A friend of ours who we met through Street Pastors, recently posed some question on her blog and asked me to answer them. I did it very quickly. Maybe with more time I might have had a better stab but I record it here as I posted it. How would you answer them?

A question for Christians (possibly part one of many!)

OK,seeing as a good few of my blog followers seem to be Christians, I figured I'd just go ahead and ask this straight out. It's kind of a personal question though, so please don't feel like you have to answer.

I'm curious as to how individual people made the jump to being able/willing to believe/ believe in all the little 'bits' that make up mainstream Christianity, and whether it was always a 'package' in your mind or whether you've come to have faith in each of the seperate 'bits' individually?

For example, in my head, there's lot's of seperate 'beliefs' that make up Christianity. The 'main'/important ones seem to be .....

• Jesus existed as a flesh human being.
• Jesus was born to a virgin mother.
• Jesus died on the cross as pennance for man's sins.
• God exists and created the world.
• The Holy spirit exists.
• The bible is the whole, complete & inspired word of God.
• Life after death for believers.
• The second coming of Jesus.

I've probably missed something off this list, appologies if I have, I hope it doesn't offend you.

So, what I want to know is, if you came to the church/christianity initially through believing one (or some) of the things above, how did you come to accept them all? If you had the 'package' presented to you, were you happy that everything 'made sense' or did you struggle to believe any part of the 'package'. Is this what 'faith' is, and if so, where's the line between faith and brainless 'tag-along' acceptance?

I'm really looking forward to reading your replies - you're welcome to reply as 'anonymous' if you feel you'd like to. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

POSTED BY CAROLYN AT 15:36

1 COMMENTS:

Gary Smith said...

What an interesting set of questions! My story has been one of revelation really. I was part of the last generation of kids sent to Sunday School my non-believing parents because it was the "thing to do". Probably as a result, I have never had a period of my life when I have not believed in God and that Jesus was the son of God. This however, dod not make me a Christian, people of many faiths believe in God. In fact even the devil believes in God and knows Jesus is the son of God! In my late teens, early 20's I began to mix with people whose faith on God was so significant it was vibrant and seemed to be more intimate and real than anything I had experienced. As a result, I offered up to God the Lordship of my life. That I would try to do things His way, rather than mine. To be fair my take on it at this point would have been quite liberal when it came to say believing in all it said in the bible. However, God was patient and allowed me to explore His claims for myself. For instance there is tons of evidence that Jesus existed, so no issue there. My personal experience and that of my friends provided enough proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be, the son of God. If God created the universe, then its entirely possible that His son could be born of a virgin. That he died to fulfil prophecy that he would take away the sins of the world. His death on the cross meant that there was no the chance for people to have a relationship with God.

The more I explored my own faith, the more I found the bible to be the reliable, complete, inspired word of God. I moved from a liberal standpoint to what would be called an evangelical position. It seemed to be that the bible was all true or not. I opt for all!

Similarly, my relationship with the Holy Spirit has been progressive. Initially I was unsure of the role of the HS in the trinity. Through reading, discussion and experience I realised that the HS was a person (in the manner of God and Jesus) and not a thing. 

My point is that I did not accept a package. I did not understand the package as well as you presented it. I just knew this Jesus was the way the truth and the life. That is what I opted into. Everything else has come later. There was a sense of turning my back on my old life and making a statement that I wanted to go "his way". but the reality of all of what that means has been constantly been revealing ever since. This is in common with the first believers. They left there fishing nets in order to follow Jesus. They did not totally get the theology, benefits or cost., they just took a step of faith. That is all that Jesus wants of us. He did not sent them away to learn more or train. He said "follow me and i will MAKE you fishers of men"

So we sometimes struggle to make sense of the bible and "the package" My start point is this. If it is presented in the package, I know want to know if it's in the bible. If its in the bible then I have to ask for the faith to see it through!

If you love questions, study and challenging thinking then Christianity is never just a "tag-along" experience BUT it is always a matter of faith.....

Wow, that was a long answer!

15 NOVEMBER 2009 17:08