I wrote them all down--while I kept reading the Bible.  One day I turned to something in the New Testament and began reading.  The only way I can describe it is to say that "it was like the words were on fire" to me as I read.  I felt like they had come alive and were suddenly making sense to ME, that they were explaining what was going on inside ME.  I was confused--what had attracted me in the Old Testament was obsolete in the New Testament.  I could not, however, deny the experience I was having reading the NT, especially the Apostle Paul's letters.  But I resisted believing. I did not want to give in.  At night, though, I would pray--"God--if you exist--I don't know if you are real at all, and I don't know if all this stuff about Jesus is real at all--but if you are real, and if this is true, help me to believe."  I prayed this way for nights in a row.  Nothing remarkable happened.  One day I was sitting in a 12 Step Meeting (OA), and the verse came to my mind, "Today if you hear his voice..."  so I just said to myself--or to God--right there in the midst of the meeting, "OK, I accept Christ as my Savior."  And then I waited for the fireworks.  But there were...NONE!  So that night, at home, I prayed again...and the next day...and the next night...waiting for the sensation to come upon me to show that I had been heard, that I had been born again, that I had been translated from darkness to light.  It never happened. 

That was in 1977. 

In the past decade, my life took a significant turn.  My husband lost his residency program (He is a doctor and he was in training--seven years of training AFTER medical school.) due to addiction problems.  He also had affairs.  Through all of that, I leaned on God like you cannot imagine--it got me through to believe that the Lord was in all of it and that He had allowed it and had known about it in advance and that if God allowed it, it must be for my ultimate good.  But then, the healing I prayed for, the restoration of my marriage, it only happened on the surface--that is, my husband came home to the children and me (after living with the other woman) but he continued lying and having problems.  Eventually he got seriously involved with another woman.  She left her husband and two children. When I found out about it, I filed for divorce.  That was three years ago, just about.

I lost my faith for a long time through the very tough days of this past decade.  As I saw those "promises" go unfulfilled, I let go of believing.  It was a very lonely place.

However, I find myself coming back to belief.  Not that I can prove anything.  Not that my life is suddenly all hunky dory.  I am healthy and my children are healthy and they all have a relationship with their dad.  I have forgiven him.  He lives with the other woman.  I do not have the same kind of faith I had before all this happened; it was a stalwart faith, famous among my friends in some ways.  It was not superficial, and it had been tested in many ways throughout the years.  Yet there is something about Jesus that is unlike anything else. The forgiveness, the love, the faithfulness, the compassion and comfort--the assurance that "things we cannot see are nevertheless very real." I kind of feel like maybe there are other things going on in this universe, but for human beings on planet earth, there isn't anything that can transform the heart like Jesus, like the Holy Spirit.  The rest of it is just US TRYING on our own.

May God grant each of us what we need for our journey.

mabsoota

thanks for sharing zan amrikai, yr right when u say we all have a journey.
sometimes we think it should be God walking with us, when actually He wants us to walk with Him.
Jesus said 'he who gives his life for me will save it' and we sometimes think this is only about dying for God, but actually God wants us to live for Him first.
i had an example in my life 2 years ago now, when i was sat in my room alone, crying about the stress in my life, and demanding that God change my life to the way i wanted it to be.
but then i remembered Jesus, before He accepted crucifixion, saying 'your will be done', and i said, 'but Lord, i want your will to be done, even if it involves more hurt, even if i loose my job, even if i get so stressed out i end up in hospital, because only you know what is best for me'.
then i had a deep sense of peace and knew i could keep going a little longer. in the coptic church (and in many orthodox churches) we say the Lord's prayer (our Father..) often, and if you say it and mean it, then every day you are submitting yourself to God's will. it is a great way of remembering that God loves us and we will be closest to Him when we are submitted to His will.
so i kept walking with God and soon after that was able to become a member of the coptic church and take Holy Communion in a way that gives God appropriate honour for all He has done for us. then i found it easier to understand many things about God and to keep walking with Him.
i pray God will lead you also in your journey, that you will reach this place and know more clearly how God calls you to walk with Him.